We ran 4 miles today and despite the humidity I would say I had a good run. I thought that the run wasn't going to go well because I felt heavy and stiff for the first half mile. But by the end of the first mile I was feeling good and strong.
I had my first PT appointment yesterday and I am hopeful that the icing technique and stretches that I was shown are going to take care of my lingering tendon pain. I have four more PT appointments scheduled over the next two weeks but so far I'm very relieved that the therapist said that at this time there was no reason I shouildn't be able to continue running.
I am a happy runner. We ran 4 miles on Sunday and Monday and another 5 miles today and all-in-all my legs feel good. We are due to take tomorrow off from running before running 4 miles on Thursday and then we are due for our longest run to date of 8 miles on Saturday.
If all goes well by the end of Saturday we will have run 25 miles this week.
Tomorrow we are due to run 7 miles - our longest run yet. According to the schedule this run should take place on Saturday, but because of Yom Kippur we're moving it up a day to get it in before we have to start fasting. I'm looking forward to the long'ish run, but I am a bit nervous as well. Should I try and keep a constant pace throughout, should I ease into the run but running a slower first couple of miles and then pick up the pace about half-way through? Guess I'll play it by ear, or foot, as it is.
Wednesday's four mile run went very well. As I've written in prior blogs, in my limited experience the second day of a back-to-back run has proven to be a "bad run". But, no so on Wednesday. I felt very strong through the first two miles. I was a bit winded between miles 2 and 3 but re-grouped and felt strong throughout the final mile. Of course as always happens, Emily kicked my butt when she took off and finished incredibly strong making me look like I was running in place as she zoomed by me. But for now, I'll take pleasure in knowing that I felt good in my run. Happiness.
We ran 6 miles on Saturday which is the longest run so far, and my personal long distance record. I felt pretty good for the first 5 miles, but felt a sharp pain in the shin/knee area. I walked for about 20 seconds to get a better sense of the pain and whether I would be able to complete the last mile. I felt good enough to finish the run but the tendon (my guess) on the outside of the knee was (and has been) bothering me for the rest of the weekend.
We ran 5 miles today and I was extremely nervous that my tendon pain was going to keep me from the run. But I felt great throughout the entire run and am very encouraged by the lack of pain and the strength I felt during the run. We are due to run 4 miles tomorrow which, in my brief history of running, the second consecutive day of running has resulted in a bad run. It was pretty darn cold this morning, with the thermometer showing 45 degrees. I'm hoping for a bit warmer tomorrow, but once my muscles got warmed up I found the cool air very refreshing so maybe I should be careful for what I wish for.
I tried the run/walk training method for our 4 mile run on Tuesday. The run/walk method has you run a mile followed by a brief walk, maybe for a minute or so. The theory is to give your body a chance to re-group, catch your breath, let the muscles recover before pushing them for another mile. Our coach's husband said he did this during the 5k and he ended up winning in his age group. I'm not saying this method is going to cut 3-4 minute off my average time (per mile) but if it does help in any way, no sense not taking advantage.
Overall, my run on Tuesday was horrible. I think it's still a matter of strengthening and conditioning. We ran the same distance (4 miles) on Monday and I felt great; but trying to run 4 miles the next day I just felt heavy and slow.
We ran in a 5k this past Saturday - the Boy's & Girl's Club, Run to the Rock, in Plymouth. It was hot, hot, hot. I'm not sure if records were broken, but the weather people (is that the PC term?) were talking about the potential early in the day. Race didn't start until 10am and it had to be close to, if not above, 90 degrees and sunny, with no clouds in the sky.
That said, I set a goal for myself of completing the race in under 30 minutes, and officially we came in at 29:51 so that made me happy. It was a battle for both Emily and I, but I'm proud of us. I had no pains whatsoever which was great. Once I got re-hydrated at the post-race refreshmen tent, I felt good, both physically and mentally. Our offical average pace was a 9:38 mile which was good. If we can build on that, we'll be in good shape.
We ran another 4 miles yesterday. It may as well have been 40. The run was definitely not one of my better ones. Each stride was a struggle and it showed in my time, as it took about 42 minutes for those 4 miles. I am thinking it had something to do with the leg workout I did earlier in the week. It's been a while since my legs felt so sore after a leg-centric workout. The upside was I had little to no shin-splint pain, but I did have a bit of a side-stitch. All in all, a bad run.
On the radar - we have our 5k tomorrow and I'm hoping that my strategy of taking today off to rest my legs will show in my time tomorrow. I'm rooting for a time under 30 minutes for the 3.1 miles.
Ran 4 miles on Saturday along Wollaston Beach. By the time we got there it was after 8 and the sun was higher up in the horizon than when we normally set out to run (which is at 4:30am when there is no sun). It was plenty hot and a bit windy, but we both managed to finish the run averaging a bit under 10 minutes per mile. That made me feel real good. We bought ourselves the Garmin ForeRunner 305 which keeps accurate distance to 0.01 mile. I did feel a twing of pain (shin splint area) but nothing too bad at all.
I ran another 4 miles today, Tuesday, 9/4 - different route with a more hills. My time went down which I attribute to having worked out my legs on Monday and hitting them hard at that. They are pretty sore and I think that hurt me a bit today. However, I did not feel one bit of shin splint-related pain, so even though my average time was slight worse today than on Saturday the lack of pain makes me feel real good about myself.
