Posts (page 2)
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.
Had a 4 mile run today and other than a slight twinge of shin pain that last 10-20 seconds, I felt good. I felt strong throughout the run. The pace wasn't where I want it to be come marathon time, but averaging 11 minutes per mile at this point is okay. My goal would be to at the marathon averaging 9 minutes per mile or less, which I think would put me at under 4 hours.
Tomorrow will be a big day for me as we are due to run another 4 miles. In the couple of weeks so far I've had a noticeable fall off on the second consecutive run-day; that is, when running back-to-back days I've felt strong on day one, weak on day two. That could have been because of the wrong shoes I was wearing, the shin-splints, or any number of other reasons (conditioning, strengthening, etc.).
It has now been three runs since my last blog. Shame on me. So to catch all of my (all one of you if I'm that lucky) readers up on my runs:
* Thursday, 8/23 I ran on the treadmill. We were supposed to do 3 miles. Emily and I did our anerobic weightlifting before running, so I was warmed up from that. We also took the time to stretch and when Emily left to go run outside, I walked on the treadmill for about 0.25 miles before attempting to jog. I made it about a quarter mile when I felt the shin splints hurting. I ended up alternating behind running and walking for the next mile or so. I tried to concentrate on technique and found that when I was walking I had no pain, but running I did. The only difference was in how my foot would land. So, when I got to my next run segment I made a point of trying to land more on the inside/middle of my foot and was able to finish off the rest of the run without succumbing to shin pain.
* Thursday 8/23, part 2: we went to Marathon Sports in Boston today and I got fitted for a shoe that should help alleviate my shin spints based on my gate and arch. Essentially, I was wearing the completely wrong type of shoe. I was fitted in a very flexible shoe with a good amount of padding, compared to the inflexible trail-type of shoe. I'm hopefully my next run will be pain-free now. I hope so b/c our next run is with the Team In Training group.
* Saturday, 8/25: I'm wearing the shoes for the first time. This is our first team meeting and run. We warm up and I feel good. We're told the route that we'll be running is a bit more than a 3 mile loop. I run, nearly pain free and when we return the coach tells us the route is 3.75 miles. This is the most I've run in a while, and definitely the most I've run without any pain. I am happy.
* Monday, 8/27: We run about 3.5 miles today and for all but maybe 1/10 of a mile I feel pain-free. I need to keep icing the shin and do a bit more stretching and warm-ups before the run. But all in all, I am encouraged.
So, today was the second day of training and the second day in a row in which we were to run 2 miles as part of our weekly training. Our next run, on Thursday, is 3 miles and I think we are to run 3 miles on Saturday as well. That would put us at 10 total miles for week one.
I decided to run this morning on the treadmill. My thinking was that the treadmill would be easier on the shin and I could set the speed and be sure that I kept a consisent pace throughout the run. My results:
* I set the speed at 6.0 which is a 10 minute per mile pace.
* The first half mile was fine, but my shin started throbbing so I slowed the pace down to a walk for 0.02 miles.
* I then ran the next 0.25 mile but the shin started to throb again so I slowed the pace down for another short, 0.02 mile walk.
* I ran the final 1.25 miles without any pain at the 10 minute per mile pace and felt good. I may have been a bit above the comfortable, able-to-talk-while-running pace, but I wasn't winded for more than maybe 30 seconds after I finished mile 2.
So, my conclusions from today's run:
* I need to stretch before I run.
* I need to warm up before I run. I think this is why I felt fine after the 0.75 mile mark.
* I need to concentrate more on the distance than speed for now.
We had our kickoff meeting this past Saturday (August 18). Besides getting some training material (a runner's log, trianing schedule) and some other riff-raff stuff (a Team In Training Hat, a banner we can use at fundraisers, a Power Bar, etc.) we met our coach and the other people in our area (south shore Massachusetts) who will be training for their respective event.
According to the training schedule we were to run 2 miles today. So, yesterday Emily and I took the car and mapped out a mile distance (so, two miles roundtrip). I made it to the one mile point when my shin started hurting so I walked about 30 feet or so and then started running back. Other than that one point I made it the two miles relatively pain free. The pace was ridiculously slow, (12 minute mile) and it was only 2 miles (down from a high of about 5 miles at a 10 minute pace). So, it's obvious I have tons of work to do. Good thing the marathon isn't for over 4 months.
Looking back, I think I started out too strong. My shin was feeling fine, the weather was cool and I was excited to be officially starting on the training. I need to get in to a better, more comfortable pace until my shin spint pain is behind me.
Tomorrow we have our kickoff meeting. Besides receiving our training materials I'm not sure what else will be covered. I'm getting excited now that the business at hand is just about here - training for the marathon.
Questions:
1. Did you ever run a marathon? If so, did you train on your own or in a group?
2. Have you ever had to raise money? If so, how much did you raise? Any tips?
Shin splint update: today, pain free. I did a very short sprint today to see how the leg would feel and all was well. Very encouraged.
Anyone remember that Nike commercial featuring Michael Jordan and Mars Blockman (Spike Lee)? Mars asks Jordan what makes him so good and he continually comes back to "It's gotta be the shoes" despite Jordan's denial. Well, I'm not Jordan and no one is asking me what makes me so good, but I know that he was right - It's the shoes! YouTube has the commercial:
Anyway, I have two pairs of sneakers, a medium-top height Nike cross trainer and a pair of athletic (pseudo-running) shoes from New Balance. I had been running in the New Balance but given some of the comments I've read to my blog and from research I've done, I decided to stop wearing the New Balance's until I get properly fitted. So, last night I had to run (no pun) a couple of errands so I put on the cross trainers and Voila! No pain. I even tried a short jog to check and felt no pain at all. So, I feel much relief - I believe now that it's gotta be the shoes! I'm going to continue my icing/heating, pain reliever (aleve/advil) and stretching/strengthening regimen for the foreseeable future, but knowing that I felt no pain with a different pair of shoes has invigorated me.
Today was the first time I attempted to run in some time. The plan was a 30 minute run - drive to the gym, park, and run, returning back to the gym for weightlifting.
I was running quite often a few months ago with Emily but I began to feel some pain so I stopped to lick my wounds. During that period I took to riding the stationary bike and had no pain doing that so I took to riding. Today I tried running again and got about 1.5 miles out before feeling pain, so I took it down a noch by alternating between walking and running. I will say that knowing that in a handful of months I'll have to bump up my total distance run today by about 1700% gave me some motivation to keep trying. So, instead of giving up and walking the entire way back to the gym, I took little breaks and did a half way decent job of running when I could.
After talking about the pain I was feeling with Emily my fears have been relieved - I thought I was having knee pain ("runner's knee") but I think now it's shin splints which are much easier to treat. Emily used to have shin splints but after stretching and strenghtening, icing and heating her's are pretty much behind her and I know mine will be, too. I know I'll be fine.
