I haven’t been running a lot lately. I feel like I’m making a confession at a Lazy Bitches Anonymous meeting, but I have an excuse, don’t I? I’m tapering. I ran home once last week, and I ran home once this week. No long run, too much on. Last night’s run was fast, though. Really, really fast. I left work late, maybe twenty past five, and I got home early. Five to six, or thereabouts. I know I took a walk break or two during the run so when I was running I must have been running fast.
My race pack for the marathon was here when I got home last night, also. My race number is ’64’, which looks entirely odd on my bib. I’ve never had a race number as low, even in races with two hundred or so participants. There’s these strange hard plastic strips on the back of the bib, and I’m not sure if they have something to do with the timing tag, or what. The runner’s guide doesn’t mention. The runner’s guide does, however, have one of my least favourite sentences written in it, in the ‘Runner’s Etiquette’ section:
Refrain from using iPods or other music devices
Sadface.
I know, I’m a selfish cow. I race with an iPod. There’s a special circle of hell devoted to self-centered freaks just like me. Where we can trip over each other and cut each other off at water stops and ignore the marshals for all eternity.
Look, I’ve already gotten as much criticism of iPods as I can handle from the Coolrunning forum. Because iPods are EVIL. And why can’t you just enjoy the ATMOSPHERE, and make CONVERSATION, and enjoy the SCENERY, and listen to the BIRDS. If you need an iPod, you OBVIOUSLY don’t like running at all. Funnily enough, nobody ever seems to want to make conversation with me in a race, even when I’m not wearing the iPod. I just like music. I like running, but it’s tough. It’s always going to be tough. If the iPod gets me through the toughest spots, then I’m going to keep on using it, even if I get shunned by all the ‘real’ runners.
I wrote an email to Fairfax asking if it’s a ‘ban’ or a ‘guideline’, and whether disqualification will be on the cards if I bring the demonic music machine along. Because if it isn’t? I will bring the iPod. I will listen to it on low low volume (as I always do in races) mostly with one earpiece out (as I always do in races) and if you feel the need to swear, slap, scream at me because you think I’m selfish, then that’s your prerogative.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Alrighty then.
I don’t want to worry unnecessarily about this, but I’ve been getting a warning tenderness in my right leg after running. Here are the two words that fill me with dread:
Shin. Splints.
I don’t think it’s at the point yet to panic, but I’m going to take it easy regardless. Normally I would have run home from work tonight, but after hip hop last night I have a massive bruise on my left knee and I didn’t want to push myself. Right now I’d really like to keep myself uninjured. I’ve started my taper, and the big race is less than a month away. Yay. Exciting.
Shin. Splints.
I don’t think it’s at the point yet to panic, but I’m going to take it easy regardless. Normally I would have run home from work tonight, but after hip hop last night I have a massive bruise on my left knee and I didn’t want to push myself. Right now I’d really like to keep myself uninjured. I’ve started my taper, and the big race is less than a month away. Yay. Exciting.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Malaise
I managed to run 32 km on Saturday, despite my current overwhelming fatigue and growing impatience with long runs. I would love to be energetic and excited about every run, but at the moment it’s simply not happening.
Only three long training runs to go. Maybe one or two of those runs will be 30+ kms, then begins the taper. I’ve been reading blogs and forums, looking up tips and tricks and motivation and reassurances for first time marathoners, and for everything I read that convinces me I’m not ready, there’s something else that fills me with a hopeful (if temporary) confidence. My main worry is that I’m too slow, but even if I am there’s a six and a half hour cutoff.
I bought some gels to try out for fuelling on the weekend, even though my last experiment with gels wasn’t all that successful. Up until now, I’ve brought snacks along for the really long runs, but they’ve been a varied grab bag of stuff, whatever I could grab on the way out the door. Lollies, like those forest berry jelly gummy things with sugar on, also on one memorable occasion a crappy compound chocolate coin (which tasted like the sweetest thing in the world after fifteen or twenty kilometres). Grapes, on my first 30 km run. This last weekend, it was a new low - a little plastic container filled with about a tablespoon and a half of peanut butter. That didn’t really work. So I’ll try gels.
In other news, I ran home really fast tonight. It was awesome, once I got into it. One of those ‘I’m invincible and the world is awesome’ sort of runs. Despite how tired I was before I started running.
Only three long training runs to go. Maybe one or two of those runs will be 30+ kms, then begins the taper. I’ve been reading blogs and forums, looking up tips and tricks and motivation and reassurances for first time marathoners, and for everything I read that convinces me I’m not ready, there’s something else that fills me with a hopeful (if temporary) confidence. My main worry is that I’m too slow, but even if I am there’s a six and a half hour cutoff.
I bought some gels to try out for fuelling on the weekend, even though my last experiment with gels wasn’t all that successful. Up until now, I’ve brought snacks along for the really long runs, but they’ve been a varied grab bag of stuff, whatever I could grab on the way out the door. Lollies, like those forest berry jelly gummy things with sugar on, also on one memorable occasion a crappy compound chocolate coin (which tasted like the sweetest thing in the world after fifteen or twenty kilometres). Grapes, on my first 30 km run. This last weekend, it was a new low - a little plastic container filled with about a tablespoon and a half of peanut butter. That didn’t really work. So I’ll try gels.
In other news, I ran home really fast tonight. It was awesome, once I got into it. One of those ‘I’m invincible and the world is awesome’ sort of runs. Despite how tired I was before I started running.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The happy dog, and The clicky hip.
I saw a dog this morning, and I swear it was the happiest dog I’ve ever seen. That dog was downright ecstatic. I think it might have been an Irish Wolfhound. But what do I know about dogs, anyway?
---
Some years back, mum liked to buy these awesome Christmas novelty toys at that time of the year, you know, like the angel that you turn on and it plays some naff instrumental Christmas carol on a glowing accordion. Or a reindeer that stands on one leg and vibrates, so when you set it down it has a happy little Christmas seizure, sort of lazily spinning around in a circle. Playing a carol, probably. My favourite was this Santa, all dressed up in his fluffy red suit, who says something - probably on the ho-ho-ho train of thought - and ponderously declares that it’s time to sing a Christmas song. I can’t remember what song it was he was singing, but I’m fairly sure it was ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’. He would accompany his singing with a little hip action, a few booty shakes and the like, punctuating every beat in the song with some hot Santa moves (or at least that seemed to be the manufacturer’s intention). Now, this is a very random anecdote, I know, but it is ever so slightly relevant. You see, our little Santa (who stood at almost a foot tall, to my recollection) had a teeny tiny mechanical fault in the hip mechanism, so whenever he moved his hips, they clicked. They clicked LOUD. At the other side of the house, even if you couldn’t hear the tinny little Christmas carol, you knew the Santa had been turned on simply due to the constant ‘click, click, CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK, pause, click, click, click, pause, click’ and so on, for all eternity.
The relevance is here: After my run this morning, when I was walking the extra two kilometres home, my hip was clicking just like the clicky hipped Santa. On the left hand side. So loud I could hear it over the music.
I think I need to figure out a way to turn out my legs more when I run, because my knees shouldn’t be facing so far inward. My butt hurts like a son of a bitch after today’s run, and even if my hips aren’t clicking any more, I don’t want to do any damage over the next month or so.
So yay me, I ran 30 km this morning. Again. It was harder mentally than it was physically, and I was so relieved when it was over. Three and a half hours is a long, long time to be running.
I’m starting to think maybe I’ll get to 32, do a few training runs at that length, and then try to forge ahead for the 42 from there. Surely you wouldn’t need to run much further than 32 km in training for a marathon?
---
Some years back, mum liked to buy these awesome Christmas novelty toys at that time of the year, you know, like the angel that you turn on and it plays some naff instrumental Christmas carol on a glowing accordion. Or a reindeer that stands on one leg and vibrates, so when you set it down it has a happy little Christmas seizure, sort of lazily spinning around in a circle. Playing a carol, probably. My favourite was this Santa, all dressed up in his fluffy red suit, who says something - probably on the ho-ho-ho train of thought - and ponderously declares that it’s time to sing a Christmas song. I can’t remember what song it was he was singing, but I’m fairly sure it was ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’. He would accompany his singing with a little hip action, a few booty shakes and the like, punctuating every beat in the song with some hot Santa moves (or at least that seemed to be the manufacturer’s intention). Now, this is a very random anecdote, I know, but it is ever so slightly relevant. You see, our little Santa (who stood at almost a foot tall, to my recollection) had a teeny tiny mechanical fault in the hip mechanism, so whenever he moved his hips, they clicked. They clicked LOUD. At the other side of the house, even if you couldn’t hear the tinny little Christmas carol, you knew the Santa had been turned on simply due to the constant ‘click, click, CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK, pause, click, click, click, pause, click’ and so on, for all eternity.
The relevance is here: After my run this morning, when I was walking the extra two kilometres home, my hip was clicking just like the clicky hipped Santa. On the left hand side. So loud I could hear it over the music.
I think I need to figure out a way to turn out my legs more when I run, because my knees shouldn’t be facing so far inward. My butt hurts like a son of a bitch after today’s run, and even if my hips aren’t clicking any more, I don’t want to do any damage over the next month or so.
So yay me, I ran 30 km this morning. Again. It was harder mentally than it was physically, and I was so relieved when it was over. Three and a half hours is a long, long time to be running.
I’m starting to think maybe I’ll get to 32, do a few training runs at that length, and then try to forge ahead for the 42 from there. Surely you wouldn’t need to run much further than 32 km in training for a marathon?
Friday, February 25, 2011
Blog Fail
As usual, it’s the eventful times that I actually forget to write about.
Thursday before last, my training hit a literal speed-bump. I tripped on a protruding chunk of footpath on the way up Dryandra street as I ran home, and fell pretty hard. My ankle got a little twisted, my left knee got really bruised and my right knee got entirely messed up. Now, I’m just waiting for the hole in my leg to heal, but I have gotten back to the running already.
I wasn’t able to do a long run last weekend. No, scratch that. I may have been able, but I wasn’t willing. I took the weekend off.
So, long story short, I haven’t run until Wednesday. I ran home that night, a little slow perhaps, and tonight I did one better. My boss was sponsoring one of the awards for the Camp Quality Verti-cool Challenge, so I decided to represent the branch in the Ultimate Challenge. The standard challenge was to run up Telstra Tower, about four hundred steps, or thereabouts. The ultimate challenge was to run from the base of Black Mountain to the top of the tower. On paper, it doesn’t look too hard. About 2.5k worth of running, plus tower. In reality, it is hard. In reality, it is the sort of thing that makes me question whether I should be dreaming of a marathon at all, if I can’t even cope with a little hill.
So anyways, I’m lacking in verbosity right now. I’m hoping to run 30+ tomorrow morning, so I’d better set my alarm for 4:30 or 5:00 am again.
Thursday before last, my training hit a literal speed-bump. I tripped on a protruding chunk of footpath on the way up Dryandra street as I ran home, and fell pretty hard. My ankle got a little twisted, my left knee got really bruised and my right knee got entirely messed up. Now, I’m just waiting for the hole in my leg to heal, but I have gotten back to the running already.
I wasn’t able to do a long run last weekend. No, scratch that. I may have been able, but I wasn’t willing. I took the weekend off.
So, long story short, I haven’t run until Wednesday. I ran home that night, a little slow perhaps, and tonight I did one better. My boss was sponsoring one of the awards for the Camp Quality Verti-cool Challenge, so I decided to represent the branch in the Ultimate Challenge. The standard challenge was to run up Telstra Tower, about four hundred steps, or thereabouts. The ultimate challenge was to run from the base of Black Mountain to the top of the tower. On paper, it doesn’t look too hard. About 2.5k worth of running, plus tower. In reality, it is hard. In reality, it is the sort of thing that makes me question whether I should be dreaming of a marathon at all, if I can’t even cope with a little hill.
So anyways, I’m lacking in verbosity right now. I’m hoping to run 30+ tomorrow morning, so I’d better set my alarm for 4:30 or 5:00 am again.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Closely followed by the New Shoe Blues
At the not-quite-morning hour of 4:30 this morning, I sat down at the computer and began typing. “This morning,” I started, with some trepidation, “I am going to run 29 kilometres in brand new shoes.”
It wasn’t the impulse of a moment. I had the notion last night, and deep down I knew it wasn’t going to be the best idea. These shoes have only clocked up 6 km, as I couldn’t help but take them for a spin when they arrived on Thursday. My current shoes are Nike Lunarglide+ just like the new ones, but the previous generation, so I can’t go assuming they’re going to behave in the same way. From the short run home, I know the new shoes are quite different. The flywire (I think that’s what it’s called) seems to hold my foot more upright, and the footstrike feels quite different. They’re just as light, and maybe even faster. But for a while, they’re going to hurt.
So, yeah. Stupid me. I ran in the new shoes.
In order to see if I could improve my endurance, I decided to split this morning’s run up into 5km chunks, following each with a one to three minute walking break. I thought I’d maybe lose ten minutes in the long run, but in the end the kilometres I walked during were the same overall speed as the rest of the run. And, I managed 30 kms. So, yay me.
I felt blisters on the backs of my heels at about the 10 km mark, but the discomfort died down. It was still there, and I knew I had stuffed up with the new shoes, but I ran through it. When I took my socks off, I expected the backs of my heels to be red raw. They were red, and they still sting, but there weren’t any blisters. The blisters were further up on my feet. From the tip of my big toe, down to the ball of the foot, on both feet. And the top half of the second toe as well. Biggest blisters I’ve seen in ages. They calmed down during the day, and I was able to walk around, so not too bad.
I guess it wasn’t entirely idiotic to run in the new shoes, but the other day I noticed great cracks in the foam at the back of my old shoes, and I think they’re coming to the end of their usable life fairly soon. I so wanted to run the marathon in my new shoes. I might still, if I can stomach doing the rest of my long runs in them.
It wasn’t the impulse of a moment. I had the notion last night, and deep down I knew it wasn’t going to be the best idea. These shoes have only clocked up 6 km, as I couldn’t help but take them for a spin when they arrived on Thursday. My current shoes are Nike Lunarglide+ just like the new ones, but the previous generation, so I can’t go assuming they’re going to behave in the same way. From the short run home, I know the new shoes are quite different. The flywire (I think that’s what it’s called) seems to hold my foot more upright, and the footstrike feels quite different. They’re just as light, and maybe even faster. But for a while, they’re going to hurt.
So, yeah. Stupid me. I ran in the new shoes.
In order to see if I could improve my endurance, I decided to split this morning’s run up into 5km chunks, following each with a one to three minute walking break. I thought I’d maybe lose ten minutes in the long run, but in the end the kilometres I walked during were the same overall speed as the rest of the run. And, I managed 30 kms. So, yay me.
I felt blisters on the backs of my heels at about the 10 km mark, but the discomfort died down. It was still there, and I knew I had stuffed up with the new shoes, but I ran through it. When I took my socks off, I expected the backs of my heels to be red raw. They were red, and they still sting, but there weren’t any blisters. The blisters were further up on my feet. From the tip of my big toe, down to the ball of the foot, on both feet. And the top half of the second toe as well. Biggest blisters I’ve seen in ages. They calmed down during the day, and I was able to walk around, so not too bad.
I guess it wasn’t entirely idiotic to run in the new shoes, but the other day I noticed great cracks in the foam at the back of my old shoes, and I think they’re coming to the end of their usable life fairly soon. I so wanted to run the marathon in my new shoes. I might still, if I can stomach doing the rest of my long runs in them.
New shoes!
The shoes are Nike Lunarglide+ 2, and are most definitely the prettiest running shoes I’ve ever worn.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Another belated update
I really have to stop putting off posting in this blog. I had a perfect entry all mapped out in my head as soon as I came back from my run yesterday, but I just didn’t do it. I’ve found that my brain short circuits after a long run, and I can’t think, construct a sentence or do anything mentally challenging for the rest of the day. That might be an excuse. I’m not sure.
I was hoping to get to 30km yesterday. I don’t know why I thought I’d be able to do it. Five extra kilometres is a lot, when I couldn’t even summon the energy to walk after 25km just a few weeks ago. I was even more temporally aware than usual. Three hours is a long time, and boredom started to pop up underneath my discomfort as soon as I got into my third lap around the lake. I was hoping to complete a fourth lap, but I hadn’t gotten far past my first water stop (which is only three hundred metres or so into the circuit) before my body decided it had enough, and I was forced to sit down for a minute or two.
Overall, I managed 27 kilometres. Very slow kilometres. When I got home I may have been a little emotional. I was upset that I couldn’t make it to 30km, and all the worrying I’d been doing the night before came back and jumped up and down in front of my face.
I only have seven more long runs before the marathon. I might have time, but I’m not sure. I’ve been trying to plan, and this is the best I managed to come up with:
12/02 - 29km
19/02 - 31km
26/02 - 33km
05/03 - 25km
12/03 - 35km
20/03 - 37km
26/03 - 39km
02/04 - Taper
I might not need to do the 39km run, but I would like to get as close as possible to the 42 before race day. I had to have a smaller week in there, because the constant increases are probably going to be hell.
I’m having two running-related problems at the moment. The first is that I’m running quite slowly at the moment. Incredibly slowly, compared to the past. Some of my kilometres are at an 8:00 minute/km pace, and that’s a bit of a worry. I don’t know if the hot weather is causing my decrease in speed, or just the increase in distance.
The second problem I’m having is nutritional. Yesterday’s run burned about 11,000 kilojoules, and after I add my basal metabolic rate, I would have needed to consume at least 16,000 kilojoules yesterday to keep up with my diet (which expects me to lose half a kilo a week, to make up for the excesses of my holidays). I doubt I ate more than 8000 or 9000 kilojoules yesterday, and I was really trying. I don’t know if this will affect my training in the coming week. I’m hoping it won’t. I weighed myself this morning and I seem to have dropped three kilos this week, which is a bit more than I expected.
Okay. I’m going to stop rambling now.
I was hoping to get to 30km yesterday. I don’t know why I thought I’d be able to do it. Five extra kilometres is a lot, when I couldn’t even summon the energy to walk after 25km just a few weeks ago. I was even more temporally aware than usual. Three hours is a long time, and boredom started to pop up underneath my discomfort as soon as I got into my third lap around the lake. I was hoping to complete a fourth lap, but I hadn’t gotten far past my first water stop (which is only three hundred metres or so into the circuit) before my body decided it had enough, and I was forced to sit down for a minute or two.
Overall, I managed 27 kilometres. Very slow kilometres. When I got home I may have been a little emotional. I was upset that I couldn’t make it to 30km, and all the worrying I’d been doing the night before came back and jumped up and down in front of my face.
I only have seven more long runs before the marathon. I might have time, but I’m not sure. I’ve been trying to plan, and this is the best I managed to come up with:
12/02 - 29km
19/02 - 31km
26/02 - 33km
05/03 - 25km
12/03 - 35km
20/03 - 37km
26/03 - 39km
02/04 - Taper
I might not need to do the 39km run, but I would like to get as close as possible to the 42 before race day. I had to have a smaller week in there, because the constant increases are probably going to be hell.
I’m having two running-related problems at the moment. The first is that I’m running quite slowly at the moment. Incredibly slowly, compared to the past. Some of my kilometres are at an 8:00 minute/km pace, and that’s a bit of a worry. I don’t know if the hot weather is causing my decrease in speed, or just the increase in distance.
The second problem I’m having is nutritional. Yesterday’s run burned about 11,000 kilojoules, and after I add my basal metabolic rate, I would have needed to consume at least 16,000 kilojoules yesterday to keep up with my diet (which expects me to lose half a kilo a week, to make up for the excesses of my holidays). I doubt I ate more than 8000 or 9000 kilojoules yesterday, and I was really trying. I don’t know if this will affect my training in the coming week. I’m hoping it won’t. I weighed myself this morning and I seem to have dropped three kilos this week, which is a bit more than I expected.
Okay. I’m going to stop rambling now.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Ugh
This is my worried face.
: /
I may have been overestimating how much time I have before the marathon. I think I only have eight usable Saturdays before I have to taper off for the race, and my longest run to date is 25 kilometres.
This is when the doubt creeps in.
I don’t know how I’m going to do this. I’m planning a 5am start tomorrow morning, if I can drag myself out of bed.
That’s a big ‘if’.
: /
I may have been overestimating how much time I have before the marathon. I think I only have eight usable Saturdays before I have to taper off for the race, and my longest run to date is 25 kilometres.
This is when the doubt creeps in.
I don’t know how I’m going to do this. I’m planning a 5am start tomorrow morning, if I can drag myself out of bed.
That’s a big ‘if’.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Back to the Grind
Back at work today after a relaxing, if not particularly productive fortnight. I was lazy, gluttonous and socially irresponsible in turns. I ate, drank, and smoked a great deal more than I should have done. Five of the seven days I was in the Gold Coast, I ran on the treadmill for half an hour. I don’t consider that this completely cancels out my wrongdoings, but it helps. I did gain several kilograms during the holiday. Perhaps, this was several less than I would have otherwise gained.
Yesterday I intended to run 30 kilometres just for the hell of it, but turned back when it seemed my knees wouldn’t take any more and the 8:30am heat got too oppressive. The temperature went to 37 yesterday, so it was pretty hot. Oh well. Twenty one is good enough for a weekday. I’ll run home two days, and count this week as a win. Saturday should be cooler, and may be raining in some form or another, so I’ll try to break 30 then.
Ten weeks until the marathon! Excited! Scared!
Yesterday I intended to run 30 kilometres just for the hell of it, but turned back when it seemed my knees wouldn’t take any more and the 8:30am heat got too oppressive. The temperature went to 37 yesterday, so it was pretty hot. Oh well. Twenty one is good enough for a weekday. I’ll run home two days, and count this week as a win. Saturday should be cooler, and may be raining in some form or another, so I’ll try to break 30 then.
Ten weeks until the marathon! Excited! Scared!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)