#runinjury

[s3an309]

#lessonfortheday #lessonlearned #runinjury always pick your feet up when #running on sidewalk 🙄

[runningseason]

It’s ok to take a day (or 4) off!

These days I see many runners embark on a running streak. The official definition of a running streak, as adopted by theStreak Runners International, Inc., and United States Running Streak Association, Inc., is “to run at least one mile (1.61 kilometers) within each calendar day. Running may occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill.”

I think my longest “running streak” this year, may have been 4 days; and even that is a stretch for me. If you follow me on Strava (or Garmin Connect), you will notice that I haven’t uploaded an activity since December 15th. That’s right, I took 4 unplanned days off in a row! 

Typically, I take 2 days off a week; which I feel is more than most runners at my level. I like to give my body the opportunity to recover each week. Plus, I’ve been seeing very positive results with my new found recovery. 

Let’s back up to July 2015...  It was in this month that I sustained an injury that resulted in my longest time off of running since a college injury in 2001. I trained very hard for the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon in July 2015. I took very little recovery after the Sugarloaf Marathon in May 2015 before I started training for Napa. In years past, I always took a full week off after every marathon. This time, I didn’t allow my body the recovery it needed before entering into the next training cycle. I went into Napa in very good shape. Race day came and I felt tight. I was able to maintain my pace until about mile 4. My plan to progress my pace each mile fell short when I couldn’t even maintain my starting pace. I started slowing down, but I didn’t know why. Nothing hurt, my wind was fine, my body just could not move any faster. The next day, I noticed a pain in my hip flexor. After being assessed by my athletic trainer friend who also ran the race with us, I made an appointment with my PT when I returned back to NJ. I did, in fact, sustain a hip flexor injury. I stopped running and did everything my PT told me to do. My “no running” streak lasted 6 weeks. 

About 2 weeks into my newfound running, I was back to my normal pace. It took this long because I forced myself to run with slower people in order to ease back in. About 2 months later I ran my first post-injury race; and impressed myself with my speed. Within another 3 weeks, I set a new PR in the 8k. I was back and better than ever!

It’s been over a year since I started running again after my injury. Since then, I have completely changed my training. I allow myself 2 days off a week now, instead of just one. I no longer follow rigorous training plans created by anyone other than myself; I have become my own coach. My training now consists of more races and fewer workouts (if any). Life is too short to burden myself with forced workouts that I don’t enjoy. Instead, I constantly test myself with races that I build strategically into my marathon plans. This year, at age 35, I PR’d in the 5k, 8k, 10k, 15k, 20k, half marathon and full marathon... So, I must be doing something right! And that “something” is listening to my body.

If you remember my last post, I had a disappointing performance at the Marine Corps Marathon. As usual, I took my week off after the race. Once I started running again, I ran very short runs and took extra days off when needed. Two short weeks after the marathon (after 1 week of barely training), I was back racing a 10k. I did not expect to perform well at all; but I needed this race for the USATF -NJ Grand Prix. I ended up with a 1 min course PR and felt amazing. Less than two weeks later, I raced again. In between these 2 races, I ran short recovery runs and took days off. I ended up running a huge PR and one of the smartest races of my life. 

Now this brings us back to my random 4 day running hiatus. I have proven to myself time and time again that I won’t lose my fitness by taking some time off from running. I was in a lot of pain after my last marathon, but raced 3 times since then. My body needed a break before I enter my next marathon training cycle in January, so simply enough, I listened to my body and gave it a break. When’s the last time you listened to your body?

[normalgirlruns]

London City Runners - NGR gets social. And sweaty.

Way back in January, when I sat down to write my list of running resolutions, I decided that this would be the year that I would become more social as a runner. London has lots of runners and lots of running clubs but I’ve held back from trying them either because I am afraid of making a fool of myself OR because logistics get in the way. Logistics dictate how Londoners live their lives – where to meet friends for dinner, where to job hunt or what to do on the weekend is balanced against journey times on public transportation. If you think I am exaggerating, I had a candidate decline a job offer once with a significant pay raise because it would have added at least an hour each way of his commute. After tax, he was going to earn about £500 a week – or £100 a day – extra to travel an extra two hours away from his family.

My point is that the running clubs that I have found either organize group runs on weeknights that begin too early (seriously, who gets off work at 6:00pm these days??) or on weekends where the meeting location is outside of Central London. I might love running but not enough to get up at 7:30 am to get there on a Saturday.

Last week, I was eating lunch and ran a Google search for ‘Central London + Running Club’, only to find a new search result: London City Runners.

The club checked a lot of the boxes I was looking for: caters to a range of levels, weeknight, meets at 7:15 (meaning I can get there by leaving about 6:30 from my office), free and deliberately social in nature. I emailed the Club found and got a very friendly reply inviting me along on Tuesday night.

Exiting the Underground station, I pulled out my Apple mapping app and stumbled around this unfamiliar area of South London in attempts to get myself to meeting spot. Thankfully I found another slightly confused, Spandex-clad individual who was also furiously waving around his iPhone looking for signal. We introduced ourselves and headed off towards the bar together – it was his second run with the group and he had nothing but nice things to say.

When I arrived, I was shown where to put my stuff so that it could be locked up and then gathered with the others outside. I wasn’t sure which group of runners to go with - slowest group leaves first, with the next three groups leaving in a staggered fashion so that everyone finishes more closely together. The email had explained pacing works on the basis of your 10km racing time... which is a toughie seeing I haven’t run a 10km race in six years. I decided to be conservative and join the first group, met some nice girls at the front and enjoyed a leisurely chat for the first 0.5 mile or so. Our pace was in the 11:00-11:30 mile range and at the moment, I find running slowly is harder on my knees/quads than running more quickly (someone please explain that one). When the second group caught up and then passed us, I decided to tack on behind.

The route was fantastic – it takes you around Bermondsey to Tower Hill bridge (yep, the really famous one), past the Tower of London and along the river until you cross back into South London at the Millennium Bridge, passing the Tate Modern. I marked a guy that was running in front of me as the perfect pacer – he was about 30 seconds ahead and I could keep track of him along the winding and unfamiliar streets. While there were a few times that I worried I was following someone who wasn’t a club runner, I managed to pick my marks correctly.

What a great run – seriously, one of the best that I have had in a while. Yes, my knees were a bit achey (left hammy really demanded its share of the attention) but I felt strong and in control of my breathing. In the end, my splits came in at:

  Parts of my run felt fast but it was only when I looked down and saw a 7:47 pace on my Garmin that I realised actually, I was moving pretty quickly. My chief take away from the run itself is that I am actually probably faster than I give myself credit for. I have already noticed that marathon training has made me obsessed with the Long Run, so any gains in other areas tend to go unnoticed. However, nearly two months of solid speedwork is taking effect. Now I find myself asking, do I push harder or do I just keep using the guidelines I’ve been given for a 4:00 hour finish??

I was in a GREAT mood afterwards and ended up chatting with lots of different people. There was a mix of casual hobby joggers, occasional racers and competitive runners, including one guy who is running a championship 10km at the end of the month. It was a very unintimidating environment to meet new people in. And as should be expected with runners in a group setting, it took less than 10 minutes of conversation before we were talking about sh*tting in the woods. Remarkable how bodily functions can bring a group of strangers together.

I ended up staying on waayyy too late with a group of the faster guys (one just did a 1:26 Half!) at the bar afterwards, where I learned that a number of club members are signed up for the Edinburgh race weekend. They are plans in the works for a cheering section and social events. Yeah!

I will definitely go back next week and I will start in the second group – the guys figured I could probably move up to the third but I want to get to know the route a little bit better first.

-----

Otherwise, I am working to get my training back on track this week. I switched out my tempo run on Wednesday and took an extra rest day. I was planning to do a threshold session last night but a friend needed some emergency child care and I am not one to turn down the opportunity for baby snuggles.

Today I head back to Wimbledon Common for a 13 mile Long Run. 

I will see how I feel tomorrow before making a decision about yoga because this guy is back. My only goal would be to not cry during the class. True story.

How is everyone else’s training going? Any advice around goal setting and pacing? Any suggestions for this newly social runner?? When is it too early in a running friendship to talk about sh*itting in public places? Any thoughts on group running?

[normalgirlruns]

Injury update and some running

After that terrifying pop in my right knee in my last post, I have been working overtime on recovery. You can't cross a marathon finishing line if you don't start right? With 15 weeks to go, I have to worry about rehabbing this knee properly and preventing it from getting worse. 

I took a full week off running and doubled down on the spinning classes. I have been a foam rolling champion too and have made it to some yoga or Pilates classes too. When in doubt, stretch it all out right??

So did the break worked? Hmm. Well, I had a GREAT return to running with a good 4.5 mile tempo run last Thursday, averaging a 8:50 pace. I finished feeling like there were a few miles left in my legs but decided to be smart, calling it after 40ish minutes. 

Saturday was a beautiful day in London – cool but sunny – and I decided to explore a new-to-me area for my LR. I dropped a bag of stuff at my gym and headed out to Wimbledon Common from there.

Wimbledon is a beautiful park (she now says smugly) and while flatter than Hampstead Heath, feels more rural. It is less crowded too, thanks to the higher number of smaller paths through the woods. Off I went and decided that this run was going to be about mileage and not about speed.

  I need to work on the self-photography skills, in addition to the not getting lost thing.

Things went pretty well for the first three miles –‘Oh this is so pretty!’, ‘I totally get this trail-running thing!’, 'NO pigeons!' and so forth, until one of the paths I chose ended quite abruptly at a gate. Thinking the best thing was to go out of the gate, run alongside the park and then turn back in further up the road, I naively left behind the bucolic wilderness for the sidewalk beside a major ring road into London. Fabulous. Now it was heavy traffic noise and smog. When I came to a cemetery, I foolishly decided that it must be connected to the park. WRONG. The cemetery was in fact, connected to a very sketchy council housing estate. Which I proceeded to explore by running up and down each street before giving up and running back out to the highway. Excellent.

Annoyed with myself for getting lost AGAIN, I ran up alongside the cemetery to find an entrance for the park, which yes, you guessed it, shared a gate with the cemetery. Meaning my little diversion into sketchy-town was completely unnecessary.

Back into Wimbledon Common, I miraculously found myself on the right path  and continued ticking down my miles. I started to feel a twinge in the right knee and the left hamstring at mile 8.5 but was able to keep pushing myself,finishing the 10.11 miles in 1:43 minutes.

Lap meal on the Underground - best part is how it covers the spot of my leggings where I dropped my PB toast (upside down) that morning. You are looking for the PB now, aren't you?

I picked up a delicious recovery meal (GF chicken salad sandwich and coconut water) to enjoy on the train before stopping into the gym.

It's 3:00 pm on Saturday in Central London. Let's play a game called spot the gluten-free sandwich.

Despite swearing off this same gym in December and giving my (three month) notice, I changed my mind last week based on my need to rehab this knee thing. The gym gives me access to a pool, the Power Plates, yoga classes etc. Chances are that it would be more expensive to rely on Pay-as-you-Go options instead. When central membership sent me a touching 'Don't leave us' email, including a reduced rate. I've rejoined for one month and then I will reevaluate again. On my way home Saturday from the LR, I stopped into the gym to use the foam roller, the Power Plate for self-massage, the hot tub and the steam room.

In total, my long run 'experience' took me out of the house for the best part of six hours, where less than two hours of that were running. 

Sunday I woke up feeling pretty good. And then I tried to walk. Ouch. Left knee (jealous of all the attention righty got last weekend maybe?!) and hamstring were very, very sore. And lets not talk about my quads. I made through Lululemon's free Power Pilates with a few modifications but my legs felt better by the class' end.Probably because my abs felt like they were ripping apart and so the legs couldn't get their share of attention from my nervous system.

I decided to thank my body for putting up with me this last few weeks with a pedicure. I felt genuinely guilty for inflicting my feet on the beautician but she kindly assured me that they have lots of runners. Yeah. Note she didn't say 'lots of runners with worse feet', just 'lots of runners'.

Last night was a hardcore foam rolling and stretching session in front of the TV and today, well today everything hurts. My abs and shoulders (Pilates), hips, quads and hamstrings (foam rolling) and my knees (running). Remind me why I do this again? End of February stats: 59.9 miles - about 20 off goal. Long runs - 3 out of 4 Cross-training 5 spinning classes Yoga/Pilates - 3 out of 4  Weight - err, 156lbs - down 0.8 for the month

No weekday chocolate - err, fell off the wagon last week but I SWEAR that I am back on it After I finish this handful of Mini Eggs left from the weekend. Then I am done. Bandwagon-me: ON

This week will be all about foam rolling and stretching. It is a chicken/egg situation with regards to what is causing my knee pain - my painfully tight hip flexors or my rock-hard quads. Treatment is the same in both cases. I am confident that if I treat my body well, focus on the long runs (oddly, shorter and faster runs don't cause that much discomfort) and keep up the yoga/Pilates, I can nurse through these tight spots and prevent Marathon-ending injury. Just keep focusing on that starting line right?