Races Like a Girl

This shinsplint business is getting really old. I’ve been running in pain for a few weeks now. That progressed to also walking in pain. This is not good.

So I’ve backed off this week. I last ran on Wednesday. Won’t run again until Sunday. I’m supposed to do a 20 miler on Sunday, but I’ll see how it goes. I may try to do it on the treadmill (yick — 3+ hours) to save my legs. If I’m still screwed up on Sunday, I’m considering taking an entire week off.

It’s still the right side primarily. It gets better, then worse, then better, etc. What I have learned is that I seem to have a fairly high pain threshold, which I never realized. But I don’t want to have a high pain threshold. I’d rather have no pain.

I’ve been icing, elevating, compressing and stretching religiously over the past few days. That seems to have helped. But, boy, is this frustrating.

I have a half marathon coming up in a three weeks. I hope this clears up by then.

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Training is going well. Some highlights:

The shinsplint has migrated to to my right leg now. But I’m not that bothered by it. It seems to come and go. At least it keeps to just one leg at any given time, which is a good thing since I only have one shin support.

My first hill run on Saturday went well, although I did it at a fairly easy pace. Jonathan’s mapped out a good route, with a total of 6 big hills. Muscles I didn’t know I had were asserting themselves the next day.

I did my first 18 mile training run yesterday, and that too went well. I was rested and, even with my shin bothering me, it was a good run. I felt quite tired for about two hours afterward, but basically felt fine and was able to function. I’m happy with my pace for that run, too: under a 10:30 mile, with the last 8 faster than the first 10.

The Macmillan pace calculator says I should be running these at between 9:17-10:17 in order to race my goal time of 3:50:00. I should be able to get into that range over the coming weeks. And I’ll eventually start adding in some marathon pace miles in those longer runs.

I drank more water on yesterday’s long run as compared to my last 16 miler, and consumed three Clif Bloks (at miles 15, 16, 17) as well. I felt a definite lift after eating those, but that may just be psychological. Although I did go out yesterday morning on an empty stomach, running from 7:30 until 10:45, so I suppose I was pretty hungry.

I’ve got one more 18 miler before I move up to the 20 milers. Yesterday left me feeling confident that I can do that without problems.

94 days until the marathon.

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Sunday marked the beginning of my eight week of marathon training. I now have 103 days until my first marathon.

The past three weeks have been focused on speed intervals (and racing), as well as preparing for gradually longer long runs. This is a recovery week, and thank goodness for that. I am surprised at how exhausted I felt on Sunday and the oddly located pains I’m feeling.

A “recovery week” means, at this point, one hard workout and one long run instead of two hard workouts with the long session. But I may need to scale back from even that based on how I feel over the coming weeks.

Last week was two speed sessions and one 16 mile run on Saturday, with easy and recovery runs on other days. I felt completely trashed on Sunday. One problem: I did a speed session on Thursday. I’ve learned from this experience that I need more than one recovery day between a hard session and a long run, so I’m adjusting my plan accordingly. Not drinking three quarters of a bottle of wine on Friday night is probably also a good adjustment to make.

The other interesting discovery is how dispersed the pain is. My neck and upper back hurt on Sunday. Yesterday, it was my arms, including lower arms and hands. At least the shinsplints have abated, although now my hamstrings are complaining.

I’ve got one speed session left, which I moved to Wednesday. Then Saturday is my first of seven planned hill workouts. The More Marathon route includes a hill, which means I need to run up it five times. I want to be happy running up that hill.

A few days before Christmas I start adding in tempo runs as well as making my long runs longer (and faster at the end). I personally love tempo runs — they’re hard, but I trace my racing improvements over the past year directly to the tempo work I’ve done, so I’m looking forward to seeing how they help this time around.

A week from tomorrow is my first 16+ run, an 18 miler. I felt like dog shit for the last four miles of my 16 miler on Saturday. Possibly because of the “not enough rest” issue, but I also was experimenting with not taking in any fuel. For next Wednesday, I’m going to take some Clif Shot Bloks out with me and take them if I start to bonk again. More water too. Must drink more water.

Jesus. I’m even boring myself.

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I took Wednesday off to pamper Splinty (I’ve named my shin splint). Then Thursday and yesterday did two 6 mile runs inside on our newly repaired treadmill. Did you know that the plastic bed of a treadmill can break? Neither of us are large, so it’s a mystery how that happened. But three weeks of phone calls and $214 later, we have what feels like a brand new treadmill. Quieter too.

Nonetheless, I am leaving Millie (our treadmill has a name too) for the great outdoors. It’s a sunny day, and in the 40s, so I’ll see if I can handle a long run (15+ miles) on the local running paths.

I also registered for the More Marathon this morning. Now the idea of running a marathon is no longer theoretical. It’s real. I gotta get my shit together.

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Shinsplints.

Or, a shinsplint? It’s just on one side. I’ve had it to varying degrees since my race-o-rama period earlier in the fall, in which I ran three hard races over three successive weekends. The shinsplint has gone away, but usually comes back.

It was back yesterday morning with a raging vengeance. I had to cut my planned 5 mile run short at 2.5 miles, much of that time spent walking and whimpering softly.

So I’m resting today and doing R.I.C.E. (rest, ice, compression, elevation). And, of course, this was an excuse to buy more running crap: a SnowPack synthetic ice thingie and a shinsplint compressor. Arriving shortly thanks to Road Runner Sports.

Maybe this is all mental, as this was to be my first week of the speed training phase of my marathon training. I don’t like speed training.

Tomorrow registration opens for the More Marathon. It’s odd to be registering for a marathon when I’m sitting here with a shinsplint. But register I will. I have four months to get over it.

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Two posts in one week! You know what that means — I just hit a big freelance deadline yesterday and I actually have some free time this morning. (And this is how I spend it. How very sad.) I’m going out to have some Thai food this evening to celebrate. Then I’m taking a couple of weeks off…so no crazy deadlines again until early October. Hoozah!

But back to the subject of this post: I read yet another article on the value of ice baths for recovery recently. This one was in the September issue of Running Times.

Since I was using myself as a guinea pig for Clif Shot on my Sunday long run, and I obviously enjoy suffering and discomfort, I decided to go whole hog and try the ice bath too. I wouldn’t call what I did an “ice” bath — there was no ice (gotta save that for the martinis). But I did soak my lower half in the coldest water I could run in the bath for a good 10 minutes. And, wouldn’t you know it, I was not as stiff as I usually am. After a long run, the pain tends to peak about 36 hours later (4AM if I’m lucky). This time around, no 4AM wakeup call. I also didn’t look like a robot going down stairs, which is always a plus.

I’m a convert. I’ll do the cold soak after hard workouts and races. Followed by a warm bath…ahhh….

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