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April 23, 2005

Spectator

On Thursday I went to physio to get my ankle problem sorted out. It turns out I have 3 problems ... 1 just isn't enough. My right leg, has a tight tibia para something or other. Which is the muscle that runs up the calf and pulls the arch each time you step. That was a minor problem, the left leg is more complex. Apparantely when I land I rotate in to far and push off on my big toe. Therefore the big toe does all the work, and the muscle that controls in is strained. The reason I am feeling pain in the ankle, is partly because of that and partly since I am compensating, land on the heal and now trying to push off with it more as well.

After a very deep tissue massage of my foot, with teeth gritted, I feel a thousand times better. There is still some tenderness in the left, but the physio showed me some exercises. I was very tempted to run on Thursday night, but decided to give it another 3 days rest and run on Sunday ... watching my landings and push offs.

So, I had to miss the third race of year. I was excited to actually get to watch instead. See the gazelles (super fast runners) cross the finish line. I got up early this morning and headed to the race, it was cool and drizzling when I left. By the time I got there, less than 20 minutes later it was raining much heavier and had gone from cool to cold. Still excited, I got to catch up with a lot of people from the group that ran Boston and had also come out to watch. The race was a 10k double loop. The first runner came through the 5k point in 15.06 (holy crap), then it started to snow! It's almost May! On Tuesday it was 28 degrees, we bought popsicles at lunchtime!

Being a spectator for a change was great, albeit a frozen one. Very much looking forward to lacing up the running shoes tomorrow and testing the ankle out.

Posted by Ali at 6:19 PM | Comments (4)

April 20, 2005

The Agony of D'feet

Actually it's my ankles more than my feet.

I have not run since last Thursday and I am beginning to go insane. Friday morning I could barely walk. Some of the people I work with (especially the ones who do no physical activity at all) find this highly amusing. My new pass time until I can run again will be to find ways to tourment them.

Anyway it is hard to actually pin point the pain, but there is this constant sort of shooting pain on the inner part of my calf from the ankle bone up about 6 inches. It is really painful when I push off the ball of my foot. If I roll slightly to the outside of my foot the pain then moves to my achilles.

While out at various bars on Monday looking for one that had an American satelite to get the Boston Marathon, I talked to a couple runners who have stress fractors. I don't think I have one of those (I don't want you so I am telling myself it's not that). Both were walking fine and there pain was very isolated unlike my indecisive constantly moving pain.

I had myself convinced that taking Sunday and Tuesday off would solve the problem, however today it isn't any better. I made an appointment with my physio for Thursday at lunch, so hopefully he will work a miracle and fix everything (positive thoughts ... positive thoughts).

Posted by Ali at 7:32 PM | Comments (1)

April 15, 2005

Distractions

I've only been running for 20 months and so far it has been an exciting journey that has taught me alot about myself and the people around me. When I first started, the only goal I had was to complete a 5k race, then I figured I would run occasionally. Well more races, alot of training and some bigger goals I think the running bug is here to stay. How do I know this ... because I turned down a bud light on the deck to run last night. It was a stressful day at work, the weather was perfect, blue skies, no wind, and 18/65 degrees. This may not seem that warm for anyone in the south, but when it's been below 0/32 since November, 18/65 degrees feels tropical.

As it turns out the beer on a deck weather was perfect for running as well. We had a 6, 10 or 12 mile route to choose from. I chose the 6 miler to loosen out my legs but not due to much damage to the ankle. My ankle/calf was very sore on Wednesday, but was feeling better Thursday afternoon. The first half mile was painful working out lots of creaks, but soon got into a nice slow comfortable pace (about 9.20 mile) that my ankle was okay with. I was running with Pat who has a sore groin muscle and was happy to take it slow as well. We must have looked priceless hobbling along.

For 3 miles all was good, the weather, the pace, good conversation and lots of laughs. Then Pat kept going to do 10 miles and I turned around. Soon, the perfect weather, the pace, good conversation and lots of laughs had turned to it's bloody hot, erratic pace and mumbling to myself that I could be drinking an ice cold one right now. By myself I started concentrating on each foot strike and how my ankle felt to the point of obsession, the only thing that removed that from my head was my breathing, or lack of it. My pace was very inconsistent at any given point, at the end of mile 4 I had slowed to 10.15 mile.

Then I heard my name being called behind me, I turned around and it was the coach from our group. He is a great runner, sub 3 hour marathon, 2.31 PB at Boston. My form instantly changes, like when the teacher enters the room and everyone sits up straight. He asks how I'm doing, I tell him I feel like a stunt double from the film Misery with Kathy Bates. He has now caught up to me (effortlessly), I figure another 5 seconds and he will be gone and I can return to ankle, breathing, pain obsession. He didn't leave. He paced himself about six feet in-front of me and kept talking, asking me questions. I naturally began to catch up to answer. Once I was even with him again he would pull away again, then ask something else. Before I realized it, I was at race pace (8.10 mile on mile 5 and 7.54 on mile the last mile) and I was talking. There is a steep hill at the beginning of the last mile, had I been alone I would of walked it, but when I reached the top I realized I had run it without any hesitation. We finished strong.

Had I ran back by myself, it would have been written up as a terrible run. Having to focus on catching him and talking distracted me from all the negative obsessing I was doing. More proof that running is a mental game. I had an awesome run.

Posted by Ali at 8:00 AM | Comments (6)

April 14, 2005

Shiny new shoes and a blog to match

After many frustrating issues with my first blog, Jeff has come to my rescue. So far so good, I am very happy and posting without any problems.

So to match my new blog, I needed new shoes! I was also experiencing lower inner calf pain, which has only happened to me once before, when my Brooks Trance needed replaced. I went with the Mizuno Wave followed by Brooks Adrenline, neither of these gave me the same problem. This fall I went back to Trance and the pain has returned. As you can probably see I don't have one specific type of shoes, except there is a Brooks trend. In fact if I was really honest I would probably pick the pair that looked the nicest. But due to the pain, fear of injury and knowing what it is like to be uncomfortable with 5 miles to go, I went with what felt best. The winner was Mizuno Inspire.

I took them for their first outing on Tuesday night. We did 4 x mile repeats in the park. The first one didn't feel great, my legs were really sore. I didn't run it fast about 9 min pace. There is a mental battle between stopping because I don't want to make it worse and continuing with the hope it gets better. I decided to do one more (I had to get back somehow and walking was way more painful). The second one was better and the shoes felt great. I picked it up a little on the second and third to 8.40 without realizing. The fourth was a struggle my ankle had stiffen up again. I did alot of stretching when I finished, but not the easiest of areas to stretch!

After the run about 40 of us went for dinner. There are 20 runners heading to Boston so this was to wish them well. Boston seems completely unattainable to me, never having done a marathon. The buzz and excitement at dinner was fantasic. These runner, who I consider elite, made you feel like you could do anything. Two of the women from the group have qualified for the elite women start at Boston, they will be starting 30 minutes before the rest of the field.

Posted by Ali at 3:14 PM | Comments (2)

April 11, 2005

Still on Vegas time

I have finally found a few minutes to update. The last week has been very busy and honestly I don't know where the weekend went to.

Last Sunday (seems like months ago now) a friend and I headed off to Las Vegas. We had planned the trip for a couple months, it was my reward to me for completing Around the Bay. Lots of drinking, eating, shopping and gambling and no running. I was planning to run on Sunday morning as we were leaving early in the afternoon, there was a scheduled 16 miles. However when I got up Sunday morning there was an evil snow storm with high winds. So the holiday started a little early. The flight there was great, arriving on time. We checked into our hotel the Excalibur, then quickly headed across the street to New York New York for a well deserved drink. I couldn't resist the Yard of Margaritas for $14.95, I figured it would be the size of 8 margaritas (48 oz) but the alcohol of 1! I was wrong it was the alcohol of 8!

I love Vegas! What amazed me the most was how clean it was, for a city were you can do anything anywhere ... there was no evidence. I never saw anyone cleaning the streets or sidewalks, but they were always spotless and nothing every smelled smokey. I think there is a vacuum over the city that just sucks everything up.

Here are a few of my favourite Vegas things ... in order

1o. Buffets!
9. Free drinks
8. the toilets at MGM (I ranked all hotels, MGM came first followed by New York New York)
7. Big Elvis at Barbury Coast
6. Beers on the Patio at Jimmy Buffets' Margarita Ville
5. Caesars Palace (all of it)
4. The flowers at Bellagio
3. moving walkways (in fact anything that moved so didn't have to!)
2. Bling, bling, bling
1. Bellagio fountains

One interesting fact I learned was that walking is hard. I can run for endless miles and will get stiff but walking destroyed my feet, I limped back to our hotel on the last night (to go cup in hand). So four days, a couple more yards of margaritas, $243 of slot winnings, 4 blisters and a new favourite city later it was time to head back to Canada. We boarded the plane at 6.30am together with a drunk guy singing Via Las Vegas, a barking dog and 3 crying babies. When we stopped in Salt Lake City only the 3 crying babies got back on board!

Normally after a holiday and a week off of running I am rested and eager to get back at it ... not so much this time. In fact it's Tuesday, I arrived back Thursday and I am still exhausted.

It was Saturday morning before my running shoes got back into action. A nice little 5k. The weather was great, blue skies, warm (for Canada in April) and a slight breeze. Sunday it was back to reality, 10 miles was on the schedule. The weather gods had given us the nicest day of the year so far. It was a mentally and physically hard run. My head was not in it at all, it wanted to be back in bed, and my left ankle felt like someone was hitting it with a hammer. I experienced this pain a year ago when I had the same Brooks shoes I do now. I didn't put the two together until now, so I am thinking I need new shoes and they won't be Brooks this time, I did try mizunos last summer so I might give those a try this time around.

We are scheduled to do speedwork tonight, if I get the new shoes I will go and test the ankle out (it still hurts when I walk) after the run tonight there is dinner and drinks to wish all the runners going to Boston good luck.

Posted by Ali at 2:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack