Ice, ice baby

So earlier this week I went down to Super Jock n' Jill to potentially buy a new pair of shoes. Problem is, according to the shoe people, there is nothing wrong with the pair I have. They said I was wearing the proper shoes for my stride and to come back on Thursday when the in-house Physical Therapist was on duty. This is an awesome FREE service by the way that they provide to the running community. Really, I am so impressed with the service at Jock n' Jill and if you're in the market for some new shoes, please buy from them :)....

So I went in last night and Michelle was on duty to talk with me about my problem. She asked me several questions and had me lie down on the ground to test the strength in both legs. After about 10 minutes of pushing, prodding, and yanking on my limbs, she told me that the left side of my body is much weaker than the right, and that my patella-femoral is most likely due to weak core and butt muscles. She told me that A) if I were her client she would advise against running the marathon, but B) since I'm going ahead and doing it anyway, please do exercises (demonstrated) to stregthen my gluteus maximus, run on soft dirt if possible, and ice like crazy. She said I will most likely not do any long-term damage to the knee, but it will definitely not be able to heal over the next six weeks :(

I have a lot of mixed emotions about her advice, and while I'm not planning to stop training at this point in time, I have serious doubts about my running future post-marathon. I have never felt any overwhelming love for the sport, in all honesty. Participating in these races has always been more about overcoming fear and anxiety and following through with my commitments than anything else. It's always been about my compulsion to keep on reaching higher...and then higher...a little more.... well, you get the idea. In a way, it's become an addiction, albeit a healthy addiction :)

Tomorrow I am running 16 miles, two miles further than last week. My planned route is from Golden Gardens park to U-Village and back, along the Burke Gilman. Wacarra is joining me on my return route to give me water and moral support for the last 4.5 miles or so, starting at Gasworks park. I am hoping to feel stronger this Saturday than last, and pray to the sports injury gods for a pain-free long run :)

It's official. We're on our way!

Raj and I purchased our airline tickets this morning - it's official! We're going to Philly!

Week 8: 26 reasons to celebrate

After logging 30 miles this week, my body is exhausted, my knee is still in pain, and I feel totally beat down and broken. The usual. There aren't really any words to describe Saturday's 14-mile run. That is, it's hard to articulate that kind of physical and mental anguish. I will say that Body Glide is a girl's best friend. And it wasn't until I slipped into the hot shower (that is, several hours after my initial "ice bath" which was every bit as thrilling as it sounds) that I identified instantly every inch of my skin where I neglected to apply the Body Glide. This includes, but was not limited to: my belly button, in between my big and second toes, a small spot under my right arm, under my breasts, and.... wincing with embarassment .... in between my butt cheeks. Let's just say I won't make that mistake again.

On Sunday, Raj and I hit the road at 2am, stopping at Northgate Starbucks to pick up some fuel before driving south to Portland to watch Wacarra run the marathon. I am neurotic about arriving everywhere early, and in this case it worked to our advantage because we had our pick of street parking once we rolled into downtown. We had tons of time to kill, so we wandered around in the dark, people watching, with me paying close attention to the what all the marathon runners were eating prior to the race start. After killing time at yet another Starbucks, we wandered up to the race start at 3rd and NW Salmon. There was quite a crowd of spectators!


We were able to see Wacarra start, in either the 5th or 6th wave, then caught her again at mile 2 and between miles 4 and 5. After than, Raj and I wandered around looking for a good breakfast spot, and settled on Kenny and Zukes across the street from Powell's. The food was awesome! After breakfast, we spent a few hours in Powell's and then headed back downtown to catch Wacarra around mile 26.

We found a good spot to take photos a few hundred yards from the finish line. There was opera music blasting and a huge sign with a lady viking that read "It's almost over!" The crowd support was very inspiring! It was pretty emotional to watch the runners come in. These were the 4 hour + marathoners, the mortals, people you could actually relate to (vs. the 2-3 hour marathoners, aka "freaks of nature").

We spotted Wacarra a few minutes behind the 5:00 pacer - wow! What a great time!!! I was amazed that she was able to maintain such a solid pace throughout the whole race. Not only that, but she looked fresh and pretty damn happy. I snapped these shots at the 26 mile mark, with only 300 yards or so to go:

And then it was over, just like that. Afterwards, I asked her how it went and she said much easier than the training runs (which gives me hope), and miraculously she experienced no joint or knee pain. This completely baffles me.

Tonight I am going to get fitted for a new pair of shoes at Super Jock and Jill. I can't continue to run long distances with my knee pain, and I'm hoping a different pair of shoes will correct the problem (the knee braces aren't working). Switching shoes did the trick in the spring, and when I bought a new pair to train for this race I just bought the same pair of shoes. Maybe my gait has changed in the last 6 months? I guess we'll wait and see what the shoe people say.

Congratulations, Wacarra!

Over the hump

Well, the end of this week marks the half-way mark! Yay! Philly here I come!

Tomorrow I'm set to run 14 miles down at Leschi. This will be the longest distance I've ever attempted to run, and doing so after taking a full week off to recover from my cold (thank god this happened early on). My legs are feeling good though - no pain after two back to back 5-milers this week. I'm going to pick up a new knee brace tonight, this time I'm trying out the IT Band Strap, which I think will help correct what I suspect might be Iliotibial Band Syndrome, a common running injury usually caused by increasing mileage too quickly.

I'm just going to take it really slow tomorrow and finish when I finish :) On Sunday, Raj and I are driving down to Portland very early in the morning to watch Wacarra run the Portland Marathon. I'm SO looking forward to getting caught up in the excitement of the marathon and just milling around Portland for the day.

In other news, Spirit of the Marathon comes out on DVD Tuesday! I can't wait to pick it up from Barnes & Noble.

Week 7: Down for the count

I didn't run a mile this past week. Not one. I took seven much needed, mandatory days off from running while I recovered from my crappily-timed illness. Do I feel guilty? Yes. Do I feel like I've suffered a major setback? Yes. Am I going to keep going?.... YES!

Training for a marathon is a metaphor for life. Sometimes unexpected things happen and you just have to keep going. Sometimes you fail. Sometimes you succeed. I am not surprised that I fell sick this week because honestly my mood has taken a downturn, I was not properly nourishing my body (vitamins, etc.), and I was not resting enough after my long runs. Let this week be a lesson that at this point in the game I need to start taking every element of my training very seriously if I intend to run this marathon.

Today I am recommitting and moving forward with the plan. This Saturday is my longest run - ever - at 14 miles. Overcoming the mental hurdles is every bit as challenging as physically conquering the miles. You don't anticipate it will be this hard. You can't, because you're in uncharted territory and you have nothing else to compare it to. Fear of failure is alive and real and very scary for me right now. All I can do is keep pushing forward. Every day. Every mile. It's hard.

It was bound to happen

I've been stricken with a chest cold :( You know that feeling when you wake up in the morning and your chest feels like it's filled with liquid and it's achy and heavy and your throat hurts when you swallow and your first thoughts are, "oh, crap." Yeah, well, that was today. And my health and mood continued their descent as the day dragged on. Now it's 6:45pm and I'm watching CNN buried deep underneath my fuzzy blue blanket with my polar fleece sweats and my Patagonia zip-up. I'm going to head to bed around 9:00 tonight and try to head this cold off at the pass with some serious green smoothie action tonight and in the morning. Hopefully a few days off from running will do me good and I'll be back in action for the half-marathon this weekend.

Week 6: Ouch, my knees!

Saturday's run was the second longest distance I've ever completed: 11 miles. Thank god Wacarra ran with me this week, as I probably would have A) probably postponed the run until Sunday due to the pouring rain B) bitched and complained even more than I did and/or C) had a much harder time finishing. Once the rain let up, I was able to enjoy a beautiful and secluded area of West Seattle that I had never seen before. I'll definitely be back here in a few weeks.

Miles 6-7 were tough and 9-11 were borderline agonizing. Running in wet shoes and clothes didn't help. Wacarra took this photo of me at the finish: HAPPY to not be running (and yes, still raining)... I hope as these Saturday runs continue to increase in distance that I'm able to find the mental and physical stamina to complete them on my own.

Next weekend: Bellingham Bay half-marathon

UPDATE 9/22: Edited to add that, despite the pity party I threw in honor of myself last week, I officially registered for the Philadelphia Marathon on Friday. The hotel room is booked and the race is paid for.... now Raj and I just need to book our airfare and we're ready to go!

Week 5.725: Time to vent!

So I've finally hit the wall so to speak with this training. I was waiting for it to happen. Last Saturday was puppy dogs and rainbows up in Bellingham, but this week it really started to dawn on me that I have a lot of frickin miles to run, I'm sore, I'm busy, and I'm highly irritable. Could it be a bad case of PMS you're asking yourself? (I asked myself). Maybe, but all I know is that I DON'T want to run this week!

It's dark in the morning, it's dark in the evening. I'm a slow runner. I'm tired of running at Gasworks Park. I hate running at Greenlake. Alki Beach is far away... and windy. The stuff I'm working on at work is a mess. I'm tired and grumpy when I get home. I have errands to work in. Three runs during the week is haaaaard. I'm tired of my music selection. I miss my boyfriend. The first two miles never get any easier! These races are expensive. I ate indian food last night and woke up and gained three pounds today. My jeans are too tight. I don't like my hairstyle. Sarah Palin might get elected VP. My 401K is probably gone. Why are people working at Microsoft if they don't know how to use pivot tables? Life's not fair.

Ok, so the runs aren't seeming so bad now. Seee??? Just had to vent. < / end rant >

Bellingham detail

Click to enlarge

Week 5: Rounding out the week with a 15K

This morning, Raj, Alex, Mia and I piled into my Rav4 and drove north to Bellingham for the Fairhaven Runners Waterfront 15K (9.3 miles). It was a scenic route, fairly flat, with some great views of Bellingham Bay. Alex and I ran together the entire way, with Raj and Mia waiting for us at the finish line (which boasted the best post-race food-fest free for all I have ever seen!). It was nice to get out of Seattle for a day and substitute my usual uneventful long run with something festive.

I can't believe how much 3 months off from running has set me back. We passed the 10K mark at 1:16, a full 9 minutes slower than my Mercer Island 10K race back in March (which included 3 huge hills). We plugged along the entire way though, walking only briefly at miles 7 and 8, finishing the 9.3 miles in 1:55. It was a fun run though and I'm glad we drove up for it.

Week 5 marks the 1/3 way point to the Philadelphia Marathon. My knee is doing much better now that I'm off the treadmill. Still sore after today, but that's to be expected after a 9 mile run. It's hard to believe that I'm almost running the length of my longest training run for the Vancouver half-marathon, and I'm only half way there! In the coming weeks I'll be increasing not only my Saturday runs (next week is 11, then 12, 14, 16, and 18), but my weekday "short" runs to 4/5/4 and eventually 5/8/5. Now that the days are getting shorter I will need to come up with a better plan for doing 3 outside weekday runs per week. I may need to start running in the dark, which I am not thrilled about.

78 miles down and counting.