Sunday, December 21, 2008

December 15th - 21st 2008

Two weeks ago on Sunday the 7th, I had one of the best long runs I'd had in a long time, there was just one small thing that went wrong, near the end of the run my left knee started to hurt. I ignored it and finished the run but did slow down a bit the last few miles. After that run, my knee felt sore again for the next 3 runs but only going up hills and it felt better and better each run. A week ago on the 14th, I wanted to get in 11 or 12 miles along with a 5k. The pre-race warm up and race went well and afterwards I kept running another 6 miles to complete the run. With about 3 miles to go, the knee soreness came back. Of course, I kept running. By the time I got home it was really sore and for the rest of the day it hurt walking, bending, etc. Monday is usually a rest day which was good because my knee was still really sore. It started feeling a bit better by the evening but I decided to take Tuesday off as well just to make sure. Tuesday night it was feeling good except when walking up hills, so I took Wednesday off as well. Thursday I went to the track in the morning because I wanted to run on a flat surface. The first three miles were great, the knee was pain free. Then it started to get sore, slowly and I kept running. I ended up with 6 miles but the last three I was stopping to stretch, rub, etc. It would feel better for a lap and then start getting sore again. Friday I tried the track again and got in 2 miles before I started to feel it. Once again, I stopped, shook it out then got in one more mile before it intensified.

I had a race planned for Sunday and really didn't think I'd be able to do it. Saturday I took the day off of running on Jim's suggestion with the plan that I would go to the race and if my knee started to hurt I could shut it down and not finish the race. So on a total of 9 miles running this week, I headed to the race this morning. I warmed up with 1 mile of running and was feeling pretty good. The race turned out to be pretty hilly I thought. According to the Garmin, there was 350 feet of uphill, 1.25 miles of the race. My main focus was to keep my heart rate over 170 during the race. Here are the splits:
Mile 1, 6:37, 163 avg, 173 max
Mile 2, 6:25, 171 avg, 190 max (hit this climbing a hill, not sure if it is accurate)
Mile 3, 6:37, 171 avg, 175 max
.15, 1:03, 172 avg, 172 max (uphill finish)
This was a certified course so it was accurate, but of course since you can't always run tangent to tangent, I ended up with 3.15 for a 6:34 pace. Compared to last weeks race, I feel pretty good since this course was alot hillier. I was happy that I was able to keep my heart rate higher than the last race. I was also hurting a lot more at the end of this race. The last 1/4 mile was tough. Here is the summary from last weeks 5k:
Mile 1, 6:38, 161 avg, 169 max
Mile 2, 6:57, 167 avg, 169 max
Mile 3, 6:29, 168 avg, 178 max
.04, :16, 170 avg, 171 max
This wasn't a certified course and according to Garmin was a bit short. So I ended up with 3:04 miles at 6:41 pace.

So after the race today, I ran a mile to warm down and then I started feeling my knee a little bit, so I shut it down before it got any worse. I'm not sure what is going on with my knee, the pain is on the inside of the knee. I think it kind of feels the same way that IT band pain feels (its been a long time since I had IT band pain). But anyway, the IT band is on the other side of the knee. Nothing is swollen or sore to the touch either. So I am going to take another easy week of running and hope that it is all better by the 29th because that is when I start the 18 week marathon training plan for Avenue of the Giants. Can't wait!

A few comments about the race, I liked the course, and after finishing I headed over to get some water or a banana or something and found that they were handing out ice cream, yum :) It was funny that some people thought it was too cold for ice cream ... ummm I don't think that is ever the case ;) The temperature was in the mid 40s with light rain, but after a good run it didn't feel cold at all. After the race I met 3 other women who live in the area and are regular runners, one even works downtown in IT as well. So the four of us chatted for a bit while we waited for the awards. I finished 3rd overall and Tina finished 2nd overall, so we figured we should wait. Well, we waited and waited while they took a century to hand out the 1 mile race awards (which were really just printed certificates). We knew there were some gift certificates for the winners but we didn't know if it was just the overall winner or top three or what, plus they had door prizes, so it seemed worth it to wait a bit for the awards. Anyway, they finally finished the mile awards and then guess what??? They told us that the bibs were all hand written in ink that ran in the rain, so they had no idea what the names and ages of most of the finishers were! Ok, so I don't really care about getting an age group award (but it is nice sometimes and appreciate it when I do receive one), but the most important thing about a race is accurate timing and results! So I was a little disappointed with that. Also, since they knew that they could not announce any 5k results, they could have mentioned that right away so that those that wanted to leave could do so.

So the week summary looks like this:

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday
0 miles running
no cycling

Thursday
6 miles running

Friday
3 miles running

Saturday
0 miles running

Sunday
5 miles including 5k race

Total:
14 miles running
No cycling this week because it was unseasonably cold due to s storm system coming down from Canada plus a couple of days of rain, so that on top of a sore knee meant no cycling this week.

On a side note, my wonderful mother and father-in-law sent us a Wii for Christmas and we've been having loads of fun playing it! I must say that you can get quite a workout as well - especially with boxing!

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