I survived my last 20 miler before Providence

Yeah, there I am after my last 20 miler today. In all my sweaty glory. Phew. I feel so much better having run that last long run. My IT band did act up about 75 minutes into the run, and I thought I was done. I decided to keep going though. It was a risk, but without this run my last long run would have been 6 weeks before the race...turns out the initial tightness didn't get any worse. It was distracting and irritating, but I got through it. Also, very boring. I decided to run on the treadmill. The treadmill is flat, definitely has no camber, and has more give than the roads. It just made more sense, but wow, did it require focus.

For obvious reasons, I've been looking into the whole IT band thing and found that lots of people wind up with IT band issues 3 or 4 weeks before a marathon. Big surprise. It's an overuse injury, blah, blah, blah, often caused by weak hip flexors, running on cambered surfaces, running too much too fast. For me, I think it's the hip flexor thing. My hips are in a constant state of soreness. Note to self, work on hips.


During my IT band Google fest, I stumbled onto some people who seem to have good luck using KT tape to help get them through IT band issues. I just happened to have some KT tape, so I thought, why not? And had a go at it. I do think it helped. Plus, it makes you look like you're going into battle, and that's just cool.

Anyway, I haven't been able to run longer than 7.5 miles since this whole business started, and I managed to finish the 20 miler. It's been 10 hours since the run and my knee hasn't hurt walking around or going up or down the stairs. That's something. (My hip flexors are sore though, hmmm.)


With 17 days to go, I think I'll be taking a lot of time off. I'll run a few more times, but I've trained as well as I can. Now it makes more sense to rest (given that seems to be the only real solution to calming down an irritated IT band.) Of course, I'll keep foam rolling. I've also discovered the glory of a rolling pin. If you can't make it hurt enough with the foam roller, go ahead and have at it with a rolling pin. That's what I say. I did have a sports massage that focused on myofascial release, and I'll have one more before the race.

But mostly, I'll be chilling in my super sassy lime green compression socks. Eating, thinking, and dreaming marathon. Good luck to all you Boston runners out there! I can't wait to follow everyone!

I need a new set of legs

I'm still here! Last week was a little irritating and to be perfectly honest, I just don't feel like blogging about it. Nothing catastrophic. The week generally went fine. I did two interval workouts; a 4 x 1 mile workout at 10K pace and a Yasso 800 workout at 3:25 pace. Both went well. I had my long run scheduled for Saturday, but Kaylee woke up with a stomach bug so I skipped it. She was recovered by Sunday and decided I was long run bound. About 5 miles into the run, my IT band started acting up. It was bad enough that I had to stop.

I tried running again on Monday, but only made 3.5 miles. Tuesday I made it 4 miles. Wednesday I decided to take off. I'll probably try running again today. I'm honestly not sure what happened. I'm generally not running on cambered surfaces and I don't think I've drastically increased my mileage. (I ran more miles in the 6th month of my pregnancy than I did in March.)

I called a massage therapist that has experience with myofascial release. I've read that some runners with IT band issues have good luck with this type of massage. From what I've read, it's like foam rolling on crack. Sounds like heaven, right? (That's me being sarcastic.) I have an appointment. I'll give you all the gory details next week.

To stay sane, I've started rowing again. Because I haven't had any issues running in over a year (and because running is my passion), I haven't used the row machine in forever. I do have to say that it feels pretty good. I forgot how good rowing can feel...it's so smooth...ahhhh. That probably sounds weird, but I like it. Unfortunately, now that I'm in reasonably good running shape, the row machine doesn't even make me sweat. Obviously, if I rowed hard I'd sweat, but then my muscles wouldn't be able to sustain the activity for an hour.

That's where I'm at, sidelined for now. I'll keep you updated.

On a random note, I'm so excited to follow Boston this year! I read Kara Goucher's blog, and I'm so hoping she kicks some major running butt! And good luck to the rest of you Boston runners out there! It's so close!

Surviving the Treadmill and Avoiding Injuries

My running week was fairly boring. There's not much to say when all your miles were on the treadmill, you didn't run any workouts, and don't have any planned races in the near future. I did get in another 47 miles though, which is good.

I've received a number of comments and read a number of runners' blogs that have a lot of trouble with the treadmill. I'm not in love with running on it, but I don't mind it either. Obviously being outside with the wind on your face is the preferred running method, but I guess I'll take what I can get. So far, my longest run has been 11 miles, which I've done a few times. Most of the time I'm running 8 or 9 miles. My general methodology is to start slow and slowly increase the speed throughout the run. I'll start somewhere between 9:00 - 9:30 pace and slowly increase the speed until I'm running my last mile somewhere between 7:30 - 8:00 pace. The average pace is usually between 8:30 - 9:00 minutes. This is generally how I run typical training runs outside too. I start slower (although probably not as slow as 9:30 pace) and get faster throughout the run. My racing strategy is completely opposite, however, I go out fast and usually slowly drop off. I enjoy leaving nothing in the tank. ;)

There are a few advantages to treadmill running. Given that I often have injury issues, I've been doing a lot thinking about injury prevention. I've also been thinking about how I managed to run so many miles in high school and college without suffering from constant injuries. It suddenly dawned on me that nearly all of my running during those years was done on trails. Even all our races were on trails. Trails are softer. There are roots and rocks to avoid, which means you have to have a smaller stride to avoid ankle sprains and such. It wast my senior year in college that I started to run mostly on the roads. I had an odd class load that forced me to run mostly by myself, and by the end of that year I was totally hobbled. Running on the roads must have been the main contributor to my injuries. Apparently running 55-60 miles a week on the roads didn't agree with me.

The treadmill is similar to a trail in that it's soft and it seems to force me to have a smaller stride. Trails would still be preferable, but that means having to drive somewhere to run. When time is limited that can be hard. Not that I think exclusive treadmill running is the key to injury prevention. For one, if you run too much too fast overuse injuries will still occur. And obviously running on a treadmill simply isn't like running outside, which is where all races occur (not to mention being more enjoyable in general). I'm simply suggesting that if you have issues with injuries, running on trails may help. If trails aren't available for you to run on, you might want to consider supplementing your outdoor running with a couple days of treadmill running. Just a thought...

So how does one survive a treadmill run? You can listen to music, which I might do if Kaylee is in bed. We also have a TV and DVD player near the treadmill. I'll pop in a movie and watch it muted with the subtitles on. Yeah, sounds odd, but the treadmill motor can be a bit loud. Also, if Kaylee is running around she likes her music on, and she likes to talk to me while I run. I also think varying the speed helps. As nice as it sounds to run a constant pace, I'm just not sure that people were realistically meant to run that way. We inevitably vary our speed throughout a run. I imagine trying to run a constant speed on the treadmill for 11 miles is even more monotonous than changing it up a bit.

Actually, I find running on the treadmill easier than doing the row machine. Sometimes I do 10K's on the row machine and it takes an enormous amount of concentration and discipline for me to finish. I can't watch a movie while I row. I have to focus the whole time. It's exhausting, which is probably why I haven't done the row machine in a while. A shame really, because rowing is an incredible workout that I really believe helps with running performance.

Training Journal Summary (1/18-1/24)
Total Miles Run: 47
Total Time Running: 6:56
Average Pace: 8:51
Total Time on Stationary Bike: 1:03
Push ups: 7 sets of 15