I have a confession...

It's not always rainbows and lollipops over here at experimental running. Don't get me wrong, life is good, but I am fairly certain that I am constantly on the hairy edge of becoming injured at any given time. At first, I thought this was a reminder that I'm not a natural. And I'm definitely not a natural, but the really really talented runners are also always on the hairy edge of becoming injured. Over the summer, I read an article on the Americans running the Marathon in the Olympics, and at the time, nearly all of them had some type of injury concerns. That's when it really hit me that nothing makes you immune to injury, and getting faster means higher risk of getting hurt.

So how do I stay injury free? Well, the fact is, regardless of my routine, at some point I'll get injured (and I've been injured many times). I don't mean to sound negative, I'm just assuming that eventually I'll have to take some time off due to running a lot (a.k.a. overuse).

Though I tend not to write about it, I do have a routine "to help" keep me healthy. I'm not trying to be sneaky Raina! I just find writing about preventative maintenance a bit boring. And my husband is always telling me I shouldn't tempt fate (jinx it), by writing about it. Because now that I've written about it, next week I'll probably be posting about how my legs fell off. Stupid legs...

Anyway, I was writing about preventative maintenance. It's probably easiest if I just make a list:

1. I use the FRoller after nearly all my runs. I love it! My high school coach invented it, and really, it's great. The FRoller is a new toy that I bought myself before Christmas. It's a little like the stick, but you freeze it.  Before the FRoller, I was rubbing my legs down with 4-6 ice cubes after almost all my runs. Using the FRoller is better. It's like a cool message. I know AM! Icing might make the muscles weaker rather than stronger, but I swear by this, and I'm not even sure if you can call this icing. It's nothing like throwing an ice pack on for 20 minutes or submerging yourself in an ice bath. My legs feel a whole better since I've started it.
2. Now that it's winter time, I wear CW-X compression tights after hard runs (at night). They are expensive and ugly, but I have to say that they help. My legs always feel better in the morning. I only have one pair and I've had them for four years now, so I'd say that they're worth the cash. 
3. I do most of my hard running on the treadmill. Actually lately, because of the snow, I've been doing most of my running on the treadmill. I believe the treadmill is much more forgiving when running hard. It's definitely not fun. And it doesn't quite correlate to road times (I can run faster on the TM than the roads), but honestly the point is to get a good workout and run hard without getting hurt, so as long as I keep my expectations in check on race day the TM is a good option for me (not for everyone). Trails are also an excellent option (and trails with big hills make for a great workout), but not realistic for me at this stage in my mommy hood.
4. I take my vitamins. Yes, I have noticed a huge difference since starting to take vitamins. Besides a typical multivitamin, I take extra vitamin C and D (I think this has helped my immune system). I am much less sick than in the past. I also take flaxseed oil and glucosamine, which is something I started doing a long time ago when my knees started bothering me, and it works. (Note: Old people take glucosamine for their joints. Yeah, that's right, I'm an old lady.) More recently I started taking a magnesium supplement. I was having weird muscle aches and being oddly irritable during my last marathon training cycle. I read somewhere that magnesium might help. I sort of think that it has helped, but to be completely honest I'm not super sure. 

That's it. Nothing too fancy or crazy. I'm ashamed to admit that I do no strength training at all. I'm a huge advocate of core body work, but since Emily has been born I have been lazy. I also almost never stretch. I'm not against stretching. I've just never noticed a difference one way or the other. And Yoga makes me feel sick, so I don't do that either. Okay, that sounds crazy, and it took me a number of times of doing Yoga to realize it, but I get nauseous every single time I do it. I think I must have an inner ear issue, or something, really I don't have an explanation. I know it sounds ridiculous... 

Here's a picture of my new coach trying out the FRoller. She gave it her stamp of approval, and she's one tough customer to please. (Though I feel compelled to add that she used it on her head and stomach too, so she might be a bit confused as to what it's supposed to be used for.)

Do you have any recovery or "stay healthy" rituals that help you get through a training cycle in one piece? Please share! I'd love to hear what other people do!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

I know, I know, no blogging in a month! Don't worry I haven't given up running for another hobby or sport, though I do have a strong interest in learning Kenpo, but that's a story for another day. I'd also love to be proficient at knitting (you know something other than a scarf), but I lack the patience for such a skill. I think I'm straying off topic here....

Christmas:

We celebrate Christmas, so the last month has been filled with lots of Christmas crafts and celebrating and music. Here's the brief list:

Our Merry Christmas card! This is the first time we've used a family picture (versus just a picture of the kids). The picture was from Thanksgiving.

 We visited LaSalette, which is really the best place for Christmas lights around our way. We also went to a place called the holiday festival of lights at the Nashoba ski place, but it was like a creepy B horror movie (in my humble opinion). The kids liked it though, so I'm glad we at least gave it a shot, but I don't think I'd go there again. (The picture is from LaSalette.)

We made these snow men out of old socks for Kaylee's teachers. Yeah, I know, I'm wicked nice right? So giving and thoughtful by giving away our old socks. Well, we also made them peppermint bark and gave them a gift card, so it wasn't completely lame. All kidding aside, the little snowmen were easy to make (essential for an un-crafty, inpatient person such as myself), and really did wind up being cute. I'm new to teacher presents. I'd be interested to hear what others do. I liked the idea of a gift card, because then they can get what they want, and I think some sort of homemade yummy treat might be okay too, but I'm guessing three dozen homemade crafts or mugs filled with candy gets old (so maybe we'll skip this craft next year).

We also made wreath ornaments for the grandparents and aunts and uncles. They were made from buttons and sparkly pipe cleaner. Very easy to do, and they look pretty. The one shown in the picture wasn't one we made, but it looked close to that.

The kids also decorated new stockings (a tradition we started a couple years ago), and it's a lot of fun. The stockings are nothing special. Just cheap stuff usually from Michael's, but they usually come out nice, and they become special because the kids did it themselves.



The New Year:

With Christmas behind us, I guess now would be about the time that I review 2012 and set some new goals or resolutions for 2013. Well, 2012 was good to me. I ran a number of PR's, which was a big deal because it meant that I've gotten as fast as I once was in college, something I just didn't think was possible a few years ago. Things outside of running were good too. We moved. We were apprehensive about moving, but we love our new home and Kaylee's school (the primary reason for moving). We are so happy that we took the leap. Work has been good. I had a paper published, which was cool, and I've started a new project that I think will be interesting. In short, 2012 was a good year.

What's in store for 2013? I don't know. I don't generally make New Year's resolutions, but if I were to make one this year it would be to have more patience with the kids. I never yelled with just one kid, but I find with the two, I do yell. And it irritates me. It's like they play off each other. When one starts, the other starts, and I'll go from being fine to suddenly having no patience left, and then I yell. I'd like to fix that.

As far as running goes, I don't know what my goals are. The blog-o-sphere is both good and bad for me, I think. I've stumbled on a number of blogs of women near my age with kids who have that whole break 3 hours in the marathon goal going on. And I've stumbled on some ladies who have recently done it too. So, of course, now I'm starting to think about it too. I've been running some treadmill workouts with that thought in mind....

I'm currently training for a half marathon in February and Boston in April. I was sick most of last month, so my training was all over the place. I don't feel like I've gotten into a groove yet. I have had some really great workouts, but I'm having trouble figuring out what my easy pace is, and I don't feel like I've built a good base yet. I guess things just feel inconsistent right now. If I were to take on the goal of breaking 3 hours in the marathon, it wouldn't be a goal for Boston. It would be a goal for BayState.

Something new for recovery the FRoller:

In a week or two I'll be writing a post about a new recovery tool called the FRoller. It's a lot like "the stick" except you freeze it. It's meant to replace ice message. I don't do ice baths. Besides the fact that they're uncomfortable, they're also time consuming and use a lot of ice. I do rub my legs down with ice after almost every run. For the next couple weeks, I'm replacing my ice rub down with the FRoller. I'll let you know how it goes!

What's your favorite recovery tool?

A stomach bug, 5K, & another stomach bug

At some point after my last post, little miss Kaylee and Nick came down with a nasty stomach bug. Once we survived the stomach bug, it seemed Kaylee and Emily then had a nasty head/chest cold. Lots of coughing at night and such. Anyway, to make a long story short, we got through the week mostly recovered and just in time for the 5K I had been planning to run.

It's sort of great 5K, in an old school, no timing chips, no frills, small, and fast accurate course kind of way. Though they did manage to lose my friend, AM's, results. Hopefully they fixed that issue (because that's not cool). My high goal for the day was to break my old college PR of 18:24. Looking through my workouts, it seemed like a reasonably good stretch goal. The plan was to go out at 5:50-5:55 pace and then hang on. I crossed mile 1 at 5:58, and just couldn't seem to get my legs moving any faster. I was a little disappointed when I saw my time, because I knew I wasn't going to be able to better that first mile time in the second or third mile. I just wasn't feeling it. So I changed gears. I figured I could still break 19 if I could hang tough. Mile 2 was 6:02. And so there was just that measly 1.1 miles to go. It's funny how the last mile in just about any race can feel so long. By this point, I was uncomfortable, but starting to feel more relaxed and in a zone. My last mile was 5:59, and the last 0.1 was 5:35 pace.

Race Breakdown:
Mile 1: 5:58 (Ave HR = 168)
Mile 2: 6:02 (Ave HR = 175)
Mile 3: 5:59 (Ave HR = 170)
Last .1: 5:35 (Ave HR = 170)
Official 5K time = 18:34

Though I feel like I just wasn't quite right for the race, I'm very pleased with my time, and had a great time with AM. We got to warm up and cool down together, and hopefully we'll get do to some winter half training together too!

My general plan was to run this 5K, then a 10K on Thanksgiving. I've only ever run one 10K and it was some time ago. I was hoping for a solid PR, but alas it was not meant to be. Several hours after the 5K, I started vomiting. I'd say I caught Kaylee's stomach bug, but it seems odd that I would have caught it a whole week later...it was definitely some kind of stomach bug though. It was a good 30 hours or so before I could eat anything solid. And even now that it's been an additional couple of days, I still can't seem to choke down coffee, which is so sad because I love coffee. Anyway, I think I'm taking the rest of week off from running, and then hopefully beginning half marathon training. :)

Besides all the vomiting and running there was Thanksgiving! We had family over our place and it was a great day. Very relaxed. And then Friday we decorated our Christmas tree! Decorating the tree became a tradition of ours before the kids were born. We don't like to shop, and it seems there's nothing to do the Friday after Thanksgiving that isn't completely mobbed, so we thought staying home and decorating the tree would be nice. It is really nice. We decorated the tree, made cookies, and the kids just played.

Here I am being a goofball. ;)

And here's our tree.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

How much is mental (and some other stuff)

How much is Mental?

Recently I read this interesting marathon RP by an ultra marathoner named Alicia. She ran a 3:16:19 marathon PR after reading her friend's race report, where her friend, Tracy, ran 3:16:20. This was a significant PR for her. Alicia questions how much of running must be mental. I mean why 3:16:19? Her previous PR was 3:28. I find it interesting because I've been thinking about how people women in my own age group seem to be getting faster and faster. I feel like I find a new blog everyday where someone near my age is running what I consider really freaking fast for "normal" people. I've been thinking about how much I've improved over the last couple years. Why have I improved? Yes, of course, we're all running harder and further and as result we tend to get faster, but how did I get the idea that I could? A few years ago, I was absolutely convinced that my "fast" days were over. There was no way I could ever, ever, come close to my college 5K PR (18:24). At the time, I couldn't break 20:00, which I was okay with. I mean 20:xx is still fast at the local races, and so I had come to terms with the fact that I was getting slower.

Then I met AM. She was getting faster. And faster. We ran together a few times, and I mentioned that I'd never be as fast as I once was. She said, "Why not?" And I listed several very logical reasons. As time has past, I've watched her get faster and faster, but not just her. I've followed a number of other blogs, where ladies are just getting faster. If not in the marathon distance, then the half, or the 5K. And though I didn't consciously think about it, I think I must have started to believe that if these other people could do it (get faster), then so could I. I mean really, where did I get a 7:20 marathon goal pace from? Looking back on it, I think it must have been from AM. Her goal pace in 2011 was 7:20. Don't get me wrong, I trained hard, but I don't think the idea of running a faster marathon would have occurred to me if I hadn't been reading so many other marathon stories.

So what the heck is my point? Do I think running is completely mental? No, not by any means. Running is hard, and besides having to work hard at it, there is a certain amount of potential that goes along with it. What I'm writing (I think) is that with all the fellow runner bloggers out there writing about their experiences, we see more and more "normal" people pushing the envelope of their running potential. Think about it, how many regular people ran marathons 20 years ago? I have no idea where to find those statistics, but when I was growing up I never heard of anyone running marathons. The thought didn't occur to me until a college friend decided to run one. Now my kids think it's typical to go for a 20 miler.

It doesn't matter how fast you're running compared to other people, but think about how far you've come since you started. Who gave you that idea? I am fairly certain that I've gotten those ideas from a number of you. At times, I find blogging cumbersome. There's life to be lived. Splits to run. Chores to do. Kids to play with. But at the same time being able to reach out into the virtual world and see so many others' running stories makes me a better runner. So, thank you for sharing your stories...

On Recovering:

It's been about 2.5 weeks since the marathon. It seems like a lot longer than that. Anyway, the week directly following the marathon I only ran 16 miles. While I noticed the intensity of my soreness was less than in past marathons, the duration seemed to last a bit longer. For example, I generally get so sore that walking down the stairs backwards really helps. Once I actually had to scoot down the stairs on my butt for a couple days. You could say that the days following the race tell me I ran as fast as I could have. This time I didn't get that sore but I was still a bit sore by the next weekend, which hasn't happened before either.

Last week, I was back to speed training. There's a 5K I want to race in a 1.5 weeks, so while I'm "recovering", I'm also running really really hard. I ran 45 miles last week, and felt good about that. I'm not sure what will happen this week. I just went to a podiatrist today to get an ingrown toenail cut out. Right now I'm having trouble walking because I can't feel my stupid toe. I asked him for some advice regarding the general state of my traumatized toes. He said "yeah, stop running." I think he was being funny. At least that's what I'm telling myself. Anyway, my toenail issues had nothing to do with the marathon, but I guess it's probably caused by my running in general. As the doctor said "running can cause trauma." You said it doc! I'm totally traumatized when I can't run! Oh wait, you meant actual running...

So, I'm sort of recovered. Recovered from the race, but now recovering from having my toe sliced open.

Lingering Training Thoughts:

Some of the comments to my last post, as well as finding more running blogs (of typical runners, not elite) had me thinking a bit more about training. Michelle asked about long run pace, which is something I struggle with. I usually want to run faster. It's a mental thing. If I did 20 miles at 7:30 pace, then it stands to reason I can do 26.2 at 7:30 pace (or really close to it). Except that didn't happen for me at Providence in May. In 2011, the average pace of my long runs were 7:47 pace (two 20 milers and one 22 miler), and I still ran slower than 7:47 pace on race day. Arguably, maybe I just had a bad day. For both races. Or maybe race pace long runs aren't a method in which I can expect to achieve optimal performance. What has been striking a chord with me recently is how different we all are when it comes to what works for training. I've run into a few blogs of people that run 35-40 miles a week and are in the 3:20 range for a marathon time! I've already written about how that didn't work very well for me.

Raina mentioned that Pfizinger (super famous runner/coach) suggests 10%-20% below your goal pace for long runs. I did out my averages and I was about 6%-10% below my goal pace for my long runs during this last training cycle. I feel fairly comfortable with that. My long runs were always on the last day of a build week, so my legs were never fresh, and my long run course is hilly. But I am not sure that anything much slower than 10% would work for me. I can't say for certain, because I haven't tried it, but I have a feeling 20% is way too slow for me. As it is, the average heart rate for my long runs was about 136. If I were running 20% slower, I imagine my HR might barely be in the 130 range. Raina also mentioned running the second half of the long run faster than the first half. I didn't mention that previously, but that's how I run my long runs. I run the first half very easy, and the second half harder. The last couple miles were usually slightly faster than MP.

Then AM mentioned running 16 miles really hard versus 24 miles really slow. And I've seen this in other places too. There are some training plans that don't go over 16 miles. Here's the deal though, that might be an awesome training technique for some runners, but I know that I can run 16-18 miles really hard, and I'm pretty sure if I trained like that and didn't run 20 milers I would surely hit a brick wall during my marathon. In fact, I think I need longer than 20 milers in my training plan.

The point is there are so many different training possibilities, and what works for one runner doesn't necessarily work for another. And the implication of one training plan over another becomes more important as we get faster and closer to our potential.

One last training thought. Pam asked about my treadmill running. I really haven't mentioned this, but almost all my hard running is done on the treadmill. I wouldn't say that TM running is ideal, but I do believe it has helped me stay injury free. I did all my MP runs on the TM with no incline. I haven't been using an incline because I was having issues with Achilles Tendinitis, and the incline seemed to exacerbate my issues.

Feel free to share your long run thoughts. I love to hear what works for other people, and I'm still all over the map with how I feel about my long runs and how I should be running them.