Tag: Pain

Would You Rather…

Would you rather run a race in 2 days in–

A worn down pair of shoes that makes your arches sore

A new pair of the same shoes that leaves you bloody?

Great choices, right?

Ok, backing up. This is week is a mess of doctor’s appointments so I was keeping my running plan fluid but since Monday was appointment #1 I figured it would be a rest day. Plus Monday workouts rarely work in my favor. Except the late afternoon appointment went faster than I thought it would. Driving home I realized I had enough time to change super quickly and get in a run outside before it got dark. Since I still don’t feel 100% I figured any more ventures into running in the dark would wait until next week. I changed as fast as I could and was out the door.

My right shoe had felt off on Sunday’s walk but I figured I was cold and just getting over my sickness so I was probably walking weird. I didn’t think about it until I was about 5 minutes from my house. You know the feeling when you have a sticker or a burr in your sock? That’s what it felt like. 1/2 mile in, I stopped at the top of a hill to adjust my sock and check it out…holy crap- blood!

My sock was bloody and there was a large red spot on my new shoes. Well, crap, that’s not good. I sat for a moment and debated what to do. I didn’t see a blister, just a tiny hole. Hmm. I put my shoe back on and ran another half mile. I stopped and checked again, Hey look, blood was now down the inside of my shoe. Ok, I get it, time to call it. I rerouted to home.

A 1.51 mile run is better than none right? Except I didn’t like that. So after a quick clean up, a sock change, I slapped on a band-aid and my old shoes and was out the door again. I figured I had enough daylight for another 1.5 mile loop but I decided to run it backwards. My foot felt ok so I added on a little more. 😃 2.19 miles for a total of 3.7 for the day. I’m calling that a win in my book. ✅ And that last 2.19 miles felt pretty good. It was a great run mentally speaking.

What was not great was that 2 miles in old shoes was enough to make the arches of my feet start to ache. Which was why I switched to the new shoes. They are the same brand and model just a different color. I have never had a blister problem in any shoe. Any time I ever felt even the slightest hot spot it meant I needed new shoes or new socks. A quick switch and the problem was solved. So now what?

I have an 8.2 mile race on Saturday, I already knew it was going to be rough, being so undertrained and after a week of being sick. I wasn’t anticipating pain with most of my steps though. I don’t spend most of my time in the air like Usain Bolt. 😝 Do I wear the old shoes and suffer arch pain? Do I wear the new shoes and hope for less bleeding? I have an old pair of Mizuno’s but they made my knees and left calf hurt. It’s why I switched to the Pure Flow’s. I’ve even considered wearing my trail shoes.

So, in short- HELP! Any tips on blisters? Actually it still doesn’t look like a blister but that’s not the point. Any suggestions on how to make the new shoes work? Or should I run in the old ones? So many questions!

Vacation Week 2 Recap

Started off with a bang and ended with a whimper. Whereas week 1 was crazy mileage for a Slacker like me, week 2 was more like my usual. Maybe I can say I embraced the relaxation vibe of vacation? Even though I didn’t go anywhere?

Monday- Rest My ankle/calf was twinging from all the miles last week so I chose to rest. This also worked out as I ended up spending way too much time in AT&T stores this past week. My parents, brother and I share a family plan and have for years. One it’s more cost effective and two, I refuse to lose my unlimited data. It was time for my mom’s phone upgrade and since she needs me as the plan holder to make changes it worked out that I was on vacation. She picked out a shiny new HTC A9 or something another. She’s anti iPhone despite owning one the last 2 years. Her new phone was pretty until we realized over the weekend it wouldn’t send text messages. Well, that’s a problem. So, after hours of internet research and on the phone with tech support on Monda, the verdict was to give the phone back. Seriously, that’s what tech support said. 😒 So days later, after shipping fiascoes, rigged up iPhone 4’s, she is now the owner of shiny new, working, iPhone 6s.

Tuesday-4 miles More late afternoon running for the win. Well kind of. I headed out closer to dusk than planned but figured I would see how many miles I could get in before it got too dark. Parts of my run were great and other parts not so much. Once again my pace was better than I had expected and I didn’t need any walking breaks. However I stopped 3 times to stretch. My calf/ ankle thing is not happy at all and I kept stopping to stretch it out along the ways. Trees and curbs were all fair game. Grrr. The run turned out to be a nice little progression but my leg is not happy.

Wednesday– Rest With my ankle area being weird, I decided to try an every other day running schedule this week. Which works out as both my parents had birthdays this week. My mom’s was today. The brother and I took the parents to dinner that night. I may have eaten a few too many bread sticks at Olive Garden. 😉

Thursday 3.75 miles– holy ouch, batman. That rest day didn’t help the tightness is my ankle/ calf area. Once again I was using trees and curbs to stretch it out along the way. It started raining on me on the way back but I was too cranky to enjoy it. I shortened my run which made me cranky. I was hoping to hit 6 but there was no way. 😐

The weather man lied- it rained!! Oh and I saw this lovely sign. 🙂

Friday- Rest Pop’s birthday!

Saturday- Rest Unplanned, I was hoping for a run but I felt crappy. I had tossed and turned all night and felt exhausted. I also felt a little nauseous. I meant to take a 30 minute nap after lunch but ended up napping for 2.5 hours. Oops.

Sunday- Rest Sensing a pattern here? Part of me wanted to run and part of me wanted to be lazy on this last day of vacation. I still wasn’t feeling so hot so I wasted the day away watching cheesy tv Christmas movies. #sorrynotsorry

Somehow vacation has come to an end. Normally by now I am itching to get back to work. However I don’t feel ready to go back. I feel like there was so much more that I needed to do (like clean my car) but time just seemed to move quickly these past 2 weeks. Make it slow down! How is Christmas so close? And I seriously have no gift ideas. Normally by this time I am done shopping! I have wrapping paper but nothing to wrap!

So it’s back to work tomorrow. Back to treadmill running, boo. Back to better eating habits, hopefully. 😃

How was your weekend?

How is your Christmas shopping coming?

Any good calf stretches? I need help.

Running Favorites and a Rough End

Happy Thursday!!!

Tonight’s run started and stayed pretty damn good right up to the end. So before we get to that let’s do something fun! I was tagged by Charissa to participate in a running survey/ questionnaire. So here we go!

1) Location: Trail, Road, or Indoors?

Can I compromise and say dirt roads?? I run mostly on roads but love trails. However I run a little crazy on trails and that probably wouldn’t be a good idea all the time. 🙂

2) Time of Day: Morning, Noon, or Evening?

Late afternoon to early evening. It’s partly due to my work schedule and partly due the fact that I love sleep. I am so not a morning person. Even races can be rough.

3) Weather: Sunshine, Mild or Hot?

Warm! Crazy, I know but once I adjust to it, I love high 70’s-low 80’s. However for races I would prefer it to be in the 60’s. But I know the way I see the seasons going, I will be running in 90-100 sooner than later.

4) Fuel: Before, After, and sometimes during?

Runner fail. 😦 I don’t fuel before morning runs and rarely during long runs. I usually have something with me when I am doing more than 10 miles but I rarely ever use it. My stomach makes those choices and I’ve learned to listen to it. For runs over 6 miles, I run with Skratch instead of water and I take Gatorade for races. It’s odd but it works for me.

5) Accessories: Music, Watch & More?

My Garmin is a must, I love tracking those numbers. I also always have my phone, my inhaler and my pepper spray. I always listen to music but only keep one ear bud in and keep the music low. Man, that’s a lot of things.

6) Rewards: Food, Wine, or …?

Food!!! I love food. 🙂 I celebrate most races with a good burger and fries. We have a couple of great local burger places. 🙂

7) Type of run: Long, tempo, intervals, hill repeats, progression, or recovery/easy?

Progression. Tempos and intervals always seem harder and stress me out. I like how a progression can start pretty easy and pick it up along the way.

I nominate-

Single-tracked Mind They count for 2!

Everyone else!!!

Alrighty, back to today. My stomach was a little asshat today but no worse than it has been off and on since this stupid “flare”. Seriously, it’s almost been a year. Ugh. My training plan called for a 15 minute warm-up, 2×2 tempo miles with a 3 minute jog in between, followed by a 15 minute cool down. I knew that was unlikely the way my stomach was feeling so I was optimistically aiming for an easy 4. It was in the low 80’s when I got to the lake and it felt awesome. Somewhere along the line I decided to see what I could handle. After a warm up mile, I threw in a mile at tempo pace. Then to give my stomach a little break I walked .10 mile and then ran another tempo mile. And repeat. The miles felt comfortably hard and my stomach was cooperating. I made sure to take a break between all 3 tempo miles just to keep it happy. After a .75 mile cool down, I was at 5 miles and called it for the day. I felt pretty good and was stoked about the times I hit for the 3 tempo miles. I as on the back side of the lake so I figured I would walk back to my car the long way around. I would stretch along the way and I wanted a few pictures because it just looked so pretty. The ducks are coming and it was kind of fun running with them flying overhead. I took a few then I was on my way. I didn’t get very far before I was hunched over trying not to scream. I felt like someone had stabbed me in the left side. I figured I could breathe through it- nope. Tried to walk it out- I could barely stand up straight -walking was barely happening. I sat on some playground equipment to wait it out but it didn’t help. It took me more than 20 minutes to make it the 3/4 of a mile back to my car. Once there I finally did let myself moan and curse out loud. I also googled which side your appendix is on. I knew it was the right but it hurt so bad, I figured if I was wrong I was driving myself to the ER. I wasn’t wrong. So, what, the gas pains from hell?! Yeah, tmi, sorry. Now I’ve had gas pains before but this was ridiculous. I could barely walk, I was hunched over the whole walk back to my car. But now, I feel better. Not great but back to where I was before. I don’t think it was the running that did it, I felt fine, I made sure to check in with myself. I did go back to my old medication today, so maybe the switch didn’t go so well? It figures it happens the day after I see my gastro but we have a whole new plan to start next week..so yay?

Happy Friday!!!

What are your running favorites?

Ever have the side ache from hell?

So This is Tight

I’m currently riding the line between denial and hypochondria.

I’ve been running for almost 5 years now, reading running magazines about the same amount of time, and running blogs for about 2. I have probably read a hundred or so posts about people feeling tight and achy. Achy, I understood. Tight? I would sympathize with the runner but honestly, I had no real idea of what tight was. I can no longer claim that ignorance.I felt pretty good after my long run on Saturday but I know I didn’t stretch enough right after as I headed off to the movies fairly soon. I was able to put my feet up while there and I stretched and rolled that night but Sunday was rough. My hamstrings felt so tight and my left ankle was hurting. I was torn between heading out for my easy run and taking another rest day. The number hog in me really wanted the 5 miles, my ankle did not. This week was scheduled as a recovery week- I could take an extra day off if I felt I needed it. I finally decided to move that extra day to last week and I took Sunday off. I spent the evening with an ice pack on my ankle. I headed out on Tuesday for the easy 3 from work again. I thought it would be better to push my speed work to the second run of the week. Special me forgot to use my inhaler before setting out, so I had to take a break 1.5 mile in. Ugh, butphoto op right? Heading back turned into a pain fest. My calves were so tight, my Achilles’s were (was?) hurting and my left hamstring was pissed. No! I made it back to my car and stretched before heading home and then stretching more and rolling.

And this is in my new book- I knew I hated that damn swinging pony tail!

I am beginning to worry. I have a race in 2 weeks and SLO in 58 days. Wednesday was a normal rest day and I made sure to roll and stretch really well. I also completed week 1- workout 1 of my new Strength for Runners book. I had a tempo/ mile repeats on tap for tonight and decided that would just be stupid. I can feel my hamstring throughout the day every day. Not necessarily pain but it’s not happy. I have a pretty good pain tolerance though so I could be misjudging that as well.I headed to the lake tonight for some more easy miles. I knew I was going to run out of daylight so I figured I may only get in 2 miles or so. The plan was to run until something hurt or until I could no longer see out of my sunglasses. I figured that would be a good way to measure the darkness. 😛 I felt achy at the start but felt better as I warmed up. I pushed on for 3.25 miles. I probably should have skipped the last lap of the lake. It was pretty dark. I stopped my watch .25 from my car and walked it back. More stretching and rolling followed tonight.I am less worried about my ankle than I am the tightness. I roll my ankles on a pretty much daily basis so I am used to that. This tightness needs to go away. Sometimes I feel like a sharp pull and I fear I might hear a snap. I can’t decide which side to swing to- denial that it might be something or hypochondria and I am making a mountain out of a mole hill. I know I sometimes have issues with my left leg. Could this be more of the same? And sadly even the comfy chair has betrayed me. All tv watching, blogging, reading and attempts at crocheting this past week have happened while sitting on the floor. Oddly enough, cross-legged on the floor is only comfortable position.

I haven’t actually registered for the half in two weeks. I want to run it because it’s a race I love and this would be my 5th year running it. I just can’t decide what to do. I also feel super lazy that I have now skipped one easy run, shortened another and turned a 6 mile speed run into a 3 mile easy run. This weekend calls for a 90 minute progression run and it makes me nervous.

So, thoughts? Is it all in my head?

Have any other stretching or rolling ideas? I have a foam roller, a stick and a tennis ball.

Would you run the half in 2 weeks?

When the pain begins

So I followed through and went for a run this morning. Getting out of bed was so hard to do; sleep was not my friend last night. Finally managed to drag myself out and hit the road. I could feel my ankle as I started down the driveway, uh oh 😦

I did a route from my house and my mother came too. Usually she walks most of it while I run ahead, usually circling back to her again. She has been adding more running into though, nice! I was dragging today. My ankle hurt, I was tired and it was already getting hot at 9:30 in the morning. Seriously? On the upshot, I got to test my new shorts!

The run route takes us by a cemetery, up a few hills, and down a few hills. Then there are alleys to run through as well as a school, with a few more inclines. I really should be better at hills than I am.

Today’s run was very slow going, but I completed just about 5 miles. While I may wish it was faster, (a lot) it still adds to my training. 😦 I also completed the required 155 squats for the squat challenge that I started on July 1. What was I thinking? I then spent part of my day slacking and icing my ankle. The pain needs to go away.

I was planning on running a few tomorrow but I may push that back to Saturday. My town is currently being invaded by the barely controlled chaos that is the fair. BBQ, funnel cakes and carnies abound!!! I have tickets to a concert tomorrow so I am going to walk down do the fairgrounds and wander around for a couple of hours. That counts right? Ha! Maybe if I wasn’t also planning on consuming one of those afore mentioned funnel cakes. 🙂 And maybe a pretzel. Eating healthy can get back on track on Saturday too. I thought it was hilarious that Word Press chose to highlight the last picture in my last post. All that yummy, fatty goodness right up top 🙂

On a side note, I made a Facebook page for my blog. It’s just getting started but go check it out, and share something!