Pain in the butt....literally

This pain in my butt persists...and it's not because of my husband.

During Monday's Tir-Na-Nog run I noticed a nagging little pain at the base of my left buttock, deep in the muscle. Assuming I strained my glut running hills I've iced it, taken Aleve, and rested; well somewhat, I went for a short bike ride yesterday.

Today it hurts and it's starting to radiate down my hamstring a bit. I may have actually injured my hamstring where it connects at the ischium....I looked that up....which is located under my gluteus maximus.

I stole someone's ice pack out of the fridge, wrapped it in a plastic bag, and gauze....ahhhh much better.

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Little update...
The pain subsides when I walk around and not sitting all day. I've had two days of rest and I'm going for a run today (7/24/09).

Oh the dreaded scale...

My scale is possessed by a demon. I have proof. This morning as I inched closer to what I now refer to as Satin's spawn, I debated whether I should dare climb upon it. Knowing full well its numerical trickery, I gather the courage to take the first step. As I stand there watching the numbers flicker like a video slot machine, I pray that the integer of my gravitational force will be slightly less then last week.

Finally, the charlatan flashes the one number that spins my entire day into an infinite downward spiral.....NOOOOoooooooo.......it mocks me! ***fist waving*** I try again thinking this can't be true...you devilish piece of $h!t, what's the real number? I pounce, eager for the truth. Yet again, I am fooled.....I have gained for the second week in a row. Blaspheme I tell you!

If I wasn't so cheap I would throw the cursed piece of machinery into traffic, but I am so behind the bathroom door it sits waiting for the time when it can strike again. I swear I heard it laugh as I walked away dejected.

Tir-Na-Nog run club

Calvin and I met at the bi-monthly Tir-Na-Nog social run yesterday. It was a beautiful day to run; overcast with a breeze. We decided to run (not interval) 4 miles through downtown Raleigh. It took us 46 minutes even thought we were running about an 11 min pace, we had to stop at lights and for traffic. It's getting so much easier...not to say there were no difficult times; N Bloodworth is always a sore spot with me. However, much better.

We have been running lots of hills...Umstead on Thursday, Galloway on Saturday...needless to say, my @$$ is sore. Yes, my left glut is sore...weird huh. I can only attribute that to hills. Ice, ice, ice!!

Aches and pains.....

14 miles with the 11 minute pace group was so good today. Anna and I made the leap to the faster group for the long runs. They stayed on pace (between 11 - 11:30). I think we were suppose to be running around 12 or so but I like 11 much better.

This may get a little graphic so I warn those faint of heart to stop reading now....

On to the aches and pains.....

Do I have to state how bad chafing hurts? Holly f#*kin' crap!

I wear Bodyglide (BG) religiously. I can honestly say that I will skip running with the group if I've forgotten to pack my bg. I put this crap everywhere; toes, thighs, around the elastic band of my shorts, underarms, everywhere!! At mile 12, bg was officially gone! BG has completely worn off and I'm 2 miles away from relief. (Yes, I have to state this twice because you must understand the seriousness of the situation.) In my mind I'm spattering every curse word I can think of and making up some I had to pray about later. My thighs are now creating so much thermal energy I'm afraid my shorts are going to burst into flames.

When I finally get to my car, I turn the AC up as high as it will go and point the vent toward my poor aching upper thigh region ;). At home I quickly shower...burn burn burn!!!....and find the loosest fitting shorts to wear the rest of the afternoon. Walking around was another challenge; I look like I just finished riding a horse for several hours.

I also found that my shirt had rode up while I was running and my water belt had chafed my back in a few places and I have a mad little blister on one of my toes that actually requires a bandage. hmmmm 14 miles will kick your @$$.

Staying upwind..... ;0)

• Weather: 87 degrees, 58% humidity
• Location: Koka Booth (flat and lovely)
• Duration: 4 miles; 1 mile:1 minute rest intervals finished in 45:48.

Anne, Anna, Calvin, Dina and myself ran Koka while dodging Canadian Geese (and their poo). Cool evening to run by NC weather standards. During the first two miles my average pace was 10:55-11:10. The third mile is always the hardest for me. I started out with an 11:30 pace for the first half and speed up to an 11 for the second. The fourth mile was good, finishing with an 11 min/mile pace.

Some interesting questions came up after the run. I thought I would share and maybe answer them more thoroughly here.

1. "Why do I throw up after every race?" A little Internet searching has uncovered a few good explanations for this phenomena. One reason is you may be pushing yourself harder then you trained for the race. If you want to run faster then you have to train for it. Pace yourself during your race and avoid running too fast due to the excitement. Another reason I found was dehydration. Make sure you are drinking enough water/electrolytes before, during, and after the race. Lastly, low blood sugar could also be the culprit. Review your diet. Make sure you are consuming the right kind and enough carbs before the race. Make sure you are eating breakfast as well, but not with in an hour of the race start time.

2. "Are your workout shirts getting funky?" (LOL!!!) Ok, this made me laugh!! But, seriously, I did a little research and like the idea of using washing soda to get the "funk" out. Arm & Hammer sales it as a detergent booster or you can purchase it yourself. However, be careful with it. It only takes a little bit, you need to wear gloves when handling it, and keep it away from the dog....it is used to induce vomiting in animals. (We don't need that).

Beware of the old lady with the stick!

Week 8 - Galloway training

• Weather: 72, overcast, 69% humidity (very nice day to run)
• Location: Omega Sports
• Duration: 12 miles (intervals) in 2:41

What an insane run! We ran all over North Raleigh. Starting at Omega Sports in North Hills Shopping center, through some neighborhoods, over to the greenway trails, linked up to the Shelley Lake trail, and back down Six Forks Road. Once back at North Hills those who are running 12 miles turned back around, up to Dunkin Doughnuts and back to Omega for the final 2 miles.

Running with the Kewl Runners (name of our pace group) has its challenges. It's an 11:30 pace group but we are constantly running between 12:30-13 min/miles. Finally, me and Dina ran up to the front of our immense group of 50 members and became pace leaders for a few intervals....not a good job for us. The group leaders kept yelling for us to slow down if we got any faster then 12:30. We asked Ron (the director) about the groups pace and he told us that 11:30 is the race pace so on long runs we should be running slower. AND that makes sense, however, 13 min/miles is just agony for me. So in two weeks, I am moving up to the 11:00 min/mile pace group. Let's see how that one fits.

During the Galloway runs, we come across bikers, other runners, and walkers. We have been instructed to be courteous and yield the trail way. However, as good as we may be, we usually hear objections from some trail users. This Saturday was no exception. As we are making our way up to Shelley Lake, we happened upon this older lady holding a tuner style radio to her ear, trash bag, and long stick. She is swinging the stick wildly from side to side (making herself a human pendulum) and yelling that she is "protecting [her] space". She whacked a few runners as they passed her. Talk about comfort zone, hers took up most of the trail way. Needless to say, she has been the first person to actually assault some of the runners. I could only say "wow, I'm blogging this one" and the ladies in front of me burst into laughs.

Injury Report:

• Anne sustained an ankle injury around mile 5. She felt better by Sunday and we ran and extra 2 miles.
• Christa has been diagnosed with Achilles tendinitis and has to stay off of it for two weeks
• Jason, Planters Facilities, has not returned to running yet.

C25K - Wk 2, day 3

Met Andrea this morning for our C25K session. Weather was great, overcast and cool. We ran 1.5 miles in roughly 25 minutes with a 3 minute warm up walk. Average pace was 11:30. I love running with Andrea, she cracks me up. She pushes herself so hard. She's a great workout partner....can't wait till she is back to par so she can start kicking my @$$ again.

Andrea got me started running and stomped my rump all around Raleigh in 2007. She never took no for an answer or let me stop. You had to be dieing to stop. That's basically her personal mantra, "stop and I will kill you". hahaha

Found a great marathon documentary on Hulu.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/63726/nova-marathon-challenge
Check it out. It's about 52 minutes and informative. Kind of reminds me of the Running Gals group. All the runners are 1st time 1/2 or hole marathoners.

Week 7 - Shin Splints

• Weather: 81 degrees, 50% humidity
• Location: Lake Johnson
• Duration: 4 miles (intervals)

Me, Anne, Kelly, and Calvin met at Lake Johnson for a four mile run. My shins started to ache while running, so it's ice and Aleve for me.

I feel focused about running and need to develop a more intense training regimen. Not sure if running intervals during the week is going to get me to marathon strength by November 1. I don't know, it's just something I'm bouncing around.

C25K - Week 2, day 2 - Ouch...my head!!

• Weather: 86 degrees, sunny, 38% humidity
• Location: Koka Booth, flat!
• Duration: 1.30 miles (1:30 min run: 2 min walk for 20 minutes)

C25K training was good. Brittany and Jenn came. Brittany is struggling a little bit now but I know it will get better for her if she keeps at it. Jenn could have kept going. She was surprised that time was up so quickly.

Brittany inquired about good running form. Your running form is important in that you can expend a lot of wasted energy by holding your shoulders up, titling forward as you run, or over striding. All in all, your body should be relaxed (as relaxed as possible considering the stress of running) and you should allow yourself to settle into the natural form your body takes while running. To tweak out some of bad habits, check out this Runner's World article on good running form for tips.

Jenn emailed this morning about experiencing headaches after running. I too get headaches after long runs or on really hot 3-4 mile days. I've read that this is due to electrolyte loss. So here is my remedy....

• drink lots of water before the run (50 oz is usually what I can get in before an afternoon run) but avoid that sloshy feeling in your stomach...you've drunk too much
• drink in some electrolytes (Gatorade) during the long or hot runs (you lose electrolytes when you sweat) but no more then 8oz every 20 minutes to avoid hypoatremia
• eat within 30 minutes after the run. I usually try to get more Gatorade in at this point too

I buy Gatorade in the powder form at Walmart. It's much cheaper then buying it already bottled. After long runs, I usually experience a headache so I take a Tylenol. I read that taking Tylenol before you run is bad but you will have to do your own research on that.

**used some of my old web page design skills on the hyperlinks...how do you like the pop out windows?**

Week 7 - Kicking @$$ and taking names...

• Weather: 92 degrees, Sunny, 61% humidity (HOT!)
• Location: NC Museum of Art
• Duration: 5.13 miles; 3 continuous miles & 2 miles intervaled
• Average pace: slow!!!

Ran part of the Reedy Creek Trail , beginning at the museum into Umstead. It's scenic with green horse pastures and a rolling decent. It's a bear coming back when you are exhausted. I over did it Monday....but it felt so good, I couldn't help myself. Paid for it yesterday. :) My legs became post hole diggers most of the way back. Had to slow to what felt like a crawl. Still managed to finish in less then 50 minutes. Averaged an 11:38 pace out and 13:21 back (with intervals included). Still not bad considering how I felt.

Seems I have developed a reputation for being a drill sergeant although I do not yell at anyone. I do encourage people to run though (I'm smiling as I type this, hehehe). The Running Gals have been together for almost a year now. We can run this. So when someone stops, I push them to keep going. As slow as you may feel you are moving, keep running!!! Woo hoo! I love it. This week I kicked my own @$$!

Injury report.....

• Christa has had to scale back her running due to an achilles injury. 10 miles is a bear.
• Jason (C25K) has Planters Fasciitis

C25K-Week 2....amazing

• Weather: 82 degrees, overcast, 76% humidity
• Location: Lake Benson (LB)
• Duration: 5.5 miles (various intervals)
• Average pace: unknown

"Sometimes the moments that challenge us the most, define us." The first line from the documentary Spirit of the Marathon; powerful and true. I think this applies well for the week. The C25K met today at LB. Andrea ate her Wheaties (as Kelly would say) and was running super fast. Jenn had a hard time keeping the pace so we hung back and ran together. It was a challenging run for her. Those are the best runs; they show you what your made of. I firmly believe that the body changes and adapts when pushed past the point when your left brain screams stop and your motivation moves you forward.

Arriving at the lake early gave me the opportunity to run a mile before everyone showed up. I ran 1.06 miles in about 10 minutes. My pace was 9:55. We ran the C25K regimen for 1.33 miles. Andrea and Jason ran another .65 miles and Jason continued with me for about another half mile after that. I ran two more miles afterwards in 24 minutes, for a total of 5.5 miles.

I'm truly and completely addicted to running. I feel like a runner today, like a real runner. I ran today until my legs were tired. It took 5.5 miles. I could have pushed for more but I'm running tomorrow and didn't want to ware myself out.

10 Miles!!

• Weather: 70+ degrees, no rain, low humidity
  
• Location: Through Garner to Lake Benson
• Duration: 10 miles (intervals); 2 hr 18 min
• Average pace: unknown

We made it. I can't believe we ran 10 miles. Calvin and I got up early on Friday to run because we were going to be out of town all weekend and wouldn't be able to run. It was great. We ran down to Lake Benson which was closed b.c they were setting up for the July 4th celebration. We stuck to the trails and ran the park a couple times before Sallie, Jason, and Blake met up with us for their Couch to 5k run. They did really good. Jason continued to run with us for another mile after their 20 minutes was up.

I had a headache on and off Friday and woke up with one on Saturday. I think this is due to electrolyte loss and because I'm not very good at eating after my runs. Got to work on that.

Another little issue that has come up are these tiny little blisters on the tips of my toes. Bodyglide is awesome and I just read that you can use it on your toes to avoid such blisters. I'll give it a try for my next run.

Couch to 5k continues tomorrow, rain or shine. I contacted most of the girls via text on Saturday and was very proud to hear they all ran! This program has gotten off to a good start.

Couch 2 5k - The beginning

Couch to 5k training began today. We had 3 participants, not including myself and met at Lake Benson Park for our inaugural run.

Run started at 6pm and went really well. We warmed up by walking 5 minutes then intervaled 1 minute of running and 1:30 walking for 20 minutes. We covered 1.46 miles in about 27 minutes. Poor Jenn dropped her key on the trail somewhere and we took another two laps around looking for it. Her Mom brought her extra key and saved the day....moral...tie keys down, shoelaces are your friend.

Andrea was in drill Sergeant mode...have to say I've missed that...and whipped Brittany into shape. Brittany admitted later to wanting to curse us all but appreciated the support.

Today was a good day. It's really great to see people taking steps to make their lives better by improving their health. It's the beginning and it only gets better from here.