Saturdays' long run strikes again.....

So lazy.....ran only 19 miles last week. My sister and I ran 5 miles Monday. We ran 1:1's. This is what happened to her afterward---->

Thursday, Calvin and I ran 5.5 miles; running 1 mile:1 minute rest. We shaved over 10 minutes off the run on Monday.

Saturday loomed on the horizon. I had been dreading Saturday...it haunted my sleep.
Stalking me like a wounded lamb, I tried every avenue of escape; "I'm sick", "I think I have sciatica". Nothing could shake the determined beast...aww Saturday!

I was unprepared...out of my routine...off schedule...away from my "peeps". But there was no denying it, my alarms contemptible siren rouses me at 5:45 am. Fighting the light, I begrudgingly dress and accept my fate....I am Saturdays' pawn.

The elevators decent...18, 17, 16, 15.....ticks down the remaining moments of my pain free existence. Along the bike path, by the ocean, through the ritzy beach house communities, past the high rise condos, and so on, and so on.....it becomes abundantly clear that this run is going to suck, suck worse then any other run has sucked before. My energy is zapped and my left brain screams obscenities. I just want to stop and at mile 9 we did.

Every run can not be great. I heard a quote once, "if you start feeling good during a run, don't worry you'll get over it." This quote has never been more true then Saturday.

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.