Not quite where I had hoped to be

I have been getting worried that my endurance is faltering because of this knee issue.

My run of 5.5 miles the other day was a hard run. Not knowing how fast I was going in the last mile, I realise that's probably why but even the first mile, of 9:30 min was tough!

And now this one last Saturday. It was another tough run. By the end of 6.2 miles, I was spent. I gave my all and it wasn't all that fast. I could blame either the long-sleeve or the 95% humidity. Or both.

Someone please remind me that if it's in the 50's to wear short sleeves. Geeze, why can't I remember that!?

No running today since I tweaked my back and my glutes are hurting.

So much for a PR in my half marathon this weekend.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 855 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: -4 ft Date: 04/24/10 Up/Downhill: [+196/-200] Time: 09:13 AM Difficulty: 2.1 / 5.0 Weather: Fog/Mist 55 F temp; 100% humidity 55 F heat index; winds E 8 Performance Distance: 6.20 miles Time: 1:00:00 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 41 /mi Calories: 664 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 22 -0' 19 6.4 +0.2 +36 ft 2 9' 39 -0' 02 6.2 +0.0 -17 ft 3 9' 51 +0' 10 6.1 -0.1 -9 ft 4 9' 58 +0' 17 6.0 -0.2 +10 ft 5 9' 58 +0' 17 6.0 -0.2 +10 ft 6 9' 30 -0' 11 6.3 +0.1 -33 ft end 9' 07 -0' 34 6.6 +0.4 0 ft Versus average of 9' 41 min/mile

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Categories: 6 miles, humidity

Triple workout Wednesday

Yet another triple workout Wednesday!

On Monday, Luke mentioned going biking together on Wednesday. So knowing that I also had a run to do that day, I got up early to get a 10k in. Then at lunch, I also managed to get in 35 minutes of weights & the like. And once Luke arrived, I got in 12 miles on the bike.

My left knee is still bothering me. I'm icing it but it's not getting any better. In fact, I felt it during my entire run. It hurts more to walk on it. If I'm sitting, it's not hurting but when I get up the first step is the worst. It's on the inside part & now also at below the part where the doctor hits ya for reflexes.

It doesn't seem to be slowing me down too much. I know I'm not helping it by running on it still. Luckily, just 1.5 months until my marathon. Then I can rest.

I'm attempting 18 miles on Friday or Saturday in southern Illinois. I did 12 miles at Rend Lake and I started 3 miles from where I normally start. So the good news is that I'll be able to get the full thing in without going into new unchartered territory. Just have to think of it as a 3 hour run, not 18 miles. One hour at a time, right?

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 857 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +7 ft Date: 03/31/10 Up/Downhill: [+239/-232] Time: 06:58 AM Difficulty: 2.7 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 48 F temp; 82% humidity 48 F heat index; winds S 14 Performance Distance: 6.20 miles Time: 0:59:59 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 40 /mi Calories: 662 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 29 -0' 11 6.3 +0.1 +36 ft 2 9' 45 +0' 05 6.2 -0.1 -26 ft 3 9' 48 +0' 08 6.1 -0.1 0 ft 4 9' 51 +0' 11 6.1 -0.1 +14 ft 5 9' 58 +0' 18 6.0 -0.2 +7 ft 6 9' 20 -0' 20 6.4 +0.2 -29 ft end 9' 19 -0' 21 6.4 +0.2 +7 ft Versus average of 9' 40 min/mile

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 849 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: -30 ft Date: 03/31/10 Up/Downhill: [+232/-262] Time: 06:37 PM Difficulty: 2.9 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 11.42 miles Time: 0:59:16 Speed: 11.6 mph Pace: 5' 10 /mi Calories: 879 Map Elevation (ft) Speed (mph) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 4' 42 -0' 28 12.7 +1.1 +17 ft 2 4' 21 -0' 49 13.8 +2.2 -43 ft 3 4' 54 -0' 16 12.2 +0.6 0 ft 4 7' 14 +2' 03 8.3 -3.3 0 ft 5 5' 06 -0' 04 11.7 +0.1 0 ft 6 7' 49 +2' 38 7.7 -3.9 +10 ft 7 5' 17 +0' 06 11.3 -0.2 -10 ft 8 5' 34 +0' 23 10.8 -0.8 0 ft 9 4' 58 -0' 12 12.1 +0.5 -10 ft 10 4' 42 -0' 28 12.7 +1.1 +42 ft 11 3' 31 -1' 39 17.0 +5.4 -30 ft end 5' 41 +0' 30 10.5 -1.1 -6 ft Versus average of 11.6 mph

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Categories: 6 miles, biking, hyperextended knee, triple workout

An interesting run

Well, the run itself wasn't so interesting. I did run in a new place, well, a place that I ran once before but just did it for longer. Anyway, it was after the run that got interesting.

Let me backtrack to last Saturday. I had just stepped out of a car and was still all snotty from being sick. So I hacked up some phlegm and went to chuck it far but when I did, I had stepped forward on a wet painted line in the parking lot. Apparently those get very slick. So out my right foot went, so very far. So much so, my knee actually bent the OTHER way, downward, and I felt my hamstring pull and felt a tear. I could hardly get up from that position since my knee was locked. It hurt but not like an immense sense of pain but I knew something was wrong. Then I felt a numbing sensation. My whole leg went to sleep. Pins & Needles galore. It took a few minutes to get ANY sensation back in my leg. I couldn't even get in the car. All day, I could feel that something was off. But I wasn't limping at the expos I went to.

Now to Thursday nights run. I ran the 10k I wanted. I had soreness in my thighs as usual. So thinking it was an IT Band issue, when I got back to the apartment I decided to stretch. I did the normal IT Band stretches and it felt good. I decided to go further into stretching, which I hardly ever do. I bent down to touch my toes and I felt the same right hamstring pull and start to hurt. Not good. So I decided to stretch some more thinking, it was just tight. I did the butterfly, that felt OK. Then I put my leg out and reached for my toes and it felt OK on my left leg, my right leg, not so much. Bad feeling again.

I hobbled when I went grocery shopping. I couldn't kick out my right foot without pulling on that hamstring and hitting that nerve that sent a bolt through my leg. So I ended up taking really small steps. I took an ice pack and put that under my leg for a little bit that evening.

Friday morning, I could feel the hamstring a little bit. But I still decided to err on the side of caution. So Friday at work, I took a Lean Cuisine and used that to ice my hamstring. That lunchtime when I went down to do some weights, I didn't do the hamstring curl machine at all. I didn't want to aggravate it.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 674 ft Location: Geneva, IL Elev. Gain: +13 ft Date: 03/18/10 Up/Downhill: [+167/-154] Time: 05:37 PM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 58 F temp; 55% humidity 58 F heat index; winds SW 13 G 23 Performance Distance: 6.20 miles Time: 0:58:00 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 21 /mi Calories: 659 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 07 -0' 14 6.6 +0.2 +9 ft 2 9' 21 +0' 00 6.4 -0.0 +3 ft 3 9' 35 +0' 14 6.3 -0.2 -26 ft 4 9' 33 +0' 12 6.3 -0.1 +16 ft 5 9' 21 +0' 00 6.4 -0.0 0 ft 6 9' 21 +0' 00 6.4 -0.0 +16 ft end 8' 37 -0' 44 7.0 +0.5 -6 ft Versus average of 9' 21 min/mile

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Categories: 6 miles, Geneva, hamstring, hyperextended knee

First run in the snow!

Luke & I headed up to Madison this past weekend.

He needed to go running to prepare for a race in a few weeks. So I took him on the route I did earlier this summer. We ran together for the first mile and then he took off and I tried to tell him how to run. I stopped a few miles up and just wanted to run a 10k.

Keep in mind that it snowed a few days before the weekend. Madison got a lot more than DeKalb did. And then it melted a bit and froze again on the sidewalks. The path however, was pretty clear. A few icy spots here and there.

I forgot to bring a jacket but luckily, I didn't need it! The air temp was 23 but the sun was out so that helped. My lined tights, another loose pair on top of them, my UnderArmour ColdGear turtleneck, another loose pullover on top of that and then a fleece cap & gloves. And I was warm with all that.

By the end of the run, my right achilles tendon was getting a bit sore because of my foot slippage. And of course my left foot went numb because I tied my shoelaces too tight I think.

As I was leaving the park & path on the way back, I glanced behind me and thought I saw Luke. The sidewalk was all one big hill so I tried kicking it into high gear to get enough distance between him & me and maybe I could beat him home!

I was making the final homestretch, looked behind me and couldn't see anyone behind me. Which was odd. So on the final road back to where I was staying, he caught up with me. But I found out that he wasn't the one behind me. He got in front of me and then took a different end when he saw the sledding hill across the street from the path.

I finished up the day with the 10k I wanted. Who knows how far Luke went but he said that he ran up the sledding hill. And peeps, this is not a small little hill. He said that there were a bit of trails at the top of the hill. I was really interested in checking out these trails.

So on Sunday, we decided to hit them up and just run a few miles. He led me this time and into the woods we went. It looked like a good place to do cross country skiing. We eventually found a map and sure enough, they had icons of the trails that determined if they were easy or medium or advanced.

I kept the GPS on but I didn't really care about my time on this one since looking at the maps took a lot of the time out since I keep forgetting to change the setting on my Garmin to pause the time when I stop running. We ran on down to the bottom of the ski hill and then Luke wanted to run back up the hill again. I told him I'd try but I wasn't guaranteeing anything!

I did manage to run up the hill but with one little pause in the middle. There was a time in which I'm sure my walk would have been faster than what I was going but I wanted to keep trying to push myself up that hill! I was sooooo tired after that try! Luke ended up rolling down the hill and then ran back up it again. yes, that's right, rolled down it. At first going head over feet and then I yelled at him to do a barrel roll. That was a mistake. He was dizzy for most of the day.

Then we went down another trail and it was so gorgeous! Tall pine trees with long trunks and then the snow on the trails. I sooo wish I would have brought my camera with me or at least a cell phone to snap a picture. It was so serene and pretty. But alas, I just give you this one picture from the run on Saturday.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1038 ft Location: Verona, WI Elev. Gain: -63 ft Date: 12/05/09 Up/Downhill: [+301/-364] Time: 08:52 AM Difficulty: 2.7 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 6.20 miles Time: 0:57:53 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 20 /mi Calories: 658 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 32 -0' 48 7.0 +0.6 -88 ft 2 9' 35 +0' 15 6.3 -0.2 +20 ft 3 9' 27 +0' 07 6.3 -0.1 +17 ft 4 9' 33 +0' 13 6.3 -0.1 -30 ft 5 9' 31 +0' 11 6.3 -0.1 +33 ft 6 9' 48 +0' 28 6.1 -0.3 +40 ft end 7' 21 -1' 59 8.2 +1.7 -52 ft Versus average of 9' 20 min/mile

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1087 ft Location: Verona, WI Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 12/06/09 Up/Downhill: [+259/-259] Time: 09:51 AM Difficulty: 2.8 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 30 F temp; 65% humidity 30 F heat index; winds Vrbl 3 Performance Distance: 2.12 miles Time: 0:26:19 Speed: 4.8 mph Pace: 12' 25 /mi Calories: 218 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 12' 10 -0' 15 4.9 +0.1 -62 ft 2 12' 59 +0' 34 4.6 -0.2 +56 ft end 9' 14 -3' 11 6.5 +1.7 -16 ft Versus average of 12' 25 min/mile

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Categories: 6 miles, hills, Luke, Madison

Running 2 days in a row?!

Wow! The things I do for boys and happiness.

I ran my first double digit since the marathon on Saturday. Luke and I went up to Rockford to run on the Perryville Path. I've seen bikers on it plenty of times. We started from Midway Village and followed the path through there and then we went through a small neighbourhood (not on the path) and then later picked it up again. It was such a good

We decided to try something different this time. We stayed together for the first 2 miles until we got to the path and then he took off at his normal pace. It was awesome. Because then I got to listen to my music and run at my own pace and he got to do his own thing and we both got to go different mileage too.

It was funny; when we first took off, it didn't look like he really running any faster. Sure, he was leaving me behind but it really did look like I could keep up with him and then sooner or later, he was just a speck in the distance.

I ran 5.1 miles up and turned around. I figured that Luke would have passed me at some point in running back but he never did. I skipped the neighbourhood run and just followed the path south of where we started and came back up another entrance.

It was a pretty nice run/path except for one part. We had to cross Perryville. Which is pretty busy all the time. The run up wasn't too bad of a wait, I got the turn light so I was able to go pretty fast. However, on the way back, it SUCKED. I just missed the light so I had to wait and wait and wait. I hit the pedistratian light but I still waited for an entire minute at the light before I crossed illegally and when the north south traffic was stalled a little bit, I hit the road fast.

My original time goal was to at least run the second half faster than the first half. And I was doing it by a whole second by the time I got to the light (and 3 miles from the finish). But that minute added on 10 seconds to my time and it went from 9:06 to 9:16 and I only got down another second for the average pace by the end of the run.

However, at the end of the run, I saw Luke waiting for me. I was about done at 10.4 miles so I kept going until 10.5. At 10.45, I kicked it up a notch and around a corner started going faster. NOT a good idea at all! Once I was done, I started walking and my groin or inner thigh was hurting. Even Luke couldn't keep up with me! But in his defense, he didn't run all of last week cause of work. Didn't even go to the gym. Which is why I'm very impressed that he managed to run as far as he did. We're guessing he went 13 or 14 miles while I went 10.51.

Later was pasta with his parents. :-)

Look, he does exist!

Um, so really? I had to stop for a dead end?

Pretty!

Yep, I finally got a picture of him & I! Not the best but it'll do.

**********************************

Sunday had us going for another run, this time in DeKalb. He usually runs Saturday & Sunday. I normally don't. And with this groin pull, I didn't know exactly if I should. But I toughed it out and managed to get another 6.2 miles in. Luke was incredibly sore from Saturday's run AND that we played dodgeball Saturday morning and that uses muscles we haven't used in a while (throwing arms & the like).

We both agreed that yesterday's start, running together and then him taking off was the best thing for both of us. I didn't feel like I had to run faster or feel bad since he was running slow with me and he didn't have to run slow or feel bad for me running faster than I should. So he ran with me until we got a agreed upon point and then he took off.

Decided to run down to NIU and mentioned running to the Engineering building but since it was Sunday, we figured it was closed. I decided while running that I was going to go less than he was. Well, at 3.1 miles, I didn't want to risk my groin anymore so I turned around. I had lost him a long time ago, lots of weaves and curves. I didn't even see him in the distance on this route.

However, on my way back he did end up passing me. I had turned around saw him a bit behind me so I knew he was coming up on me. I was so afraid that I was gonna feel bad when he did but he put his arm on my waist and around my lower back as he passed so it was nice gesture that didn't make me feel bad after all. Said that I was going at a pretty good pace. A lot slower than the previous days longer run but I equate that to my groin pull. As he passed me, I did try to match foot fall to foot fall with his and it worked, I did speed up quite a bit even though his legs are like super longer than mine. (he's a few inches taller than me when we're on our feet but when we're on our knees, we're pretty much nose for nose, which means my torso is long)

I finished up with 6.2 miles and I really kicked it into high gear to keep my avg pace under 9:30 min/mi. Luke had ran to my apartment and looked at the clock and had run back to meet me. I was pretty happy with my time overall.

My stats for the two runs:

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 881 ft Location: Cherry Valley, IL Elev. Gain: +7 ft Date: 11/14/09 Up/Downhill: [+367/-360] Time: 01:55 PM Difficulty: 3.1 / 5.0 Weather: Overcast 57 F temp; 69% humidity 57 F heat index; winds W 7 Performance Distance: 10.51 miles Time: 1:37:16 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 15 /mi Calories: 1110 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 53 -0' 22 6.8 +0.3 +10 ft 2 9' 36 +0' 21 6.2 -0.2 +16 ft 3 8' 47 -0' 28 6.8 +0.3 -26 ft 4 9' 12 -0' 03 6.5 +0.0 +16 ft 5 9' 05 -0' 10 6.6 +0.1 +17 ft 6 9' 08 -0' 07 6.6 +0.1 +6 ft 7 10' 09 +0' 54 5.9 -0.6 -29 ft 8 9' 18 +0' 03 6.5 -0.0 +4 ft 9 9' 23 +0' 08 6.4 -0.1 +3 ft 10 9' 12 -0' 03 6.5 +0.0 -10 ft end 8' 40 -0' 35 6.9 +0.4 0 ft Versus average of 9' 15 min/mile

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 857 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 11/15/09 Up/Downhill: [+164/-164] Time: 11:37 AM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 43 F temp; 57% humidity 43 F heat index; winds N 12 Performance Distance: 6.20 miles Time: 0:58:20 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 25 /mi Calories: 662 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 40 +0' 15 6.2 -0.2 +36 ft 2 9' 19 -0' 06 6.4 +0.1 -39 ft 3 9' 26 +0' 01 6.3 -0.0 +4 ft 4 9' 16 -0' 09 6.5 +0.1 0 ft 5 9' 32 +0' 07 6.3 -0.1 +36 ft 6 9' 20 -0' 05 6.4 +0.0 -20 ft end 8' 46 -0' 39 6.8 +0.5 -16 ft Versus average of 9' 25 min/mile

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Categories: 10 miles, 6 miles, Luke, Perryville Path, pictures