Hyperextension

I think I've figured out the injury to my knee(s). Back when I stepped on that painted yellow wet line and I nearly did the splits, I think I hyperextended both my knees. I know I did to one of them, I just can't remember which foot was out front, with that knee being bent past the point.

When I run, I don't straighten out my knee as much as I do when I walk. So I think that's why I can run fine but when walking, it's a pain and when after I'm done running.

I keep on icing though. Once May 16th is done, I'll take 2 weeks off of running completely again. And see where that gets me.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 859 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 04/21/10 Up/Downhill: [+200/-203] Time: 03:38 PM Difficulty: 2.6 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 62 F temp; 46% humidity 62 F heat index; winds E 18 Performance Distance: 5.50 miles Time: 0:51:45 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 25 /mi Calories: 585 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 36 +0' 11 6.2 -0.1 +17 ft 2 9' 26 +0' 01 6.3 -0.0 -9 ft 3 9' 28 +0' 03 6.3 -0.0 +23 ft 4 9' 26 +0' 01 6.4 -0.0 -10 ft 5 9' 13 -0' 12 6.5 +0.1 0 ft end 9' 01 -0' 24 6.7 +0.3 -23 ft Versus average of 9' 25 min/mile

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Categories: 5 miles, DeKalb Nature Trail, hyperextended knee

A brutal 5 mile run

Or how I really should have stayed inside and NOT run.

First day of Spring. (Also, The Great American Meat-out Day). And it snows. About 3" I would say. Was about 30 degrees at 7am. And had winds up to 22mph, normally around 18mph.

And I went out for a run anyway.

The smartest thing I ever did was to change up my route so that I would run the last mile with the wind at my back.

I ran 1.5 miles south with the wind. Turned around to run 2.5 into the wind, a cold-biting, snow-stinging few miles. Then I turned around and it was a fast last mile thanks to the genius plan of mine.

But otherwise, in that 2.5 heading north into the wind, I was cursing myself. Luckily, I brought enough clothes with me to keep myself warm but I grabbed a HUGE sweatshirt from Luke's closet anyway. Kinda glad I grabbed it. The snow was totally hurting against my cheeks. Underneath my chin it was frozen. The skin under my watch was being burned because it was exposed to air so that my GPS watch could be seen.

But as I said the last mile was a breeze. I really felt my speed pick up. It chased those negative thoughts out of my head that's for sure. Cause I was having some serious doubts.

Friday night, I grabbed a tennis ball from Luke's closet and I laid my hip against it. That was amazing. Then I put it under my hamstring but it's so big & thick that it was hard to find that spot that was sore. But still I fulfilled my daydreams from earlier that day!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 675 ft Location: Geneva, IL Elev. Gain: +7 ft Date: 03/20/10 Up/Downhill: [+108/-101] Time: 07:50 AM Difficulty: 2.6 / 5.0 Weather: Light Snow Fog/Mist 32 F temp; 92% humidity 32 F heat index; winds N 17 G 26 Performance Distance: 5.14 miles Time: 0:49:41 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 40 /mi Calories: 550 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 04 -0' 36 6.6 +0.4 +6 ft 2 9' 26 -0' 14 6.3 +0.1 -9 ft 3 9' 48 +0' 08 6.1 -0.1 0 ft 4 10' 18 +0' 38 5.8 -0.4 +10 ft 5 9' 57 +0' 17 6.0 -0.2 +6 ft end 8' 03 -1' 37 7.4 +1.2 -6 ft Versus average of 9' 40 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 5 miles, Fox River Trail, Geneva, hamstring, hip

A recovery run it was not

I did a 5 mile recovery run on Saturday. Only it ended up not being a recovery run at all but instead a race. I even beat my 8k PR easily. Whoops. I'm not quite sure what it was. Weather was OK; it was snowing though and the snow kept getting on my eyes & eyelashes driving me absolutely bonkers. I ran around Luke's parents neighbourhood; same as the 10 miler last weekend. I had to run past the house to finish up a tenth of a mile. Luke saw me and when I came back, he was outside waiting for me. At first he said that he couldn't believe that it was me because it was too soon. Then I showed him my watch as I was still catching my breath. 42:57 for 5 miles. He couldn't believe it. Hell, I couldn't believe it.

I saw my first mile was 8:32 and was like OK 2nd mile I'll be slow. Nope, 2nd mile 8:36. OK, well, I'll keep this up for 3 miles and be slow in the last 2 and I'll still be under 45 minutes. Nope, 4th mile was still fast and 5th mile was even faster. No idea what happened.

Luke had his 15k race that afternoon. He's injured because of it. He still managed to squeak out 11th overall and 2nd in his age group. But he's limping. Badly. Wasn't bending his knee. We iced it all day on Saturday night. And he took some painkillers. He even cancelled on skiing with me and 2 of my friends on Sunday. That's how bad it was.

I did end up going skiing with my friends Wes & Joe at Cascade Mountain north of Madison, WI. It was a fun time. Such great weather, over freezing and I didn't get cold until the sun nearly went down. I went down several blues, several times. I didn't want to risk too much for fear of breaking anything so no blacks for me. I did pull a groin or lower stomach muscle pulling myself up a hill to a line for a ski lift. But it only hurts when I flex my lower muscles. Doesn't bother me when I run.

I ran 3 miles today. Man was that tough. My calves are a bit sore because of the skiing. And then I added an incline to the treadmill of 1% so that didn't help matters but you know how it goes. It's a good burn. I keep stretching out my calves everytime I get up from sitting for a while.

Tomorrow Luke is coming out and we're going to hit up my YMCA for swimming. We actually didn't do it. But might do it tomorrow if I drive out there. Then we're going to sit down and discuss the strategy for our trip out west to San Francisco and Lake Tahoe for more skiing!! Hopefully he'll be able to do something this weekend. We were supposed to run 12 miles together on Monday around the piers but alas, he can't run. Not sure what the deal will be. Either I'll be out running my 12 miles alone in SF -OR- waiting until I get back to midwest and trying to squeeze it in somehow before 14 miles the following weekend.

And finally, I always hoped to find friends through my running. Meet them in running groups or races or something. We could talk about running, go running, or even maybe just have a glass of wine and hang out to not talking about running. Haven't really done that unfortunately. I have a few "friends" online through these blogs but no one I really hung out with. Jesse & I have hung out the most; from Chicago Marathon twice to St. Louis Marathon and then Milwaukee and again, we'll be together for Rockford Marathon. I was really just hoping to meet other people (more specifically girls but could have taken anyone) my age. My running group here locally, not too many people my age so thus they get up at an ungodly hour of 5am for runs since they have the family thing going on. And then the Rockford Road Runner's group is too far away for any of their runs. I did try to meet up with a few people on Saturday night from a unofficial running group that Luke is in and I know one of the guys in there but the bar was too crowded and I got too intimidated since I only barely knew that guy. Guess what I'm just trying to say here is that I'm jealous over what some people seem to have with their running friends while I don't really have it. Oh well. I have Luke now, that'll do.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 869 ft Location: Cherry Valley, IL Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 02/20/10 Up/Downhill: [+232/-229] Time: 09:35 AM Difficulty: 2.5 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 5.00 miles Time: 0:42:57 Speed: 7.0 mph Pace: 8' 35 /mi Calories: 529 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 33 -0' 02 7.0 +0.0 +26 ft 2 8' 37 +0' 02 7.0 -0.0 -13 ft 3 8' 41 +0' 06 6.9 -0.1 +3 ft 4 8' 45 +0' 10 6.8 -0.1 -6 ft end 8' 22 -0' 13 7.2 +0.2 -6 ft Versus average of 8' 35 min/mile

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Categories: 5 miles, Luke, running with friends, skiing

Injured yet again

I woke up on Monday morning, got out of bed and my right calf felt immediately tight. Really tight and sore! I was sooo disappointed! I knew I wasn't going to run on Monday anyway since I just did 12 miles the day before. I then was walking down my stairs and felt my left hamstring was sore. Man did that run do a number on my body!

So then I also took off again on Tuesday morning. I was awake and even tweeted about going to run at 6:30am but I just couldn't bring myself to get out there and do it. One more day off to help my sore muscles.

So I decided on Wednesday to go ahead and get my butt out there. They were still sore but when I walked it was fine so I tried it out. Did 5 miles total. Ran my new route again too along with an addition to the new route. Whoa! Look at me changing it up!! But when I walked up stairs or used my calf muscle for anything that's when I felt the strain. Today it feels fine so I'm not so worried about it affecting my training.

The "leprechaun" said hi to me again. Last week I ran past a guy on a hybrid bike (I could tell cause he was sitting up really straight and had his handlebars high) and he said "Top of the morning to ya" that day and he said it again on Wednesday. Wow.

I don't think anything else of significance happened on the run. I went out and bought a second pair of the compression shorts because I enjoyed them so much! Luckily I had a gift card for MC Sports so it didn't cost me anything either. :-)

NoMeatAthlete commented on my last post about my marathon training and had a really good idea. Instead of doing 20-16-6-Taper-Taper-Marathon, I'm going to do a 20-6-16 or a 20-10-16 then 2 weeks of taper before the marathon. That makes me feel a lot better with my training now!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 858 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 07/29/09 Up/Downhill: [+206/-209] Time: 06:17 AM Difficulty: 2.5 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 57 F temp; 89% humidity 57 F heat index; winds NW 3 Performance Distance: 5.00 miles Time: 0:46:36 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 19 /mi Calories: 533 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 01 -0' 18 6.7 +0.2 +13 ft 2 9' 08 -0' 11 6.6 +0.1 +20 ft 3 9' 29 +0' 10 6.3 -0.1 -20 ft 4 9' 32 +0' 13 6.3 -0.2 +10 ft 5 9' 16 -0' 03 6.5 +0.0 -26 ft Versus average of 9' 19 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 5 miles, DeKalb Nature Trail, marathon training

Thanksgiving Day Run

Well, after my tough run on Tuesday at the YMCA on the treadmill, I wanted to run here in Iowa. So off I went on Thursday morning later than I had planned. I wore Under Armor leggins, a UA cold weather shirt and my jacket on top of that. Then my gloves, fleece hat and my fleece neck gaiter.

I took off to the bike path (a rails-to-trails project) and ran around a lake. It was 2.14 miles for one loop. Around 1.5 miles I took off my gloves. My neck gaiter I had to keep pulling up and down though. The fleece was making my breath stay in the gaiter and the moisture too, which was then hot and warm going into my lungs. It would also get too hot at times and hard to breath. So then I would pull it down and the air would be all cold and my face would get cold again. It was not fun. The sun was shining very brightly and I actually started to get quite warm out there but I kept my jacket on.

So today, dealing with the Black Friday madness, stopped off at a sporting goods store. I found a few moisture wicking face masks however when I pulled it down under my jaw, it would be tight and I think hard to run with it. Finally located the Under Armor mask and tried it on. It's made so that if you want to pull it down, you can just pull it down and there's enough loose fabric that it just sits under the chin. Very nice indeed!!

So tomorrow will be my 8 mile run. I think I'll wear my Warm Weather shirt under my jacket instead of the Cold Weather shirt. Last big run before the marathon! Then next week is just Monday & Tuesday & Wednesday at work. Here's my running schedule:
Monday: 3mi
Tuesday: 4mi
Thursday: 2mi
Friday: a lot of walking at the St. Jude Expo and St. Jude Hospital tour.
Saturday: 26.2

I'll write more about the events planned for that weekend next week. :-)

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 834 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 11/27/08 Up/Downhill: [+52/-52] Time: 09:20 AM Difficulty: 2.0 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 5.00 miles Time: 0:47:14 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 27 /mi Calories: 518 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 58 -0' 29 6.7 +0.3 -6 ft 2 9' 36 +0' 09 6.2 -0.1 +6 ft 3 9' 33 +0' 06 6.3 -0.1 -7 ft 4 9' 31 +0' 04 6.3 -0.0 +4 ft end 9' 37 +0' 10 6.2 -0.1 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 27 min/mile

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Categories: 5 miles, accessories, Iowa, St. Jude Marathon

Feet Problems & Half Marathon

Today's post is about my feet and this weekend's half marathon.

I have funky feet. Here's a picture of them both. They're pretty much the same, luckily. My toes are the problem though. I have hammer toes like crazy. I crack them, started doing that once in a while with my ex-boyfriend but now I'm doing them myself just by bending them! My middle one is a little longer than them all. During my half marathon last year, I ended up having a bruised big toe nail on my right foot. It hurt a lot. I thought I was going to lose it! I think that was because my shoes were a size too small. You can still see something discoloured on my right big toe.

Recently since training for my marathon, my feet have taken much more of a toll. I have two problems that I'm now encountering that I haven't had before. My middle toes are now sore on the very top of the toe. They also have some dry skin along with the soreness.

If you look at the first photo again you can see that my pinky toe kinda turns and sits under the toe next to it. Well, curved in such a way that it didn't bother me before. But now I have a blister under that toe caused by the rubbing of the pinky toe.

This blister has only appeared in the past couple weeks. It's not really puffy or anything, more like just there. Today on my run I wore a bandaid around my toe but it just got turned around by the time I was done. But I guess that at least it was protected a bit. *shrug* Really don't know what else to do.

Then there's the balls of my feet again. I tied my shoes nice and tight and they still burned a bit by the time I was done with my 5 miles. I'm hoping it's because of the sensitivity from yesterday and the fact that maybe cause I wore the same socks. I marked them, just in case.

Half Marathon talk
This weekend is a half marathon. It's funny. I worked so hard and so long last year for my half marathon and here I am doing it so blasé as if it's just a training run. And in all actuality it is, plus I'm doing another 5 miles after it! --Or at least I plan on it!-- Best part is that I get another medal! I like medals!

Packet pickup is on Saturday, so that's good. I can lay everything out in preparation for Sunday morning. Tricky part will be waking Brent up. And wondering what he plans on doing by himself for 2 hours. I'm sure he'll be fine, if not a bit bored. :-)

That's another thing, I don't know what pace to run the race in. Should I go for a slower pace knowing that I've got another 5 after OR should I try to beat my 2:03? It'll be fun to beat 2:03 but actually, I think that 2:03 is a complete farce and I don't know if I'll ever be able to get to that time again. I think what I'll do is just go out and run the race. Not really putting a limit on anything. It's gonna be good weather in St. Louis for the race though, if a bit warm.

Below is my route. Pretty straightforward. I think the fun part will be Forest Park. The hand drawn map on their site didn't seem like I went that big in Forest Park. But once I laid it all out in Google Maps, I was like whoa, I'm traversing all through Forest Park! I think it'll be fun. I'm bringing my own hydration belt just in case they don't have that many water tables. I haven't seen anything on their website about it actually. Seems like a smaller race (it's put on by the Running Club which only has 1000 members) so that's why I'm really not expecting much.


View Larger Map

And yes, I finally did a negative split today on my run. Look at the last mile. I think that was because right before the 4 mile mark, I saw 2 deer (does actually) on my bike path. Made me very happy. Then at the 4 mile mark, I turned around and headed back in the same direction and saw the other one cross. I missed my running buddies! I haven't seen them this year yet! And yes, that's another 9:03 avg pace for 5 miles. I wish I could hold that for 13 miles! HA!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 859 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +17 ft Date: 10/30/08 Up/Downhill: [+200/-183] Time: 05:08 PM Difficulty: 2.5 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 57 F temp; 45% humidity 57 F heat index; winds S 10 Performance Distance: 5.00 miles Time: 0:45:13 Speed: 6.6 mph Pace: 9' 03 /mi Calories: 495 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 53 -0' 10 6.8 +0.1 +23 ft 2 9' 02 -0' 01 6.6 +0.0 -16 ft 3 9' 12 +0' 09 6.5 -0.1 +6 ft 4 9' 21 +0' 18 6.4 -0.2 +23 ft 5 8' 34 -0' 29 7.0 +0.4 -20 ft Versus average of 9' 03 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 5 miles, feet, Google Maps, pictures, St. Louis Half Marathon

Awesome

I just came back from a 5 mile run today (yes another one!) and weighed myself. I am currently 132lbs! Yay baby! I haven't been that weight since I ran the St. Jude Memphis Half Marathon last December! It could be because I just lost a freaking ton in sweat.

Today's run was rather harsh. I left a little after 5p. Later than I would have liked but I should be thankful. It was warm and humid today. Also, thankful that I was smart and decided that since I wanted to run 5 miles, I should bring with me something to drink. I put on my water belt with 2 bottles for it. I drank a little of the water, pouring most of it on myself; on the back, over the head, on my neck and chest and then after the run I poured what was left on my face.

Also, before I left work today, I mapped out a new run of 5 miles. I take my usual route of Greenwood Acres to the bike path, take that towards 1st Street but then when I cross the other road, I take that road back north and go around the bend and take that back toward the bike path again only to continue on the bike path to 1st Street, turning around and taking it Rt. 23, turning around again, then back to Greenwood Acres and back to the start. Well, I didn't pay attention to the map of what road I was supposed to follow around the bend, so I turned too early once I got on the Country Club Rd. Still managed to finish it with only slight backtracking at the end.

When I got back around 6p, it was 81 degrees. Yea, warm. I was spent by the time I was done. I think I'm going to start running later at night now. Maybe not leaving until 6p. I also checked into the Kishwaukee College's Wellness Centre. They have 2 treadmills. I think I'm going to sign up for the year and then use them at lunch time or after work since I get out at 4p.

I printed off some rice recipes on allrecipes.com. I'm looking forward to trying some of them out. Some has chicken in it but luckily, I can substitute that for my soy stuff. I have decided that rice is my secret to racing well the night of eating it. Specifically rice and beans!

I wish I could say that this was from running, but alas it was from biking. I have seen plenty of runners with that same tan line too. But luckily, the majority of my shorts come down to that tan line so you can't even tell too often. It makes it look like I have on thigh highs! Since I was peeling last week, most of it has faded away now.

Categories: 5 miles, pictures, tan

running milestone

Ran 5 miles tonight. First time for that. Felt awesome, wasn't breathing hard or anything. In 45:45 min too. So another 1.2 miles and I'll have the Pumpkinfest race.

Tomorrow I have a Physical Therapist appointment for my hip. We'll see what they have to say about it.

I got this on one of my Gmail's web clips. Liquid Pole. Too funny.

I found my power song on shuffle today. Once I hit that song, man, I wasn't tired anymore. My feet pounded with the beat. I need a running playlist. I just don't know what songs to put in it. Plus, I don't think that the Shuffle can have a playlist though. Only Nano's and iPods.

Next Monday and Tuesday I'm running outside again. Gonna be gorgeous or so I hear.

So another little blip in the dating life of Lindsay. I've determined that future prospects will NOT meet my family but now they also won't meet my friends. This is because most men I find are intimidated by the fact that I only have men as friends. They don't understand that a boyfriend is completely different a boy space friend. So it looks like I either A) get rid of all my friends so I can have a boyfriend B) get a girlfriend here and there or C) find some guy that has big enough stones that will deal with the fact that I have male best friends. Oh what the hell, we all know that C will never happen. So they won't meet my friends now. The things I have to do to find love. Dang! Oh and while some may be laughing at yet another failed attempt for Lindsay, that's okay. Because I'd rather have a thousand failed attempts at a relationship and then have a perfect one than have one like last time. And anyway, I STILL can't trust men. It's gonna take me a long time to heal, I'll tell you what.

Categories: 5 miles, aches and pains, dating

running milestone

Ran 5 miles tonight. First time for that. Felt awesome, wasn't breathing hard or anything. In 45:45min too. So another 1.2miles and I'll have the Pumpkinfest race.

Tomorrow I have a Physical Therapist appointment for my hip. We'll see what they have to say about it.

I found my power song on shuffle today. Once I hit that song, man, I wasn't tired anymore. My feet pounded with the beat. I need a running playlist. I just don't know what songs to put in it. Plus, I don't think that the Shuffle can have a playlist though. Only Nano's and iPods.

Next Monday and Tuesday I'm running outside again. Gonna be gorgeous or so I hear.

Off to shower my stinky sweat off of me!

Categories: 5 miles, hip