Non-Injuries (ish)

I have been working like a beast to keep myself injury free as I'm ramping up the miles on Pfitz' marathon training program.  And so far so good.  Sort of.

The number of NON-injury-injuries I've had this past week are through the roof.  It started on Wednesday's early morning mid-week long run.  10 on the schedule.  It was one of the most amazing runs I've had in a long time.  I had some minor chafing (or so I thought) towards the end, but nbd.  Until I got home, and realized my right thigh was absolutely shredded.  I wore a skirt to work, and it was unbearable.  I complained so much that a co-worker found a gauze pad for me to throw on top of it.

(This was the LEAST angry it looked. Finger included for size reference.  Owie.)

I took a rest day Thursday to let it dry out and scab up.  Friday I wore my super shorty short booty shorts for my tempo run before work.  I know a lot of people go with longer shorts to keep chafing away, but my legs rubbing together don't cause issues.  I have enough natural lubrication in the form of sweat to keep that from happening.  (I also used body glide to be safe.)  (Did I just use the term natural lubrication in my blog?  Yes... yes I did.)  My issues is from my legs rubbing with any sort of fabric or seam in between them.  Needless to say, I had a stellar tempo run, no thigh issues.   However, I ended the run with a plethora of blisters on my feet.  Most were small water blisters.  But one on the inside of my big toe was ginormous.  And partially a blood blister.

I did some doctor work on the blister Friday after work--poke, drain, bandage, only to find it was full again a couple of hours later.  Usually my blisters just look bad, and don't hurt at all, but not this bugger.  Ouch.  I continued to pop and re-drain before and after runs throughout the weekend.

Saturday I wasn't thinking when I set out for my recovery run.  I threw on shorts and a tank because it was sunny.  Since my thigh chafing had scabbed, I figured I'd be fine with whatever.  I still used body glide, because clearly I learned that all important lesson.  Well wouldn't you know it, I managed to chafe OFF the chafing scab!!  Holy effing ouch.  Fairly certain I will have a nice scarred reminder on my inner thigh of the time that my Lululemon shorts and I were above body glide and chafing.  We were so wrong running gods, plz forgive.

THEN Saturday night I started to feel something tight in my neck.  I tried to massage it out.  (And coerced Kyle in to giving it a hand.)  But no success.  I went to bed with dreams of a delightful long run swimming through my head.  I woke up in the middle of the night in so much pain, I couldn't even lift my head without using my hands to do the work.  I popped some ibuprofen and tried to fall back asleep.  My alarm went off at 5:30am, and my neck was still throbbing, so I turned off my alarm and fell back asleep.  9am I woke up, popped some more ibuprofen and worked on getting ready for my long run.

Naturally since I'd waited to mid-morning to get out there, it was super steamy and miserable by the time I actually started to run.  But the good news, other than not being able to look left for oncoming traffic/bikers/etc without turning my full body to the left, it managed to loosen up a bit, and continued to loosen during my shower after the run, and I was able to sleep through the night without ibuprofen.

But hey, at least it's not my IT band, hips, and/or knees, right??

Final 20 Mile Run

This weekend I had my final 20 miler on the schedule.  Unfortunately for me, I had to work until 1pm on Saturday.  Extra unfortunate for me was the forecasted weather for Saturday and Sunday.  The weather report showed roughly the same crappiness level of weather for both days, so I opted for Saturday to be the day so I could hang out with my friends in the evening if I so desired.

While working I ate a burrito at about 10:30am to make sure that I would have some fuel in my belly once the time to run came around.  Yes I got strange looks for eating lunch at 10:30...no prob.  Once 1 o'clock hit I flew out of the office.  The forecast was calling for thunderstorms in the afternoon and goal A was to get home before being struck by lightning.  Random fact:  I am deathly afraid of lightning.  As in, I'll start crying if I'm stuck outside during it.  Yeah.

I decided to do a 4 mile loop around my apartment and then to hit the trail for an 8 mile out and back (the same one I do on 95% of my long runs, and the one I did for last weekend's 16).  I didn't know this at the time, but this would be the best decision of the day on my part.

As soon as I stepped outside the wind caused my hair to whip into my face.  Awesome.  I turned back around to see what the wind was at 20-25 mph wind gusts.  Excellent.  The first 4 miles were very hilly, but actually worked out pretty swell.  For all of the uphills, I had the wind at my back.  For all the downhills I was running in to the wind.  It actually worked out just great.
1. 9:15
2. 9:16
3. 9:20
4. 9:22 

At mile 4 I was happy to be back at my apartment because the sun was out in full force.  As obnoxious as I look wearing my ginormo sunglasses, it's 1000x better than wrinkles from being all squinty faced for 3 hours.  I also grabbed a sip of water because I was thirsty.  This was my first long run that I left my handheld water bottle at home for, since the water fountains have been turned on.

I knew that once I rounded back to my apartment I would begin the most difficult 8 miles of the run, because they would be 98% into the wind.  I tried to keep a steady pace and to not push too much running into the wind.  I figured my pace would counteract with the remaining 8 miles with the wind at my back.  I took my first Gu at 6 miles.  The best part of tacking on 4 miles before my normal long run route, was that I was super excited every time a new mile ticked off and it was +4 miles from what I thought it should be.
5. 9:30
6. 9:36
7. 9:32
8. 9:17 

Luckily the next four miles the wind was just hitting me from the side so it didn't interfere with my pace too much.  At this point I thought I was literally running in to the end of the world.  It was fluffy clouds and sunshine above me, but to the north-north east the sky was ominous and black.  The thunder started rumbling at mile 10 when I was taking my second Gu.  I thought, "oh great.  I still have 2 more miles running AWAY from home before I can even head back...."  I figured if I had to outrun a storm it would only serve to help me run faster. ;)  During these miles I started to get pretty warm.  During this four mile stretch there isn't much shade, so the sun was really beating down on me.  I also wished I had my handheld to wet my whistle with.
9. 9:20
10. 9:17
11. 9:21
12. 9:22 

This section was probably my least favorite because I was just hot and thirsty.  Again this was the "back" portion of the area with no shade, and since the wind was at my back instead of my face, I was sweltering.  I opted to wait for mile 15 to take my last Gu, but suddenly mile 15 appeared and the fountain I was looking for wasn't there.  If you want to know what I look like when I'm pissed, go back in time and check out my face at this point.  So.Not.Happy.  I knew the next fountain was a mile and a half away, but that seemed like forever.
13. 9:20
14. 9:16
15. 9:26
16. 9:17 

When I finally got to the fountain, I drank and drank and drank some more.  I may have also poured handfuls of water over my head, neck, and back in an attempt to cool myself off.  P.S.  Salt laden sweat in the eyeballs HURTS.  I definitely took more time Guing/hydrating than I typically do, so my hips were so sore when I got going again.  I was definitely putzing/limping along for the next 1/4 to 1/2 of a mile before my legs got their normal gait back.  Geez.  Usually I start my "kick" to the end around the 5k point.  Ya, apparently my legs weren't feeling it....maybe at 2 miles out.  Nope.  Guess we'll just do a strong finishing mile.  Well of course I had to take the normal 10-15 second walk detour around the major construction on the trail.  At this point my Garmin decides to freak out, so I have to rest it with .88 miles to go.  Stupid watch.  Then while getting off the bike trail and on to the sidewalk, 6 cars drive by so I have to slow way down to let them pass.  Also, I just didn't have a kick left in me.
17. 9:14
18. 9:22
19. 9:22
20. 9:11

I finished the 20 in 3:07:05 for a pace of 9:22.

Since I've been doing this for the past 24 hours, I would like to compare 20 Miler #1 to 20 Miler #2.  Time:  3:07:40 to 3:07:05  Super impressed with how close they are.  Makes me supremely confidant that I can be pretty close to that time pace for the marathon.
Mile Split Range:  8:19 to 9:48 (difference of 1:29) vs. 9:11 to 9:36 (difference of :25).  Very excited about this, and see this as a huge improvement from the last one.  Granted the last one was done on a much hillier route, but I always like to see consistent mile times.  Also excited that only 3 miles were in the 9:30 range on the 2nd one, and those were the 3 directly into the wind.
Temperature:  35* vs. 70*.  Yes it was TWICE as warm on this run.  I hope to hell there isn't a heat wave in Green Bay, because this body does not bode well in the heat.  I was too embarassed to even take pictures of the saltiness this week.  Look at last week's than multiply x 10.  Or 20.  My skin literally felt like I had exfoliating body was on.  Barf.
Aches and Pains:  Very intense pain in the backs of my knees which lasted for a few days post run.  Vs.  Some minor aches in my knees and major tiredness in my hips for the last few miles.  Pain=not my friend. Aches/soreness=whatevs.

And now the ugly portion of the run (I really hope that I don't have any followers that are major foot fetishers :/).

Uh oh! I spy a bloody sock....that can only mean one thing....bloody tootsie.

Close up, because I haven't heard you barfing yet.

The area of my foot that *usually* bleeds.  Now it's just 3" of scar tissue.  Try to penetrate me now dirt/sand/general debris!

Lame-o shot, but this one did bleed.  Pussy....  And you can see my post-run pizza box in the background.  MMMMMM.

Nasty blood/? blister.  When I popped it, the contents were the color of gravy/grape jam.  Now you've thrown up in your mouth, yes?

I survived the meat and potatoes (or in my case the pizza and the ice cream) of MARATHON TRAINING Here's hoping I can survive the taper!

Just Call Me Lance With My Needle

I failed to mention, but on my not so fun 12 mile treadmill run , I had forgotten to bring my running shoes to the gym.  I was wearing my next most recent pair:  Asics Nimbus 10, pink. (see running shoe chart for reference) and decided it would be too big of a waste to drive all the way home.  Big mistake.  I got blisters on top of blisters next to blisters.  Apparently there was a reason these shoes were retired, eh?

Unfortunately, after you have blisters, it doesn't take much to re-aggravate them, even if you have switched back to your oh so great running shoes.  Today after my run I decided it was time to get out my sword aka my trusty blister popping needle.  I lined up all the supplies:  peroxide?  Check!  Sword?  Check! Cotton ball? Check! Bandaids?  Check!  And it was on.  Pop poke puncture. P^3  I guess I am lucky (lucky?) that I only get water blisters, I can imagine that blood blisters are a little more gross and painful.   Usually after I pop mine they'll refill themselves a couple of times, but then they'll be gone for good (assuming I stick to good shoes).  Until then, I think I'll leave my P^3 station set up on my coffee table.  Man it's a good thing I don't have roommates. :p  (P.S. I hope you can't see the fur on my legs, they're like chia pets, I swear.  Also, I really hope none of my readers have foot fetishes, because, um..gross.)

Now that you've all emptied your stomach contents due to my brutal overshare (what? I thought there was no such thing as TMI for runners...pussies....), on to some runs.  Tuesday I had one of my least favorite workouts:  mile repeats.  Blech.  I had 6 miles total with a one mile warm up, 2 x 1600 m. @ 8:02 pace and 800 jogs, and a one mile cooldown.  After going through the workout in my head, I realized that it was going to end on a 2 mile cool down, and I knew I would be tempted to skip it, so instead I did a 2 mile warm up.  I'm a genius sometimes.  :)  Honestly I tried to cut this run short in so many ways and I'm pretty proud that I ended up with all 6 miles.

I did the 6 miles in 54:53 for a pace of 9:09.  Mile times, 7:54 & 7:55, HECK YA!

Warm Up	1 Mi	9:39	9:39	9:39
Warm Up	1 Mi	9:39	19:18	9:39
Interval	1 Mi	7:54	27:12	7:54
Recovery	0.5 Mi	5:04	32:16	10:08
Interval	1 Mi	7:55	40:11	7:55
Recovery	0.5 Mi	4:58	45:09	9:56
Cooldown	1 Mi	9:42	54:51	9:42

I was pretty darn proud of my sweat fest and speed session.

This morning I woke up and headed to the gym (pre Jeri Lance-a-lot) to do my easy 6 miles.  As soon as I stepped outside I questioned why I was going to the gym.  It was in the low 20's, which in my brain=cold.  But I forget what cold minus wind feels like..... not bad at all.  I checked the weather report for Saturday, and with a high of 25 and little to no wind, looks like the Jerbear is OFF THE TREADMILL and on the trails for her 14 miler (PDR right here, whoo!)

Anyway, I wasn't too hyped up about my 6 miler, as I tend to get annoyed by the easy/junk miles in training programs.  Right after I jumped on the treadmill, a guy jumped on the one next to me, who had a prosthetic leg from the knee down.  Seeing him bust out his mile next to me almost brought tears to my eyes.  Not only was he truly inspiring as a runner, but it put my run into perspective.  There should never be a time that I dread doing a run, I should be thankful everyday that I lace up my running shoes that I'm healthy and capable of running.  So anyways, thanks random dude for giving me some perspective and inspiration this morning.

I did 6 miles in 56:51 for a pace of 9:29.

1. 9:38 2. 9:38 3. 9:40 4. 9:30 5. 9:26 6. 8:56


After completing the first 5 miles at a nice and leisurely pace, I had to kick up the speed on the 6th mile.  I also played around with the incline.  Definitely made the run more interesting.

Have a great weekend kiddos!  Be sure to check out RunZoeRun's Champion giveaway.

Wild West Relay Report: Leg 3 + Team Finish

Shannon woke up and checked her twitter to see that Alesha was getting ready for her final leg. It was showtime. Everyone was up and at 'em to get ready for her to run through and do the van exchange. After getting ready, we couldn't understand why she wasn't there yet. Someone was finally able to get cell service and found out that she had just started her leg--about 45 minutes after we thought she had. AHHH! Oh well, it's not like anyone was really sleeping anyway. We handed off roughly around sun rise and Melissa got going on her almost 10k.





She rocked it pretty hard and looked STRONG on her finish.





We are all looking oh so jealous that she's finished and we still have to do our legs. :)


I started my third leg at about 10am, less than 24 hours after my first run had started. I had studied my elevation map quite a bit before the run to mentally psych myself up for my final run. I knew the last mile would be rough, but figured the adrenaline of being finished would push me through it.





Had to stretch the hamstrings before the run. Take note of the strong breeze causing it to look like I'm giving the volunteers a show. Hey ladies. ;)





The handoff from Amanda to me. 4.2 miles here I come!





Amanda looks ecstatic to be finished up with her final leg.


As soon as I started out, I was taken aback by how strong the wind was. Normally I don't mind wind because I know if I start out running into it, I'll get the benefit of it at my back at the end. Not the case with this run, unfortunately. It felt like I was climbing up, up, up for about 90% of this leg. I'd get to the top, enjoy a short downhill, and then start trekking up again.

At one cheering point (about 2.5 miles in) I was struggling to keep going up, when Amanda, like an angel from the sky, yelled out that as soon as I finished going up, I'd get to enjoy a nice downhill stretch. I almost started to cry I was so happy. I kept had kept looking at this huge mountain in front of me thinking that I had to continue up THAT, and didn't see a small fork in the run where I got to go doooooooown. I think I almost kissed her I was so happy. Luckily for her I was running low on energy so I didn't. :p
I really tried to enjoy the downhill. And it was VERY nice change of pace from the up. But I just kept looking at where the bottom was and where the up started again. I tried to look at the fields and the mountains surrounding me, but kept coming back to the Up. Stupid Up. :)

When I did have to start the final incline, I was beat. I really thought I could kick in my final gears to have a strong, fast finish since I knew I was going to be done-done, but the final gears weren't there. I started getting very winded because of the altitude, and light-headed because of how hard I was breathing, but not getting enough oxygen in. Stupid altitude. Haha. Plus, the higher I got up, the stronger the wind was.

Giving what I have left on the final stretch. Hint: It wasn't much. :p

Melissa came back to run me in. Thank God. I was about to start walking. jk. THANKS MELISSA! You helped so much. I did have to fight the urge to ask her to run in front of me to block the wind for the last few yards. Didn't want her to get in the way of any finishing pics, ya know? Hah.

Also, for some reason, I thought I got to finish on a short decline, but that was not the case. Still going up on the handoff. :p

And then it was time to do the classic-hands-on-the-knees-dear-God-I-want-oxygen pose.
Here it is in another angle. Almost looks like wow-I'm-going-to-hurl-pose. But it's not. Just to clarify.

After walking around for a few minutes, I felt GREAT (now that my brain was finally getting oxygen again) and realized how b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l it was UP there. :) I had to take some pics (from far away so you can't see what a hot mess I was at this point of running 18.7 miles sans shower).

Apparently this is what I look like in a "runners pose." I'm such a loser.

Julie was the final leg from Van #1 and us gals were ready at the van exchange to run her booty in. Well, most of us were ready. I had changed into flip flops so I could lance the ginormo blister I had on my big toe, but no biggie. :p

Here's the team (minus Julie who was still finishing up her leg) at the final van exchange.

And the whole awesome crew at the finish line about 33 hours after starting. Don't ask me what our finishing time was, because I couldn't tell you. With all the stop watch errors, plus leap frogging, I'd be shocked if anyone figured it out, to be honest.

Next up: Celebration!! Stay tuned. (yes I realize that it's ridiculous that I'm still working on these reports. leave me alone. :p)