I woke up this morning with a weird pain in (or really more ON) my left knee. Not a scary pain, but it felt like I had bumped it on something. But I hadn't. I was lying in bed thinking, I have 13 miles to run this morning, I haven't even rolled over yet, and my knee ALREADY hurts?! Not a good sign! Fortunately, it was only slightly below freezing and I hadn't run in a couple of days, so I was raring to go. We set off down the hill towards Newton, and my knee immediately stopped hurting. Awesome!
I was feeling remarkably confident, despite the fact that 13 miles is about the longest I've ever run in one stretch, and added to that today were all the hills of Newton (including Heartbreak!), TWICE (up AND down!!). Amy and I ran all the way up together, and I was really proud of both of us--this is the first time that either one of us had run all the hills in a single run. We got to the top at BC, and she decided to get a ride back with one of the volunteers (her knee was still bothering her from last time). Right when we turned around, the temperature dropped and the wind picked up, blowing right in our faces. I was (more or less) prepared this time, though, and had kept my windbreaker on (though I wished I had stashed an extra layer somewhere!). I started to get a LOT more tired and sore, and even though the way back is more down than up, there are two or three steep uphills that I didn't have much energy for. Sarad had waited for me at the top, and he serenaded me with Snoop Dogg lyrics much of the way down as we pointed out the nicest of the McMansions on Comm Ave. It helped. We picked up another straggler (a woman I hadn't met before named Cindy) near the Newton fire station, and ran back together. Crossing the 95 on Washington St. is always dangerous, but this time, a car stopped for me. As I ran out in front of it, though, I saw the driver make an exasperated face and yell "GO already!!" I'm thinking, I just ran 12 miles of hills, douchebag, I'm going as fast as I can! That extra two seconds, though, were apparently SO important to him that he almost ran over Sarad.
The last hill, from Lower Falls up to Wellesley, was absolutely impossible. Even walking up it I felt my butt muscles burning. I picked up the pace majorly for the last 10 blocks or so, because I was so excited to be done! My knee hurts again, but not more than it did in bed this morning, so I don't think it's anything serious. I do have one sore butt, though!
All in all, not a bad showing. I was tired and sore, but I definitely felt better than I had in Maine, even though the course was so hard. I think I'm just more USED to being tired and sore from running. From here on out, though, I'm in uncharted waters. As of next week, I'll be running longer than I've ever run, every week. This is the part of training that I like, and the part that terrifies me. No more slacking off, no more skipping runs. I've reached the show, friends, and it looks pretty good!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
out in the cold
My parents were visiting this week, and since it's been absolutely frigid in Montreal, they were marveling (a little too much!) at the "balmy" and "tropical" Boston weather--it's been around -10 to -15 C instead of -25. Balmy indeed.
Running in this weather has been less than ideal, even though I prefer this to training in the heat and humidity of July. Last weekend, we had 11 miles of Newton hills ahead of us. I was doing fairly well, well enough to drop my windbreaker at the first waterstop after I started to warm up. The hills themselves were ok, but when we turned around at the foot of Heartbreak, the wind picked up and was blowing in our faces. I always find it harder to breathe when there's a cold wind blowing down my throat, but I was also sweaty at this point, and the wind was chilling me to the bone. I couldn't wait to get back to the water stop where I had left my jacket. Once we got there (I was running with Amy), I asked for my jacket, and was told that Kelly, our coach, had brought it back to the Wellesley community center! At this point, all the muscles in my upper body were tense and stiff with cold, and I actually started to cry--there was no way I could make it 3 more miles without a little relief from the cold. Kelly was called, and said she would head over with the jacket, and that we should start running and she would meet us. In the meantime, Amy gave me her jacket (a superhuman move), and I started feeling a lot better. Kelly found us, Amy took my jacket, and all was well...until Amy's knee, which had been bothering her the whole morning, really started to hurt. We had a major hill ahead of us, and I just wanted to get back to the warmth of the community center as quickly as possible, but Amy was in fairly dire straits with her knee, so we walked up the hill (I wasn't complaining too loudly--it is a giant hill!).
My run to work last week was great, but instead of running on Thursday, I spoke at another Team in Training info session--the first one in a long time. I always try my best not to sound like a cheesy motivational speaker, but that's really what I am. I do enjoy it, though, and I think I do an ok job. This week, Amanda Post had her transplant, so I had that to think about. I also met another long-term survivor who was signing up to do her first event. She expressed the same kind of emotions that I felt when I started--cancer is just not part of her life anymore, and the process to get there was really difficult, but now she's making the choice to bring it back in, in a very different capacity. It does feel odd.
I was hoping to bring my dad to practice this weekend so he could have the chance to run on the course before the race, but given the temperature, practice was canceled. It was cold, colder than I'd like to run 12 miles, but now that there's all this snow on the ground, I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it. We decided we'd drive out to Hopkinton on the Pike, and drive back into the city along the course. I had never seen the first 10 miles or so, and it was really cool. We stopped at a tiny Brazilian deli in Ashland (or Framingham, i forget!), saw the beautiful old houses in Natick, and I almost bought a life-sized cardboard Obama in Wellesley. Dad got out at the bottom of Heartbreak to run up it in his jeans and sneakers--no big deal, he said. Of course, he hadn't run the previous 20 miles, but still!
That just about brings us up to date--I've been doing some more strength training, and I'm still stretching every day, but my back has been giving me more grief than I'd like it to. My chiropractor says I'll be fine for Boston, but that if I plan to make a lifelong habit out of running marathons, I should probably have an MRI of my back. No thanks.
Running in this weather has been less than ideal, even though I prefer this to training in the heat and humidity of July. Last weekend, we had 11 miles of Newton hills ahead of us. I was doing fairly well, well enough to drop my windbreaker at the first waterstop after I started to warm up. The hills themselves were ok, but when we turned around at the foot of Heartbreak, the wind picked up and was blowing in our faces. I always find it harder to breathe when there's a cold wind blowing down my throat, but I was also sweaty at this point, and the wind was chilling me to the bone. I couldn't wait to get back to the water stop where I had left my jacket. Once we got there (I was running with Amy), I asked for my jacket, and was told that Kelly, our coach, had brought it back to the Wellesley community center! At this point, all the muscles in my upper body were tense and stiff with cold, and I actually started to cry--there was no way I could make it 3 more miles without a little relief from the cold. Kelly was called, and said she would head over with the jacket, and that we should start running and she would meet us. In the meantime, Amy gave me her jacket (a superhuman move), and I started feeling a lot better. Kelly found us, Amy took my jacket, and all was well...until Amy's knee, which had been bothering her the whole morning, really started to hurt. We had a major hill ahead of us, and I just wanted to get back to the warmth of the community center as quickly as possible, but Amy was in fairly dire straits with her knee, so we walked up the hill (I wasn't complaining too loudly--it is a giant hill!).
My run to work last week was great, but instead of running on Thursday, I spoke at another Team in Training info session--the first one in a long time. I always try my best not to sound like a cheesy motivational speaker, but that's really what I am. I do enjoy it, though, and I think I do an ok job. This week, Amanda Post had her transplant, so I had that to think about. I also met another long-term survivor who was signing up to do her first event. She expressed the same kind of emotions that I felt when I started--cancer is just not part of her life anymore, and the process to get there was really difficult, but now she's making the choice to bring it back in, in a very different capacity. It does feel odd.
I was hoping to bring my dad to practice this weekend so he could have the chance to run on the course before the race, but given the temperature, practice was canceled. It was cold, colder than I'd like to run 12 miles, but now that there's all this snow on the ground, I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it. We decided we'd drive out to Hopkinton on the Pike, and drive back into the city along the course. I had never seen the first 10 miles or so, and it was really cool. We stopped at a tiny Brazilian deli in Ashland (or Framingham, i forget!), saw the beautiful old houses in Natick, and I almost bought a life-sized cardboard Obama in Wellesley. Dad got out at the bottom of Heartbreak to run up it in his jeans and sneakers--no big deal, he said. Of course, he hadn't run the previous 20 miles, but still!
That just about brings us up to date--I've been doing some more strength training, and I'm still stretching every day, but my back has been giving me more grief than I'd like it to. My chiropractor says I'll be fine for Boston, but that if I plan to make a lifelong habit out of running marathons, I should probably have an MRI of my back. No thanks.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
10 miles down!
Happy New Year, all!
Although the weather remains uncooperative, your fearless runner remains (somewhat) undaunted. Aliza and I went to visit the Ottawa Dwoskins over the holiday, where the weather warmed up just enough for it to rain and for everything to be coated in ice. Lovely. Fortunately, Myra has a new treadmill, so I got in a 5-miler on that. The warmish weather was making me pretty cabin-feverish, though, and I was eager to be running outside, suicidally slippery sidewalks be damned. The ice finally melted into pools of sludge, and I went for a 9-miler (15k)--my longest solo run to date. Normally it's good to be a little cold when one leaves for a run, because you just warm up. It was pretty windy that day, though, and just got windier, so that by the time I got back to the house I could barely feel most parts of my body. The run itself went ok, all things considered.
Once I got back to Boston, we were buried under another giant snowstorm, so that meant back onto the treadmill for me. I did manage to do a fairly strenuous core workout, so my obliques were killing me today all through my run. Today--sunny, just below freezing, a little windy, and 10 miles on the menu. I was psyched when our coach told us we were going back towards Hopkinton, rather than hitting Heartbreak. What I didn't know was that the road from Wellesley into Natick is pretty much all hills--rolling ones, though, so I kind of liked it. They were short enough that I was never too tired to get to the top before taking a little break (of which there were many). I felt each one of those miles, but it really wasn't bad considering how much of a slacker I've been. I'm not excited about my 6-mile "recovery" run tomorrow. I'm more up for a 6-mile recovery nap, frankly. We'll see how my legs feel in the morning.
I like that we've been running more and more of the Boston course each week. Today I took some time on the way back to notice each landmark--a church, a Dunkin Donuts, a garage--that I'm going to pass on April 20th. Of course, the problem is that I'll know EXACTLY how far I still have to go when I do pass all those things!
On a brighter note, I'm exactly $82 away from my $3000 minimum, so if any of you have 82 extra dollars lying around, you'll be able to push me over the top. I do want to raise a total of $5000 by Marathon Monday, and every penny of that extra $2000 goes directly to the Society's projects (research and patient care).
I did a dedication for Amanda today at practice, and I reminded my teammates how important it is to think about getting on the Bone Marrow Registry, so I figured I'd remind you all too. In Canada, go through the Canadian Blood Services (www.blood.ca)--it's the same process to donate bone marrow as stem cells. In the US, the National Bone Marrow Registry is at www.marrow.org. There isn't another drive in Boston for a little while (there's one in Lynn, MA on Jan 10), but I'll do my best to keep you posted.
Although the weather remains uncooperative, your fearless runner remains (somewhat) undaunted. Aliza and I went to visit the Ottawa Dwoskins over the holiday, where the weather warmed up just enough for it to rain and for everything to be coated in ice. Lovely. Fortunately, Myra has a new treadmill, so I got in a 5-miler on that. The warmish weather was making me pretty cabin-feverish, though, and I was eager to be running outside, suicidally slippery sidewalks be damned. The ice finally melted into pools of sludge, and I went for a 9-miler (15k)--my longest solo run to date. Normally it's good to be a little cold when one leaves for a run, because you just warm up. It was pretty windy that day, though, and just got windier, so that by the time I got back to the house I could barely feel most parts of my body. The run itself went ok, all things considered.
Once I got back to Boston, we were buried under another giant snowstorm, so that meant back onto the treadmill for me. I did manage to do a fairly strenuous core workout, so my obliques were killing me today all through my run. Today--sunny, just below freezing, a little windy, and 10 miles on the menu. I was psyched when our coach told us we were going back towards Hopkinton, rather than hitting Heartbreak. What I didn't know was that the road from Wellesley into Natick is pretty much all hills--rolling ones, though, so I kind of liked it. They were short enough that I was never too tired to get to the top before taking a little break (of which there were many). I felt each one of those miles, but it really wasn't bad considering how much of a slacker I've been. I'm not excited about my 6-mile "recovery" run tomorrow. I'm more up for a 6-mile recovery nap, frankly. We'll see how my legs feel in the morning.
I like that we've been running more and more of the Boston course each week. Today I took some time on the way back to notice each landmark--a church, a Dunkin Donuts, a garage--that I'm going to pass on April 20th. Of course, the problem is that I'll know EXACTLY how far I still have to go when I do pass all those things!
On a brighter note, I'm exactly $82 away from my $3000 minimum, so if any of you have 82 extra dollars lying around, you'll be able to push me over the top. I do want to raise a total of $5000 by Marathon Monday, and every penny of that extra $2000 goes directly to the Society's projects (research and patient care).
I did a dedication for Amanda today at practice, and I reminded my teammates how important it is to think about getting on the Bone Marrow Registry, so I figured I'd remind you all too. In Canada, go through the Canadian Blood Services (www.blood.ca)--it's the same process to donate bone marrow as stem cells. In the US, the National Bone Marrow Registry is at www.marrow.org. There isn't another drive in Boston for a little while (there's one in Lynn, MA on Jan 10), but I'll do my best to keep you posted.
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