Everything Aches

Thursday, May 10, 2012:

It’s a good thing.  I worked pretty hard on the stairs yesterday, and ran eight miles today.  Now all the muscles are telling me about it.  That’s OK - I’m the boss, and this is how they gain strength and endurance..

Distance: 8.27 miles, time 1:52:30, pace 13:36.  That’s barely fast enough to finish a marathon in six hours.  The good news, though, is that the Anchorage Marathon (called the Mayor’s Marathon) has an eight and a half hour time limit. I just discovered that.  Start at 8:00 am and finish by 4:30 pm.  That requires a pace of only 19:27, barely over 3 miles per hour, which is a 26-mile stroll.  I could do that without any running at all, and stopping for a beer or two along the way.  I’d much rather finish in six hours or less, though, so training continues.

Whining: I was stupid yesterday.  It felt so good on those stairs that I just kept going up and down to exhaustion, but my left hip hurt a bit in the night, and after today’s run I now have a strain in the left hamstrings.  It’s nothing new - I think it’s the semitendinosus muscle, which attaches to the “sitz  bone,” and which has been a problem in the past.  Indeed, it hurts to sit, nevermind walk or run.  Darn. The good news is that this will probably go away, if slowly, as it has before.

The really good news is that the hernia repair didn’t ache much today, even though I walk/ran eight miles, the longest run since the surgery.  This time I often used my hand to support the surgical area while I ran, pressing in and up just slightly.  This is a little awkward but it seemed to help - or something helped, and I am less anxious about making a six-hour marathon in seven weeks.

Weight: 160.8 this morning, still down almost two pounds from the start a few weeks ago.  That weight was taken just after getting out of bed, as is usual, but just for the fun of it I went back to the scales after the 8-mile morning run, weighing in at 158.0.  Thus I lost almost three pounds on the run, mostly sweat, equivalent to well over a quart of water.

That happens to all runners every time they go out.  As a personal practice, I don’t run more than eight miles without carrying water, or at least knowing where I can get water on the course.  Then I drink about five ounces every two miles, which is not enough to fully replace the loss, but my stomach can’t handle much more, and it’s enough to keep the engine running and the cramps away for 26.2 miles.

Next run Saturday, probably 3.8 miles. Long run next week: 10 miles.  No more exercising on stairs for a while.