Three Hot Runs

Tuesday, July 7:

Five miles today in the noonday sun. Sweet Pea and I went out for a run in a local neighborhood, she running a little less distance. We like that - we do repeats of a loop that’s a bit less than a mile, in opposite directions, and greet each other every few minutes. It works. And the loop was less boring than usual today, because of some construction that we could ogle each time we passed by.

Total time was 56:42, for a pace of 11:34. That includes a significant amount of walking with Sweet Pea. I ran at a pace of 9:21 in the central loops. Afterward, though not during the run, I felt a little ache in the right hip that could be either a bursa or the ITB. I’ve had trouble with both, and could have annoyed either of them on the very uneven grass trails in the park two days ago, and some more today on the left side of a road that does have a significant crown. I’ll run very short on Thursday, preferably on flat and level pavement. Maybe the Gateway. Even 3 miles would put me at 26 for the week - enough considering that I ran three marathons in June. Building back toward 30 miles per week.

Sunday, July 5:

With a 4-mile race behind me Saturday, this was a good day to try some hot-weather running. There is a chance that I will do a long race in hot weather soon, longer than a marathon, and a nice 14-mile training run would help my body become conditioned to that. I ran in my usual park, one loop of 6.9 miles and another of 7.1 miles, all on energy-sucking grass & dirt trails. No pavement. Walked up most hills and at other times as well, water every 15 minutes, salt and a gel about every 45 minutes. The afternoon temp was about 85 and the blistering sun showed no mercy. Sometimes I felt a little flushed in the face and slowed just to cool off a bit.

It went OK, though not wonderfully well. I finished in 2:39:57 for an overall pace of 11:26. If that pace could be extrapolated to a marathon, it would mean a finish of almost exactly 5 hours. But I must say that I don’t know where the energy would come from for the rest of a marathon, much less an even-longer race. I felt pretty well wiped out after these 14 miles. I’d have to slow down even more, walking still more of the time, if I would expect to finish an ultra in such hot weather.

There is good news though. I felt no sign of the calf cramping that hampered me in Grandma’s Marathon. Of course that problem really didn’t stop me in Grandma’s until mile 16, but I think I’d have felt some symptoms in 14 miles of hilly trail running. Appropriate hydration and salt intake probably did make a difference.

Gel was Hammer Gel, free handouts from Grandma’s Marathon, and it caused no gastric problems at all. I always took it with water, of course. I tried my new Dirty Girl Gaiters and got no rocks or sand in my shoes.

First loop 1:14:53 (6.9 mi) = pace 10:51, Second loop 1:25:04 (7.1 mi) = pace 11:59, total 2:39:57 (14 mi), overall pace 11:26.

Saturday, July 4:

Marine on St Croix held the 39th running of its 4-mile race celebrating the Fourth of July and benefiting the Marine on St Croix Restoration Society and Marine National Holidays Committee. Several of the St Croix Valley Runners traditionally run that race; it’s a nice little downhill jaunt.

I ran about as fast as I could, finishing the 4.1 (or so) miles in 34:26 for a pace of 8:30. I guess that’s probably my 5k pace right now, or 4-mile downhill pace. In 2006 I finished the same race six minutes faster. I did walk a few times. Dave finished ahead of me pushing a stroller! I hate that. But Dave has always been faster than me. I placed 7th of 13 in the 60+ age group. In fact I’m proud to see that 13 of the 129 runners were men over 60. Good health to us!



We think this pretty girl is a Barred Owl, often called a hoot owl. She graced us with her presence for a couple of days recently, not far from our kitchen window. On and off. According to the bird book she eats anything smaller than her that runs, crawls, wiggles, swims, or flies, though she can't catch a smaller bird on the wing. She is especially keen on moles, voles, and mice. Good for her! She normally hunts at night, but may hunt during the day if she is feeding her chicks. She might also be a he - the sexes are almost indistinguishable, especially to us.

Taper, taper

Wednesday, April 30:

Four more taper miles, just a lovely run partly on my favorite dirt road along the railroad tracks. This is running at its most enjoyable. Splits: 9:05, 9:07, 8:55, 9:01, total 36:08 for 4 mi, pace 9:02. Faster than I thought I was going, actually. Breathing was mostly five footfalls per full breath, sometimes four.

Since I’m not really trained for a marathon right now, I suppose I’ll just go out and run a pace that feels easy, feels good. This pace felt easy today, even though it’s faster than I think I can run a whole marathon. Maybe I should just run this pace until it DOESN’T feel good, then struggle to the finish as best I can. Yeah, that’ll work.

Monday, April 28:

Recovering from the Get in Gear 10k, just putting on some miles at about marathon pace. Turned out I went a little fast, but not a lot. Splits: 9:22, 9:39, 9:58 (1.1 mi), 8:35, 9:20, total 46:55 for 5.1 mi, pace 9:12. No pains during the run. Thirty-six degrees, so tights and multiple layers up top.

Tuesday, though, I had another “trick hip” incident in the right hip. Sharp, stabbing pain where I think that a bursa should be, just below the hip joint. It started when I got up from my regular chair in the office, and it “stabbed” whenever I turned a little on that hip or sometimes just at random. Stairs were especially tricky. I had not been wearing shoes, and was wearing loose pants with no wallet in the pocket. I am without a clue as to what started it.

I was extremely careful for a couple of hours, and it got a lot better. By night it was just slightly sore but no more stabbing pain. By morning I could run with no trace of pain. I have to figure out what this is - this is the fifth event now. If it happens in a race, I'm sunk.




Tuesday's breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cranberries, mango, organic strawberries, blueberries, banana, organic pomegranate juice, organic nonfat milk. Sometimes when I finish, I leave just a little milk in the bowl for kitty to enjoy.


Tuesday's lunch: Mixed organic rices under a yummy turkey curry, mango, orange, organic chard with dried cranberries and pistachios. Seconds please.

Hip Trouble Saturday

First, today's run:

The goal was to “recover” from Saturday’s Trail Mix and also to run easily, at the 9:30 pace I’d like to run in the upcoming marathon. That would get me to the finish in 4:09, with a comfortable 6-minute margin ahead of the 4:15 Boston-qualifying time. I think 4:09 - 4:15 may be a reasonable goal for my current level of fitness, even though I have no plan to run Boston again.

I succeeded with the run - no pains at all, and muscles feel relaxed with very little residual soreness from Saturday. I did not succeed quite as well with the pace - I ran a 4:00 marathon pace instead of 4:15. But with water stops and a few uphill walk breaks, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad pace in a marathon. Splits: 9:13, 13:34 (1.5 mi), total 22:47, pace 9:07. Breathing was mostly five footfalls per full breath, some four, never three, which suggests that it was a sustainable pace. Hope so.

This is “dex day,” because I took the weekly dexamethasone (steroid) cancer treatment last night. I still don’t know if dex helps or hurts endurance running, but I do know I’m happy to be taking it on Sunday night now instead of Friday, so that the weekend races can be dex-free. The dex effect is very noticeable on Monday (I’m hyper and temporarily diabetic!), less noticeable on Tuesday with poor sleep Tuesday night, then pretty normal the rest of the week. Pity those poor folks who used to take dex four days out of every eight; the doctors stopped prescribing that about a year ago when they figured out that the treatment killed almost as many people as the cancer did and that this treatment works almost as well at combating the cancer.

Hip Trouble:

Last Saturday, long after the pain-free Trail Mix race was over, I sat for a while in an uncomfortable position at a party. Standing up, I felt the sharp, stabbing pain in my right hip that I have experienced exactly three other times since early March. It is a real show-stopper - like an ice pick just at or below the joint. In the past I have thought that it was a bursa acting up, but now I’m not so sure - it seems farther inside. And it’s very tricky - some of the time during an incident I can walk normally, but then for no apparent reason the ice pick will stab and I’ll be stopped in my tracks. Sometimes I can even run a short bit, but then the same thing will happen, only worse. It will be slightly sensitive the next day and entirely gone in two, as it was today, so it’s obviously not a muscle or tendon injury. But in the meantime it prevents running and makes walking slow and difficult. In a marathon it might result in a DNF, depending on where in the marathon it happened. So far only one of the four instances occurred while running, and it did not happen during the 15-mile trail race, so I’m hopeful of finishing but concerned.

What’s common among the four instances? Three things come to mind: (1) In all cases, I was wearing running shoes with the custom orthotics in them; (2) In all cases except the run, I was wearing fairly tight jeans; and (3) In all cases but the run, the problem occurred when I was seated for at least 15 minutes and then got up and made an immediate turn to the left. So for now, until this is figured out, I will not wear old running shoes for casual use, I will not use the orthotics at all (they’re to prevent plantar fasciitis, a lesser problem), I will not wear those jeans, and I will try to remember to be very careful whenever I get out of a chair. As an extra measure: I will not sit with a wallet in my right hip pocket, especially when I drive a car with bucket seats.

And how can I take this problem to my wonderful internist, who can surely figure it out? I have to wait until the problem occurs and THEN try for a same-day appointment, because the pain will be gone by the next day. It may be a while before I can pull that off.

Longer run tomorrow, perhaps on the lovely Gateway Trail.



Yesterday's breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and cranberries, blueberries, banana, Dove dark chocolate, organic walnuts, Don's fruit/berry/nut mix, fresh mango, nonfat organic milk, organic pomegranate juice.


Yesterday's lunch: Organic gluten-free brown rice pasta, organic carrots and beans, organic sweet potato with organic flame raisins, homemade pasta sauce, shredded asiago and parmesan cheeses.


Tonight's dinner: Organic chicken leg, homemade cheesy corn crackers (yum), organic sweet potato with onion, organic pomegranate juice.

Ouch

Nuts. Seems like it’s always something! Earlier this month I had a short episode of very sharp pain in the right hip, right at the bursa. In fact it came on while I was walking the halls of Mayo Clinic of all places. That showed up again today, when I briefly slowed to walk a few feet up a steep hill. That’ll teach me to walk! It feels like an ice pick in the hip joint.

Today it came and went, I could even jog a little now and then, but pretty soon it would bring me up short, hopping on the other leg. So I walked (limped) the last three miles or so of an eight-mile run, after running a decent pace of 8:30 or so for the first five miles. Disappointing. And cold!

The good news is that if this pain behaves as it did a couple of weeks ago, it will be gone by Saturday morning. Just bursitis. I just wish I knew what brings it on. I tried some new stretches Tuesday - perhaps I will forego those for a while.



Today's breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins, organic walnuts, cantaloups, mango, blueberries, banana, papaya, Hershey's dark chocolate, organic nonfat milk.


Today's lunch: Organic chard with dried cranberries and spicy cashews, organic vegetable mix (carrots, squash, sweet potato, onion), organic brown rice & wild rice pasta with homemade pasta sauce, oven-baked parsnips with organic catsup. Those are Thai lemon/pepper cashews from Trader Joes, and they are GOOD!


Tonight's dinner & salad: Organic romaine lettuce with sliced cucumber, "natural" kosher turkey breast, organic cranberry jelly, macadamia nuts, blueberries, clementine, organic red wine vinegar.