Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The hippy issue

Last year I was injured. I hurt my hip sometime last spring after training and running my first marathon. After dr visits and time with the physical therapist and one horribly torturous procedure I learned that i had torn the labrum in my left hip. I rehabbed for 4 months and was back on the streets logging miles in no time.

Fast forward to now. My mileage is ramping up and my pace is increasing. Guess what!? That crazy hip issue is rearing it's ugly head AGAIN. I don't have time for that!!
I saw my PT twice this week. The first appointment went well and while I had some pain later in the day I managed a very good run that evening.

Today was my 2nd appointment which also included 15 minutes with the massage therapist. Holy smokes, that hurt!

So, what's the issue now?
Overcompensation on basically my entire left side. My SI joint is slipping slightly when I run causing all those muscles to work extra hard. I'll have a few more PT appointments and probably one more with the massage therapist and hopefully I'll be good to go.

I'm trying hard to remain positive about the whole thing because really being negative about it won't get me far, however it is really really frustrating. I want to run. I want to stick to all the mileage and workouts on my schedule. I want to do speedwork and run hills and get up at 4am to see my friends. But I know that rest and therapy are going to be what helps me succeed in my upcoming races as well as marathon training for the fall.

So, while I have 32 miles on the training schedule this week it is likely that my total run mileage will be only around 20. I'm ok with that. I may have to run all my runs slow for a while since speed aggravates that issue but again I am ok with that. Healing is what is important and even this stubborn woman knows that.

I'll be patient just a couple of more weeks while my hip/back improve. For now I will focus on strengthening my core and logging the miles I can even if they are slow. Wish me luck!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Weekly Recap

Last week's training did not quite go as planned. As previously mentioned I am dealing with some hip irritation. I was contemplating keeping this to myself and not telling my coach when I showed up for speed work at the track on Tuesday, but the smarter side of my brain knew better.
So, I mentioned it and we went from there.

Monday - Easy 3 in just under 28 minutes, plus striders and core work.
Tuesday -  5x1000m repeats w/2 mi warm up and 2 mi cool down
                 Actually only ran 5.5 mi easy in 53 minutes because of hip.
Wednesday - unscheduled rest day to let hip take a break
Thursday - Scheduled rest day changed to easy 5 miles (48 mins)
Friday - 3x1 mi repeats w/2 mi warmup and 2 mi cool down
             Was changed to 7 miles but hip needed the extra rest.
Saturday - 9 miles easy (1:29)

Overall I am pleased with the fact that I ran 23 miles for the week. I had 32 on the schedule but am glad that I took it easy this week to allow my hip some rest. After tearing my labrum in the spring and being out for so long recovering I am a bit paranoid about becoming injured and sidelined again; especially when training is going so well.

My long run on Saturday was probably the most challenging run from the week even though we had planned to keep a fairly slow pace for the run. By mile 6 my hip was very tight and I wanted to be done but my friend reminded me that we only had a 5k to go. It's a lot easier to get through a run sometimes when it is broken up that way. By mile 8 I could really my left hip/back were over this run and I took a break to stretch things out when my friend says, "One mile to go. You can do anything for a mile." Yep, that's the truth. So we pressed on. Our goal was to keep a 10 minute pace for the run and by the time I got back to my car I noticed our overall pace was 9:53. Mission accomplished even if my hip and back were not pleased!

Never fear though, on Tuesday of last week I had already put a call into my PT. I saw him today and will have a full account of how that went soon! Hope you all had a great week last week and are headed towards the same this week.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Three Things Thursday

1. I had every intention of recapping my training for last week in a separate post because last week went so well. I followed every workout and completed all of my miles. Instead of a long post about all that let me just tell you that I had mile repeats at my workout on Friday. My goal pace for each mile repeat was suppose to be 8:55 then get faster. Well, I PR'd my mile that day by running an 8:09! I was super excited and look forward to gaining even more speed this spring. My only issue was being scolded by my coach for not sticking to the plan. hehe Consistency is key in this whole training thing and I know there is a rhyme/reason for the set paces as well as for sticking to them. I'm working on that!

2. I started a 10 day cleanse. You may have heard of AdvoCare before. I was approached many times about AdvoCare by several friends but shunned the idea many times. However, I got an email from a friend w/an offer and some really sweet words about how I have been an inspiration and motivation to her. So, I thought why not give it a try. I explained that I was only willing to do the 10 day cleanse and not that 24 day challenge deal. I think it has been the key to get me back on track and on the losing train while still feeling satisfied and not completely deprived. I've cut my coffee out which has been hard but the clean and healthy food choices make up for it. Plus I feel really good. And the absolute best part is knowing that I am down 6 lbs since Monday! I am however scared about the approaching weekend. Weekends are always the hardest.

3. I'm having a slight little issue with my left hip again. I think it started a week or so ago when I ramped up mileage and speed again. Seems sometimes the body is just not a huge fan of that.  My mind is going to show the hip who is boss, I think. I decided to play safe and mention it to my coach and instead of 5x1000 m repeats at the track on Tuesday I only did 5 easy miles. I don't mind easy but really was looking forward to speed. I waffled back and forth whether I should even say, "Hey, I'm having this hip thing," but decided I should do it NOW rather than wait because waiting could make things worse. I have an appointment w/my PT for Monday. I'll take things easy until then and hope like crazy that I am just having something minor go on or that I have caught whatever it is early enough it won't interfere with anymore training.


Wednesday, February 20, 2013

WW - too funny

This has been going around on FB and Pinterest like crazy the last couple of days and I know I can really relate to it!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Tuesday Randoms

~ Every Tuesday I get up at 4:03am and head to Knoxville for practice with KE. Usually I have a speed workout. And of course last night when I got in bed at 8:35pm I was all set and ready to go to practice this morning. Ugh. It was after 10:30 pm before I fell asleep. THEN I was wide awake at 2:30am. Needless to say that when my alarm went off at 4:03am I hit the button to turn it off. I totally didn't get up for my practice. I was bummed about missing the time with my friends as well as not having my workout done early. It meant I'd have to go to Knoxville after work and get my workout done with the night crew on the track at the University. No big deal I guess.

~ I was getting dressed for my workout a little before time for me to leave work when I noticed my favorite Sugoi running tights were busting with tiny holes at the seams in the booty/crotch area. No bueno. Ugh. I continued to pull them  up. Then I put on my shirt, which thankfully was pretty big and kind of covered my butt. However, this was not going to work. At.all. I darted out of the office quickly and hit up Target where I handed over $27 for a pair of mediocre running crop pants but at least when I did scissors and bird dog at practice tonight no one was exposed to my lady bits.

~ I did manage to make it to the track for my workout on time. My workout was to be 8x400 repeats but my coach gave me a choice between that or 12x200 repeats. When I got back from my 2 mile warmup and had not decided on which to do he told me to do the 200s. And so I did. It was a great workout. I wasn't sure how I would feel doing my 7 mile workout in the evening but so far I feel fine. I'm up way too late but I feel good. I'm sure I'll sleep great.

~ I'm in the process of building my race calendar for the year. That is one tough task. So many great races out there! I had waffled with the idea of a spring marathon but after talking with my coach more tonight I have decided to wait until the fall to tackle full #2. So, now I am looking for a great fall full to add to my calendar. It's fun researching all that is out there. I'm open to suggestions if you have any.

~ Chip times were posted today for the half marathon I ran Saturday. My official time was 2:04:08 and I am still totally happy with that. I've really made some great progress.

ahh that's all I have for now. I hope you killed your workouts and had a great day!




Monday, February 11, 2013

Strawberry Plains Half marathon - recap

Saturday I ran my 8th half marathon. It's a pretty local race that is put together by our local track club. They held an early packet pickup on Friday night so we decided to take advantage of that. Our club offers a discount if you choose to not get a shirt. I've not ever taken advantage of that and I'm especially glad this time was no different. Take a gander at the awesome shirt we got...

It's not every race that offers a couple of asses on a race tee! lol Seriously though, these two guys can be seen on the race course as it is ran on some back country farm roads.

Our morning started early as most race mornings do. We had signed up to volunteer at the race and were actually on parking duty this time. We've volunteered quite a bit but never done parking. I was kind of nervous about that. I wasn't sure how long we'd have to be parking cars and I knew I would need to get all my stuff together, warm up and line up before the gun went off. I was trying not to really stress about that though. And it was fine.

After parking duties were handed over, I grabbed my bib and gels and met the other girls to go get our warm up mile in before we hit the porta potties one more time and lined up to start. The National Anthem was played and the gun went off. We were on our way.

I had gotten my race plan earlier in the week and had plenty of time to soak it in. I ran this race last year in 2:10:48 and my half distance pr is 2:07 and change.The goal for Saturday was sub 2:05. My race plan had me going at 9:30 pace the first 6 miles being patient since there was a nice hill around mile 8-9. In reality the entire course is rather hilly but I wasn't terribly worried about that. Last year we ran this race with snow and wind hitting our faces for most of the race.

Anyway, miles 7-10 I was to hit 9:20 pace and then the last 3 go all out, whatever all out was that day. I had my 3 gels to take every 3 miles and opted to not carry my own water since I knew where the stops were on the course. I felt comfortable only carrying my gels with me.

I had made a note for myself that I studied Weds thru Fri of exactly where I would be IF I followed my race plan to a T. I knew I needed to be at the 5k mark at 27 minutes and change, the 10k mark in about 58 minutes and if everything went well enough I could make my super secret race goal of 2:02:19 but as long as I came in the finish at 2:04:59 I would have hit my goal for the day.

I hit the 5k mark at 27:44, right on pace. I took water and a gel at the water stop just between 3-4 miles which was heading into an uphill. I was feeling only slightly uneasy about the next 3 miles for some reason. I felt like it was quite a push up that hill but made my way up and could feel my body fall right into rhythm the moment that gel kicked in and gave me a boost. The sun was shining and I kept thinking how nice and warm it was compared to last year. This race doesn't allow headphones so no music, which was fine by me since I rarely use it to run anymore. I was happy enough with my own thoughts and those talking around me.

Splits 1-3 (9:02, 9:24, 9:18)

The next 3 miles were uneventful. I knew where the water stop was (same stop as the one btwn mi 3-4) and knew at that point I would again take water and a gel. I hit the 6 mile mark at just over 55 minutes, moving right along. I took off my gloves and laid them on the water table, grabbed another gel and water and actually stopped to drink this time and sipped my gel as I began running again. At this point in the race it got shady and cool again. We were headed into mile 7 and those faster runners were headed back towards the finish. It was nice passing and hearing my name from some friendly faces!

Splits 4-6 (9:57, 9:02, 9:23)

My biggest concern was the hill between miles 8 and 9. I honestly couldn't remember just how "bad" it was from last year. My race notes said, "just make it up the hill however you need to. you'll makeup time coming back down." So, I wasn't worried about losing a lot of time. I only walked briefly once and really have no idea why other than the fact that, "I will never love hills," as I proclaimed to the guy beside me. I knew that even though I walked a second I was almost to mile 9 and while I was suppose to take a gel I wanted to wait until closer to getting back to the water stop so it wouldn't kick in sooner than I needed.

So it was closer to 10 miles when I took the final gel and water and by this point I felt like I had picked up the pace a little. I could tell my breathing was getting only slightly heavier but in looking at my Garmin I was making good time.

Splits 7-10 (9:41, 9:42, 9:15, 9:45)

To say the next 3 miles were uneventful would be an understatement. I was basically just running and telling myself to not slow down. I did take one final cup of water at mile 11 or so since i knew it was the last water stop and by that point my gum had lost all flavor. Going into mile 12 the sun was again shining (a lot of this course is very shady) and I was just thankful for a beautiful day. I kept looking at my Garmin amazed at how close I was to my goal and took one tiny break to just tell myself, "You can SO do this, give it all you have." So I just ran. An extra bit of encouragement in the final stretch from a friend was nice and before I knew it I could hear lots of loud cheering from my friends that had already finished. I have never heard my name yelled so much or loudly before, "Go Kim!!" It felt so good having a little cheering section there.

I hit my watch and looked down to see 2:04:02. I was stoked (and glad to be done). I had hit my goal of sub 2:05 AND Pr'd this race by 6:36. I collected my medal, thanked the volunteer and took a minute to catch my breath. My coach found me at the finish and we high fived (and he says, "YOU SO Have sub 2:00 in you!!) before I was off to do my mile cool down (that was hard!).

Splits 11-13.19 (9:13, 9:39, 9:08, 1:26)

Chip times weren't listed yet but at last glance at gun times I finished in 2:04:12 and came in 3rd in my division. I'm super happy with that and like to joke that I hauled ass for a piece of ass....
see what I mean!? I'm not sure there is a race you can get a medal quite so awesome!
We failed at taking any race pics this year but one of my friends and fellow teammates managed to get one of our small group that workouts together so I snagged it.



I'm super proud of our whole group and all the PRs and age group wins! This was a great race for so many reasons and makes me even more excited for the next one!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Change

It's a new year and with that comes change for most people. I'm no different. I am looking to change myself a little more this year. In doing so I also decided to change my blog...again. I hope you'll patiently follow along, still!

I'm going to try my best to move things as easy as I can from my previous blog and hosting site  HERE  in the process. I'm looking forward to a lot of exciting things here and in the new year!

thanks for sticking with me so far!

Under Construction...again

I'm in the process of recreating my blog.

I'm moving back to Blogger under a different name. I'm hoping you will still find me and follow along there. I'm trying hard to get all of my posts from here moved there, so please be patient while I make this change.

In the meantime, will you go over and follow my new page??

http://kimertruns.blogspot.com/

No posts yet but I promise pictures and posts soon as well as a race recap from my 8th half marathon yesterday!!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Weekly Recap

This was suppose to be posted over the weekend but that didn't happen. So, here I go with my recap of last week's workouts. After 2 weeks of snow and ice storms I was happy to be back to a full week of stellar training. I missed a couple of workouts due to snow and ice. And as you know my one race for January was cancelled. Winter weather isn't a huge deal to me until it interferes with my running and workouts! I'll be glad when spring is upon us and the threat of snow and ice is long gone.
Here's a recap of my week:

Monday - 5 easy miles (47:37) w/core work
I did this run solo on the local greenway. Then went inside my gym to get my core work done.

Tuesday - 2 mi warmup, 12x200m repeats, 2 mi cool down plus core/flex drills.
This was my regular Tuesday morning speed work w/the KE group. My set pace for my repeats was to be no more than a minute and I managed to keep all 12 repeats at right at :58.

Wednesday - 5 easy miles (47:09)
I opted to get these miles hammered out on the work tready since I just wanted to be home and didn't have anything else on my schedule.

Thursday - Scheduled rest/or Xtrain
I purchased a couple of Bob Harper's dvds. I chose to do Totally Ripped Core for about 30 minutes just to have some kind of burn for the day.

Friday - 5 easy miles (47:01)
The schedule called for 2 mi warm up, 3x1 mi repeats, 2 mi cool down. However, due to potential snow our KE practice was cancelled. So, the option was to do an easy run or go some place to get the speedwork in on our own. I SUCK at self motivation when it comes to speed work, so I opted to go easy with the 5 miler.

Saturday - 8 miles easy (1:17)
This was a training run w/the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon training group. I was about 5 minutes late but got there just as the group was leaving. Luckily, I was able to jump out of the car and take off running. It took me just a few minutes to get warmed up and find my groove. I only had 8 miles and most everyone there was doing around 14. The course was the back half of the Knoxville Marathon. I was unfamiliar with that area since I had only ever ran that portion once and that was at the marathon in 2012. So, at the 3.5 mile mark and the water stop I stopped to see if I could get directions back. Thankfully some of the folks were only doing about 7 miles and they had a course map! score. It was very very cold on Saturday and I only noticed at the end of my run when my hair had formed icicles.

icicles

Overall I am pleased with how this past week went. Full training and really I only missed a short 2 miles on my plan. But I still managed to log a total of 31 miles for the week. I'm going into this current week well and am looking forward to a race coming up on Saturday.

How was your week last week? Did you get all your workouts in? Are you planning any races this month?