Marathon Monday & a Training Update

I must admit, watching the Boston Marathon on TV yesterday made me very excited to return there one day.   Watching the elites race (and seeing Kris Lawrence up in the front with the leading women!) was so inspiring and I applaud all of them for running such a great race.   I was especially proud of Desi Linden – she’s one of my favorite elite runners. She just has a work ethic that just won’t quit – and (as you can tell from the tagline of this blog), that is something that really resonates with me. When others try flashy race tactics or complain about the lousy conditions, Desi just puts her head down and quietly gets to work. She ran a solid race yesterday and while I wish it had been enough to put her on the podium, it was still such a fantastic and well-executed effort.

The broadcast aired during my normal crazy preschool dropoff-grocery store-gym-shenanigans so I recorded the broadcast of the marathon so that I could watch it later. For the second year in a row, I’ve invited my parents over and we’ve had a Marathon Monday party!   We order pizza, watch the marathon broadcast, and even play marathon-themed bingo (complete with prizes!!).

It was such a fun evening and the end of the race was quite exciting!   So exciting, apparently, that I had a hard time going to sleep and wound up awake until 11pm.  That made this morning’s 4:50am alarm seem very, very early.   And why was I getting up so early, you ask? Well…

It’s track time!   I’m into a block of work on my schedule that is focused on improving my VO2 Max. I’m notoriously bad at faster stuff. My 5K pace is embarrassingly close to my marathon race pace – not kidding. I have yet to break 20 minutes in a 5K.

In any case, it’s time to make some improvements on that. Which means that for the next few weeks, I’ll be doing more track/interval type workouts. They are my nemesis. I start to get nostalgic for my dreaded tempo runs after only a few repeats.   But I will do them because that’s how I’m going to get better.

Today’s workout: 5 x 1000m w/90% recovery (aiming for 1000m to be 3:40s)

I was lucky enough to have a neighborhood friend for some company to do my warmup, cooldown, and recovery piece of this with me this morning. I can’t say I was in the most positive of moods because here’s how this workout went:

Warm up – 1.5 miles, easy 8:45 min pace. Awesome!! Feeling good! Noticing that it’s a bit warm (63 degrees), very windy and the pollen is so thick that it looks like a mist of rain in my headlamp. (ewww)

First interval: 3:58 (6:18 pace per Garmin) - WHAT?? Are you kidding me? It was still dark and when my headlamp illuminated that split I thought I must have read it wrong. I was huffing and puffing for a time so far off my target? UGHH…This workout is about to get ugly.

Second interval: 3:44 (5:52 pace/Garmin) - Better. (Thank goodness!) Had to work much harder for this though and have no idea how I will run one more of these, much less three more.

Third interval: 3:47 (5:56 pace/Garmin) – Surely these aren’t supposed to be these hard?? I am almost doubled over after this one and cursing the person who designed the track and thought it would be fun to sprint around a 400m oval.   I’m exhausted – two more to do!?! ARGH.

Fourth interval: 3:51 (6:06 pace/Garmin) – BLEHHH. At least the sun is coming up and I can ditch my headlamp.   I just can’t seem to get my legs to turn over any faster! I’m breathing super hard and I’m fairly certain my heart rate is near max.   Try to stay positive – only one more and then I can run home!

Fifth interval: 3:49 (5:59 pace/Garmin) – SO GLAD TO BE DONE SO GLAD TO BE DONE.   Had the lovely “cotton balls stuffed in my ears” feeling after this one. Side note: Does anyone else get that?? Took a good three minutes to get my breathing back to normal.

Cooldown: 1.5 miles at turtle speed. Jogged back towards home with my friend and was very happy to be done.

While the track and I are still on speaking terms (barely) let’s hope that I grow to love the track a bit more over the next few weeks. I know it’s good for me to be challenged in new ways, but it was mighty uncomfortable this morning.   Working on embracing that discomfort.

Anyone out there share my hate/fear of track work? Any tips on how to make friends with the faster and shorter interval stuff?

A Pain in the Toe (update)

This week I bit the bullet and went in for a podiatrist appointment to try and determine what the heck was going on with my left foot - specifically, my left big toe.   I've been having some pain with significant upward flexion of the joint.   I notice it most during lunges in Body Pump when that left leg is back and quite a bit of weight is placed on that big toe.  How important is your big toe in running?  Pretty darn important as it turns out.   That big toe can carry up to twice the load of the lesser toes - and up to 40-60% of your body weight!   I've noticed when I run up hills and push off forcefully that there is some discomfort in that first metatarsal joint.   While the discomfort in running has been minimal, it was the significant pain during lunges in Body Pump that prompted me to finally go in and get it checked.

I was nervous and braced myself for the doctor to tell me that I had to take some time off.   He poked and prodded a bit, watched me walk in bare feet, and moved the toe this way and that and asked if I felt any pain.   After a "hmmmmm" from him, he had me go to the next room and get some x-rays.  Gulp.  I knew that a stress fracture wouldn't show up on the x-ray unless it was already healing, but I was still nervous about what we would find.  Three x-rays later, I was sent back to the room to wait.   I had asked for a copy of the x-ray, and a few minutes later the doctor came in and handed me this:

I almost hugged the podiatrist.  I refrained, but just barely.  That picture up above?  That is my mostly healthy, albeit slightly deformed, foot!  No stress fracture suspected, no injuries to the sesamoids, no plantar fasciitis.  But see the reduction in space between that first metatarsal and proximal phalange? That's where it hurts.  He basically concluded that I have a bit of "hallux limitus" (stiff big toe) due to the fact that my big toe (over time) has bent to conform to the running shoes I have been wearing, causing the very early stages of a bunion.   The bend in that big toe has reduced the space available for the first metatarsal to move the toe into proper dorsiflexion, causing pain.   The good news?  He's hopeful we can help that big toe move back into place by moving to roomier shoes and using a product called "Correct Toes" to help restore the proper spacing between the toes.   While I'm not thrilled to hear the word "bunion", I am very happy that nowhere in the diagnosis were the words "stress fracture".  WIN.

The (slightly) bad news?  Time for new roomier shoes.  I may have to say goodbye to my beloved Mizunos (or at least go a size up) since he fussed at me for running in a shoe where my toe is so close to the end of it.  I have tried to go up in size but feel like I'm running in boats.  Guess I'll just have to get used to that if I want to stay in the Wave Riders.  I'm not loyal to one particular brand though (I have Adidas and New Balance shoes in my rotation), so I'm hopeful I can find something I like with a wider toe box, but that still feels okay on my narrow feet.

I'm a very happy camper in that I am able to keep running and have the green light to continue training. That was the best news I'd gotten all day!  I left the podiatrist's office with a much happier disposition.  For now it's time to order some Correct Toes, pick up a pair of roomier shoes, and take it easy on the lunges.   Thank you for all of your positive vibes - they must have worked!

Anyone have recommendations on shoes they like with roomier toe boxes?   Has anyone used a toe spacer like Correct Toes?

Easing back in....and a Family 5K

This past week was my first foray into running again post-marathon.  I am loosely following the Hanson's post-marathon advice of "two weeks off, two weeks easy" and have really enjoyed having this past week fall into the "easy" camp!  If I wake up and it's pouring rain outside and I don't feel like running, I don't go!  After a season of no excuses and getting it done rain or shine it's nice to have a break from the focused and committed mentality of hard training.  And I've had a wonderful time going for runs with friends and not worrying about getting in a speed session or pushing the pace.  The weather is starting to shape up and we've had some beautiful mornings (like today!) in the upper 40s, low 50s which has made for wonderful running weather.  I'm trying to savor it now before we are catapulted into the brutal heat and humidity that is waiting just around the corner.

I'm back to taking (or teaching) BodyPump three times a week and I've added back in my core work and my PT exercises for hip strength.  Still working on getting around to adding in drills, but plan to add those in once I'm back on an official schedule.   Besides a somewhat over-the-top consumption of Easter candy on Easter (hey - I gave up dessert for Lent!  Don't judge. :)), I'm working on reining in the diet some and getting back to my healthier choices.

The only slight niggle in my return to running has been the return of some foot pain in my left foot.  Running is just fine and doesn't bother me, but my left big toe (or the tendons around it) is killing me when I do lunges in BodyPump with that left foot back.  I'm unable to hyperextend that big toe without some pain.  I'd been dealing with it for two months or so pre-marathon and it's not any worse than it was during that time.  It improved during my two weeks off, but once I added Pump back in and started running it's flared up again.  Not sure quite what it is (flexor tendonitis?  Sesamoid problems? Please please please not a stress fracture...) Podiatrist appointment is schedule for this week so fingers crossed for a diagnosis that allows me to keep running (or at least lets me return to running fairly quickly).

Week in Review

33 miles for the week.  While wearing glasses.  (To all you peeps out there running with glasses on - my hat is off to you!  I'm decidedly NOT loving it.   Having LASIK surgery in a week or so and have to be out of my contacts until then.)

No real workouts to report this week but I did get in a couple of easy runs with friends, a "long" run of 9 miles with my Saturday group, and for something totally fun and different:  I ran a family 5K on Easter!!

My (crazy but fun) family started this tradition 13 years ago to honor my late Grandfather, whom we called "Buggy".  The Buggy Bunny Hop 5K is staged from my parents house and features 3.1 miles of hilly neighborhood roads with two Egg Stops along the way.   Participants wear bunny ears during the race and have to pick up a jellybean-filled plastic egg at two locations (to prove you've completed that section of the course) and then run back to the start.   It's highly competitive (okay, not really) and there's even a trophy engraved each year with the winner and time of completion!    This year I opted not to race it, but I wanted to use the middle mile as an opportunity for a teeny bit of speed work and pick it up a bit.

Mile 1:  First mile I ran with the family at 7:53, enjoying the sunshine but not so much the WIND.

Mile 2:  Grabbed the egg from the first cul-de-sac, ate the jellybeans (better than GU!), and picked it up for a 6:24 mile

Mile 3.1 + some:  Grabbed the second egg, then ran a bit and circled back to run it in with my family at around an 8:10 pace.  My two little girls served as the official jellybean/water stop volunteers and we all had a blast.  It was such a fun way to get the whole family involved and (much like a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day) it was a great opportunity to get in a little workout before chowing down on Easter dinner!

That's it!   It's been fun getting back on the roads, especially with Boston right around the corner!  I am not going this year, but will definitely be watching and I'm happy to be running some with everyone while they get excited for their race.   Hoping that this week will be a repeat of last week with some nice easy running and my usual core work and BodyPump workouts.  Fingers crossed for a good appointment at the Podiatrist - would appreciate any good luck vibes you care to send!

Anyone out there ever have problems with their big toe?  Who's in the taper for Boston?