It has been two weeks since my last half marathon training update. Did you miss me? I missed you and missed running. I got a cold and didn’t make a lot of my plan because I wasn’t 100% and couldn’t breath as well. I let some of my planned runs go. Below is what I did complete.
First, let me just say that I don’t follow the plan perfectionistically. I do things on the days that work for me, so while it may look like I was sick, then ran 5.5, then was sick again…that isn’t how things went. Cluster the sick days together to get a better picture. As you can see, in week 14, I made a 3.5 mile run as well as my 5.5 mile run. I did not complete my long run that week.
I did make it to Physical Therapy in week 14. It was fascinating. When my therapist completed my evaluation, he didn’t see that I was struggling with strength, flexibility or excessive tightness. I am dealing with problems with my right IT band as well as something with my left thigh. He deduced that it could be that my injury is caused by the crown of the road. (If you look at a road and notice that it is higher toward the center and graded lower toward the sides, that is a road with a crown. Sometimes roads are crowned from the center out, sometimes they are just crowned near the edge.)
I always run toward traffic. Because the roads around here are crowned to allow the rain water to run off, I am always less able to fully extend one leg to a slight degree. He thought that perhaps this was the cause of my IT band issue on the one leg and the thigh issue on the opposite leg. He wanted me to get more consistent (as in daily) with my foam rolling of both areas as well as stretching my hamstrings daily. He also wanted me to complete my next long run on a road with no crowning. We figured that the best place for that was at a local high school track….yep….I had the pleasure of running 12 miles in circles (with the band practicing, just to add to the fun)!
Before I get ahead of myself, week 15 all I completed from my plan was a 3.0 mile run and my long 12 mile run.
Here is what I was planning to try for my week 15 run. Do you see my new birthday present? See that pink watch? It is the new Garmin Forerunner 10(affiliate link). It is a new GPS watch that is in my price range. It is basic, in that it doesn’t have as many options as the more expensive watches, but it does what I need it to and was the perfect price for my husband and my parents to get it for me for my birthday! Yay! I have used it 3 times now and am very happy with it.
. It is a new GPS watch that is in my price range. It is basic, in that it doesn’t have as many options as the more expensive watches, but it does what I need it to and was the perfect price for my husband and my parents to get it for me for my birthday! Yay! I have used it 3 times now and am very happy with it.As far as my nutrition for my long run, I ate my 1/2 a cliff bar before leaving. I used the Accelerade(affiliate link) in my water while running. I didn’t end up using the Honey Stinger(affiliate link) energy shot. I just didn’t feel like I needed it. The Accelerade worked well for to me. I would say it is in the same class as the Hammer Heed(affiliate link) that I have used. I like those 2 the best so far. I did talk with someone who said the amount of protein in the Accelerade caused problems for him, therefore the Hammer Heed was better for his body. Which is a good thing to remember, what works for me, may not work for you.
(affiliate link) in my water while running. I didn’t end up using the Honey Stinger(affiliate link) energy shot. I just didn’t feel like I needed it. The Accelerade worked well for to me. I would say it is in the same class as the Hammer Heed(affiliate link) that I have used. I like those 2 the best so far. I did talk with someone who said the amount of protein in the Accelerade caused problems for him, therefore the Hammer Heed was better for his body. Which is a good thing to remember, what works for me, may not work for you.As to how my long run went. It went like all my other long runs. My IT band started hurting. It started hurting about mile 6 this time, a bit earlier than usual. Such a bummer that the idea of running on a non-crowned surface wasn’t the fix for my IT band. It hurt badly. I did push it further than I would have normally in part because I had all those teenagers and didn’t want to look like an old lady but mostly because I wanted to push it and have a little more pain so that the physical therapist might be able to see better, 2 days later, the flair up.
I’m so frustrated with my IT band. I didn’t use the energy gel because my energy isn’t the problem. I can run, I can do this half marathon. I am just in pain and can’t at the moment. I had it in me to complete the 12 miles. So, I am frustrated, wanting to be let lose and do what I know I can do. I have pain holding me back. Boo!
The only fun part of running 12 miles on a track, was that Mr. T and Pumpkin came out to cheer me on for the last 7 laps. (Snowflake would have come as well but she was at an all day Girl Scout thing…she was so bummed to not be able to cheer me on.) Above, you can see what I thought of running on a track as well as how my IT band was feeling at this point.
This is what Pumpkin thought of running a lap on the track! She loved coming out to see me (and the band). She was great and giving me high fives on both sides of the track. She ran with me for a bit. Then when I was done, she wanted to go run a whole lap all by herself. My guess is that she put in a half a mile or more that day and loved every minute!
Next week, I will visit my physical therapist again and see where we go from here…truth be told I visited again today, but I was going to add it to my full update for the week I am in (week 16). I do currently have my knee taped…so we are on to the next trial to see if I can get some relief and be able to RUN my half marathon.
I am running a 10k this weekend and am looking forward to another race. I know I can do 6.3 miles and it shouldn’t be an issue for my IT….looking forward to that. Maybe a PR? We shall see.
Have a great week and happy running to you!
good luck on the 10k and on getting pain relief!
Thanks, Dara.
Pumpkin should give you lessons on crossing the finish line! Great smile and full arm extensions!!
Your right, Dad! She does need to give me lessons. I think I won’t look quite that exuberant, but I will get a quick lesson before my 10K this weekend. <3
We’ll be cheering for you!!! You should be really proud of yourself to be training like that! Btw. do you know the blog https://www.speedendurance.com Lots of high quality running tips there, that might give you just the info/tips/stimulation you need to make it to that FULL half-marathon. YOU CAN DO IT!
Thank you! I haven’t seen that site, I will have to check it out. Thanks for the tip. My race went fantastic! I’m super happy with my results. I wrote a post about it too, if you want to see. https://www.realcoake.blogspot.com/2012/10/training-tuesday-half-marathon-training_23.html
Trying to catch up on my blog reading: I hope you’re completely over that cold. I’m still trying to get over this bug that whipped me down! I hope you’re healing up and that you had an eventful 10K. 🙂
I hope you are feeling better. Have you been able to run lately with all you have going on?