Casey's 10K Training Log

Yikes!  I've been out of commission for too long...

Okay, today I did a 45-minute easy run.  I'm not sure my body was ready to do 45-minutes after such a long break, but I got it done.  I had some help from Karen...Kim, however, was anything but.  She's just jealous because she can't run as well as I can :)

Speed intervals today.  I did four (4) 400's with a recovery in between each.  I'm not sure what each interval pace was because Kim made me use the broken treadmill (because she's mean).  However, I did my first 400 at race pace, my second one faster, the third even faster, and the 4th was the fastest.  The fourth one was pretty hard, but I felt good afterwards.  Finished with a 6-minute cool down.

Oh, yes, and today was an abs day.  My partners are still doing their abs too fast.  One of my partners is just doing the entire workout completely wrong.  It's embarassing, really. 

Strength training today.  But a lazy one.  I did upper and lower, but I wasn't really feeling it.  You'd think with the number of jelly beans I've consumed today that I would have the energy of a room full of hyperactive 3-year olds, but alas I did not.  I guess something is better than nothing, right?

By the way, I highly recommend the new Nerd jellybeans.  They have a Nerds candy coating on the outside and are really, really tasty.  Ridiculously tasty in fact.

45-minute run today.  I'm pretty sure it was the longest 45 minutes of my entire life.  Ugh, this run was HORRIBLE.  I'll give Kim (Zippy) credit for trying to keep me motivated, even when I was getting cranky. She also gets credit for putting my show on her treadmill TV so I could watch (my treadmill TV was broken).

 Brion threatened to depants me if I stopped, and I think he might have done it, so I'll have to give him some credit for keeping me motivated as well.

I think I earned an extra-large chocolate milk shake after this run.  Too bad I'm too lazy to go and get one.

I love sleeping in :)

Today was the dreaded 7-mile run.  It is not as dreaded as the 8-mile run I have coming up (next week, I think), but dreaded all the same.

I started my run at 8 a.m. under a bright sunny sky and a luxurious 17 F temperature.  I finished the 7 miles in 1:15:00 (a 10:42 pace).  I was hoping I could get a 10:30 pace, but my legs apparently did not share this same goal.  My ankle joints started to ache towards the end, but my knees held up really well this time.  Good job to my knees!  When I finished and started my cool-down walk I'm pretty sure my legs were trying to separate themselves from my body (a sort of coup) because my hips started to ache, and I'm pretty sure I was walking funny.

A long-hot shower later, everything seems to be back to normal, and I think my legs decided to stay attached after all.  In a few hours I will be leaving for my ski (actually, snowboarding) trip in Salt Lake City.  Sorry, no running until Wednesday, but I'll try to update this blog with ski reports.

I love vacations as much as I love sleeping in :)

Snowboarding is IMPOSSIBLE!!!  But, still fun.  I am in no way in possession of any natural talent towards this skill, but thanks to the private instructor, I can now make it down the easy hills with relative comfort, but I'm not so good at switching from 'toe-side' to 'heel-side'.  If you don't snowboard, this doesn't make sense, if you do, then you understand that this is not the easiest way to go down a hill.

Oh, I should probably mention that today we went to Snow Bird. 

On the running front, my hips and my bad knee are sore from yesterday's 7-mile run (my knee more than my hips).  While I did not run today, my legs (quads and calves, especially) got quite a workout, so I think it evens out ;)

I definitely slept well last night.  I thought my legs would be in agony after yesterday, but apparently all this running has proven useful towards surviving snowboarding.  My arms are a bit sore from some of my more spectacular falls, and my ever-faithful bad knee is especially bothersome today.  A wiser person would probably take it easier today, but I've never been accused of being all that wise.

Today we went to Solitude because (1) less-crowded than most slopes, and (2) has a great beginner hill (according to the instructor from Snow Bird).  The beginner hill really was great...I, however, was not.  It's amazing how much you forget when you don't have an instructor correcting your every move.   I am still unable to switch from toe-side to heel-side, but it is obvious that is mostly out of fear of slamming head first (I think I got my fill of that yesterday).  So, I gave my quads a most-amazing workout today!

My knee has finally said "enough", so I think today will be my final day of snowboarding and tomorrow will be a day of relaxation. 

And n0, Kim, I have not done my ab workout, and I don't really intend to do one while on this vacation. 

Returned from my vacation today...let's all have a moment of silence to mourn the end of a great vacation...

My body continues to ache everywhere, so what better excuse to go for a run?  According to today's schedule I had a 45-minute hill run.  So, I went to a horrible little hill that is practically perpendicular to the road and ran up it 5 times.  After the 3rd time it occurred to me that I was not going to be able to run up and down this stupid hill for 45-minutes solid, so after the 5th agonizing ascent, I decided to run a neighborhood circuit that would allow my legs a moment of peace.  I was hoping I had picked a long enough circuit to only have to do that evil, leg-hating hill only once more, but alas, the hill was more clever than I and I was forced to trudge up that murderous thing two more times.

I am planning to destroy that hill one day.

I survived, and my body felt better for a brief few minutes before it remembered the tortures of snowboarding.  My knee was especially annoyed with the run and is plotting its revenge even now as I type this message.

Well, my knee is revolting against yesterday's run.  I limp around and look like I have adopted a really bad remake of John Wayne's strut.  Sort of like Nathan Lane's version of John Wayne's strut in the movie Birdcage...truly ridiculous.  So, I decided to forgo the 45-minute recovery run in favor of a 45-minute bike ride.

After 25-minutes the pain was pretty sharp and I stopped.  Very annoying.  I suspect I will have to take Friday off.  Climibing a ladder all evening to paint the living room in our new house (we move in on Saturday) was probably not helping the knee situation, but at least our new living room looks nice :)

AARRRGGGHHH!!!!

My stupid knee is in constant pain!  I tried wearing my brace this weekend and didn't run at all, but it still hurts.  I'm less than 2 weeks away from my race...I need a MIRACLE!

Or I need my doctor to tell me it's okay to keep running.  I had to finally make an appointment (it's on Thursday) to figure out what's going on.  This is really killing my mileage reports...and my normal cheery disposition. 

I'll keep you posted on what the doctor says.

32-min treadmill run. 

I've had better runs and my knee has had better days.

Today I went to the doctor to figure out what was wrong with my knee.  The diagnosis, a torn meniscus.  The doctor did say, fortunately, that I can continue running and can still run in the 10K I've been training for next weekend (he said it will be an issue of how much pain I can tolerate...additional injury is unlikely).  Whew!  Of course when I finish the race I"m supposed to go back for an MRI and possible surgery.  But we'll deal with that on a later blog date.

Because of all the poking and prodding done to my knee it was still quite painful at the time of my workout so I opted to do 30-min on the elliptical and save a run for tomorrow.

I finished, with minimal pain.  The pain actually seems worse once I stop, so as long as I don't stop during the race, my knee should be fine!

Ran 4 miles outside.  Weather report: 36 F, winds 18-24 mph.  That wind felt like I had a tornado running with me the entire time.  I didn't mind the first 2 miles since it was at my back and helped me increase my pace, but the last 2 miles were a bit annoying since the wind seemed quite determined to push me backwards. 

So, the knee.  It did its usual burning sensation, and it became obvious that my running gait is off since I have a knot the size of a grapefruit in my right calf (left knee is the bad one).  So, I am currently sitting here with ice on my knee and a heating pad on my calf.  I look absolutely pathetic.  It wouldn't be so bad if I was EIGHTY YEARS OLD! 

Tomorrow I'll lift weights (upper body only) and Sunday I'm going to try a hill run (only gentle graded hills, none of those perpendicular ones).  The race route I'll be running in has at least 2 decent sized hills, so I want to make sure I am prepared.

Happy Easter!  And congratulations to all Lent participants for surviving these short 40 days.  Hopefully your post-Lent binges do not leave you with any unplesaent side-effects

I actually  thought I had mapped out a 6.2 mile run, but no luck.  I missed a street in the route...I'm an idiot.  I completed a 6-mile run (30F, no wind, not bad at all, really) with a total running time of 66 minutes.  Slower than the 10-minute pace I had on Saturday, but I'm going to blame Friday's 4-mile run for the slower pace.  Oh, my stupid knee as well.

I intentionally picked a route with hils in it to see how the bad knee would respond.  It did okay for the first 3.5 miles, and then it was nice enough to let me know it didn't want to run anymore.  I pushed through and finished the run, but it was obvious I had slowed down (I really tried not to).  And I'm still compensating because that grapefruit sized knot is back in my right calf.  Actually, its only the size of a small orange this time...hopefully by race day (7-days) it will only become grape-sized.

 No more outdoor long runs until the race.  May try a short one or two, but more likely that I will stick to cushioned treadmills, ellipticals, and possibly bikes. 

By the way, my NCAA bracket is a terrible mess thanks to Clemson, Duke, UConn, and G'Town.  What were these teams thinking?!?!?

I ran 3 miles on the treadmill today.  I ran a slower 11:19 pace to take it easy on the bum-knee.  I have to admit that my knee was pretty sore today and it may or may not have had something to do with my super-cute brown heels.  But, in the name of fashion decency, and how well these shoes go with the skirt I was wearing, the heel wearing was completely unavoidable.  Perhaps I will puruse my closet tonight to find an outfit that might lend itself to cute, yet comfortable, no-heeled shoes.  I'll keep you posted on my findings.

This is my last distance run until the race since (1) that is what my training schedule dictates and (2) Zippy may start using more forceful methods to get me to slow down.  Zippy is quite an unstable person for those of you lucky enough to have never had to deal with her.  Tomorrow I'll cross-train and Thursday I will do a short 1-mile or 15-minute run (I'll officially decide later).  Friday we are flying to Austin, and I will be eating  my way through the weekend until race day! 

Rode the bike today.  The knee was not liking the experience and I was only able to complete 30-minutes. 

Fear not, however, my evil workout partners still made me do an ab workout.  Too bad the abs and the knees aren't connected in some wierd way for me to justify skipping the excercise altogether.  

Short 15-minute run today.  And my knee felt pretty good.  I was able to increase my pace every 5-minutes without any pain.  Even after the workout it felt pretty good.  Maybe it will continue to feel great and my race on Sunday will be perfect!  Here's hoping for the best...

We fly to Austin tomorrow.  My next entry will be my 10K race results.  Wish me luck!

Well, today was the big race.  The race started off humid and sticky, followed by rain.  I was soaked about 5 minutes after the start.  And, as if breathing in humid weather was not bad enough, the rain made the race route a slippery mess.  Less than ideal conditions...but who cares, it was still fun!

I started the race really well, fell right into my pace and felt great.  Even my knee was cooperating, that is, until the hills started.  This race had quite a few hills, and each hill seemed to be a little more steep than the next.  The steepest hill in the route resided around the 3-mile mark and this one finally claimed my knee.  It was steep and long and my knee tolerated it about half-way before siezing up.  So, I unfortunately had to hobble up to the top of the hill before resuming my run.  However, once I made it past that, I was able to finish the run.

I really wanted to finish the race as close to 60-minutes as possible, but, alas, I will have to wait until the next 10K for that.  My race time was 68 minutes, a new personal best, but I am a little disappointed that I didn't hit my goal.

I have to give my husband a super-big thank you for running the last mile with me.  I was in quite a bit of pain at the end and he did a good job of keeping my mind off of it.  The EMT's at the first aid tent were super nice, too, in that they helped move me to the first aid tent, iced my knee, and gave me water and gatorade.  All-in-all it was still a lot of fun!