Didn't see this posted on the MCM Facebook page until after I had finished my run this morning. Wish I had seen it beforehand because I needed the inspiration boost.
I got to Rogue at 4:45am for my 5am planned start with Angela, but we didn't actually get on our way until closer to 5:15am. A lot of folks had already headed out before us, and we caught up to a group of Sole Survivors in the first couple of miles. But, then we were largely on our own again for much of the way.
Early on I noticed the pain in my knee that had been apparent for the past 2 days, and after some thinking, my best guess is that the highly cambered road from the mountain miles last weekend might have been the culprit. As the run progressed, the pain definitely seemed to be more of a pulling on the inside and outside of my right knee, which seemed to be aggravated by the road camber and uphills. Not the best scenario for today's run.
We were in the dark for the first 6-7 miles or so, and as I have mentioned before, I think I run some of those hills better when my head doesn't interfere because it can't see what's coming. I checked in with Angela though around 8 miles in and said I was thinking of just doing 20 (which the turnaround for just so happened to be right before Ladera Norte) because I was worried about my knee. She was on board with that plan because she had time constraints she was dealing with that morning anyway. But, no worries, we still got in our share of hills on that route, so I didn't feel bad about turning around when we did.
After the turnaround at mile 10 (which I had at about 9.7 on my Garmin), we had a nice 1-2 mile downhill stretch where I could really relax and let go. I pulled away from Angela and was on my own for this stretch, but I knew she'd catch me when the road turned upward again which it inevitably did. I walked a lot of the uphills on the return stretch because that seemed to be what aggravated the pulling on my knee the most and because of my negativity about hills. Thankfully, since we did so many hills on the way out, I had some nice downhill stretches ahead of me on the way back.
Angela ended up taking a more direct route back to Rogue at about mile 16, so we went our separate ways as I trudged on to get closer to 20 since we had already cut the route short. On a more positive note, I handled my salt and fluid intake better than my last 20 miler two weekends ago. Better, but still not great. I took a salt tab every 30 minutes, (tried) to make my 20 oz handheld bottle with Tailwind and water last for an hour, and only take 1-2 small cups of water or Gatorade at water stations as needed. I also used a cup of water to pour over myself at several aid stations to help with cooling my body down. No tummy sloshing, but more guzzling of the water in my handheld than I should have a few times - more sipping, less guzzling next time, mel.
The prospect of an ice bath at Rogue when I got back was what got me through the last few miles. Today was the fall marathon training kick-off at Rogue so they had a lot of vendors and food set up for the runners who were starting their training today. They were long gone though by the time I made it back from my run, and Rogue folks were busy tearing down the stuff from the kick-off party when I got back. Not seeing the big tub out for the ice bath, I made a beeline to a small kiddie pool filled with water and ice that I saw set out. I promptly took off my shoes and hopped in without even giving it a second thought. I got a few looks because the pool had apparently been used for something else earlier and wasn't necessarily meant as an ice bath. Hey, a girl has to do what a girl has to do after 20 miles!
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| Ah, this felt like heaven after Hills to Heaven! |
Didn't do my 3-mile recovery run today because I wanted to give my right leg an extra day off given the pain that I have been having for the past few days.
Race Day is 7 weeks from today!
Monday, September 8: OFF
Switched my medium long run until tomorrow in favor of getting an unplanned massage in an attempt to work out the tightness in my ITB and adductors that are pulling on my knee. I couldn't make it work with my schedule to get in to see my regular massage therapist this week, so I had to settle for one of the more convenient massage places in town that could get me in during the evening. Unfortunately, I ended up with a therapist who doesn't really do sports massage and had never worked on someone with the issues that I was having. She seemed more interested in my "record-breaking" tight calves - yeah, yeah, I've heard that a time or two before. But, hopefully, the right quad got enough love to loosen up a bit. I'll test it out in the morning.
Tuesday, September 9: 9 miles (trail)
Did something that I never do today - got up early and went out to run TLT (with K in tow). The pain in my knee was less apparent, but still noticeable in my adductors at times which seemed to contribute to a twinge of pain on the inside of my knee every now and then. It was a really sloppy run - my pace was all over the place, the weather was super humid and warm, and I wasn't monitoring my fluid intake as well as I should have so I ended up with sloshy tummy halfway through. It was really a struggle to get through this run, and honestly, deflated my confidence that I was struggling this much at this point in my training.
Wednesday, September 10: 5.5 miles (road)
Ya know what? It's still hot and humid. And, my shoes were still not dry from my run yesterday morning!
We ran a 1-mile warm-up to the Clarksville neighborhood then we did a pace workout focused on MGP:
2 X "800m at MGP
400m EASY
800m at MGP
400m HARD! – hard, hard, hard!
800m at MGP"
Since the point of this workout was clearly about running MGP and not fast, I made a concerted effort to stick to a slower pace tonight (4:53-5:07 range for the 800). I told Angela that she was the leader for the workout since I tend to take us out too fast. She commented that she didn't know how to reign me in when I start going too fast. But, I didn't let my legs get ahead of my head tonight. We ended up averaging about 9:30 for each of the 4 miles, so I think it was a win. Although, I didn't really care for doing this workout where we did it because the roads were too busy with traffic. I do think the pace adjustments for the terrain changes (up or downhill) were good practice compared to doing this workout on a track though.
We took a shortcut back to Rogue after the workout, so we ended up cutting our cooldown a half mile short.
Thursday, September 11: 6 miles (treadmill)
Easy 6 miles at the gym. No more pain in my knee so that is a good sign.
Friday, September 12: OFF
Week 19 Total: 40 miles (missed recovery run this week)
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