Saturday, March 31, 2012

3/30 & 3/31

4 yesterday; 5 today (stopped at 1 mile and 3 miles to check on kids, who were still in the wandering-out-of-their-rooms stage of going to bed).  Around 9/mile for each, maybe a little less.  Really tired both days; the kids are on day 9 of stomach flu.

My knee is still hurting, even with the brace, but I quit (at least for now) going to physical therapy--it wasn't doing anything but racking up bills and taking a TON of time.  Ho-hum.

Monday, March 26, 2012

3/26

Stopped at 1.8 to answer the phone (pediatrician) and then to check on miserable little Isaac; I turned a fan so it was blowing on him and his eyes rolled up in his head and he fell asleep.  Poor baby!  Stopped at 4.1 to start another story for Jooj.

5 miles; 8:48/mile

Saturday, March 24, 2012

3/24

Three of my kids are sick right now (fevers and occasional vomiting, so awesome).  I don't know if I have what they have or if my body is just reacting to a super stressful week (all that grading plus the sick kids) and the fact that I stayed up until 1:30 am last night reading The Hunger Games again and then got up at 6 am to nurse my miserable little baby (fortunately he went back to sleep for another hour after that).

Anyway, I seriously felt horrible all day, but I was hoping that running would do the trick.  I told myself to just start out slow (at 10:00/mile) and work up, although I never went faster than 8:49/mile, and would take it back down to 9:13/mile every so often when I started feeling dizzy again.

4.1 miles; stopped for water and to check on my feverish babies (Neil was at the lab) and then ran until I hit 6; my time was right around 9:00/mile for the whole thing. Slow, but satisfying, and I feel a lot better now.  Running as the miracle cure!  I need to just focus on miles and not worry about pace right now, I think, but that is really hard to do.

Knee a little uncomfortable at the beginning and then again when I stopped for water; stretched for a LONG time afterwards and I'm going for ice now.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

3/22

Another late and very low-energy run.  I will be glad when I'm done grading these projects--they are eating up my time and my patience is at an all-time low.  So tired tonight that I almost fell asleep stretching before my run.

4 miles, stopped at 3 for water, somewhere under 9:00/mile.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

3/19 & 3/20

4 miles yesterday (one water stop) at 8:49 pace; another 4 miles today (two stops--one after just one minute to restart my laptop and another at 2.8 for water) at 8:55.  Totally exhausted today--it was REALLY hard to run (it's 10:30 and I've graded 16 midterm projects in the last two days, plus everything else I usually have going on).  I still have to do my PT exercises, put away laundry, prep for tomorrow, mop the kitchen, ice, shower, etc. I am totally worn out.

I think I am going to try going back to my normal 5 miles 4 times a week.  I really feel like my knee needs the extra rest day; it's aching right now.  And let's face it--there's no way my knee will be in half-marathon shape in another two months, so I think right now I just need to focus on 20 miles at a steady pace until I feel good there and not push for more or faster times.  Meh.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

3/16 & 3/17

Easy three yesterday; it was supposed to be 4 but Luke woke up at 2.5 and was practically in hysterics by the time I got to three...and I figured I should go easy on my knee since I was planning a longer run for today.  Stopped at 1.5 to start Jooj's story; just under 9:00/mile.

Ran along the river tonight with Neil on a trail that neither of us had run before; it was a mix of asphalt, brick, concrete, sand, dirt, mulch, mud, etc.  Fun to see and SO awesome to run with Neil--it was just a lovely night.  We took our time and paused to check out the cool murals painted underneath the bridges, the random cars submerged up to their steering wheels in sand (we were guessing from the style of the cars that there was a big flood in the 50s or 60s that washed them up against the riverbank), and a bunch of historical markers.  It was nice not to stress about my pace.  We even checked out the canal displays (at least I did while Neil went to the bathroom) at the Amtrak station and I learned that the Wabash-Erie canal used to flow right where I was standing!  

And best of all--both runs were PAIN FREE with my brace!!! (except at the very end when we started running again and I'd been standing around waiting for Neil).

3 miles yesterday and 6+ miles today

Thursday, March 15, 2012

3/14

PT yesterday & fitted for a knee brace--that thing is a beast.  It looks like a corset for your knee--there are all these reinforced bits and it goes from my lower thigh to my upper calf (I'm guessing it's at least 14 inches long?).  And it is less than comfortable (understatement of the year).  I can run in it, but I can't bend my knee enough to do a standing quad stretch--it is pretty restrictive. But if it helps...

Anyway, the PT verdict is that I need to just run slowly and focus on getting pain-free before I try to get faster.  I'm also wondering if I should not be running 3 days in a row...we'll see how the brace goes.  And she checked my hips yesterday and didn't find any discrepancies, so it sounds like that problem was just the mixed-up old shoe.

4 miles yesterday, stopped 2 minutes in to readjust the brace and then at 3 miles because I was dying for a drink.  So 8:52/mile with the treadmill slowdowns; 8:37 without.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

3/13

6x400 today; worked up in pace (first one out was at 8:34 out and 9:05 back, the sixth was at 8:00 out and 8:34 back).  Knee pain, iced afterwards.

I am really struggling with my self-esteem right now about my pace and mileage.  I have PT again tomorrow and I feel like it's worthless; I'm going to ask for a brace.  I am so tired of my knee hurting all the time, even when I'm not running. And I feel like I'm not pushing myself because I'm worried about my knee; my run today was harder than I have been running but it wasn't anywhere near exhaustion.

3 miles; avg pace 8:30

Monday, March 12, 2012

3/12

Didn't run Saturday; we were in Chicago and my knee was aching so much that I was having to work hard to keep from limping.

Ran an easy 4 today just under 9:00/mile pace.

Friday, March 9, 2012

3/9

Knee hurting again; didn't push much today.

3 miles; 8:50/mile

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

3/7

Knee hurt during my entire run today; never debilitatingly so, but enough to be bothersome, so I didn't push too hard.

Ran 2.5, stopped for Isaac (getting snack, more books, etc.) and water, then finished up.

4 miles; 8:45/mile

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

3/6

30-minute tempo run today; started at 9:05/mile to warm up and worked up to 8:00/mile.  Hit the 3.5 mile mark at 29:30 so I stopped there.  I was definitely running harder than I have been lately--I think I've been kind of lazy.  Knee started hurting about halfway through--never very bad, but uncomfortable enough that it seemed a little swollen afterwards, so I iced it.

3.5 miles; 8:25/mile

Monday, March 5, 2012

3/5

Ran 3.1 and then stopped to get Jooj a new audiobook and to put my bread dough into pans, then finished up the run.  Another short one today--I always love the beginning of training!

4 miles; 8:51 (including speedup time)

Saturday, March 3, 2012

3/3

Ran 4 and then stopped to load a new audio book for the girls, ran another mile.

5 miles; 8:48 with speed-up time; 8:42 discounting that.  Pretty happy with this time today considering I downed Tylenol this morning before I bothered with eating breakfast; I wasn't really looking forward to running with that!

Friday, March 2, 2012

3/2

Felt like an idiot today when I was sorting out my running shoes (Luke loves to play with them and always drags them around the house to make a pile) and realized that the left shoe I've been using for the past few months is an ancient one.  Um...no wonder my knee has been hurting.  ARGH!!  So frustrated with myself!!!

2 miles; then stopped to get Luke, another mile, then stopped to give Luke my chapstick before he took a header off my bed in pursuit of it.

4 miles; just under 9/mile with all the stops (8:45 if I disregard the speeding-up time for the treadmill)