I Hate The Track

I hate the track. Or rather, my ass hates the track. But I’ll get back to this later.

I had a three miler on the schedule today. The weather forecast was –7C (19F) and snow in the afternoon. I was sitting in a meeting at about 11 am and my coworker looks out the window and comments on the amount of snow coming down. It was almost like whiteout conditions. The meeting finished up and I hummed and hawed about whether I really wanted to go out or not. The sidewalks were looking pretty gross and I just was not up for it. So, the treadmill after work it would be.

I was ready to go all Brad Pitt on the treadmill in Burn After Reading. I had my playlist loaded with up T-Pain and Beyonce, and thanks to all of you guys, I realized that I was missing Britney Spears. I rectified that situation before heading out, so now I’d be able to hear Britney tell her to give her more while I was running on the treadmill.

As soon as I pulled into the parking lot at the Y I knew the treadmill situation would be tough. It was full… And indeed, all of the treadmills were taken. Bummer, I would have to start out on the track. I just wanted to get this run over and done with. I could do anything for 45 laps, right? As soon as I started running around the highly banked track my piriformis was hurting. These were going to be 45 long laps if it was going to feel like I had a fork jabbed right in middle of my piriformis the entire time. The first mile clicked off in 9:43, which at the time I was disappointed about. I had kind of thought I was going to be faster. Just then I noticed that a treadmill had opened up, thank goodness! I ran over there to snag it. Who would have ever thought I would be so excited about an empty treadmill?

I wound up next to some body builder guy who was just about to get started on his run, just as soon as he got off of his cell phone to make plans to meet his buddies at the bar later. I’m guessing he was a body builder because he was wearing his weight lifting gloves. On the treadmill. If you read Missy’s blog, all of a sudden I thought I was a part of this episode. I had my Disney Marathon shirt on and cranked the treadmill up to 6.5. Maybe a little fast, but like I mentioned, I was a little disappointed that my first mile was a bit slow and I was ready to make up for it.

As I got going I looked over at Mr. Bodybuilder next to me. He was running at a 5.0 pace. Nothing wrong with that. He kept glancing over at my treadmill though, to see what I was doing. It was almost like he didn’t want to get chicked on the treadmill. He was running along, but every once in awhile he would grab on to the bars on the side. Then he glanced over at my treadmill and pumped it up to 6.0. Now he’s running, reaching for the bars, catching up, then trying to hang on to the console in front of him. He looks over at me and bumps the treadmill up to 6.5. He’s struggling and dropping back. Next thing I know he’s gone off the back. He gets back on the treadmill but shortly after that he calls it a day. 6 minutes in. Poor guy.

The rest of my run was uneventful. I finished it up and spent a good amount of time stretching it out, but my piriformis still hurts. Sigh…time for some more ART I think…

Weekend Wrap-Up

Friday

I had a 90 minute massage scheduled for after work on Friday. I aim to go once a month just to keep any nagging tightness in check, and this was also my first chance to get in and see my massage therapist since the marathon. I had a few things I wanted her to look at, one of which was piriformis. After my piriformis got worked on...ow...I was even more keenly aware of it...

I accidentally fell asleep on the couch that evening, and finally woke up around midnight and made my way upstairs to bed. Unfortunately I was pretty awake after this and I wound up lying in bed and listening to the crazy wind whipping around outside for awhile. Ugh, talk about a crappy sleep that night.

Saturday

I had a 10 km run on the schedule for Saturday. Even though it was somewhat cool and windy out there was some nice sunshine. We had gotten a light dusting of snow earlier in the morning. Ugh...conditions on the sidewalks in my neighborhood these days are not good. Thanks to all of the snow, then the crazy cold temperatures, followed by some slight warming, then some more cool temperatures...we have quite a bit of packed and icy snow around here. The light dusting of snow complicated things even more as it hid a lot of the packed ice. This run was not fun and it was slow going as I was either worried about slipping or was slipping around a bunch. My piriformis was pretty painful on the run too. It felt like I had this huge knot of pain right in the centre of my right butt cheek. Sounds like I need to get back to my chiro for a little bit of ART. I was just happy when the run was over and done with.

I had meant to get in a bit of strength work after the run, but after grabbing a quick bite to eat I was freezing. I headed upstairs to take a hot shower and when I got back downstairs I had a text message from my sister-in-law inviting me to see Twilight later that evening. I fully admit that I am a little late to the party where Twilight is concerned. I was only 100 pages in to the book. I threw all other plans aside and attempted to get as far into the book as I could before the movie. Alas, I didn't make it to the end, and as I drove to the theatre I remembered that I had neglected my strength workout. Oops. I enjoyed the movie and had a great night out with my sister-in-law.

Sunday

I had 60 minute spin workout on the calendar labeled spin/strength intervals. This was a great workout! Single leg drills, long sets of high cadence, and long sets of low cadence including 3 x 3:00 stand intervals. Still loving my bike fit and my new seat... I followed the workout up with 10 minutes of core.

After that it was time to hit the grocery store and get to work on making dinner. I found a yummy sounding recipe in the latest Food & Wine magazine that I was keen to try - chicken sofrito. Chicken legs and thighs seasoned with chili powder and cooked up with a mixture of rice, onions, garlic, jalapeno, red pepper and tomatoes. I served it with a 2006 Alamos Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina. Delicious! The chicken was a pretty simple dish to make, so I would highly recommend it.
I hope you all had a great weekend!

Yoga, pilates and a little active release

On Sunday I opted for a double shot of back to back yoga and power pilates classes. I loved the yoga instructor, except the fellow next to me in class was so chatty it was getting in the way of me getting my om on. The power pilates class was amazing. We did a bunch of great moves for abs, followed by a pretty serious hip and leg work out. My piriformis was letting me know that it still existed during those moves despite some massage work the day before.

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I talked to Instructor S about my piriformis issues at BBC on Thursday, and she was able to notice my tight hips while running that day. This was again confirmed by my massage therapist on Saturday. S recommended a guy to me, Dr. A, who would supposedly "help me work out my hips." Not knowing exactly what this meant of course I called and made an appointment right away. Turns out Dr. A specializes in Active Release therapy. He's a pretty serious athlete as I was able to admire his Ironman medals hanging on the walls as I waited. We chatted about what was going on and he was able to pin point the painful spots and helped to stretch them out. He believes my piriformis issues stem from a weak lower back, and my hips work to compensate instead. Pain is coming from scar tissue that has formed within the muscle that is lying on top of my sciatica. The good news is the scar tissue can be broken down, and with some specific exercises I can strengthen the lower back muscles to avoid this, and running won't make it worse. So....if that means I can run then I'm shooting for between 5 and 6 miles tonight.

Slacker Gal Leana

OK, just call me a slacker because I didn't run last night. I was supposed to meet up with Instructor S's running group for speed work. Despite the dark clouds it wasn't raining, and the temperature was perfect for a run...so at least I can say that I didn't bail because of the weather. Honestly...my rear was still hurting from boot camp the day before. I believe it is my piriformis, and it comes up every once in awhile but then goes away. So I opted for a night of rest and some stretching since I know we will be running at BBC tonight and I'll aim to get my mileage in before class. The worst thing about bailing last night was having to admit to a group that I wasn't going. When you are running on your own, you only have yourself to discuss this decision with. But somehow having to call and make the excuse that I was resting made me feel like such a slacker. Oh well, rest is an important component of any training program....right?