Bad Runs...Good Runs...

Wednesday: Optional 30 min run

When Wednesday's run said optional, apparently the better option was to not run. But I didn't know that when I set out... It snowed overnight and the pathways were a mess of spotty patches of ice. I ran slow...I don't know if I even got my heart rate in to zone 2...I just didn't want to slip and fall. But something about the surface most likely affected my gait and I developed a pretty intense pain in my lower right shin. Of course at the time you think:

1. I just changed shoes. Maybe it is the shoes.
2. Maybe it is the snow. Maybe I'm running funny.
3. Maybe something else is wrong...

I stopped to stretch my calf and shin and it helped a bit. A concerned runner asked if everything was okay, which was nice of him. I got back to work feeling a bit defeated and worried.

Thursday: 6 x 2 min intervals

I really didn't know what to expect with running intervals. I promised myself that if the pathways were as crappy as they were the day before I wouldn't run. I also promised myself that if my shin hurt that I would immediately stop and turn around. I wasn't going to mess around with running intervals if things were hurting. And oh yeah...it was -6°C (21°F) out. Brr! Luckily the pathways were so much better as it looked like they finally threw some salt down to get rid of most of the ice. I ran my 10 min warm up at a nice and easy pace and everything felt pretty good so I continued on with the workout. This run felt so much better than my slow optional run the day before! And despite the chilly temperature it actually didn't feel too bad out. I was well bundled up, the sun was out, and thankfully it wasn't too windy otherwise it might have been quite miserable. Anyhow, fingers crossed that all is okay with the shin and Wednesday's run was just a weird fluke.

As for the rest of the week I've got a rest day today. Tomorrow is a 2:00 run with 3 x 15:00 at marathon race pace with 10:00 aerobic running between race pace efforts. Should be a good one! Sunday is Grey Cup - the Superbowl of the Canadian Football League! Last year we had the Great Grey Cup-Cake Off. This year we are working around the theme of Montreal vs. Calgary and it promises good times!

Unwired Running

Yesterday I really wanted to get a 5 miler in over lunch. As I was heading out a coworker in the elevator asked me what was on my wrist.

"Ah, that's my GPS. It tells me how far I've run and how fast. It really suits my type A engineering personality that wants to know all the little details of everything."

Whatever I said must have offended my dear Garmin because after that it refused to cooperate. Getting a signal downtown is always a pain thanks to all the tall buildings, but after standing around waiting for a signal with no luck I was getting impatient. Not to mention that there were some pretty ominous looking clouds off in the distance that I was hoping to avoid. My Garmin always catches a signal the fastest while it is sitting on my dashboard and I am zooming down the highway. I thought I should try and apply the same principal so I started zooming down the pathway. Still acquiring... Finally it gave up and asked me if I was indoors. No... Have you moved more than 100 m since you turned the unit on? Um, I hope so....busted. After that I gave up, but out of habit I kept glancing down every once in awhile to see that despite all the running I had been doing I had still moved 0 feet. My shins were complaining. I wasn't really a happy camper. As I hit the pedestrian bridge at Crowchild the rain drops started to fall. Luckily it wasn't an all out downpour and the falling rain actually felt really nice. My shins decided to get on board with the rest of my body and they stopped hurting. I stopped taking walk breaks. Finally the run was feeling good! I just kept going and finished up in 51 minutes on a route that I knew was 5 miles (later confirmed with Gmaps). I even made it back to the office without looking like too much of a drowned rat. Success!

BBC - Spring Session - Class #1

Last night was the first BBC class for the spring session. Is it spring here in Calgary? Nope, sure doesn't feel like it! It was -3 deg C and we met up in a snow covered field at Edworthy Park. This time around I'm still in Instructor S's class (aka Sheena), except I'm now in the intermediate class as opposed to the beginner one. It looks like we have a pretty good group of motivated women in the group, and lots of strong runners! Yesterday was a total body workout as we did some circuits focusing on lower body (dips, jump squats, step ups, hamstring stuff), upper body (tricep dips, push ups, rowing, bicep curls), and abs, plus a little running mixed in between the different circuits. I took it easy on the running side of things - didn't want to go too fast or too hard and muck up my newly pain free shin. After class I talked to Sheena about my shin hurting and that the main culprit was a tight hip flexor. She laughed because during my fitness assessment she commented that I really stuck my rear out on the step ups and that it was probably because my hip flexors were too tight. My comment at the time was that maybe my rear just stuck out on its own. Yeah...apparently this issue has been building for awhile then... Anyhow, I'm taking today off to rest the ol' leg (which still feels good BTW), then running and BBC tomorrow night, followed by another ART session to keep my leg in top form for my upcoming races.

Blech

I can think of only one word to describe my run last night...blech. When we flew back Sunday night the view from the airplane window looked like a black and white photograph. All of the snow on the ground was insane. Apparently it was pretty awful weather here while I was gone. It was cold all day yesterday and more snow fell off and on. After work I hit the grocery store, then went home and put some salmon in a marinade of soy sauce, lime zest and juice, honey, garlic, ginger and chili sauce. I then got out some winter gear and went out for a run. I guess I should mention that while my shins hurt during the race on Sunday, my right leg was still bugging me all day at work. And....I ran anyway. It was -8 deg (17 deg F) and snow was coming down as I started out. After trudging through the snow for a mile my shin started acting up so the run was one of those "get it done" kind of things. Remarkably the temperature didn't feel that bad though. It really wasn't a great run though and you can see it in my average pace - a dismal 12:19/mi average pace. On the plus side that salmon was fantastic for dinner!

---

I did visit the chiro for a little ART this afternoon on the shin. Boy I love ART. After poking around the shin, calf and my hip flexor it is feeling better. Apparently my ridiculously tight hip flexor is probably one of the main reasons my shin has been bugging me. Tonight BBC starts up.

The Garmin Must Be Lying...

So first off....last week I came to my little conclusion about high heels and tight calves being responsible for my shin splints. On Saturday I went for a massage and did I have some serious knots in my right calve. No wonder things were hurting on the run! Hopefully the massage has bought me a few weeks of high heeled bliss as I tested these babies out today:

I hummed and hawed on going for a run over lunch today because the temperature was a bit colder than what I had planned for: 3 deg C (37 deg F) and I only had capri pants, a short sleeve top and a long sleeve top. I figured I'd head out anyway though and hopefully the sun would make things feel warm enough. Thank goodness I did head out though because I had an AMAZING run! My Garmin was slow to catch a signal. Once I started running I looked down and thought it must be off because it said I was running way faster than what is usual for me. I settled into my stride and I hit the one mile mark right where I figured - at 9:47. I rarely talk about my training run pace on here because...well...I'm slow. I get excited when I run below an 11 minute mile. Anyhow, when I thought maybe my Garmin might not be off I wanted to see if I could keep this up. I walked for a quick 30 seconds and took off again. I kept checking my pace and I was still on. Mile 2 - 9:42. One mile left to go....a ramp up to a foot bridge took a bit out of my legs right at the end but I managed to salvage it on the final stretch. Mile 3 - 9:59. Good enough for me - all three miles below a 10:00/mi pace....total run done in 29:30...my fastest paced training run yet. And this after my insane hilly run yesterday. As for the shins - they felt great the entire way.

It is all about the shoes...

I've been doing a lot of thinking about shoes lately. I was thinking my pink Asics GT-2110s were responsible for my shin pain but after trying out my oh so comfy Asics Kayano 13's on a lunch time run I was still having shin pain. I'd give up for a few days, then go run early Saturday morning and everything would feel fine. What gives? After having two great feeling runs in a row this week I realized that the dividing factor between good runs and bad runs was whether I ran in the morning or the afternoon, not what shoe I was wearing. Well, at least not what shoe I was wearing on the run. As you've noticed before I have a love for shoes but I've gotten into a rut wearing the boring flat loafer type of shoe all the time. I have this closet of great shoes and I've been trying to let some of these shoes see some daylight. And some pavement. I think that when I wear heels maybe my calves are tightening up while I'm sitting at my desk and when I go for a run and get the blood moving it is translating into shin pain. The interesting thing is on all of my runs the pain starts one mile in and diminishes just before the 3 mile mark. Today I wore heels to work and when my shin started acting up I started to think about this theory. After my shins sorted themselves out I never had any more complaining from them for the rest of the 5 mile run. I started wondering if maybe there was a kinesiology grad student somewhere in need of a research project and maybe they could help me out with my theory. Of course I could just test the theory myself with some flat shoes, but the good news is the severity of my shin pain was a lot less today. Maybe I don't have to give up the heels, maybe this is just something I have to work through. Who knows?

I did find this link over at Run For Life that confirms just how bad high heels are for your feet. Hmm.

Apparently running, actually in high heels, is bad for you too. Particularly if you are claiming workers comp because you are too injured to work, like the fellow who was trying to win Hannah Montana tickets by running around in high heels and women's clothing and had it all caught on video. Oops.

Good Friday and a Good Run

I had all the best of intentions to run on Good Friday, however my body decided that sleeping in was more important. By the time I woke up I needed to get a move on to prepare for dinner and company that evening so it just didn't happen. While perhaps not the most appropriate for Good Friday, the stuffed pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon was absolutely amazing... As was the Baileys and banana bread pudding that was had for dessert...
My niece was hamming it up for the camera as usual.
Saturday morning I met up with the usual group of runners at Eau Claire, except most of the folks that I usually run with weren't there. Everyone was a really speedy runner, but luckily Stacey and I were at the same pace and we watched the group pull away from us within the first three minutes of the run. We agreed that we couldn't keep the pace with the rest of the group so we'd just continue on together for a 12K run. I was worried that the pace we were keeping in the first mile wouldn't be something I could continue with the entire way but I settled into it and it was feeling great. My shins were also feeling great and even the 20:1 intervals were flying by. Unbelievable. I finished up with 7.43 miles run at a consistent pace the entire way through. Running with Stacey was great. I don't think I would have pushed myself as much if we weren't running together and at the end of the day the run felt terrific.

Off to a better start

This week seems to be off to a better start. I made it to Fit Ball last night for an intense round of push ups, tricep dips, bicep curls, abs and hamstrings. The workout kicked my rear end last night and I was pretty sure I would be hurting today....but I'm not. I feel a bit disappointed! Today I got out for a 3 mi run around the river today over lunch. The weather is supposed to start cooling off so I wanted to make sure I got outside to enjoy it as much as possible. I really tried to concentrate on my stride length but once I hit the one mile point my right shin started to bug me and it gravitated up towards my knee. The bulk of my shin problems have occurred in my pink GT-2210s that have a whopping 165 miles on them. Any other shin pain in different shoes has happened the day after an achy shin run in the pink shoes. From the get go these shoes have not felt as comfortable as my green GT-2110s that have 280 miles on them so I'm starting to wonder if it is a shoe thing. Maybe these babies need to get removed from the rotation. I'll try swapping over to my Kayano's for some mid-week runs downtown to see if it helps the situation at all.

---

I'm not one for talking about diet too much on this thing unless I'm telling you about a cupcake contest or some ridiculously good food I made or all of the wine I've been drinking. That's probably because I detest the word diet. It is a four letter word after all. The bad news is I've probably still been eating like I'm training for a marathon...and well...I'm not. I've become a lot better about cooking at home, but I still tend to eat out at lunch and otherwise I'm sure portion sizes are my big downfall. I'm going to try to cut back on some of those lunches out and I will strive to include more fruits and veggies in my day. After my run was done today I was walking behind a fellow carrying a bunch of stuff from Peter's Drive In. This place is an iconic hamburger, fry and milkshake stop here in Calgary. Apparently Hugh Jackman believes this is the source of the best burger in the world. Anyhow....I could smell the fries this guy was carrying and wow....I really wanted fries...badly. Instead I grabbed some salad once I got back to work to have with some leftover pasta from dinner the other night. Probably a better choice. What do you guys do to keep the whole eating thing on track? Suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

The weekend in review

Ah, so today starts a new week and hopefully a chance to get back on track. I got in two runs last week - my disastrous 3 mi run on Thursday and a half decent 6.41 mi run on Saturday. Saturday morning I met up with the group on the north side of town. Some folks were going for long and hilly, other folks shorter and hilly and another group shorter and flat. I was going to try and run the hills but after we went up one big climb we ran into the group going the flatter route and I veered off to join them. One of the ladies we were running with is a walk coach with TNT and she just took a group to the Disney race. I told her about my shin problems - it seems to happen during my weekday runs but the weekend runs feel great. She wondered if I was overstriding by trying to go faster and if that was maybe causing a problem. I'll have to keep an eye on that. We wound up running a bit slower than my usual pace but the company was great. At the end I veered off to take a slightly longer path around the lake to our starting point and I picked the pace up for the final mile or so. Afterwards one of the group members had us all over for breakfast at her place and it was a great way to cap the morning run off. Yesterday the weather was too great to ignore so the pup Finlay and I headed out to Baker Park for a great walk around the Bow River and over towards Valley Ridge. Despite the warm temperatures there was still some ice and snow on the ground in the shady parts. You can tell folks have had cabin fever - it was incredibly busy out on the pathway. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the weather stays this way...

Well that sucked...

Only one word can possibly describe today's run over lunch - terrible. Well, maybe you could throw awful, stupendous or miserable out there as well. Things looked promising at the beginning - the weather was reasonably warm and sunny and I was raring to go. I was raring for about the first 0.1 miles though. After that my shins started to ache. I've been having some shin splints for the last couple of weeks and I know it isn't my shoes because I've swapped around a few pairs with varying amounts of mileage on them and it hasn't made a difference. The kicker was about 0.25 miles in when I developed some sort of weird cramp or stitch in my abdomen that only hurt when I ran, not when I walked. So I wound up running 2-4 minutes, walking for 1....it was such a disaster until the final 0.2 miles and then it felt almost half decent. I guess that is what I get for taking a couple days off...from mojo to pure suckage in the space of a few days. Can I tell you guys that I'm a bit nervous about my 10K next weekend?