Groin, Groin....Gone

Ouch!  So....barely slept last night because my groin hurt every time I moved.  Rolling over or moving from one side to another was a near impossibility...Ugggh...  I am only a third of the way through training...I soooo can NOT have a groin injury at this point.

Pulled out the other shoes that I bought in Spokane and wore them for today's run, am eating better so my body gets what it needs to repair better, loaded up on Ibuprofen and a "value size" tube of Voltaren and spent my lunch hour doing some hip and hamstring stretching to see if it will help. So far today I am feeling MUCH better than yesterday (though yesterday's run WAS longer).  This Saturday is a 13k run....That will be the next test.

However, I keep hearing about the woman who ran the Chicago Marathon last weekend...at 38 weeks pregnant....and gave birth 7 hours after crossing the finish line!??  WTF!  SERIOUSLY???  Who does that!!??  Ok, that puts my achy girl bits in a little better perspective.  Suck it up, Schmidt.... At least you're not carrying another human along with you when you run....a human who is trying to get out no less!  Yikes!  THAT is commitment.

Four Weeks in...

Ok....we've completed four weeks.  We're officially 1/3 of the way there.  It only gets harder from here...YIKES!  My glutes/hips are NOT particularly enjoying the long runs.  Will have to figure something out with those.  Foam roller? Stretching? Strengthening?  I dunno.  Trial and error I guess. The long run for week 4 was 11k.  Still well within my comfort zone after doing 10k long runs all summer.  Though I got the 10k under an hour, I have thrown all thoughts about speed out the window.  It's all about just getting it done at this point.

Yup....one hour, 16 minutes....but that's ok.  What worries me is the fact that my hips, lower back and glutes were quite sore for the last part of the run and I was very stiff and sore after we were done (felt much better after stretching).  Not sure how I'll get through a 19k run!  Yikes!

This upcoming weekend we'll be doing the longest run we've ever done!  13k.  That's one more than Bloomsday, 3 more than a "regular" long run.  And a little scary...  But we'll just do what we can do I guess.  Good thing I'm stubborn :)

First Week....DONE!

Done my first official week of half-marathon training.  Made one mistake - thinking Friday was a cross-training day, not a rest day...so did a 8.5k walk that I didn't need to do...  But oh well...

Struggled through both the Thursday and the Saturday run, though.... Began to suspect that perhaps working out hard in the gym 5x/week in addition to the running and cross-training required by our program might be a bit much.... So, I consulted the experts....on Twitter...I mean, where else would you find experts when you live in a small town with no real obvious experts to consult?  One of them is author and Runners World contributor, Bart Yasso - so, really....he knows his stuff.

So, the consensus of my Twitter experts was a resounding YES....I am doing too much :(  Both said circuit training 1x/week is the most I should be doing (that was before I fessed up to the spin class starting this week).  Soooo....I am not willing to give up my workouts entirely....but I am going to give in a little.  Monday and Friday's are official rest days...I am going to only do some stretching and core work those days and Wednesdays.  Running will be Tuesday/Wednesday, Saturday/Sunday.  On Tuesday and Thursday (likely??) I will workout in the gym....but primarily on upper body.  Thursday I will also do spin class (which is my official cross-training day, anyway).  Hopefully taking it easy 3x/week at lunch will help my body to better deal with the training to come....and perhaps will let my groin issues improve somewhat as well.

Next weekend is supposed to be an 8k run on Saturday and a 4k easy run Sunday...However, we're signed up for a 10k in Creston on Sunday...so the 4k will be Saturday, the 10k Sunday....and then after that...I should be able to stay on schedule...hopefully!

Hurry up December!  I'm ready for this to be done already!  The half-marathon is taking over my life!

One Down....

I did it!  First 10k of the season and it is done, done, DONE!  And it was pretty great too.  I thought briefly that I might be able to make it in under an hour - but it wasn't to be.  Still pretty darn happy with the 1:02:13 time I got though.  A sub-hour 10k definitely seems possible....down the road.  I gave it all I had today, though.  Ankle gave me a little trouble and at one point my left hamstring had a couple moments of seizing up...but otherwise it was a great run in the sunshine.  Oh...still having iPod trouble too.  Checked last night and it said battery was at 75% so didn't bother re-charging it.  About 15 minutes into my run, it died....  Would have been nice to have had music the rest of the way but was fine without it. 

Tons of people on Rails to Trails today.  Not sure if that is because it is a rare nice weekend, a long weekend, or the combination of the two.  Finished off my 10k with running 10 sprints and then some stretching.  A group that seemed to have biked from Kimberley came while I was stretching.  One of the guys told me when I was done that I "look pretty limber".  Not quite sure what that meant...

Almost tempted to do a bike ride today too...but think perhaps I'll sit in the sunshine with a book and a beer instead :)  I <3 Summer!