cheryl

It was my birthday today, so I have to stay very positive in my race report.  So I'll start with the positives:  I am now a member of the St. George marathon 10-year club!  And I did qualify for Boston so I have at least two more years to run it if I ever decide that's what I want to do.  Any other positives?  I completed the marathon with a minimum of walking after my legs rebelled early on.  I ran the most even splits I've ever run at this marathon.  Usually I negative split by three or four minutes, or positive split by many, many minutes (when I've faded badly at the end).  Today I ran the first half in 2:01 and the second in 2:00, so pretty even for me.  I was faster than I was when I first ran it 13 years ago.  Now the negatives: I was 26 minutes slower than last year.  I can only blame about 10 minutes of being slower on the weather, so how do I explain the other 16?  I certainly was not undertrained, I ran MUCH more this year than last, I ran much more this year than any previous year, and yet this was my second slowest SGM (besides two that I don't count because I had some health issues during those).  I think it all comes down to hamstring/piriformis issues that have bugged me pretty much all year.  Aerobically I feel fine, my legs just always feel weak and achy and there is always pain in the hamstring area of both legs.  It always takes me a while to loosen up, but with the weather today, I don't think they ever loosened up.  So until I get these leg problems taken care of, I will not be setting any more PR's or apparently not even getting close.  My husband says my problem may be one that doctors can't help, the problem being getting older and entering the change of life (she whispers).  I hope I still have one or two last hurrahs left in me.  Stay tuned...

My fellow BBK members--what a great job all of you did.  I take some vicarious pleasure in your accomplishments by helping to hook us up with Steve and having him reveal to us the secret to marathon running:  lots of miles!  Thank you Steve, you're great!!  And Sasha, your encouragement and your willingness to answer any questions I've had is always appreciated!  It's been a lot of fun being a member of this blog.  I enjoyed meeting many of you Friday night. 

On a side-note, I have to add one more positive on this day:  OJ Simpson was convicted of armed robbery and could be sentenced to life in prison.  It's interesting, 13 years ago in 1995 when I first ran SGM, he had just been acquitted of double homicide in that wonderful trial I'm sure all of you remember.  I still remember being mad when I ran the marathon.  So his legal issues make interesting bookends to my 10 years of running the St. George marathon.

I feel like I need to update my blog.  I decided after the marathon to take time off to let whatever is ailing my legs to heal up.   I went to a physical therapist on Thursday and the problem was diagnosed as ischial tuberosity which I guess is a fancy way of saying I have tendonitis on the upper part of the hamstrings on both legs.  My chiropractor agrees that is the problem also.  I'm getting treatment from both the PT and chiropractor and hopefully the problem will heal quickly and I'll be back to running soon.  In the meantime, I'm trying to do cross-training, with a little biking, a little stair-stepping, a little elliptical and maybe some pool running as part of the regime.  I feel I need to give my body a break from the constant pounding of running.  So don't expect any big mile weeks from me anytime soon.

I missed running with the group today because I need to let my hammys heal before I can run again.  I'm one of those lucky runners that seem to always get injuries that take a long time to heal.  My PT said tendon injuries are the hardest to heal because tendons don't get a good blood supply going to them, to they take longer to heal than say a muscle or something that does get a lot of blood.  So who knows how long I'll be out.  I know from sad experience if I don't take the time off now and let things heal up, it will just stay a nagging injury and will just keep on bugging me, and eventually I will have to take time off, so I might as well do it now.  I will blog my cross-training just so I can keep track of what I do.  So all you BBK's, I'll miss you, but hopefully when I come back I'll be a healthier and happier runner.  You guys stay healthy and happy!!

I went to the SJ Rec Center and spent 30 minutes on the stair stepper, then 30 minutes on the elliptical.  I'm trying to do 5Ks on the elliptical, similar to what I do on a treamill.  I think what I can do on the elliptical would be what I could do on a treadmill.  Right now with resistance set to 10 it takes me about 25:30 to run the 5K.  I'll try to get faster in the weeks to come.

I' m going to start recording my cross-training as mileage so it doesn't look like I'm doing nothing.  I first went to the Rec Center at 9:00 for a yoga class.  I need all that stretching and other stuff,.  Then I went upstairs and did the stair master for 40 minutes.  That is quite the workout.  I feel like that has got to be keeping me in running shape, at least somewhat, right?  I then did the elliptical, pedaling backwards, for 10 minutes.  It was a lot of fun.  I miss my running group a lot, but I've got to say I've enjoyed this cross-training.  But, BBK group, you are still my first love!  Hope to be back soon.

My cross-training today:  35 minutes on the elliptical, 22:47 of it at a fast pace (did a 5K in that time) on a level 10; 23 minutes on the stair stepper.  I then walked with my dog on the canal road for about 30 minutes.  How many miles is all that?  I think I'll just put down 5, that sounds good.

For cross-training today, I spent 50 minutes on the elliptical.  Lots of fun.  I figured since my BBK group went 60 minutes today, I should do 60 also, but only made it to 50 because I had to get home so my son could have the car.

Update on the injury:  when I broke my toe a few years ago, I could feel it get better each day.  In other words, every day it felt a little better, and by a week after it felt almost healed.  For this current injury, every day it feels about the same.  If there is any improvement, I can't really tell, but I figure there has to be since I'm not running on it.  That's why I think it will be at least a month and probably longer before I can run again.  Remember when Carlos Boozer had the never ending hamstring injury a couple of years ago?  Everyone thought he was faking the injury because no injury takes that long to heal, or so they said.  Unfortunately, these hamstring injuries take a long time to heal.  So I'm just going to have to become a friend of the gym and learn to love cross-training.

On another note, I went to the BYU bookstore the other day, and saw they were selling shirts that said, "Quest for 12-1."  Sorry, BYU fans, I couldn't resist, and I'm a BYU fan myself.

Not much today, 20 minutes on the stair master.  Actually, timewise it wasn't a lot, but exercise effort-wise it was quite a bit.  Nothing gives you an aerobic workout like that stairmaster.  I have a love/hate relationship with it.

I couldn't spend a lot of time at the gym today because my 9 year old's football team was making a visit to BYU.  We got to see the locker room, weight room and then we got to watch a practice.  Some of the players got into a scuffle right in front of us.  I thought that wasn't much of an example for these young boys, but it did make things interesting.  Then all the players came over and gave autographs to anyone who asked.  They were all very nice.  I was especially impressed with Bronco Mendenhall.  I saw a lot of kindness and goodness in the way he treated everyone.  Maybe I'm just a biased BYU fan, but I was just really impressed by him.  Harvey Unga was also really nice, he went up to all the boys and called them by name (they had their jerseys on with their names on them) and thanked them all for coming.  It was a fun experience and I will root even more vigorously for BYU now.

I spent about 35 minutes on the elliptical and was able to go the 5K distance in 21:55 at a level 10.  I then did 12 minutes on the stair master.  I also did some yoga and core work.  I heard that a weak core leads to hamstring issues, so I'm going to try and strengthen that area.  I also was able to run in place for 5 minutes with no pain.  I'm not sure what that means because most of the pain is when I stride out, but maybe if I can run in place regularly I'll keep some muscle memory on how it feels to run.

My workout today consisted of 53 minutes on the elliptical.  I did 1:30 at a hard pace, then 30 seconds recovery.  That was pretty fun.  I then walked for 10 minutes on the treadmill, just to see if walking aggravated my hamstrings.  I could feel a little something, but it wasn't too bad.

 I'm tempted every day to run, but I just have to resist, knowing I'll be glad that I took the time to heal completely.  I keep telling myself that if I can't really run again for two months, that's ok, two months goes fast.  I remember when I had an IT band injury many years ago, it was a bad injury, at its worst I couldn't have run if I wanted to. Despite that, I resisted taking time off from running, and I would rest a few days, then test it out.  I did that several times before I just decided I would not run for two months.  I stuck to that, and then after two months started running again, had a really good running season capped by a PR at St. George, and have never again had IT band issues.  So I guess taking enough time off is the answer to some of these nagging injuries.  I hope I can stick to my plan of no running until everything feels better.

I'm especially tempted to run when I read the blogs of the BBK people telling about the workouts.  Then some of them talk about how cold they were, and then I'm happy I didn't have to get up early to run in the dark and cold.  So BBK people, keep telling how cold it is during the workouts so I don't miss the group so much.

To the Rec Center.  I did 2x20 minutes on the stair stepper.  The last 20 minutes I put the stair master on its highest level and did some running--not the whole 20 minutes, that would have killed me, but some minute intervals spread throughout.  I can do that kind of running without feeling any pain in my hamstrings, so maybe that's what I'll have to do the next few weeks.  I then spent 25 minutes on the elliptical.  Family Guy was on the TV when I did that, so of course I was forced to watch.  What a show.  Funny but very crude at the same time.

Everyone knows I'm not running this mileage, right?  I'm just guesstimating how my cross-training translates into miles, just so it won't look like I'm doing absolutely nothing.  I don't want to see zeros for the next few weeks.

Anyway, my workout today consisted of walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes, varying the speed, trying to stretch out my legs and at the same time stretch the hamstrings.  I was able to get to 4.5 mph at Level 2 with no pain, so I saw that as a good sign.

Later, I went to the Rec Center and did the stairmaster for about 25 minutes.  I first just walked for 20 minutes, then for 5 minutes I threw in some running.  The machine is getting easier, I can have it at a higher level without my legs burning from pain.  Today I ran at level 17 without holding on to the handrails.  Before this I had always held on to the handrails because I have a big fear of falling off, that would be really bad.  I think if I'm really careful I won't fall, at least I hope not.  I guess I like to live dangerously on those gym machines.