Run Dedeaux Run

No sense in dragging it out.  I fell.  On my knee that had surgery.  ugh 

So, how’d it happen?  I let a big wasp in the house (WHY ARE THERE STILL WASPS FLYING AROUND IN NOVEMBER ANYWAY??) and was sort of backing away from it and I tripped over our doggie gate.  So, I was moving backward quickly, my foot got caught on the gate and I hit the wood floor HARD on my knee.  Right away, it felt like hell.  The pain was so intense that I was curled up on the floor, grabbing my knee, rocking in pain.  I am not exaggerating. 

I had my phone in my hand and instinctively called my husband.  Poor guy….  At first, all I could do was yell “I fell, I fell”  over and over.  Then I started yelling “I fell on my knee” and was crying hysterically.  I don’t know what I was most upset about, the pain or the fact that I’d fallen on the knee that I just had surgery on back in July.  I kept thinking that I was gonna try to stand up and would realize that it was broken this time.  Can you even break your knee?  All I knew for sure was that I was in terrible pain and the dog was licking my arms and the side of my face like there was no tomorrow.

My husband was saying some stuff about how it would be okay, blah, blah, blah.  I appreciated it.  Actually, I was so glad that he answered.  I felt helpless lying on the floor and I really needed to hear his voice. 

When I got up, I realized nothing was broken.  I could walk with a limp.  I had yet ANOTHER big sore on my knee.  I think I have the worst looking knee in America.   I’ve got two nickel sized old scars from falling last year, my brand new nickel sized open sore from falling two days ago and three sets of triple incisions from knee surgery.  I look like I’ve led a really hard life if you can only see my knees.

So, enough of the belly aching.  I fell on Thursday.  I don’t run on Friday, so I had a full day and a half of icing and rest.  On Saturday morning, I got up and ran.  By then, I was walking without a limp.  It hurt a little going up the stairs and I could see a little puffiness from the fall, but I thought I was okay to run a little bit.  After all, I only needed to run ‘5 easy miles’.  How many times have I questioned the term ‘easy’ when it’s attached to running 5 miles???  It wasn’t easy.  When I first headed out, it was sore and a little stiff.  After about a mile, it sort of loosened up and I felt alright.  By the time I got to 2-1/2 miles, my knee was getting more sore and I felt like I shouldn’t be running on it.  So…  I ran another mile and a half to my house.  It had started to rain and I just wanted to be back at home fast, so I ran.  (Uh…  not that I actually run fast…)

Now that a few hours have passed, my knee feels fine.  I’ve been sitting most of the day and I’ve also been icing it, BUT it really does feel fine.  It is strange.  Most of the discomfort while I was running was coming from the outside – like my SKIN over my knee was hurting.  It felt like it was stretching and that stretching was causing the pain.  The pain was very different from back before I had surgery.  That pain came from inside my knee. 

Maybe I am just rationalizing.  I’m scheduled to run 16 miles in the morning – which may or may not happen anyway.  It is going to be raining in the morning.

This is not running related, but I am sitting here reflecting on the past 12 months of my life and I really believe that this has been the absolute worst year of my life.  Lots of pitfalls, disappointment, bad things happening, health scares, and just general crappiness. 

I think that while I was lying on the floor in pain, I was most afraid that one of the few things that I (me, myself and I)  have  complete control over was gone.  That would be a very bad thing.

Whew!  What a difference a week makes!

Call me insane, I guess.  I didn’t stick to the schedule this week.  I’ve said for 4 weeks straight that I am going to stick to it, but it just doesn’t work out.  Maybe I need to change my schedule…

So, last Sunday, I ‘ran’ 14 miles in hot, humid Houston.  It was bad.  I ran slow, I was tired and weak and even thought I was going to die at one point – really.  I was so out of breath that I was gasping for air and NOTHING WAS COMING IN.  All I felt was a big ole’ lump in my throat.  Like I said, it was bad.  After a suggestion from my long run partner, a.k.a. husband, we planned a do-over for the 14 miler. 

I had a rest day on Monday that I was SO happy to have.  I was tired and dejected after the debacle on Sunday.  I ended up running all of my runs on the treadmill this week.  Not so good, but at least I got them done.

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the day before my do-over run, my head started hurting and my shoulder and neck were aching.  …SIGH…  I think the headache was mostly sinus/allergy related but had no idea what brought on the shouder/neck pain.  I took Aleve on Friday morning and again Friday night.

On Saturday morning, the alarm went off (in the wonderful bed at the Four Season’s Hotel, no less!) at 6:50.  My head was pounding and my shoulder was hurting so bad I couldn’t turn my head to look at my husband to tell him I couldn’t run.  …SIGH AGAIN…  “Would you be disappointed to run on Sunday at home?” I asked him.  He had no problem, rolled over and went back to sleep.  I, on the other hand, was upset.  Was I crapping out on this run because I was nervous and scared of a repeat?  After all, we WERE back in Houston.  It was around 70 degrees and humid.  I don’t think I manufactured the neck/shoulder pain.  It was REALLY hurting.  And after I layed (lied?) in bed for a few minutes, I realized what the headache was about.  I am a caffeine addict.  I hadn’t had coffee in two days.  DUH!  Alright.  Don’t judge me.  I could be addicted to FAR WORSE…  And plus, coffee is delicious.  🙂  So, I got up, showered and went down to the hotel’s Il Cafe and had some coffee and an apple.

Back at home and on Sunday morning, it was cold and windy.  I guess ‘cold and windy’ is relative, BUT I am a Texan and ‘cold and windy’ for me is 43 degrees with 20 mph winds.  (It felt nice in the sun, but in the shade, it was treacherous.)  We drove down to White Rock Lake to run the trail.  I’d never run WRL.  It is absolutely beautiful!  Didn’t even feel like I was in Dallas.  Very nice.  You can see some info about it here:  http://www.whiterocklake.org/?page_id=498. 

So anyway.  We started running and almost immediately, I had a sinking feeling of dejavue.  No bueno!  I struggled to breathe and was tired for about 3 or 4 miles THEN I REALIZED WHY!!!  We were cruising along WAY faster than I normally run.  Hmmm…  When I realized it, I just thought, “Okay, I’ll just keep running like this until I pass out.  Wonder how long that’ll take.”  We ran and ran and I finally got into a little bit of a rhythm.  Stuff was hurting but I am old and ‘stuff’ is gonna hurt at some point.  😉  I didn’t get really fatigued until about 12 miles.  After that, we were so close that the happiness of it all kept me going.  We finished this run about 20 minutes faster than we (I) finished the 14 mile run in Houston last week.  WOW!!  VERY NICE!  I was happy and felt very proud and thankful. 

So it’s been 9 hours since the run and I feel fine.  I’m a little stiff when I stand after being seated for a while but that’s about it.  🙂 

What a difference a week makes.  Last week I was in the dumps for real.  I feel great today! 

So, here’s what this week looked like:

• Monday:  OFF cause I ‘ran’ long on Sunday
• Tuesday:  7 long miles on the treadmill
• Wednesday:  5 miles on the treadmill
• Thursday:  off
• Friday:  5 miles on the treadmill at the Four Seasons Hotel where the fitness room attendant brought me water to the treadmill 🙂  That is what I call GOOD SERVICE!
• Saturday:  off because my head, neck and shoulder were KILLING ME!!! 
• Sunday:  14.07 miles 😉

Next Week: 

• Monday:  off
• Tuesday:  4
• Wednesday:  7 miles on treadmill at marathon pace – UGH – not looking forward to that
• Thursday:  4 miles on treadmill doing intervals
• Friday:  off
• Saturday:  5 miles
• Sunday:  16 miles, yes SIXTEEN miles!!

Okay, so maybe I’m a sucker, but… I got some new socks that are supposed to help support my arches, reduce the likelihood of blisters and chafing and make me run twice as fast. 🙂 Alright, so they don’t claim to make me run faster…

my new fancy socks

gotta figure out how to use these

I got a lot of great advice and suggestions from the lady at Luke’s Locker. I’ve found that runners are ALWAYS very helpful. Always want to talk about their sport with you. Sometimes it’s just useless rambling and what not, but this lady today was very helpful. 🙂

I’ll let y’all know how it goes Saturday. I’m wearing the new socks on Friday and again on Saturday if I can get them washed!

Gel practice starts with my long run on Saturday.

OH! SPEAKING OF LONG RUN… I’m thinking about going 12 miles on Saturday instead of 11. I know I said I needed to stick to the plan, but I am worried that I need to run longer than 20 miles in training. If I can just add a mile or two to that, I might feel more confident… We’ll see. I might just be pre-panicking.

Other things that I want to try:

1. Water bottle pack (click to see one)  – I have previously laughed at people wearing these, but…  WHATEVER!!  I can change my mind.  I could combine my stuff from my SPIBelt with water bottles.
   
2. Garmin 410 GPS  (click to see it)- Reason:  I want to get a heart rate monitor AND my iPhone battery won’t last longer than a half marathon and I would like to track miles.  (I use the Nike+ GPS program to track runs, now.

Feel free to sponsor one of these items for me if you’re feeling particularly generous!

Sock Performance Update:

I ran this morning in the new fancy socks.  They felt great when I put them on.  I like that they really hug my arches.  When I put my shoes on over them, though, I wasn’t too happy at first.   I could feel a line across the bottom of my heel where the heel material meets with the arch material.  Seems like it wouldn’t be so noticable, but it was.   It was annoying for about 5 minutes.  I guess that’s no big deal.  I DO think I need a larger size, though.  These are for size 7-9.  I wear a 9 in regular shoes but a 10-1/2 in running shoes.  They were a little too short. 

What’s the verdict?  They’re nice.  I don’t know if they are $11 worth of nice, though.  I am going to give these another try and I may also buy a bigger size to see if that makes any difference.

Today was a ‘tempo’ run day. Four miles – THANK GOD, because I think I would have passed out if I had any further to go!

My runs are usually between 12-1/2 to 13-1/2 minute miles. Today, I averaged about 11 minutes per mile. Let me let that sink in for a few seconds.

It seemed like a pace that I could keep up when I started the run, but I quickly realized the error of my ways! I did take my 60 step walk breaks roughly at each mile, but I was so winded by 3 miles, it was crazy. I tried to use the ‘break it into pieces’ concept and it pretty much worked.

I have another schedule dilemma that I’m trying to figure out. These are my runs for the rest of the week (today is Tuesday):

• Wednesday – 5 miles
• Thursday – off
• Friday – 3 miles
• Saturday – 10 miles

I am scheduled to either run or volunteer at a 5K on Saturday morning. I’d need to be there around 6:30am. Obviously, I cannot run 10 miles before 6:30. Well, I guess it is POSSIBLE, but it’s not going to happen. And I am not fond of starting a run in the afternoon.  It’s like I’m starting when I’m already tired.

My original bright idea was to run twice on Monday (doing Monday’s and Tuesday’s runs), then do Wednesday’s run on Tuesday so that I could be off on Wednesday. At that point, I’d be one day ahead of schedule and I could run  3 miles on Thursday and 10 miles on Friday and work the 5K on Saturday…

So – had a glitch on Monday and only ran once. Today is my birthday and frankly, I’m not even gonna pretend that I’ll run twice today. Not gonna happen. Oh, on a side note, I am now closer to 50 than 40. I’m pretty indifferent about it. I’m really only a day older…

But back to my dilemma: I still need to figure out how to get ahead by a day. I wonder what difference it would make if I didn’t take a day ‘off’ this week but then had two days off this weekend. Or, maybe I could just ditch the 3 mile run and run 10 on Friday. Then, I could run/walk the 5K on Saturday.

Decisions, decisions…

By the way, my knee feels pretty good. My struggle with today’s run was mostly because I couldn’t catch my breath and I just felt tired.

Nothing a little birthday celebrations can’t make better, right??

“Greatness is what we’re on the brink of!” 

Have a great week!!!