Tag Archives: running

Full-on Sprain

So remember when I hurt my ankle the other Sunday? It stopped getting better and started getting worse.

Guess I shouldn’t have done those other two runs and the two yoga sessions that week.

Out of fear that I might have a small fracture situation, I went to urgent care yesterday. The initial read of the X-ray didn’t show a fracture, so we’re assuming it’s “just” a sprain at this point.

Ligaments are creepy.

Unfortunately, that means no running, no lower-body weight-lifting, no yoga for at least two weeks. Which is pants.

I’m in an aircast at the moment, and that feels so much better. It requires a bit of contortionism to keep my foot at waist-level at work, but I’m all about some pillows at home. Gives me more excuse to watch live Doom 2 and Borderlands 2 play/speedruns.

Now Mama’s Got Even Newer Shoes

The Minimuses from Thursday/Friday didn’t work out. They kept rubbing when I walked, although they were better when I ran.

I took ’em back on Saturday, tried back on the Brooks PureDrifts, and hopped on the treadmill in the store a longer run than the jaunt I’d given them before…

And then nearly got dizzy from my own swimmy pronation.

Continue reading Now Mama’s Got Even Newer Shoes

6.25 miles: The Longest Run Evar

No, really, it’s the longest I’ve ever run. It was painful, and I’m worn out, helped by a big weight-lifting session last night.

The first mile, as usual, was a little rough as I tried to find my stride.

Miles two and three were pretty smooth, aside from the fact that I’d opted to go downtown. Me not being a car moving 30 mph, I couldn’t really time the light cycles, and often had to stop and wait for a green. Since I’d already been intimidated by the prospect of the run, I wanted the route to be a simple out-and-back, so I didn’t take the “whichever way is green” approach to going through downtown.

Once I hit 3 miles, I turned around and headed back.

At about the 4.5 mile point–which was just about an hour in–I started flagging.

“It’s been a whole month since I last did a long run,” I thought, “and that was only 5 miles. Over 6 miles is crazy.”

At 4.75 miles, my legs felt like lead.

I got a little burst of energy at 5 miles, but the backs of my hips were hurting and my legs were dead. On top of last night’s epic weightlifting, I’d also neglected to eat breakfast before going out for the run.

Look, I felt fine when I left the apartment, alright?

I focused on my posture to get my upper-body in some semblance of alignment. Shoulders back, let the arms swing, sit back instead of leaning forward, let the legs propel gently.

That was my mantra for remainder. I had to deviate from my intervals and walk more after that 4.5 mark, and I had to do a little partial loop around my complex to get the final 0.25 miles, but I covered the damn distance.

So now I’m in bed, having washed off the encrusted salt and dined on splendid food and cider. Everything on or in my body generally hurts, and I’m thinking more seriously about the pain the half marathon in March will bring. I ran very slowly, and I still hurt.

Hopefully, one rough month doesn’t completely break a training schedule.

Rawr, I’m a Warrior

My 2012 Warrior Dash medalI don’t really feel like a warrior. I mostly just feel a little beat up.

The Warrior Dash was terrible. It hurt, it was embarrassing, it was gross, it was filthy, and it was wet.

I think this is where I’m supposed to swoon and say I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Screw that. Maybe in a year, once I’ve properly trained up and can do 25 weighted pull ups with only my bad arm, but going in after a month of not training was 10 kinds of shenanigans.

I flipped the hell out on the first obstacle. Seriously. A measly balance beam took me minutes to cross. I was so embarrassed (and terrified) that I burst into tears afterward getting down. I really don’t like having my feet off the ground.

Once my pride was thoroughly out of the way, the rest was both easier and harder. The running was straightforward, although I could have used more stamina overall. I clambered up a slanted wall with rope easily, but skipped two straight walls on account of my shoulder. Every yoink on the rope wrenched at my shoulder, and it totally wasn’t worth a months’ long setback to climb two walls.

Plus, I’d already had all the one-on-one time with heights that I wanted, thank you.

The rest was bullshit, but didn’t trigger much terror for me. I even handled being kicked during the water escapade rather well. That consisted of a muddy “lake” with a ring of floating plastic cases/boxes in it. You swam out, climbed over one edge of the ring, swam through the center, climbed over the opposite side of the ring, then swam out. The water was at least 6 feet deep, because I ended up dunked a few times and never touched bottom.

That was obstacle 9 or 10, I think, and by the time I got to the center, I had run out of upper-body strength to heave myself over the second set of boxes. I’d also swallowed cups of this icky water, and been pushed, splashed on, and kicked by others who were climbing.

With some help, I got over to the other side and swam on out. I found the swimming easy, but Deana’s later mention of me “paddling along” (with doggy paddle motions) suggests that I may not have this breaststroke thing down very well after all.

I have no pictures of us before the race because I was sleepy, and none during and after because I wouldn’t let a camera or phone near that much mud unless it were already in its death throes.

And we did, in fact, swim and crawl through pools of mud.

All in all, I was quite disappointed (but not surprised) by my performance. Part of me still thinks I should have stayed in bed that morning, but the rest of me is trying to plan how to best be ready to do it again, only better.

Getting Back on a Training Schedule

Back in December I was all like, “Hey, I’m go kinda free-form with this running thing for a while!”

That didn’t work so well.

I ran… some. I got faster… some.

Then came the normal reasons for stopping exercise: hey, got this huge party to plan; the guys are coming over for D & D; I’ll clean house instead; I just need a little bit of relaxation; etc.

Continue reading Getting Back on a Training Schedule