be a better runner

Today I got off work early. I went swimming…got out was getting ready for weights work and was kind of thinking about racing plans and work….probably had a look on my face.

Nina Kraft was in the Locker room. Who is she? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Kraft
She’s really a wonderful person. (yes there was a doping problem, btu you know what…as I meet more and more professional athletes, I find most have had such episodes…

Anyway, I told her I wasn’t feeling ready for this Marathon and that I felt heavy and etc. She looked at me and said, “Nope, you look good. You didn’t before, but now, you are good.” She’s a very blunt German lady. In the past she has told me I did not look so good…She actually coached my coach. They Ironman-ed together in Brazil.

I told him and he said, you know…thats real. Guess I am getting to be a better runner.

that never really gets “done”

Last week I finally admitted that my left ankle/lower leg were not functioning properly. I took a week off and ran in the pool, took prednisone and then had the KT tape applied and was able to bang out a 17 mile training run with no problems.

I was very nervous about the pain I was feeling, but I managed to simply email the coaching person and do what was instructed. People all around me kept saying, “Oh you might not make it to your race” I kept saying, “I choose to be optimistic” (I think it was the prednisone talking.) and while it is still far from perfect, it has healed without a big break in training or loss of fitness.

This is the first time I’ve really worked through an injury without a total melt down. I think that represents progress. I stopped before it got terrible, gave it what it needed to heal and now it’s on the mend. I’m learning to handle the inevitable little tweaks and strains. Yay…

I felt every seem to be “stable” I found it hard to describe, but in talking to coach man after he was all enthusiastic about that feeling as well. I’m getting stronger, hopefully will protect me from injury and make a runner for life…

yesterday. She does these run 5 min, walk one minute breaks. I found them a bit annoying after a while because you get into a good rhythm and then Bam, “I’m walking”

I used to not be able to keep up with her. On this run I struggled to stay with her, and actually left her for a bit on some hills. I had to run up the hills for my own training. At some point she came up from behind and said, “You know, you really have literally run your ass off”

While it seems not nice to compare to a friend, it really represents quite a bit of progress. And posting it here on 43 things where she is not is a good way to talk about it without rubbing it in her face.
Especially as I rather enjoyed what can only be called a casual run….

So I’ve steadily improved since working with my new coaching.

5K PR is not 32 minutes, but 29:45 which is pretty cool.

The key remains in gaining strength, and actually I hate to admit it, but in losing abut 15 pounds. It’s a lot easier to run without these pounds.

My biggest challenge right now is learning to run on tired legs, and mentally pushing. There’s a fine line between pushing oneself, and kind of going over the top and hurting oneself. I ran yesterday 7 miles on very tired feeling legs. It turned out pretty darn good…so I found if I just kind of keep at it if nothing hurts etc…that good things come out of it no matter how I “feel”

the key for me is to continue strength exercises. really.

I will eventually have mid week runs up to 8 miles, which will require me to get up and start running at about 4:30 am to be at work in time. Wondering if I could do 6 in the morning and 2 at night. What do you all think?

On the shorter runs. The summer in Florida is really quite brutal for running, and I need to allow for that. I mean, running in 93% humidity and 75 degrees at 5 am (And yes it is much hotter in the evening.) is not really invigorating…

But I feel stronger than I did just 2-3 weeks ago.

It helps that my Massage person is back in town!

I teamed up today with a “running partner” I really like her. But She is too slow. In fact today I let her choose the run walk pace and we ended up with 16 min miles- which is strolling.

She wants to run again in a few weeks. I like spending the time with her, but…this is not going to benefit me much…

I need to figure out a way to do a long walk with her, and still get a long run in. Maybe..just maybe, I have an idea…I could do my real long run on say Saturday and then my fake long with her on Sunday…. since its mostly walking with a few jogging moments in there…

Still it was cool how 8 miles went by like nothing…if it had been me all alone it would have been torture.

flailing on my longer runs these past 2 weeks. I have some sort of mental block. I decided it may actually be due to the place I am running and also the fact that its been such an issue for a few weeks now. So, will try again tomorrow, much earlier…and on a different route, one that allows planting of water, rather than carrying it. that should help a tiny bit. We’ll see, it will involve tons of loopies….