50k training update – the good, the bad, and the ugly

Hi there!

You’re probably wondering why I’m giving you a random midweek update on my 50k training.

You might even be wondering what happened to Tasty Tuesday and Wine Wednesday this week.

Well, I’ll tell ya.

Monday started off bright and early at the track.

the good

I  had 800s on my schedule – 6 of them at 3:34 pace to be exact – and I was ready to go.

I loosened up per my norm and jogged a mile for warm up.

Then, I got started.

About 600-650m into the first 800, my right foot started to hurt.

Like OW.

I finished out my 800 and tried to walk it out.

Still OW.

Sat down, took my shoe off, massaged my foot a little.

More OW.

The top of my foot hurt and when I massaged, it didn’t feel good.

Put my shoe back on and tried to walk it out some more.

OW.

It hurt when I flexed my foot or during the “push off” part of walking.

Can’t run if it hurts to do that.

It was still really early – I didn’t have to be at work for about 2 hours still- so I went inside and hopped on a spin bike.

It didn’t hurt my foot. 🙂

the bad (it’s not running)

But, it wasn’t satisfying.

I hobbled into the locker room and started to get ready to head to work.

Yes, hobbled.

After my shower, I noticed that the top of my right foot just above my 2nd and 3rd toe was starting to swell.

And might have a little discoloration going on.

Is that a bruise?!

the ugly. Hey, I warned you!

That’s not good.

Localized pain, swelling, possible bruising, feels better when I’m not using it and worse when I am – my immediate thought was stress fracture.

Great.

I got to work and immediately called my doctor’s office.

By some miracle, she had an opening in just a couple of hours and I took it.

She sent me for x-rays and put in a consult for orthopedics.

Um, can I just pause here and say that I had the x-rays done IMMEDIATELY AFTER MY APPOINTMENT and that they are digital images so I got to see them IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEY WERE TAKEN!!!

If you’re familiar with military medicine, you know it NEVER works that way if you’re using a military clinic/hospital.

It gets even better.

My x-rays were read by the radiologist THE SAME DAY and my doctor communicated the results with me THE SAME DAY!!!

The results?

Well, no visible fracture (I expected that. Stress fractures don’t show up on x-rays until the healing process has started.), I still have that heel spur (dammit!), and I have arthritis near my big toe (news to me!).

Of course, Monday was also scheduled to be a double and the WOD was running. #karma

I did go to CrossFit. I did not run.

We started with bench press and strict pull ups (10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1) and I wanted to do those.

The worst part was walking back and forth between the bench press and the pull up rig.

Admittedly, I probably should have skipped it but …. I never said I was smart.

I haven’t been back though.

Emailed coach and let him know what was going on.

I just learned about an hour ago that Tricare approved my referral to orthopedics and the clinic should be calling me to schedule an appointment.

They have until noon tomorrow before I start calling and pushing the process along. 🙂

Oh, and my a/c went out at home.

The guy came out and fixed it on Tuesday. #bliss

Apparently, someone “harry homeownered” the capacitor and put in a smaller than required one. He said he’s surprised it didn’t blow the whole generator!

My first thought? The flux capacitor wasn’t working?!?!?

But, he changed it out and we’re not sweating anymore so life, on that front, is good.

As for my foot, though…… 😦

I’m not sure what this means for my 50k.

Or my future in running in general.

Maybe it’s a sign.

Hopefully I get into orthopedics soon and they do an MRI or a bone scan to see for sure if it’s a stress fracture.

The sooner I know, the sooner I can start the proper healing process.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I’m still hobbling around – I try to walk with my right foot as flat as possible – but the swelling has gone down some.

le sigh

Talk to me: Have you ever had a stress fracture in your foot?  Do you believe in signs? If you could travel back in time, would you? Where would you go?

50k training – week 5 recap

Hello!

Finished up week 5 of my 50k training and I’ll be honest – I’m really happy that it’s over.

I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of my weekend and letting my body rest and recharge. It’s been one helluva week.

Monday

Track work! I had mile repeats (3×1600) in 7:24 on the schedule. Waking up was definitely a difficult thing to do this morning. I did NOT want to get out of bed at all. I briefly tried to justify skipping the workout but I didn’t have any good reasons so, off to the track I went.

At least I was graced with another beautiful morning!

Did one mile warm-up and got to work on my repeats. My times were 7:19, 7:22, and 7:23. I tried to run more by feel than my watch (although, I did check my watch for pace every 800m or so) and I did pretty well. I was pretty tired by the last one so I was really thankful that I only had to do 3. Finished up with an easy one mile cool-down jog, stretched, and headed into the locker room. 🙂

Monday was a double so, after work, I headed to the 6pm CrossFit class.

I’m really starting to like this group. I still miss my 4pm buddies but I’m making some new friends and having a good time.

We started off the workout with some double unders. Apparently, we were, in 10 minutes, supposed to do 50 unbroken, breathe, 40 unbroken, breathe, 30 unbroken, breathe, 20 unbroken, breathe, 10 unbroken, finish.

Yeah. Mine looked more like – do 1, miss the next one, reset, do 1, miss the next one, reset, do 1, miss the next one, reset, lather, rinse, repeat.

For 10 stinkin’ minutes.

Then, the AMRAP.

I’m still working on Handstand push-ups so I scaled down to handstand holds (getting better at those!), I scaled the bar muscle-ups to chest-to-bar pull-ups with the purple band, and I scaled the power clean weight to 70#.

I got through either 5 or 6 rounds.

Then, I practiced my handstands a little more. 🙂

 

Tuesday

Tuesday was CrossFit, no running.

We started with front squats, 5 sets of 3 reps.

I got up to 110#! I did 65#, 85#, 95#, 105#, 110#. PR baby!

The WOD was an every minute on the minute WOD and usually I enjoy those. Those toes to bar, though.

I used the 35# kettle bell for the goblet squats. Had a devil of a time holding on to the bar for the toes to bar. Ripped my hands a little but not too badly, thank goodness.

Was graced with more beauty in the sky on my way home. I kinda love it here. 🙂

 

Wednesday

No running, 6pm CrossFit.

This workout was a beast. A serious butt-kicker. When the WOD is running + burpees and the Coach has you warm up with running and burpees, you know you’re in for some hurt.

We started off working up to our 2-rep max push press. I’m can’t really remember what my 1-rep max was before but I’m pretty sure it was around 75# or so. I’d have to grab some old training logs and pray I actually wrote it down somewhere. *note to self – WRITE IT DOWN!!!* Anyway, we warmed up and got started. I successfully did 95# 2 times and loaded 10# more on the bar. I got the first one up but it came down a little funny and when I went up on the second time, Coach said my left knee dropped in and I just couldn’t stick with it. I pushed the bar up but not enough and had to let it go behind me. So, with that, I discovered my new 1-rep max for push press! Whoop!

Then, the WOD. The brutal, awful WOD. I finished in 12:13. The running was the easy part – the burpees, however….. There are reasons people hate burpees – because they’re difficult and they’re a full body-burner. Ugh. But, that which does not kill us….right?

Thursday

Tempo run this morning. It was ridiculously muggy. Blech!

But, it WAS beautiful! Mother Nature’s attempt to make up for the humidity. 🙂

I had 6 miles on the schedule – 2 @ 9:32, 3 @ 7:37, 1 @ 9:32.

Yeah, that didn’t happen. My body said NO pretty loudly. My legs felt like they were full of lead (gee, thanks, last night’s burpees!) and my left hip was super tight for some reason. I actually had to pause a couple of times to try and stretch it out! My first mile was 9:41, 2^nd mile was 9:18, 3^rd was 8:18, 4^th was 7:41 (closer, at least), 5^th at 9:18, 6^th at 9:32. I just didn’t have it at all. I would have pushed the 5^th mile a little more but I figured my body was fighting back for a reason. I didn’t want to risk an injury so I slowed it down. I plan on doing as much stretching as I can today to push the lactic acid through my legs and hopefully loosen up my hip.

This is my trying to pretend I feel good. Am I convincing?

 

Friday

6pm CrossFit.

I played hooky. It is what it is. I was tired and really needed the break. Plus, I didn’t want to aggravate whatever may have been going on with my hip/groin area and make a long run on Saturday even more difficult. It’s okay. It’s all part of the plan – I have to listen – and PAY ATTENTION – to my body. Injuries are not an option.

Saturday

Good morning!

Long run today. I had 18 miles at 9:34 on the schedule.

I honestly wasn’t sure how that was going to go given the week that I had but I still wanted to get out the door and cover some miles.

Thankfully, I didn’t see any bears!

I adjusted my route a little because I was nervous but I still ran in the park. I just kept my eyes – and ears  – peeled for any signs of a bear.

I got spooked by a couple of runners who came up behind me just past the spot I first saw the bear but I survived. I only jumped a couple of feet in the air. 😉

I saw more darn dogs off leash and roaming the neighborhoods this morning than I have in a while. I’ve been bitten by a dog before so I tend to steer clear of any dog that’s not on a leash or behind a fence that is barking at me. Of course, that means my route had to be adjusted on the fly a few times today.

Seriously people, either put up a fence or be outside with your dogs!!

I had to stop once around mile 12 to massage my foot and my tummy was pretty disagreeable so I didn’t manage the full 18.

I did get 15 miles done and my pace was okay, even for my tummy issues.

I didn’t really do anything different food-wise the past few days so I’m not sure what caused the distress.

I had no issues with my hip so resting on Friday definitely helped whatever that was.

Even my Garmin thought it was muggy!

So, all in all, week 5 wasn’t the success that I wanted it to be but I did have some good moments.

I think I was carried by the adrenaline of seeing the bear and telling my story during the first part of the week and then, I crashed in the 2nd half.

It’s okay, though. It’s only week 5 of a 16 week plan and I still pulled out some good mileage for my long run.

My plan for the rest of the weekend is to rest, replenish, and rejuvenate.

Watch out, week 6 – I’m coming for ya!

Talk to me: How do you handle “off” training weeks? What’s your favorite way to recuperate after a tough long run?

Learning to eat on the run…..

Hello, hello!

T-minus 2 days until FitBloggin!!!  EEEEEPPP!!!

And I just learned today that one of my faves, Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean, is going to be there on Saturday!

I’m totally going to be that starstruck girl standing there trying to stammer out an intelligent word. #dorkproblems

Got my business cards in the mail yesterday!

They’re plain jane because, well, honestly, they were a last minute thing! I hadn’t even considered needing them and I was emailing Lena about getting stuff ready for FitBloggin and she asked me if I had them. Um, no, cuz I’m a big clueless dork!  So I had to quick order some from VistaPrint. Paid more for the shipping than the actual cards because I had to have them rushed to me! I was totally overwhelmed by all the choices so I took her advice again and just went with the plain ones. Once I’m back and I have time to think, I’ll probably design my own. But, for now, watch out – it’s bizness time!

Oh, wait. Don’t get the wrong idea. FitBloggin isn’t THAT kind of conference.

Aaannnnd, moving on.

So, I’m learning that running a 50k is a little more than just running 5 more miles than a marathon.

I mean, I knew that but still. I have to learn a whole bunch of new things to be successful!

I have to learn how to use and run with a Camelbak (okay, fine, I don’t actually HAVE to run with a Camelbak but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to wear a fuel belt with bottles of water bouncing around my hips for 31 miles – I don’t even like them for 20 milers. Can you say chafing?) and I have to learn how to eat on the run!

And no, by eating on the run, I DON’T mean going through the drive-thru and grabbing a quick burger.

I’m not quite sure how that’s going to go.

The most solid thing I eat now when I go for long runs is the Honey Stinger Waffle.

source

Otherwise, I usually carry Hammer Gels with me because they don’t make me feel like I’m going to vomit.

I’m waiting on some Ignite Naturals Reload Gels to come in so I can try those. I’m really excited because they’re made from real food – figs, brown rice and fruits – instead of artificial stuff like processed sugars and preservatives.

(OH! Don’t forget, if you want to try any Ignite Naturals products, you can get 10% off with this code: IN00344.) 🙂

But, I don’t usually take any of the food that’s offered during races – unless it’s an orange wedge. Love me some orange wedges! – because I’m afraid of it upsetting my tummy.

I know that I’m going to be running slower than I normally would in a marathon – my thoughts right now are trying to keep a 10:00 – 10:30 pace throughout. we’ll see how THAT goes. – so I know that I’ll need more fuel to keep me on my feet and moving that whole time.

According to the race website, the aid stations will be stocked with pb&j squares, fig bars, salty snacks, candy, and fruit.

I’m not sure how my tummy will handle pb&j and salty snacks like pretzels.

But, I’m pretty sure if they offered me some jelly beans or some Swedish Fish, I’d probably be okay with that. #sweettooth

So, I guess I’m going to have to pack some pretzels in a small baggie for my next run. Or maybe some Fig Newtons. And a gallon of water. And someone to carry all my stuff.

Talk to me: If you’re an ultrarunner, what sorts of things do you eat during a run? How long did it take you to figure out what works and what doesn’t? Have you ever rolled up a whole pizza like a burrito and eaten it while running, a la Dean Karnazes? 

– jennifer