Monday, April 4, 2011

An overdue update and a race report

In short running has been happening and I have been neglecting the blog.

Overall I've been getting the mileage in (225 miles for March) and am in my last week before taper.  I had a windy but successful 22.5 miler last Sunday.  

That lead to a painful hip. Which I ignored.  Always a good choice with my history...(didn't I have to DNS at New Jersey last year because of something similar...)?   I continued to get in my mileage for the week.  10 here, 10 there.  Staying in Fairfield where there's tons of hills (again little learning happens in this thick skull). 

My long run for the week was supposed to be 17.  I figured since I had limped home on Friday, I'd see how I felt on Saturday with a warm up 7 miler.  If I felt good I would enter the April Fools 10.5 Miler.  Well I felt extremely tight and slow and sore on my 7 miler.  So I did the smart thing and entered the race. 

April Fools 10.5 Miler Race Report

The first thing Eric asked me when I got home from this race was, "Why 10.5?"  I'm not really sure to tell you the truth, but in actuality the course is 10.6.  I think it has to do with being SUPER hilly and it's resulting lack of PR potential.  This way, it's an automatic PR. 

I should have known this was a treacherous race when: a) the map my run version assigned numbers to the hills; I normally run hills and yet none of my hills are long enough or steep enough to earn numbers, b) I couldn't find a single race comment, c) my normal 10mile pace would have earned me top woman finisher in last year's race, d) not a single person mentioned anything about the course while we were waiting to start. 

I was pretty fearful going into this race because I had been hurting.  I had had no pick up in my legs for the past week and really didn't want to be dead last.  However, once I was running in the race, the pain went away and I felt pretty great. 

Mile 1: 8:05
Mile 2: 8:22

Not my best splits as I should be able to hold under 8s for the 10 miles but like I said...hills.  Mile 3 was where the hills really started.  There was a series of 6 of them.  All steep and pretty long.  The first 3 hills were a full mile up.each.  The 2nd was the steepest. 

Honestly, I rocked the uphills.  I would cruise up feeling great and passing people.  However, when it came time to go back down, the pain came back.  It was shooting all through my lower leg, but it began in the back of my knee.  Then each pound would also kill my hip.  So the race looked like this: pass 3 people on the up, get passed by 3 people on the down, pass 3 people on the up...and so on.  I'm so happy about rocking the uphills though, because I really have been hoping all my hill training was going to pay off.  I've had downhill problems in the past, so this doesn't surprise me, but it sure was frustrating. 

Mile 3: 8:59
Mile 4: 9:09
Mile 5: 8:36
Mile 6: 9:12
Mile 7: 8:38
Mile 8: 9:09
Mile 9: 9:01

The hills start go get smaller at mile 7, but they are always there.  My last mile and a half was practically a limp, but I ended feeling pretty happy considering the week I'd had. 

Mile 10: 8:41
Mile .6: 9:19
Finish: 1:32.33
Overall pace 8:44, 3rd in age group and got a sweet purple trophy.  Go purple!

I decided not to do my 10 miler yesterday, which I think was wise, because walking was more than difficult.   The back of my knee was one tight bulge that Eric worked on for hours despite my  continuous cursing at him to stop and then begging him to start again. 

Today my leg is sore: still in the hip and back of the knee, but it's much better.  I have an appointment with the chiro today and it's my normal day off anyway.  Hopefully I'll be feeling good enough to get back to running tomorrow. 

Saturday is my last 20 miler before taper and I'd be upset to not get this last big week in.  Anyone else ever have issues that seem to start with the hip but also radiate down to behind the knee?  Are these two separate issues?

1 comment:

  1. Hmm. I'm not really sure. Whenever my hip starts aching it's kind of on the side / in my glute. I rolled Sunday after my long run and I should probably do it again but I was lazy yesterday. Hope the chiro helped!

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