So Sunday I came home from the sleepover, tired but feeling ok. Because I was feeling ok and the weather was good I decided it was a great time to head out on a bike ride. Off I went for approximately 3 hours. Great ride, beautiful weather, so much fun!! I came home, had dinner and went to bed at my usual time. Monday morning I got up, had breakfast and got ready for my run (lately I’ve been experimenting on different fueling options for my long run but more on that in a seperate post). Off I went feeling pretty good about the day. The weather was sunny and I was mentally prepared to extend my distance.

All went well (with the exception of some discoveries around fueling but more on that later) until I got to the halfway point – which I had pushed about 1km past my previous weeks halfway point. At that time I decided to check in on my run chip and see how I was doing. The chip informed me I was setting an average pace of 17 minutes per km. Now clearly the chip was not functioning properly but even still, hearing that brought me crashing down. For the next few minutes I did random checks to find that my pace was being recorded all over the place – 4.53 per km one minute over 9 minutes the next. Ridiculous considering my pace wasn’t changing. Even knowing that the chip was off every time I heard a slow pace I got frustrated and less inclined to keep going.

Shortly after all of this – when I had about 8km to go (I was doing a total of 35km that day) I was done. Mentally I had thrown in the towel. If I had bus fare on me I would have hopped on a bus and been done with it! I didn’t so I had no choice but to push through and walk/run the rest of the distance until I was done. In the end it took over 3 hours to complete, not my best time!

There are a few factors that could have contributed to this: I had only 3-4 hours of sleep on Saturday night which MAY have caught up to me on Monday. After my less than ideal sleep Saturday I went for a 3 hour bike ride most likely taking any remaining energy I had left. The food at the sleepover wasn’t the greatest (in a healthy way) so I didn’t eat as much as I normally would. That combined with the bike ride Saturday may have used up most of the stored energy I had for the run. It could be any one of these or a combination of all of them!

I know that some days are like that and not every run can be brilliant but I have to say that this one was probably my worst. I can only hope that this week will be better!

Monday was a beautiful day in Vancouver and perfect running conditions, sunny and clear, not too hot. And all of the spring wild flowers are starting to come out which is great because I could smell them as I was running. Soooo nice to be outside. Since I’m still trying to build my distance back to where I was before the IT-band “issue” I was adding distance again this week – which also meant that I wasn’t pushing the pace. The advice from my physio when he said I could start again was to pick one – speed work or distance but don’t work on both on the same day. I was aiming for 30k and ended up doing 31, not too bad really. At the halfway point I was feeling great, lots of energy, no pain. I turned around and started back noticing by about 22k that my legs were getting a little fatigued. By 28k that little fatigue had turned into a LOT of fatigue, but I still felt good and I kept going. When I finished the run my pace wasn’t the greatest – I had slowed from the start – but it wasn’t horrible. Overall I felt pretty good about it.

So I’m not sitting at 31K for distance with 11.2 to add to get to marathon distance. Friday will be a speed/hill day and then it’ll be back to a long run again on Sunday. In between I’m doing some cross training (weights last night – but light weight/high rep), spending some time on my bike, a bit of climbing and some gym cardio. Should be a pretty good week!

I had been scheduled to do my first race of the season on Saturday (the 5 peaks run in Golden Ears Park) and after the run on Friday I have to admit I was tempted. After thinking it through I decided that it would be smarter to skip this one and focus on getting ready for the next race in May and (hopefully) the marathon in June. Race situations are so different from training runs and I knew that if I felt pain in the race I would be more likely to push through it and end up sidelined again. That would be way worse!

So I skipped the race, did some gym cardio instead and then went out for my long run on Sunday. Devin had suggested I build my distance back up slowly to keep the IT-band from tightening again so I went out aiming to do a 20K. I ended up doing just farther than that (21.5) because I wanted to test my knee out on the big hill and that was at the run mid-point. I did one big hill and two smaller hills and again – NO PAIN! I can’t describe how excited I am about that after weeks and weeks of pain on my long run. My pace was slower than it had been and while the distance wasn’t tough I could feel it a bit. Will bump it up a few kms this comming weekend and hopefully the speed will come back fairly quickly. For now I’m just glad to be running again!

On Sunday I went out for my long run knowing in advance that I may have to cut the length down if the IT started to hurt. Sure enough about 8K in – just as I was approaching the bottom of the long hill – the knee started to hurt. Just a little but it hurt. At this point I had a choice – push through until it REALLY hurt (at which point I would have to stop, stretch and then most likely walk/run the rest of the route) or turn back. From the reading I’ve being doing on this “issue” hills (more the downhill than the uphill) can aggrivate it so I decided I would turn back. Back I went and I was able to complete just over 17K without having to stop and walk it out.

Afterwards I popped into the gym (which is my starting point) to burn out some cardio on the bike and elliptical. This was strictly to keep my endurance up – I don’t want to lose cardio while I’m trying to fix the problem. The good news is that my knee did NOT hurt after my run (there are days when I have to ice and hobble for hours after I finish) and it didn’t hurt yesterday either. The bad news is that I didn’t do nearly the distance that I SHOULD be doing if I want to do that marathon in June.

So the big question: If I continue like this – cutting the distance short when needed and really paying attention to how my knee feels will the problem go away? Or will it immediately come back as soon as I try and do a long distance? I don’t know – this type of “injury” (alright I said it) is new to me so I’m learning as I go. Fingers crossed that it IS improving and that each week I’ll be able to go a little bit farther pain free and come June that marathon really will be in the cards.

At the end of the beach path I have 2 options – 1) go up the road, up a hill and around and back down to the road that follows the beach (this is my usual route) or 2) cut accross to another beach path that cuts out the hill and is 1/2 a km shorter than my usual route. Given my knee pain I opted for the flat, shorter route for this week. I was able to push through to the last hill which I walked – it was just too much to try and run it. Then it was a short 1.5Km down hill and along a flat to the end point. I was SURE that I could run that out but halfway down the hill my body stopped. Just stopped. I didn’t even tell it to! So walk I did until I got to the point where I could run out the last half a km or so.

In the end I ran 28k and BOY was I happy to hit the sauna! I iced the knee for the afternoon and skipped my evening bike ride to help recover. As of today the knee is still a bit sore but much better.

But the really great news? I made it through the workout still feeling happy. Even though I’m tired of the knee pain and I HATE that it’s holding me back I’m confident that I can work through it. So maybe, just maybe I DO have what it takes to do that marathon. And eventually the Ultra. If I can just get my body to cooperate I’m well on my way.

I managed to maintain the pace all through the first half arriving at the halfway point 4 1/2 minutes faster than expected. I turned around and set back, hoping to keep my pace around the 5 minute mark. To my surprise I continued a pace of about 4:45 per km, sometimes going as low as 4:30. A few times I slowed a bit but always managed to get the pace back I had decided at the halfway mark I would aim for a total time of 2 hours 40 minutes (7 minutes faster than my previous 32KM time). As I got close to the end I realized that it was going to be more like 10 minutes faster.

Realizing I was ahead of my pace spurred me on even more and in the end I finished 32.14KM in 2 hours and 36 minutes – a full 11 minutes faster than my previous time! And my average pace was 4:51 per km which is the fastest per km pace I’ve ever set on a long run.

Not bad for a morning of running! Being a good Canadian girl I have to wonder if the pace was my way of making sure that I wouldn’t miss the puck drop. But really I think it had more to do with the fantastic Friday run pace – after that running 4:45 kms didn’t seem that fast anymore.

So Canada wins GOLD in hockey and I had a fantastic long run. Not a bad day.

Then Sunday I went out for my long run. Last week I had a great long run and I was looking forward to a repeat of that this week. I was on a new route (because I wasn’t at home) and it was an all-pavement route (I usually do at least 50% of my long run on a trail). It started off really well and I got to the halfway point in good time, turned around and started back. Not long into the return trip my legs started to stiffen up – especially my right leg – starting at my hip, and through the hammy and even the quad. I always have a bit of stiffness (especially through the hammy where there is still some scar tissue) but this was more than normal. My pace slowed and I found myself kicking my leg up harder to work some of the stiffness out. The rest of the run wasn’t NEARLY as pleasant as the first half had been. In the end my pace was almost 10 seconds per KM slower than the week before. I shrugged it off, grabbed my post-run shake and stretched it out.

About an hour after the run I went out for a walk with my nieces and noticed some knee pain. I was a bit concerned but did a few stretches and thought it’d be ok. Then I had to drive home (a couple of hours in the car) and by the time I got home my knee was DONE. I had to hop up the stairs and walking was extremely difficult and very painful. There was no obvious swelling but I got out the icepack and popped some advil just the same. Monday I woke up and it was no better. By now I was getting REALLY worried that I had torn something and I was going to be out of commission again, only this time even more so.

Monday night I decided to test it at the gym and did some light cardio. Within minutes the pain had eased and it felt a LOT better! I couldn’t go backwards on the elliptical and the bike still hurt a bit but other than that it was great! Then yesterday I worked it a bit more with some lower body weights and dead lifts…and whoohooo – the pain is now gone! Devin thinks it is perhaps a “tracking issue” with the hammy and hip contributing. I’m thinking he’s most likely right.

So now I’m back to full strength again – but the experience has me wondering what next? That’s 2 injuries now (even if the second was more of a 2 day blip) i’m going to have to be REALLY careful to stay injury free in the coming weeks. Race season is just about to start!

You’d think with all of this basic knowledge that I’ve acquired I would have also learned that it’s important to run in a sports bra that fits and doesn’t rub you in uncomfortable places. Last week when I was running my bra was rubbing slightly on my breastbone – leaving a chafe mark the size of a dime. No big deal. You’d think I would have learned from that experience before heading out on my long run this week. Not so much. This time when the bra started to rub (about 10 minutes in) it HURT. I managed to block that out and kept running – readjusting as needed as I went.

By the time I finished my run I was rather uncomfortable. I checked out the damage at the gym and the dime sized mark had grown to a mark the size of a loonie and it wasn’t pretty. Polysporn will be my best friend for the next few days.

So today’s running lesson was that the items you wear UNDER your running gear are just as important as those you wear over them. And while it IS true that to run all you really need is a pair of shoes (or with the next barefoot running trend not even those) gear like dry fit shirts, running socks, jackets and bras exist for a reason. It’s not a bad idea to invest in them.

As most of you know Sunday is my long run day which for the past few weeks has meant a run of 28-30kms over 2 hours and 20 – 30 minutes. I was pretty stoked to head out on my run yesterday – I was feeling pretty good and had a bunch of new tunes loaded up on my ipod and ready to go. I started my run late because I had spent the morning at Cliffhanger Climbing (more on that in a bit) and I had a bit of a headache starting out. Added to that I had a knot in my neck from sleeping wrong that seemed to hurt with each step. Despite this I was still excited to start running…the music was good and i was pretty sure the knot/headache would work themselves out as I went. About 5 minutes into the run a did a time check on my nike chip…hmmmm, I was a bit slow. Kicked it up a notch and thought to myself “wow – my legs are pretty fatigued”. For the rest of the run I found that I could NOT for the life of me make my legs move very fast. I wasn’t super slow but nor was I nearly as fast as I usually am. I worked my legs on Saturday doing a ton of squats and lunges and it seems that impacted my ability to run. The headache and knot in my neck didn’t help either.

Despite my leg fatigued I powered through the first half of my run, up the hill and along to my turnaround point. At the turnaround point it became VERY apparent that I was going to need to find a bathroom and soon! Sadly the closest one was about 15 minutes away. Have you ever run while REALLY having to use the bathroom? It’s not fun. All that bouncing and jostling does not exactly make things comfortable! Luckily I made it to the bathroom in the knick of time and the last hour of my run was MUCH more enjoyable.

In the end I did only 28km and a slower pace but I’m pretty ok with that.

On a positive note climbing in the morning was fantastic! My niece was there for her birthday party (she is SUCH a talented climber!) and I did some bouldering. I finally finished a problem I’ve been working on – and just in time, they’re about to change the bouldering routes! On to the next challenge.

There were times in the run when I was really enjoying it – the fresh air, the way my body felt. Then there were times when my legs were tired and I just wanted to sit down and cry – or at least stop. It’s amazing the range of emotions you’ll feel on a long run. I pushed through and finished the run with no walk breaks. I saw two people I knew along the way – one a lady from the gym who was also out running – and the other Sarah who was waiting for a bus. That was fun, it’s a bit of a boost to see someone you know.

Tons of runners out today – lot’s of people on their own and at least 3 running groups as well. Most people waved or nodded as we passed – that was nice too.

In the end my average pace over 2hrs 25 minutes was 5:03. Not my best but not bad either. Some factors that may have contributed to my pace/leg fatigue…I ran earlier than usual today and my only hydration before setting out was a cup of coffee, not ideal for performance. My legs were also more fatigued from working them this week. These are not excuses – I own my run time every time – just factors.

Have a great day everyone! It’s off to the airport for me.