48 days until TCM: 16 miles (and more) and new shoes

Well, race day is officially less than two months away. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. Training has been going well. I did finally defeat the evil plantar fasciitis, but not before it made a point of moving to my cuboid bone (who knew I had one), and then to my knee before it finally succumbed to a rigorous regimen of naproxen and coldpacks. One of the great things about living (and training) in a well-established running community are the community running stores and their fabulous workshops and deals for people belonging to running clubs. Marathon Sports on 50th and Penn in Minneapolis, for example, has a free sports podiatrist every first and third Tuesday on site to examine foot injuries and give advice. Hence, my icing and naproxen regimen for the pain on my foot. Hooray for neighborhood running stores! Dr. Langer told me to try a shoe insert if the pain didn't go away, but fortunately it has. Hooray!

Two Saturdays ago, I ran a new personal record: 15 miles! However, I got horribly lost, so I'm sure it was closer to 16 or 17 miles. My cartographical war with South Minneapolis continues. That old axiom about Minneapolis being easier to navigate than St. Paul? Complete and utter crap. I have never been so stymied by city geography in my life - this from a woman who has learned the nooks and crannies of St. Paul over the past ten years - trying to maneuver around South Minneapolis lakes.

On the bright side, though, it IS the longest I've ever run, and I felt pretty good - better than I did at the end of my 13 mile run a couple of weeks ago, anyway. This Saturday, our team run took us 16 miles. It was so hot, though, that I started getting dizzy around mile 14, so I just did the last two at home on the basement treadmill. Works for me. I felt something snap in my left knee, so let's hope that doesn't stick around.

I have officially put over 200 miles on my shoes that I just got in May. Team in Training advises us that shoes last about 400 miles, and that would put me square on my marathon date, so I bought another pair to alternate during this last leg of training. Onward!

Plantar fasciitis conquered?, Cutback week: Ten miles tomorrow, and Ice bath!

Well, I had my first running-related injury - I developed a pain in my left heel following my 13 mile run, which I thought might be plantar fasciitis, inflammation of the tendon that connects your heel to your toes (a very common affliction among runners.) It's not that I can't run 13 miles, or even longer, mind you - it's just that I put on those miles too quickly. I ended up going out of town for a couple of weekends. While I religiously found routes to run, it never occurred to me that I needed to keep up with the long distance schedule - an incredibly obvious mistake, now that I look back on it. I went from my longest run ever at 9.5 miles to 13 miles with only my shorter weekday runs in the middle, and it was just too much. Cautionary tale - never increase your mileage by more than 10% a week!

In any case, Tony and I decided to go swimming on Monday, in part because I wanted to give my foot a chance to heal but still get some activity in. The heel certainly slowed up my Tuesday and Wednesday running (of course, in re-reading "Marathoning for Mortals" last night, I learned I was supposed to be not training on that foot for four days - oopsies!) and I took Thursday off. All this week I have been taking ibuprofin and icing during the day at work alternating cold packs. As recently as about noon I still felt its twinge, and now this afternoon, I suddenly realized - hey, I'm walking without pain! I even jogged in place for a few seconds - no pain there either! Of course, I'm going to continue to be cautious - nothing worse than reinjuring an almost-healed condition - but things are looking bright, and now I know! All of this inspired a long walk with the pup... and now the pain has moved to the side of my foot. Probably not plantar fasciitis, but still. I am icing it tonight in the hopes I'll be able to take on tomorrow's long run with the team.

Speaking of tomorrow's run - this week is a cutback week! Cutback weeks are built into the schedule to allow the body to rest, repair and get stronger. We will be doing only 10 miles on the long run tomorrow. On Wednesday, we did an interesting team track run - everyone ran 1 mile at their marathon pace (so we were dividing our goal time marathon pace into quarter mile segments) and then took 1 lap (quarter mile) to recover, then repeated two more times. My goal is pretty modest - I hope to finish without getting swept up by the you're-too-slow-to-finish-in-the-maximum-time bus. That pace is 13:44 per mile. If you ever visit my cubicle, you'll see a map of the Twin Cities marathon with "13:44" written on it in bold numbers.

The good news was that even with 1/4mile walk breaks, I was doing MUCH better than 13:44! Now, that's not to say I could maintain that pace throughout 26.2 miles - running a mile is a far cry from running the real deal. But it did give me a feel for running at the pace I need to be at or beat, which was more than comfortable, and that was fantastic. Also, I have been moving onto 8:2 run/walk intervals, which I'm actually finding quite comfortable. I think it will be awhile before I give up my two minutes of walking recovery but I think I could move into a 10:2 ratio comfortably.

I should also belatedly mention that at the end of last week's thirteen mile run, I took my first ice bath, and it was wonderful. "Ice bath" is actually a bad name for it, as the bath has very little ice in it, and only cool water, a bit cooler than room temperature but NOT as cold as the tap will go. You can add ice, but if you do, add no more than a few cups and add it after you're in the tub. You fill the tub up enough that you can submerge yourself from the waist down, and then you get in the tub and submerge everything below the waist, especially your hips, knees and ankles. Some folks wear a sweatshirt to lessen the shock, and let me tell you, you will be breathless with the shock! Then, you sit in the tub for seven minutes - no more or you risk hypothermia. All of this helps your joints recover - mine felt the best they ever had after a long run. I will definitely be using this as we head into the August and September training runs.

Onward!

13 miles and the training "plateau"

It's been awhile since I've updated this blog - my apologies. These days seem to just zip by.

First, a belated thank you to our latest donor! Eleonore from Minneapolis donated some time ago, and I have been woefully late in thanking her - thanks, Eleonore!

The good news: yesterday, I completed our team run of 13 miles - a whopping 0.1 miles shy of a half marathon. I completed it in about 2:53 - a smooth 18 seconds under the minimum pace for the Twin Cities Marathon. Woohoo!! Even with the distance, it was quite the route - we started on Mississippi Boulevard in St. Paul, crossed at the Ford Parkway bridge and commenced up the river on River Road. What we didn't know was that a good two to three miles of the River Road path was under construction! Much of the trail had to be run in tire tracks, on a small dirt path (where it existed) or just on the road (which made me uneasy, as that's not an especially safe place to run.) We finally just crossed the road and ran on the other side on an informal footpath.

On our way up the River Road trail, we also ran past what I can only assume was bridge infrastructure wreckage from the 35W bridge collapse, still on the riverbank, fenced off from the public - a sad reminder. We continued up River Road to cross the bridge at Washington Avenue (close the University of Minnesota) and back to our starting point.

In other training news, I think I've also hit a training plateau. This is apparently common, and especially for people new to running. Training felt so good that I was regularly going above and beyond my training schedule - a classic first-timer mistake. In mid-July, though, I found that what were easy runs before now became much more difficult. This was probably compounded by a busy schedule that didn't allow me to run as often as my training schedule required (even though I was still running!) I'm hoping that being able to attend more of the team trainings and a running club that one of our mentors attends, along with adherence to my training schedule, will help me get back on track.

Onward!

9.5 miles & cheer for TNT athletes this weekend at the Minneapolis Lifetime Triathlon!

It's been awhile since I've written here, so I thought I'd give you all an update.

First, I can't believe it, but donations are still coming in! Thank you all for your encouragement. A big thanks to

Jannette, NY

for her contribution last week (and for being a steadfast running partner, even when I wasn't quite running yet. Thanks, Jannette!)

I am also excited to report I have set a new personal record for myself - 9.5 miles yesterday.

Finally, as I wrote about a week ago, I am planning on cheering no less than 110 TNT athletes at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis this coming Saturday sometime between 7am and 1pm, and you should too! This is a great way to see what race day will be like in October as a spectator, and of course to support athletes running, biking and swimming for a great cause.

Please email Julie at Julie dot Freniere dash Gibson at lls dog org if you can join me in cheering on TNT athletes on Saturday.

LLS is looking for people to man cheer stations, the finish area tent, etc. LLS will need help from 7 a.m. to about 1 p.m. Please let Julie know what times you are available and preference of station below. LLS will also need one person to be the Cheer Captain for each spot.

LLS needs every station to be loud, crazy and fun! TNT gear a must!!! Wigs, crazy hats, TNT logos, signs, cowbells, etc. - the more purple and green the better!

Cheering stations:

1. Swim: Lake Nokomis Beach -north side of the lake
7:30 a.m. - Cheer for swimmers as they enter/exit the lake.

2. Bike Location 1 / Run Location 1: Cedar Avenue & Nokomis Parkway
8 a.m. - Cheer for bikers and runners on Nokomis Parkway. You will see the bikers starting out and returning.

Also, the runners will do 1 - 2 laps around the lake.

3. Bike Location 2 / Run Location 2: Lake Nokomis - south side of the lake
8 a.m. - Cheer for bikers and runners. You will see the bikers once and the runners 1-2 times.

4. Bike Location 3/Finish: Minnehaha and West River Road
8:30 a.m - Bikers will pass you on the way out and back, so you will see them twice.

5. Bike Location 4/Finish: West 50th St. and Minnehaha Parkway
9 a.m - Bikers will pass you on the way out and back, so you will see them twice.

Fundraising goal reached! 8 mile run & support TNTers running the Lifetime Triathalon July 11!

First, the big news: even though we're four days away from July 2, I am over my goal of raising $1700 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society! I absolutely could not have done it without your help.

A tremendous thank you to donors over the last week:

Debra and Todd, MN
Jane and Dave, St. Paul
Kjersten, St. Paul
Susan, St. Paul
Jacqueline, Oslo, Norway
Liz and Mike, St. Paul
Jenny and Mike, St. Paul
Heidi and Evan, Grand Forks
MaryPat, Shoreview

Your supportive notes and comments have been and continue to be a huge inspiration to me. Thank you so much.

Even though the fundraising portion of this adventure has reached its goal, training continues! I just completed a team run this morning - we went 8 miles along the Minnetonka Trail, and it went really well. I'm looking forward to 10! Wednesday, we practiced hills at the Minnehaha Lock and Dam #1 - FOUR of them! That doesn't sound like a lot, but that is a LONG hill - .2 miles up and back - and very steep. And our first time on hills, about four weeks ago, we did only two. No wonder I was beat at the end!

Our coaches have also been diligent in giving us tips to train in the warm summer months. July is almost upon us, and that marks the beginning of our weekend runs meeting at 7am, instead of 8am, to avoid the heat.

Cheer on TNT athletes at the Lifetime Tri July 11!
And now for even more exciting news: Team In Training members (not me, thank goodness - one event at a time, thank you) will be participating in the Lifetime Fitness Triathalon on Saturday, July 11. Let me know if you're interested in cheering - I will pass your information on to staff coordinating support for TNT athletes. This is a way to get a taste for what I'll be doing in October - and of course a way to support athletes running, biking and swimming for a very worthy cause. Here is the race schedule and spectator's guide (including course maps.)

That's all for now. Onward!

New personal record, and 91% towards goal - $150 to raise in 10 days!

I know this is old hat, but I can't believe how the days are flying by. It seems like yesterday I updated my blog last, and here we are, almost a week later. Amazing.

Well, my training has been a little sidetracked - my husband and I visited family in Illinois over a long weekend, and just returned. Thanks to the suggestions of several friends, though, I was able to locate a running path in the town we were staying in. It was a great path - distances well-marked every quarter mile, and the path itself was something like 5 miles long (not that I got to see the whole thing, of course!)

I did eight miles on Friday morning, our first day there - a new personal record! (My old record was 6.75 miles - blew that one out of the water!) After that, though, a major rain storm blew through and the path was flooded for the rest of the time I was there. Booo. Oh well. Imagine, focusing a family trip on family, instead of training : )

In other exciting news - we are at 91% of my goal of raising $1700 by July 2 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. That means we have 10 days to raise another $150.20. $150.20 is ten friends giving $15 each - an eminently possible goal, but I need your help. If you've been waiting to give, please consider doing so now to meet my July 2 deadline.

And, a big thank you to our newest donors:
Barry and Stephanie, St. Paul
Aunt Julie, Fergus Falls, MN

Thank you so very, very much. You guys are incredible. Onward!

Track workout, vacation runs, and 85% towards goal!

Whew! How do these weeks go so quickly? Well, today we had the dreaded track workout. My first track workout was, quite frankly, a bit of a downer. I didn't understand what different paces were, and I was often last among my group.

Well, this time I still pushed myself, but not quite as hard, and it was much better. I was running about 11:30 pace miles at a harder interval than I generally do - 4 min running, 1 min walking, I think. I usually do a 6:2 interval. WAY better. We did a cute little "ladder" workout - ten minute out and back warmup run; 1 mile run marathon pace, 1/4 mile recovery (slow jog/walk), then 26 situps and pushups each, then 1/2 mile marathon pace, 1/4 mile recovery, and then 1 full mile marathon pace again, then 10 min recovery run/walk. All told it was about 5 miles.

I am going to visit family out of state this weekend, presenting a new challenge: how do I take my training on the road? Fortunately, my wise running friends pointed me to the USATF America's Running Routes page, which has this amazingly handy "routes" function, mapping paths in cities across the US. Thanks, Amy and Jannette - VERY useful! I will be using a route I found there, and maybe some 8# weights and a resistance band. That will keep me busy.

Last but hardly least - thanks to your support, we are now at 85% of my LLS fundraising goal of $1700 by July 2. Thank you all so much! Newest donors include:

Grandma Ruth, IL (awwwww... : ) )
Grandma Emma, IL (double awwww... : ) )
Sandy and Dick, Minneapolis
Darrell, Minneapolis
Andy, St. Paul

I have to tell you that when I first signed up for Team In Training, I was most worried about the fundraising, not the running. You all have been amazing - not only in the financial support, but also in your motivating comments. It has given me strength on days when it's tough to even think about training.

Now, we have $250.20 to raise in 15 days. That's 15 people - one a day - giving $16.68 by July 2. Or that's 25 of my closest friends giving $10 each. Think we can do it? I do! Onward!