My Days of Rest

“I am my own affliction; I am own disease”

Switchfoot

Saturday, August 14 I proclaimed to myself and my running friends that I would not run again until Bulldog.  I would rest.  I kept my word.  I have not run, not even from the car to the front door. 

This is how I’ve spent my days of “rest” (besides reading, cleaning, and sleeping extra hours):

Sunday, I slept in : ), swam 1,500 yards and did  strength training (weights & core).

Monday, 65 minutes on the elliptical (5.22 miles) and core work on the floor at home in front of my favorite soap opera.  To bed early (8:30!)

Tuesday, slept in again : ) 65 minutes on the elliptical (5.68 miles) and more strength training (weights, but no extra weight or repetitions than usual).

Wednesday, woke up early, Physical Therapy 8 AM, then to the gym for 1,500 yards of swimming, then again core work on the floor at home watching my soap.

Thursday, woke even earlier, Physical Therapy 7:30 AM, then to the gym for strength training (weights & core) plus 1,500 yards of swimming.  Napped in the late afternoon.

Friday, no workout whatsoever intended.  Sleep in and keep a cool head, pick up a few things from the store and pack.  I won’t even do a plank!

NOW, there may be friends and readers who will give me that funny look, giggle and accuse me of not resting these past days.  But believe me, this has been a rest.  In the past five days, I’ve probably slept an extra ten hours.  No cardio activity lasted more than 65 minutes, and the strength training, I didn’t “up” anything.

As a result, I feel rested.  My toe isn’t pretty, but it’s practically healed.  No pain at all, no limp.  My hip is also doing much, much better.  Though my pelvis continues to rotate forward.  Anything will do it.  Sleeping does it!  But I am getting better and stronger at realigning my pelvis back into position.  So, if you see me out there in Calabasas laying in the dirt, pulling and pushing my right leg, I am not hurt, I am just preventing pain and injury by realigning.

There you have it – my days of rest.  Now I am a bundle of nerves, hoping that I can complete the upcoming race, my first ultra.  My goals:  (besides completing), no falling, no injuries, handling the cramps when the arrive, keeping a smile on my face and a positive attitude, and most of all enjoying the beauty and relative solitude.  Because it really is beautiful out there at Malibu Creek State Park.

So long til then.

No; not Again!

Tuesday my hip ached so badly, I went to bed with a heating pad, then fell promptly asleep. The hip was just not right.  And I was afraid.  Good thing I had physical therapy in the morning.  And good thing my husband came to bed way afterward and turned off the heating pad.

Physical Therapy Wednesday 7:00 AM.  I bridged, lay on the table and my P.T. took a hold of my feet and said, “Your pelvis is so out of line!”

“What???!!”  I felt doomed. “What did I do?”  I asked.  “Am I running wrong?”

“No, it’s not your running,” he said.  “It’s the car accident.  You’re going to be unstable for a while.”

*#%***##!!!!

After an hour and a half of physical therapy, he showed me how to tell when my pelvis is out of line and how to re-align it myself.  I listened and even repeated the steps out loud, but with little hope in my heart.  

Before I left for the gym for some elliptical and weights, he made sure my pelvis was aligned.  I was amazed that my hip felt so much better.

After 65 minutes on the elliptical and 25 minutes of weights, I grocery shopped and returned home and promptly napped for a few hours, so relieved that my hip felt good.

Thursday morning, I was up bright and early for a 6 AM run with Tom and Sheila.  I tossed around the idea of putting in more miles than the hilly out-and-back planned.  My running friends easily convinced me that it’s time to cut back.

And so we went for that ridge run, under cool, almost cold, gray skies. On the way up Cholla, we passed two female hikers.  I jokingly said to one of them, “You know the park’s closed.”  She threw me a glare.  I picked up my pace some, because after that glare, there was no way I was letting that hiker pass this runner up on Cholla Trail.

I didn’t even drink from my handheld once on the way up to Top of the World.  That’s how cool and overcast it was this morning (WHEN THE PARK WAS CLOSED).   I was quite the talkative gal on this run too, more so than usual, because nerves are racking up over the upcoming week. 

On the way back, we came across two cyclists, one who had just wiped out, the other who was calling 911.  The guy who crashed was walking.  For some reason, I was looking for injury in his feet/ankles, being a runner that I am.  Tom stopped to talk to him for a bit.   I could hear sirens in the distance.  Later, my friends mentioned something that I hadn’t noticed – that the wipe-out guy was powdered with dirt head to toe.  

At the top of Cholla a county paramedic truck made its way in, as did one behind us on Westridge.  After running Cholla Trail, another paramedic waited at the bottom to help. 

Good to know response is so quick.  Perhaps though, it was the time of day. (approx. 7:30 am, by now).

I was still stretching after Tom and Sheila took off to begin their day when up the road walked a man with his two doggies – one of them a Beagle.  I stopped him of course, because I wanted to pet his dogs.  We talked and laughed about how stubborn Beagles are.  Turns out, his Beagle’s name is Daisy – just like ours : )

Back I home I was freezing, and my hip ached like the devil!  After  breakfast, I crawled into bed, still sweaty, teeth chattering, hip in trouble, and slept for a couple hours.

After waking I attempted my hip exercises, and  barely able to accomplish them, marched in front of the mirror like my P.T. told me, with my thumbs on my pelvis.  And sure enough, my right thumb ended up a good 2 inches lower than the left.  My right pelvis had rotated forward and down that much!  And so after doing the exercises to supposedly align my pelvis, I marched in front of the mirror again.  And wouldn’t you know it!  My pelvis was aligned – thumbs even.  Wow.  My hip felt much better.

After an afternoon in Fallbrook, I did my mirror march again, and sure enough – pelvis aligned.  Yahoo!  In celebration, I did a two minute plank before walking down to dinner at the corner restaurant.

Miles run this morning: 6.11

It is Done

I tossed and turned all night thinking about my approaching 50k.  Less than a month away I'm feeling that I'm not nearly strong enough to conquer it.  What happened?  How did I get behind on my training AGAIN?  

Injuries, car accidents, visitors, birthdays, illnesses . . . life.  I should account for that next time I set my mind on a big race.

I made it to the gym this morning for some weight training, feeling inadequate, basically in most aspects, especially strength-wise.  I increased the weights by five to ten pounds for each muscle group.  And I wondered how it could be that I'm not getting any stronger, that I can't power up the hills any faster.  Then I suited up and swam some laps.  And I noticed . . . I noticed how very easy it was to swim a mere a 1,700 yards.  I breezed through the laps without resting, just enjoying myself, realizing, hey!  I guess I am a little stronger.  Then I had to go. : (

After chores, I went I did the thing I've been avoiding.  The whole family drove up to the yard, and I cleaned out my "totalled" car.  I wept behind dark sunglasses.  But it didn't go unnoticed.  The boys mainly had a a grand time crawling in and out of the car I've been driving for the past 8 years.  We found a DS game tucked in a tiny crevice.  There was also a movie in the dvd player (Chicken Run).  Then we drove back to the office and I "released" my car.

It is done.  And tomorrow's another day that I will try and power up those hills. : )

Planks, Blogging and Short Runs

Planks and more planks, that's what I say.  I still hate them.  But I can tell they make me stronger, more stable on my feet as a runner.  I am now up to five sets, more than a minute each.  I know that doesn't sound like much.  Consider this:  when I first tried planks, I crashed to the floor yelping after a few seconds!  That's how weak I was.  Sure I could run for five/six hours straight.  But there was always that nagging hip.   And then with my last injury (when I finally visited the dr.) he was amazed at my leg strength, but frowned at my core strength.  He actually used the words, "very weak." 

I knew my core was weak.  I didn't want to do anything about it.  I knew it was more difficult to keep my column straight with a weak core, and that I bent at the hips when I grew fatigued.  And I knew that the more rugged the terrain, the more apt I was to get injured.  But this is the funny part.  Nevermind that running period, is hard -- it was just too hard, in my mind, to work on core strength.  And so I didn't.

Now, I'm not saying that planks are the "end all" answer to my weaknesses (that is physical weaknesses :).  I've added all sorts of weight training and hip exercises, and I'm returning to a schedule that includes more cross training.  But I am saying that planks are the clincher in this strength training journey I'm taking.  Thanks to Runner Dude's blog.  I'm not sure I would have began my plank regimen if I hadn't stumbled upon this blog.  He convinced me:  planks, planks, planks!

I've been running for about seven years.  I've been running trails for about two years.  (Another plug:  thanks to OCTR).  Since my first blog on myspace back in about May/June  2008, I have blogged every single run, even those runs I put in on the treadmill (which by the way, now I can't even look at a treadmill without anxiety shuddering throughout my body).  Recording every run is just something I do -- 1) because I run, and 2) as an exercise in writing (because I love to write, but don't have enough time otherwise).

AS THUS (spoke Zarathustra -- joking) I feel I must blog today's run, eventhough today's run was my short run, and I don't have much to say about a run that lasts well under an hour.  (Obviously that's not true, because how many pages have I written so far?)

My rule for these newly added "short runs" (thanks to Tom, who inadvertently convinced me on Harding Truck Trail that I need short runs) is that they must be less than five miles.  At first the idea repulsed me.  Seriously.  Was it even worth tying my laces to go out for a 3 or 4 mile run?  I mean, if I'm gonna run, well dang it, I want to put in the time.  (As I've mentioned before -- I'm a glutton). 

Now I am here to say -- Yes!  It is worth it to tie my laces and run for 3 or 4 miles, even less.  This afternoon I was joyous from the very first step.  Because from the very first step, the run is almost over!  (For those who don't understand the logic to this, because I wouldn't have 7 years ago, part of the joy of running is FINISHING the run, that is the last step).  With the short run, that last step is "just around the corner!"

I ran the wharf and Doheny Beach today.  And to add a little excitement (did I say excitement?  I meant, pain : ) I added seven bursts of speed throughout the run.  That is, I ran for short distances the pace I would run if I were coming into the finish line of a 5k race, which is basically the fastest I would ever run.  (Thankfully I haven't had to run from a predator, human or otherwise, because that would probably be the fastest I would ever run, which would be faster than my bursts today).  

I originally planned on 6 bursts, but in the end added one more.  I have to say that after each burst I wanted to stop running, but I kept on going, and in time, I was ready to add another.

At the end of my short run, I walked about for a cool down same as usual.  And I drank some water before a regular stretching routine (same as my long run stretch session).  The only thing different on these short runs is that I don't carry water, nor do I stop at fountains.  I also don't take in calories on the run.  And my snack back at home was a mere apple (of course, lunch was just around the corner).

Running!  It has taught me to change things up. It has taught me so much.

Miles logged this afternoon: 4.27