Half marathon!

There are many milestones in long distance running: the first 10 miles, the first race, the first bloody sock, the first black toenail... and on and on. I have already crossed out the first race 5 years ago when I did not consider myself a runner at all, I recently crossed out the first time I ran 10 miles and the first bloody sock, and I will happily pass on the first black toenail if possible. Today, I can cross out an important milestone: my first half marathon. Ok, it was not a race so I should say that it was the first time I ran the distance of a half marathon, but you will all agree that it would sound too cumbersome... right?
I had a 20km run in my program, and as I had already announced I would do, I added two walking stretches as warm up and cool down so that I could reach the distance. In fact I ended up covering more than 21.1km because again I took a wrong turn. Two actually. I wonder why I even bother planning these runs in the woods if I always end up taking wrong turns!

The Stockholm Marathon course consists of two laps around the city center: the first 16.6km and the second 25.6km. To get used to this I have decided to do the same for all of my upcoming runs above 10 miles: a first lap of about 40% of the total distance and a longer second lap to complete the distance, which is incidentally why it would be nice to be able to map each run and follow the plan. I also decided to follow my doctor's advice and include longer stretches in the woods, as a substitute for hill training (I live in the Netherlands, you know?).

Last night the temperature dropped below freezing again so when I went out this morning it was not warm enough to wear shorts, but the day turned out to be a very nice one and there were only plane wakes in the sky...

A different perspective on asparagi fields

I drank some isotonic drink every 5km, except at 10km when I drank a new liquid energy gel. I liked it! You don't need to drink water with it as it's much more fluid than the standard energy gel, and it also had a nice taste so I think I don't need to experiment further: I've found my energy source for during the marathon. Maybe after this one I will try something new, but with just two months (and one day) to go I want to establish my long run routine and get used to it.

I felt great during the whole run, and the beginning of the second lap was made easy by my whole family meeting me there to cheer me on, all three of them on my bike. They couldn't follow me in the woods but they also found me in other places along the course, it was very nice.

The last two kilometers were the fastest of all and the average pace was faster than the recommended pace in my plan. I was a bit afraid the recommended race pace could be too fast (20 seconds faster than long distance training pace), but now I'm confident I can do it. Confidence is a good thing :-)

Cracked bones

Friday, two days before my first "half marathon", and I feel like somebody cracked every single vertebra of my spine. Oh wait, that's exactly what happened!

Body paint

Yesterday I ran 12km 'fast' (5km jog on Wednesday) and for pretty much the whole distance I felt something wrong in my right hip, with every single step. It was not painful and I continued running, even though I did consider stopping to prevent it from getting worse.
I mentioned this at the follow up appointment with the sports doctor in the afternoon, and he agreed with me that we should fix this before it becomes a problem with the longer distances. During the visit he also realized that my neck is pretty much screwed (car crash 10 years ago), so he offered me a complete re-design of my spine. Ignoring my daughter's protests ("You don't write on people, you can only write on paper!") he proceeded to mark every single vertebra and then started the procedure, which will take another 5-6 sessions to be completed. He said this will even fix my neck... I will be forever grateful if it really does. I've been living with pain and limited mobility every single day of my life since July 17th 2002, I can't explain with words what it would mean to have a healthy neck again.

He had warned me I could feel dizzy and broken, and I certainly did. Let's see what happens on Sunday!


ps: I'm not a hunchback, I was bending forward for the picture

Sunday: Half-marathon!

Looks like spring has arrived with perfect timing, it's been wonderful running weather the whole week with clear sunny skies and temperatures between 8℃ and 15℃ (at least during my runs). I also ran alone all three times, which is a rare bonus.
There's not much else to say about the weekday runs: 8km easy on Wednesday and 5km jog on Saturday.

Asparagi fields /2

Sunday on the other hand has been a full day: I went out early for my 12km, as my husband had to run his traditional half-marathon (it's the 4th year in a row) later in the day. Luckily I decided to wear my capri's instead of the shorts because it was not that warm after all! The sun was still pretty low when I went out and later on some clouds were veiling it, so in the end I had very cold and red hands, though the rest of my body was fine.

Do they know it's Easter time at all?

And then it was time for my husband's half marathon, which for me meant a lot of standing (4 hours with very few breaks) and a lot of walking (6km), I am very happy this didn't happen after a longer run.
He was aiming for 1:40 but it was quite warm when they were running, much warmer in fact than in the training days so his 1:42:20 is a very good time and most importantly he was not broken at the finish line. I'm very proud of him!

And next Sunday it's my turn for a half-marathon... almost. I have a 20K scheduled, but I think I will add a 500m walk warm up and cool down at the beginning and at the end, just to make the distance ;-)

Last piece of news: I signed up for a 10K on the 22nd of April! This will be my second ever race, the first being a 5K almost five years ago. I knew that inserting a race in the training program would have been a good thing to do, but after being immersed in the runners crowd on Sunday I realized it was something I simply had to do before the marathon. You can't simulate race-day adrenaline during training.

Stress, spring, struggle

Tuesday: 8km, fast.
I really didn't want to go out. My legs were still paying for the race simulation on Sunday, and on top of that on Monday I had had a strength training session at physio, mainly with heavy resistance biking and squats with weights. Muscles were hurting that I didn't even know I had.
Still, I strapped both kids in the stroller and I went out. It was cold-ish, cloudy and a bit windy. For the first time, I was painfully aware of how heavy the stroller is with both kids inside it and I was having a hard time pushing it. Add to all this the contribution of my crankily hyper daughter who was either singing the same line ("shut your eyes and sing to me") over and over again or somehow annoying my son and making him cry, and you get the picture of a quite stressful run. I even had to stop twice to cross the road and twice to check what was going on in the stroller, and it surely didn't help.

Thursday: 8km, fast.
The second run for this week was scheduled on Friday, but I couldn't pass on the chance to run on a perfect spring day with only my son in the stroller.

Asparagi fields

Needless to say, it was a completely different experience. I really enjoyed this run and I am looking forward to more of the same kind.

Sunday: 16km.
Same weather conditions of Tuesday, with a much stronger wind. My average pace ended up being 10sec/km faster than two weeks ago but I don't think this is what made it so much harder. I took (read: "stole from the kids") two of these

instead of the energy gel, and anyway lack of physical energy has not been an issue thanks to a good breakfast. 

Looks like my joint troubles have shifted from the left to the right side: for the first 3km there was something wrong with my right ankle, then with my right knee for another couple of kilometers. From about half-way on I could (already!) feel the fatigue in both knees. I suspect this could be linked to the route, as I ran on trails more than I'm used to and actually more than I had planned to do.
The sun peeked through the clouds for two vital minutes and its warm smile gave me a much needed bit of encouragement to finish my run.

Wind and shorts

This past was a "cut back" week, with mixed feelings and varied runs. The workouts were also scheduled in a strange way, on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. I was not sure about the two consecutive days, but I was thankful for an extra day of rest after the 16K.

Wednesday: 8km "fast".
I have never liked wind. When I played tennis I could stand any weather condition from hot to cold, even the light misty rain didn't bother me much (outdoor tennis doesn't work with heavy rain, you know), but the wind... I hated that. Made playing almost impossible, took control of the ball and of the game. And it even gave me headaches.
Well, Wednesday was definitely a windy day, and I found out that I don't like wind any more now than I did back then. Luckily the pace in my training program was very relaxed and not really reflecting my current ability so what defined "fast" there was actually quite comfortable, but boy was it mentally hard. I kept checking the Garmin to see how long I still had to go, with that anxiety (and frequency of the question) also typical of young children on long journeys... "are we there yet?"

Saturday: 5km jog.
Uneventful run, really. A bit boring even. I kept telling myself that this was just a warm up for Sunday's run, or I would have sped up too much to get it over with as soon as possible.
Actually, I have to report that this uneventful and boring run led to a milestone: my first bloody sock :-p

Sunday: 8km, race simulation.
This was supposed to be just "fast", but I decided to do a sort of race simulation and test myself in order to later recalculate the pace in my training program. It was a beautiful clear day, temperature in the double digits (just 10℃, but those are indeed two digits, aren't they?) already early in the morning and, most importantly, without wind. I put on shorts and t-shirt for the first time this year, and off I went. I was surprised to see that none of the other runners I met had opted for shorts, but I was glad I had. I tried to run reasonably fast, let's say half way between comfort and puking limit... it was not the ultimate race after all and I still need to be gentle with my joints.
Looking back at the data, I can say that I managed my energies pretty wisely: I ran with a negative split and the last km was the fastest of all, with a pace 25 to 39 seconds faster than the other segments.

And I still managed to smile :-)

Unknown territory

I went into unknown territory today, in every sense.
I was not sure I would complete the 16km I had scheduled, I didn't want to push myself too far and I knew that also 14km would have been good, since next long run is again 16km. I had planned on doing a 12km route and then just add one or two 2km laps in my neighbourhood, but around the 8km mark I knew it was going to be all right so I went for an unplanned detour in the woods.

I ran on unknown trails, discovered a place where they apparently train dogs, and went by a few of these  piles of recently cut timber. They were quite high and I can see why somebody found it necessary to explicitly forbid climbing...
At 10km I had my first ever energy gel (Power Bar Gel - lemon/lime), and was surprised by how salty and sticky it was. Eeeeewww! Why did I buy three of those?
It's weird, as I think back now I can only remember very few things of today's run, I was so focused on listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that I didn't even realize I was running. I was fully aware though of the fact that this was going to be my longest run so far without regular walk breaks.
At some point around the 12km mark I was feeling tired and I was starting to talk myself into accepting that 14km was also good, when I realized I had started to hunch forward. I straightened up, tightened my newly found abdominal muscles and focused on keeping a straight posture and what do you know... 500m and it was like the tiredness had been wiped away from my body. All those core strengthening exercises are paying off!
I continued for the last km in my neighbourhood and ran into my family at the little park close to home, and even had my daughter run next to me for a few meters, which was sweet :-)
Another 500m or so of walking after having stopped the Garmin at 16.01km and then I was home, pleasantly surprised at how easy it had been and how good I was feeling, but nonetheless aware that there was still time for problems to arise. Ten hours have passed since then, and I am only feeling (rightfully, I would add) tired, knees a bit sore but it's not a worrisome tiredness, just the kind you feel when you've been on your feet for a long time (U2 GA, anyone?).

Let's see now when I will stop worrying about injuries and start enjoying the running again!

8+8=16?

I had a big scare today. Last Thursday I had emailed the Stockholm Marathon organization to ask what my options were in case I could not run this year, and today I got a reply:


"Hi,

I have cancel you and i will refund 85 euro to your visacard that you pay with.

Regards
Pamela W."
[name edited]

Panic. No phone number to call, no personal email, just that "info" address. I sent three short emails in about 6 minutes, the first one sounding something like "hey, that's not what I asked!", the second one "HEY! I WANT BACK IN!!!", the third one "listen, please read my first email, I didn't ask you to be canceled". I was shaking head to toes. My name did not appear anymore in the marathon start list.
I had a phone number of another person in the organization, I called, she gave me the email address of Mrs. Pamela W. and promised me she would also call her. After 58 minutes of nothing from them, my name finally appeared again in the start list, and shortly after that Mrs. Pamela emailed me that I was registered again for the marathon. Note: my original question remains unanswered, but after today I will just assume that the only option is a partial refund, I will not dare email them again.

The training week: even with my sore knees after Saturday's 12km I had no problems standing (and jumping and dancing) for hours on Sunday at a rock concert. On Monday I had the second appointment with the sports doc, who took notice of the changes and proceeded to do some manipulation of knees and hips. Given the good results with the shoe inserts and the core strengthening exercises, he gave me the ok to keep training for the marathon this year, and see what happens. Happy me!!!

Before going out on Tuesday for my scheduled 8km I was afraid it would be too much, I was going to decide on the spot whether to run the whole distance or cut it short. And... it was a breeze. I have never felt so stable while running, and of course I had no idea I was so unstable before! I was able to keep a faster pace (following the indications of my training program) without any problem. I believe that running the last km slower to allow for a better cool down also helped a lot, so I will always make sure I have a cool down phase at the end of every run from now on. 

Only thing to notice: after a few hours my right Achilles tendon was hurting quite a bit, and also the top of my left ankle whenever I flexed my foot (pulling toes towards leg). 24 hours (and some NSAID cream) later, it was all good again.

Another 8km run today, with no problems. All joints are good as of now. 

So... this Sunday I have a 16km run scheduled. That's a pretty steep increase from last Saturday's 12km and it's going to be my second longest run ever, the longest one being the 17km that tipped my left knee over the edge in December (and that was with regular walk breaks). Wish me luck people, I feel this is an important test for me and it will have a big influence on my chances of running the marathon this year.