Ready for the 60K?

I have run two times (and only of three miles each) in the past 7-9 days. Is that bad? I ran 24 miles a couple of weeks ago and then just took a big break. I know I'll still have the endurance in me (knock on wood) for the race in a couple of weeks, but will my body feel out of it since I haven't been running regularly lately? I sure as heck hope not. Could a taper consist of just not running for 7 days? Sure.
I'll probably run 3-6 miles tomorrow and then maybe a 1 hour run this Saturday. I'll get a hill and sprint workout, too, but I just hope that I'll be fine. I've never run more than 32 miles and I hope this new distance will be fun and not kill me.

Buckeye 2008

This is Chris and I in OH after just finishing the Buckeye 50K. We're nasty and sweaty but still sportin our cool hunter green free jackets from the race!

Cure to fat hands?

I have noticed that after running short and long distances (usually in cold weather) my hands seem to blow up like a huge rubber glove. They get super puffy and typically turn white.

The first time I noticed this was when I was running outside with Chris and we had run about 5 hours. We stopped to take a break and I took off my tiny gloves. I freaked out because when I took them off I saw huge marshmellow-looking hands and I didn't know why. They didn't hurt or anything (even though they were numb since it was cold out), they were just huge.

Well thanks to Chris, I realized I'm not the only one suffering from ugly fat hands. According to some people's experiences, I might need to take some elctrolyte capsules or something- hmm. See the link that Chris found: Fat Hands.

I later asked my doctor about my hands and my circulation (since my hands are always freezing and purple) and she thought it was probably linked to Raynaud's Disease. It basically means you can't do much to fix it and you just live with ugly, fat, cold hands. See this post for more info on Raynaud's Disease.

Pavement Kills

Welp...that run on Saturday kicked my butt!!! Chris and I ran all on pavement- from home, up Canal path in B'ripple, back down on Monon, around the downtown canal, and back home. I covered 24.9 miles but that included a little walking/food break. I probably ran 22-23 miles or something close.

During the run, I felt pretty good overall. It was weird how little muscles that I had forgotten about started to hurt at different times during the run. All of a sudden the side of my knee would have pain, and then my ankle...I have no idea how just a few months ago, I only ran on pavement. As Chris said, no wonder people hate running. I would too if I didn't do trails- well maybe.

I don't know what the exact temperature was during the run. I know we started at 4am and it was about 41 degrees, and then the temp dropped to about 18-25 maybe. I only had little $1 gloves on and my hands felt fine until the end.

Note to reader: My hands seem to always be freezing, running or not running, and lately after my runs- my fingers will turn white for about 40 minutes. I don't know why they're white but they are.

Now this was scary to me on Saturday: After about 19-20 miles, Chris and I stopped to rest for a minute. I took off my gloves and looked at my hands. I kid you not, my hands seriously looked like HUGE MARSHMELLOW WHITE PUFFY HANDS! I was so scared because they looked gigantic and swollen and puffed out. What the heck does that mean? They were a little numb and I couldn't even fasten a safety pin...but why did they look like that? Do either of my 1-2 readers have any medical explanation/advice?

The other day at work my coworker said my fingernail beds looked blue and that it could mean there's something wrong with my blood or whatever. Who knows if that's true- but now that I had huge puffy hands (and Chris didn't (!)) I'm a little worried. Maybe I'll ask the doc next time I have a visit.

After the run, I seriously crashed and took a six hour nap!!!! I think half of it was becasue I haven't been getting much sleep the past few weeks, and the other half was from the long run on the pavement. My body was so sore. It's just weird because I can run 32 miles on trails, and feel fine the next day and I'm not super tired.

Now I'm a little worried because Chris and I are going to run a half-marathon on pavement on 3/29 and then a full marathon on pavement on 3/30. If I hadn't run last Saturday, I wouldn't be worried because I wouldn't have remembered how much your body gets beat up.

These two races aren't the main things that worry me. What is is that the following week, 4/5, I still want to run a 50K in Chicago on pavement. It's close to home- I've done it before- so I want to take advantage of this race. Today's the third day since Saturday and I'm not sore anymore. I figure after waiting one week, I'll be fine again to run on pavement. Which is true.
I haven't signed up for it yet but I probably will in March.

Big one before the race

Chris and I are going to try to get one long run in before the March 8th race. We really don't like to run on pavement anymore, but we want to be accurate on our distance and we'd like a change of scenary. We're probably going to run from home to downtown, run up 10th street on the White River trail and then come back on the Monon, maybe run on the canal, and then run home. If we do the canal, it'll be about 24.9 miles. If we don't, 22.4. Maybe we'll do the canal, and then continue at Rhodius to make it a marathon. I can't believe that's the only path we used to run on, just as of like December 2007! We used to do 4-5 hour runs on that same boring paved flat path, over and over.

My very first trail run was the Tecumseh Marathon on December 1st. I had never run on many hills before and had never been on a trail. That was the most awesome marathon and even though your time will be slower, trail running is way better than on pavement. So- I will probably be sore tomorrow after the hard pounding. Hopefully it won't be freezing.

Gettin Stronger- Slowly but Surely

Well...I think my trail runs/hill workouts/and sprints are finally paying off. For the past couple of weeks, I have averaged about 7:30 minute miles for my 3-4 mile runs. The distance isn't very far, but the crazy thing is that when I'm running those miles- I seriously think and feel like I'm running 8 or 9 minute miles.

Yesterday I went out to run just a few miles and as I was running I thought "ahh...I'll just go nice and easy at a slow pace". I looked at my watch after one mile and it was 7:20- and I kept that pace up for the other two miles.

It's crazy because just like 1-2 months ago, I was running a 9-10:30 minute pace and that was normal. Usually on my sprint workouts it would be a goal to run a mile under 8 minutes. Now I'm doing that on my regular running day without even trying. That's a very nice feeling.

I now kind of wish that I was going to run the "Last Chance for Boston" marathon this month to try to qualify for Boston in April. Oh well- next year.