I have been thinking a lot this week about what will come next for me and my running. I played with the idea of doing another half-marathon this fall and then ramping up to a full marathon in the spring. (I would like to do a full marathon someday, just so I can say I've done it.) However, I quickly decided I didn't want to plunge headlong into another heavy training schedule that was going to eat all my time and take away from my OTHER hobby, one I have not been able to do in competition since Valentine's Day (yes, that's Tika the cyborg running dog in the video):
Since I have had to put dog agility on the back burner for so long, I registered for shows for three back-to-back-to-back weekends starting this Saturday. With that taken care of, I turned my attention back to mapping out my next training cycle. In the interest of cutting my mileage (and training time), I decided to focus on two fall 10K races. The first is actually not a 10K per se, but a marathon relay where one of the legs happens to be 6.3 miles, almost identical to a 10K (6.2, but what's an extra tenth among friends?). That's at the end of September. The second race is two weeks after the first one and is a bonafide 10K on the Towpath, the trail where I spent many, many weekends logging miles for my half. It's flat, it's a non-paved running surface, and there should be some fall color to admire. It could be a truly wonderful race if we get nice weather.
From there, all of the other pieces fell into place. I downloaded a Smart Coach 10K training schedule from Runner's World (it was free, but I think that's because I'm a subscriber). It's a 16-week schedule that begins a week from today and ends the day of the marathon relay. It looked very doable and said I would be able to race the 10K distance in 59:20. The thought of a sub-one-hour 10K thrills me to pieces (shut up, I know I'm a slow runner), so I said "SOLD!" and set it up. My long runs will be on Fridays so they don't mess with my agility weekends. I also signed up for another Pilates class beginning on Wednesday and for private Pilates lessons with Kim and her Reformer on Mondays. Cross-training: check!
The only remaining problem was that my shiny new SmartCoach schedule specified paces for each and every run. Not just "conversational pace" or whatever, but exact minute-and-second paces. I find the easy run paces very slow indeed, but if you're going to follow a plan, you shouldn't do a half-baked job of it. Ergo, I needed a tool that would let me see my pace on an ongoing basis.
Enter the Garmin Forerunner 405CX. Despite screams heard round the Internet about the overly sensitive touch bezel, it has an amazing array of useful features and also includes a heart rate monitor. REI had it marked way, way down this weekend with free shipping thrown in AND there's a $50 rebate expiring today AND I had a little REI dividend cash to sweeten the deal even more, all of which finally pushed me over the edge. I placed my order on Friday.
Remember that. I placed my order on Friday.
Yesterday morning, I ran with Tika again, covering 2.27 miles in 26:29 for another 11:40 pace. I was careful to stretch thoroughly afterward. That was only my third run since race day. I am not in any mood to rush my recovery. And I'm enjoying a bit of semi-laziness before the next training cycle begins.
Yesterday afternoon, I went to agility class, carpooling as usual with my friend Steve and his dog. It was a hot day, so we spent as much time as possible in the shade.
About two-thirds of the way through class, Tika was on a dogwalk (a straight obstacle about 27 feet long) and I was running next to the dogwalk in a nice straight line, when...
Twang! I could feel something slip/twinge on the inside of my left leg, at the very top near the hip--really the same place as my last muscle pull, except on THE OTHER LEG.
This pull also seemed quite a bit more severe than the last one--I had to get Steve to drive my car home, as my left leg was not up to depressing and releasing the clutch (it's a stick). By the time I got home I could barely get out of the car, and any movement involving muscles in that area hurt like holy hell.
After 24 hours of ice and ibuprofen, it still hurts A LOT. I am debating going to a sports medicine clinic. I looked through an anatomy book trying to figure out which muscle(s) it could be, but there are an awful lot to choose from in that area and I really have no idea. One thing is clear: the stretches I am currently doing are not even touching whichever muscle(s) this is.
So all of my fancy plans--the Pilates classes, the dog shows, the paced-to-the-second training runs--are currently in limbo. All because I had the audacity to run in a straight line at agility class. (Which is also how I garnered my last muscle pull.)
I really want to be a runner AND a dog agility competitor. I didn't think they were two mutually exclusive things!!
No comments:
Post a Comment