fitness

Pre-Race Jitters

October 19, 2012 by Erica

Tomorrow morning I’m heading down to Moab, Utah with five girlfriends to run The Other Half on Sunday.

As I mentioned before, this is my first half marathon, and my training hasn’t exactly gone as planned. I’ve been injured for over a month, and my longest run was 9 miles, rather than the 12 I was hoping to build up to. So it’s with some definite nerves that I’m looking forward to Sunday.

On the bright side, that 9-mile long run was also down in Moab, during a super-fun weekend with my parents in September.

And it was beautiful. The red rock just astounds me, similar to the way I felt about the Wasatch mountains when I first moved to Salt Lake. (They were so beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, and was even afraid I would crash my car on the way home from work because I was so distracted by the scenery!) Well, I don’t think the red rock will make me run into anything on Sunday, but the gorgeous nature I know I’ll be running through makes me very excited for the race, despite my doubts about my fitness.

I’ve watched a few videos of the 2011 race to psych myself up for Sunday. And what I’ve concluded is that 13.1 miles is long! Not that I didn’t know that before, but watching the mile markers roll by in the videos just emphasizes how many of them there are. One video showed lots of runners walking by about mile 10… and I can’t help but think I’ll be among that group.

So what’s my race strategy?

– Start out with the 2:00 pace group (9:09 miles) and stay with them for as long as I can.

– Walk and drink water at every aid station (located every 2 miles).

– Skip the Gu they’re handing out and instead take 2 Shot Bloks each at miles 6 and 10 (plus I’m bringing 2 extras). I’ve cut the Shot Blocks in half to make them easier to chew, and am going to pin this Ziploc bag of them inside of my shorts.

– If I reach a point where my legs, lungs, etc. can’t carry me any further, stop to walk for as long as necessary (but preferably for only a minute or two at a time).

– If my knee is in serious pain or I feel like I might be doing permanent damage to it, drop out of the race at the next aid station.

– Wear a hat and lots of sunscreen!

I’ve promised Nate I won’t hurt myself, so I’m going to do my best to stick to that. As happy as I’ll be if I can jog the whole race, I also hope to have many more decades of running to look forward to, which is much more important than finishing one half marathon. I’m not putting much pressure on myself, because I know I’m injured and can’t do my best. Oh, and I’ve sworn not to race or train hard for the next year so that I can build up a base and not injure myself next time!

We’ll see what Sunday brings!

The Elliptical.

October 16, 2012 by Erica

I used to scoff at Salt Lake City gym-goers. We live in Utah, people… who wants to be sweating in a stinky basement when you could be outside in the mountains? Wellllll I had to put my foot in my mouth recently when I walked into Planet Fitness, signed my name on the dotted line, and hopped on the elliptical.

My first half marathon is coming up – eek! – this weekend, and I managed to hurt my knee about 5 weeks ago. My training was going really well, too, and I was finally starting to think I could actually run 13.1 miles! But the pain in my knee cap, once it started, got worse until I couldn’t train through it anymore. Now I’m not so sure I can run 13.1 miles… but I think I’m still going to try. Hence my new BFF: the elliptical.

I did most of my workouts on the elliptical during college and the few years afterwards. I had a lot of knee pain then, similar to what I have now, and even had knee surgery in 2009. It’s really just been the past year that my knee has let me get back into running. I never hated the gym, but I’ve really fallen back in love with running in the past year, and the thought of trading in my weekend trail runs for a blinking machine was really hard!

I’ve been trying to make the elliptical fit my half marathon training plan – doing 4-5 workouts a week, and doing the same duration as I would have if I were running. That means usually 30-40 minutes a day, but also means a “long run” on the weekends. 90 minutes of dripping sweat onto the elliptical… that was my Sunday morning! But you know what? It hasn’t been that bad! I think my Kindle makes it just slightly bearable. (Did I mention I read A Tale of Two Cities in a week?) It also doesn’t hurt that I’m definitely half asleep for the first half of my workout.

My knee has been feeling fine, and often it actually feels better after a workout. This weekend I tried out a 3 mile run to see how my knee could handle it, and came to the conclusion that it probably won’t keep me from jogging the whole race this weekend (knock on wood!). My prediction is that the first half of the race will be fun, and the second half will be HARD. I was also unreasonably sore after my little 3 mile run, so don’t count on me going down any stairs come Monday!

I should also mention I’ve been icing and foam rolling like crazy, and have gotten a few massages to loosen the muscles of my left quad. I found an awesome massage school in Salt Lake that has super discounted prices – $25 for 50 minutes with a student masseuse – now that’s a bargain! I’ve got another massage tomorrow, and if it buys me even 1 more pain-free mile on Sunday, it will be worth it.

Sooo wish me luck on Sunday… and tomorrow morning at 6 AM when I’m on the elliptical!

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