Maria's Running Blog

It was a beautiful day, but more for the picnic, than for running. A little too warm, 75-80F, but I enjoyed my run for the most part. I started faster than in recent days, and it felt very good, so I let it be. Unfortunately, after about 3 miles my lungs started hurtng again, and after 4 miles, my breathing got weird, and I stopped and walked for about 0.1mi. Felt okay after that and finished the run, but I'm sooo frustrated. Why is it that I keep getting this lung pain?? Yesterday I didn't run, because I had this feeling like something was stuck at the base of my throat and I can choke any moment. I was afraid to go running. Today was much better, but still I got lung pain during the run. Once I finished and got home, I was fine again, no pain.

Total time: 46:14 (9:26 pace).

This was a fun meet, held at St. Mary's University College in Twickenham. I was looking up directions on how to get there, when I noticed a link to some Open meet they held recently. Out of curiosity, I clicked on it, and was shocked to see the names of UK Olympic team members and other Olympic hopefuls. Mo Farah was listed, as well as Jo Pavey and Stephanie Twell.Upon further investigation, it turned out that this college is home to UK Athletics Endurance Performance Center and the college itself has a lot of sport related courses of study (like sport science, physiology, sport coaching, massage, etc.), so a lot of UK athletes actually study there for their degrees.

The college itself didn't impress me at all, compared to shiny facilities of many US universities. But the track is very nice, with a new surface (although no spectator seating). The weather was perfect, mid 70s and sunny. I had my usual lung pain since earlier in the day and decided to stick with my plan for 200m, javelin and 4x100m relay.

I got unlucky with 6th lane assignment in 200m - the outermost lane on the track, so I had to run away from everyone rather then trying to catch other people. I was pretty happy with how it turned out - I ran 33.64, which is 0.5 sec. off my PR from last year, but is a better result than my 16.6 100m a month earlier. I started tying up the last 50m and couldn't catch a girl that passed me with about 80m to go. She ended up with 32.9.

Then I went to javelin competition. They had only one javelin that was normal 600g weight, and the rest were some specially weighted javelins designed to go over 50m. I figured they are more likely to land flat, and didn't use them, so I had to wait for the one normal one to be retireved by the officials. I managed to somehow foul my first throw! I think it's because I was trying to time my runup to get close to the line, and I looked down rather than up in the direction I was throwing, and that caused the javelin to fall flat. My next 3 throws were each better than the previous one, and on the last one, I got 13m. 74cm (45 feet), which is a PR! I was pretty happy about that as well.

Finally, we ran 4x100m relay. One girl on our team just finished 3000m 5 min. prior to the relay, but she still ran very well. I was the anchor leg, and we did well, beating the only other team in the competition. Our first leg lady opened at least a second gap on the other girl, and we kept it to the end (and didn't drop the baton or got DQd in any other way!).

I got home at 11PM, dead tired, and my lungs aching like crazy, but it was a lot of fun! The next match is in couple of weeks on June 23.

I'm still sore from Monday, but it didn't interfere with my run today. I felt better than I expected, and that is something to celebrate! Usually, my lungs start to hurt midway through my run, but today, they hurt in the beginning, but after couple of miles, there was only mild discomfort left. After I finished one loop around the park, I considered extending it to make it 5 miles, but then decided against it. I don't want to push my luck and go over the edge. I'm still not able to run 25 miles a week. Maybe if I stay conservative early in the week, I can get there. The pace was slow, but it doesn't matter. I should really leave my watch at home, but I love numbers too much, so I'm always checking my splits, calculating my finish time and other silly nonsense.

Another interesting thing I noticed since last week: my resting heart rate is back to what it was before PE, and maybe even lower - 52-56 during the day, almost certainly below 50 when I sleep. I remember in the hospital when I was hooked up to the heart monitor 24x7, I would wake up and look at it right away, and it never read below 64, and during the day it was always 75-80, even though I was lying in bed all day long. 

Total time: 41:17 (9:36 pace).

I started off not looking forward to today's run - I felt crappy all day, my lungs constantly aching since morning. I had my INR check, and asked the doctor why my lungs hurt so much, and if I should worry. He said it's pretty common, the reason is scar tissue, and it's probably nothing to worry about, since the chance of me having another clot is very, very low because of anticoagulation therapy. My INR is 2.7 which is very good (therapeutic range is 2.0 - 3.0), so my blood is thin enough for new clots not to form.

The run was blah, for the most part due to the constant dull pain in my chest. But it never got worse, and I took a risk and did the full 5 miles. I found that I felt a little better at a slightly faster speed. Interestingly, now, after the run, the pain is almost gone. I'm beginning to think that running does not make the pain worse, the pain just has a mind of its own and appears and disappears as it pleases. The weather was great for running today, low 60s and overcast. If it wasn't for the rain, London has one of the best climates for running year round I've lived in. SF Bay area is still number one in my book.

Total time: 46:07 (9:13 pace).

I felt great today! My lungs didn't bother me at all the whole day, and only started aching after 4 miles on the run. I was even considering going 7 miles, but then decided to be patient and stopped at 6. Perfect weather again. So, despite Friday the 13th, it is a good day to me.

Total time: 56:04 (9:20 pace).

I was aiming to do 5 today, but part of the road around Regent Park was closed with barricades, including the sidewalk. There was also tons of police around that area. I had to go on a detour, and then I added on to compensate, but came up a bit short. Distance is approximate, I just figured I could not have run 5 miles faster than 9:00 pace - not there yet. Felt relatively good for running 4th day in a row.

Total time: 44:45 (9:19 pace).