Training for a Belt Buckle

New Years Revolution Run at the Oval.  I was allowed to walk for 2 hours - threw some running intervals in.  Here is my race report: http://adventures-in-running-with-maurine.blogspot.com/2013/01/round-and-round-and-round-she-goes.html

I'm a wuss - hit the elliptical.

Achilles tendon is flaring up in the foot I had surgery on, so I am supposed to ride the recumbant elliptical.  Giving myself 4 miles for an hour.  Lower body weight training started again today.

60 minutes on the recumbant. 

1 slow mile with the dog.

I couldn't help it. 1 mile easy running on the treadmill at 4 mph.  Then 45 minutes on the recumbant followed by lots of ice and massage.  I'm not feeling any worse then next day, so might try the 1 mile 3x per week.

Walked 4 or so miles to the library and then a church meeting. Did not try to put too much stress on the Achilles.  

Treadmill - 1 mile walking fast, 1 mile running slow, 1 mile walking fast, 1 mile running slow

4.5 miles on the treadmill running all but .5. Progress. 

Got the okay from my doctor to do showshoeing this week (of course - he also said it would be fine because people "don't snowshoes non-stop without breaks").  Signed up for the 5K at the Kahtoola Bigfoot Showshoe Festival. Figured the 10K would be too much.  And I wanted to get above the muck.

Really foggy when I headed out. And the course was icy - so not groomed and you had to try to stay in the ruts or break the crust off the main trail.

There were 25 total participants in the 5K.  I took 9th overall, 6th in women and 3rd in my age group. It was fun learning how to snowshoe.  Biggest complaint - when the 9:00 races went off there were a bunch of people who were up near the front that had no intention of running a step and were walking side by side with friends.  Get a clue folks! Start at the back.

For most of the race I alternated running 100 steps with walking 100 steps. 

I had fun and did another lap of the 5K when I was done.

Next year - I plan on trying the 10K.

Foot was hurting earlier in this week so I took a couple of days off.

Walk .5 mile at 4 mph, Run .5 mile at 5 mph. Rinse and repeat. 

2.5 miles running. Foot was sore so then did 45 miles on the recumbent bicycle at hard effort.

4 miles walking, 2.5 miles running, 1 mile on Elliptigo. 

6 miles on the Elliptigo. 

Day two of little to no pain in the surgical site. Yay!  Ran/walked 5 miles on the treadmill - working up to speeds of 5.5 mph.  Lower body workout following. Now icing. 

Had a half day off and the foot was feeling pretty good - so I walked 6 miles to start increasing my mileage one day a week at midweek. It was nice to be outside.

I definitely think I have turned the corner on the foot recovery.

Down 12.5 pounds from my starting weight in late December. Long way to go on that too.

Wanted to enjoy the decent weather while I could. 4 miles on my own followed by 1 mile with the dog. 

Good progress this week in upping my mileage without pushing the foot too far.

Four days in a row without too much pain - of course, there is more after the running occurs each day.

Started out ominously because I drank a smoothie for breakfast and it all immediately came back out of me. Good thing the garbage disposal was on. My daughter and I skyped and she said it might be my stomach didn't have enough food when my vitamins hit. Tried another smoothie and it stayed down.

Ran 8 miles using the run 2 min/walk 1 min method. Nice and slow - but could feel the endurance coming back. I've been listening to a book called Finding Ultra and it is great to run to. Reversed my order at the end and did another 1+ mile with the dog as a cooldown running 1 min and walking 2 min. Started to feel the foot the last 1/4 mile or so, so I'm glad I refrained from the urge to push double digits.

DId a medium and a long run this week and it feels like progress is coming along. Now to increase slowly and work on speed.

4.8 miles on the treadmill. Half mile walking at 4.0 mph followed by sets of .2 at 6 mph and .3 at 4 mph.

Foot is a little sore tonight. But progress is coming along.

Foot was a little painful this morning - so did 30 minutes hard on the recumbent bike followed by 30 minutes hard on the arc trainer.  Giving myself 4 miles. Did an early morning workout since I am donating blood this afternoon.

Foot was sore. Walked the dog.

Nice to run outside in shorts. Legs got cold.

Walking with the dog. Foot is a bit sore.

9.25 on the Draper trails with Leslie. 1.5 with Twilight.

11.5 miles on the Elliptigo. I'm in bad shape and counting it as 6 miles based on the time and effort it took.

12 miles running/walking on the treadmill followed by 45 minutes on the recumbent bicycle. At the point my foot started burning a lot, I called it a day.

4.5 on the dreadmill followed by an upper body workout.

Walking the dog. Slowly trying to increase my walking the last couple of days using the Vibram 5 Fingers. I think that, if used reasonably, they help strengthen the feet and lower leg muscles.  I'll see how the plantar fasciitis recovery handles it.

Walked to church and back.

20.5 miles on the Elliptigo - giving myself 9 miles credit based on effort and time.

Not sure I'll ever do much running in the 5 Fingers again.  Probably depends if I lose enough weight and get the PF to heal completely.

1 mile with the dog. 7 miles with Leslie.

1.5 miles walking with the dog. 4 miles on the treadmill - intervals and speedwork.

5 mile run.

2 miles or more here and there volunteering at the Buffalo run.

5 miles with Leslie.

Walked over to the church in my Vibrams and walked around the grass field with the dog.  Foot is sensitive somewhat on the sidewalk - but on grassy areas feels pretty good. Also doing lots of towel scrunches to strengthen the feet and rolling them on a foot roller.

Leslie and I were going to do 5 miles on the Jordan River Parkway tonight. I conned her into 6.  Was nice to run on the equestrian trails.  Sure beats pavement.

Pipeline trail and then a short walk with the dog.

1 mile with the dog, then 3 miles running with a coworker from Wichita. 

50K on the Stationary Bike. 

2.5 miles walking

2.5 miles running, 4 miles on the Elliptigo - 1.5 miles walking home after a tire blowout until a neighbor picked me up. 

5 miles hiking the pipeline trail with my son and dog. Dog got hot - so I carried her half the way. 

3 miles with the dog. Just walking today to get miles in but keep the foot from hurting. 

50K on the stationary bike.

3 mile run followed by walk/run with dog. 

As I turned the corner towards home on the run, I got the prompting to stop in at my chiropractor (there on the corner) and see if he could fit me in. As I walked in the door, his appointment called to cancel. I'm hoping this is the answer to my prayers on my foot problem. There were several good pops on the ankle - so we shall see. Felt weird walking on it afterwards. Wonder how long it had been out. 

Little Cottonwood Trail with the Quarry Trail as a cooldown.

Dimple Dell Trail.

Mueller Park Trail with my son, Kevin, to Elephant Rock and back.

Walked 14+ miles on Jeremy Ranch Road. Ran the downhills. Foot started hurting at 11 and burning at 12 - but much progress in the last week.

Best part - sled dogs pulling sightsee-ers.

10 miles running Porter Rockwell/Draper Canal trails on a 1 min/1 min alternation. First 3 with Leslie. Then 2 miles walking the dog. During the dog walk I figured out I sprained my ankle last Sunday - so am icing and bracing and will take tomorrow as a rest day.

Livonia, Michigan paved trail. 

Ragnar - Van 1 - Runner 1 - first two legs

Ragnar - Van 1 Runner 1 - 3rd leg

Walk the dog

Elliptical time

3 miles running non-stop then 2.65 with the dog running 100/walking 100. Finally got her out to beat the heat. 

Jeremy Ranch Road. Nice and soft and muddy from the rains. 

4.3 miles running non-stop

First time sub 60 minute for 5 miles this year. 

Pulled glute muscle. 

5 miles running with Leslie, .5 walking the dog, rode my Elliptigo to and from work (5 miles total). 

August 17th was my fifth adventure with the Park City Marathon. This should have been my fifth or sixth race of the year, but in reality was my first (not counting sweeping at half marathons). My foot injuries are finally getting under control and it was time to see how the foot would hold up.

Going into the race I had not done over 20 miles in a run this year. Not the condition I wanted to be in and I’m still overweight, so it was planned that this would primarily be a long training run. I switched over to the 5 a.m. early start a couple of weeks ago because it was questionable if I could even finish and this marathon is a “slow” marathon because it is a tough one.

I like Park City Marathon in a perverse way. It is up in Park City, so you have some altitude to deal with. It has some easy trail sections thrown in and it winds a lot. Not the setup for a fast race in any way, shape or form. In addition, it has a few uphills. Okay – more than a few. Most of the first 15+ miles have gradual uphills and then top it off with running up to the parking lot of Deer Valley Ski Resort. Throw in a few more uphills after that in case you have not had enough fun on the hills.

Going into the race I had my usual A, B and C goals. A plan – sub 6:30. B plan – sub 7:00. C plan – finish.

Nice quiet start a few minutes before 5. The RD said that we would have a 5:00 start assigned to each of us, but we could leave then if we wanted to. Why not? I’d just use my Garmin for an official time. I started out the race on a 2:30 run/2:30 walk schedule. Made some slight adjustments on the longer uphills, but pretty well stuck with that until we started up the slog through downtown Park City and to the ski resort. After that I turned off my Gym Boss for about 5 miles.

It was a beautiful morning to be running. Cool but not cold, so I didn’t take along my sleeves or gloves and figured I’d just cope when the temps dropped right before dawn. They did a better job of marking the course with signs in addition to markings, so made it easier to find the turns in the first subdivision in the dark. I was hoping to see the hot air balloons, but they were just getting filled when I passed them at mile 10 and never saw them up in the air. Fritz cruised by me at mile 12. I could tell he was running well and would easily win because the second place male was more than a mile behind him.

At mile 14 I gave in and put on an audiobook to help me make it through the rest of the race. Aid stations were much better in the past. They had food offerings available at every aid station. Probably not necessary until after mile 10 – but it was nice. Only complaint – the pretzels seemed stale. I carried a handheld water bottle, so cruised through most of the aid stations and occasionally grabbed a Gatorade and had the water bottle refilled twice.

Around mile 20 my left IT band started bothering me. I would run for 50-100 or so steps until it started hurting, then speed walked 100 steps and would try again. It never eased up, but I was able to run at that level for the remainder of the race. I crossed the finish line at 6:19:57. Beat my A plan and I am satisfied with that. I never saw a finish arch to run under, so imagine they took it down early in anticipation of storms that were heading in.

Good to be back into marathons for the year. Ice bath last night and the legs are stiff but not sore today. Time to work on the IT band and prep for the Layton Marathon in less than two weeks.

AM - 2 miles walking the dog in Sandy

PM - 2.25 miles on the treadmills in Wichita - starting some basic speed work.

Paced the sweeper spot at the Layton Syracuse Marathon.

Not impressed with this Race Director. Signs were taken down after mile 23 even though he promised the course would stay open, so we got lost and had to find our way to the park.

HRT on the treadmill.

HRT on the treadmill.

Little Cottonwood Trail

Wasatch Crest - Millcreek to Dog Lake to Desolation Lake to Red Pine Trail.
 

Legs still heavy from the trail running on Saturday.

Pipeline Trail with Adriana Vars.

I hate depression!

Starting to enjoy life again. There is hope.

PM - final run before St. George.

St. George Marathon and an evening walk in Vegas.

Sweeping trail half marathon on Antelope Island.

Around my old stomping grounds

Around Bruce Lake
 

Detroit International Marathon