Friday, October 3, 2008

Just Over a Week to Go

My Half Marathon is next Sunday! My knees are still aching. In fact, I was limping to bed last night. I fell asleep with ice on top and bottom of my knee and when I woke up it felt better. I read on Runner's World different symptoms of knee ailments and mine sounds like "runner's knee." They suggest backing off on mileage for now, which is an option next week since it's my taper week. I bought a new pair of shoes despite hubs argument still. I'm hoping that will help my problem. Running 6 miles on the treadmill today hurt my other knee now!

I also bought a small handheld bottle to carry on my run. I tried it out this morning and it wasn't as bad as I thought. It's really weird for me since I've never had anything to drink on a run. I have to get used to small sips. I probably should have been doing this sooner than a week before race day, but hopefully I'll adjust. Tomorrow I'm going to try peanut butter toast before my run, as well as some Clif Goo during. The goo freaks me out a bit. Anyone have a fav to recommend? I still don't even know if I need it, but it can't hurt right? I'd rather have it than not finish this race. I've purchased several different brands to try which might be cutting it close right now. I tried a PowerBar chew thing that's supposed to be similar to Clif Shot Bloks. Didn't like it at ALL. I thought I'd choke if I tried to eat that while running. I also have electrolyte powder to add to my water.

Thanks to all you runners for your advice for this newbie here. Currently as I type, there's ice on the knee and I have a warm bath I'm about to jump in. Oh, and I have been really hungry lately. Especially at night. Unfortunately, I have been giving in and eating the wrong things which has showed up in the form of 2 pounds on the scale. On Fiterella's sight, it has a guide to how much you should be eating according to your activity level and if you want to lose or maintain your weight. Since I'm STILL not back to my presurgery weight, I have been wanting to lose weight. Therefore, I've been trying to eat just 1500 calories a day. I'm down 3 pounds, but still would like to be back to what I was. I drive my husband crazy. He wants to know why I'm obsessed about getting back to that weight. Well the way my clothes still fit for one thing! He thinks it's not the extra weight that's causing my muffin top, but the fact that I'm wearing normal undies now compared to the fat-sucking-in ones that I used to wear daily. They went almost to my bra to hide my loose skin. So I could have had this back fat before and just couldn't tell. But now that my loose skin is gone, I don't want to have to wear the ugly granny panties anymore. I guess I'll have to pick the lesser of two evils. Anyhoo, my bath awaits me!

Monday- Ran 8.5 miles including 2 sets of 2:00, 3:00 & 4:00 sprints
Tuesday- rest
Wednesday- Ran 7 miles including 4 2:00 sprints and 6 gentle pickups
Thursday- rest
Friday- 6.7 miles
Tomorrow- 10 miles!

September Goal Reflection-
#1 Running 4 times a week- Accomplished
#2 Lifting Weights/Cross train 3 times a week- Not enough, very sporadic
#3 Exercise for a total of 120 miles- Close 112.36
#4 Continue Push Up challenge- Yes and redoing Week 4
#5 Say, "Thank you," to a compliment- Did AMAZINGLY well with this goal

Will think of October goals for next post.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep taking care of your knee. You are going to do great next Sunday. I hate shot bloks too. They always turned my stomach. I actually eat Milky Ways now and I can stomach them much better.

N.D. said...

Rest and ice those knees! Stretch! Yoga has helped me alot. Milky ways on the run sounds so great. I totally want to try it. I started with jellybeans - sportsbeans, but now I sometimes use luna moons and definitely GU on the long run. My favorites are GU vanilla bean and the chocolate outrage. Vanilla I could eat as a snack when I'm not running!! I really like it. The clif ones are too goey and thick for me, and powerbar gave me stomach issues.

RooBabs said...

Sorry your knee is still bothering you. Rest as much as you can, and ice, along with ibuprofen.

Looks like you've had a great week so far, and congrats on being down 3 pounds. Great job with your September goals, too!

BTW, at my last 10k they handed out Gu at mile 4, and I'd never tried it, but I was really curious. It was totally like chocolate frosting. Kind of good, but weird, and way too thick. But I think the sugar boost helped me. I took some gummy fruit snacks to eat about halfway through, and those were really easy to "stomach".

BeachRunner said...

Great week and reflections. With rest, ice, and a little tapering TLC your knee should be fine. You are wise to listen to your body. I know you will do great in the Half.

Aron said...

great week and keep taking care of those knees! just back it off next week for taper and continue to ice, stretch and rest and you will be good to go! i LOVE luna moons. they are in the order of shot blocks just are smaller and taste better to me (pomegranate flavor is my fav).. also there are sports beans that are made by jelly belly that are really good!

when i used to take gu i always had the chocolate and i heard vanilla was really popular too.

Anonymous said...

Try not to scale back too much on the food the week before your half. You don't want to deplete those glycogen stores! Eat healthy food, but don't worry about calories. Hopefully your knee will improve after the taper.

K @ Running Through Life said...

I hope your knee heals quickly! Great job on your Sept goals! Very impressive!

Crissy Rae said...

Hope your knee recovers for your big race. Sounds like you are doing what you can to help eliminate the problem. Good luck!