weekly summary: reality check

I only ran twice last week, and did the BCMC once (trail up grouse mountain, about an hour to hike up). That's pretty bad considering that I want to have higher mileage this month. On Wednesday I was going to run but my sore leg was protesting loudly so I thought I'd give it a rest day. Then on Thursday and Friday I was sabotaged by work and exhaustion. Saturday was the hike and Sunday I just ran 5 miles paved.

I really need to get in some miles (in particular, a couple more good long runs) if I want to run the ultra in June. So I'm going to try to pump it up a bit more this week. Hopefully this week won't be as crazy as last...

My leg is still sore and I still don't know why, so I am just backing off when the pain increases and running when it's ok to do so. I will just have to play it by ear for the next few weeks I guess. :/

weekly summary

So glad to be back on the trails again!

Two test runs of 5 miles each (Tuesday and Thursday). Both felt fine. Leg has been a bit sore since I started running again, but it is manageable and isn't getting worse with each run. Saturday I did 5 miles paved (stupid pavement). Today was 19 miles, trails, with the puppy. He was very bad today... being a jerk to the other dogs, and he even knocked a lady over while he was trying to chase her dog. I had to leash him in several areas because he just wasn't listening. What a character. The run was good though... I felt really tired physically but mentally I felt great, and I love how lush and green the rainforest is becoming at this time of year. Legs are a bit sore... that was my first long run since my 50k a month ago.

Things are looking promising for the ultra on June 18. :)

Not as broken as I thought

Two weeks ago I wrote that I had a stress fracture. I hadn't had it diagnosed, but was in a fair amount of pain and the sensations and symptoms were just like the two previous fractures I've had, so I was 99% sure that's what it was.

But by the end of week 2, I was having doubts. There was virtually no pain in week two... just a bit of aching if I'd walked a lot in a day. I thought to myself, "either this is the fastest-healing fracture ever or it isn't actually a fracture."

So yesterday I went in to see a doctor and asked for an x-ray. For those who aren't familiar, a stress fracture won't show on an x-ray when it is fresh. It only will show up once it starts to heal, and then the new bone deposits will show on the x-ray. Since it had been two weeks, it should have been showing.

But when I looked at the x-ray, I saw nothing. The x-ray tech also saw nothing, but of course said that we have to wait for the official word from the doctor. Translation in ultra-runner language: go for a test run and see how it feels.

So that's what I did. :)

I did a 5 mile trail run (some gravel, some dirt, some technical) and my leg felt fine. There are a couple of sore spots still, but not in the bone and not on the site that I thought was fractured; it appears to just be muscle/tissue. Last night after the run it was a bit sore, but today feels really good (about 90%). I'm going to rest it today and then do another test run tomorrow.

I am soooo happy not to have to be off for 6-8 weeks!

And the universe seems to be working in my favour, because the 50-miler I wanted to do in May has been bumped back to June 18 due to excessive snow on the trails. This means I can still do it (assuming all goes well with my leg) and in fact it gives me more time for long runs that I would have originally had. Good news, right?! :)

Broken... again.

Well, I have a stress fracture. I haven't had it diagnosed officially, but I don't need to since this is my THIRD time through this in the past 5 years.

Not too concerned about taking some time off since I don't have any imminent races. What I am concerned about is the ease with which I seem to acquire fractures. I wasn't increasing my mileage (in fact, April was much lighter than March). It wasn't from my race. I wasn't overdoing anything, and I wasn't doing anything stupid. So where did this come from? Am I more susceptible than average? Do I have low bone density? Is something else going on?

I have no idea, so I plan to go get some tests done next week. Might as well get everything checked out just in case... bone density, vitamin D, and anything else that might be relevant...

And I guess for awhile I will be walking and cycling instead of running. :(

weekly summary

I only ran twice last week. I felt exhausted and unmotivated all week. Add to that the fact that I am now thinking I might not make it to White River this year... the trip was just too expensive last year and I can run local races for much cheaper. I haven't decided 100% yet but I'm leaning towards no. :( That leaves me with no goal race, so I'm going to need to decide on one if I want to maintain motivation.

Anyway, 2 runs for a grand total of 10.3 miles.

Weight: 136.6 (that seems like a drop but it's within regular fluctuation range for me so we'll see what it does next week).

Feature Friday

I'm tickled and honoured to be the subject of "Feature Friday" on my cousin's blog. Check it out! :)

Randoms

Day 3, and my quads are STILL trashed. Ran tonight... it was supposed to be "gentle" and "easy" but one girl in our group didn't have anyone to run with so I went with her and ended up doing a tougher route at a faster pace than I should have. oops. My legs are NOT happy with me (neither were my lungs, on the switchback...). I guess I'm not quite recovered... in spite of having had four naps in the first two days after Diez. lol That race wiped me out. But... maybe I'll run it again next year. ;)

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to White River in July. I love that race so much and can't wait to run it again. I'm hoping to take an hour off of my time this year. We'll see though. That might be a little over-ambitious.

In other news, I need to lose a few pounds. And I think that putting it out publicly for the world to see might help motivate me. The problem is simply that I eat too much junk. I eat based on how I feel each day, and what I'm craving, and what I'm in the mood for. Last year prior to training for White River I was 142lb, and then lost 7lb in training so I was 135 for WR. Then over the fall/winter I gained/lost here and there, and currently I am at 138. So that is still lower than a year ago, but I would love to get down to 130 for WR. Heaven knows I do enough walking and running to burn it off... the problem is my eating habits! So for the next while I'll be adding my current weight to my weekly summaries... maybe that will help keep me accountable...? ugh. Goodbye home baking. :(

And, finally, I was perusing my ultrasignup stats today. I love their rating system (for those unfamiliar, it compares my time with the winning women's time of each race... then averages out all my rankings to give me an overall ranking). What I've noticed is that my performance doesn't seem to depend on my training. My rankings all fall within a 5% range, and I don't generally do better when I train harder. hm. Maybe there is not enough data (I really only have a few races on there... and the site is missing my first 50k from 2007). Or maybe that is just my ability and I'm not sure how to break out of that rut... if running more miles doesn't do it, then what would? I mean, I'll never be *fast* but it would be nice if I could at least see improvement.

anyway, that's enough navel-gazing for one night. Onward! :)