Ebbing, at Long Last

Working for a magazine means that for at least few days each month, your job inevitably owns your soul and dictates every aspect of your life. The past week’s workload has necessitated sleeping 3.5 hours each night, with a quick 1 hour nap when I get home to beef up for another late night of photo editing, typography and layout. It culminated in a Sunday morning meeting that stretched from 10am to 4pm, devouring most of what should be ‘long run’ day. A cathartic 10.5 miler almost immediately afterward was a nice way to cap off a week of minimal running, and a good way to get back on my feet.

It’s difficult juggling two things I love so much (work vs. running), particularly when doing as well as I’d like at either seems to mandate undivided devotion. Understand that one also needs time for family, friends and life in general, leaving scant time for working outside of work (freelance/labor-of-love projects) or running as much as I’d like after work. In the future I may figure out a way to work simple 40 hour weeks and take nothing home, but for now the balancing act keeps life very interesting.

The hip and knee feel fine. I’ve decided to stick to flat pavement rather than working on 99% trails as I had been. The hip strain seemed to result from too much hill work and too fast, so I’m going to strengthen and build endurance on the boring stuff for the next week or two, limiting the dirt to once a week and stepping it up incrementally. I’m pathetically behind schedule training for the big 50 miler, so I need to be careful with how I proceed.

Log of the last few days, nice and easy:

Saturday
4.2 miles, 39:44 – Run to Mom’s, helped move furniture.
4.2 miles, 42:12 – Back from Mom’s, a bit fatigued from moving desks, bookshelves and couches. High sun, afternoon heat. Great day out.

Sunday
10.69 miles, 1:51:16
(Review on the new Forerunner 405, which made this map, coming soon).

Trying to work on only fluids for anything under 25k, training the body to burn fat (which I need to lose) and not depend on a constant influx of goods. Felt great up until mile 8.5, and kept it sub 9:30 pace for the first 4 miles which were into a pretty mean headwind. Crashed hard at mile 8.5 and felt light headed, really hungry. Thought I could make it home, but got lost in a confusing neighborhood (see southeast portion of map) and ran out of Accelerade. Stopped at CVS on the way home and grabbed some Snickers and juice. Felt great within 5 minutes. Could have gone for a recovery run later that night if time permitted.

Monday
2.44 miles, 23:17 – Run to the Y. Mae on a bike next to me. Swam just under 1k at the Y.
2.44 miles, 24.34 – Back from the Y. Odd to shift from running muscles to swimming muscles and back to running muscles, but it felt fine within a mile. Got antsy and kicked it up to a 5 minute mile pace for 1/5 of a mile – didn’t even know I had that in me. Knocked it down to 10, 11, then 12 minute pace for the last mile and a half though. I need to do a genuine recovery run tonight (Tuesday).

A seemingly productive few days. Feels great to be running again, even if it’s next to traffic. I think I can bump it up to a 40 mile week by Saturday without stressing the body too much. I’ll take what I can get at this point.

Special thanks to Mae for riding alongside me and keeping me company. And especially for carrying my water bottles.

Multi Sport Therapy

Despite a leisurely but careful run at the Trail 1/2 Marathon last Sunday (oh-so-slow 2:27), Monday’s training session (bike 5, run 5, bike 5) still ended with a sore hip. Oddly, the pain kicks in after workouts; this time as I side-stepped into the shower. Then it persists for the next few days, making running irritatingly painful. Rather than continuing to run on it, as attempted last time, I’ve stayed off it completely this week. Not jogging, not biking, and even avoiding stairs and walking too fast.

To compensate for lost running time, I’ve taken to doing laps in our YMCA’s pool – which has been a surprisingly enjoyable change of pace. No stress on the joints, and being in water is such a pure form of enjoyment. I swam 1 kilometer in 31 minutes last night – is that good? Who cares, it’s fun.

Hip is feeling fine today, but I’m waiting until tomorrow to get back to the trails.