Monday, July 27, 2009

Back from Vacation

I've been off on vacation in Myrtle Beach, so I haven't had a chance to update the blog until now. This might be a little lengthy.

Let's see...the day we left for vacation, I got up early and did our 10 mile long run for the week with Kathy. We met at Glacier Ridge Metro park, and decided to try one of the trails for some trail running. It was mostly grass. What a mistake. In fact, the whole run totally stunk for various reasons. First, because we weren't doing the group run and wouldn't have water stations, I decided to use my new hydration belt. Big mistake. The stupid thing kept riding up on me. The water sloshing around didn't bother me, but the belt moving up on my waist totally bothered me.

Then, we ended up on the bridel trail, so we ended up having to watch out for big piles of horse poop. Between that and making sure I didn't twist my ankle in the divits along the trail, it was just not fun. We finally got onto some trail that went into the woods, which was really nice, however, it is obviously one not used much since Kathy and I ended up with mouthfulls of cobwebs as we ran through it! By the time we finally got onto a paved trail, we had only gone a few miles or so, and frankly, my legs were already tuckered out from running on the trail. It seemed so much harder than running on pavement. The rest of the run was lousy because I just didn't have the energy in me. I had to stop and do a lot of walk breaks.

Kathy and I each had ticks on us afterwards. Not good. We both seemed to agree that we will never do that again! Trail running just isn't for me I guess.

While on vacation, I did two 5-mile runs. The first one I did on tuesday, and it went great. The second one I did on friday. It was not a great run. I did it inside on the hotel workout room. The room was like a suana. In fact, I had wondered if it would have been just as easy or cooler to run outside! I even contemplated stopping at two miles, it was THAT hot. But somehow I suffered through it. To add to the already tough workout, my right foot and calf were really bothering me.

Saturday we had our drive home. 10 hours in the car. Each time we got out of the car, my right foot was really hurting me. I was limping into the rest areas. My calves were really tight too. I feel like I have really deep muscle aches in the calves. But the right foot, in the arch, feels like I'm walking on a ball or something.

Then yesterday, Sunday, I was scheduled to do my long run for the week. 11 miles. I went to the Y to do it. God, yet another miserable run. First, I could not for the life of me get my HR down. At only running 5.0 mph, it was in the 170's. What the heck? Do I dropped down the speed to try and get my hr down into the 150's. I couldn't get it down. I had to walk to drop it down. I finally found that by running around 4.2 mph I could get it into the 150's. But geez, I do my walk breaks at 4.0 mph! And you could say that I should throw out the HRM and go by how I feel, but honestly, I felt lousy when my HR was so high. My heart was racing, I couldn't catch my breath. I'd had a little bit of asthma over the week, so I wasn't surprised about not catching my breath. But if I was going by the RPE chart, I still could not carry on a conversation when my HR was so high. So I don't know what that all means. Am I overtraining? Am I getting sick?

It took me 2.5 hours to do the 11 miles. I had to walk the last 1.25 miles because my right foot and calf were hurting so bad. I can't even believe I made it the whole 11 miles. I really didn't think I would.

I went home, and took a cold bath to soak my foot and legs. I couldn't do an ice bath but figured a cold bath might do some good. I could barely walk later in the afternoon. Then I started feeling really sick. I took a short nap on the sofa, and felt like I had a fever. I was really nauseated too. Eventually it all passed. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night. I went to bed at 9:30 and was still awake at midnight. I don't know if this is all related or not, but I really just felt like crap yesterday.

I'm feeling better today, but my foot is still hurting. It throbs even when I'm not walking on it. I'm icing it and taking ibuprofin. But to be honest, I'm giving some serious thought to ending the marathon training. :( I really don't like feeling this bad. I don't like being in this much pain. My right foot has always given me problems. I'm sure its plantar fascietis or something of the likes of it. Its just plain painful right now, whatever the problem is. I've tried to run through it over the past few months, but as my mileage is increasing, I just don't know that I can continue to do so.

I'm thinking...this is a really tough decision to make. I'll see how I feel as the week progresses.

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