Days Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six

Miles: Big fat 0

So... went to the doctor. She says I have patellar tendonitis. So I'm probably not going to be able to run for a couple weeks. I'll be cross training back at the fitness center at school as of Monday, when it reopens, but still... :( I like running better!

This sucks. :/

Day Thirty-Four

Miles: 6
Time: 53:34
Pace: 8:56
Splits: 8:44, 8:54, 8:45, 9:10, 9:10, 8:53

I HATE MY STUPID DUMB KNEE!

So I managed to get my dad to run with me, since he is home from work today. We ran 6 miles outside. The Weather Channel said it was about 10 degrees out and felt like 4, but our house thermometer said it was 24 degrees. It felt more around 20 than 4 degrees, so I am guessing the Weather Channel was just on crack.

Today's run was really, really painful; not gonna lie. My knee was starting to actually hurt around 1.75 miles, which is never good when you are running for another 4.25 miles. It wasn't feeling good when we turned around at 3 miles and around 4.3 miles, we went under an overpass and something twinged in my knee and it hurt REALLY bad. At 5 miles on my watch and about 5.1 on my dad's (our Garmins are way off from each other, it's weird) we went up this hill to go on a bridge on the trail and my leg slipped in some snow a little and my knee hurt a lot. And I just stopped and rubbed my knee and started crying. I felt totally pathetic and really frustrated.

We took it kind of slow the last mile back to the house, but my knee hardly hurt after the brief stop while I was crying like a baby. :/

But I have a doctor appointment set up for Thursday at 8:30 am. So I should be getting some answers soon. My dad told me not to run 8 miles tomorrow. I'll probably just do 2-4 before work. I'll wrap up my knee after I take a shower, and hopefully that helps. Meh. :(

Days Thirty-two and Thirty-Three

Miles: 10
Time: 1:29:00
Pace: 8:54
Splits: 8:36, 8:39, 8:18, 8:51, 9:33, 8:42, 8:57, 9:08, 9:19, 8:52

FIRST: The 9:33 split is about 30 seconds slow because my Garmin screen went off training mode and I had to stop to get it back to normal and discovered that the time was running the whole time. Oops. That permanently upset my pace for the rest of the run (but not by much, looking at the later splits).

Okay, so it was cold out. Around 15 or so degrees, about 6-8 mph breeze. My mom dropped my dad and I off at this park at the top of the canyon only to find that the trail was closed. So my dad and I ran around 3.5 miles down the side of a highway to this park where we could get onto a cleared section of the trail. Then we found that the trail still had snow on it (but just a little bit) so we ran on that for about a mile until the parts that had basically no snow (during which time my Garmin got all funky).

Around 5 miles, my knee started to get tight and act up. By around 5.5 miles, it was a lost cause. By about mile 7.5-8, the miles just seemed to go on forever. I seriously had to try really, really hard to keep myself from getting upset and crying. Like, my miles weren't THAT bad for the last 3 miles, but it just hurt and was really frustrating. But I made it! 10 whole miles! :D

I really, really want to get my knee checked out. Just so I can figure out what to do with it so I'm not running half+ of my runs in pain anymore.


Miles: 4
Time: 35:08
Pace: 8:46
Splits: to be posted

Getting used to the altitude... only to go home Monday. Woooooo! It was really cold, about 8-10 degrees, but without the bitter Iowa wind which made it far more tolerable. It was mostly flat, which made it easier. Knee didn't bug me too much, so that is good. My breathing was horrible though because it was so cold and the whole second mile was a gradual incline. It got much better on the way back to the car.

Day Thirty-One

Miles: 4
Time: to be posted
Pace: 9:17
Splits: to be posted

It is official, I hate higher altitudes. I can't breathe enough for running! :( I feel like I have bronchitis all over again. Ick.

Run today was slow. There was a lot of ice covered in a thin layer of snow, so my dad and I were running really cautiously. I almost fell about 12 times, and my dad hardly ever almost fell but did for real fall with about .40 left of the run.

I have no idea where/how we are going to run 10 miles on Sunday. My lungs just suck with the cold, dry, high altitude air. But we'll just get it done... very slowly. :/

My knee bothered me, as usual. But I have been wrapping it and that makes it feel better afterwards. So that's good at least.

Day Thirty

Miles: 4
Time: to be posted
Pace: 9:05
Splits: to be posted

So we skiied yesterday, but aren't going today because it is supposed to SUPERSNOW out here and we don't want to ski in the mess. But skiing was not kind to me yesterday. The boots were really tight on my shins/calves because my calves are SO HUGE in their muscle-ness. My shins hurt a lot, and I stopped skiing around 2:45 while my dad and brothers skiied til, like, 4:30. I woke up this morning and my knees, shins and butt were all sore.

But my dad and I went out and ran 4 miles before the SUPERSNOW anyway. The first .75 of a mile (and the last) were all smoggy b/c the air here is all stagnant. It smelled like exhaust and it was gross. But then we got above it going up the canyon and it was better. But I felt like I did when I had bronchitis over the summer. It was hard to breathe and I felt like I was working hard, but I was still going really slow (especially b/c the first two miles were basically all uphill).

My left knee gave me problems by about 2.7 miles and my shins were sore for the first 2 miles and change, especially the right one. That one got the most squished in my ski boots. My hips were pretty sore too from skiing. Resting the rest of today + tomorrow = good idea.

Also: I have tried to Google what might be wrong with my knee, but I can't find anything. Like, it hurts below my knee and above it, but also when it gets bad every 10-20 steps will shoot pain across the front of my knee cap. I can't find anything online that matches those symptoms. I am going to the doctor when I get back home, but meh. I wish the internet could be more helpful. :/

Day Twenty-Nine

Miles: 5
Time: 41:50
Pace: 8:22
Splits: Too lazy to look

Dad and I ran 5 this morning. I got some awesome new cold weather pants for our early Christmas, and they were awesome. They're Adidas and super warm and fit a million times better than the Underarmor ones I bought last year (I bought mediums instead of smalls for the UA ones... uh, bad choice). It was an okay run. My knee was pretty sore at the end of it, and my Garmin was .06 of a mile behind my dad's watch (so I took his distance/time/pace).

Going to Utah tomorrow, so I won't be running Sunday, or Monday (my usual rest day). I may or may not run Tuesday, depending on if I ski or not. Then Wednesday is rest b/c it is an easy week. So it's gonna be easy this week! :D And hopefully, skiing will be kinder to my knee.

When I get back fro vacation, though, I am (for real!) going to go see a doctor about my knee. See if there's anything I can do about it. (Also on my list: orthodonist and eye doctor). Woo hoo, money to be spent!

Day Twenty-Eight

Miles: 6
Time: 52:50
Pace: 8:48
Splits: 8:28, 9:16, 8:35, 8:41, 8:56, 8:52

NOTE TO SELF: WEAR YOUR FACEMASK!

Another really cold run today. It was cloudy, instead of sunny, so the 24 degrees felt a little colder. It was 12 degrees with wind chill facotred in... so ugh. Basically, I ran half a mile to the trail, up the trail 2 miles, froze my face off going against the wind, and turned around and ran 1.5 miles back to the trail, another 1.5 down the trail and then back, then the half mile back to my house. So I got a good three miles of running mask-less against the wind. My face seriously HURT when I got home because it was so cold. And then I couldn't talk right because my jaw was frozen in place. It sucked.

The run itself was okay. I prefer running in the afternoon, and I woke up at 9 and ran at 10 this morning, so I was slower because I hadn't really drank anything and I hadn't eaten anything yet. I just have more energy in the afternoon. I have even convinced my dad to hop on the running-in-the-afternoon bandwagon. :)

My knee sort of hurt for the last few miles, but only when I had to go up/down hills, really. Which is better than usual. The second mile was slow because I had to run up two big hills and dodge ice while going against the wind, and the fifth mile was slow because I had to go over the same HUGE patch of ice twice on the out and back and it was a pain (the last mile was slow for the same reason, but more because people don't put down ice melt, wtf).

Five miles tomorrow, and five miles sometime before we leave for Utah at 8:50 in the morning... woo hoo!

Day Twenty-Seven

Miles: 7
Time: 1:00:09
Pace: 8:35
Splits: 8:37, 8:30. 8:30 8:34, 8:35, 8:38, 8:41

I skipped yesterday's 5 miler because I was going to be moving my shit/moving furniture in a new dorm room all day (it took us about 4 hours) and that counted as a workout. I totally worked up a sweat (especially when making my bed on my loft... eek!)

TODAY'S run, however, went really well. I worked up the courage to run outside. It was 24 degrees with about 9 mph winds (though they were basically CONSTANT for the first half of my run, so my face felt pretty cold/numb/windburnt when I got home). I ran REALLY consistent splits, which made me pretty happy. :) My knee hurt for miles 5 and 6, but really eased up on the last mile, which was good. I only stopped, like, 4 times, too. Twice for traffic, twice to try to warm up my face. :P

I ran on the trail because I didn't want to run on the treadmill or have to fight people's sidewalks or traffic, and it worked out pretty well. There were a few spots where ice was all the way across the path, so I had to run on the ice/snow bits on the side where the grass is, which was fun because it was really crunchy. I could tell where ice really affected my pace though, because the faster miles were also dry miles and they just FELT faster. It was nice to have something to think about (dodging ice) instead of just running, like on the track. Though the track is nice, I'm an outdoors runner at heart. :)

I totally saw a duck with a broken wing, though, when I was running around the lake, and it totally broke my heart. Because how is it going to fly south for the winter if it can't even fly away from me? I felt so bad for it, because it was scared of me but couldn't go anywhere. At least I'm a nice person and don't terrorize ducks.

On the subject of birds, though, there were a ton of geese and a few ducks still hanging around. WTF? Shouldn't they be flying south for the winter? I mean, it's December. And it's Iowa. There's ice and snow and COLD everywhere! Were they just as surprised by the foot of snow we got a week ago as all we humans were?

Hmmph. Anyway, pretty decent run. I have to work from 11-6 tomorrow, so I will have to run in the morning. 6 miles outside in the AM when it's colder, on the treadmill where I won't have any motivation? Ugh, temperatures will tell.

Oh, and my knee is sort of sore just sitting here. Ugh... I want to go see what's wrong with the damn thing.

Day Twenty-Six

Miles: 9
TIme: 1:21:05
Pace: 9:00
Splits: n/a

9 miles on the track. 63 laps in lane 3. Holy moly.

Well... we did it!

And a lot slower than we'd have liked. We started off at a good clip. The first mile was 8:25. Then the laps went from about 1:12 to 1:14 to 1:18 to 1:20... and it was a lost cause. My knee started hurting at about mile 4 and hurt until probably 8.5 miles. That slowed us down a lot. And I was pretty thirsty the whole time... meh.

It wasn't too bad though. My dad and I chatted quite a bit and whatever, and I got to watch a bunch of old guys play tennis and got passed (once, it took him a long time to catch up to us) by a professor who was running a couple miles. I was kind of disappointed by the pace, though. I hoped to run more of an 8:30-8:40 pace. I think I just got stuck in a slow rut because it was just going around and around in the same place and my knee hurt for so long.

My last lap though was 1:08. :) My dad was one lap ahead of me because at 6 miles I stopped while he ran a lap so I could massage my knee a bit (it felt better after that, but still hurt) and I wanted to get under 1:21:00. I went 5 seconds over... but that's close enough. :P

AND NOW! To study for my religion and western civ finals like you wouldn't believe. SO NOT READY FOR TERM TO BE OVER! I don't want to take finals!

Day Twenty-Five

Miles: 4
Time: 32:14
Pace: 8:03
Splits: n/a

Now that I know that ACCURATE number of laps for running around the indoor track... I find that my pace is a lot faster. :P Just a really easy run today. Nothing hurt, it was really easy, went by pretty fast. No big deal.

Now to study for finals (EEEK) and continue to pack for break/get together things to move to my new dorm room.

Dad and I are running our 9 miles tomorrow on the track. 63 laps. :) The roads are just too slushy and gross for us to bear running on.

Day Twenty-Four

Miles: 6 4
Time: 35:40
Pace: 8:55
Splits: n/a

So... my miles and pace for the last two days are inaccurate. Let me explain to you why.

Our indoor track has a tennis court inside, and the weird plastic walls for the tennis court lower down from the ceiling and hang in part of the track at the corners. Because of this, I just always run in lane 3. My friend Ali who runs track told me the track was 220 meters. But I measured it with one of those clicky-when-you-run-with-it things that measure distance and lane 3 is 230 meters. So yesterday, I ran 10,120 meters instead of my intended 9600. So I ran much faster than I thought I did. And today, I ran 6,670 meters instead of 6,400. Which would take about a minute off my time, and make my pace a lot faster. (You have no idea how hard all this math was just now. God, I'm out of practice.)

So now I have to go over all my distances on the track and revise them so they're accurate. Ugh.

But I cut my run 2 miles short and biked 4 miles on the stationary bikes because my legs were having a hard time. Nothing hurt, but I could tell I was really dehydrated because it was hard to keep myself going and I was really thirsty the whole time. I have been really thirsty all day, and I've been drinking water like it's my job. :(

But with the 4(+ change) miles on the track and the 4 miles on the bike, I feel like today was still a good workout. :)

Day Twenty-Three

Miles: 6
Time: 52:41
Pace: 8:46
Splits: n/a

I DID IT! I ran 6 miles, and I ran it indoors. How, you might ask?

INDOOR TRACK.

44 laps around a 220 meter track. It wasn't that bad at all, either. My legs felt way better than they would have outside (had it not have been a blizzard outside, about 10 degrees without wind chill, and all the sidewalks were unshoveled). It worked out pretty well, actually; I'll probably run on the track again tomorrow. It was a really nice temperature in there because there are metal panels that open up during the summer that go right outside, so there were three walls that were cool and one that was warm. I was still all sweaty when I got done, but at least I was sweaty after 6 miles, instead of half a mile like I would have been on the treadmill!

And my legs didn't hurt much. I stopped halfway through and stretched out my right hams, then those felt good. And my left knee hurt for about a mile, and then loosened back up. Even though I ran 44 times around a circle, it felt much nicer than running out on snow and concrete! It's a good trade-off.

Then my roomie and I split a large pizza when I got back... so now I'm full and my legs are all, "we ran 6 miles! don't use us!" and stuff. Now I must study for finals and be awesome like that.

Day Twenty-Two

Miles: 5 4
Time: 34:28
Pace: 8:36
Splits: 8:29, 8:40, 8:40, 8:35

Well, I was consistent! That's a plus!

Conditions this morning were terrible. I snowed some last night, so the streets were all a mess today. Pretty much NO ONE had shoveled their sidewalk yet (but I can't blame them, to be explained in just a sec), so I was slipping around in snowy slush for 4 miles. I couldn't stand to go any further, and I was running out of time because I needed to get back to my dorm and shower and blog before class.

Why am I running at 8 in the morning, you may ask? Well... you see, we're supposed to get this huge BLIZZZZZZARD today. It is supposed to snow 2-4 inches this afternoon and another 4-6 tonight. I wanted to get outside once more before the huge snow hits and it is officially time for Yak Traks and slipping and sliding and hating life in general. :P (But one more week, and I will be able to use the treadmill at MY HOUSE where it is NOT 70 DEGREES with NO AIR CIRCULATION! Yay!)

Ugh... winter, you foul beast.

Oh, and for about half a mile coming back one direction, I basically couldn't see because the snow as being blown directly into my eyes. NOT A GOOD TIME!

My legs are tired. They're not used to working so hard just to stay balanced! Snow running = sand running... but slipperier.

OH! BUT NOTHING HURT! ::REJOICES:: The extra day off this weekend helped, me thinks.

Day Twenty-One

Miles: 9 0
Time: --
Pace: --
Splits: --

Sooooo my dad and I were supposed to run 9 today. But we are running 9 next Sunday, and I've been having lots of weird issues with my legs lately, and my dad got really drunk at his Christmas party Saturday night... so we called it off. Plus, it would have been a pain to put into our schedule somewhere, since I was super busy with college stuff all day (yay banquets!). So we're getting an extra recoup day this week. My legs are thanking the running gods, wherever they may be.

Day Twenty

Miles: 4
Time: 33:13
Pace: 8:17
Splits: 7:59, 8:30, 8:24, 8:17

COLD! IT IS WINTERY NOW AND IT IS COLD! My lips are now in the begging stages of chapped-ness, my eyes are dry and trying to leak all over my face, my nose is running and my cheeks are numb. Wind + cold = NOT COOL.

And you know what else isn't cool? Waking up with a mysterious pain from your hip to your knee to your ankle, having it go away while you run, only to have a right ankle tendon thing spasm 4 times during your run. And to have various parts of your body just HURT. And then have your knee get all hurty and weird feeling so that you have to take the elevator to your floor of your dorm.

Today was not a fun run. We'll see how the 9 miler tomorrow goes. :/

Day Nineteen

Miles: 5 3
Time: 25:18
Pace: 8:26
Splits: n/a

It was 29 degrees out today, and cloudy, and gusty, and it started snowing right when I was going to go run (though nothing has stuck yet). So I decided today would be a good day to try out the good old college treadmills! They actually have pretty nice equipment here, and the treadmills were nice.

However, I walked into the room with the treadmills/bikes/epliticals and holy fuck. It was about 72 degrees in there. No airflow. Bright lights. SAUNA-LIKE. I was dripping sweat after about half a mile. It was so hot that my calves were on the verge of cramping. I cut my 5 mile run down to 3 because I could not stand being in there any longer. It was horrible.

All in all, a very disheartening run. I have been reminded of how much I detest running on a treadmill. I am soaked with sweat, I smell horrible, and I feel like I accomplished basically nothing because I kept pausing the machine so I could stretch out my calves. Looks like I'm going to be (TRYING) to get outside for all my runs this winter!

It also sucks that I couldn't get myself through a 5 mile run (and thus making my week 26 instead of 28 miles) when next week, I have one 5 mile run, two 6 miles run and a 30 mile-week total. Uggggggh, winter!!!!

Day Eighteen

Miles: 6
Time: 49:33
Pace: 8:15
Splits: 7:50, 8:14, 8:25, 8:29, 8:20, 8:11

As nice as the weather was yesterday, today's weather was shitty. Yesterday: 55 degrees, sunny, slightly breezy. Today: 35 degrees, cloudy, extremely windy (in about three directions). Yesterday: Ran in shorts and a t-shirt. Today: Ran in leggings, shorts, t-shirt and jacket (with the sleeves pulled down the WHOLE TIME which basically never happens!). Yesterday: Comfortable. Today: Very much not.

It was a decent run, though. The first 3-3.5 miles I had basically no traffic stops, which was really nice. I just kept going and going (sort of). But everything else the way back to campus had me stopping every couple minutes because I was getting back into the busy sections of downtown (I went down on the trail on the first half), and that sort of sucked.

Besides the first split, all my other miles were really consistent, so I guess I am getting better at that. :) My knee wasn't too bad today. I had weird tightness there and along the side of my right calf, but both of them sort of went away. My knee is a little sore still, but whatevs. I am just getting used to favoring it while going up stairs (because I go up and down 2-3 flights of stairs only about 10 times a day).

Now to shower/warm up and do HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!!!! Oh finals, how I love to loathe you....

Day Seventeen

Miles: 5
Time: 41:17
Pace: 8:15
Splits: 8:00, 8:26, 8:21, 8:20, 8:08

Not going to complain about the splits. They were fairly consistent, and the second split was so slow because I had to run uphill, against the wind, for about .1 of a mile. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :P

On a really really happy note: It is December 1, and it was 55 degrees outside. It was warm with sunshine and I was perfectly comfortable running in an Underarmor t-shirt and shorts. It was gorgeous. If this was a real fall-->winter time, there would be snow on the ground and it would be in the high 20s and low 30s by now. This is unusually warm, but I'm not complaining. :D

I felt like a total wimp today, though. I stopped probably 4-5 times in the first 2.5 miles because my right calf kept getting really tight. So I'd stop, stretch it out, shake it out, and keep going, only to have to get uncomfortable and tight and blegh all over again. It eventually stopped, though, which was a relief. My knee started getting sore around 3 miles. Not the same swollen feeling as Sunday (though would have been had I ran longer), but a pain/soreness across the top and along the bottom of my knee cap. I have no idea what it is, but I iced it and it feels okay now.

Another goal now: GET THE KNEE TO STOP HURTING. That would make my life. :P