a test of two tasks

test one - can you hear me now? I have a good feeling this post will be my first one to show up in the Running Blog Family feedburner. I've been reading all of you on the RBF for years now - gathering inspiration and motivation, laughing along with your stories, and feeling more sane from them too. It's nice to find people as (or more) addicted to and obsessed with running as I am. I was on the RBF originally with Midtown Life, but changed my blog and never crossed the 't's or dotted the 'i's to get back in with the family. I hope I'm home now! Thanks to Mark for your help getting set up (if this actually works! if not, I take it back. :)

test two - my first 10-miler post back injury/recovery. It felt great, I feel great. So far, touch wood, I'm still on track for the Georgia Marathon on March 30th.

testing - can you hear me now?

this is a test post - Mark from the RBF is helping me get set up - not sure what my problem is but I'm very happy that he's reached out to help me!

Let's twist again

Really great progress with my back. I was able to do 6 miles on Saturday on a flat gravel path - I probably could have even done more, but thought it better to be cautious. Running did not seem to trigger any back pain at all. On Sunday, I did another 3 miles on a hilly gravel path. Monday, I did my first round of the new core strength routine - the "Pedestal Routine" - pdf downloaded from RunningDVDs.com. And today, I'm going to get back on my training plan and do an 8 miler. Cross fingers!

I'll be doing a little maintenance work on the blog today to get it listed with the Running Blog Family Directory. I've tried to get Rundoodle on that thing in the past to no avail - possibly from my own technical ineptness, hard to say, but I hope I'll get picked up as they start with a fresh slate.

Oh, P.S., the cats now watch me scoop their litter-box with new interest and seem to be hoping that I'll do something entertaining again. Poor things live such boring lives, I really should play with them more.

[Update] 7.5 miles in the bag! My upper shoulders and chest were tight and ache-y from yesterdays strength routine, and I was thirsty, so I walked the last half mile. Overall, it was a decent run - and a big relief!

not ready to do the twist yet... maybe a light jog though

My back has been slowly but steadily improving since Wednesday. It went from "It hurts everywhere!" to a more specific and manageable "It hurts when I twist or lower my head." Surprisingly, the hardest thing to do is sleep. I like to turn a lot when I sleep and turning requires twisting from the back which ends up causing spasms of pain.

I've determined to look past my age as the cause of this (too depressing), and I think the root cause may have been the first run we did up in Chicago a week and a half before. The snow had melted in most places, so we expected the 9.5 mile trail to be fairly clear and dry. However, because the previous snows had been packed down by skiers on the trail, at that point it was an icy, slushy mess. We ran anyway, and the first three miles were kind of a fun challenge for me, not having been up in any kind of snow or ice in years. (Don't ask me how I felt about the remaining 6.5 miles.)

There were a few slips and slides on the ice - one in particular had my feet sliding out to the side from under me and I twisted my body around pretty strongly to keep myself upright. I think that twist was the culprit. A few days later, I noticed some mild pain in my back - something I dismissed as being a part of "that time of the month." Then Wednesday happened.

Yes, the deeper root cause is probably still lack of core training, but I was glad to have another reason to stick on this. I suspect that I'm not the only runner out there neglecting my core training and I am not reading many posts from other runners finding themselves frozen on their hands and knees with their backs locked in waves of pain.

The same day I hurt my back another blogger in the Running Blog Family, and I'm embarrassed that I didn't record the name to give credit (if you read this, let me know and I'll credit you!), posted a suggestion that runners should make a new years resolution to focus on core training this year. Good suggestion. He also linked to a few videos on Runners World that showed Matt Tegenkamp's core workout. I'm afraid those workouts would not leave me with enough time to actually run, so I found a few others on the site that looked like I could fit into my weekly routine.

Clock Lunge

Build Back Strength

RunningDVDs.com looks like they have some good videos, plus they have a free downloadable PDF showing a couple of good strength training routines.

After running through my Christmas and New Years vacations like a champ, I haven't run since 8 miles last Monday. I'm feeling fat and unhappy. I'm going to give 3 miles a try today, and if they feel okay, I'm going to do 3 more. I'll have to revisit my training plan for the March 30 marathon, but I think I'm still good to make it. I intentionally made it a longer plan than usual for just this kind of reason.

oh the pain

Just when I was feeling all smug about how strong my legs are getting, the lack of knee pain, the ease at which I'm able to kick out an easy 8-10 miler... cue dramatic music.... dun-dun-duuunhh... you probably know what's coming but you'd be wrong if you guessed knee trouble again. Nope, this morning as I kneeled on the floor and shoved the kitty litter box back into its spot after its morning scoop, my back suddenly (very suddenly) spasmed in pain and I was unable to move.

That's right. Frozen on my hands and knees in front of the litter box. It was absurdly painful. If I lifted an arm - back spasm. If I tried to sit up or lay down - back spasm. I had a hard time processing this and called out in pain every time I tried to shift myself into a new position, hoping to find a way to get up. At first my puzzled cat sniffed at my face to see if this was some kind of new game but as I continued to grimace and cry out, she quickly distanced herself, eyes wide in fear.

I was desperate. I tried deep breathing, I tried that yoga exercise where you focus on a part of the body to relax it. Nothing but waiting there about 10 minutes worked. Even then I just barely managed to get to my feet, bent over in spasms of pain, reach up (that hurt too) to the medicine cabinet and quickly swallow three advil. In the same bent over position, I shuffled into the living/kitchen area, leaned on a counter stool, and pushed it around like a walker. Somehow I felt like all I needed was a second cup of coffee and this would go away. I couldn't even reach up to pour myself one.

I've had several painful accidents in my life and nothing hurt as much as this - not even falling from a 10 foot ledge, landing face-first into a fallen tree trunk and breaking my nose. Even now, medicated and with a heating pad strapped to my back, subtle shifts of weight in my chair will cause a spasm of pain in my back.

I suppose this serves me right for taking my back for granted and neglecting my core training. For ignoring my recent birthday, which announced that I had reached my "sell by" date and that I have nothing but deterioration to look forward to if I don't start paying more attention to myself.

I had hoped my first post of the new year would be more cheerful than this! I had planned to write about how well I stuck to my training plan despite the cold weather up in Chicago. How well my cold weather gear worked out. How my new years resolution would be to get more core training in...

I've never had a back injury before but judging from MOB's experiences, I should expect to rest for a few days before I try running again. I'll use the time to locate my old Pilates workout DVDs...

Plugging along

I finally stuck to my training plan this week! 4 weeks into the program, and it's the first time I was able (willing) to do all three of the Tues/Wed/Thurs runs that I had scheduled for myself. Thursday's 8 miles felt great. I really believe that this program of running 4-5 times a week, varying the types of runs from easy, tempo, speed, and long, is really the right one for me. We'll see whether that still holds true come the marathon.

I didn't bring any water with me on my 16 miler last weekend and that turned out to be a mistake. The first 13 miles were great, but the last three got progressively worse as my thirst became stronger and stronger. I even tried stopping in a couple of coffee shops on my route to see if they had water fountains, but no luck. The counters were swamped with Saturday morning coffee drinkers and I didn't want to stand in line to ask for water, so I kept going. It was such a relief when I finally came to the fountains in the park, but that was at the end of the run, and my pace was really suffering by that time.

Otherwise, my runs feel great. I'm not doing my strength training as much as I should (as in I'm not doing them at all), but I am stretching more.

I have four out-of-town trips coming up now through January. Next week in Chicago is going to be especially rough.

new ING GA Marathon route announced

The new ING Georgia Marathon route is now available. Some pretty significant changes but a lot of it remains the same. The biggest change, besides starting and ending in Centennial Park, is that it also now goes over to the GA Tech campus in the last few miles.

My training is going okay. Not running as many times during the week as I planned to, but still getting my long runs in. This week I ran two 8-milers, and I'm up for a 16-miler today. Last week's 14-miler went very well. Following a 8:45 min run/1 min walk interval, I did it in 2:15. That's a 9:38 pace. If I could do a 9:30 pace for a full marathon, I would be very happy.

It's a lot harder than I thought it would be to run 5 times a week. It's not that I don't have time or that my body can't take it, but my mind really resists the idea of running that much. I can do 4 runs a week pretty easily, it's getting that fifth one in that's tough.