My next run will be the Helvetia half marathon this Saturday. My legs will not be as fresh as I would have liked them due to a mental goof on my part. I was at the coast on vacation this past weekend, and I thought my schedule for Friday and Saturday was 5 and 12 miles. For the five miles, I found a real nice hill… unlike the hills in Hillsboro =) so I thought, there is a hill… a MONSTER hill even, and well… here am I, so lets get acquainted for awhile. Now, I can recall from 2 years ago that I ran up the hill ONCE and was spent. This time I was determined to run up and down until I couldn’t run up it anymore. It was about ½ long, and at the top steep enough to slow me to a crawl. I made it 5 times, and learned the next day that I have muscles in my butt that I didn’t know, and they can become very sore where running hills.
Of course… the next day was a 12 miler. Great. Sore butt, 12 miles. Argh. I forgot my GPS watch, so I just drove six miles up highway 101 on the coast, marked a spot, then headed back to the beach house to start my run. Unfortunately there were some hills on the 12 miler too. JOY! And then the stupid part… I come home and look at my training schedule and I was supposed to run 5 miles… not 12. It was supposed to be the beginning of a rest week.
By my run Tuesday, the familiar signs of overuse were springing up. Sore knees, shin splints and the like. My legs were also like logs out of water. Peachy. Despite heavy doses of vitamin I, I don’t think I will be 100% by Saturday. No worries though… I will just adjust my expectations slightly. Ah who am I kidding, I won’t adjust them one bit, I will just hurt more after it is all over.
Eugene marathon untold story:
The night before the Eugene marathon I got ready to pin my bib to my shirt, and realized I didn’t pick up any safety pins. My wife amazingly pulled three honking ones from her purse, but I didn’t want those rubbing against me for 26.2 miles, so I headed out searching for a drug store or some place I could buy some. Eugene must have something against Walmart, Fred Meyer and the like, because I couldn’t find anything that looked like a store. I just roamed around, all the while my stress and frustration level grew. Finally, I found myself in front of the Hotel where I picked up my bib. I thought… worth a shot. I went in to the area where the pre-race stuff was set up… but it was all closed and gone. RATS!
I looked around and found one pin an a table that was still set up. Score! Just needed 3 more. I went to the table where I picked the bib up… nothing, nada. Then I looked around to see if anyone was watching and flipped up the table cloth to see if anyone dropped any and kicked them under the table. Score times 2! I was one pin away from my goal. =) I header over and checked out a few more tables and found pin #4. I was set, and ready for the marathon, though my stress level was pretty high over a stupid thing like safety pins.
I am especially embarrassed because, being my first marathon, I took great care to make sure I had everything in order, specifically so I could AVOID getting stressed out the night before. Next time… I buy some safety pins before the race. =)
PS Sub, don’t think I didn’t notice that you were injured BEFORE the Eugene marathon! =) I think if you get a good complete training cycle in without injury, you will shatter that 3:18 at Steamtown.
Jason/Steve I really do love the 305. I can get sat lock in my house before I even head out to run, and I run through a tunnel routinely and the darn thing doesn’t blink there either. The pace is also MUCH better. I can see current lap pace, overall pace, distance and elapsed time all on one screen. Sweet! Another major factor for me was the advanced interval runs and I program, since my new training schedule will have me running intervals once a week.
Lia, I think I am finally recovered now. Running a half marathon isn’t a smart way to start off really, but hey… you have to run them when they are in your backyard! =)
1 comment:
That's really funny. I spent several agonizing moments trying to find pins in Eugene. I'm used to having the pins given to me so this caught me totally off guard. I was staying at the Hilton so I did check all those tables but nada :) I asked the reception multiple times (apparently many people were looking for pins but they had none). Finally, before the race the information booth had pins but that was down to the wire (1 hour before the start!).
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