My right leg

So, my right leg in particular has been a big focus of mine since the marathon.  I have been very happy that I have not experienced any real knee pain for about a month now!  However, the muscles in my right quad, outer hamstring, and less often my outer calf are still noticeably tightening up on me.  If I get lazy on having Bennett massage my hamstring tendon and forget to use the foam roller a few times a week, I can most definitely feel the tightening trying to take over.  

Last week I got lazy because I was sick.  As a result, rather than my leg feeling tight towards the end of my run, it felt tight during the entire 9 miles on Saturday (no pain though!).  Sitting in my chair right now I can feel the quad muscles tightening and pulling on my hip and knee.  This is very aggravating

 

I am incredibly happy that my knee is not hurting.  I can tell that I have strengthened my hips and butt significantly over the last 2 months.  It’s frustrating though that my muscles in my right leg are retaining the tendency to tighten up.  I hope this is because I started pushing things a little too soon and not something that I will have to deal with forever.  After Gettysburg, I’m hoping that an even steady running schedule will get my muscles back to normal.  My left leg is of course, just fine.

Running with a cold

*Written yesterday

I’ve been dealing with a cold for the past week and a half.  I spent several days thinking I was going to fight it off without getting too sick, but by last Wednesday, the cold was clearly winning.  I was very lucky not to get too sick during training for MCM, and previously, being congested usually meant I’d do something low key at the gym if I worked out at all.  

My experience running over the last week and a half of cold-y-ness has been interesting though.  Over the course of this cold I have had days where running was completely not happening, which is expected.  I’ve had days where my runs were miserable, but these were not the days I felt the worse.  Those were the days I felt like I was fighting off the cold but hadn’t gotten fully sick.  The days I felt the worse, excepting the 2 days I didn’t run, I ended up having really great runs where I pushed through the cold somehow and felt strong and good.  This includes 2 long runs, a hill interval run, and a tempo run this morning.  I haven’t done hill intervals or tempo runs in months since I was babying my right leg/knee.  

It’s very odd how my body has almost set the cold aside on some days to really perform well.  Maybe I was more determined mentally on those days to run my best?  Interestingly, as soon as I stopped running, I felt worse than before my run.  Exercise is such an odd thing…

Treadmill Running

Written Thursday,

I love my treadmill!  I know treadmill running is nothing like running outdoors, and I agree, that it can be very boring (although audio books and music help).  However there’s nothing like shivering the whole walk home from the metro in the dark and then running 6 miles in shorts and a sports bra perfectly comfortably.  

I realize this is ironic for me to write about after just posting how brave I was running outside in the freezing cold on Saturday, but there’s something so much more difficult about facing yucky weather before or after a hard day’s work.  Plus Bennett wasn’t running so I had no choice.

The other reason I love my treadmill is simply that I can run without Bennett.  I have the ability to run more often than him without needing to track down other runners for every run.  Yes I need long run partners no matter what, but I can run how and when I want during the week with the lovely treadmill.

I also managed to multitask.  I ran almost 5 out of those 6 miles while talking to my sister on the phone.  As my iPhone earphones that do hands free are broken, I actually had to hold the phone for those almost 5 miles…which was definitely interesting!  I really love multitasking though J  this morning, however, when I picked up my phone, I was confused why it felt kind of dirty…  Then I remembered I probably got sweat on it from my run.  Kind of gross but also funny. 

Winter Running

Written Tuesday

I have become one of those people I always thought were crazy running outside in extreme weather.  This summer I forced myself to run in 80% humidity 90 degree weather because I had to train.  Yet again marathon training has me pushing the weather I ever thought I’d run in.  

Saturday morning we set out for our 10 mile run in 27 degree weather.  By the end of the run, it had warmed up a whole 3 degrees to be 30 degrees out.  It was sunny and not windy, which definitely makes a huge difference, but we were definitely dodging ice in a few places.  I was very very happy for thermal running tights and shirt along with my other layers, hat, and gloves.  Yay for technical wicking materials! 

Chocolate milk has made a comeback in our fridge.  This is my recovery drink of choice, but during the past few months of light running, I really couldn’t justify the need for it.  Now that I am back in training shape, the chocolate milk is back!  I’d almost forgotten just how yummy it is!

Return to the blog...

I have abandoned the blog over the past two months for several reasons including the fact that I didn’t think I had much to write that anyone would find interesting.  Well, I’m still not sure I have anything of interest to write…but blogging helped me through training for MCM and I will now return to blogging as I return to serious marathon training. 

I also stopped writing because I opted to sulk more privately about the fact that I did not bounce back from MCM as well as I wanted to have done.  A brief recap in case anyone both cares and doesn’t know…  Each time I ran following MCM my right outer knee hurt as well as my lower outer hamstring tendon.  This would start a few miles into a run with the exact distance varying by the day.  I tried resting and icing, but stupidly did not try getting more massages. 

After about a month I got in to see a physical therapist who determined that my hamstring tendon was seriously knotted up and very tight.  This had caused some other muscles and tendons to tighten in response and was the source of the knee pain.  He also said a weakness in my hip and butt muscles most likely caused the overload on the hamstring tendon.  So strengthening exercises and massages have been my tasks since the beginning of December. 

I’m kicking myself that it took me a month to get my leg looked at, but I guess it was a valuable lesson.  It’s mostly better, but I’m continuing the massage and strengthen exercises.  My right leg is still somewhat tight, but I ran 10 miles last weekend without any knee pain.  So hopefully I’m on the right track.

The next marathon is at the end of April, Gettysburg North-South marathon.  This is going to be a completely different experience from MCM.  The Gettysburg marathon is small with a field of around 1000 runners compared to about 30,000 runners in MCM.  It is also a rather hilly course which I admit scares me. 

Marathon recovery

Perhaps no one will find this interesting besides me, but since I’ve been documenting so much of my marathon journey, I wanted to track the recovery period. 

After the race my legs were obviously exhausted.  Post-race endorphins made them feel useable though for a while.  I swear I could walk better after the marathon than right after my 20 mile training run.  As the day progressed, and I picked socializing over what I knew was the best post marathon routine, my legs got stiffer and stiffer.  It was ok though, because I was happy!  Tired, but happy!

Monday morning I woke up and there were no more post marathon endorphins.  My legs were tired, sore, stiff, and tight!  It hurt to get out of bed.  Walking down the stairs was not fun.  I had to hold on to the railing, and take it one step at a time.   I felt like I was 90 years old.  That evening we stopped by the mall to pick up some pants of Bennett’s that had gotten hemmed before going to get a massage, and Bennett was amused that I was happily walking at half my normal speed because my legs were so sore and stiff. 

Although all my muscles were sore and stiff to some extent, my outer hip muscles were one of the most sore and stiff of all.  They hurt while walking and while going up and down stairs.  The muscles around my knees also hurt somewhat while going up and down the stairs.  Maybe those two areas distracted me from my other muscles, because I only paid attention to their soreness from time to time. 

Tuesday my legs felt better, but still stiff and sore, especially my outer hip muscles.  I had to walk down an escalator at the metro and it was uncomfortable.  I was still walking slower than normal, mainly because of my hip muscles.  After work I made the mistake of trying to run down the stairs.  That was not a good idea!  I could feel it in all my muscles!

This morning was the first morning that I did not immediately feel stiff and sore when I got out of bed.  I think my legs are finally getting back to normal.  I did some yoga stretches today and that felt really good.  I can tell my hamstrings have loosened up because I could get my hands flat on the floor in forward bend. 

I’m contemplating a 2-3 mile run tomorrow, and I’m hoping my legs will be up for it!  This no running thing is getting old!