So, here I am... after attending a weekend racewalking clinic and completing another 50k trail race. My left leg is still aching, and I have yet to see anyone who can help me put it back in place. I took 9 days off from training after the 50k in Louisiana. During that rest period, I started taking ibuprophen in large enough doses to actually help reduce the inflamation that is associated with my hip problem. I also did lots of self massage. Nothing seemed to really help, as my leg continued to ache, especially while standing still.
The 10th day (Oct 28) rolled around and I was getting bitchier and bitchier... Finally Raymond suggested I go out for a walk. He usually does not encourage me to work out, so I thought, what the heck. I got dressed and headed over to the little league park, taking the route with the most grassy areas. Yes, the softer dirt and grass surfaces seemed to do the trick. The outing totalled 6.26 miles and I ran about 1 mile of the total. Running seems to work a different set of muscles and gives the rest kind of a break. And, yes, running in the mud and wet grass is fun.
We had terribly rainy weather the next couple of days. As a matter of fact, I had trouble getting home from work Thursday afternoon. The low hanging wall of dark clouds that evening were really ominous. The wind started gusting and the driving rain that tracks from southwest to northeast along cold fronts was really intense! All I could do was concentrate on the white line on the side of the road to see that I was still on the road. No workout Thursday. Friday evening I was just too late getting home from work to do anything.
Saturday October 31, I was out the door for a walk at about 7:51am. It was rather cool out, and my intention was to take the same route as I had on Wednesday afternoon. I was surprised to see the peewee football game going on in the wet grass as I walked toward the little league park. There was a lot more water laying in the low spots, so my shoes quickly filled with water. No problem, my feet just stayed cool. I had another good walk, about 6.5 miles with about 1.3 miles of running mixed in. I returned home, stretched, showered and went to work.
Now, it's Sunday. I plan to go out for a semi-long distance walk... somewhere between 12 and 15 miles after I get a little housework done. I have an armoire to empty in my bedroom so that I can finally put a larger tv in it. To date, it has held all of my workout STUFF. I think I finally have a system worked out so that I can store all that STUFF in a centralized location. My leg is still aching when I stand for any length of time. It also hurts when I stroll, such as a person does when shopping. As long as I am moving at a reasonably fast pace, I don't have any problems... Hopefully, I can get in to see my old doc this week. I know he is retired, but he is the only person who can get that leg back in place so that it will stay there for a while. If only I could find a chiropractor who would do the same, instead, they want you to come in 3 times a week for the rest of your life. Fine, if you are independantly wealthy. I am not blessed with unlimited funds.
Now, all the camping gear is airing out on the back porch in preperation for the weekend at Huntsville State Park. (Huntsville Texas) I am meeting up with some friends for the Rocky Raccoon 25k/50k trail race. I am walking (maybe doing some running on the down hills) the 50k, then spending an extra night to have more time on the trails on Sunday before I pack up and return home.
Showing posts with label long slow distance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label long slow distance. Show all posts
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 12
I went to bed at 8:30 pm last night instead of going out for my 18 mile walk. The alarm set for 4 am. The coffee pot was ready, I just had to turn it on when I got up. I did not have too much difficulty getting up, eating breakfast (3 small blueberry pancakes and a pre-cooked turkey sausage patty) and getting dressed to go out for the walk this morning. I walked out the door at 5:13. I wanted to be on the road by 5am, but this is about as good as it gets for me early in the morning, unless I'm traveling or racing. I have been known to get in the car at 3 am to drive 100 miles to a race.
My main concern with getting out so early in the morning are spider webs. There is a type of spider that lives in the oak trees. Every evening, they descend from the trees and build new webs. No one gets out that early in the morning in my neighborhood, so I am constantly dodging spider webs. If there is anything I really loathe, it is the thought of a spider crawling on me.
I usually start my long walk with a large loop outside of town, but since it was dark, I walked up and down all the streets in my neighborhood first until about 6 miles, then headed out of town for a 4 mile loop. I stopped at my house for a quick restroom break, then back out the door. I did a good job of pacing between 13:30 and 14:30 and in that range, the HR also stayed where it was supposed to. I always like to put in a quick mile at the end of a LSD walk if I am feeling up to it, so mile 17 was the fastest one. It helped a lot that a crazy Butthole Surfer song came up on the play list. It was fun walking to the beat. I haven't gotten so obsessive with the music play list that I plan it for the distance. I have a huge library of music, and I let it play in alphabetical order of song titles. The list includes everything from Johnny Cash to The Kinks, to Opeth, Korn and Metallica. Anyway, I finished up the walk, stretched and headed right to the shower.
Once finished showering and getting dressed, I headed over to my Mom's house. She was having company. Aunt Cathy, cousins Lynn and her daughter Gracie, Dana, and Jonathan and his girlfriend Megan. My niece Charlotte, her dh Jeff and ds Joshua, and nephew Tim, his dw Channing and dd Kailei, and my dd Emily and ds Jonathan also came along. We had a really nice visit! Jonathan has been living in Katy for a while now, and Lynn, Gracie and Dana are moving to either Spring or Tomball. It will be so nice to have family in the area so that we can get together once in a while. As usual, Mom had a huge spread... homemade black bean salsa, cold cut tray, pasta salad, veggie tray, and best of all; homemade peach and blackberry cobblers with Blue Bell ice cream.
What a great way to spend a Sunday. Walking 18 miles... and not feeling any guilt about the cobbler I ate.
My main concern with getting out so early in the morning are spider webs. There is a type of spider that lives in the oak trees. Every evening, they descend from the trees and build new webs. No one gets out that early in the morning in my neighborhood, so I am constantly dodging spider webs. If there is anything I really loathe, it is the thought of a spider crawling on me.
I usually start my long walk with a large loop outside of town, but since it was dark, I walked up and down all the streets in my neighborhood first until about 6 miles, then headed out of town for a 4 mile loop. I stopped at my house for a quick restroom break, then back out the door. I did a good job of pacing between 13:30 and 14:30 and in that range, the HR also stayed where it was supposed to. I always like to put in a quick mile at the end of a LSD walk if I am feeling up to it, so mile 17 was the fastest one. It helped a lot that a crazy Butthole Surfer song came up on the play list. It was fun walking to the beat. I haven't gotten so obsessive with the music play list that I plan it for the distance. I have a huge library of music, and I let it play in alphabetical order of song titles. The list includes everything from Johnny Cash to The Kinks, to Opeth, Korn and Metallica. Anyway, I finished up the walk, stretched and headed right to the shower.
Once finished showering and getting dressed, I headed over to my Mom's house. She was having company. Aunt Cathy, cousins Lynn and her daughter Gracie, Dana, and Jonathan and his girlfriend Megan. My niece Charlotte, her dh Jeff and ds Joshua, and nephew Tim, his dw Channing and dd Kailei, and my dd Emily and ds Jonathan also came along. We had a really nice visit! Jonathan has been living in Katy for a while now, and Lynn, Gracie and Dana are moving to either Spring or Tomball. It will be so nice to have family in the area so that we can get together once in a while. As usual, Mom had a huge spread... homemade black bean salsa, cold cut tray, pasta salad, veggie tray, and best of all; homemade peach and blackberry cobblers with Blue Bell ice cream.
What a great way to spend a Sunday. Walking 18 miles... and not feeling any guilt about the cobbler I ate.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Friday, May 22
I had a good walk this evening. I was planning on starting a little later, but I have to work tomorrow. So, I set out at a little before 8pm for 15 miles. It ended up being a very good, fast LSD. I even got in a little racewalking, and got to practice getting used to the tunnel vision caused by the headlamp. 15 miles 3:35:06, average pace 14:20, HR monitor cut in and out this walk, so I am going to change the battery tomorrow. I didn't seem to get hungry at all while walking after dark. I hope this isn't a problem at Mohican.
Funny thing... my friends and I are going to do the ET Midnight Marathon put on by Calico Racing in August. We have been having fun with the idea about spotting aliens because the marathon route is on the Extraterrestrial Highway that borders Area 51... I was doing the last 6 miles on the track and some of the back lights were on. The stars were out, and I was looking up at the sky, it was a nice night. There were some lights moving around really fast and erratic above the school building. I stopped in my tracks and watched them for a few minutes. Then I heard the birds screaching.. The lights must have been reflecting off the bottom of the birds that were flying around eating the bugs that were attracted to the lights. To tired eyes and from the other end of the track, they looked like UFO's.
Funny thing... my friends and I are going to do the ET Midnight Marathon put on by Calico Racing in August. We have been having fun with the idea about spotting aliens because the marathon route is on the Extraterrestrial Highway that borders Area 51... I was doing the last 6 miles on the track and some of the back lights were on. The stars were out, and I was looking up at the sky, it was a nice night. There were some lights moving around really fast and erratic above the school building. I stopped in my tracks and watched them for a few minutes. Then I heard the birds screaching.. The lights must have been reflecting off the bottom of the birds that were flying around eating the bugs that were attracted to the lights. To tired eyes and from the other end of the track, they looked like UFO's.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Long Distance Walk, January 4
I got up at 6 am and drank a glass of water, and then I ate my Kashi Oatmeal, with an added tablespoon of natural peanut butter and ½ cup of skim milk and took my morning dose of vitamins. When I left the house for my 20 mile LSD at 7:30 am, it was really warm and humid, and a layer of fog was hanging just above ground level.
I started out slow enough to warm up and was hoping for an average pace faster than 14 mpm. Soon I settled into a rhythm and was feeling pretty good in spite of my recent bout with sciatica. I knew there was a cold front coming, and I didn’t want to get caught in any severe thunderstorms that sometimes precede cold fronts in southeast Texas. I called my mom when I had passed my house at about 10.5 miles. I could see the dark clouds nearby and wanted to know if there were any storms. My mom said it was just drizzling a little and didn’t look like it would get any worse. She also said that when the front passed her, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees all at once. Just after she uttered that sentence, the wind changed direction and oh my goodness, the temperature went from 70 to 50 with at least 20mph gusts!
I was pretty sweaty from the humidity, and I was wearing shorts and a short sleeve t shirt. I wasn’t going to turn back toward home to get a jacket or gloves, because I would probably just stayed there instead of walking as far as I could under the circumstances. So, I just kept walking in the direction I was heading. It was really cold and I just happened to have a bandana with me. I took turns wrapping the bandana around my hands, when the exposed fingers started to stiffen; I switched the bandana to the other hand. That seemed to help.
The real problem is that I started to speed up because I was cold. Remember, my sciatica is acting up. I was still doing pretty well and took my chocolate GU at mile 16, like I usually do on a 20 mile walk. My right leg started to hurt at that point. I am a very determined person, so I tried to finish the 20 miles… You know: no pain, no gain? Then I thought to myself… you dumb @$$! You have a marathon in 4 weeks and a 50 mile trail race 1 week after the marathon. GO HOME AND STRETCH. So here I am at home, with warm dry clothes on and getting ready to stretch.
The workout was a total of 18.2 miles with an average pace of 13:37 mpm. I will call that a good workout and move on to the next one!
I started out slow enough to warm up and was hoping for an average pace faster than 14 mpm. Soon I settled into a rhythm and was feeling pretty good in spite of my recent bout with sciatica. I knew there was a cold front coming, and I didn’t want to get caught in any severe thunderstorms that sometimes precede cold fronts in southeast Texas. I called my mom when I had passed my house at about 10.5 miles. I could see the dark clouds nearby and wanted to know if there were any storms. My mom said it was just drizzling a little and didn’t look like it would get any worse. She also said that when the front passed her, the temperature dropped about 20 degrees all at once. Just after she uttered that sentence, the wind changed direction and oh my goodness, the temperature went from 70 to 50 with at least 20mph gusts!
I was pretty sweaty from the humidity, and I was wearing shorts and a short sleeve t shirt. I wasn’t going to turn back toward home to get a jacket or gloves, because I would probably just stayed there instead of walking as far as I could under the circumstances. So, I just kept walking in the direction I was heading. It was really cold and I just happened to have a bandana with me. I took turns wrapping the bandana around my hands, when the exposed fingers started to stiffen; I switched the bandana to the other hand. That seemed to help.
The real problem is that I started to speed up because I was cold. Remember, my sciatica is acting up. I was still doing pretty well and took my chocolate GU at mile 16, like I usually do on a 20 mile walk. My right leg started to hurt at that point. I am a very determined person, so I tried to finish the 20 miles… You know: no pain, no gain? Then I thought to myself… you dumb @$$! You have a marathon in 4 weeks and a 50 mile trail race 1 week after the marathon. GO HOME AND STRETCH. So here I am at home, with warm dry clothes on and getting ready to stretch.
The workout was a total of 18.2 miles with an average pace of 13:37 mpm. I will call that a good workout and move on to the next one!
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