Wednesday, November 26, 2008

itchy

Forecast looks great, but my butt hurts. Forecast is now for the low 40s and 8 mph winds. Woohoo!

My injury thingy, which I'm calling piriformis, is rather disturbing though. The "discomfort" has shifted around and I'm going to take that as a positive sign since there isn't a point in doing otherwise. The way the course is laid out, I think I'll be OK if I can just make it to the turnaround (and start of the downhill) in decent shape hip-wise. The gradual grind of the 1% uphill is what worries me. Uphills are noticeably more troublesome and with the constant grade, hitting the same muscle in the same way could be bad.

My 4 miles easy this morning was kind of odd. My HR was ridiculously high even after discarding the first goofed up HRM split. 139? That should be more like 133.

Time Distance Split time Split distance Split pace Avg. HR
09:18 1.00 9:18 1.00 9:18 166 (83%)
18:17 2.00 8:58 1.00 8:58 134 (67%)
27:18 3.00 9:01 1.00 9:03 139 (69%)
36:21 4.00 9:02 1.00 9:04 136 (68%)
36:43 4.04 0:22 0.04 8:55 140 (70%)

Glancing at my HRM though the average didn't seem to really match the instantaneous values. Looking at the graph with elevation and HR, it doesn't really make sense. I've thought my battery was going for the last couple of weeks when I've had some weirdness, so I went ahead and bought new batteries today.

I hate tapering. It's a constant battle to balance healing your legs and maintaining your fitness. I feel like a total slug by race day. I sometimes wonder if the guys who just run lots of marathons don't have the right idea.

1 comment:

Mindi said...

For what it's worth, last fall when I was running 60-70 mpw, I had exactly the same thing creep up on me in the weeks prior to my race. I actually just went back and looked at my running log and my piriformis was bugging me just days before the race. And I do recall the pain "moving" around. Have you tried stretching it out with a tennis ball? That seemed to help a little for me.

Tapering is hard. But for me, it always seems a day or two or three before the race, I start feeling stronger and it is oh so worth it.

Try to relax and visualize a great race. You have worked so hard - you are ready - you can do this.

Have a great Turkey day and try not to eat too much! :) Although those potatoes will be a great carbo/potassium load!

BTW - your post was funny re 5K or 10K - I thought the exact same thing the day before - 10K just plain sucks. I didn't end up running either though - I am still sick and it is 18 degrees - no need for that!!!