Starting with advice: if you are hurting, ask a professional for help.
High mileage I put on my body definitely increases chances that I will hurt myself and I am not 18 anymore, so things happen. I already talked about my hip, so I will leave that one alone. But that’s not the only thing that has gone wrong with my body.
All the pounding the pavement, weight lifting, swimming and biking (and let’s admit it: biking for extended periods of time causes back pain) has caused my back to get tight and my neck started to feel tight. I told Diana about it and she decided to deal with that. I am not a fan of massages (I had one in my life and I have no particular desire to repeat that experience) and chiropractors always freaked me out. So here I was: on the gym floor, face down with Diana on my back trying to pop my back. Yeah… that definitely got me to tighten up. It was a battle of her repeating ‘relax’ and me doing the opposite. It even led to this brilliant conversation when my arms went up again as she pushed on my back:
Diana: You are like a dead bug!
Me: Thank you?
She also found a huge knot in my shoulder. I can complain all I want about not enjoying this particular torture, but it helped. I may not be able to completely shut down my instinctual reactions, but I do trust Diana she is helping. She is yet to disappoint. So far, she has fixed pretty much every issue I came to her with.
Another injury: my foot started hurting just before the Philly marathon. I was definitely worried. I started to notice that I put my foot down wrong while walking in softer shoes. I finally went to see a doctor the other day. They took half a dozen of x-rays of my foot and poked it a bit. Credit to the podiatrist: my feet are ridiculously ticklish, yet once I told him that, he managed not to tickle me again, despite holding my foot, examining it and pointing out what was going wrong. Diagnosis: I have an extra bone in my foot and I tweaked it while running. It can be easily fixed with ortho insert in my shoes and I need to use proper stability running shoes. As far as injuries go, that’s a simple fix. Not even a need to take time off my feet! I did get to go to some official meetings in my hiking boots though 😆
I am sure I will tweak something again in the future… Hopefully, it will make for a good story! In the meantime, my body is healing up and I should be ready for Disney World Marathon in a little over 4 weeks!
I am a single mom with a job, a marathon runner and an aspiring IronMan 70.3 competitor. And I know how hard it is to fit everything into one day. Let’s start with the first myth: I always feel like working out. That is so not true! Like every other person, I have times when all I want to do is hang out on the couch with a book or a movie. It takes quite a bit of strength of will to get my butt moving, but I do it (most days at least 😉). Second important thing: my daughter’s father is very involved with her and she spends half of her time with me and half with him. Without that, I could never do all of my training.
I commute to my office 3 days per week and it’s over an hour and a half each way. I am grateful for days I work from home – I have enough time to work out and to take care of some chores (laundry anyone?). I am a firm believer in building my sports into my routine as much as I can, so it’s harder to just skip it. Courtesy of that habit, I think my coworkers may suspect I’m crazy (not entirely wrong, I do endurance sports after all 😉). I try to do stretching during breaks at work, so I can be found trying to touch my toes with my hands by the coffee machine or stretching my back while on a call. There is only so much time in the day, so I get creative in scheduling.
The attached picture is the other way I do it: with a couple of pieces of equipment, I can do a lot of my workouts at home. My daughter is already used to seeing me doing basic core exercises or stretches while she eats (I think she appreciates it to a certain extent: I don’t tell her to eat faster then). Some resistance bands for strength training once per week – I do my other strength training with my trainer one evening per week when my daughter is not around. Stationary bike is awesome – I can ride it any time I have down time at home, which usually means bike intervals when my daughter goes to sleep.
That leaves running and swimming workouts. Those are the tricky ones, as I need to be able to get out and my daughter needs to be taken care of. I manage long runs (usually 20 miles) every other Sunday. For shorter runs – two days per week I get off the train 6 miles before my office and run the rest of the way. Fortunately for me, there is plenty of bike paths around DC. Unfortunately, they get very crowded and not all of them are well lit. Note to any aspiring local politicians: offer better lighting on Custis and W&OD Trails and you have my vote! Making this part of my commuting routine definitely helps me stay on top of it. I have to get up at pretty much the same time either way, so I may as well get the running done.
Swimming is the hardest for the obvious reason: access to a pool where I can do laps. It’s tricky, since mine is in my neighborhood and I can go there only when my daughter is either at school or with her dad. I usually get to do that during my lunch break when I work from home. I occasionally try to do it in the evenings, but that’s crazy: there is a swim team, lessons for little kids and one or two laps for adults who’d like to do laps. It’s not easy to swim when it’s that crowded. For now, I know I can easily swim 1.9km. It may not be fast, but I can do it and jump on a bike. I will work on the pace after my upcoming marathon.
I have a feeling a lot of you have noticed what is not in my schedule: social life and relaxing on the couch. For the just sitting around: I spend a lot of time on the train and I find it to be sufficient down time for reading and relaxing. I also have a desk job (exercise ball instead of a chair for life!), so I have my rest and recovery then. As to my social life: I am a loner, so afternoons of every other weekend feel just about right for me. For the chores, I have my own coping mechanisms: my house is clean, but not pristine. I do laundry while telecommuting and when I put laundry away, I plan outfits for the week, so I don’t have to think about it again (it goes for both sports and work clothes). I cook very simple food, usually for multiple days at a time.
Will this approach work for everybody? No, there is no panaceum to busy schedule and we all need our own coping mechanism. Does it work for me? Yes. Is it perfect? Again: no. If anybody has better ideas, I am happy to talk. Ideas for improvements are always welcome.
First things first: it’s been two weeks now since my marathon. My body stopped hurting, so that’s good news. However, my legs still feel tired. I am not sure if that’s still from the marathon or is it from the new set of exercises. I am trying to figure out if the stretching is making my hip better or worse… I think I will go with better, while the workouts are making it worse. Hopefully, at some point it will all work itself out. In the meantime, I need to go see an orthopedist. I have a small bone sticking out on my right foot and it sometimes hurts (especially when wearing ‘cute’ shoes). I showed it to Diana and she agreed that something is wrong and gave me an exercise for it. It was one of the best feelings you can tell your family over a dinner table… The pain just went away. If we were still in the habit of burning witches, she would so be the first one in line! Every time I tell her about something that’s going wrong with my body, she makes me do some exercise and suddenly I’m ok. Pure magic as far as I am concerned 😉. I am still planning on making my way to an orthopedist though. This may need a more complex solution than just pain relief and I put a lot of strain on my feet.
I also got done with compulsive overeating (although I still want to eat more than strictly necessary). Well, maybe I should go back to eating more carbs though. I did 30 minutes running intervals and 30 minutes swimming Friday night, 10 mile run on Saturday and went for a 20 mile run today. I ended up with 18 miles, mostly due to lack of good will for running further, fueled by hunger. I have been eating normally since Thanksgiving and it looks like I need to up my carbs intake. People carb load for a half marathon, what made me think that I shouldn’t do it for 20 miles??? I guess I ate a large plate of pasta last night, but that’s definitely not enough. I actually had to stop during my run and pull out a snack I was carrying (I always carry food, since I don’t like being hungry and just dealing with it).
I have been asking my friends for thoughts on increasing my carbs intake. I started by asking my Filipino friend about rice. He had zero understanding for my feeling that plain rice is no fun and I get bored of rice really easily. He said he eats it three times a day and can’t imagine a meal without rice. So no help there. Even though I’m Polish, somehow potatoes are not really my thing. I loved french fries like the next person, but come on: all that grease isn’t good for me. Pasta? Yes, I enjoy that, although I would like to step up my pasta sauce game. What I make has been getting repetitive and rather low on veggies. I do love bread though. For now, my main carbs are bread. Any carb-heavy, healthy recipes will be appreciated 😊
Are you wondering yet why I am still running 18-20 mile long runs and thinking about carb loading? It’s because I have only 6 weeks left until my next marathon: Disney World. That will check off state #5. I am a little excited, although right now I am looking mostly forward to tapering 😉 I already entered lottery for the Chicago marathon and I will probably sign up for Ogden, UT in May. The four months between marathons should give me a bit more time to rest, although I will still be trying to stay on top of training. I guess keeping things closer together forces me to ensure that I don’t stay on the couch too long and lose it all. On the other hand, my legs keep feeling tired and being a couch potato for a weekend sounds appealing. Even I can get tired sometimes. And believe me, I am that person with levels of energy that scare people. Oh, well, I surround myself mostly with people who have similar energy to me (or at least can handle it). Time to stretch for a bit and then get some much needed sleep!
Let me start with what I am sure what everybody wants to know first: I finished in 4:20:39.
Now, off to the story:
I got to the Expo around 1pm. I was too anxious to get my stuff to eat lunch, so I was definitely getting ‘hangry’. I got the bib, shirt and backpack and it was time to go eat. I have heard later that some people didn’t care for the shirt. Personally, I love it! I think it’s nice and simple, you can see what it was for and it’s really comfortable (I already washed it and I am wearing it right now actually). I did get a huge lunch (Panera across the street!) and then enjoyed the Expo. I insisted on scouting out where the starting line is and that made for a nice walk. I was happy to be with a friend though. He is a good size guy and that part of Philly doesn’t make a small woman feel comfortable.
At the Expo, in the shirt
Leaving hotel before 6 was quite something! For one thing, I was alone (my friend wasn’t running, so he went right back to sleep after I woke him up while getting ready). I was fortunate enough to quickly spot somebody else going to the starting line and asked to tag along. Creepy spot when it’s dark and most people are asleep… For the other, the temperatures were absolutely freezing! I am always cold (except for at night – I produce a lot of heat, but I never get to keep it, except with help of blankets), so that was a problem. Fortunately, the organizers anticipated it: they provided heating tents. Sadly, most people clearly didn’t shower that morning… I have an exceptionally good sense of smell, so YUCK!!! Fun fact: Philly Marathon had a bus taking people to the start line from about half a mile away from the start line. We agreed with the guy I was walking with that if you can’t walk half a mile, how are you going to run 26.2??? It also helped us warm up.
On the subject of the starting line: they did a lot well in there. Lines to the port-a-potties though were ungodly! I thought about going, but after one look I understood I don’t really have to go. An hour later, just before starting, I knew how wrong I was… But, alas, it was too late – I would have to look along the way for ‘an opportunity’.
Warming up before the race
Philadelphia Marathon was the first one I got to experience wave starts. It was AWESOME!!! I was close to the front of my corral and started at a good pace, so no fighting for position and dodging people. I am sure there were plenty of people aligned in the wrong spots, but the groups were much smaller and it was easier to get moving. I can’t say enough good things about this idea!
I finally managed to find a port-a-potty without lines close to mile 9 marker and was able to get rid of the ‘excess weight’. It made running a lot easier and good timing, too – it was right before the only serious uphill of that marathon. That’s another lovely part of this marathon: there are some hills, but all of them are low grade, so it’s not as obvious. I keep mentally comparing it to Baltimore, where hills are pure insanity. They are short, but steep and there are soooo many of them.
Something I did not like about this marathon: lack of clearly marked medic station (they get compared to Marine Corps Marathon, so that might be unfair – those guys set up basically field hospitals staffed by military prepped for pretty much anything). Unfortunately, I have that stupid hip problem and at some point, it started to hurt. I was hoping for a bit of motrin and I had the hardest time finding somebody. I eventually did, but by then I was seriously hurting and the pain spread from hip to my knee and my leg muscle started to cramp up like nobody’s business. Here I need to give a shout out to Bruno, a friend of mine (shameless plug: and the best realtor ever!): he texted me at a perfect moment that he is cheering me on. Somehow that text snapped me out of my head and I pushed through. I did start to sing ‘just keep mommy-ing, just keep mommy-ing!’ It’s like ‘just keep swimming!’ from Finding Nemo and it’s how my daughter cheers me on (in sports or in doing something questionable). I am glad that I was able to get snapped out of that, too. I started to hear that in my head around mile 14. If I kept singing that to myself for another 12 miles, I am pretty sure I would have to be committed at a mental institution…
People who were live tracking me noticed that I suddenly got second wind somewhere around mile 23-ish. It was my secret weapon: sea shanties. Back in Poland, I used to go sailing in high school and I got used to the idea of sea shanties giving a good rhythm. So when I need that extra push, I pull my favorite Polish shanties play list, turn it on as loud as I can and let that beat do the work for me. I wouldn’t recommend it for a longer distance, but it’s great for the strong finish, when you have nothing else left.
Speaking of nothing else left: I listened to Diana (my trainer) well and carb loaded since Halloween (ok, maybe that was a little longer than she told me to, but better to start early, right? 😉). I never hit the wall! I did do a lot of long runs, too. So maybe I was great prep. Or maybe it was my hurting leg, which was consuming all of my suffering attention. One way or another, I only walked when I was drinking water at the water/gatorade stations and stopped twice (once to pee and once to stretch out my hurting leg). It was great!!!
Standing on Rocky’s footprints, already with the medal
My parents called me to congratulate me even before I had my medal! That was really cool, even if I couldn’t hear them and I was too distracted to know what was going on around me. I was so pumped about my time though that I didn’t care! I think I told everybody that my time was 4:20:07 (it was before I got the official results and that’s what the app told me). Still, it was way better than my results in the past. I did 4:46 a year ago in Marine Corps and 4:36 three years ago in Baltimore (I don’t even count my time in Vermont, since I had a stress injury and didn’t run for close to a month before the race). I still can’t believe it! I keep thinking that without issues with my hip, I probably could have been closer to 4:10. Now I have a goal for Disney World in January! I don’t know if I can get all the way down to 4 hours in the next 8 weeks, but under 4:20 should be doable. I hope they don’t have too many steep hills… (I kind of don’t look at the profile, so it doesn’t scare me).
After the race, I did what I thought of as ‘mandatory photo op’: I went to the top of the stairs at the museum, put my feet on Rocky’s footprints and had my friend take a picture. There was a lot of other marathoners doing it. I kept cringing on the stairs, but I will admit it: I was milking it a bit… Because why not 😉
Oh, boy, did I! Improvement of 16 minutes!
This was such an amazing race! It will probably take a while for the high to wear off. I hope my legs will feel better by then, too. It’s mostly my left knee, associated with my stupid injured left hip. My trainer actually explained to me where majority of knee pain comes from in long runs: when you get tired, your steps get sloppy and that fatigues your knees. My hip and then knee issue definitely confirms that. This week, I will stick to strength, swimming and biking. I will be back to running by next week.
HONORABLE MENTION: I always love reading signs along the route. There are many that repeat, some I don’t get, but then, there are some special gems. One for this time: Pain is just French for bread. And who doesn’t love carbs??? Honestly, I had enough pain that I could open a boulangerie! 😆
I’m less than a week away from the Philadelphia marathon, which means weather forecast is available. Imagine my shock when I saw that it will be 28F (-2C) on the starting line! As the race goes on, it’s supposed to warm up all the way up to 42F (or 5C) 😮 . I will admit it: I don’t feel very well prepared to races in the cold. I always stuck to running during somewhat warmer times of the year. The part that’s tricky for me: anybody who sat next to me on a boat on a cold day can tell you that I produce a lot of heat, but I radiate it all out. That’s how I’m always FREEZING. But if I wear something that doesn’t breathe, I overheat instantly. I think I chose the clothes right. And at the starting line, I will be wearing an old, shrunk sweater I can throw away. Funny story on the sweater: previous owner of my house (a construction worker by trader) connected washing machine, switching hot and cold water hoses. I would say he was being passive aggressive, but based on shape of the rest of the house, I will say it: no, he was that stupid. The sad part is that it took me forever to figure it out! So yeah, I boiled all of my sweaters, since I tried to wash them on cold. Oh, irony! Let’s go with an optimistic spin: I got to replace old sweaters with newer ones 😉
🙁 Bad news for the race: my hip has been hurting. I think it’s about time I explain the hip thing. It’s one of those moments you wish there was a camera, even if it would have provided me with plenty of embarrassment. But think of going viral on youtube! About seven and a half years ago, I went on a run on a treadmill and some woman got on the treadmill next to me. She was on it for less than a minute, then got off of it, without turning it off. She looked at weights for another minute and left the gym. Strange behavior, but whatever. And that’s my ‘genius’ happened. I leaned over to turned it off… Yeah, I am sure everybody can figure out what happened next: I lost my footing and flew off the treadmill. That must have been site to behold… It took me a long time to figure out something wrong. In fact, I started to realize something was wrong with progress of my pregnancy. Many years later, I am usually ok. However, since I started this new training plan and I have been diligent about stretching and that makes my hip act up. I did 10 miles today and I sure felt it. So I guess some icing it down and rest until the race day!
🙂 Good news for the race: I did those 10 miles at 9:11min/mile pace, which is good for me. I used to use 10min/mile as a standard conversion for the longest time. I am psyched about this improvement in pace! I know I won’t be keeping it for all 26.2 miles, but even if I slow down a bit later in the race, that should still let me PR. A friend of mine is going with me to Philly and he promised to keep me company for the last few miles to help me stay motivated. I am lining up in the 4 hour corral and let’s see what happens! Keep your fingers crossed for me! 🤞
My lovely trainer told me to start carb loading a bit. I love that! I keep eating a lot of bread and all my meals include some solid carbs like pasta and rice. Who doesn’t want spaghetti and meatballs for dinner? I am really set with my dietary habits, so this is an adjustment, but I can’t complain. I am also no longer constantly hungry, so I’m loving it! It will be hard to go back to a more vegetable-based diet afterwards…
On the other hand, the taper thing… I was given 25 miles to run yesterday. I will admit it: I didn’t make it that far. I did 20 miles. I had still energy left at the end, but my hip was starting to bother me. I’d rather not risk an injury two weeks before the race… I have to admit that one hand, I have been looking forward to resting, because this new training regimen has been keeping me tired. On the other hand, I haven’t been running quite as much (replaced by biking and swimming), so I am enjoying running a lot more. Variety – the spice of life! At least now I have fewer workouts for the next two weeks. I am still doubtful about 16 miles next Monday. I really don’t want another long run… I have been thinking: maybe if a person obsessed with running doesn’t get to do it for 2-3 weeks much, they just go nuts by the time race comes and then they make up for the lost time? I sure would!
Last week was strange… With teacher conferences and Halloween, last week was anything but normal. No excuses though! On Monday, I got to meet with my favorite personal trainer (and my superhero) Diana. She gave me some strength exercises to do at home over the weekend and guess what: I did hurt myself immediately! Over the years, I managed to give myself some injuries that love to flare up any chance they get. Obviously, my form was off on one of the exercises. Fortunately for me, Diana seems to have healing hands – she helped me get my shoulder get better. Sometimes I suspect her of having some magical powers – two weeks ago my knees were hurting after a weekend of 15 miles Saturday and 18 miles Sunday. I told her about my knees and when she said it’s time for a leg day, I thought I would cry. But she knows what she is doing: my knees and legs all together were just fine afterwards. Apparently problem with knees after long runs comes mostly from ‘sloppy running’. Since I had a very old hip injury, which never healed quite right, I learned to run in a way that puts less pressure on it. Sadly, it’s awful for my knees. I swear a lot of my strength training sessions turn into physical therapy! I am happy about it though – the whole reason why I got a personal trainer is so that I don’t hurt myself. Running is not the only thing where I have to focus on form though. I haven’t been a very fast swimmer and it occurred to me that I need to revisit my form. I practiced swimming long enough to know when my form sucks. I gave it some thought and realized that my kick is sloppy. I paid attention to how I kick and move my arms. Result: going from 46:30 to 41:30 on 1900 meter swim. I was exhausted afterwards, but I am convinced: focusing on form works miracles!
I am less than three weeks away from my next marathon. I am equal parts excited and anxious! I feel like I have been training forever, but changing it up with swimming, biking and strength training has helped ease the monotony. I have started training with a personal trainer only a little over a month ago, but it sure has helped. It does make me anxious though that I am not running quite enough. I know I do, but since when is anxiety rational??? I know I can finish, the question is how long it will take. I am aiming for 4:30, but it will all come out on the race day. I was waiting for my trainer to send me a new training program, so I ‘cheated’ on the regular plan with a run. I already did my bike intervals in the morning and core workout at lunch. I was supposed to swim, but I hurt my shoulder the other day (more on merits of good form when exercising in near future…), so that was out. I love running! It felt like easy 6 miles, so I was surprised my pace was 9:04 min/mile. I was going for my planned marathon pace of 10 min/mile. I know Garmin was telling me I was going way faster, but it felt awesome! Sunny, cool afternoon, no wind, no crazy crowds… How could I not? Tomorrow, it will be back to regular plan (hopefully, I will remember to run according to schedule and only according to schedule…).
