Monday, December 29, 2014

better!

 

Happily, the ankle is feeling better. K and I did a longer run this weekend around Lake Union and got stopped by the Fremont Bridge. The new paint job looks good! 

I've been keeping to a run every other day schedule and biking on the off running days. It seems to be working! 

It's been a rather strange but successful year for running. 

1675 miles for the year. This is less than the last couple years but I was off of running almost 6 weeks because the of the kneecap issue early in the year. 

4 half marathons with a solid 1:50:XX race in June. 
3 or so short trail races during the summer 
Another successful Ragnar Relay
2 marathons and one of those just a couple minutes off of PR pace. 

That marathon race still makes me pretty damn happy almost two months later. yes, that was a good race!  


Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas!

It's been a really low key holiday and I am loving it!  We slept in and went out for a run.  I'm going to do the running every other day because every day would not agree the ankle. I remembered that i had some K-tape and after a bit of googling, that pesky tendon is taped. And i think it helped. 

Merry Christmas to K! I made him do tempo running. The Posole is cooking now and the plum pudding with hard sauce is in progress. We'll be taking food and such over to my mom's place to celebrate Christmas.


Monday, December 15, 2014

End of the Season

 
I rested and recovered after the marathon in early November. Thanksgiving was wonderful and I used the time off to try and get some training on trails. I'd signed up for a 50k mid-december. It was never a goal race but I'd hoped to finish the race and enjoy the wonderful trails. However, a touch of ankle tendonitis and trail shoe issues meant that I was going into the 50k race woefully undertrained on trails and unsure the ankle would hold up to the rigors of trail running. 

The ankle had felt fine on roads so the issue on trails was a bit of a surprise. I'd run longer on trails in shoes that hadn't worked and probably contributed to the ankle pain. I started some self care for the ankle and also added in some more days off than I planned. After frantically trying out different shoes, I had finally found a pair of trail shoes that would do well enough and prepared just go out there and have some fun.  

We went up to Whidbey for the Deception Pass 25k and 50k. These races are on separate days and we knew people running both days. A friend has a house on whidbey so we had easy and very relaxing accommodations. I'd had a very stressful week at work so really was looking forward to the weekend away. I'd been tapering again for the race and was dismayed to find the ankle really bothered after a couple easy midweek runs. I'd had a massage the monday before the race and I think possibly she went a bit deep on the tender areas. And then saturday i woke with teh beginnings of a cold. That decided it. I had thought I'd have a chance of finishing before the cut off for the 50k IF the ankle held up. Now with a developing cold, I knew I'd just have to plan for a nice and much shorter easy trail run. Maybe I could make it 10 miles but I would be happy with 7 or so which would give me the best views of the course.  
It's a great course for spectating and the weather was wonderful for the 25k. Runners did get rained on but they were brief showers and overall it was very comfortable temps for running. Coach Lesley was racing strong (despite her usual claim that she was just running for fun) and it was really fun getting to different areas to cheer.  
After the race, we headed back to the farm and got a grand tour of the property. I took a lovely nap and spent some quality time knitting and reading. Ah the joys of the occasional unplugging. There was no wifi! The R2D2 hat is ready! 
I prepared all my stuff to get ready to run the next morning. And barely slept because i had such a sore throat and felt so achy. Ok. No way. No running for this sickie.  That is a DNS (did not start) and no doubt in my mind that was the right decision. I felt awful later in the day and was working towards spiking a high fever. We still went out and cheered for the friend running in teh 50k. Turns out he was way undertrained as well and had a planned drop at mile 14.  
Nope, it's not quite the weekend i wanted running-wise but it was a really fun weekend overall with beautiful scenery. Meanwhile I guess the ankle is better. it's had a lot of rest!