Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Not going outside today

Guys. It was gorgeous outside today. Temps in the 70s. No humidity. A nice breeze. Partly cloudy skies. Perfect summer running weather.

And I spent my time running inside on the treadmill.

What? The plan called for hill intervals. On the treadmill. And since I couldn't lug a treadmill outside (although that would have been a nice option), it was inside I went.

The indoor run wasn't too bad. Nice and easy warm up, 10 quarter-mile hill intervals followed by a recovery period and all of that followed by a cool down. I felt pretty good. Nothing was too achy.

Which was what I was hoping for. See, Saturday's long run? The one that was supposed to be 14 miles? I cut it short at Mile 12. If I had my way I would have quit at Mile 8, but since I was still 4 miles away from the park, I had to keep running.

Why'd I quit early? Well remember when I did Tough Mudder and I banged my knee against the Berlin Walls as I fell off the 12-foot wall? Well that knee is still a little achy at times. Saturday it decided to bother me. I don't think it would have been a huge problem, but my IT band on that same leg decided to be super cranky as well. So by the time I hit Mile 8 I was starting to hurt. And trying to alter my stride (bad idea Jen). And I seriously just wanted to stop, lay down in the grass on the side of the road and cry. Of course it didn't help that it was uber-humid Saturday morning either.

But like I said, I couldn't quit. So I kept running. Taking a few short walk breaks. Peggy and Sam, my running buddies, were great. I told them multiple times to just go (because Peggy was rockin' the run) and leave me behind. But they wouldn't. About 2 miles from the park we met up with Coach Jim and he ran the rest of the way in with me. He also suggested I call it quits early. After all, we had a running group breakfast date to get to!

So I've been spending some quality time with the evil foam roller. And stretching. And I decided to take an unscheduled rest day on Monday. And it must have helped a bit since the IT band wasn't angry with me tonight during the hill intervals.

Now I just have to hope this gorgeous weather sticks around Wednesday so I can take advantage of it tomorrow during my run!

Not so random question: Does anyone use salt tablets during long runs? I generally sweat a lot to begin with (totally envious of those girls who glisten or don't sweat at all), but with the super humid and hot summer we've been having, the amount I've been sweating has been ridiculous. Coach Jim has recommended I try salt tablets, see if they help at all. Just was wondering what other people's experiences with them have been.

1 comment:

Carolina John said...

Yea salt tablets are great! I use Endurolytes, I think Hammer Nutrition makes them. I just have a bottle that I picked up at a race expo after getting plenty of samples in race packets. I still take gels and drink sports drinks like heed or gatorade too, but when the legs start to get a bit sluggish or you just start to feel your energy levels dropping but you know there's still 15 minutes until the next gel time, a salt capsule will let you keep pace until then.

Example, if I'm trying to break 4 hours in a full marathon, I will take 5 gels (every 45 minutes) plus one gel before the start. I'll also pop 2 endurolytes before each of the last 2 gels, more if needed as the legs get heavy.

Take it easy on that knee.