ITB and Goofy Socks

I got the indoor track at about 6am this morning; I'd been out with folks from work until late the night before, so I give myself points for showing up. I'd hoped to do a MM trial to see if I could get around the track four times in 6:51. Didn't happen. I decided to run an easy 5K. I only did 10 laps because I got some right lateral knee discomfort (ITB) and decided not to push it.

Discomfort vs. Pain

I am a wimp. This ITB thing has not hurt at all yet, and I never want it to get that way. I really wanted to the mile time trial this morning, but that just wasn't in the cards... so I moved on. I then decided to run 5K (13 laps) and decided to bag it after 10. I only ran 2 laps with a bit of knee discomfort. I could feel it for most of the rest of the day... it's gone now. I may try the same thing tomorrow. I am prepared to bag it if need be.

I think I need a new word for pain. You see, there's pain at the end of a race, and you can tell it's not the kind of pain that will injure or kill you. I need to get better at dealing with that pain. One way has been to deliberately induce fatigue on the track. I'll run extra hard for a couple of laps and then try to run through the fatigue. Another way has been that cold plunge. Man, at 60 seconds that 48F water starts to tell you "get the hell out of here!" The mental game of staying in beyond 1, 2, and 3 minutes has been good exercise.

Goofy Socks

I found a pair of running socks in the dark this morning and neglected to put them in my bag. Got the the gym with no athletic socks, just these giant puffy black things I wear with my boots. So I bought a pair of those Injinji socks that have glove-like toe sleeves for your feet. Pretty cool. I think I'll conserve these for long runs. They might be the perfect race and long run socks.

Marathon Revisited

I know I'll stick with my plan for the National Half, but there doesn't seem to be any reason to train for a June marathon. With Renee out of the Stockholm thing, I think it would be better for me to go into base training for a while and focus on the Crim. Then I could think about doing the Free Press marathon. I'll have a much better idea of what I am capable of doing by then.

Frankly, I thought about coming up with a non-running Crim goal. Something like: on the morning of the Crim, I will weigh 175 pounds, have a waist size of 32" and feel comfortable leaving the house in a sleeveless running singlet. Now that's a goal.

January
Febraury
March 20: National Half Marathon
April
May
June
July
August
September
October 17: Detroit Free Press Marathon

6:51

I have no problem blowing off this week's MM time trial. The most important thing this week is the 10M long run, and if I need to go slow until then, that's fine. I continue to run a bit too fast during regular training runs. I am mostly going at about 8:25/M when I run on the indoor track. I should really slow it down. I really need to slow things on the 10-miler this weekend. Maybe I should select a series of loops that makes that easy to track, something like 2-3-3-2. I think that's a good idea. On these long runs, I should be shooting to get close to 10:00/M, but I don't think I'll do that. Still, strive to finish those 2-milers in 20 minutes, etc. That's a good plan: use the 2-milers as bookends and do your two favorite 3-milers in between.

But back to the 6:51 mile. How about this? Go to the gym in the morning and see how you feel. Go out for the first couple of laps and try it out. If you're feeling good, go for it this time. You can always bag it! The split time for a 6:51 is 1:39/lap. I ran a 1:37 at the end of my last 5K, so I think I can do it.