20 days and counting…

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After two weeks of long work days and the craziness that is the NFL draft, I can finally get on a normal schedule again and try to get my mind right for this year’s Cleveland Marathon.

I will admit, my once robust training schedule was thrown out the door about two months ago. Mostly due to laziness after work, but this hip pain didn’t help. During that time, I did keep a normal, healthy diet and I averaged about 20 miles a week. I would say that I am still in pretty decent shape, even from Portland last year, but my speed has plummeted considerably.

My plan from here on out is to run as much as possible and get at least one 20 miler in in the next two weekends, while maintaining the healthiest diet possible. The diet is no problem, the 20 miler… Not so much lol.

I’ll try to post more as the days grow closer! Now to rest up for another long run tomorrow!

The hip bones connected to the…

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Yesterday, by recommendation from Ragnar teammate and fellow dirty runner, Kristy Hill, I went over to Soothe Massage in Rocky River to have my hip looked at/fixed.

When I got there, the massage therapist asked me many questions about running, other recreational activity I currently participate in and even things that pertained to my past. “Did you ever break a bone or sprain anything in either legs as a child/teenager?” Weirdly, the answer to most of her questions were no. Even with all the sports I played growing up, I’ve never really been injured in any significant way.

After answering all her questions, she got to work. Just by sitting on the massage table, she could immediately tell that I must sit at a computer/desk for long periods of time because my posture and spine alignment is horrible! Problem number 1! Grr!

Problem number 2 is that my pelvic bone/hip is out of alignment. Much like the suspension on your car, your hip can get out of alignment if you are constantly twisting and turning… or in my case, playing football and averaging 40 miles a week.

The third and final problem is that currently my left leg is a tad bit longer than my right leg! This means that when I run, I land harder on my right foot, to compensate for the over extension of the left leg. The force of that impact then travels up my right leg to my uneven hip, which then translates to the pain I’ve been experiencing!

After diagnosing these problems, and a few others with my knees and feet, she got right to work realigning everything. What I learned is that by pulling, pushing, and stretching different muscle groups, you can realign and fix pretty much any problem. She first fixed my hip, then worked on my hami’s, then knees and finally finished with my feet. Apparently, my feet were just as screwed up as my hip! Not good!

I have to admit I was a little skeptical at first, but since I’ve had this pain for almost two months and the RICE technique didn’t fix it, I had to try something new. Today, I’m still a little sore from the massage, but I can already tell that my hip feels much better. I am taking it easy today to let the muscles relax and then tomorrow we’ll see how the ol’ hip does on my long run!

If anyone has any weird problems that resting doesn’t seem to fix, let me know and I’ll give you the contact info to the girl that I saw over at Soothe! It may sound like some voodoo witch craft, but it works!

Where’s the motivation?!

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I can’t believe I haven’t posted since January 27! That factor alone may show you that I’ve had a drastic change in motivation lately.

I’m not entirely sure why I’ve lost the motivation to train on a regular basis. Unlike my last training regimen, where I was “balls to the wall” on a strict running schedule, this one has been different. I equate it to a piece of Swiss cheese.. soft with a lot of holes.

In the last two weeks, I’ve average about 15-17 miles and then I’ve done my long runs of 14 and 16 miles. My 14 mile run was awful. It was freezing, I didn’t eat properly and my right hip started to hurt after mile 6. My 16 mile run yesterday wasn’t horrible. The weather was great, people were out having a good time and my overall attitude just seemed better. Maybe I was just sick of running inside or out in the cold?! Let’s hope.

My hip did start to hurt again at roughly mile 5 yesterday. I got very upset for half a mile, almost quit and then remembered that running long distance is 80% mental and that I was being a wimp. I then picked it up and didn’t look back, which I was really proud of when I finished. My hip does hurt a significant amount today, so I took the day off. I really want to get back on track and I’m hoping this hip pain is just because my body isn’t used to running long distance with very little training during the week.

I think another factor to my motivation problem is that for some reason I’m not super excited for the Cleveland Marathon. To be honest, when comparing my first Cleveland Marathon with my second Portland Marathon, Portland was such a better experience. I guess I just need to stop being such a pessimist and just hope for a better “Cleveland experience” this year.

I hope to have a full week this week, including running on Friday to make up for not running tonight. If I do, I’ll feel sooooo much better about this lovely training process. I think that if you’re like me, missing one or two days really eats at your self-esteem. Besides running out of time (I’m still working long hours), I really have no excuse and that’s what I think bothers me most! Time to use yesterday’s morale booster for this entire week and do work!

I just gotta hope this hip pain goes away, so I can pick up the pace!

Hopefully, come Sunday, I’ll have a nice update where I didn’t miss one day! :)

 

11 Random Things about PT

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Fellow DirtyRunner a.k.a. TheLogo a.k.a. JessExpress a.k.a. mojamala2 has tagged me in her “11 random things about me” post. I don’t usually do this, but I didn’t want to ruin the fun and make her sad… can’t have a sad Logo. :) So here goes!

The Rules:

  • Post these rules
  • You must post 11 random things about yourself
  • Answer the questions set for you in their post
  • Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer
  • Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them
  • No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people!

My 11 random facts:

1) I played hockey from ages eleven to twenty. Both ice and roller. I miss it a lot and am actually getting back into a roller league come April. Can’t wait!

Pond Hockey in our backyard back in '07. So fun!

2) I don’t eat anything that comes from the sea. Yes, I’ve tried shrimp a billion times and each time I hate it.

3) One of my favorite recreational activities, other than running of course, is Wiffle Ball. If I could play professional Wiffle Ball, I’d leave the Browns in a heart beat.

4) Although I’m a pretty big sports junkie/”jock”, I am also a pretty big dork. I love sci-fi/fantasy things and have since I was a kid. One of my favorite shows ever is Battlestar Galactica and I am currently reading A Clash of Kings.

5) I love watching movies. I’ll take it either way… theater or at home. Nothing beats a GREAT movie!

6) To go along with number 5, it’s well known through my tight circle of friends that I have a man crush on the following actors: Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, Marky Mark, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Leo and Pacino. Honorable Mention: Edward Norton.

7) I love old school video games… especially Tecmo Super Bowl. In college, my roommates and I had a saying, “Tecmo’s before Hoe’s”. We played it quite a bit lol.

Dan "Laser Limb" Marino to Mark "Super" Duper... can't beat that combo!

8) I can’t stand doing laundry… specifically folding it and putting it away. BLEH!

9) I only ran track in 7th grade. A lot of people think I was always a runner growing up since I run so much now, but that’s the only time I ran competitively.

10) I want to work for myself one day. I’d love to run my own restaurant/bar where family and friends can come together and have a great time.

11) Since I left home for college back in 2003, I’ve lived in 7 different places: Kent (3 different housing situations), Middleburg Heights, Parma, Brunswick and now Lakewood.

Jess’s 11 Questions:

What are you wearing?
- Browns athletic shorts, a Hoover High School t-shirt and a Green High School Soccer hoody. Since I drove 10 hours yesterday, I declared today, “Bum Day” the minute I woke up.

What is your dream race to run?
- My dream race is kind of cliche, but it’s Boston. My second: The Big Sur… it looks amazing!

Where is your favorite vacation spot?
- Where ever my friends are. Good friends can make any locale awesome… even if it is Northeast Ohio.

What was your last dream about?
- This week I was in North Carolina filming features for our upcoming Browns TV shows this off season. My last night there I dreamed that someone stole our SUV with over tens of thousands of dollars in equipment. That would of been AWFUL.

Would you rather be too hot or too cold?
Too cold. You can always layer up or have tons of blankets to warm up easily. Being too hot can only be solved by A/C or a swimming pool.

If you had to listen to one song on repeat forever what would it be?
- Soundtrack 2 My Life – Kid Cudi

What was your favorite school subject? (Do not say recess)
- Other than video productions, I was pretty obsessed with history. Preferably WWII and other wars. The way they changed and affected our country was fascinating to me.

If you could go back to school would you study the same things or pick a different major?
- I would probably pick a different major. Either in recreation and leisure or perhaps teaching. I would love to have summers off!

Are you an Apple fan or Android fan?
- Apple. Although a lot of people hate, you can’t beat the iPhone/iPad. Nothing comes close. R.I.P. Steve.

Any tattoos or piercing? Are they visible?
- None at the moment, but I have a “top secret” one planned for when I finish my 10th marathon.

Favorite alcoholic beverage?
- This is a tough one, but I’d have to say Gin and Tonic.

The sad thing is, I don’t have many other blogging friends besides the ones that Jess has already selected to do this. I have a set of 11 questions that I’d love people to answer, so if you’re interested, send me a message and I’ll send them your way.

A new 2012 goal: Expand my blogging network! :)


2012 CLE Marathon Training Plan

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I finally got my act together and figured out my training plan for this year’s Cleveland Marathon. If you click over to the “Training Calendar“, you can see that my next four months are going to be a whole lot of fun! :)

I got this training program from Dirty Runner Jeff Trottier (and Moja of course!) and he got it from Mollyberries, so I thank both of you! I really like this program because it focuses on SPEED SPEED SPEED. As you know, I’m in the business of trying to get faster, so this training regimen works perfect for me. My goal for the Cleveland Marathon is 3:25 and ultimately, I’d like to run it under that time. It’s going to take a lot of hard work and determination, but I’m definitely up for it. Since I trained half ass for Portland and I still managed to run it 20 minutes quicker than my first marathon, I figure that if I stick to this plan I should be just fine.

Here is the mileage breakdown of my next 4 months:

If I don’t skip a day, which I’m going to try my absolute hardest not to, I will run a total of 736 miles in 16 weeks. That’s about 120 or so more than I’ve done for my last two regimens, but I’m more then confident in my ability to complete them. Once you get used to running 50 miles a week, every mile kind of feels the same.

Another key aspect of my training is going to be nutrition. I’ve been doing some research (and I plan to do more) and I really need to buckle down and start eating a regular “runners diet”. More carbs, less fat… lots of veggies. When I figure out what my eating schedule will be, I’ll either post an example of what I’m consuming or maybe I’ll just update everyone on how the change in diet is affecting my ability to train.

I’m very excited to get started and I can’t wait to see what my third training journey will bring!