Running injuries suck...you know what else sucks? Ringworm.

The back pain in my previous post did not get better.  I ended up going to the doctor last Friday to get it looked at.  He says my lower back hurting is a very common injury that heals by itself.  I just have to take it easy for 7-10 days.  This mean I missed my 3 mile run last Saturday and am going to be missing my training schedule this week as well.  I have a deep tissue massage scheduled for this Wednesday to loosen up my back muscles which seem to cause all sorts of other problems elsewhere in my body.

Aside from my back injury, my cats seemed to develop problems of their own.  On my large fat female, I discovered a flaky spot yesterday and when I tried to clear the flakes, her fur came off as well.  Being the good scientist I am, I looked up how to diagnose ringworm and apparently 50% of the fungal species that cause the condition create this byproduct that fluoresces under black light.  Today, I borrowed a black light from my lab and in a very CSI fashion, investigated this bald spot on my cat in my totally dark bathroom.  She no doubt has ringworm.  Her spot fluoresced a apple green color under the black light.  After driving to two pet stores, I finally got my hands on some ointment for treating ringworm.  I'm using this stuff called Nu-Stock on my fat female.  It has many positive reviews on Amazon except for the smell (I mean, it's sulfur and pine oil so it smells like farting pine sol).  Whatever, as long as the ringworm is gone from my cat.  I guess the bigger question is where she got it from.  Both of my cats are strictly indoors and ringworm is from outdoors.  The best explanation I came up with was that we tracked it into the apartment via our shoes and this fat female in particular loves to hang around and rub on shoes so she must've gotten ringworm from there.  Let's just hope that this ringworm doesn't spread to us humans of the household....or the other cat(s).

Week 4: Training is a pain in the backside...

This week I've learned of a new pain that can come from running.  Enter lower back pain....

It started after Tuesday's run so I thought I'd go get a massage to get it worked out.  The massage seemed to help since the pain was virtually gone afterwards.  This makes me think this is a muscle issue, which is somewhat comforting compared to the alternative of a slipped or herniated disc (eek!).  However, the 3 miles on Wednesday caused me to hobble back to my apartment once again.  I've decided the stairs to my apartment are EVIL and have a new appreciation for elevators.  Unfortunately, my apartment doesn't have an elevator.  Yesterday was only 2 miles so my back was not as bad, but there was still hobbling after my run back to my apartment.  Thankfully today is a rest day.  I am hoping it goes away on it's own like all the other pain I've had from running.  I've been diligently taking hot baths with epsom salt, which seems to be great of all other aches in my body, but I'm not sure it's helping with the lower back pain.  The pain only really starts when I'm walking and its' only on the right side.  It seems to get worse while carrying weight on my back like a backpack.

I am probably going to make an appointment to see someone at the health center on campus.  Maybe it's time to since this pain does not seem to get better on it's own and it's actually interfering with the rest of my day.  If this pain isn't better by tomorrow, I might have to skip my weekend 3 mile run this week. :(

Hot sauce is great on burritos but not during 'runs'

Last Saturday was my long run with my friend, Sudeep.  We went 4 miles and had a pace of 9 min and 48 sec/mile.  I really should learn that spicy food is not a good choice for a meal the night before going running.  I felt like I was going to give birth every mile, but I kept running and even ran faster to get home ASAP.  Maybe I should pack hot sauce packets instead of Gu energy gel packets in my runner's pack for the marathon.  I think my time would be pretty fast rushing from port-o-potty to port-o-potty.

This week my mileage is going down: Tues-2mi, Wed-3mi, Thurs-2mi, and Sat-3mi.  This is what the training schedule tells me.  So super easy, right?!

Week 3 progress report

I am done with my midweek runs (Tue. 2 mi, Wed. 3 mi, Thurs. 1.5 mi). Now is just resting and massaging my legs before Saturday's 4 mile run. Today I also made my best pace at a 9 min and 48 sec mile. This may or may not have something to do with the adrenaline rush I got by mistaking some piping on the side of the road for a snake. Normally I don't get freaked out by snakes, but when it's in my peripheral vision and less than a foot next to my foot, I get 'a little' startled....

I'm beginning to think I have runner's pain empathy. On Tuesday, one of my lab mates complained about hip pain while running and when I went running on Wednesday morning, there was a little pain in my hip. This is after a few weeks ago when another lab mate told me about her knee pain woes and I started feeling soreness in my knees shortly after that.... I think I am going to make a new rule where people are not allowed to tell me about their running injuries/pains.

To cope with after run knee pains I've been wearing these knee straps while running. So far they work great and my knees feel like new after running! I probably don't have to wear them after a while since my legs will probably build up muscle to support everything properly, but I think I'll just keep wearing them for extra support despite that. Better safe than crippled later, right?





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Week 2 complete!!!!!!

My grand total of miles this week comes out to a whopping 11.5 miles (1 of which was not intentional--refer to previous post). That's almost half of the marathon distance!! Oh, I am also blister free on my feet!!! Go, go Mizuno's and new socks!!!

The longest run I have had so far was today. Sudeep, my weekend running buddy, and I did 3.5 miles at 6:30am. Our pace (or maybe MY pace since i am sure Sudeep can run faster) is at about a 10 min and 13 sec mile. Comfort level on the 3.5 miles was pretty shitty the first two miles...maybe even first three, but when I heard my Nike+iPod say I was 500 meters away from the finish I sprinted my pudgy ass as fast as I could to the finale. I guess being almost done with suffering really motivates me. I hope this same enthusiasm kicks in during there race next year when I get to the last few miles...or even better yet, when my advisor says I am almost done with my Ph.D.

My biggest complaint this week are my knees and calves. Hopefully I will shed some weight during training and that'll be nicer on my knees. I ordered some knee support straps to wear while running from Amazon to help with the soreness in the meantime. Also, I am just preemptively wearing my knee braces (yes, plural, BRACES) to help recover my knees between runs. I look ridiculous:



Yes, I am probably being over-paranoid, which might or might not be influenced by the fact that my lab mate, Julia, is currently experiencing knee pain that might or might not have originated from running for a long time. It's kind of looking like I should maybe start training for the wheelchair marathon instead of the running one although I'll probably end up with matching braces on my elbows then....but at least all four of my limbs would match...

The plan for my aching knees and calf muscles tonight, aside from waddling around like a duck because of my braces (I also quack when I walk 'cuz I go 'all the way' for everything I do), is to ice down the achy bits, massage with my foam roller, and take a hot bath.....

Let's hope next week is not so miserable...

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Halfway through week 2...

Week 2 so far has been a little more painful than it should be.  Mostly due to my own stupidity...

Monday (Labor Day, -2 miles)-
My fiance wanted to go to school on Labor Day to work (the whole day not even a half day).  No one was in lab except for one other colleague....who also works on animal behavioral research and runs!  Funny how the people who work with live animals are the only ones in on the weekends and holidays (Actually, it's not funny at all esp. when you're the one who is showing up).  I decided since it was Labor Day, I'd do something 'fun' and bring my shoes to calibrate my Nike+iPod program on the school track.  It really needed to be re-calibrated since the standard settings are not very accurate for me.  I seem to take a shorter step than the average person (go figure...I'm 5' 2") so Nike+iPod was always saying I was running farther than I actually was.  Well, I ran 4 times around the track (4x around the track = 1600m ~ 1 mile).  Unfortunately, I had a 'I-can't-use-modern-technology' moment and lost the workout before I had a chance to calibrate it.....so I did it again (ugh...).  This time there was a creepy shirtless older dude waiting for me to come around the track to run alongside me and give me 'the eye'.  The first time it happened I thought it was fluke, but the second and third and forth?!  Well, the creepiness factor at least improved my time the second 1600m I ran around the track.  By this time it was noon, and it was hot.  Since I was wearing my sub-par running clothes (was expecting only a one mile run), my thighs chafed (b/c I have thunder thighs).  Technically, Monday was supposed to be a rest day...but I ended up running 2 miles.

Tuesday (~1.5 miles)-
1.5 miles should be no big deal by now, right?  I've been running for a bout 4 weeks already.  Yeah, that's not the case when you eat spicy red Korean stew the day before.  I'm lucky I didn't crap myself while running.  On top of all that, my right calf muscle decided to hate me and tense up after my run causing me to limp back to my apartment during my cool off walk.  Apparently this is a newbie 'injury' from working on speed or (oh hey!) running on hills....like in the neighborhood I run in, Cheviot HILLS.  Nothing massaging and a hot bath can't solve...I hope.  My awesome fiance massaged my calf muscle that night.  There's a HUGE knot that kind of hurt when he rolled over it with his arm (I nearly kicked him in the face from flinching from the pain).  It felt good though trying to get the knot out....it didn't come out.  Supposedly, my new foam roller is coming on Thursday or Friday so I can massage this muscle myself and not nearly kick my fiance in the face.

Wednesday (Today, 3 miles)-
This morning was the worst of them all.  I overslept by half an hour and didn't get out to run till 7:10am or so.  There are just too many people out by that time, too many people in the way, and saying 'hi' to me.  I don't like talking when I run; it wastes energy.  I even skip the profanities when cars pull out of their driveways and almost run me over.  Yes, running makes me a more 'forgiving' person.
The people were only a minor annoyance over the fact that my iPod ran out of power a few steps into the run.  Running without music sucks....like really, really sucks.  You know what else sucks?  My right calf.  It was now tense when I was running....especially towards the end of my run.  Ok, I didn't stretch it out as properly as I should have since I was in a rush from oversleeping, but that doesn't change that it sucks.  So in summary, tense calf with no music to distract across 3 miles is REALLY no fun.  By the end I was shuffling back to my apartment during my cool off walk and don't get me started about the stairs to my apartment ( I live on the second floor-3rd if you count the parking garage-and there's no elevator).  I foresee a major problem for after the marathon next year....  I've already informed my fiance he will be carrying me up and down the stairs to our apartment next year and he has not refused (like he has a choice).  Tonight I will be eating bananas (for potassium) and drinking milk (for calcium) while taking a hot bath to relax my calf muscle.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I had NO BLISTERS after the run!!!!  This may have been because of the new Mizuno shoes or the fact that my running was more like a slow shuffling this morning.  Assuming my calf will get better between tomorrow (1.5 mile run) and Friday (rest day!!!!), we'll find out for sure on Saturday which is my next 'long' run.

Week 1 complete!!!

Today marks the day that I completed the first week of marathon training!!! My friend, Sudeep, came running with me this morning on my 3 mile run. We finished just under an 11 minute mile (slow, i know...). Sudeep probably would have gone faster if I hadn't been there. The hills on my run just kill me. I plan on going to the not hilly Creek bike path when I start doing longer weekend runs. I think that will probably be more similar in elevation changes to the actual marathon route.
Towards the end of my run, I noticed that my blisters were back again. :( New shoes and socks didn't help. In fact, the blisters were bigger. After a big waffle breakfast cooked by my awesome fiancé, Sudeep and I headed back over to The Starting Line to exchange my asics gel foundation 9 shoes. The Asics I had just bought had too high of arches. At the store, the saleswoman (I can't remember her name) brought out two shoes that I had tried on the other day, the Brooks Addiction 9 and Mizuno Wave Alchemy 10. They both felt good when I ran on the treadmill. They are both solid stability shoes to correct for my overpronation and had lower arch supports so it was a tough decision...except for the fact that the Brooks shoes looked a little like orthopedic shoes. I love Brooks running shoes (my first pair of running shoes were this brand), but damn, these shoes were ugly. I ended up going with the Mizuno's. They were only a few bucks more and more flexible than the Brooks, which I liked. The Mizuno's also had a cushier feel, but not nearly as cushy as the Asics. In the end I paid only an $8 difference to trade in the Asics. The saleswoman even threw in a pack of wipes that you can rub on your blister prone spots to reduce friction and rubbing!!!
My friend tried on some of those weird looking Vibram Fivefinger shoes and ran on the treadmill in them. They were only $85 at the store, which Were the same price as on Amazon. We both left the store happy with new running swag.

My Mizuno Wave Alchemy 10's (cross your fingers for a blister free run next Tuesday!):




Sudeep's new Vibram Fivefingers:



On a happy endnote, my temporary foster kitten, Grover, and his brother are going to their new (hopefully) forever home today!!! I have been socializing Grover for the past couple of weeks. You can judge from this picture whether or not he's socialized yet:


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Decked out

Yesterday morning I completed my first 3 mile run of the training schedule.  Afterwards, looking at the two little symmetrical blisters on my feet, I decided that I needed new running swag.  According to Yelp, the best store on this side of town (the westside) was The Starting Line in Marina del Rey.  After school, I raced over to the store to get myself the number 1 important equipment for running: shoes, and the number 2: socks.

Yelp did not disappoint.  A guy at the store (Brian?) watched me run on the treadmill in my old Brooks Adrenaline GTS 6 shoes and brought out like 5 or 6 pairs of other running shoes that would improve my running experience.  Turns out I needed more support than my old Brooks were providing me.  In the end after trying on all the shoes, running on the treadmill, then running down the street, I settled on a new pair of ASICS gel foundation 9 running shoes.  They're squishy and soft (probably good the pavement) and I run more stably in them.  Brian also helped me pick out a couple pairs of running socks.
While I was waiting to check out, another guy (who didn't work at the store) named Doug started chatting with me asking me what I was running if I was running with anyone.  He was trying to recruit me for his charity, but alas, I only run for cute furry things.    He has run over 20 something marathons for various charity events.  Doug was super nice and offered advice on marathoning.  He even bought me two pairs of running socks in support of my first marathon!!!  He's running for the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer.  I'm going to go over there and donate a few bucks for his generosity towards me!