Friday, September 12, 2008

Running in the dark = Bloody knee's & Bug's

Nine hours after my great speedwork workout and long walk I was up and ready to run with Jane and Kelly.
It has always been dark at 5:00am but it would usually start getting light soon after we started running, not anymore :( now it stays dark our whole run.
Wednesday morning was pleasant cooler and breezy we started off walking a little bit and then when it was time to start running my hips locked up. They had been bothering me since my long run & bike on Sunday but this was weird. I literally could not run, I was kind of shuffling, a very painful shuffle but finally had to stop. We walked a few steps and then I stretched a little bit.. it was enough that I was able to start running again and it wasn't as painful but it was very slow!! It took about 2 miles for me to finally warm up and for the pain to subside a little bit. We were able to get 5 miles and actually ended up with a 10:42 avg pace which was pretty good considering the first two miles were painfully slow!!

The pain in my hip/butt/inner thigh area persisted throughout the rest of the day. I have to sit a lot at work and everytime I got up it would really flare up. I had planned to go to Bun's & Ab's and then Jane's Latin Dance class Wednesday night but I decided I would probably be better off resting. I was bummed all night knowing what I was missing but I woke up Thursday morning feeling much better!

Thursday morning I met Michele and Jane we started off walking again to help my hip warm up but it was actually feeling ok. We were having a good run, it was really hot and steamy!! and the sweat was just pouring off of us who knows maybe that helped my hip??? Some of the roads we run on are pretty dark that early in the morning and we were going down a new one we don't run on very often... Michele said be careful up here they are doing construction and there might be debris on the road, and just as she was about to say oh and be careful of this concrete bridge, Jane triped and fell... fell hard! She kind of did that sliding into home base thing but her knees took the brunt of the impact. She was pretty stunned and it took her a few seconds to be able to stand up. It didn't appear that she was bleeding and nothing was broken just shaken up! We walked for a while to let her regroup plus we were on a dark sidewalk and we didnt' want anymore mishaps. Once we knew she was ok we started running again and the rest of the run was pretty uneventful... except for when she almost fell again!! She tripped on something in the road but was able to stay upright. I told her my heart couldnt' take anymore!! LOL
When we got back to the light of the Community Center we could see that she was actually bleeding and quite a bit. I of course had to take a picture and I let Jane know it would end up on my blog.

It is a terrible feeling to see someone fall usually I am the one falling, but on a couple of runs with the Little Rock Training group we saw some people take some really painful tumbles!!! I can still hear the sound of Jane hitting the pavment :(

Because of the fall and walk we were only able to get in 4 miles, Jane had to get home and get ready for work and pretty much once we got back to the community center I was mentally done. Michele and I did end up walking almost another mile for a cool down. Because of the short mileage and the fact that my hips were much better we decided to run again Thursday night at 7:00pm.

The Thursday night run got off to a very slow start, we were walking and then Michele remembered that Cindy was coming over to get some Kinseo tape from her so we headed back to her house and Cindy had just arrived when we got there. We visited with her for a bit and then finally were able to start on our run.
Karen was running with us and Abbie tagged along on her bike. At first the slow pace felt really good and I would run just slightly ahead of Karen and Michele, but then it got harder to stay at that pace so I picked it up just a little bit and would circle back for the girls. Abbie pretty much stayed with me :)
It was of course dark and very hot and muggy!! Darn those cool temp's we had last week, they just made running in the heat even harder!!
We were running through the neighborhoods by Michele's house and then crossed over Linda Lane into some older neighborhoods... we weren't even all the way across the street when I was getting bombarded with bugs.. I inhaled one and then another one ended up on my tongue. YUCK. As we continuted to run through that neighborhood I felt like I was being pelted with tiny little rocks. It was very gross and uncomfortable. I really just wanted out of there so I picked up the pace, but then I would have to turn around to circle back for the girls. It was so dark sometimes I couldn't even see them. I was really happy to have Abbie's company she just chatted away... and a couple of times she would tell me I was running really fast :)
Once we got back to Michele's neighborhood the bugs eased up a little bit but it was stilly pretty buggy out there... I guess that's what happens when you run at night in the dark?
I was feeling really good, my hip didn't hurt and despite the heat and humidity I was breathing ok. I felt like I could run all night!! At one point I had circled back for the girls and we were going up a hill, Michele said if it weren't for your hip I would challenge you to race me up this hill.... well the hip felt fine so I kind of sped up and we pushed it up the hill, it was exhilirating!!!! so much so that a few minutes later we were running side by side again and I just kind of started pushing the pace and the next thing you know we are racing.. of course Michele beats me every time, but it was a lot of fun!!!! When we got back to her house I had 3.6 miles the girls stopped at 3 but it was just too close to 4 to stop so I kept going and ran through the cul-d-sac... I was by myself and then I hear footsteps charging towards me, Michele had decided to join me for my last bit of running. We picked up the pace again and again it felt really good! When we were done we were just soaking wet so we walked for a while to help cool down and dry off a little.
I was also a good girl and stretched really good before I got in my car and I think it made a huge difference because I am not a bit sore this morning! YAY!!

Today is a rest day and then tomorrow morning we have 15 on the schedule.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Oh no, poor Jane. I was cringing while reading this so I can only imagine how she feels. Glad your hips are doing better. My left glute and hamstring are better thank goodness, did easy short runs only this week and like you I've been stretching more consistently since it started.

Gabrielle