A story of going from being a non-runner to planning for a marathon in three years...

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Treadmill Trotting




After over a week off from running while resting my shin I decided to give running a try last night.

My shin and, actually, my left leg in general still felt "off" but there were no sharp pains and mostly it just felt like things needed to get stretched out.

So I went to the gym and, thankfully, managed to snag a treadmill. Man, it was busy in there last night! I think at one point every single treadmill had someone on it and my gym has A LOT of treadmills.

I walked for about 5 minutes just to get warmed up and then decided to go for the 3-4 miles I had on my schedule.

I also decided that if everything felt okay I'd try for a short tempo run.

For the most part my leg felt okay. A few twinges now and then and most of them were in my calf. In fact, I think the problem might be a tight calf and a tight Achilles. No sharp pains, no buckling feeling. Good signs, right?

I ended up doing 1 mile where I increased the speed every quarter mile from 10 minute/mile to just under 9:00 minute miles. Then I ran 2 miles with speed at 8:57 and short stint at 8:34. My plan had been to finish up with a full mile where I decreased the speed back to 10:00 but my stomach had other ideas.

At about the 5K mark I had to pause and try to get my intestines to stop doing some kind of crazy dance. I made it until the 3.5 mile mark before I couldn't stand it anymore and had to rush off to the facilities. Let's just say I felt pretty drained afterward.

Guess that will teach me to scarf a new-to-me protein bar shortly before running.

I thought about going back to the treadmill and finishing up that last half mile but, in the end, decided I'd done enough and went home. Where I stretched and foam rolled and iced.

After the run my shin felt okay but for some reason the outside of my left foot ached like crazy. Was I favoring my left leg and landing funny while running? I don't know. All I know is that I iced it before bed and it feels okay today.

I also took advantage of being on the treadmill and figured out my cadence. Apparently I run between 170 and 176 steps per minute (a cadence of between 85 and 88), assuming my oxygen starved brain was counting correctly. A quick google search shows me I'm at the lower end of ideal. At least when running on the treadmill. Maybe something I'm learning while doing those intervals on Thursday is actually working?

As for the leg, I'm going to step up my stretching, foam rolling, and icing so that I stay on top of whatever is going on. I think if I can do that I'll be okay.

5 comments:

Rose @ Eat, Drink, and Be Meiri said...

I'd never thought to measure my cadence. Maybe that's something I could do to kill time on the treadmill the next time I have to be on it.

kilax said...

Yay! That is an awesome workout, especially coming off a week of no running. It does sound like you just need to stretch it out. Do you think you will take another yoga/pilates class this weekend?

Oh gosh. I bet my cadence is WAY off. Now I am tempted to measure it. Did you measure it during one of the faster intervals?

Anonymous said...

I love that picture!

I've never thought about measuring my cadence! Did your coach recommend that? That is probably something I should do. I remember reading on KathEat's blog once about how you should have shorter strides....so I tried to change my stride and that's right around when I got injured. :-( I tried, at least!

My knee is bothering me this week, too, so I'm icing, foam rolling, and NSAIDing myself up, too! Hopefully we can both kick these things before they get too serious. At least it's still "winter"!

Mica said...

I bet your cadence outside is higher. The treadmill forces you to run differently than when you're on your own, right?

You know what's weird? The University gym gets really crowded from 5-8pm. I have no idea why--it's not like students all get out of class at 5pm. It's very confusing and frustrating.

Jessica (Bayjb) said...

Glad to hear the leg is doing better. Hopefully the extra stretches will help make the runs continue to get easier!

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.