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2018 Races…TBD!


Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Serious Case of the...Swims?

It finally happened.  I bought one of these:

It looks so...geriatric. 

But, alas, I made a promise to myself that this year I would make smarter choices with regards to my training.  Health would come first.  Gone are the days of running through injury...at least for now :) 

It ain't easy. 

I long to be out there, even for "just" a few miles because "just" a few miles is better than no miles at all.  However, I am excited to try out this water running.  It'll be nice to do it without swallowing my weight in chlorinated water.  Since I was pressed for time this morning, I didn't try it out, but I'm planning on it tomorrow morning.  I'm looking forward to it.  Somehow I think that the severe boredom that others complain about as a side-effect of pool running won't really bother me all that much.  If you can run for 29 hours and manage to never get bored, you can pool run for 30 minutes, perhaps even an hour without it sucking too much.  I'll let you know how that goes.

This past weekend I swam and biked early in the a.m.  Saturday we met up with Jim for lunch then headed over to Navy Pier to see our friend Adrian (whom we are all crewing for at Badwater this year) who was running a marathon on the treadmill for charity at the Shamrock Shuffle 8k race expo.  It was funny to watch people buying Gu packs for an 8k...  Sheesh, I'd be friggin' ecstatic if I cranked out an 8k right now.  I shouldn't poke fun at others :)  On Sunday, after Geof's run and my bike workout, we walked over to Columbus Avenue to watch the Shamrock Shuffle.  We really wanted to see the front runners, and then we were going to meet up with Brian at mile 4 to watch Kelly run by (she was racing).  As we stood on the street corner, the pace car appeared at the top of the hill coming over the river, and then suddenly the elites appeared, speeding down the hill toward us.  Whoa, those dudes were fast!  A couple minutes pass and then they appear...the other 35,000 runners!  It was a sea of bodies rushing toward us.  We were next to a huge puddle so runners split and ran on either side of us to avoid it.  It was intense!  I loved it!

So hopefully, this pool running thing will work to my benefit.  I hear really good things about it and how it can keep you strong and working those running-specific muscles so you don't miss out too much while taking time off.  I read about a guy who trained for Boston entirely in the pool because he had a stress fracture.  Dude finished Boston in under 3 hours.  Sick.  So is it going to make me a sub-3 runner?  Doubtful, as I'm not already, but it will definitely keep me in running shape and that's what I'm aiming for.  All eyes on Leadville.  When I told my PT last night that I'm pool running his eyes got big as he said "THANK YOU!" 

Wish me luck :)

Crash, out.

5 comments:

middle.professor said...

Check out Pfitzinger's pool running schedule:

http://www.pfitzinger.com/labreports/9wkH2O.htm

Good luck!

GTI said...

Hey, Deena Kastor had to run in pool for a month or two and then got out and WON the chicago marathon a few years back. I'm sure you and your pearls will handle it well. All it takes is a chipper attitude and you've got that in spades. ;-)

Tatiana said...

Good luck to you! I had to take a month off completely in December and I were not *really* able to run until the end of Jan (really = with no limping).

Running feels good! ... and now I am really paranoid re. any pain in my "low extremities" :(

Get well and strong and get back to running!

Laurel said...

Congratulations for taking care of your body! I know a lot of hobbling limping injured runners who still insist on putting the miles in. I've been there, it's not worth it!

Leslie said...

Good girl! (...it's my inner mother speaking...) Your bod will thank you.

The pool running as a training method for runners with stress fractures has been around for years and years and years. I've also heard the stories of people emerging stronger-than-ever from the pool running, so good for you for being pro-active. Back when I was a track and field girl (think mid-80's) and you got a stress fracture, this is what you did. Fortunately for me, I survived my teen years of running and competing without even a sprain or strain. So go get it Flipper! And see if you can buy yourself some waterproof music thing-a-ma-bob so you can rock out. Or Crash out.

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