5 days…and counting
Just trying to get through the week. I went for a run tonight – and it was not easy to begin with. Normally I exercise first thing in the morning. Today, I had been up for HOURS after not sleeping so well last night. And as I started out and felt like it was a struggle, I realize that I stupidly did not drink that much water this afternoon. So much for smart hydration. I did take my water bottle with me, and sipped more than I normally would.
I turned off the alarms for speed, and tried to pace myself. I think I did pretty ok – first mile was ~10 minutes, which isn’t bad. Normally I start off and I’m going about a minute faster, which I cannot sustain. And as I kept going, I just ran what felt comfortable. And I surprised myself with a slightly faster speed! Yeah…
And at the end, I tried picking up the speed, big time, to catch some guy who was in front of me. He was running at a pace, and I did close the gap. But I let up near my house, so I didn’t pass him!
I was also trying a couple of things – I know, you don’t necessarily want to try anything on race day. I bought a SPI belt, oh yesterday, to hold my phone & nutrition. It wasn’t too bad. I have an iPhone, which is wide – so I can’t hold too much else in the belt. I got at least one pack of gummies in there, and I can always put a gel or another gummy in the holder of my water bottle. I plan on running with the water bottle, and am glad for the belt to hold other things.
And as far as my knee…when I was in the running store yesterday (this is becoming my new favorite store!), I asked one of the women if she knew how to tell if knee pain is real, or because of my shoes. So we chatted for a bit, and she suggested running in my old shoes this week, to see if the pain subsided. I ran in the old shoes tonight – I could tell a difference at a few different times. Not necessarily good, not necessarily bad. Ugh – not sure what to do about shoes…
Not sure if I’ll get any recipes in this week. It just might be a week of running posts!
I hope you figure out your sneaker/knee issues before you race. I think my last pair were causing ITB issues but did not realize it until I got my new pair. The pain has disappeared “poof”. The knee pain could be caused by the increase in mileage, I had some knee pain when I started running the longer runs. SPI belt looks good, I am planing on getting one before my race as well, it would have been nice to have last time around.