Lessons Learned

Mother Nature intervened on Monday and I did not go down to Louisville to run the hills again. Perhaps Mother nature was looking out for me...

It was raining here on Monday. I checked the weather for Louisville and discovered they were having thunderstorms... with lightening. I can suck it up and run in rain. Lightening scares the hell out of me. I have been stuck running outside in lightening storms twice and both times they made huge impressions. The first time was at a high school cross-country meet. Lightening struck a tree a block down the street. It sounded and felt like a bomb went off and I can still remember the orange glow. (The meet was stopped.) The next time, I was half a mile from home, between two farm fields. Basically I was the tallest thing on the horizon. I had no choice but to keep running but I could see the lightening coming down and jumped every time it flashed.

Anyhoos... I don't do lightening. I didn't want to drive 3 hours and not be able to run so I bagged Louisville.

So last week started out pretty good then became horrid. 4 mile pace run on Monday was hard but good. 12 mile hills were hard but I felt good about getting it done. After that, I just couldn't move.

LESSON #1: Don't do 4 hard workouts in 5 days.

LESSON #2: Don't do speed work and hills on back to back days.

Speed work and hills both stresses your hamstrings and glutes. Mine were killing me and I just couldn't get them to loosen up. Running a hilly race on Saturday didn't help matters.

I decided to retreat to the hamster track on Monday. Turns out it was just what I needed. A nice flat surface. About two miles into my 8 mile run, my hamstrings finally relaxed... after a week of tightness.

The other thing I have not been so good on lately is stretching. When I run indoors, I always lay on the floor next to the track after my runs and get all my stretches and core exercises in before heading home. Since I've been running outside, I've skimped on the stretching. I'll run in the door, touch my toes a couple times, then head to the shower.

LESSON #3: Don't skimp on the stretching.

Got home, showered, and hit the foam roller. Later, I decided to really treat my legs and took a hot bath in our whirlpool tub to get the hot tub effect on my legs.

LESSON #4: Don't fill the tub up with just hot water. You really can scald yourself.

After about 2 minutes, I cried "Uncle" and put some cold water in the tub! Once I got situated, I got my legs stretched out even more and sat there until I was too hot to take it anymore then rinsed off with a cool shower. Then I dried off and slathered Ultra-Strength Ben Gay on my legs.

I do not suffer from sensitive skin... I can basically put anything on my skin and it won't bother me. I really like muscle rubs. Muscle rubs work by having an active ingredient that dilates the superficial blood vessels in your skin. This increases blood flow so you get that "warm" feeling. I actually use muscle rub on my legs before runs, especially races, on cold days because I think it helps with my warm up.

So... my legs are all warm from my hot whirlpool bath stretching session. I slater them with muscle rub. About 60 seconds later...wooo haa...they are burning! Like my skin is all red and I was expecting blisters to appear. I got a wet washcloth to try and wipe some of it off. No effect. I finally had to jump back in the shower and use soap to rinse the muscle rub off.

LESSON #5: Don't slather muscle rub all over "hot legs"!

Finally got myself all fixed then put on compression tights. I can't run in compression but I like to wear it afterwards. It might be psychological, but I think it helps with recovery. I hadn't been wearing my compression much lately because, like a lot of things have been for me lately, it was just too much trouble.

Slept in compression tights. Took them off yesterday morning and my legs felt like new. I did 4 miles on my rolly hills and they felt fine. Phew!! I was getting pretty worried last week that I had really screwed things up by pushing just a little too hard at the end.

I also got my May issue of Runners World yesterday. There's an article in it about sleep and how it can make you a better runner. I think Ryan Hall's statement at the end of the article sums it up best when he says,"If I cannot recover from my training, then there is no point training."

LESSON #6: Make sure you allow recovery time in your training.

Have a great day!