Today I’m trying to silently suffer the consequences of my long run yesterday. I have stiff legs, sore muscles and a huge blister in the in-step of my left foot but for all this I really feel pretty good. You see, I surprised myself yesterday, and that doesn’t happen often. I ran 12.1 miles on the “dredmill” in 2.5 hours time. Wow! At this pace I will probably finish the half marathon in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. I'm really rather excited about that possibility.
I've popped the blister and slapped a couple of bandaids over it. I'm limping a bit today. During the run yesterday, I didn't feel the "pebble" like effect of the blister until mile 11 on the "dredmill" which I thought was pretty good, and it was only on one foot. I figured this could be worse, and can live with this if it happens again.
It was as I was stretching on Sunday morning after the run with my MP3 player still playing that I think I may have figured out what song I’ll be running/walking or maybe dragging my ass across the finish line. “I’m too sexy for my shirt, I’m too sexy for this song, I’m SOO SEXY—It HURTS!” I had to chuckle and I thought how apropos for that to be the finishing song. Here's the song....
I’ve been playing and re-playing with the song list in my MP3 player in preparation for this half marathon. I have songs from Creed, Tina Turner, the Knack, Tom Petty, the Temptations, Flogging Molly, and even others from the 60’s. A little bit of everything with a whole lot of variety. Hey it managed to get me through 2.5 hours on the "dredmill"; so I figure it can get me through 13.1 miles on an outside course. I just hope that the weather is good. I’ve even gone through and timed a walk only song about half way through to give myself a bit of a planned break. The walking song—“Don’t Worry Be Happy”.
What do you think? A good walking tune?
Showing posts with label Blisters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blisters. Show all posts
Monday, April 5, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
New Running Shoes...
During my lunch today I went out and purchased a new pair of running shoes. I got to looking at my shoes after a 5.3 mile run yesterday morning, and thought these are getting a little raggedy around the edges. I might be due for a new pair, hmm. With training for a half marathon, I certainly will get the use out of a new pair.
So here I am like a kid in a candy store looking at new running shoes. Awwww… all these colors and possibilities. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!! I had now established that I’m a runner and wasn’t concerned with buying a pair of shoes that I would use for just a bit, and then they would get buried at the bottom of the closet somewhere. No, this time I went in knowing that this was a purchase that I would get my money’s worth. Though, I wanted to keep it within some reason.
I walk in the Salt Lake Running Store and start drooling over the wall of shoes. The salesman comes over. He asked me what pair I currently had. I amazed myself that I actually knew this information. Of course, it was an older model running shoe that they didn’t carry. I told him that I was happy with them except for the fact of getting blisters in my inner sole arch for runs that were 6.5 to 7 miles long. He said there were several possibilities of shoes where their design would not rub me in that area. Cool!
He came back with 5 shoes in my size. So I tried them all on; one on each foot. I quickly narrowed down to two that were comfortable. Decision time was here. Darn! They were both the same price. Both had my favorite blue color. I looked at the situation with logic, and asked the salesman which one had more stability. And that’s how I made my decision. So here’s a picture of my New Balance WR760 Stability… (Now the really hard part is waiting till Wednesday morning before I can use them.)
So here I am like a kid in a candy store looking at new running shoes. Awwww… all these colors and possibilities. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!! I had now established that I’m a runner and wasn’t concerned with buying a pair of shoes that I would use for just a bit, and then they would get buried at the bottom of the closet somewhere. No, this time I went in knowing that this was a purchase that I would get my money’s worth. Though, I wanted to keep it within some reason.
I walk in the Salt Lake Running Store and start drooling over the wall of shoes. The salesman comes over. He asked me what pair I currently had. I amazed myself that I actually knew this information. Of course, it was an older model running shoe that they didn’t carry. I told him that I was happy with them except for the fact of getting blisters in my inner sole arch for runs that were 6.5 to 7 miles long. He said there were several possibilities of shoes where their design would not rub me in that area. Cool!
He came back with 5 shoes in my size. So I tried them all on; one on each foot. I quickly narrowed down to two that were comfortable. Decision time was here. Darn! They were both the same price. Both had my favorite blue color. I looked at the situation with logic, and asked the salesman which one had more stability. And that’s how I made my decision. So here’s a picture of my New Balance WR760 Stability… (Now the really hard part is waiting till Wednesday morning before I can use them.)
Monday, November 23, 2009
Weekend Review, Boot Camp(Day 7), and Birthday Reflections...
The snow held out and didn't show up until late Sunday night. That worked beautifully for me. I managed to get a good run in on Saturday morning. I kept to my average of the 12 minute mile on a relatively flat course of 5.75 miles. I had planned on running 6 miles but I cut it a bit short because I felt that pebble in my shoe. Yes, a little blister(again) on my inner sole of left foot. Darn it! I've powdered, and Vaselined my feet but I still get these blisters. It's like I get to the 5 mile marker and my feet say," Blister Time!" (Maybe they're working in cohorts with my mouth, and it's a version of my body saying,"Miller Time!"?) I would like to figure out something to get past this mark. I'm really wanting to go for a full marathon late this summer. I think my body could work up to the full but my feet might be another story all together. Anyone have any suggestions out there? I would love to hear them. (Photo- A beautiful sunrise I took a couple months back.)
Saturday night, I had a really nice co-birthday party with my cycling pal, Jay. Jay's birthday was on Saturday and mine is today. Jay's a musician. He plays guitar, piano, and drums. He had all kinds of musician friends that showed up at the party. You could hear all kinds of live music from classical guitar to an interesting version of Metallica. It was pretty cool. One of his musician friends handed me the drum sticks and told me to just get in there. So much to the chagrin of the other band members, I pounded away on drums. The bass guitarist kept on saying," 1, 1, 1! No, 1, 1, ..." He was getting very frustrated that I just wanted play a little too much for his liking. Oooopps! But I was just having too much fun and had never done anything like that before. It was a fun party. There were friends from the cycling club, a friend from my church ( Thanks- Not-So-Good!), and Jay had friends from his work and elsewhere too. It turned out to be a nice mingling group.
Yes, today is my birthday. But I really felt like I celebrated on Saturday night. So, this morning I got up and went to Boot Camp (Day #7). Yes, I know I could have slept in, but I didn't want to start making excuses now. So I get there, and the teacher right away is wishing me a Happy Birthday. I thought that was cool. She announces to the class that's it's my birthday and then teases about having everyone sing to me. Oh, no! Please no! If it's one thing I can't stand is having that done; especially at a restaurant!
The Boot Camp starts with the usual warms up-- high knee run in place, knees out to side run in place, then the butt kick run in place. Get that heart rate up there! Then it's lunges. Then, we move into the workout. We did some more lunges but with our weights out to the side and we are trying to put one knee as close to the floor as we can, and then back to the starting position. OUCH! Then, repeat to the other side. Next thing, I know we are grabbing figure eight exercise bands and doing the lateral pull downs. Feel those muscles burn! Next, put your feet in the exercise bands and it's hamstring curls up to your butt. Then, back to the weights some squats-- regular squats and center squats with your toes pointed out. In between repeat cycles of all this, we are to do 20 Burpees. All the teacher had to say was Burpees and most of us were groaning. The next cycle, it was Burpees again. Then, the next we do push ups for the next two cycle ends. Then, lastly we do the plank and hold it for a minute. OMG! Yikes! Then we do a side plank, holding your hip off of the floor. Double OMG! I was struggling with the short/easy and bend your knees version of this. I could only manage 30 seconds once I got into the pose.
Birthdays... I really feel like I've been the same age since I was 26. Here I am in my low 40's(that's as close as I get to revealing an age) and I still feel I'm the same. Is it that my mentality is stuck on 26? Maybe I never grew past that point? It's strange. I know I'm older, and of course, my body feels older, and I've been coloring over the gray hairs for awhile now. But... yet I feel the same 26. You could ask me why 26? I don't know. It's not as though anything HUGE happened during that year. I like to think that it's my way of keeping young at heart. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it! So here I am a Wacky 26 year old minded individual that just turned another year in the low 40's.
Saturday night, I had a really nice co-birthday party with my cycling pal, Jay. Jay's birthday was on Saturday and mine is today. Jay's a musician. He plays guitar, piano, and drums. He had all kinds of musician friends that showed up at the party. You could hear all kinds of live music from classical guitar to an interesting version of Metallica. It was pretty cool. One of his musician friends handed me the drum sticks and told me to just get in there. So much to the chagrin of the other band members, I pounded away on drums. The bass guitarist kept on saying," 1, 1, 1! No, 1, 1, ..." He was getting very frustrated that I just wanted play a little too much for his liking. Oooopps! But I was just having too much fun and had never done anything like that before. It was a fun party. There were friends from the cycling club, a friend from my church ( Thanks- Not-So-Good!), and Jay had friends from his work and elsewhere too. It turned out to be a nice mingling group.
Yes, today is my birthday. But I really felt like I celebrated on Saturday night. So, this morning I got up and went to Boot Camp (Day #7). Yes, I know I could have slept in, but I didn't want to start making excuses now. So I get there, and the teacher right away is wishing me a Happy Birthday. I thought that was cool. She announces to the class that's it's my birthday and then teases about having everyone sing to me. Oh, no! Please no! If it's one thing I can't stand is having that done; especially at a restaurant!
The Boot Camp starts with the usual warms up-- high knee run in place, knees out to side run in place, then the butt kick run in place. Get that heart rate up there! Then it's lunges. Then, we move into the workout. We did some more lunges but with our weights out to the side and we are trying to put one knee as close to the floor as we can, and then back to the starting position. OUCH! Then, repeat to the other side. Next thing, I know we are grabbing figure eight exercise bands and doing the lateral pull downs. Feel those muscles burn! Next, put your feet in the exercise bands and it's hamstring curls up to your butt. Then, back to the weights some squats-- regular squats and center squats with your toes pointed out. In between repeat cycles of all this, we are to do 20 Burpees. All the teacher had to say was Burpees and most of us were groaning. The next cycle, it was Burpees again. Then, the next we do push ups for the next two cycle ends. Then, lastly we do the plank and hold it for a minute. OMG! Yikes! Then we do a side plank, holding your hip off of the floor. Double OMG! I was struggling with the short/easy and bend your knees version of this. I could only manage 30 seconds once I got into the pose.
Birthdays... I really feel like I've been the same age since I was 26. Here I am in my low 40's(that's as close as I get to revealing an age) and I still feel I'm the same. Is it that my mentality is stuck on 26? Maybe I never grew past that point? It's strange. I know I'm older, and of course, my body feels older, and I've been coloring over the gray hairs for awhile now. But... yet I feel the same 26. You could ask me why 26? I don't know. It's not as though anything HUGE happened during that year. I like to think that it's my way of keeping young at heart. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it! So here I am a Wacky 26 year old minded individual that just turned another year in the low 40's.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
To Lance or Not to Lance?
That's the question, as I sat Sunday afternoon on my love seat staring down a couple of good sized blisters on the bottom inner insole of both my feet. OUCH!I did 11 miles-- 8.5 miles running and 2.5 miles walking on Sunday morning. I felt really good during the run except for this darn feeling that I had a pebbles in my shoes. At mile 6, I took the shoes off and looked for those darn pebbles. It was just a mild irritant and I could not find any pebbles--- so, on went the shoes and the running, then walking continued.
You know it's rather funny. These blisters did not actually hurt until after the run when I took my shoes and socks off and discovered them. Is my brain short circuited? I should have maybe been screaming "Bloody Murder" all along the run? Or was I just so high off of the exercise endorphins that I couldn't feel any pain? Hmmm, that's some food for thought at the very least.
So any way, when I got home I immediately got my Home Remedies book out, and looked up blisters. Well, this is where I ran into the question--whether to lance or not to lance the blister. It turns out that there's some controversy on whether it should be done. And I couldn't even remember the last time I had a blister. Years in which I forgot what to do. So I try to call some friends that are runners, and various others with some degree of medical knowledge. I was having a hard time because it's Labor Day Weekend and mostly everyone I knew was out of town for the weekend. So, I turned to one that I KNEW would have the answer. MOM!! Mom's have the answers and I knew that they never steer you wrong.
The verdict? LANCE! These blisters were large enough. I guess that size really does matter! The smaller blisters you allow to heal naturally but the larger ones you lance. Mom told me to get a nice clean needle or pin, make sure it's dipped in rubbing alcohol, and prick the blister to drain it. "Make sure you have a clean cotton ball or towel handy to absorb the liquid, " Mom emphasized," and don't prick it on the edges keep it to the middle." Another thing was to leave the "roof" as it's referred to; that top skin of the blister intact as much as possible. This promotes the growth of new skin cells, and keeps out infection. That's good to know.
Before I lanced or pricked, I decided it was best to treat to a good dinner before being stuck not wanting to walk. So I did some take out at the local Olive Garden. Yum, yum! After dinner, I got all the supplies and well, did the "deed", and I lived!
Shortly after that, I received a call from a friend that was a former runner. They suggested future ways of avoiding blisters--- because let's face it, I still have almost a month more of training. There's a couple of options---Vaseline smeared lightly all over your feet or foot powder on you feet and around inside your sock.
Today, Tuesday, my feet are doing much better. Thanks to some extra cushioned socks, and foot powder; I'm managing through the day in my comfy Disneyland Crocs. The blister on the right foot, which was a bit smaller--1"x.5", is almost totally healed. The blister on my left foot, which was larger--2"x.5", is healing nicely, and almost there. Early this morning, I managed through a swim training. It's rather nice; don't need to worry about being on the feet for this. The real test will be the bike ride up Emigration Canyon tonight. Yah, I'm crazy!
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