Three Things Thursday

1. B-U-S-Y: It's the season to get busy. This is the time of year that things get kind of crazy at the firm. More work load = less time to blog. Sorry about that. :) Not that you're missing out on anything interesting with less posts on this blog. ;)

2. Effing knee: As I've already mentioned in Monday's post, I have some knee issues (PF) since I've spend 2 hours working through case files a week ago...on my knees. Do not try that one at home. The horror! My PT laughed at me and told me spending hours on your knees is a pretty stupid thing to do. Yeah, thanks. I know that...now! So...uphill speed walking on the treadmill (great mountain marathon work out...boy, does it get your heart rate up!) and cycling it is. Road running = angry knee at the moment, so I'm sticking with the dreadmill for the time being. Fingers crossed on this one.

3. 2012 vs 2011: I've told myself that it's okay to start planning 2012 races, even when the Knee is bothering me right now. And boy, it's fun to plan! Fun runs, city marathons, the Swiss Alps, and a dream race I don't even dare talking or thinking about. Are you already planning your 2012 races? Any tips on races I should try to work into my schedule? :)

Peee-ace bunny Galore - How to mess up race photos with your pants down

The Ugly

Last Wednesday I spent 2 hours working on a case...on the floor....on my knees. I was working my way through a heck load of case files and somehow figured that the floor was a much better place to do so than my desk would ever be.

Boy, I could not have been more wrong. Apparently my knees are NOT made for spending 2 solid hours in the same 'on your knees' position. Ouch. A couple of hours after finishing working on the case files, I went out for a 7 1/2 mile / 12K run, and 'bam'...ouch...hello PF knee pain! At least I know what caused it. Then again...knowing that, doesn't cure it.

The knee felt a-okay on Friday, but - doing the wise thing - I opted on taking it slow on last Saturday's planned Half Marathon (Linschotenloop, Linschoten, the Netherlands). Making a nice marathon pace tempo run out of it. That worked out fine, and the knee felt okay till the 16K / 10 mile mark. After that it started bugging me again, but I could still run on it - relatively painfree too. It must have been the adrenaline, because after finishing the knee got angry. Angrier and angrier. Took a rest day yesterday, K-taped the thing and plan on cycling my way through the next couple of days. My PT is working on it and will check if I can try running on it again this weekend. Will this kill ultra plans for next year? Oh yeah, I've already convinced myself that that's the case. Hmmmpppffff...

The Fugly

I paced running buddy Gert to his new half PR on said half marathon. Without him knowing I was doing so. He must have hated me for the last couple of miles of this half. Plus, 10 miles in I had to pee. Big time. Jumped into the bushes, used Gert for stabilization (oh yeah, I'm classy like that) and spent a couple of minutes rearranging skirt/underwear/tights. Tangled up mess! Oh yeah, Gert was ready to kill me when we crossed that finish line after 1:48:56. Without the pee-thing, that would have made a great marathon pace tempo run. Then again, considering the whole slowpokie thing...this will propably never be my actual marathon pace. Uh-huh. ;)

Oooh, and I messed up his race pics. And mine. Yet again.

I actually look like a somewhat normal person in this one. Half of the other runners laughed at my outfit, though. Dutchies aren't ready for running skirts...

18K in, I was going for the happy girl look. Uh-huh...'Goofy's little sister' would be more accurate...

Booohaaaa 22 miler!

Michael Jackson and I shared a moment for the last 3 1/2 hours or 22 miles / 35K. I blame it on the boogie, or the sunshine, or the moonlight, or the good times. Most important thing: The Knee 1 & 2 made it through the 22 miles without giving me too much of a hard time. The Knee (1) feels a bit stiff and sore, but at the moment not too bad. I'm icing it as we speak. Let's see how it feels tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!!

I tried to really slow down on this run, because I recently noticed that I was running too fast on my long runs. Based on my goal marathon pace I should (apparently) stick to 9.30 minute miles or 6 minutes per km for the long slow runs. Yeah, I should have figured that out earlier, but, hey, I'm new to this, I'm still learning. ;)

My legs do feel 'I just ran 22 miles' sore, but I'm actually not tired at all. And I was singing along with Michael Jackson for the entire run. Got some weird looks from strangers, though. That might have got something to do with the fact that I'm not a very good singer (as in 'even my dog would beat me in Idols'). Could have kept going for another 4 miles / 7K. So, I guess that's a good thing.

I hope you will all enjoy your weekend races or long runs! :)

Oh, don't forget to enter my "Pre New York Marathon" Giveaway:

http://sillygirlrunning.blogspot.com/2010/10/did-you-say-pre-marathon-giveaway.html

Did you just say pre marathon giveaway?

Those of you that did not just stumble upon this blog a minute ago and are now wondering whether or not I'm in desperate need of psychiatric help, might already know that I plan on running the New York Marathon on November 7th. That's 22 days from today. What the heck? No!!! I feel so not prepared!

It will not be my first marathon. My first marathon was the Swiss Alpine Marathon last July. A 6.300 ft elevation mountain marathon. Yeah, wise choice for the first one. I had a blast, though.

The New York Marathon will be, if everything goes as planned AND Immigration will let me enter the US, my second marathon, and my FIRST road marathon.

So, I guess it's time for my first giveaway, huh? :)

TMB @ Racing with Babes (http://racingwithbabes.blogspot.com/) has this great giveaway going at this very moment (!) where you have to guess her finish time. Brilliant idea! So brilliant, that I'm copying you TMB! :)

What's in the goodie bag?

Sorry, I'm not one of those hugely popular bloggers (yet...I hope one day I will have more people following my blog than just my mom...just kidding) that's giving away a Garmin, so I'm giving away a 'will get you through a marathon or at least one long run' goodie bag.

4 X GU Energy Gel Chocolate Outrage

2 x Powerbar Energy Gel Lemon

1 x Sweatyband in Pink-Dots



Plus

A New York Marathon souvenir that I'll pick up at the marathon expo. This one will be a surprise!


What do you have to do to enter this giveaway?

Guess what my finish time will be! And let me know in a comment. Ofcourse...you can also guess 'DNS' or 'DNF'. After all...I am battling a knee injury at the moment.

If several entrees would give the same finishing time, I will let random.org pick the winner.

You get one guess (mandatory):

1. Become a follower of my blog and let me know in a comment.


You get one extra guess for each of the following (separate comments):

1. Like me on Facebook and let me know in a comment: (http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Silly-Girl-Running/134622179906574);

2. Repost this giveaway on your blog / Facebookpage / Twitter, etcetera and let me know in a comment;

3. Like me on Twitter (@SillyGirlRunnin) and let me know in a comment.

This giveaway ends on November 6th!

Okay, there we go! Guess along!

Three Things Thursday - the 'I'm falling apart' post

1. Your PT telling you that it's okay to run 50% of your planned weekly mileage (in the last week) with The Knee is a good thing. No pain during those runs is an even better thing. However...running - even when sticking to 50% and a slower pace - with an injury will automatically change your form to striding in a way where you avoid to put too much weight on the injured leg. More weight on the 'healthy' leg = that leg gets overtrained. This 'wisdom' hit me on last night's 8 miler. Great! And now my left knee has IT Band issues (shooting pain IT Band issues), and the right knee is still a bit wobbly (not too bad, though, the left knee is worse!). Yeah, guys, I'm pretty sure that my body is slowly falling apart!

Good news: this week is the last 'high mileage' week of marathon training, and after this week I get into tapermode. Unless this weekend's 22 miler doesn't work out, in which case I will give the 22 miler another shot next Saturday.

I never liked tapermode, but now I'm looking forward to it. Ahhhhh...

2. I don't know if I should love or hate the www.runnersworld.com forum. I really don't. Do you want to know why? All these runners saying that averaging 41 miles/66K per week in these last 12 weeks (peaking at 42-48 miles/week) is too low on mileage to even run a sub-4 hour marathon just make me feel bad. They even refer to 'averaging 40 miles/week runners' as runners that should consider themself lucky to even finish a marathon, because they consider averaging 40 miles/week barely enough to finish a marathon. All these negative responds are so depressing!

When did runners stop cheering for each other and stop congratulating a fellow runner for giving it a shot? Because, honestly, personally I feel this way: it wouldn't even come to mind to consider a 5-hour marathoner less of a runner than a 3-hour marathoner.

3. Days left till the New York City Marathon:

OK, I surrender...Plan B - The 'Epiphany' post

Lessons learned in the first week of The Knee injury - important lessons learned:

Okay, I'm pretty well aware of the fact that you will either love me or not love me so much after reading this post... Let's just say this last week gave me enough time to reflect on my running. This post is going to be brutally honest...

1. There is no such thing as a magic pill that will fix an injury within minutes - apparently there actually are things that money can't buy;

2. Battling an injury turns me into an evil witch, and a cranky one too. I'm not even mentioning how frustrated and depressed I'm feeling at the moment. Thank the running gods for the gift that's called a limoncello/prosecco cocktail;

3. Start running last January + no prior running experience + running your second marathon this year + aiming to BQ on your first road marathon + your first marathon ever being a 6.300 ft elevation mountain marathon = my body doesn't like me. Not to mention that the BQ-attempt isn't a really realistic time goal for the first road marathon...especially since you haven't even celebrated your first year of running-aniversary yet.

4. Battling a knee injury and still being able to run 50% of your total mileage in the last week - painfree - (my PT told me I could give it a try) isn't bad - it's not bad at all. So you shouldn't feel bad for pulling the plug on a 20-miler after 9 miles. It was the wise thing to do!

5. Stop focussing on mileage and time goals and put the fun back into running! That's so much more important than constantly pushing it and not being able to enjoy the scenery. Running is a gift!

6. This one is important! Stop comparing yourself to others and stop caring about what others might think of your running! If others are running more miles a week, who cares! Being able to battle 48 mile / 77K -weeks in your first year of running, when others are battling 50 mile/80K-60 mile/96K weeks with years and years of experience, is not something to make you feel bad about yourself. At all! And who cares if others are faster...if (and that's a big 'if') they truly believe that you're slow and not to be considered a runner for not running a 3:30 marathon (or faster) they are probably not worthy of your time and energy.

7. This is your first year of running! Hello! Stop comparing your times and mileage to runners that have years and years of experience and dozens of marathons under the belt. Stop feeling bad about yourself!

8. You're not a guy (I'm pretty sure...I just checked to be certain), so don't expect your finishing times to be the same as the time it would take an equally trained guy to finish the same distance. And if you really want to compare your times...stick to your own gender (and age group).

9. You're not a speedster. You love the distance and want to focus on ultra-marathons, and more specific: mountain marathons. So stop trying to be a speedster and a long distance runner at the same time. Stick to those mountains - you love the mountains!

10. Being able to run the New York Marathon is a true gift. A true true gift. So...slow down and enjoy the ride. There's no point in racing through that city, being in pain and pushing yourself to the point where you might want to puke. Stick to a somewhat slower pace - go find the sub 4-hour pace group and hang around. Take some pictures. Listen to the Gospel choirs. Hand out some high fives. Finish (if my body doesn't decide to pull the plug on me) with tired legs, but not tired to a point where you won't be able to enjoy and walk around New York City in the week after the marathon.

So, here I go, I surrender. I will NOT give that BQ a try on my first road marathon. I won't. My knee pointed out to me - and made it pretty clear - that I should not do that. So, on to Plan B.

Plan B:

(i) Enjoy the New York City Marathon;

(ii) Listen to my body;

(iii) Rest my body in the next 4 weeks;

(iv) SMILE!

A big Thank You to all the wonderful runners-bloggers I've met in the last couple of months. You make my running journey so much more special!

Köln Half Marathon Race Pics or 'How that guy got chicked'

Last weekend's Half Marathon Race Pics are online. Yay! Since I ran that Half with a knee injury that was pretty much killing me, I did not have high expectations. But, so it turns out, the pics aren't that bad at all. I've looked worse. ;)

Me running through Köln City. Apparently I noticed the photographer, 'cause what you see here is a pathetic attempt of a smile.


About 1K left to go. I'm trying to look like I'm (i) in no pain at all, and (ii) enjoying the race.


A couple of 100 meters before the finish line. Do you spot the guy in the navy shirt and the black shorts? Remember his face for a second...

...because he's about to be chicked!

Me kicking it to the finish line. How the heck did I do that with that right knee killing me? That poor guy didn't see the cheetah skirt coming. ;)

Bonus: the worst race pic from the Köln Half Marathon:

Look at those quads. Yikes! Not exactly what you call soft and feminine... At least now I know why the whole flunning thing doesn't work for me; my guads look like something that belongs to a monster...

So, what would you do?

So, what do you do when you're sidelined with a knee injury and not allowed to run for at least a couple of days, AND you're 4 1/2 weeks out from a marathon?

1. Walk around in your running clothes even though you know that there's no way that you're actually going to head out for the scheduled 6 miler. Blah. Injuries suck.

2. Watch running clips on YouTube. Watch lots and lots of running clips on YouTube. Yeah, that's me, Miss Masochist.

Good thing about watching those clips: if I rest my knee now I will hopefully be able to at least participate in the New York Marathon. And that would mean running the same race as this guy, Haile Gebrselassie. The first guy to break 2.04 in a marathon. I would be honored to participate in the same race as this running hero. :) Does any one know whether or not he's handing out autographs? :)

Who's your running hero?