Sunday, June 7, 2009

Wrigley River Run 10k

Kristen was in New York this weekend so I ran the Long Beach Wrigley River 10k yesterday solo. Didn't do as well as I thought I should have. But I screwed myself. Through process of elimination I've come to the conclusion that my hip flexors and abductors and upper glutes are lagging behind the rest of my body in terms of strength and endurance.  I lift weights 3 days a week, but I don't like to do heavy lifting with my legs anymore. I used to do squats and lunges, etc., but then I'd be sore as hell for 3 days. That's okay if you sit at a desk all day, but I don't so it became a real problem at work. It also makes training hard doing tempo runs and speed work REALLY difficult. Regardless, I decided that I had to do a little lower body to strengthen the aforementioned muscles. Stupidly, I chose deadlifts. It is the best all around strengthening exercise, but it can tear you up bad. I even lifted what I considered light weights, but sure enough on Friday I was sooooore. I thought, "I'll be okay tomorrow for the run. This soreness will be gone by then. And even if there's a little residual soreness, I'll run it out." Wrong.

I woke up Saturday still hurting, cursing myself for not thinking ahead. Anyway, I ran the race, upper thighs bitching at me every single step of the way, and came in about 20 seconds slower than my last 10k back in February.  Argh. There were two sharp turns followed by short uphill climbs that may have added a few seconds overall, but I know I was my own worst enemy. Oh well. I'll be smarter next time I hope.

Meanwhile, Kristen was back running again, but now her ca-nkle is giving her a hard time, swollen and achy. I think she was subconsciously trying to protect the healing hairline fracture in her foot and altered her stride enough to cause her ankle to get tweaked. Danger-prone Daphne, that's my wife. Don't know how long this one is going to stop her. Arrrrgghghghghg.

5 comments:

  1. Missed you at Wrigley yesterday! We had a bit of a blogger meet up there! Sorry you didn't run like you wanted!!

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  2. Did you just say that your girl has "ca-ankles"? :X

    Anyway, tough break about the race. It's the reason I've stopped working out the legs at the gym. If I want to strengthen them, I just add hills to my runs.

    You'll get 'er next time Mike. Plenty of other races to be run. Sorry about Kristen btw. Hope it's nothing serious.

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  3. @ Southbay Girl - That's a bummer that I missed you all. It was a last minute thing to run because I wasn't sure if I was going to have to work. Next time I'll post sooner to see if anybody else out there is running so I can meet y'all.

    @ Billy - Yep, cankles. Hey, her words, not mine! And the legs? It's Monday now and the ache is only now gone. That's 3 days! Good idea about the hills. I'll go with that from now on.

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  4. Hope she feels better soon! That is a bummer about the LB race, I hadn't even seen anything on it around my home. Weird! Must have been super small.

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  5. @ Chic Runner - Yeah, it was a small one. I ran it with the running group that I'm training for the marathon with. Saturdays are our long days so it was either 7 miles by myself or a 10k race.

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