Thursday, August 5, 2010

HUMID

Today was the complete opposite of a cool and crisp morning. It was warm and humid. The humidity was oppresive. I stepped out of the building and could immediately feel it. So I decided to run on the treadmill in the gym. Stepped into the gym and felt like I had stepped into an oven. The air conditioning was not working and since there are no windows, it felt like a hot oven. Running outside in the humidity was a better option. Five minutes into the run and I was already drenched in sweat. It was really oppressive. So I did a short run today. Just 2.5 miles. I makes me laugh out loud when I say "just" 2.5 miles. A few months ago, I would have boasted of the 2.5 miles.

Last week, I had this weird pain in my lower left leg. It was not shin splints, but one of my shin muscles (on the inner calve) was hurting pretty bad. Even while walking, I was aware of that muscles and there was a distinct pain. P from Team AIDAsha suggested I use the foam roller along with regular ice packs. So far it has worked.  

Foam roller


Foam rollers are good for self-myofascial release (I love throwing out these big words these days). It provides deep tissue massage to release tension in your muscles. Used correctly, it can help prevent injuries and improve performance over time.  The foam roller is not very easy to use and you can actually feel the massage deeply. It also helps improve balance. In my case, the pain is not yet completely gone, but reduced considerably since I used the foam roller. I used it after the long run, and it felt very therapeutic. It is a good buy!

The weather is going to be much better during our Saturday run! So glad and thankful about that. 

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

8/3 and 8/4

Yesterday was such a perfect morning to run. It was a cool, crisp early summer morning. Got out at around 5:20 and spent an hour running! It was awesome. What was more awesome, was my playlist! I had it on shuffle and somehow all cheesy and dhinchak hindi songs came on one by one. I did not even know half of them existed on my ipod. Imagine my horror when somewhere in mile 3, 'Mustafa...mustafa' came on. Remember that one... where Prabhudeva demonstrates how plastic his body is! Like who has such a song in their playlist. Well, apparently I do! That song is like ancient. I rarely sync my ipod with my itunes these days (coz I sync my iphone...duh!). I think it is time to sync it with my Lady Gaga collection now! I am going from cheesy to cheesier!

Distance: 5 miles
Time: 1 hr

So far this week seems to be going good in terms of running (in terms of everything else....hmmm lets not talk about it!). I went running today morning too. I did the hill repeats all by myself near my place. I ran by The Childrens Hospital in Waltham and there were a decent number of people on the road even early in the morning. I am sure they must have wondered what is wrong with me. All they could see me doing was run up, jog down, run up, jog down, run up, jog down 6 times or so. I felt awesome after finishing it. Next week, my target is to do 8 repeats.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Dear 14.5 miler,

I conquered you this Saturday and although I took a long time to finish, I am proud and happy of the run. I had the least number of walking breaks and also each walking break was really short. In my last 14 miler, I mostly walked the last one mile. So this time I can confidently say that I ran the entire 14.5 miles.

You took me from the Minuteman trail at Arlington Center, to Alewife and then onto Fresh Pond trail, route 16 to the Charles river, across Arsenal St bridge on the other side of the river, then over JFK bridge to retrace my steps to the beginning at Arlington Center. It was a beautiful day to tackle you and I owe a lot to Ketki who kept me going and did not let me break into walks. I also tried my first Gu gel on the way, but would have also liked more water support. From next time, I will carry my own bottle or get a hydration pack.

Your buddy 16 miler is next on my list. Next week, I will tackle the 16 miler and I will work on improving my time!

Regards,
Anjali