Painful 9 Miler

9.18 miles in 1:26:57 (9:32/mile)

Ran this Saturday morning. Actually got out close to on time at 7:45am. It was already around 70, an sunny, but not too bad. Ran up 35th with the theory that it was reasonably flat. Apparently I don't remember my 7 milers up the same route. My knee didn't appreciate it. More whining to follow about that. Again, need to work on my pace. According to my reading, etc. this was just too fast for a long run. I should be shooting for. Hold on, never mind. McMillan says Long Runs (between 60 and 210 minutes (according to my notes), at my 10K speed, should be between 9:22 and 10:22. Way cool. I feel better about that, now.

Had a glass of orange juice and a glass of water 15 minutes before I left to top off fluids and energy. No problems there, might want to switch to apple juice because of the acid in the OJ, but that's just theoretical, I haven't had any problems yet. My knee seemed to be only slightly achy/sore, and the walk to my start point for the warm up seemed to shake it free. The downhill wasn't well thought out on my part, and I certainly felt that.

It took about a mile to get warmed up and for my knee to subside into a dull warm throb of discomfort, instead of mumbling and groaning. I could tell my stride and form were off because of the knee pretty early, but it seemed to be doing OK. I tried the NUUN Kona Cola again, and it worked much better than last time. It does seem a little foamy by then end of the bottle though.

Got a Nathan Quickdraw Plus bottle holder from Joes (for $11.99). Glad I finally got one, but I'm going to need to get that Elite 2V bottle holder I mentioned before, too. Water was gone by mile 6.5, and I could have used some more. The rubberized bottle cap was nice too, I didn't feel like I was going to yank my teeth out trying to open the bottle with my mouth.

There are only two spots on this run that are a bit squirelly. Both sections are sidewalk less, with really narrow shoulders. Fortunately, not a lot of people were out, so I was able to just run in the road till someone drove up and then squeeze onto the shoulder or the grass next to it. I wonder who is responsible for putting in sidewalks?

I brought along 2 flavors of GU for this run, since I couldn't make up my mind which one I'd take. After I hit the turnaround at 4.5 and made it back to the safety of a sidewalk I tore open the Strawberry Banana one and gave it try. I'd heard that the texture was a little snotty. Not really, kind of like thick toothpaste. Flavor was OK, but the combination of texture and flavor made me think of the gel they swab on your gums at the dentist. A couple of ounces of water to wash it down and no problems. A little bit of a side split half a mile later that went away quickly but I'm not sure I can attribute it to the GU since I was working my way back up one of the uphills. The GU seemed to kick in about a mile later, and I didn't feel a surge of energy, but I can say I did feel more, refreshed, maybe?

At about mile 5.5 though my knee started talking to me. I won't repeat its' words, but by the top of the 'hill' (100 feet in a mile or so), at about mile 6.5 I was discussing if it wanted to be left behind, and I'd just hop home on one leg. At around this point my stride and gait were so effed up that my groin on that side decided to get in on the discussion. Needless to say when you look at the splits, I slowed down. Once I got down the hill to the level ground around mile 7 things started to work properly again, but were still grumbling the rest of the run.

Yes. I realize that the the sane and possibly intelligent thing to do would have been to walk the last two miles in. Or at least slow down more. Just couldn't do it. I slowed down as far as I could, and let me tell you the jog in place waiting for a light was a wash of cold refreshing water for my groin. It almost made me stop and walk a little later when I remembered how good it felt.
I stupided my way through the last 2 miles and then walked home. Most of the pain from the groin went away once I started walking, and the knee was back to an ache, and not demanding to be cut off.

I noticed later that evening that my knee was swollen (It may have been before, but I didn't notice). Sunday was a date day, so no yard work or running, which seems to have done some good. I'm skipping my Monday run to see if I can make some more progress, and we'll see how things look tomorrow. I'm just not feeling very patient, even with all the buffer built in to my training schedule, I need my runs for sanity, and I don;t want to lose to many miles. But, if I don;t let it heal, I may do more damage, and not run for longer. So, I'll try to be a mature adult. :)

splits:
mile1- 9:13
mile2- 9:12
mile3- 9:43 (actually 1.05 (detour around a light), adjusts to 9:16)(slight uphill)
mile4- 9:14
mile5- 9:53 (actually 1.08, adjusts to 9:09)(some downhill, and some shade)
mile6- 9:38 (back uphill, knee)
mile7- 10:19 (actually 1.05 (detour around a light), adjusts to 9:50)(back uphill, knee)
mile8- 10:06 (lost 10-15 seconds waiting on a light)(thank goodness we're on the level again)
mile9- 9:40