I'm gonna cry a little

You know how my left ITB was itching a bit on Saturday so I had to shorten my run and then also ran less on Sunday but it did not hurt at all, shorter run was just a prevention.
So I was supposed to do 1200s workout today but the track was closed because soccer match was played there.
Hm, I had to decide what to do. 11 miles on Tuesday at 7:30pm just did not sound right but better than on Friday at 5am. So 11 miles it was. I felt awesome, no pain at all. The only problem was that I was not prepared for this...I did not wear knee bandage. (I am not sure about the logic behind this, but when I wear a bandage under my knee, ITB does not hurt.)
No ITB problem, not at all until around 7 miles and then bam! It did not hurt, I juts got this feeling in that area. I stopped immediately because I knew that feeling and knew that if I continue it will get worse. So I just walk 4 miles back, no pain but I was not going to force it.

What's the deal with this??? Are ITBs like Achilles' heels that when you have a problem with one you can expect to have a problem with the other one very soon. Does it mean that now a one-year long Odyssey of on and off running starts? I really do not know what to do. I have never ever had any running related problems when I was in Slovakia. Then when I came to the US I had one small problem with ITB but nothing serious and slight stress fractures in shins. Then I moved to France and all those right ITB issues started. I did not even run on roads. I ran mile to a park and then ran there and then 1 mile back. So how did this happen?
And now I do not even run that much. I have run only 5 days a week past few weeks and my mileage has not been that high. SO WHAT'S WRONG?!? And it is LEFT ITB this time!
Maybe I just felt so good that I stopped being cautious. Not enough stretching, icing etc. But I went to pool to loosen up after all workouts. But not last week since it was closed. Maybe that's the reason.

I am going to ice and stretch as crazy and pray that it goes away and never come back. Maybe I am just not supposed to be a long distance runner. But that's bullshit, c'mon, everybody can be a long distance runner.

OK, let's see how it feels in days to come.

It is normal!!!

People at work found out I walked 5+ miles to get there this morning and it caused all kind of different reactions. I got couple offers to drive me home, to pick me up tomorrow, to lend me a bike etc.
I do not want people to think that I am ungrateful so when a colleague offered to pick me up tomorrow for like 10th time I said yes. People do not understand that I DO ENOJY riding a bike to work and even walk there. But it is a very odd thing to do here so...
So I take a ride to work tomorrow and then hopefully other colleague brings me one of her bikes and I can start biking again.

Anyway,I ran 6miles from work today and it was pretty good. I liked that because then I was done soon and had the whole evening for me. Well, not that I do have anything to do in the evenings except for watching TV...
ITB and shins felt ok. I still tape everything. Taped shins, bandages on knees...horrible.

I made a huge mistake today. I sent email to my parents with some news about life and stuff and casually mentioned that I might do half marathon in LA. I immediately received an email from my mom about how bad for a human body it is, that I am only hurting myself and she does not understand why I do that and blahblahblah (considering that I wear couple bandages and tapes she might be partly right). Whatever. She knows that I run but she probably thinks that I do couple hundred meters once or twice a week. Let's just keep her in a sweet unawareness. Now you know why I need this blog to share my running adventures since my family is out of question.

Slovakia - The Netherlands 1:2:( Sad, but we still did very good.

Sunday Sunday

Why am I always on the wrong hemisphere when important sport events happen????
Woo-hoo for Germany.
SLOVAKIA vs THE NETHERLANDS tomorrow morning. I will have to rely on email updates from my mother.

Running news:
I am worried about the left ITB so I did not run 12 miler as planned today. I did only 7,25 miles and I ran very carefully. Not sure what that means since I do not think that you can hit the pavement more or less softly but I tried. No pain. Maybe it was just one day thing. I hope.

Non-running news:
My bike is death.
I was not lucky with this one. Firstly the tire, then the crankset.
Good news is they took it back and I am getting a new one. The one I originally wanted, woo-hoo.
Bad news, it might take up to 3 weeks so I will be walking 5,5miles every morning to work next week.
Thanksfuly week after is week off in automotive business in Detroit so I don't have to walk.
My plan is to walk in the morning and then run back after work. It should be ok (although I will have to run with my backpack) apart from my workout day, I am not sure how I do this. I have only 1 workout next week which is great considering this. I guess I will just do longer w/up then.

I started to make friends. One German colleague took me out tonight to show me around. It was fun. We went to get ice cream and I did not even embarrass him by asking the waitress to warm up my ice cream in microwave. I am sooo considerate.

26 on 26

I just had this awesome thought: I am turning 26 later this year, how awesome it would be to run a marathon on my birthday. 26 miles on 26th birthday.
Too bad my b-day falls on Monday and that I have no wish to run a marathon and screw my knee again.

I guess I will wait till 2026, and do 42 on 42:) It falls on Sunday, so it is feasible.

The worst day ever

Everything started this morning when I wanted to use my debit card and cashier said that this card was reported lost. WTF! But I know how this happened, so I am not worried about it, it will be ok.

Then I lost $30.

The my left ITB started to act up. Is it going to be the same story as with my right ITB? Please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please no. So I did 3 miles instead of 5 and am skipping my long run tomorrow.

I biked instead. I did approximately 16 miles when my bike kinda broke down. I knew that it was assembled very poorly and this problem is probably caused by this but I am not sure because I tried to fix it (jumping on hex wrench in my living room) and did not help. I need to have it repaired or exchanged or something. Guy told me to come to store tomorrow and see what they can do for me (but if possible I want a refund and get a bike that I originally wanted but they did not have it in stock and it will take up to 3 weeks for that bike to arrive). Which means that I will walk more 5 miles each morning to work and then 5 back. Hopefully the ITB will come to its senses and I can run back.

And pool is still close.

So this was my day...

Easy 6 miles

I did very easy 6 miles. It was horrible, my gluteus maximus (you see how sophisticated I am ) is sooo sore from lunges I did yesterday after workout. I always get sore from lunges (even when I do them without an addition weight), which means that I need to do them more to strengthen those muscles, right?
I wanted to go to pool tonight but it is temporarily closed, grrrr. I hope it is open tomorrow.


I found this duathlon nearby at the end of July but they say that mountain bike is recommended:( I need to see whether I can manage with hybrid bike tires (if they fit my bike...).

Feeling good

Plan for today: W/u, 800m @ 5k pace (3:09ish), 400m jog, 1.6k @ 10 km pace (6:32-6:40), 400m jog, 2.4k @ 1/2 marathon pace (10:12-10:25), 400m jog, 800m @ 5k pace, c/d

I think that my life is finally starting to calm down and I am hopefully over that pathetic running phase from past 3-4 weeks.

There was a high school football practice on a track so I had company. It was nice to have company, although they were not running with me.
I hit paces almost perfectly:)
800m 3:08
1600m 6:32
2400m 10:06
800m 3:09
Jogged 400m really slowly. 400m was nice, long enough to recover.

I felt very good and controlled, it was not too hard.
I feel like a new woman compared to what I felt 3 weeks ago, really. Exactly like my coach has predicted:)

I did weights afterwards and I think I will be sore tomorrow.

Short bike explanation

Why not buy a mountain bike or a hybrid, seems like I'd have fewer flats.

That's definitely true. But at home (aka my parents garage) I have a mountain bike, a hybrid bike and a road bike. (They are my most valuable possessions apart from that piece of paper written in Latin I have received yesterday.)
And therefore I can tell that having a right bike suitable for a particular surface makes a huge huge difference. If you don't try, you would not believe. I did not believe neither but they I tried a road bike instead of a hybrid on a road and was hooked.
So why I bought a road bike?
I have never had these tire problems before, this is the first time and I have not expected it.
I would like to try to do a triathlon or a duathlon, and therefore I need a road bike.
There are no mountains here, so no need for a mountain bike. And using mountain bike on a road is such a waste of energy. (although I probably wasted that energy on air tube changing)
It is difficult to find a cheap mountain bike fitting 6" person.
I originally wanted to buy a hybrid, but hybrids here are horrible. They are nothing like hybrids in Europe. USA lives still in Hybrid Bikes Middle Age.

I shall see how it goes using new tires. They are for hybrid bikes but for road usage mostly. They are few millimeters wider than my road tires so they might not fit on my bike unless I change brakes. I'll see.

Off to track.

New beauties + earthquake

Today's events sorted according to excitement level they evoke in me:

1, 5 miles easy run (not that exciting but I am a runner, so...)

2, My new beauties:


They should come in 2-3 weeks.
I figured that doubling a value of bike by buying new tires is not a way to go, so I bought tires that increase its value by 50% only:(

3, Earthquake!!! There was an earthquake near Ottawa, Canada and we felt it here in Michigan. I have never experienced any earthquake before. Interesting.

4, I have received my BA diploma in mail today. Well, my parents did, but they scanned it for me. It is weird, it is all in Latin. WTF?!?

800s + same old story

Firstly, this is getting old. I got a flat tire this morning. This is getting really annoying. I know it is partly my fault but I suspect that it is mostly because tires on this bike are s**t. Really low quality. I found awesome tires I would like to get but then the tires might be worth more than the bike:) But I work for a company best known for its tires so I might figure something out.

Now workout. Plan w/u 2.5miles, 5x100 w/ jog btw, 6x800 @ 5k pace w/ 200 jog, c/d 2.5miles
My 5k got adjusted to 19:45-20ish, so 3:9-3:12 for 800.
I was little worried about how it will go after hard-feeling workout on Friday and with only 200m jog btw. But when I did 1st at 3:08 I knew I will be ok.
It was more humid than last week but seems I am getting accustomed to it although I was sweating like crazy and had hard time breathing during the 4th one.
Well I am not sure how it is supposed to feel though. Hard, easy, somewhere in the middle? Hard at the end? I do not know.
I did 3:08, 3:08, 3:07, 3:07, 3:05, 3:04.
Does this also happens to you? You know the last repeats should feel harder and one should work harder to keep up the pace therefore I try to work harder to keep up the pace and end up running faster than I am supposed to.
I am satisfied and getting my confidence back because it felt good and controlled.

I did weights afterwards but no swim to loosen up.

Monday = Banana day

Bananas are for 19cent a pond on Mondays so Monday has become officially my Banana days.
(Wednesdays are Milk days and I need to find out whether Subway does not have special prices on a particular day.)

On a running note, today was my day off. I felt little tired after this past weekend.
But I swam for around 30minutes. My new goggles are amazing but I am so bad at long-distance swimming. I cannot swim freestyle for more then 50m (long distance:)).
I am pretty fast swimmer but I have a very bad technique I think and I do not know how to breath right because I usually breath very deeply and it takes time to inhale and exhale so I have troubles swimming for longer time because I run oxygen deficit. I need to practice this more.

Thunderstorm is announced for tomorrow morning, please please no, I want to go to work on bike.

Long run and stuff

11 miles planned and as I promised on a new trail.
But before that I went to get new swimming goggles and wanted to try them after the run.

It seems that humidity is here again because I felt sluggish and tired today and I was melting! But trails was amazing. It is around 4.6mile from my place and I used bike to get there. I was comprehensive about leaving my bike there for an hour and a half but persuaded myself that bike will be ok since I used 2 bike locks and I do not expect bike thieves to be at such place.
I realized that trail is a very very slight incline in northern direction and then decline on a way back. This caused that my splits out were at 8ish pace and back they were 7:30ish pace. But I was really happy when I finished and all I wanted was food and water.

I did not eve went to swim afterwards because I was sooo hungry and had to go to store to get something good.

And now some random facts:

1, Now having a car definitely helps with not buying crap:) There was Edy's ice cream on sale today and if I had car, I would have bought it. But without a car I did not feel like carrying it 1 mile back. I still had to carry watermelon though:) But I would prefer watermelon to ice cream any time. (Sorry Mad)

2, I wonder whether also other female runners have experienced/realized this? When I run or bike and have to cross a road and there is a car driven by a woman alone in a car, she stops and lets me cross very rarely. When she is young, she stops almost never. But when there are other people (esp kids) in a car, she usually stops. However, when a man drives a car, he stops almost always. No matter whether he is young or old or alone or with the others.
Just yesterday I had to get from a right side of a road to the left and there were cars coming from behind and I was giving a sigh that I want to go to left. Two cars driven by women just passed by (one actually slowed down a bit and then just sped by) and then a car with a young man inside let me cross.
Isn't it interesting? I wonder why it is so. Is it because man have more "sport ethics" or whatever it is. Or because I am a woman and they are men, that simple.

My long runs are not long enough

to explore this awesome area.
It is very rural and spread out and when I run I do not get very far and I have to turn around and head back. And it is really very nice area I am living in.
So today I went to explore a bit on a bike. There is a lot of lakes here so decided to check one out. Approximately 8 miles from my place. But as I was going there I crosses this trail road leading to another lake that I also wanted to see.
So changed my mind and followed the trail. It is not paved, it is covered with very fine gravel, good enough for a road bike if you are not scared (of flat tire:) Private joke.) I met a lot of bikers and runners there.
But it was awesome, I am so doing my long run there tomorrow.
Lake was awesome as well. Such a cool area and houses...magnificent! If I marry a wealthy man, I will get a house in area like that one.
I took a different trail back home. It was not as enjoyable because gravel was not that fine and if there was a loosen screw on the bike, I am sure I lost it. I need to check out the bike tomorrow. And it was kinda longer.
I end up doing more than 35 miles and was starving and thirsty because I was not prepared for this. But I loved it (except that I had to pass along a dead dear and I have few more tan lines because my biking shorts are not of the same length as my running shorts. The same goes for a biking jersey!

I took 2 hours a rest before doing my easy 7 miler. Surprisingly, legs did not feel bad at all.
Then went to a pool to loosen up and it did me good.

Haaaaaard

Today's plan: w/u 2.5miles, 3x1.6k @ 6:50-7:05 w/ 60 seconds complete recovery btw, c/d 2.5mil. Start @ 7:05 and then pick it up. 8 miles total.

This was the hottest day of the year (at least for me). I went out at around 7pm and it was sooo hot. I even took water with me (I do not usually take it because I am too lazy to carry a bottle with me).
I got to the track and it was closed! I hope it was closed only because it was Friday afternoon, not closed for good because I am really excited that I found this track to do workouts at.

I did not have anything measured, so was not sure what to do. Do my easy run and then this workout tomorrow with Garmin? But I have already moved this workout from yesterday to today and I have long run on Sunday...
There were soccer and football fields that were open, so I decided to go there and just run 3x7min.

I do not know how fast I ran but I know it was definitely way too fast. Because 7min pace is supposed to feel easy (at least for the first one, right?) and it was not easy at all! I know that running on grass and heat made running harder but still I know I ran too fast. And of course I died on the last one.
I started the first one and it felt ok for first 2-3 min but then it got hard. Of course the second one was hard the whole 7 min. And the third one. Well, I did not run much much slower, but definitely slower (I was even at the point when I wanted to just stop and call it a day). Maybe this one was at the pace I was originally supposed to run (but that's only my feeling).

I dragged myself home and went to do weights for half an hours or so. And then pool. It felt so good.

I feel satisfied with this workout. Although it did not worked out as planned, I put in a good effort and that's good. I felt hard and I have not done a hard workout for several weeks.
And I think that I am getting used to humidity (or maybe it was not as humid this week and past week).

I am not making this stuff up

I am getting really good at taking a rear wheel off, fixing flat tire and putting a wheel back. I mean, really good.

It seems that flat tire is neverending story for me. Let's recapitulate:
Monday: 1st day of going to work on bike. There was a hole on a road, I rode through it and cut an air tube.
I had a kit to fix it, but there was no glue there. Only sticky patches. I have never used them without an extra glue because I always thought they won't last very long. (And I was right.) I got home ok.
Tuesday: Morning- tire still ok. I got to work (got attacked by an angry goose).
However in the afternoon, tire was flat. I put on a new patch and rode to Target to get a glue. They did not have any so I got a new self-sealing (and very expensive) tire. Changed tires in the evening but I still kept the old one (and I do not regret that)
Wednesday-yesterday: No incident
Yesterday: I decided to inflate tires bit. But my pump is (was) soooo stupid and bad. I knew it was bad, I actually went to a store and returned it but bought the same one again because they were out of stock that day. Anyway, when I was trying to get the the pump off the valve, I tore it off...my $8 self-sealing tire! Damaged forever, no chance for it.
It was too late so I could not go to store so I put sticky patch on an old tire and hoped it will hold for couple hours.
Today: Morning- ok. I got to work. After work- tire was flat. But that's not everything. My bike lock broke down and I could not open it!!! Maintenance guys were already gone so I called the security but they were not very helpful. Thankfully there was one person still in R&D garage and he found huge pliers somewhere and was able to cut the lock (thanks God it was the lowest security lock. I have no idea what I would have done if it had been like super advanced anti-theft lock. But that one probably would not have broken...)
I fix the tire with a sticker again and decided to go to a store to get a new air tube, glue, a new air pump and bike lock.
And guess what happened. Like 50 meters before turning to a parking lot, I got a F**** FLAT TIRE! At first I thought that the patch peeled off but then I found out a 1,5 inch long nail sticking out of my tire. Can you believe this?
I got TWO new tubes (from now on I am going to carry an extra one with me, just in case), a pump and lock(they did not have glue). Of course they did not have Schrader valve tubes, only Prestas for road bikes. (although I have easier time inflating a Presta valve than Schrader, I tent to break valve caps very easily on them...) Now I have one Presta and one Schrader on a bike. But my new pump seems very good and lock is good as well(but if this one breaks, I am screwed...because nobody won't be able to open it).

With all this going on, I got home at 9:30pm!!!! I was supposed to do a workout today but that did not happen because I had to deal with this first because I would not be able to get to work tomorrow and I had no idea that it would take me so long.