Epson Salt Is My New Best Friend!

Met up with Team in Training last night to do a 3 mile run at UCSD (University of California at San Diego) in La Jolla. I feel very, very lucky to be training for a marathon in San Diego. There are so many beautiful running routes, and many are marked well with mile markers or plenty of water fountains and rest rooms. It's like the city planners were saying, you're in San Diego, YOU MUST RUN. I told my teammates last night that the San Diego "tax" is to be fit, as compared to the NYC "tax" where you spend at least $20 a day just to walk around. It really is wild to go into the supermarket and see the majority of people in shape.

I ran with a very nice teammate named Holly, and the run was going fantastic. In fact, I was just telling her how great she was going, and how great I was feeling- finally- when WHAM my calf seized up. Charlie horse! No fun. A few possible causes-

1. Dehydration (I only had a glass of water that day)

2. Overstretching (I showed Holly a deep stretch for the calves just before they seized up and I think I went a little TOO deep)

3. I was running mainly on the balls of my feet the day before and my calves hurt then, so I think running the next day just exacerbated the situation.

Today I felt like crap and was really questioning my sanity of doing a marathon. I've now got hip issues, calf issues, and my whole body is going, what the HECK do you think you're doing, you're 39 for chrissake! I remembered what my friend, a massage therapist, had said about an Epson salt bath, and so I tried it out this morning. WOW. Talk about night and day! I feel about 70% better...still sore, but my muscles aren't screaming. I love that it's an old school remedy, but still works so well. Epson salt, I adore thee.

What I have learned (and am relearning) about training for a marathon from doing one

1. Runners lube is your best friend.
2. Training for a marathon means that you are going to do have to do a LOT of running for about six months before the race. Suck it up.
3. It's best to get up early and get your miles in then wait to do it after work, because you will come up with a zillion excuses not to once you're off work. Better to get it over and done with.
4. Once you are done with running in the morning, it is a HUGE relief and you will also be in a great mood for the rest of the day.
5. Follow a marathon program religiously!!! Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT think that it is okay to not do enough mileage or that you can make up the miles if you miss days! You WILL get injured!
6. Do not think that you can jump from running 3 miles to running 6 miles without properly weaning your body into it. I tried that and got a hairline fracture in my foot. Those suck.
7. There is nothing better then casually mentioning in conversation how long you ran that day like it was nothing.
8. It is amazing what your body can do, if you train it right. After training for two months, I was able to do 8- 10 mile runs as easily as walking and my body started craving long runs!
9. Once you start running long distances, you start comparing all distances to whether or not you could run them. Stuck in traffic? You start thinking you should just desert the car and run to the destination.
10. Losing a toenail while training is almost inevitable and not that big of a deal. They grow back.
11. Watch where you're running, especially if you're running on the sidewalk. They are uneven and leaves cover holes in the sidewalk!
12. Garbage in, garbage out. Don't think that you can eat fast food and then do a long run the next day. You'll feel it!
13. On the same note, don't think that you can stay out all night and then get up early and do a long run. It doesn't work, unless you're 21.
14. When getting up at the crack of dawn to go running, think of all the reasons why you're doing the marathon.
15. When running hills during training, I pictured an angel pushing me up or my father lifting me up with a rope. Believe it or not it worked for me.
16. You can run longer and farther with someone else, and it makes running really enjoyable. I've had some of my best conversations running alongside someone.
17. Massages really do help with training and for recuperation! I had one before the marathon and one right after and I was fine within 3 days, and even went on a business trip to South Carolina without any major problems.
18. Don't get running shoes and then use them for everyday walking as well as running. You'll wear them out sooner and get injured easier (read: hairline fracture/ shin splints).
19. It's good to find other marathoners to talk about training with because other people will tire of listening to it after a while.
20. Telling people you are training for a marathon never gets old!

First Day of Training!

Today was the first day of training with Team in Training for the marathon to kick off 18 weeks of training. It was such a pleasure to meet up with the Central team (about 100 people?), which is only one team out of three- there is also a North team and the South team in San Diego...so nice to see the support for Team in Training!

I'm always amazed how incredibly friendly people are in San Diego, and how happy they are to live here. It was also so nice to see how happy people in Team in Training are to be doing the program- so meeting up at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to start the run was like being in Disneyland, everyone was sooooo thrilled to be there! Yippee, horray, we're training for a marathon! There was so much pride in what we are doing, all the alumni were wearing Team in Training t-shirts and jackets and showing off pins saying how many marathons they did...I would have to say there were about 60% alumni there! There were also about 15 mentors, four coaches, two assistant coaches...with signs and cameras and all these yay rah things that I never would have thought of, like signs along the running route saying all these facts about leukemia and why we are doing it.

Learned some new stretches for my shins today, which were very helpful! Partnered up with someone to hold each other up and first:
1. Went up on our tip toes facing forward
2. Went up on our heels facing forward
3. Had our heels close by with toes facing out and up on tip toes
4. Our heels close by with toes facing out and up on heels
5. Our toes close together with heels out and up on toes
6. Our toes close together with heels out and up on heels
I was also told that as a new (well, returning) runner that shin splints are very common, and it's best to roll a tennis ball under my foot to prevent/ help heal shin splints. Also, if you rub your arch, it helps it as well.

I went with the A group, the beginners group, to do 3.1 miles, running 3 minutes and walking 1 minute. Felt pretty great the first mile and a half, then felt like I was going to puke. So I ran 1 minute then walked 3 minutes (okay, that's being generous) until the end. The picture doesn't really capture my beet red face, but I was happy to be done!

I'm now limping a little bit and my legs feel like lead and I've been SOOO tired all day long. This is going to be a LONG process and hard on my body and I'm starting to wonder why I didn't do the century ride for Team in Training? It's very different to train for a marathon when I'm almost 40 then when I was in my 20s...enough complaining, I've got to get up early to do a 40 minutes jog tomorrow!