afternoon running

I almost always run in the mornings before work, usually around 7 a.m. At that hour in Central Florida, it's still cool, all the bougainvillea, plumbago and other exotic flowers that seem to bloom year round are covered with dew, and I always feel like I'm starting my day off right. Yesterday I was too tired to get up early, so I decided to run after work.

Around 5 pm these days, temperatures are still in the low 80s, but the humidity has not yet kicked in (it will soon-- then no more afternoon running). I changed in my office and turned on the iPod and the Garmin Forerunner. (A side note-- I've had the Garmin for four months now. The battery only fully charges to 5 hours. What's up with that? It started out with 13 hours.) I did my few minutes of walking and stretching and hit the road, taking a new loop all the way through downtown Winter Park, an upscale shopping and restaurant district, through a neighborhood of multi-million dollar mansions, then back to the campus. 4 miles.

The afternoon run felt harder than usual. The temperatures were getting to me a little bit, and I had a stitch in my side and stomach cramps-- my first thought is always, what if I have an attack of appendicitis in the middle of nowhere? The stitch went away after awhile, but the smell from all the cars at rush hour didn't make the best air for breathing. I was pleased, however, to see that running at 5 o'clock in Central Florida does wonders for one's tan. I can't believe how strong the sun is here.

When Runner's World printed articles during the winter about running in the cold, I was grateful I didn't have to think about that. I probably will have to get used to running in the heat, though, without getting heatstroke (which has happened to me before). As your northern race calendars start to fill up with spring and summer races, our season here is starting to wind down. Last year I ran a brutal 5K on the 4th of July, when the temps hovered at 90 by 8 a.m.

I suddenly don't want to run the New York Marathon anymore. I registered for the lottery, but the numbers aren't drawn until June so I'm wondering if I can withdraw. Marathons require so much training, and the thought of dealing with all these little injuries that spring up from nowhere and doing 14-milers in August just doesn't appeal to me right now. I may not be cut out for marathons-- I do enjoy half marathons; I know that for sure-- but the daunting prospect of training for another full one is, at the moment, making me think it might take the love of running out of me entirely. Does this make me a wimp?

chaos

It is that time of the year when students who have made nothing but C's all semester come to my office asking what they need to do to make an A for the class (uh, score 137% on your final?). It is a time for begging, wheedling, threatening ("I'm going to lose my scholarship if you don't give me an A!"), for tearful entreaties ("I've been unable to afford the books-- that's why I've read nothing this whole semester"), for various other unpleasantries. Outside of work, we had to take my mother-in-law to the emergency room for heart attack symptoms/blood pressure of 195/116. I spent almost 24 hours straight in the hospital and came out of it feeling shaken but incredibly grateful to have my own health.

The week was consumed with thinking about death-- at school where we did a blood/bone marrow drive in memory of Sandy, and at the hospital where I saw everything that is wrong with the American medical system through several hours spent in the Emergency Room. The only light moment came from the ER receptionist who, when calling out patient names, occasionally threw in a fake patient to see if anyone would laugh. ("Manuel Noriega? Manuel?") When we finally got a room, we were in the cardio-pulmonary ward, where some patients appeared to be doing quite poorly. At one point the woman sharing our room got a call from the hospital administration reminding her that she owed $26,000 in hospital bills (from a four night stay) and asking how she planned to pay for it. Apparently this was a mistake, and administrators came to her room to apologize for the phone call, but still. My mother-in-law is now fine but needs to be on blood pressure medication and may be in the early stages of diabetes. The hospital was probably a thousand times more frightening for her, as she's visiting from overseas and speaks no English. Now I think she wants to go home.

Still running, but not feeling much like blogging about it these days. Did a long run of 8 miles this weekend and last-- last weekend with no IT pain, this weekend with some. Hopefully blogging (and reading your blogs!) will improve after school calms down (last week of classes!) and after I run a little 5K this upcoming weekend where the prize is a baby tree. (Everyone entering gets a prize.) I'm going to try not to run too fast. My competitive instinct always kicks in, but this time, maybe I mean it. Too many issues with this nagging IT band-- and if I'm smart, I'll slow down or it'll never get better. Sigh.

the culprit

Thanks for the replies to my last post... I am thinking that probably kickboxing with Carlos was the culprit behind the resurgence of IT Band syndrome. (I am paying the price for my transgressions...) Although fun, kickboxing seems to involve slightly jarring hip movements, in addition to the impact. Oh well-- I have to admit that two classes in a row does seem a little excessive. I'll go back to my one-hour fix of Power Abs tomorrow.

A houseguest who is staying with us right now wanted to go for a run this morning, so we went out for a thirty minute jog. She runs much slower than I do, but that's probably what I need at the moment, as I wore my IT-band support and didn't have any problems. I'll try to lay off running again until Wednesday, and also follow the advice of this month's Runner's World-- varying your terrain.

illiotibial band syndrome

Blogger keeps eating my posts... and refusing to let me comment on other people's posts. Anyone else have this problem?

I went out this morning intending to go for an 8 or 9 mile run. The weather was beautiful-- sunny, but not too hot. Lots of stress lately has kept me really looking forward to my runs. At mile 5, the side of my knee started to ache-- a telltale sign that the IT band was acting up. By mile 6.3 I had to stop running completely. Where did this come from? I thought it was all healed up. I'd dropped back drastically on the mileage, cross-trained a lot, and even had a 7 mile run last Saturday that didn't hurt at all. The IT band hasn't really bothered me in weeks. The only differences this week were a kickboxing class and a tiny bit of speedwork. Could that have aggravated it?

The IT band cast a cloud over the rest of my day. I had to spend a few hours at work-- attending a ceremony for the "installation" our college's new president. (National presidents get inaugurated; college presidents get installed like new washing machines.) Standing up in sandals with a slight heel for thirty minutes, I started to feel it again. Maybe I should have kept up with the strengthening exercises, but they're just so time consuming. Injury is disheartening, especially since I never used to have problems until marathon training. What to do, what to do?

water running

I had a great run this morning. Although I was presenting a paper at 10 a.m. at a conference that just happened to be local, I met my running partner for a seven miler at seven a.m. The weather was breezy and humid, with intermittent rain, but once we started running, the rain felt great. A big group of serious-looking early bird runners were just coming in at seven as we were starting. No IT band pain the whole way, and Susan and I just talked and caught up with what has been going on in both our lives over the past few weeks.

Yesterday the weather was so beautiful here I decided to go to the swimming pool at the college where I teach. The pool is outside and on a lake, one of the features that makes the college look like a country club. There are almost always students lying out there, but apparently faculty and staff only show up for serious lap swims early in the morning and late afternoon. Because for my whole life I've always looked younger than I am (which is only just now, at age thirty, starting to become a good thing, although it hasn't been in the past, when I've wanted people to take me seriously), I put on shades and a bikini, grabbed a lawn chair, and went incognito at the pool. I saw none of my students there, so I think I pulled it off.

I tried water running (I think)... would that be like treading water? I can't touch the ground anywhere in the pool. Drama occurred when someone spotted an alligator outside the fenced-in pool, down by the lake. I also eavesdropped on some interesting student conversations ("All my father cares about is making money. Forget the family; he'd rather have the nice house and the Jaguar. That's all men care about is money."). Most interesting was a group of students who were playing April Fools' jokes on their parents by calling them on speakerphone and announcing that the student had been arrested for possession of marijuana. Not a joke I would want to hear if I were a parent. I overheard several complete meltdowns by parents (and one eighty year old grandmother, who threatened to have a heart attack), which the girls playing the joke seemed to find endlessly amusing.

I am looking forward to summer, when the pool will be mine, all mine!