Monday, May 28, 2012

Running Downhill HURTS

Hope you are all having a good Memorial Day weekend.
I have decided to sip the race I was thinking of doing today and follow my plan for my half marathon.  

I am happy I did not sign up for the 5k or 10k today because I am in a lot of pain.  It hurts to walk and go down the stairs and bathroom trips are hell.   Why is that? 
You would think I ran a half marathon this weekend...but no....
I had the brilliant idea to prepare for my upcoming downhill half  marathon by doing a part of my last long run downhill.  YEP.....and now I am paying for it.

It's not that it was not a good idea...but the timing is not good because now I have to recover from this in time for my race.

I asked Bill to drive me on top of a hill (for the locals Haven avenue) and run down for the first part of my long run.   Well I now know for sure that the day after my half I will be in pain because the hill for the race is more like a mountain!  It will be almost 4 times longer than what I did Saturday. 

Yesterday I forced myself to go for a 4 miles recovery run even if each step was painful.  I am using the foam roll and I am wearing my compression socks since Saturday.  I will go for a 4 miler today also and tomorrow will be rest.  I will have 2 more short runs this week, rest Friday and Saturday is race day.

This will be my 10th half marathon!  I cannot believe it.  I still remember being so nervous to sign up for my first one.  This is my last one until Long Beach in October.  I don't run half marathons in the heat here.  I will run 5k and 10K and prepare for Hood to Coast this summer.

Speaking of HTC...I booked my flights over the weekend!  Shopping for flights is so frustrating.   The first time I looked was the day they announced who made the team.  I had found the perfect flights..both direct and at good hours.  I decided to wait to see if the price would go down....and it did NOT...it increased by almost $100!  Grrrrr.   So now I have a different schedule with a lay over on the way back...and I could not be happier to have  almost 3 hours between my flights because it will be in Phoenix ARIZONA!

Part 2 of this,  coming up August 26 2012:


18 comments:

XLMIC said...

Roll those legs, sistah!

Tricia said...

Downhill hurts way more than uphill!

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

Downhill is painful! One of the races I did earlier this spring was 9 miles of downhill and I had to go down stairs backwards for days! Hope they feel better soon!

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

Downhill is painful! One of the races I did earlier this spring was 9 miles of downhill and I had to go down stairs backwards for days! Hope they feel better soon!

middleagedrunner said...

Ice! Ice! Boo!
I ran a trail race yesterday and can totally feel the downhills getting to me- ugh!
Hope you feel better ASAP :-)

Emz said...

10th half!!!
You rock!!

Sooooooooooo
Freaking happy about your August layover!!
Should have made it 2.75 days long not hours!!

Kate Geisen said...

Running downhill DOES hurt, but you're smart to be doing the hurting now and getting trained so you can rock your HTC legs!

Linda W. said...

Yep, both hiking and running downhill hurt more than you think. But I love skiing downhill! :)

Boston Bound Brunette said...

Ouch! I hope you recover soon so that you are fine for Saturday. The race was really warm today so you are lucky you did not run it for that reason as well!! Take Care!

Black Knight said...

Running downhill hurts A LOT. I had this experience last saturday.
I hope you recover very soon.
Wise decision not to run half marathons in the heat; I learned this lesson too.

Big Daddy Diesel said...

I guess I am the only one that enjoys running downhill

Congrats on reaching #10, that is awesome

kristen said...

I'm almost convinced that running downhill hurts more than running uphill...almost. :)

Unknown said...

Downhill is pretty rough. Rest up! Have a great race this weekend.

At least there's a reward going through Phoenix, to then go north for HTC. That's not so direct. So excited for you.

Sam said...

I ran a half that was mostly downhill a few weeks ago. My quads were on fire the next day! Downhill is great for time but it sure doesn't feel good that's for sure! Rest up!

Terzah said...

Yes, screaming downhill is so hard on your body! After our hike yesterday, my quads are unhappy too and I *know* it was the downhill. Definitely befriend the foam roller.

Congratulations on 10 half marathons--you're the expert now!

Corey said...

Yay for booking your ticket! Big weight lifted huh? I had almost the same problem with flights...but it was about a week or two after the announcement that they went down for a couple of days and I didn't purchase so I paid a little over $100 more! Dangit!

Denise said...

I hope your well into your recovery now. I used to love doing the Fontana 5k but my doctor told me no downhill running because of my knees, so I haven't done it the
past few years.
My co-worked (who is in her 70s) ran the half a few times and likes to remind us how many toenails she lost doing it all those years ago.
Be careful up there in the first few miles!

misszippy said...

I think downhill running takes a much bigger toll on our legs than up. It's crazy. There was a really good article pre-Boston in Running Times on how to do some downhill run training for a race with that profile. And it didn't sound as taxing as your monster hill, so that's good news.

Pretty damn jealous you get to see EMZ twice in one year!