I have had some ongoing minor tightness in my left hamstring for months. No big deal. It kind of came and went. I felt a little tighter than usual after Wednesday nights fast 5k tempo run. Yesterday it felt more sore than tight. I was planning on spinning last night, but I put it off to give it time to rest. It is still a little sore today, but not as much. I am scheduled to run 10 miles tomorrow as my last long run before my marathon next weekend. I am thinking of foregoing the long run, and replacing it with a long easy spinning session. Spinning uses more quads than hamstrings. But I can still get a good aerobic workout. My running would have taken about 75-80 minutes, so I am thinking of spinning for that length of time, staying at around 140-150 BPM (~71-7% of max HR)
After getting married, and moving across the country my weight had crept up to a high around 230. But after starting karate classes, it came down to around 210. Starting about 10 years ago when I was in my mid 30’s, I was diagnosed with elevated blood pressure. It was just a little high. My doctor has been monitoring it ever since, and has prescribed a low dose of Hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ) and for a while Lisinipril as well.
I made a conscious effort to lower my weight further, and got it down into the 180s. He had me come off the meds. But my blood pressure was still high. So I was put back on the HCTZ. So here I was being very active, and having lowered my weight significantly, and my blood pressure was still up there.
In mid-2006 I started running. I ran a couple marathons and ran up to 50 miles a week. My weight dropped further into the 170’s and even into the 160s. Surely this would have lowered my blood pressure? Well it didn’t seem to have much effect. The doctor explained that my blood pressure was probably more genetic that related to my life style.
Yesterday I had my twice a year check up. The nurse measured my blood pressure at 122/76. The doctor came in a bit later and messured it again at 117/76. Basically very good numbers. They also measured my HR at 48. My weight yesterday was around 168. The doctor is going to have me stop taking the HCTZ again and come back in a month to see in my blood pressure is still down.
I think my more intense training is having a beneficial effect. In my early marathon training, I mostly did long easy runs, trying to stay in my aerobic zones. My more recent training has involve more speedwork. I run intervals on Mondays, tempo runs on Wednesdays, and long runs of Saturdays. The intervals and tempo runs really get my heart rate up and hold it there for a chunk of time. For example, I ran a 5k as part of my tempo run last night at a 6:45 pace (finished in 20:55 for a new 5k PR). My HR started off around 166, and slowly climbed. By the end it was up to around 183, and I was breathing very hard. My max heart rate is around 194-196. But I think these intense training runs have helped to lower my blood pressure.
It will be interesting to see if my blood pressure stays down without the meds. I have my own blood pressure measuring device at home, so I can monitor it.
In my earliest races I carried M&Ms, Gummi Bears, or generic jelly beans. Later I switched to a more sports oriented carb source, Jelly Belly Sport Beans. I had tried a gel, but the taste was disgusting. But as I have gotten faster, my walk breaks have gotten fewer and shorter. I just can’t eat the Sport Beans during a 30-45 second walk break, and they are too difficult to chew while running. I also tried Clif Shot Bloks, but again they took too long to chew.
So I decided to try gels again. I bought a variety of them, and began to taste test them.
These are my own opinions of them:
Carb Boom-Vanilla Orange (with caffiene): Taste 9/10
Carb Boom-Vanilla: Taste: 9/10
PowerBar Gel-Vanilla: Taste 9/10
Carb Boom-Apple Cinnamon: Taste 8/10, (tastes kind of like applejacks)
Carb Boom-Banana Peach: Taste 5/10
Carb Boom-Strawberry Kiwi: Taste 5/10
Clif Shot Energy Gel-Strawberry: Taste 5/10
Carb Boom-Chocolate Cherry: Taste 1/10 (disgusting!!!!)
I do have a few more packs that I have gotten free at races in my goody bags. There are many other brands, and flavors, but I can’t afford to try them all. I suppose if the companies sent me some free trial packs, I could give them a shot.
I downed a Vanilla flavored PowerBar gek during my long run last weekend, and it seemed to do okay. I belched a little bit. I am going to try the Vanilla Orange flavored Carb Boom tonight when I do my tempo run, just to see how it sits.
The gels will be much easier to take during a race. I plan on using them in my upcoming race at the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach, VA. As I approach a water station, I can just pull one out, rip the top off, and squeeze it into my mouth. The I can chase it with some water. I figure I will take one before the race, and then another one each hour.
I am signed up to the run the Shamrock Marathon in less than 2 weeks. My training for the most part has gone okay. I am a little worried about my endurance though. I have trained harder and faster with the exception of the long runs which I have broken up, maybe running part in the morning, and part in the afternoon. Or running them all at once, but taken short breaks. I have done a lot more cross training.
I have had some really great runs though. Such as running a 6 minute mile. And running 5 miles at 7:00 pace. So we will see.
I have been having intermittent discomfort in my left hamstring/glut. But this has been going on for a while. Though it is a little more noticible today. Pre-marathon stuff?
The weather is still a big question mark. I am hoping it wont be too cold. And especially not cold and rainy. That would suck. I will bring a variety of clothing just in case.
All hotel reservations are made. I have been playing a little bit with gu’s. I tried some Clif Shot’s strawberry gel during my run the other day. It was doable I guess. I belched a bit afterward. That made me a little nervous. I haven’t done like 5 or six of them in a 3 hour stretch. I have liked Jelly Belly Sport Beans, but they are hard to chew while running. But I was thinking in the last couple days whether I could just swallow the beans without chewing. Then they could disolve in my stomach without the difficulty of chewing.
Headphones are banned at the race, but I want my music. My current plan is the run with my Sandisk Sansa strapped to the back of my running hat. I have done some short training runs with it and it worked fine. Not sure how it will be after 3 1/2 hours.
The marathon will have pacers, including a 3:30 pacer. I am planning on tagging along with the 3:30 pacer as much as I can while still taking my walk breaks. I may do 30 second walk breaks, or maybe 45 seconds. The logner the walk breaks, the faster I have to run between them. What I could do is run at 8:00 pace, walk for 30 seconds, then run faster to catch up with the pacer, then settle in at 8:00 pace till then next mile.
This will be my 5th marathon, and 5 is one of my lucky numbers. Maybe this will be the one where I qualify for Boston. I only missed a BQ in Las Vegas by 5 1/2 minutes. And this is a much flatter course.