The legacy of the Timex Ironman 30-lap

A little background, first. I've had a long line of timex ironman 30-lap watches, and they all die in weird circumstances.

My first one, senior year of high school, met its untimely death in front of my house one day. My then-boyfriend and I were hitting a volleyball back and forth in the street, and I took my watch off and set it on the trunk of my mom's car. We went inside for a drink, mom headed out to run errands, and my watch flew off the car somewhere between the house and Giant :( We walked around the neighborhood checking gutters to no avail.

The second one was purchased the following fall so I would have a watch to wear to practice. That wonderfully trusty watch made it through 4 years of college and one year of grad school. It was the kind with the cloth band, so it didn't smell so great, but a weekly shot of febreeze kept it from getting too bad. By my second semester of grad school, the watch had been removed countless times and spent A LOT of time in the pool (the band was slowly being bleached). One time teaching a beginning swimming class, we were working on diving. I dove in to demonstrate, and as I hit the water the velcro on the watch came undone, but I somehow caught it in the same hand (aren't I cool? ;) ) and disaster was averted. Fast forward to that summer - My friend Logan and I are training for a triathlon. During one morning swim workout, I surfaced, hit the lap button, and everything went blank :_| Dead battery. Too much time in the pool, perhaps? I headed off to the store to replace said battery (just couldn't face life without my watch) and the dude said "Well, I can replace the battery, but you'll lose the water resistance. You could send it off to Timex and they can reseal it, but that'll cost $35-$40" Considering the watch probably cost $35, I said goodbye to my beloved watch.

That summer I had absolutely no money, and I couldn't replace my watch - so sad. When I started getting a paycheck again in September, I went straight for a new watch. Again - cloth band. It spent a lot of time in the pool, a lot of time running, a lot of time cycling (really, I had a permanent watch line). It also spent an entire summer working outside at Pottery Barn Kids - I was a stockroom peep (the muscle at the store, if you will). My watch and I unloaded many a truck together. My watch band got NASTY. I attempted to clean it, but I think it was beyond the point of no return. Really, to the point that I wound up with a spot of ringworm on my arm (ew ew ew!!!) from the band - after all, lord knows what I was exposed to unloading those trucks. So my watch was set aside, waiting for me to remember to take it for a new band. Time dragged on and on, because I was able to use my HRM watch in the meantime.

Well, yesterday I went to Target to get my watch band replaced. Two employees spent what seemed like forever trying to replace the band. Finally it seemed to work, and the girl started ringing up my purchase. As she was doing that, I put my watch on..and the band popped off. After some careful examination by my now-favorite Target employee, she decided that the little holes where the pin goes were worn out from all the struggle - and I got a brand new watch - free!

And so begins the saga of another Timex Ironman 30-lap watch (this time, with an elasotmer band)...

Longest run to date

I went to bed last night and woke up this morning super nervous because today was my first scheduled 9 mile long run - my longest run EVER. Since I wasn't entirely sure I was prepared, I was jittery. I made it out there, 30 min later than planned (ha! I procrastinated, what a surpise!) walked, stretched, and went. The plan was to run 3 laps of the Duke XC course which would actually give me 9.3 for the day. I know this course, it's generally well populated, but mostly I just went because I know the distance, I didn't feel like measuring or estimating.

The first 3 miles: Just shuffling along, smiling at people I meet and watching the golfers through the trees. Every once in a while "oh my god, 9 MILES" would sneak into my mind, at which point I would say "hey, it's only 3 laps" and then my inner devil said "yeah, 3 3-mile laps." Somewhere about mile 2 I decided that while my IT band has been feeling much better, it's not ready to run up steep hills just yet. So I walked the big hills, shuffled down the steep downhills, and just ran the rest normally. Well...that strategy made me realize I really need to work on pacing! I'd run a 14-minute mile, followed by a 12-minute mile, followed by a 10-minute mile. That went on the entire time...

Second loop - Ok, this isn't so bad, 1/3 done. New golfers to watch, new people to smile at. Did a little silent cheer when I passed the 5 mile mark - over half way! At the end of this loop I stopped at the car to stretch, drink some water, and eat some m&m's (I know, probably not the best choice, but hey, it's what I had) and hit the trail again.

Third loop - Ok, I'm tired! My legs were definitely tired which of course I expected, by my arms were feeling sorta rubbery too. My left leg was getting really tight even with the couple minutes of stretching I did - and when I could see the mile marker at the end of mile 7, but hadn't quite gotten there, I got pretty mild cramps in both calves. I stopped to stretch thinking about my hydration and came to the conclusion that I was fairly well hydrated...and then I thought about my moving week diet. Ok, that could be the problem. Stretched out the cramps and off I went again. At this point there was no prayer of running up the steep hills because even if my IT band would do it, my calves would have knotted up like mad. I passed the 8 mile marker with a huge smile on my face. Only one more to go. By this time the trail was getting kind empty, even though it wasn't even 3:00 yet...but there was this one other girl who I met going the opposite direction every lap - it made me feel good to know someone else was out there as long as I was!

As I finished I was thinking about how I've changed in the last 3 years. Grad school was pretty rough, and really did make me a different person. Unfortunately, one part of that was that my fitness really suffered (imagine that, in an exericse physiology program) and today I felt like I was really getting back to my old self again, it felt great. Also, though...3 years ago, knowing what a challenge this run would have been, I don't think I would have done it. I think I would have been content to never run more than 5 miles....I'm definitely much stronger now than I was in August of 2003....

It's been over a month

My IT band problem was diagnosed over a month ago. Progress is definitely slow - in fact, it's questionable whether I'm making any progress at all. Here's an overview of what has been going on for the past month:

*The pain in my left leg is such that I have to stop and stretch every .5 - .75 mile during my runs. Not unbearable, but really annoying.
*I've been missing a couple runs a week due to the pain - not cool.
*Reworked the training schedule - added another rest day and a XT/short easy run day in the hopes of alleviating some of this
*Resting HR has dropped a little bit, same for my weight and waist circumference - not much, but enough to tell I'm doing something


The race is just over 10 weeks away...

Not much to say, except...

The doctor says my meniscus is fine! Apparently the problem is my IT Band - definitely a sucky injury, but so much better than what I was expecting.

Back to running tomorrow.