Blisters on top of blisters

My feet are pretty used to having gnarly-looking blisters on them.  In fact, at any given moment, I usually have a black/bruised toenail and at least one fresh or one remnant of a blister. They're a fact of running. I wear special wicking socks, I make sure there is plenty of room in the toebox of my shoe, and yet I still routinely get blisters on all my toes. 

Yesterday I discovered a particularly painful one. I'd gotten a blister after the Laguna Hills half marathon on the outside of my big toe on my left foot. It had popped and drained, as usual, and I paid no attention to it. Well, over the course of the next 2 weeks, I kept developing new blisters in pretty much the same spot - blisters developing on top of blisters. Yesterday morning I peeled my sock off before heading to the shower and discovered that the entire side of my toe was a gruesome looking yellow mass of half-popped, half-fresh blister, with a small sore gash next to it. I wore flip-flops to work to give my foot room to breathe, but by the afternoon, my toe was throbbing even while sitting at my desk and I was hobbling around. I came home and rested on the bed for a while, but my toe was throbbing in pain so bad that the slightest touch of the blanket or rolling over was agony. I put some neosporin and a band-aid on overnight and that helped a bit -- enough to enable me to get a 12-miler in this morning with only mild discomfort.

I've heard it said that the most painful part of a run is actually the shower after the run, and when the water in the shower this morning hit the side of my toe and I gasped in pain, I saw the wisdom of that statement.  I've never been this disabled by a blister that wasn't under my toenail (those effers hurt). It's almost impressive. I'm supposed to do the mud run down in Pendleton tomorrow. I'm hoping my toe cooperates, because marathon training starts on Monday officially and I can't afford to get off to a bad start because of some poopy blisters.

Today's run: 12.3 miles, about 1 hour 48 minutes, Aliso & Wood Canyon. Plus stopped at the gym to do biceps. 

Sweater Magee

It seems the more I run and the better shape I get in, the more I sweat. It's to the point where I I only like to work out in black shirts because they don't show my sweat as much as other colors . Even just a 3 mile run has me dripping with sweat. I've heard that increased sweating is actually a sign of an efficient cooling system, but it sucks being a girl and going to the gym and being a huge sweatball and using my sweat towel more than anyone else there. Most other girls are in cute workout clothes and don't seem to be sweating, while sweat drips down my legs and my shirt is absolutely soaked. It's embarrassing. Wish I were more feminine and didn't have to look like I just stood under a waterfall after I run. Oh well. It is a nice feature to have when I'm hungover and then I just hop on the treadmill and sweat out all the toxins and feel much less hungover. I suppose it has its perks. 

By the way, I ate Kabuki sushi yesterday and it was really disappointing. Mental note to never get sushi from there again. 

Monday: day of rest

Tuesday: 1 mi warmup, 2x1600 @ 7:13 pace with 1/3 mi slow jogs in between, plus 1x400 @ 7:13 pace, 1 mi cooldown (5 mi total). Plus abs and biceps.

Wednesday: 5 mi @ race pace (8:13 pace). Plus triceps and shoulders

Thursday: rest

Friday: 1 mi warmup, 5x800 @ 7:19 pace with 1/4 mi slow jogging in between, 1 mi cooldown (5 mi total). Plus abs and back.

One week until official training starts

Why is it that the day after a long run I always have some of my best runs? Today I decided to do a tempo run and thought I'd do a 45 to 50 minute one.  Five minutes into my run I knew this was going to be a good day so I ended up doing a 60 minute tempo run, peaking at 7:40 pace for five minutes and holding 7:47 pace for another 10.  And at the end of 60 minutes, I felt great and probably could have kept going for another couple of miles. 

It's always like that the day after a "long run" (not that yesterday's 10 was that long).  I always am able to do great tempo or interval workouts the day after. Does it work different muscles? Are my lungs in peak form or something after an endurance run? I'm not sure what it is, but I think I'm going to continue to take advantage of the stamina boost I always feel after my long runs and try to do my tempo runs and interval training (but maybe not the hill repeats) the day after long runs. I know Hal Higdon's plan calls for those on Tuesdays and Thursdays but I think it makes sense to do them on days that are easier for me. I don't know, maybe my logic is completely flawed here, but I think as long as I'm doing those workouts, it fundamentally doesn't matter what day I do them on, right?

Training for LB starts next Monday officially. I'm a little nervous because this is for real - the training that supposedly gets me up to Boston level. I think I can do it, I just need to be disciplined.

Time to bust out the new shoes and lay my old shoes to rest. My shins will thank me.

Today's run: 60 minute tempo run, 7.45 miles. Also finally did some ab work, triceps, and back.

An Exercise In Vanity

As if there weren't already 8,000,000,000 blogs out there, I've decided to join the ranks of the narcissistic and create my own blog in the deluded belief that anyone else out there actually gives two craps about what I have to say.  And I don't really have much to say. I primarily intend for this to serve as a running log since I was too cheap to go out and buy that nice neat one from Runner's World this year even though I really do enjoy tracking my mileage throughout the year. 

The goal for 2008: BQ. That's 3:40:59.  

Last marathon: PF Chang Rock & Roll Marathon in January 2008. 3:47:59.  

Exactly 7 minutes to go. And those will NOT be an easy 7 minutes.

I signed up for the Long Beach marathon on October 12. Normally I don't commit this early and hold off on registering until about a month or 6 weeks to  before in case injury, etc prevents me from running it. But those brilliant race organizers at the LB marathon suckered me in to early registration with their enticements of a technical tee (and trust me, I sweat enough to need those instead of regular cotton) AND a personalized bib. Oh, and $10 cheaper registration (those $10 will go towards the ridiculous parking fee at the mandatory expo I have to pick my race packet up at the day before the race).  Sadly, I was not witty enough to think up anything clever for my bib other than "BETH." 

I'm making incremental progress in my goal of knocking off those 7 minutes. 

I ran the Laguna Hills half on Monday (Memorial Day) in 1:43:33. My goal was 1:45 and the course was pretty tough (first six miles or so of knee-blasting downhill and then 7 miles or so of painful, painful incline), so I was thrilled with my time. The handy-dandy pace calculator at marathonguide.com (you know you're a running geek when that's one of your favorite websites) predicted a marathon finish of around 3:37 based on those results. Sheer glee to see that!

I also ran my first 10k since my miserable showing in the Turkey Trot last November. At the Reaching for the Cure 10k on May 4, I ran a PR of 48:10. I wanted to crack 47 but I was still happy with my time. 

So I'm remaining optimistic about my prospects of BQ'ing in the LBC. 

Today's run: 10.2 miles, Back Bay trail. Around 1:28.