Mostly thinking out loud.

OUCH. Man, my Adductors? the muscles on the inner thighs? and my feet are just screaming. Clearly, I need to do some more downhill stuff.

At one point when I was running downhill yesterday, you know, the day that DP tried to kill me, my left ankle also felt week and threatened to give out. It wasn't a pain, exactly, just a reminder that ANY SECOND now, it could just fail, probably because the big muscles that are supposed to take care of it couldn't, so I need to work on that, too.

I figure that the quads and adductors and such are pretty much all that keeps us from rolling downhill, and mine got a lot of use yesterday. Now I'm worried about the New Mexico marathon on the 31st because a large portion of the run is downhill. It's about a 1000 foot drop over 4 or 5 miles.
That didn't used to be a problem, but I've spent most of the triathlon season focusing on long, flat runs so now, well, I guess we'll see, won't we? Yeah, we'll see. In about 12 days.

Now that I'm not a teacher, I'm not on my feet all day. Being a teacher was a tremendous advantage; my body was used to being upright, and I wore flat shoes that kept my archilles nice and stretched.

Most people underestimate the adjustment your body has to make to be upright for long periods of time--marathons are about running, sure, but they are also about being used to being upright for long periods of time - that's why they take so much out of you. Your legs, spine, pelvis--everything has to adjust to bearing your entire body's weight vertically on a smaller area (your feet) than when you sit. Even as active as I have been, every August I would head back to work and the first few days would be spent with a sore lower back and achy feet.

So now that I'm not teaching, if I want to continue toward ultra-running. I'll have to increase my weekly running volume and maybe even walk on days that I'm not running. I'll need to do different types of running: hills, flats, trails. I have one more sprint triathlon and then an Olympic, both in September, and then I'm pretty much done for the season and I'll be focusing on running and swimming, with some cycling for cross-training, mostly in spin class when it gets cold and some commuting.

So here's another thing about not teaching. Teenagers? In my town? Don't know me. I'm just some old lady in a skort. And, I kind of get that eye-rolling thing reminding me that I'm a patently uncool grownup and I feel like yelling, "Hey, turdager! I am SO cool! Wanna race? I may not win in the short race but I'll keep running long after you quit..."

I have got to get over this need to appear cool. It's not my job anymore.

I was 58 degrees this morning. Finally. Oooo, I love fall!

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