Protecting yourself while running

I really appreciate all the kind comments regarding my foot pain. I’ve been resting it as much as possible and icing it frequently. It is feeling much better but I’m planning to take it easy through the week, and hopefully get back to running this weekend. Fingers crossed.

But all that being said, something much more serious happened in the little town I live in today, that I thought would be worth sharing and hopefully discussing in the comments.

At 3pm today, in broad daylight, on a bike path that is near neighborhoods, local businesses and even a major (and relatively busy road), a woman was biking on a bike path and was stabbed in the throat by a random man. The details are still coming out, and as I type this local and state police are still trying to track the guy down. The woman is in the hospital but it sounds like she will be okay, thank goodness.

The bike path that this happened on, is one that I have frequently ran on. The hubby and I lived right along it before we bought and moved into our house, and I have been running on it as my training runs have gotten longer, because it is a good, scenic way to add in a 5 mile out-and-back route. In fact, I ran on it the last time I ran, on Sunday. To say I’m freaked out would be completely accurate. And although I get that this isn’t about me personally, I feel the effects of it.

As a female, I do tend to “watch my back” when I am walking in town after dark alone, or walking to my car in a dark parking lot or garage. Though I am watchful when I am running, I definitely feel a (false) sense of security when it is daylight. I do have a couple habits that I have put in place to protect myself;

• I carry my cell phone,
• I do change my route frequently, including running in different areas when it’s dark, or taking my running inside to the treadmill,
• I have taken a few self-defense classes,
• my dad and I run together occasionally,
• my husband always knows my route and ETA back home,
• and I have the runner pepper spray, but honestly I only carry it when I run in the early morning darkness (but that will change now).

I plan to not run on this specific path for a while, and maybe never on the more remote parts of the trail alone. I’ll be sticking to highly populated neighborhoods for the remainder of my training cycle.

I hate to feel scared, and hate that someone could cause me (and others I know) to feel scared to go running outside alone. I think this is just a reminder to me to re-assess my running habits and re-think about how I could make myself safer.

What do you do to protect yourself when you are running?

Unplanned thirteen

Yesterday I set out to do a 23 miler. I know it may seem weird, but that’s what the training plan I’m following called for. I told myself that if I didn’t want to push myself to 23, 20 would be fine.

The first 9 went great. I had to trudge through some mud on the one trail but overall my fueling and everything was feeling good. Then around mile 10 I got this sudden pain in the bottom/side of my foot. I slowed to a walk and it went away. I tried to run again and it came back, stronger. I knew that I shouldn’t keep running. It was one of those pains.

It’s there. Except on my left food.

(original photo source)

I called my husband (so glad I carry my phone with me) but it just rang and rang and rang. Just my luck that he would be out for his long run at the same time. So I hobbled my way 3 miles home. In the end I did 13 but the last three miles were definitely hobbles. 7 to 10 miles short of my goal.

I was really frustrated when I got home, but clearly this is my body saying “yo, chill out a second” so I’m going to listen. My mom (who is a PTA) took a look and said there’s some tendons and tissue there and it’s probably just irritated from an increase in mileage, but nothing seemed broken or anything.

I still have 4 weeks til the race, 2 of which are taper, and one which should be 18 miles (in two weeks). I’m hopeful if I take it easy this week it will go away. I hope.

I’ve heard that this sort of thing is kind of normal when you peak in training, so I just sort of keep reminding myself about that. I’ll probably have to skip my last Zumba class of the session tomorrow, and potentially kickboxing on Wednesday, which is a bummer, but since running is my first love I’ll do what I have to do to get back to it. I’m taping my foot, icing and resting it as I can (it figures today at work would require a lot of walking, gr).

Has anyone had anything similar? Any advice? Motivation? It’s going to be okay right? 🙂

My arms

On Sunday I took a huge fall while doing a 10 miler with my dad. We turned onto a gravel road and BAM I fell straight on my face. My arms couldn’t get out in time to stop my face from hitting, and I’ve got some great scratches and bruises on my chin, nose, hands and knees to prove it. Yesterday and today my arms have felt like I went lifting for a few hours – they are so unbelievably sore. The plan was to do EA active arm work last night… given how sore and tired my arms felt, I passed. Instead the husband and I made homemade vegetarian burritos (black beans, rice, onions, salsa and cheedar cheese – YUM), took care of some budgetary stuff and I sat promptly on the couch to watch Real Housewives of OC on the DVR (while he went and played XBox – I’d never force him to sit through that, haha).

Tonight the plan calls for a 30 minute run, I feel like I just need to get out there and run again.  We’ll see how I feel though.