Month: December 2013

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On the road again – running day 5

4 for 5!

That’s right.  I’ve now run 4 out of 5 days.  I’m still not 100% and when I approach steep hills I walk up them because they cause me the most pain.  But here is the breakdown of my last 5 days.

  • Wednesday: 7 miles
  • Thursday: off
  • Friday: 3 miles
  • Saturday: 4 miles
  • Sunday: 4 miles

So adding it all up, I’m at 18 miles in 5 days.  Not much really, but I’ll take it.   I am feeling pretty well overall and the runs have been enjoyable with 2 of them with other people.

My goal is to keep in the 4 mile range and around 10:00 pace for a while until I am able to run without pain.  We have a 5K coming up in a couple of weeks that I want to run with TJ and then a half marathon in February.  I have consigned myself to not push hard in either race since I don’t want to be out hurt for another month.

So I am slowly building up my endurance and coming back to life with my running and not a day too soon.  My weight is up about 13 lbs since my marathon and at 4 miles a day I can start bringing it under control.

This injury thing has been tough, but it is nothing that almost all runners haven’t experienced.  I made some mistakes that made it worse and one day I will write my thoughts about what I did wrong and what I did right!

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2 days of runs

I think I’m finally coming back from my injury. I ran 3 mikes yesterday and 4.25 today with @bigbiggeek.

Today’s run was fun. I really enjoy my runs with @bigbiggeek and due to my stupid injuries, I haven’t been able to run much. We ran in the state park, in the cold and rain. Still it was great to catch up. My hip did great until toward the end when it started getting sore. Normally in the rain my bursitis acts up, but I had very little pain today.

I’m excited that I stumbled upon the “New Serola Sacroiliac Belt” on Amazon yesterday. (Link). It seems to help a lot of people. I can’t wait to give it a try.

All in all a great (but rainy) day!

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7 mile Christmas day run!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, as I did.  It was wonderful to spend time with my family and see my youngest child finally get his license.  He is a cautious driver and I’m glad to have a new chauffeur in the house. 🙂

Running

I had  a great run yesterday with TJ.  We ran last Christmas in the cold and rain, but yesterday was sunny and 48 degrees.  Not a bad day for a run.

So after all the food of the morning, we headed out at lunchtime for a 3 mile run. Two days earlier I had to stop a run after 2 miles because my hip was hurting me too much.  It was also very cold and windy and I knew I was tensing up.  So I took Christmas Eve off and then headed out with TJ for a slow easy run.

We decided to run the route of a 5K we ran in our neighborhood last spring. It isn’t normally a run we can do since part of the run is on a busy, narrow 2 lane road, but being Christmas day, we thought it would be safe.

It was a good run and we talked quite a bit about my hip and how I could run more and not get hurt.  As we ran, we walked up steep hills since they are painful to me.  We also ran at a good pace for recovery.  We averaged about 10:50 pace which is about 2 minutes slower than my normal winter pace.

After the three miles were up we decided to run a short trail behind our house.  This is a flat, easy trail.  More like a managed mile long park then a trail.  Anyway, we finished that two mile trail and headed home.  Nope.  By the time we got home, TJ mentioned that just one more mile and we would be at the mileage we ran last Christmas (7 miles), so we headed out for one more.  We finished at 7 miles in 1:13:50.

Okay, here is the significance of this run.

I haven’t run 7 miles or over 70 minutes since my marathon in September.  On top of that I really felt great.  Very little hip pain and only a moment of pain from my heel spur.  I felt so great after this run.  Christmas day, beautiful weather, a fun time with my second oldest son and the longest run in nearly 4 months.

Today I’m sore, but not doing badly.  I have twinges from my hip, but overall feel great.  I may walk this afternoon rather than run, just to play it safe. I’ll see after I get home from work.

So thank TJ for a fun run and a confidence booster.  Oh – and for Christmas TJ said he’d pay for my next marathon.  Although I don’t know when that will be, it was such a great gift.

Life is good and I’m definitely feeling better about things.

Slow and steady.

I will be back.

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I’m happy

2 days left.

2 days until I can run again… hopefully.

What bad timing.  Not running during Christmas where there is food everywhere.  At my work, rather than a Christmas lunch, we decided to have 2 people bring in some type of food each day for 2 weeks.  So there has been real food and dips; doughnuts and candy; just about any type of food every day for 14 days.

Therefore my weight went up more than it has been.  Fortunately (sort of)  I had a nauseous headache yesterday and couldn’t stomach the food that was brought.  I also couldn’t walk after I got home because I just felt awful.  I went to bed, eat some soup and went to sleep early.  I did wake up at 2:30, but still got 8 hours of sleep.

I haven’t been too inspired to write this blog lately.  I guess it is a combination of not running, not wanting to complain about not running and just the time of year.

Finishing the marathon

Finishing the marathon

I was thinking back to my marathon in September today though.  It was so hard and yet so rewarding.  I can’t believe I was able to run 26.2 miles after only running for 19 months.  Now, if I get to 4 miles I’m elated.

Life is good though.  I have good kids, a lovely wife and a great home.

I can’t ask for much more than that.

2 days left.

I’m happy.

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Last four months of running

It was a quiet weekend.  Taking a week off from running isn’t much fun.  Especially since my mileage has tanked in the past 4 months:

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  • August 2013 – 195 miles
  • September 2013 – 66 miles
  • October 2013 – 44 miles
  • November 2013 – 34 miles
  • December 2013 – 12.5 miles

So, I’m not real happy with all the time I’ve had to take off.  I’m hoping that after this week off, I’ll begin to get back to some sort of consistent running, even it is only a few miles a day.  Time will tell.

Part of my latest problem was that I was beginning to recover and run consistently and then ran a 5K and that set me back again.  My plan now is not to run a race before the Mercedes Half Marathon in February.  I REALLY want to run that as last year it was the most fun I’ve had at a race in my short running carrier.

So, onward and upward.  Only 4 days left in my self imposed rest.

Frankly I need to run just so I can keep this blog going.  A running blog without being able to run isn’t very interesting. 🙂

Tom

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Random thoughts about running, and taking a week off

It has been hard to keep positive about my running lately with all my physical issues.  One way I do is thinking about the feature length movie that will chronicle my journey from obesity to Boston. 🙂  Hmmm, that might be a good name for it to, “From Obesity to Boston – one man’s journey through massive suffering and how he overcame!”

Alright, seriously.  I must confess that as I run and my hip hurts and I just want to be done with this running thing, I do think about what it would feel like to reach my goal.  That keeps me going.

That said, I’m taking a week off of most exercise just to get past this.  I may take longer, but I do feel close to being over this “pain in the hip”.

Maybe while I take this week off I’ll start my screenplay.  Maybe I’ll start my book.  Maybe I’ll just sit and watch reality shows.  Maybe my life is a reality show that I don’t even know is being filmed.  Maybe all life it just the matrix and we are in the middle of a computer simulation.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/11/universe-hologram-physicists_n_4428359.html.

Ultimately we all try to find significance in life because sometimes the world feels like it just randomly spins.  I’m glad I have my faith and it was given to me in a way that cannot be taken.  Running, walking, doing nothing, I know in whom I believe and if it weren’t for that, I’d be gone long before now.

LIFE is Good.

See you in a week.

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A surprisingly painless run

I was surprised.  I ran yesterday and it didn’t hurt… much.

I left the house figuring I would walk 3 miles.  I got outside and it was cold.  Okay, it was only 48 degrees, but in Alabama the humidity makes the cold a lot colder.  So I decided to just run slowly to warm up a bit and stop if I felt too much pain in my hip.  Well I never had to stop.  After 3 miles I was done, but feeling pretty well.

Honestly at this point, I really want to get back into the mode of running each day; even if that is only 3 miles.  I have a half marathon in February that I would like to run and then a marathon in March that doesn’t look likely at the moment.

On top of all of that, I will need to take the week off beginning Friday, so that will give me some more time to heal.

Ahhh the fun of the sport.  I saw someone yesterday that I hadn’t seen in 9 years and he mentioned several times how good I looked.  That made me feel pretty good, especially since I still have on the extra 10 lbs since my injury.

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3 mile run – still not fully back yet

I ran yesterday for the first time since December 1.  It was a good run, but sadly not pain free.

I know I probably shouldn’t have run, but I was feeling well all day and so I just went for it.  Really the run wasn’t too bad.  I didn’t run fast and I stopped to walk a little when I needed to.

3 miles in 28:31.  Not bad.

I will probably walk today and see how I am doing tomorrow for a run.

It is killing me to miss running in the winter.  I really enjoy the cool weather and since we have avoided all ice and snow, it has been a good season so far for running.

Life is good and I’m not complaining.  Getting in 3 miles is awesome for me at this point.

Have a great day!

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The power of Twitter

Running wise it was a quite weekend.  I really think my hip is back to running health and I will test it out today.  I took the weekend off to rest it and because it was cold and rainy and I didn’t feel like running (just to be blunt).

I did have a cool thing that happened to me this weekend.  Not to do with running, but does deal with social media.

I have a Frigidaire refrigerator/freezer.  It has worked perfectly since we purchased it 5 years ago.  The frustrating part was that on the refrigerator side, all the shelves began breaking.  First the side door shelves and then the main section.  Even a nob built into the side of the fridge to hold a shelf broke off.  It has gotten to the point where we have 2 shelves in the main part of the fridge and 1 on the door and that is all that is left.  I thought about trashing it and getting a new unit, but it works flawlessly and the freezer side has no issues.

I checked on prices of the shelves and they range on the low side of $50 EACH.  That is crazy for shelves that have all broken.

So Saturday, in frustration I tweeted this:

@Frigidaire Great working fridge. Inside shelves all broke though and even pegs on wall to hold shelves.

Within minutes I got a tweet back and they asked for my email.  Long story short, after a few exchanges of emails and tweets, they sent me this:

Thanks for responding so quickly, Tom. I have provided you a parts reference guide for your refrigerator model. Please review it and provide me the part numbers you believe you are in need of. On behalf of Frigidaire, I would like to provide those to you at no cost as a way of saying thank you for being a part of our family.

Wow, now that is customer service.  I’ll be buying Frigidaire from now on and will recommend it to my friends.

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A great day – and a slow run!!!

Yesterday was a good day.

By the way, I  forgot to mention that my last post was #300 for me.  Pretty cool.  Next month will be one year of blogging.  I never thought I’d do that – and never thought I’d run a marathon.  Pretty big year.

Back to yesterday.

To begin with, I ran… a little.  I went out for my walk and decided to mix in some slow running to see how my hip was doing.  It did pretty well.  I didn’t time myself, but that old man with the walker passed me on my run so I know I wasn’t setting a PR. 🙂  Anyway, I walked a little and ran a little and then repeated that about 5 times.  3 miles.  So, I am beginning to feel confident that my time off of running after my 5K injury has helped and now I can begin to slowly get back into a routine.  (@BigBigGeek, I think we can do a slow run tomorrow at the park.  I’m not sure I can run the whole time though, so you may have to go on and meet me on your way back).

So running will begin again.  TJ still wants me to run the Shamrock marathon in Va. Beach in March.   Hmmm.  I’ve been thinking that might not happen, but I’m open.  I’ll see how December goes and how our half goes in February and decide from there.  Frankly that was not an option to me until he brought it up.  Although I never thought of running Boston until he brought it up.  What would I do without him!

Finally two great things happened at work yesterday.  First, my work has agreed to purchase my Google Glass option for the company.  I love that I am in IT and at a company who lets me be on the cutting edge.  Thanks Work!  Second, I was notified that our organization and the program I’ve created will be featured in major media markets in an advertising type of campaign.  The software company is impressed with our organization’s story and how I’ve programmed their software.

All in all it was a good day.

Today will be even better!

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Google Glass… My chance… Just out of reach

Still no running.  Yesterday was not a good SI day as it was raining and my hip was not well.  It was hard to walk my 3 miles, so I took it slow and just tried to enjoy the rain.  At least I was able to do that much.  At this point I am thankful for what I can do.  I keep reminding myself that this setback was due to running the Magic City 5K a week ago Sunday.  It was awesome, so I can’t complain.  To be honest,  it was worth the pain.

I got a surprise this morning in my email.  I got accepted to purchase Google Glass.

My chance at Google Glass

My chance at Google Glass

It is on a very limited distribution and won’t be out to the general public for a while.  For a geek like me this is AMAZING.  For those of you who aren’t geeks, it is essentially your phone apps projected in front of you via the glasses.  Could you imagine as a runner having your pace projected right in front of your eyes!  So cool!

Here is a link: http://www.google.com/glass/start/

Here is a video of what it is like to wear one:

The bad news is that they cost $1,500.  My heart broke.  I have a week to accept the offer, but I think that right now with Christmas so close that I won’t be able to afford one.  Oh well, I guess my Pebble watch will do for now.  Maybe I can save some money for when it is out for general distribution.

Off to work.  Everyone have an awesome day.