injury

by

The Runner’s Paradox

It was a long weekend trying to rest so that my back would feel better.

I tried, but didn’t succeed.

No, I didn’t run.  That would have been a mistake and I’ve made that mistake in the past.

Unfortunately my Lovely Wife, who has had a bad back for 3 years with 2 ruptured disks, woke up Saturday morning with what seemed to be a pinched nerve in her back.  She was a trooper and went out with me to do errands all weekend.  My only issue was helping her in and out of the car, which was not easy with my own messed up back.  She was better by last night, so hopefully she is on the mend – as much as one can be on the mend with 2 ruptured disks.

Then there was the toilet that broke.  I had to try to replace the insides of this toilet that I “fixed” 3 weeks ago.  That was an hour of leaning over a toilet and without a hangover to enjoy (just kidding).

Finally, between Church Sunday morning (Catholics do a lot of kneeling) and fixing TJ’s broken deadbolt, I don’t think I am in much better shape then when the weekend began.

On a good note, I slept well and am still below 185 lbs, which after pizza on Friday night and burgers last night, I’m thrilled.

Back to running (pun intended), I may try some easy miles this afternoon.  I’ll have to see  how I feel when I get home.  I am in the runners paradox.  Do I try to run to keep in the best shape of my life, or do I keep resting even though it hasn’t done much for me?  To be honest, while I am running I don’t feel any pain.  It seems to come on me after walking all day (I average 2 – 3 miles walking a day at work).  I tend to walk fast in order to get a lot done, but today I am going to slow it way down and see if that helps.

I miss running!

Tom

by

Fast slow run or Slow fast run

I decided to walk yesterday as after my run on Tuesday my back was not happy.

However, as I got about a half mile into my walk, I was feeling fine and thought that I’d try running slowly and with little pounding.

Confession: I have a hard time with a LSD (Long Slow Distance) or any slow distance.  I don’t say this to brag, but to confess a weakness.  When I run, I do run to feel, but after a bit I am running faster then I should on an easy run.  Of course I have the faster runs down, but doing a fast run everyday is bad, not only for my body, but also for my mind.  If I am running hard everyday, then I am always pushing myself and never just enjoying the run.

So my goal is to slow down, especially now that it is getting hot out.

Back to yesterday.  I achieved my goal… sort of…

I managed to run about a minute a mile slower then my normal runs have been over the past month.  It felt really good.  I wasn’t huffing and puffing.  I wasn’t tired.  In fact I received a call about 2.5 miles into my run and answered in a normal conversational voice.

I have been reading about bloggers who are going beyond the marathon.  You ultra marathon runners really impress me.  A coworker had a friend in NY who ran 50 miles last weekend.  That would be a cool goal.  If I could just run at a pace that was comfortable and run longer, that would be awesome and maybe one day I could do something beyond what I have already accomplished.

My goal for the time being is to slow down, especially for the summer.  I’ll keep running my mountains and doing faster runs and workouts, but on my normal average day, I will try to develop a running style that has much less impact and will allow me to go further with less effort.

Sounds like something I should have figured out before now… huh?

Tom

by

Recovery by feel

Yesterday I had a good run.

I am trying to run to feel after my last race.  Monday I didn’t run as my heel and hip were sore from my mountain run on Sunday.

I went out yesterday and felt really good.  I got a mile and a half into my run and noticed I was at a 7:15 pace.  Not good, as the heat index was getting close to 90 and the weather had been cool lately.  By the time I got to the two mile mark, I was really feeling the fatigue.  So I walked.  I walked 3 times during my run.  I’ve decided that I’m going to work at not doing the things that have injured me in the past.

Here is my plan:

  • Run to feel.
  • Run 4 miles a day during the week and 8 on a weekend day.
  • Don’t increase my mileage until I can run 2 weeks straight without pain.
  • If I have a bad day, walk the next day.
  • Walk every day that I feel badly.
  • Have fun and don’t push it.

I don’t have another race for a month and that is a 5K, so I have time to take my race recovery slow.  It usually takes me a month or so to recover fully from a hard run race.  I think that is because I come back too quickly and I push too hard.  I have to remember that I have only been running for 26 months and though I am in the best physical condition of my life, I am over 50 years old.

Yesterday, after my run, my hip/back hurt.  I was actually hurting quite a bit, so I’ll won’t decide if I am running at all today until I see how I feel this afternoon.

Have an awesome day and I hope my musings help someone “out there”.

Tom

by

Mountain Run PR!

I’m guess people could be getting tired of hearing about my mountain running, but it has been such a transformational thing to me and my running, I want to pass it along my experience along.

Yesterday was my first mountain run in 3 weeks and my first since last weekend’s half marathon.  I had taken last week off of running (okay, I ran 6 miles) to make sure I don’t get injured in my post race workouts as I have in the past.

I began at an easy pace as I warmed up.  By the time I got to the foot of the mountain, I was running too fast.  I knew I was running too fast for a mountain run, but being that I hadn’t run much in 7 days, I guess I got carried away.

About half way up the steepest part of the mountain road (one of the first hills) I had to walk.  That was okay.  I walked about 30 seconds and then started slower and kept a good pace.

By the time I got to the top I was getting tired.  I could tell I hadn’t run this road much in three weeks.  My legs were tried and I was breathing hard.  At the top of the mountain, there is about a half mile of fairly level running before I turn around.  I got to the turn around point, paused long enough to take and post a picture and headed back down.

20140504-094812.jpg

This was my only real scare.  Right after I posted the picture above on my previous post, I began to run again and felt a “pull” in my left heel.  Oh no!  It had been a good run and beyond that, I didn’t want to get injured again.  So I relaxed and kept my run going.  I just paid close attention to how I was feeling and my form.  Honestly, I don’t think I hurt myself, but my past experience tells me that sometimes injuries don’t show up right away.

As I got to the bottom of the mountain, I had 1.5 miles to get back to the car.  I know my run was in record mountain running time, as I know I was running well.  So I pushed a bit going up and down the hills leading back to my car.  I passed a guy walking the opposite direction who said, “Does it feel as bad as you thought it would?” I had to ask him to repeat his question.  He was being nice, knowing I was breathing hard and really pushing.  I just yelled back, “Nah, this is easy”!  He just laughed and we continued in our separate directions.

I got up the last hill and could see my car.  I finally looked at my time.  8:45 pace.  Seriously?!?  I ran hard down the last hill.  My pace dropped to 8:42 for the run.  My total time was 1:09:47 for the 8 miles.  My best time before this was a run with TJ several months ago that was at an 8:50 pace.

Mountain run PR

Mountain run PR

My heel is better today and I am still being careful.

My hip isn’t doing great, but is much better then last week.  I wear a sciatica belt on my mountain runs to help with the support and that makes a lot of difference.

So a half marathon PR last week and a mountain run PR this week.  All in all, I’m pretty happy.

I’ve been trying to catch up on other people’s blogs by the way.  I got way behind the past week or two, but I am getting there slowly.  🙂

Have an awesome week.

Tom

by

Learning running lessons from the past

Running is the ultimate teacher.

If you want to do your best, then you have to learn from your friends, the help of other runners and your past mistakes.

I have run several hard races in the past.  After my first half marathon, I started having some hip problems.  After my marathon, I was out 3 months, off and on, with hip and foot issues.  I also got injured after running a 5K earlier this year.

Honestly, I don’t think it was the races that hurt me.  Looking back, I realize that I’ve pushed too hard AFTER the races to get back to training.  A few weeks after my marathon, I not only ran 10 days in a row, but also did a hard trail run a few weeks later.  That was the icing on the cake, that is my hip.  It was almost 6 months before I got back to a 100 mile month.

My last half marathon was last Saturday.  It was awesome.  I ran well and on a tough course.  I will look back and be excited for months about that race.

HOWEVER…

Tuesday, I decided to run my first run after the race.  It went well.  I ran 4 miles at an 8:21 pace.  Tuesday night I was in a lot of pain. My shoulder hurt and my hip was killing me.  Wednesday I concentrated on my shoulder as I was concerned that I pinched a nerve running.  That wasn’t the issue, it was just the way I slept.  I did however, ignore my hip pain.  It was in such pain I had to take medication to sleep.

Wednesday was the 30th of April and I was at 118 miles for the month.  I decided to run an easy 2 miles and walk the rest.  I didn’t.  I ran a fast two miles at my half marathon pace, but I did walk after that.

Yesterday I walked.  No running.

My hip is better.  No real pain.  Just a little pain while I drive which isn’t abnormal.  In fact I could have run yesterday.  I could run today.  I could run tomorrow.  I won’t.

I am going to learn from my mistakes in the past and come back slowly.  I have plenty of time until my next race.  I have a lot of mountains to run.  In fact my mountain running has been the one thing to help my hip more then anything else.  After several weeks of running my mountain on the weekend, I really had no pain left.  I think that strengthening my quads and all the muscles in my legs has taken the pressure off my hip.

So next Sunday will be my first run since my 2 miles on Wednesday.  I’ll run my mountain slowly and enjoy the run and take it easy.  I’ll play it by feel over the next few weeks as to how much I run.

I need to learn from my past.  Learn from friends.  Learn from other runners.  Learn from my mistakes.

If I don’t learn, I’ll never make my goal of qualifying for Boston.  I’ll run hurt, slow and probably have to stop.  I’d rather learn now and take it easy, then live with the pain of being stupid.

’nuff said.

Tom

by

Riding the run

photo

As you can see, my run yesterday went really well.  It was a bit different then most of my runs, and here is why…

First, I was messing around with my pebble watch and my iSmoothRun app.  The app allows you to set any info on your screen for your run.  It also allows you to set laps, so as you can see above, I pressed the lap button after the first 1.36 miles and my app showed me the laps after I finished.  Honestly my watch messed up and stopped showing me my time.  I hit a button by accident and couldn’t get it back. I was annoyed, but in a way it helped.  I just ran to feel and ignored my watch.  As you can see my last two miles were under an 8:00 mile and that includes several steep up hill runs.  So I was very pleased when I finished.

On to another reason my run was different.  This one was not good and reminded me of my marathon training.  I had just gotten started running in my new old shoes (the ones I found after I cussed the hotel for stealing them).  Then the bone on my left foot that goes to my big toe started hurting.  This happened on my last longish run with @BigBigGeek a week before my marathon.  So annoying.  I couldn’t tell if I tied my shoe too tight or what was causing the pain.  So I stopped several times to loosen my shoe.  Finally I just kept running and tried not to overdue it.  I kept wondering if I should stop or keep going.  I kept going.

Ultimately it didn’t hurt my pace and as soon as I got home and took off my shoes my foot was fine.  It was very strange as I couldn’t have loosened it any more then I did.

Oh well.  Here’s hoping it doesn’t happen again this afternoon.

All in all things are going really well.  My legs are getting stronger then they have ever been.  Running sometimes feels like I am just riding the run, if that makes sense. It is like I am sitting on these “bionic” legs that are moving me forward.  It is all pretty cool and exciting.

Feet, don’t fail me now…

Tom

 

by

33 miles and 20,000 views

 

 

 

 

To begin this post, I wanted to put up a screenshot from my phone from yesterday morning.

photo

 

20,000 views.

That may not be a big deal, I don’t honestly know.  For me, however, it is really cool.  Thank you to everyone who looks at my blog, either once, twice or daily.  It means a lot to me.  The best ever at 646 was the day of my marathon.  Good times!

Okay, on to running news.  I got my 6 days in a row in for a total of 33 miles (not bad coming back from an injury).  Yesterday was my sixth.  I went out a bit overconfident and started too fast.  By the 2 mile mark I was shot.  So I walked a few seconds and started up again.  Sort of funny that I was overconfident.  Confidence in running hasn’t been my thing over the past year.  Still my average pace ended at 8:40, which is only about 5 seconds a mile slower then my other days this week.

No more said about ACV this post.  I use it and I like it.  Even the taste is getting tolerable.  I have almost 2 weeks of great progress and I mostly attribute it to that.

Today will be an off day.  I will try to get several miles in walking.  Then tomorrow we are leaving our adult kids at home and going to Chattanooga.  I plan on getting up early each day and running River Walk.   It is an awesome path that was built and goes about 7 or 8 miles along the river.  I hope to run 8 miles each day we are there.  Tomorrow morning I will get up, get a wash in, drive to the park and do my weekly run up the mountain.  Then I will be getting ready to head out of town.

Everyone needs a break and I really enjoy these weekend trips with my Lovely Wife and this time with my oldest son.  We have a great routine and time away is always good.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.  This may be my last post until Monday, but time will tell.

Tom

 

 

by

I’m being taunted by RunKeeper

I use 3 running apps to track my progress.  I like both Nike (with whom I share workouts with @bigBigGeek and @David_Topping) and RunKeeper.  I really like features about both and so I track my runs in both.  The way I track my runs in 2 apps is by using a 3rd; iSmoothRun.

The iSmoothRun app lets me use it to track my run and then upload to both Nike and RunKeeper. On top of that, I send a backup to my DropBox just in case it is needed (which I have needed once in the past).

So how is RunKeeper taunting me?  I got this nice reminder on my phone a few minutes ago:

Exactly 7 days go, you were working out. Lets make that happen again!

Seriously RunKeeper?!?  I have a hard enough time NOT running while trying to recover from falling UP the stairs.  Now you taunt me with this?

Okay, I am just kidding… sort of.   However, for me, that reminder was honestly not appreciated. 🙂

Tomorrow is a new beginning.  Nashville, here I come!

by

Good weekend, but miss my running

It was a nice weekend.

I didn’t run.  I did get to do some walking.  My hip was feeling better, but I got a strange pain between my two hips above my tailbone, so I figure I need to take it easy and see if this is something to be worried about or just “fallout” from my fall up the stairs.

I guess I am in the, “two steps forward and one back” phase of my running.

I can’t wait to get back to my mountain and regular running.  I can feel the endorphins leaving my body as I write this.

Oh well.  It is all part of the fun of running.  The ups and the downs.

I did get me a new pair of my shoes ordered so they will be waiting for me.

Have a great week.

by

Those stupid steps!

It was a good run.

I got 5 miles in.  The first 5 mile since I got sick 2 weeks ago.  It was cold, raining, and I felt great!

Then it happened.  No not on the run.  I was home.  I made my Lovely Wife some eggs and was taking them to her.

I walked ran up the stairs and my foot slipped.  I fell on my knee and… yes… jammed my bad hip.  Seriously?  I was so angry with myself and in so much pain!

My run was almost perfect.  Even though it was close to freezing and raining, I ran great.  I ran steady.  Outside of my first mile, I kept the same pace the whole time.  That is a big deal to me.  I tend to vary my pace quite a bit, but this was just steady.  It felt good.  I felt good.  My hip felt good.

Now I’m hurt.

I woke up this morning and didn’t feel as bad as I thought I would.  But as the morning has gone on, my hip is getting stiff and sore.  I am walking and icing and doing anything I can to keep it mobile which helps.

To be honest, I don’t think I could run today, even if I tried.

Doctors orders will be a week off.  I’ll be walking and keeping it moving.  I’ll be resting.  I’ll be taking anti-inflammatories.

Just to kick my mood up, I purchased a new pair of my running shoes.  I love my Brooks Pure Flow 2 shoes and got them for $50 with free 2 day shipping at RunningWarehouse.  They will be waiting for me next week as I start my umpteenth comeback from injury.  This one was stupid, but an injury is an injury.

Have an awesome weekend.  Run, walk, have fun.  Life is short.

Tom

by

Running in the cold and feeling my hip again

I felt my hip yesterday.

I ran 4.5 miles and it was cold.  In fact just one day before TJ and I were talking about how hot it was as we ran.  But yesterday, windchill was below freezing and I had all my winter garb on.

My hip hurts when I am not running relaxed.  I can feel pain, tell myself to relax, and within seconds the pain has subsided.  I also think it is worse in the cold.  Holding my body stiff as I run into wind and cold that I thought had passed for another year.

All in all it was a good run.  By the time it was over, I felt as if I had settled into it and could run more, but decided I didn’t want to take a chance of hurting myself so I stopped.  This was the second run after my sickness.  I can still feel it in my chest some, but I am definitely on the mend.

3 more runs before I take another week off.  Just some personal stuff I need to do.  Then on with training for my April half marathon.

Life is good.

Tom