running

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5K race prep – run the route to learn the route

It was a lot of fun running yesterday with TJ and RS.  We decided to run the 5K route that we will be running next week.  As I mentioned yesterday, it is immensely helpful to run the course before the race so you know what you are up against and can plan how to run it.

The race is in a medium sized town and it begins in the middle of the shopping district, so needless to say it was hard to begin since there were too many cars to run on the road and the sidewalks had lots of shoppers.  But we decided to run the sidewalks slowly and stay out of the way of shoppers as best we could.

The race starts on a rather large downhill run.  It gets your momentum going so that is nice.  In fact most of the first mile or so is either level or downhill.  As we ran, we made a turn onto a busy street with no sidewalks, that was a bit scary as cars were coming toward us.  Finally sidewalks appeared and we ran up and down over curbs and around obstacles.

About half a mile into the run we turned into neighborhoods.  This was nice as we didn’t have to run the sidewalks and we could just enjoy our run.  I had a map on my phone from last year that I used to guide us along the way and I also put my phone on “Map My Run” so that we could have the route for the future and I could give to others who will be running with us.

We wound through neighborhoods and eventually back on the busy street.  I’d say this is the flattest 5K we have run.  Some hills, but most are inclines and not really hills.  The biggest hill is at the end (of course).  No, not the hill we started on thank goodness, but just a medium hill that leads back to the shopping district.  Once you hit that street, it is an easy run for the finish.

All in all it was a really nice run.  It will be nicer next week as we don’t have to run the sidewalks and can run the streets.  If interested, here is a link to my run that I mapped http://www.mapmyrun.com/workout/277053771.

No problem for me running and I used my new racing flats.  Next week I hope to run under 21:00.  If I stay healthy, I think I will have a shot.

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Last post… about my achilles.

I guess that ice bath for my foot really helped.  I had no pain all day. I didn’t have to ice my foot (mainly because I didn’t even think of doing it) and when I ran, I had no pain in my achilles.  It was really quite amazing.

Also my run went great.  After the 9:00 first mile, I averaged 8:17 for the last 4 miles.  I wasn’t trying to run that fast, but it was so nice to be able to run and not feel that twinge.  Also I felt great.  I wasn’t tired and my legs felt great.  I could have gone on for more miles, but I am really wanting to continue to cut back a bit before our 5K next week.  I  want to run it well and don’t want to take any chances with getting hurt again.

Today TJ, RS and I are going to run the 5K course to see what it is like.  We ran it last year but it has been a while and it is always nice to know the course before the race so you know how to run.

I hope this is my last post on my achilles.  I am still getting KT Tape today and going to use it as a preventative.  I’ll probably not have time to ice my foot after the run today since we will be far from home, but it should be fine since we are only running 3 miles.

Thanks to all who have been so helpful over the past week of my injury with suggestions and prayers.  It has made a difficult experience much easier.

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Ice bath for my foot after my run. Life is good.

I ran my planned 4 miles yesterday and did pretty well.  My heel (probably achilles) was a bit sore during the day so I kept ice on it and kept it elevated most of the day at work.  Actually it didn’t hurt while I moved,  just as I sat.  

I had several people mention ice to me.  One coworker mentioned taking ice baths in college after running (and the night before a race).  A friend of mine also mentioned these compression and ice combos that look very intriguing (http://110playharder.com/shop/).  

In light of these discussions, as I ran I got an idea (this happens a lot to me as I run).  Why not try an ice bath for my foot?   So I got home and found a bucket and filled it half way with ice.  I filled it up with water, sat outside with the dog as I usually do, and put my foot into the bucket.  COLD was my first thought.  I know from past physical therapy on my wrist that when you apply ice to an area, it first stings, then hurts and finally goes numb.  The point of numbness is what you want (but not too long of course).  So after about 15 minutes I took my foot out and let it dry and warm up.  The idea is that while it is cold, it is difficult for the body to get blood to that area, so when you take it out of the ice, blood rushes there.  That causes your muscles and such to repair much quicker.  

Well it was something to try.  I don’t know if it did much for me.  My heel is still sore today but not to walk on.  I may take today off and give it more time to rest.  The hard thing is that it doesn’t hurt when I run or walk, so I hate to just sit.  But I do what I need to do.  I Cor 9:24 says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.”  Why run, live or do anything half way.  I want to do everything to the best of my ability while being wise at the same time.

So that is my latest adventure.  Tomorrow TJ, RS and I are going to run the 5K route we will run next week at the Spring Scramble.  We like to run our race routes ahead of time so we know the ups and downs and how to plan for the race. 

Should be fun.

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Finally, a good run! And a new pair of shoes

Well I wouldn’t say I am back to normal (in the sense of running), but I had a good run yesterday with little pain. I did my planned 5 mile run with my iSmoothRun app muted. I kept my app silent so I wouldn’t be tempted to push myself faster than I felt I could go. I had 2 moments of pain, but one was more in my heel than my achilles, so I am not sure that is related. Anyway, for most of the run I didn’t even think of my achilles, so I feel I am getting back on track.

Just for the record, I was able to run at an 8:25 pace which is pretty much my normal pace at the moment / pre injury. I think that I have weathered this injury well and I hope that I don’t have any long-term effects from it. My knees do hurt more than normal, but I also think I have altered my running style to accommodate my injury and that hasn’t been good either. Yesterday I worked on just keeping my run normal and relaxed. I am going to try to get some KT Tape and see if that helps, but I haven’t had time to get it yet.

I did get to try new shoes. TJ and I both ordered a pair of Asics Piranha SP 3 running shoes from Running Warehouse (link).

Asics Piranha SP 3

Asics Piranha SP 3

I was a little apprehensive about running in them since they are racing flats and I didn’t know if it would aggravate my achilles, but I took them for a spin for the first mile of my run. Wow, they are nice. It is amazing how light they are and they didn’t bother my feet at all, but I did take them off after the first mile just to be safe. For $40 (use code FB15D for 15% off) they are worth the money and these are my first non Saucony running shoes to own. It’s funny, after waring the Piranha’s for a mile, my Saucony Mirage felt like bricks on my feet. It took a mile just to get used to their weight.

So, all in all it was a good day for running. I still feel a little sore in my heel area and I will still take my running slow for the rest of the week just to make sure I’m healthy for our 5K next week. I really want to have a great day at the Spring Scramble and am excited about all the people I know who will be running the race.

Life is good!!!

Tom

P.S. I was back under 180 this morning!!! I don’t know why, but I’ll take it!

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The saga continues – achilles pain vs a 5 mile run

I made the decision yesterday that I would try to run.  I felt well and my achilles felt fine, but I didn’t know what would happen as I got out on the road.  The day before I had to cut my run 3 miles short, not because of pain, but just a nagging tinge in my achilles.

Yesterday as I began to run, I decided that if I couldn’t make my run because of pain, I would just stop the rest of the week and give my injury time to heal.  Of course as I ran I was super conscious of any discomfort from my achilles.  A few times I wondered if I felt something, but then decided it was just “normal” pain.  What I mean by normal pain is that I always have some type of pain while I run.  Either my hip or my thigh or, yes my achilles.  I used to think that the achilles pain was heel pain, but now I know differently. Also normal pain goes away and real pain does not.  So while I ran, if I thought I was having any type of pain, I would relax and make sure I wasn’t running too fast and eventually I felt fine again.

So to finish this story… I finished my 5 mile run.  It wasn’t a PR by any stretch of the imagination.  I ended up running a 9:00 pace, which is just about where I wanted to be.  Slow enough to not get hurt, but just fast enough to feel like I ran.

I got to the last tenth of a mile and I had a tinge of pain in, yes, my achilles.  It was more than just phantom pain, it was real, but it went away and I slowed way down and finished the run.  I got home and elevated my legs and played with the dog.  No I didn’t use ice. Sadly I forgot, but I will today just to make sure all is well.

My goal the rest of the week is to keep at the 5 mile mark until I run several days with no issues.  Sadly our 5K is coming up next weekend and I really wanted a PR.  This may impact that, but it might help by giving me some much needed rest.

All in all, yesterday went well and I can run again today.

I just need to take it one day at a time.

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Run through the pain? Not this time!

Yesterday I wrote, “lessons learned” and then in the afternoon I had a chance to prove that I learned a lesson.

I have found that it is important to run even when I don’t “feel” like it.  If I don’t run when I’m tired or a bit sore, I’ll never run.  That isn’t good and I would never meet my goal of qualifying for Boston.  On the other hand, I have had to learn the lesson that sometimes it is important to listen to your body.  Some aches and pains or even just being tired is a sign that things aren’t going in a good direction and perhaps I need to pull back some on training or even take a break.

Yesterday was great running weather.  I had only run once for 5 miles since last Thursday because my achilles was hurting. But my 5 mile run on Sunday went very well and I had no problems yesterday during work, so I was excited to hit the road running.  I  don’t have a run plan this week, but just a “see how it goes” plan.

I got 1/2 mile into my run and I felt that pain in achilles.  Ugh.  I realized that I was so looking forward to my run that I started too fast.  I slowed down and ran relaxed trying to make sure I wasn’t pushing off my feet, but allowing gravity to move me forward. It was too late.  That pain, not severe pain mind you, but still pain, was back and I couldn’t get past it.  I ran for a total of 2.2 miles and decided to walk home.

It was disappointing to me that I had done a stupid thing and started too fast, but in the end, looking back, I’m excited that I showed that I had learned a valuable lesson.  I know that I shouldn’t push past pain all the time.  I know that it isn’t a bad thing to stop a run in the middle.  I learned that if I act wisely today, then I’ll be able to run tomorrow.

I’ve learned that there are runs that you push through the pain and meet your goal and there are runs that need to be stopped and you go home and rest.

I’ve learned lessons this past week that I hope I continue to remember.  I’ll probably never be a “great” runner.  But with consistency I can be a good runner. However if I don’t run with wisdom, I won’t be a runner at all.

I’d rather walk home from a run, then finish it and have to stop running.

I hope I remember this lesson next time.

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Back running – lessons learned

I got back in the saddle again yesterday!!!  Yup, I ran 5 miles.  My run went well and I had no pain from my achilles!!!!  It was nice to be back so soon and I didn’t want to overdue it, so I ran slowly, especially at first.

Today I still feel fine.  I guess a couple days off with my foot elevated and on ice did the trick.  It amazes me that it hurt so much Friday and by Sunday I was running again.  I am grateful.

I am going to keep the next few days lighter than normal and make sure not to mess anything up.  Also, I think I was overdoing it a bit and I need to cut back for a week or so to make sure I don’t overtrain.  I think that between overtraining and not sleeping well I created the perfect storm for getting injured.

I’m excited to get back out on the road.  I also need to get the 5 lbs off I gained over the past week.  Ugh.

Note to self: If you aren’t running, you need to cut back on your eating.

Lessons learned!

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It took 13 months before I got injured running…

Every once in a while I have a day where I don’t feel like running, but I go out anyway and have a great run.

Yesterday was not one of those days.

I was tired and just wanted to skip my run, especially since it was “hill run Thursday”.  I did what I always do, I got home, changed and went out for my run. It began well enough.  I ran relaxed and got  2 miles into my run and my achilles started bothering me.  So I just tried to keep relaxed and the pain subsided, so I kept running.  By now it was hot and I was a bit tired and finally got to the hill that I run.  I rested a bit and then started my reps.

I got to the top of the hill and heard a dog barking.  I hear dogs barking all the time on my runs, so I ignored it.  As I ran, the barking got louder and I had the realization that the dog was behind me.  As I turned to look, I noticed a large doberman right behind me and it didn’t look happy.  My first instinct was to stop running and start walking.  I knew I needed to get past its house, but if I kept running, it might get bothered.  As I walked and kept my eye on the dog, I heard a voice of a woman calling for the dog.  I looked up and there was a woman sitting on a porch.  She called to me that it was her neighbor’s dog and she didn’t know why it was out.  I yelled to her, “Am I safe?”  Her reply was, “I’ve never known it to bite anyone”.

I finally got to the point where the dog went home and I started running again.  I decided to run at the top of the hill through the community a bit to figure out what to do.  You see, this hill was the only way out of the neighborhood and I had to go right back past that dog.  I was a bit concerned.

Finally I decided to make my trek back down the hill.  About a hundred yards before the house with the dog, I started walking.  I quietly walked past the house and never did see the dog.  I started running again and finished my run in the rain.  By the time I finished, I was cold, tired, my achilles was hurting again and I wished I had just stayed home.

Now here I am writing this.  My achilles still hurts, the top of that same foot hurts and my opposite hip hurts.  It has been 13 months of running with no injuries and now I feel totally beat up.  On top of that, we have our 5K in 2 weeks.  It is the last real 5K I want to compete in since I need to start training for the Lehigh Valley Marathon in September, my first marathon and hopefully my Boston qualifier.

So, I am taking at least today off and possibly the whole weekend.  I will see how I do.  I definitely don’t want to be out of running long because I was stupid and kept running on a hurt foot.

Oh well…  As I mentioned in the post yesterday, I learn by experience.  Sometimes that is a positive thing and sometimes it isn’t.

The joys of running.

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How to run well? Keep it simple.

I am the type of person who has to learn by experience.  Life teaches many lessons and in my life, I have learned by doing the wrong thing sometimes,  the right thing sometimes, and then applying the right thing to my daily routine.  The same is true when it comes to running.  Over the past 13 months, I have learned many “what to dos” and many “what not to dos” by experiencing them each day on the road.  Of course, I also learn by reading articles and talking with others like TJ about their experiences and what works for them.  I think running ultimately, like most things in life, cannot come down to a cookie cutter mentality.  This is why I am not good with training plans that lay out what workout to do each day, how many miles to run each day, etc.

I need simple.

For the first 10 months of running, all I did was run miles.  I honestly didn’t know what workouts to do or what would be best for me.  I needed simple.  So I went out and ran 2 miles a day for 5 days and 3 on Sunday.  I remember the first 6 mile long run I had.  I was so tired that I accidentally went to the wrong house after I was done thinking I was at TJ’s home.

During this time I would alternate between working on distance while running at a slower pace and working on speed while trying to keep up my distance.  I didn’t have anything in particular that would guide me on when to do either one, just a feeling that I needed to change up between the two.

One day, about a month before our first half marathon, TJ came to me and we talking about his workouts he was doing.  They consisted of “tempo runs” and “hill runs”.  Hmmm.  Interesting.  So he finally convinced me to try these different workouts.  They really helped and that experience is still helping me today.  I went from running 13 miles in my neighborhood at a 9:00 pace to my half marathon under an 8:00 pace all within a month.

So here I am, still running the miles, still increasing the pace, still doing the workouts, still learning by experience.

Yesterday I worked hard at running relaxed.  I am convinced that running relaxed is a key to running long, fast and without injury.  I relax everything that I can, even my lower legs to some extent.  Yesterday was a good run and only got difficult near the end when I was tired (I’d been up since 1:00am) and forgot about relaxing.

This morning I became a bit overwhelmed thinking of running a marathon at an 8:00 pace.  It was the same feeling I had when TJ told me I should try for running our half marathon at an 8:20 pace.  I wrote that day in my blog, “I think I am in over my head”.  I wasn’t.  As I said earlier, I ran it just under 8:00 and the last mile was at 7:47.

Why am I writing all this.  Just to solidify my thoughts and theories about how to run my marathon in September.  I know that if I can run with good form and run relaxed, I can easily make my goal.

Only time will tell.

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Records, goals and a great running app

I’m excited!  I had a record month for running in April.  My last record was 151 miles.  April 2013 – 176 miles!  Wow am I sore!

Really though, I am excited to know that I can run that many miles in a month.  That isn’t much for a lot of runners, but for me, it is amazing, especially since I have only been running only 13 months.

Yesterday I had a goal to reach.  My goal was to run 6 half mile intervals at a 7 minute pace.  I have not done well with half mile repeats.  They are hard and for some reason every day in the past month that I run them (usually Tuesday) it has been the hottest day of the week.  Yesterday was no different, however it was cooler than last week.

So I decide that in order to reach my goal, I would have to increase my recovery time between my intervals and slow down, even to a walk if needed to recover.  I really want my body to get used to running that fast.  It worked.

I ran my intervals and jogged slowly and walked in between.  I was able to get all 6 completed and averaged 7:00 overall.  My total time for the full 7 mile run was just under 9 minutes, but that didn’t matter to me.  With our 5K approaching in 18 days, I really wanted to get my speed down a bit and intervals are a great way to do that.

Just a word of advice.  If you run with an iPhone and don’t use iSmoothRun, you need to get it.  It really is the best running app available.  Not only does it keep up with your runs, shoes, miles, weather, etc., but it is invaluable doing interval runs!  It tracks each interval and recovery between intervals.  It even tells you audibly if you need to speed up, slow down or stay steady during the interval.  No more looking at the phone or just hoping to get the right time.  When you are done with each interval, it gives a recap of your time so you know how you did.  Finally it doesn’t have a connected website, but lets you export to about 15 different sites (like Nike+ and Runkeeper) and to Twitter and Facebook.  I wholly recommend it.

So that was my day.  I am sore today and my hip isn’t doing the best.  I will do an easy run this afternoon in the rain.  I am glad to get my speed workout behind me and move on with the week.  I’m looking forward to our 5K.  It should be a lot of fun and I have a lot of people from my work going to run it with TJ, RS and myself.

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Running, thankfulness and tomorrow

Yesterday was a day off from running, my second in 3 days.  I thought of taking Saturdays off, but it was too much having to run for 5 days straight after my long run.  So, I took Monday off and will just run a shorter run on Saturday to get the mileage up as I prepare for my marathon in September.

I want to thank my Lovely Wife and my kids for being so supportive of my running.  It is really starting to take up a lot of time.  I am going to have a record month and tomorrow I’ll update my blog with my miles for the month, but just to give an idea, since the first of April, I’ve run over 24 hours.  That is a lot of time that I am out running and not home hanging with the family.  I know that they want to support me and do it happily, but I just want to thank them for being so patient as I pursue my goal.

It is amazing how much of running is mental.  Everyone who runs knows that is true and those who don’t run… well they should run and find out what it is like.  Today is a workout day and right now I just don’t “feel” like doing it.  Of course it is early and I don’t run until this afternoon, but I know by now I can’t go on my feelings.  I have a goal and that is what pushes me forward.  As I reach higher and higher mileage and more and more time on the road running, it almost becomes robotic. I do it because that is what I do.

I love running and am thankful that I can run.  But sometimes I have to make myself get out there even when I just want to go home and watch a show and relax.  Every time I finish a run though, I look at my iPhone and am excited I made that run count.  That motivates me and gets me looking forward to my next run tomorrow.  As long as there are tomorrows, I’ll be running whether I want to or not 🙂