March 2017 Running Challenge

Morning nonrunning check in. Dr. Notes from my appointment finally online, so I could recheck recommendations. I have to correct one thing, I do not have Patellofemoral Syndrome, I misheard the Dr. Just a "minor sprain of the patellar ligament"

Notes pretty much included what I had said before EXCEPT: I am free to run once I am pain free for 3 days! YAY! Dr noted that since I stopped running as soon as the pain was bad, and was icing it and taking NSAIDs, I caught it before there was too much damage.

I'm still planning on not running for a 2-3 more days for sure, and if there's any pain, to extend that but, after asking a quick question of my Dr. (to clarify the pain free for 3 days part) I'm cleared to run as early as Thursday, as long as the pain going up and down stairs stays away. Then she wants me taking the running easy for a few days and after that, if all goes well, I'm cleared to resume training!!!!!

Huge relief. Not saying theirs light at the end of the tunnel yet, but at least I know there's an end to the tunnel somewhere.

Finally able to come to the thread, I need to read and catch up with everyone. Life has been just beating the *kitten* out of me. I haven't had time to read at all. I did have time to see Skip's first T&F meet on Saturday she was released from PT on Tuesday and Coach only let her run the 1600 on Saturday and she ran a 6:26 not her PR but she was happy with having no pain. She usually runs the 800, 1600 and 4x800 but is going to ask Coach to put her in the 3200 starting in a couple of weeks. No one at our school runs it and she said "I'm a cross country runner I need to run the longer race".

3/1 - 5 - zip
3/6 - 2

2 out of 50 miles




I was very happy with today's run, it's been almost a month since I got hurt and I did 2 pain free miles. When I went to the PT last week he feels that my gluteus maximus muscle is pushing on a tendon and that is what is hurting so bad. He gave me the WTF look for not doing my exercises at least a few days a week. Like the doctor he wants me to cross train and do strength work.

iofred wrote: »

"Asics Kayano
Asics GT 2000
I've tried both the Asics, and am now on my third pair of Kayanos."
I got along with Kayano21 very well, but with the 22 & 23 I suffered from heel pain. I have now switched to the Saucony Guide and Mizonu Wave, and the first experience is very favorable, with Saucony being the slight favorite

Interesting post @iofred. I am a long, long time Kayano wearer. As in, I have been wearing them for over 10 years and have probably gone through at least 30 pairs. However, I believe that the 22s are partially responsible for my current hamstring tendonitis. Something vastly different in the heal fit of this shoe versus previous models.

Well, even though I am still on a great big goose egg of mileage for the month, I have been hanging out and checking in. So good to see so many familiar faces returning this month and lots of new faces too!

I am currently on day 11 of no running. PT appointment tomorrow, and he is going to see if he thinks I can ease back into it. Still up in the air about my race this weekend. I was planning on racing one of my favorite half marathons, the Cincinnati Heart Mini. I have run it the past 5 years in a row and did the 15K 4 times prior to that, so I would hate to miss it. But it is a very challenging course, so I think racing it is out. I am hoping he gives me the go ahead to run it easy, or maybe at a minimum, run the 15K.

I am trying to keep active to keep my fitness up and also to burn some calories because lowering the intake is just not sticking! I did a Cyclebar class on Saturday morning and it kicked my *kitten*! Running fitness obviously does not translate to biking fitness. They track the class based on your wattage output and give you a rank. I was 24 out of 38 people. Below average. I am going back tonight and my goal is to be in the top half of the class!

In addition to some biking, I have been doing P90X3 videos, tons of walking the dog and tons and tons of PT stretches. I still gained a pound this week. Come on you stupid hamstring...Heal!!!

2.37 miles in yesterday, hoping to add some more this afternoon!

Funny story:

I'm driving back from dinner last night, and my son, mother and brother are in the car. My mother and son are in the back seat, and my mom mentions that she smells something. "It smells like feet," she says. We immediately blame my son because his feet were pretty stinky the day before, but he claims he had a shower so it can't be him. Well, then I remember that my gym bag is in the trunk of the car, with my running shoes in it. Dear god, my running shoes were so stinky that my mom and son could smell them in the back seat! Good thing those ones are being retired as I just got my new pair! That was embarrassing.

Holy moly, 9 pages behind! I'll post my update and try to catch up later today.

March 01 - strategic rest
March 02 - 10.2 with Kody
March 03 - planned rest
March 04 - 25.1 trail miles
March 05 - 10.2 with Kody

I posted that last Wednesday I was going to skip my run because it was my wife's last night home before going away for a long weekend. She thanked me and said I could go on a long run. Well, I did a cost/benefit analysis, then a risk analysis, and determined that the risk of going for a run far outweighed any benefit of that run, so I didn't run.

Thursday was a 10 mile night run with Kody and consisted of 5 laps around the local pond. Funny event of the run. So it's dark and there are no lights at all on the path but I do have my headlamp. As I start I see a shadow of a guy running around the pond, but with no headlamp. About half way around on my first lap he jumps out from behind a tree in front of my and yells "AGGGGGHGHGH". Now I don't know why that didn't startle me but it didn't and with out breaking stride I say casually, "hey, what's up?" as I washed his face with my headlamp. Oh the sheepish look of embarrassment was worth every penny!! He said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were my sister". Nice brother, heh?

Sunday was the big run. 25 miles on the Minnesota Riverbottom Trails Temps were 30's rising to 40's..perfect except for the thin coat of mud that seemed to cover about half of the route. My planned route was blocked twice, first by a flood control structure which was flooded by about 3 inches of water flowing over the top, then by a low swampy area which was flooded, so I ended up backtracking instead of making a loop.

I felt strong at the start and after a couple miles of warmup I started hitting some sub 10:00 miles. I had a few slower miles with some stretches of walking and a stop at the National Wildlife Refuge visitor center to top off my water bottle. At about the 21 mile mark my legs started getting pretty fatigued, but I kept a good pace, between 10:00 and 10:35. I finished with an overall moving pace of 10:29 and an average heart rate of 134, though my HR was in the 140's for the last 7 miles. Suprisingly, I didn't feel too sore the rest of the day and only had some minor controllable leg cramps.

I was going to post pretty nature photos of my run but I came across a pretty cool display of graffiti when I was running under major highway bridge so I'll post of few of those instead. If you're interested in seeing all of them, they can be found here.

Sunday was a recovery run, 10 mile with Kody. When I started out I hurt all over from the waist down, particularly my right ankle, both quads, and right achilles, but after a mile or so, it all went away and I felt great after that. I ended up with a pace about 45 seconds faster than I expected.

So, the month is off to a great start. I'm feeling strong, running well, and the niggles seem to be staying manageable.