That little run on Thursday had some lingering effects that carried over to Saturday's run. The weather was nice enough to get outside to run for the first time since the beginning of the month, so that part was okay. Snow still covered most of the sidewalks, especially along the main roads. On 96th Street I hopped onto the curb every time a car came by, and although most were respectful that I couldn't run anywhere but on the road, there were still several jerks who made a point of staying in their lane. Given the overall low regard I have for KC drivers, none of this surprised me. Anyway, I planned on a 6 or 7 miler in order to enjoy the sun and to get into a mode of having a "long" run again.
Unfortunately, the blisters on my arches from Thursday, which I had immediately drained, were still sore. Within twenty minutes or so they were well on their way to becoming hot spots again, so I wisely shut it down at three miles. My heel was also hurting again mildly. Since I'm traveling the first couple of days this week my hope is that this down time will allow the blister spots to heal and my heel to also recover before my next run on Thursday. And that one will be on the treadmill, because we're supposed to get a nice blast of snow about the time I'm due back in town. *sigh* Yep, still longing for a warmer climate.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
A Little Better
Ran 4 miles today on the treadmill, with a little pain. I first put on my running shoes without the inserts, and before I even jumped on the 'mill I stopped and put the inserts where they belonged. I don't know about that as a long-term solution, though, since it made my shoes too tight. And in retrospect I should have worn thinner socks. When I started the run my heel hurt a little, but it went away after five minutes or so. The tightness of the shoe and the abrasion of the socks against my arches limited me, though. I planned on running longer, but my episode of BSG was over and my feet hurt. So I took this run as a good start after an unwanted layoff. Saturday will be better.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Not Happy
The last time I ran was about 10 days ago. Since then I've been laying off due to a heel injury. Not sure when or where it happened, but the back of my heel - not the bottom where I walk, but the back below the Achilles tendon - has been sore as heck. I have multiple theories about what caused it, and then a ray of hope at the last moment.
Before my last run there was snow on the ground all week, so I wore my hiking/snow boots the entire week to work. I've worn them plenty before and I didn't feel like I had any foot problems with them during that week. On Saturday the 15th I ran on the treadmill. No problems there, either. But on the next day when we went to church I strapped on my boots again due to more snow, and the back of my right heel hurt like...well, it hurt like heel (no, not a typo).
I thought maybe I'd injured it while running inside, but it didn't make sense because I never felt like anything was wrong. No matter what shoes I wore after that the pain was there, and very intense. I thought maybe I'd bruised that area and the feeling would go away. I also considered that I possibly had a bone spur, but it came on awful quick for that to be a possibility. Not that I'm an expert on bone spurs. Maybe that's how it happens for all I know.
I took the week off, and then on The Wife's birthday I attempted to run again. Same problem and I stopped within a minute. On Sunday and the next two days at work I attempted to cushion that area by wrapping an extra sock around the back of my heel. It worked, to a degree. The degree stopped when I tried to run again today. Inside, because we've had snow on the ground for 2+ weeks now. Once again, same result. I tried to tough it out, but opted to throw the shoes and socks to the side and walk on the treadmill barefoot. I even ran about 15 minutes barefoot. About that...
Let me just say that running barefoot on a treadmill isn't necessarily the best idea. I don't know if it's any better or worse than running barefoot outside, but the texture on the belt has a lingering "burning" effect on human feet. It's not a terrible pain, but it also doesn't feel good when I'm walking around. Maybe my feet would get tougher if I continue this routine, but hopefully it won't come to that.
The glimpse of hope involves inserts. Tonight I stopped at Target and picked up some heel inserts. When I arrived at the ol' homestead and realized it was trash night, I realized three things. #1 - It's cold outside so I have to wear shoes; B - My heel hurts like an evil little blacksmith is pounding on it with a tiny but effective little hammer; and Last Slide - I can try out the inserts right now. Opened the consumer-friendly packaging without impaling my hand on a shard of environmentally-conscious plastic and slipped the glorious gel inserts into my shoes.
It doesn't do justice to say I felt instant relief as I walked around in the garage. It was quicker than that. To go back just a little bit, I bought new dress shoes for work at the beginning of the year and ditched the old inserts because, well, they were old and they'd been in contact with my feet for way longer than anything should be in contact with my feet. As of now that seems to be a bad decision. Apparently I should have replaced them at that time.
Those bad boy gel inserts are going in my dress shoes tomorrow. We'll see how it goes, but I'm hoping this is the start to recovery and being able to run again. I don't like to miss so much time because I tend to continue eating the same amount as when I'm logging plenty of miles. Not a good combination. I'm hoping that the run in a few days goes better. Until then...
Before my last run there was snow on the ground all week, so I wore my hiking/snow boots the entire week to work. I've worn them plenty before and I didn't feel like I had any foot problems with them during that week. On Saturday the 15th I ran on the treadmill. No problems there, either. But on the next day when we went to church I strapped on my boots again due to more snow, and the back of my right heel hurt like...well, it hurt like heel (no, not a typo).
I thought maybe I'd injured it while running inside, but it didn't make sense because I never felt like anything was wrong. No matter what shoes I wore after that the pain was there, and very intense. I thought maybe I'd bruised that area and the feeling would go away. I also considered that I possibly had a bone spur, but it came on awful quick for that to be a possibility. Not that I'm an expert on bone spurs. Maybe that's how it happens for all I know.
I took the week off, and then on The Wife's birthday I attempted to run again. Same problem and I stopped within a minute. On Sunday and the next two days at work I attempted to cushion that area by wrapping an extra sock around the back of my heel. It worked, to a degree. The degree stopped when I tried to run again today. Inside, because we've had snow on the ground for 2+ weeks now. Once again, same result. I tried to tough it out, but opted to throw the shoes and socks to the side and walk on the treadmill barefoot. I even ran about 15 minutes barefoot. About that...
Let me just say that running barefoot on a treadmill isn't necessarily the best idea. I don't know if it's any better or worse than running barefoot outside, but the texture on the belt has a lingering "burning" effect on human feet. It's not a terrible pain, but it also doesn't feel good when I'm walking around. Maybe my feet would get tougher if I continue this routine, but hopefully it won't come to that.
The glimpse of hope involves inserts. Tonight I stopped at Target and picked up some heel inserts. When I arrived at the ol' homestead and realized it was trash night, I realized three things. #1 - It's cold outside so I have to wear shoes; B - My heel hurts like an evil little blacksmith is pounding on it with a tiny but effective little hammer; and Last Slide - I can try out the inserts right now. Opened the consumer-friendly packaging without impaling my hand on a shard of environmentally-conscious plastic and slipped the glorious gel inserts into my shoes.
It doesn't do justice to say I felt instant relief as I walked around in the garage. It was quicker than that. To go back just a little bit, I bought new dress shoes for work at the beginning of the year and ditched the old inserts because, well, they were old and they'd been in contact with my feet for way longer than anything should be in contact with my feet. As of now that seems to be a bad decision. Apparently I should have replaced them at that time.
Those bad boy gel inserts are going in my dress shoes tomorrow. We'll see how it goes, but I'm hoping this is the start to recovery and being able to run again. I don't like to miss so much time because I tend to continue eating the same amount as when I'm logging plenty of miles. Not a good combination. I'm hoping that the run in a few days goes better. Until then...
Saturday, January 15, 2011
The Week in Review
I guess I forget to update my log when it's all on a treadmill, because really, there's nothing that exciting about it. I will say that over the last week I've run three times on the ol' 'mill, and I'm ready for the snow to disappear so I can get back outside. Doesn't like that's going to happen anytime soon, though, as more snow is supposed to be on the way Monday.
It's been all BSG all the time as I distract myself on the spinning belt. On Tuesday I ran 6 miles in place and drew closer to the Season 2 finale. On Thursday I gave blood in the morning at work and then ran 5 miles after work. Today was a 10-miler, and now there's only two episodes to go in the second season. If this keeps up I'll have the whole series completed again in a month.
The Wife picked up a Jeff Galloway book for me a the library about qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I think this might be one I need to buy. I skimmed through it at lunch after my run and it has some good stuff in it. Tangentially, the book listed a web site, marathonguide.com, where I discovered a cool feature. You can put in your name on the front page, choose a year from the dropdown, and it will show you all the races you ran that year. Come to find out I'm the fastest marathoner in the world the past two years - with my name. I found four other people with my name, and I win. I called the virtual running partner, and he had a doppleganger - at least name-wise - in Great Britain, and my buddy smoked the Brit. Kind of fun, and the website also has a feature that shows your finish time adjusted for age. My best time would be 3:40 if I was 30 years old, which I figured is the baseline for the adjustment. Fun, but past performance and age adjustment are not accurate predictions of future performance.
It's been all BSG all the time as I distract myself on the spinning belt. On Tuesday I ran 6 miles in place and drew closer to the Season 2 finale. On Thursday I gave blood in the morning at work and then ran 5 miles after work. Today was a 10-miler, and now there's only two episodes to go in the second season. If this keeps up I'll have the whole series completed again in a month.
The Wife picked up a Jeff Galloway book for me a the library about qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I think this might be one I need to buy. I skimmed through it at lunch after my run and it has some good stuff in it. Tangentially, the book listed a web site, marathonguide.com, where I discovered a cool feature. You can put in your name on the front page, choose a year from the dropdown, and it will show you all the races you ran that year. Come to find out I'm the fastest marathoner in the world the past two years - with my name. I found four other people with my name, and I win. I called the virtual running partner, and he had a doppleganger - at least name-wise - in Great Britain, and my buddy smoked the Brit. Kind of fun, and the website also has a feature that shows your finish time adjusted for age. My best time would be 3:40 if I was 30 years old, which I figured is the baseline for the adjustment. Fun, but past performance and age adjustment are not accurate predictions of future performance.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Running in Place
Today was a treadmill run. Daughter #1 said something to me the other day about how she figured out wearing the Garmin on a treadmill wouldn't be very useful because you never move from that spot. She's right - pretty smart for a youngster.
Today's run was brought to you by Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. Two very good episodes, in fact, which made the hour-and-a-half run go by very quickly. Looking back I think this was when BSG was near its creative peak, although I don't have as much of a problem with the subsequent Seasons 3 and 4 as some other fans do. I liked the show all the way through, but I did feel like there was some treading water in parts of the last season. Those kind of reminded me of some Sopranos episodes where my friends would be wondering why nobody got whacked for a few episodes, but I'd explain they were advancing the story line and setting up the big payoff, which is what BSG did in its last season. Whatever anyone else's opinion, I still consider the whole run of BSG as some of the best TV in the last 20 years.
But this isn't the Galactica blog. Let's get back to the subject at hand. My guess is that I ran about 10 miles today. The total on the treadmill was less, but as I've explained before, it's not adjusted right, so I'm going by the elapsed time and the pace, which was normal for what I run outside. It was bitterly cold today and all external motivators regarding just getting out and doing it aside, I didn't want to. And so I didn't. There are plenty of times I'm a running warrior and brave the worst of conditions, but there are also times where I just don't want to be cold. Today was one of those days. And trust me, it was cold, with a wind chill in the single digits. After not running on Thursday I wanted to make sure I got my run in, regardless of the weather, and that's what I did. I'll save the warrior apparel for another day.
Today's run was brought to you by Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. Two very good episodes, in fact, which made the hour-and-a-half run go by very quickly. Looking back I think this was when BSG was near its creative peak, although I don't have as much of a problem with the subsequent Seasons 3 and 4 as some other fans do. I liked the show all the way through, but I did feel like there was some treading water in parts of the last season. Those kind of reminded me of some Sopranos episodes where my friends would be wondering why nobody got whacked for a few episodes, but I'd explain they were advancing the story line and setting up the big payoff, which is what BSG did in its last season. Whatever anyone else's opinion, I still consider the whole run of BSG as some of the best TV in the last 20 years.
But this isn't the Galactica blog. Let's get back to the subject at hand. My guess is that I ran about 10 miles today. The total on the treadmill was less, but as I've explained before, it's not adjusted right, so I'm going by the elapsed time and the pace, which was normal for what I run outside. It was bitterly cold today and all external motivators regarding just getting out and doing it aside, I didn't want to. And so I didn't. There are plenty of times I'm a running warrior and brave the worst of conditions, but there are also times where I just don't want to be cold. Today was one of those days. And trust me, it was cold, with a wind chill in the single digits. After not running on Thursday I wanted to make sure I got my run in, regardless of the weather, and that's what I did. I'll save the warrior apparel for another day.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
A Lot Going On
Today wasn't the best of runs, and it wasn't the worst of runs. My overall pace for the 6-miler was about 9:20/mile. I wasn't the speed demon today that I was on my runs last week, but I was glad to get outside. Even though it was cold it wasn't too windy. I started out listening to a podcast but turned it off at the run's halfway point. There's a lot going on at work this week, pretty important stuff for our future, and I decided I needed to put some thought into that before tomorrow rolled around. Glad I did because I sorted out a few things in my mind. And considering the shape my mind is in sometimes, that's a good thing. So even though this was an average run, I'm marking it on the tally board as one that was necessary for my sanity. Sometimes you have those runs that are more about clearing your head than they are about a physical goal. This was one of them.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Strategy and Core
This past week has gone very well, and I'm feeling strong. But like a baseball team in early May, this isn't the time to peak. You want to peak closer to the big event. I'm trying to keep in mind that it's only the first day of the year and I'm supposed to be laying the foundation for what's ahead this year. Running 6 miles at an 8:40 pace sounds good now, but just like the marathon itself, I have to pace myself. In that vein, I thought of heading outside today for a run, but the wind chill was about 4 degrees and I decided to hit the treadmill instead of taxing my immune systems for a change. At the end of the day I'm not regretting that decision.
I've already started to wonder if the good runs this week were because of attitude or because of picking up the core workouts and adding a little yoga to the mix. This is the first time I've tried yoga and although I'm still getting used to the whole idea, I must say it seems to be helping out with my hips and back. The videos I've been using have some serious back stretching, and I'm seeing how inflexible I am at times. Sure, I'm almost 44 and set in my ways, but this time I'm talking about sitting on the floor with legs stretched to the sides and bending forward. I'm a little surprised at how little I can go with that stretch, especially since I used to be pretty flexible. That's why I'm doing these, though, and I plan on continuing. As I said after the race in December, I have to do something different to develop core and flexibility. It's a little early to be saying all the good results in the past week are because of the new exercises.
I've already started to wonder if the good runs this week were because of attitude or because of picking up the core workouts and adding a little yoga to the mix. This is the first time I've tried yoga and although I'm still getting used to the whole idea, I must say it seems to be helping out with my hips and back. The videos I've been using have some serious back stretching, and I'm seeing how inflexible I am at times. Sure, I'm almost 44 and set in my ways, but this time I'm talking about sitting on the floor with legs stretched to the sides and bending forward. I'm a little surprised at how little I can go with that stretch, especially since I used to be pretty flexible. That's why I'm doing these, though, and I plan on continuing. As I said after the race in December, I have to do something different to develop core and flexibility. It's a little early to be saying all the good results in the past week are because of the new exercises.
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