The second week always sucks, from what I remember. You're not as rested as the first week you start, but you're just as weak and out of shape. Thankfully, the second week has been survived, as have a few runs approaching 40 minutes.
Now, this is where it gets interesting. This third week will tell, whether there's a few MORE weeks of grueling slow progress to go, or if my body has managed to shift into the next gear and I can continue making the trek towards real training. I'd like to think it will be the latter. I feel like I put in a good 3 or 4 weeks of painful, slow slogging before the Europe vacation, and the layoff after that was only about 2 weeks, so perhaps some of that progress will have been retained.
I'm not aiming to make a huge increase in total minutes this week, but I'd like to see how the foot with the orthotic handles some "longer" runs. We've been okay with runs in the 35 minute range now, up from 30 minutes a month or so ago, but I'd just feel a ton better if we could make it consistently to 40 minutes. 40 minutes is almost a real run. Almost.
Sunday 11/25: 34:55 Monterrey to rock. All things considered, not a bad start to the week. First halfway-decent run on a day after core strengthening. Feet did not hurt, stride felt good towards the end, did not feel tired. Feeling cautiously optimistic about this week. A little worried about the transition back to morning running, means < 24 hours of rest for the toes in addition to just not enjoying the morning cold, groggy and tired.
Went rollerblading with Peter at the RB. Was fun, but kind of harrowing. Discovered that I am not very competent at this activity, as per having a poor sense of balance and lack of gross or fine motor skills. Did not fall on face though, and a good time was had :).
Monday 11/26: 42:07 Monterrey to the second bridge, loop by the casting pond and back on the other side of the Arroyo. Hard to get up in the AM, but bright and sunny, felt like a good day to try a longer run. Actually it was kind of not an optimal day to try a longer run. This is the 7th running day in a row without a rest day, plus <24 hours since the last run... both conditions that my feet have yet to deal with. The run itself was actually pretty good, felt a bit groggy and stilted in the beginning, but it all settled down nicely into a smooth stride and comfortable breathing pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, after PT and shower and a few hours, the bad toe is feeling less than delighted. A lot more soreness than usual, not horrible but a little bit concerning. Probably wise to cash in the off day tomorrow, even if it feels alright in the morning. Lets see if I'm disciplined enough to stick to that.
Tuesday 11/27: off. Feet felt fine in the morning, but didn't get finished with core strengthening and errands until late yesterday, so decided it would be a good day to catch up on some morning sleep. Probably really should stick to taking an off day once every week or so anyways, so I guess this is okay. Nothing today other than PT... and getting fat.
Wednesday 11/28: 46:20, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops plus a little extra. An experiment, some learnings, and the conclusion that sometimes, ignorance is bliss...
Woke up feeling crappier than I expected. Both hamstrings felt tight and sore, presumably the second day after effect from some new exercises added to the core strengthening program. Still not adjusting to the going to bed early, waking up early thing, so felt tired and bad in the morning despite having gone to bed early... because ofcourse, I couldn't fall asleep for a few hours. Argh. Nevertheless, I figured, I wasn't going to feel any BETTER tomorrow after core strengthening again today, so might as well keep on going with the plan.
Broke out the old HR monitor to test the theory that various people have put forth, that injuries feel better after a very, very low intensity day. Since all of my days are low intensity, this means slowing to glacial speeds, and I figured the only way to do that without going nuts is to set the HR monitor to 150. I thought I was enough weeks in that I shouldn't see any exorbitantly high numbers... but boy, was I wrong. I decided in the interests of finishing this run... today... to reset the expectations to a HR of 160.
The conclusions of today's experiment is as follows:
1. I am still horribly out of shape if a HR of 160 corresponds to about 9:30 min/mile pace.
2. My new hypothesis is that how happy my L foot feels is a function of total # of footstrikes... and not of intensity or distance, or even duration. Its sort of like a starting pitcher, you can only throw X number of pitches before the form breaks down and quality declines. On average, my feet are good until 35-37 minutes. Running faster, my feet feel good for 40 - 42 minutes, on today's ultra slow run, my feet felt crappy after about 32-33 minutes. The slower you run, the smaller your stride, the more footstrikes are expended per minute.
This kind of derails the idea of decreasing intensity in hopes of increasing overall training time/distance... the variable that is less well defined is minimum recovery time before next run can safely be attempted. That does, preliminarily seem to scale with intensity and not duration.
Conclusions: I think, there's just no getting around it. I have to stick to a majority of ~35 minute runs and gradually work my way up at a rate that my foot allows. I'm also leaning towards accepting the Kangway HR calculation methodology: % difference between max and min... vs. straight up % of max HR. By that calculation, 160 HR is about 65% effort, which is about what today felt like. It actually felt like my stride was really stilted, bc its hard to find any rhythm at all if you're constantly making an effort to slow yourself down. Meh...
Thursday 11/29: 34:08, California to RB. Shaking off the bad day and getting back out there. Did an extra set on the bad leg of hamstring/hip strengthening yesterday, so didn't feel all that fresh this morning. Took it real easy, but was happy with the effort level, and stride felt more natural, feet didn't hurt. Put in the squishy orthotic again, its been working pretty well to take a few days off of the podiatrist orthotics every once in a while when the first and third toes start to feel sore from the extra redistributed pressure.
Friday 11/30: 37:12, many, many laps around the soggy track in the PM. Tried hard to deal with the wet grass for the benefit of my feet, but it was just too squishy and suction-y. Interfered with a nice stride. Felt excessively cantankerous about the rain, but it turns out the run was very relaxing and of optimal temperature. Very easy per having eaten some food before heading out.
Felt conflicted about being at the track for the first time in many, many months... it was kind of bittersweet and painfully nostalgic, like seeing someone who had broken your heart many years ago. Ran opposite direction in the outermost lane, which is about as impersonal as you can get with a track, almost perfectly 2:35 per lap. Very strange to run on an even surface. Feet felt sore on and off due to unfamiliar impact. Not delighted about this turn of events, hopefully there won't be any fall out tomorrow.
Stayed for some core strengthening at the gym, mostly went well, except for the hip/hamstring exercises. Then went home, had stomach ache, and dropped a bottle directly onto my bad toe just past the joint... felt VERY disgruntled.
Saturday 12/1: 33:45, California to RB. Butt felt unpleasantly sore after yesterday's hip exercises... also, felt irate about the fact that the rain has packed down all of the dirt in the Arroyo into a jarring, hard surface, and the bad toe felt sore where the bottle fell yesterday. In addition, developed a stomach ache halfway through due to 1,000 calories worth of cashews consumed earlier in the day. Ran what felt like very, very, slowly, but was encouraged to find that it wasn't much different from any other day's run. Really annoyed about the whole bottle thing, but I guess there's not much to be done at this point. The bruise isn't so bad, but it feels like the whole toe became kind of inflamed after the incident.
In other news, KB won the Tiger Run, keeping the title in the Caltech family. Pie 'n Burger (aka, a lot of cashews) afterwards. Fun discussion about many odd and possibly inappropriate topics. Felt inspired to keep on chugging along, so that someday I too may race again...
Target training: 3 hours 45 minutes
Actual Week's Training: 3:48:27
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Week of 11/18/2007 - 11/24/2007 (Pre-Base Week 2)
Tired.
The first week has safely been complete and I find myself mostly well. My toe is doing well, the feet and ankles have had their aches and pains but nothing major or chronic, so all things considered, good. What I hadn't really expected though, was to be so exhausted. It's not so much the running itself, which is, minimal... but there's physical therapy every day for my bad feet, then there's the grueling hour of core strengthening every other day for my bad hips...
When all is said and done, my body is getting used to a drastic increase in exercise, which sometimes makes it feel like progress is very, very slow. It's sort of like, before, through brute force I was getting relatively efficiently to some sort of training local maximum, but this point would forever be limited by injuries and misfortunes. I like to think that now I'm on a new path, that by being patient and creative, I am traversing the topographical map of my running ability, towards a point that will eventually be higher, even if the starting point is somewhat farther away.
Sunday 11/18: 33:57, California to RB. Feeling the effects of exhaustion, both from lack of sleep and dehydration, and also from yesterday's core strengthening. Vague headache throughout the day, hopefully from tired and dehydrated, and NOT from the beginnings of coming down with the plague... but otherwise, the run felt fine--it was just slow. Felt good about the fact that locking into the right stride and effort level is coming easier now. The only evidence of tiredness is the headache and the slow overall run time.
Monday 11/19: Off. Woke up in the morning and the low level headache is persisting. Stomach also feels barfy. Argh. Going to cash in the off day and still keeping those fingers crossed for NOT plague. I think I'll feel well enough for core strengthening in the PM.
Tuesday 11/20: 35:24, Monterrey to rock. Several consecutive nights of not getting a good night of sleep is getting to me. Almost tripped and fell on my face not once, but twice... argh. Kinda felt sloppy today, and after the run, my left foot felt funny. Definitely one of those runs that is closer to the type that is just slogged through, rather than enjoyed. On the plus side, I don't think I'm coming down with the plague... headache is gone, thankfully. I think I blame the chicken wings at IH on Saturday... stomach has been feeling vaguely barfy since then. Much better than yesterday though. Met a funny old retired man whose morning pastime is to collect errant golf balls from the Arroyo golf course and place them on car windshields to freak out the golfers who come chasing after them.
Wednesday 11/21: 39:30, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops plus jog back up the switchbacks to car. As of this morning, felt tired and still waffling about whether I should increase the training minutes at all this week... but by the time I left work early, full of free turkey and holiday cheer, it seemed a waste to piddle away my day-where-I-am-NOT-exhausted-from-core-strengthening on a shorter run.
Goal was to run a steady medium-easy pace for ~40 minutes to test if the feet would tolerate some longer runs. Loops ended up being in 38:04 (12:53, 12:28, 12:43) for just above 8:15 min/mile pace, which is just about base pace if I were in shape... which means I probably put too much effort into them. I always feel kind of iffy about base runs where the pacing is erratic like that, it usually means some funky psychological phenomena is at play, compromising ideal training effort level. I think a little bit of frustration definitely went into this run--I've been feeling crappy about the past few days, cranky about feeling physically unwell, and exasperated at how little my body seems to be able to handle.
I knew that I was expending more effort than the usual pleasantly plugging along state, and I tried to tone down the last lap, but it was honestly hard to curb the aggression. I did manage to stick to the breathing out of my nose only rule, and I didn't feel tired at the end going up the little hill to my car, and I felt like I kept good form and relaxed shoulders throughout, so it wasn't as if it was an egregious effort... but I think what troubles me is the lack of ability to control my emotions. It's this sort of impatience and frustration that left unchecked, will eventually cause me to do something stupid and end up back on the injury heap--and for ONCE in my life I want to avoid that mistake and complete a season of *something*.
Thursday 11/22: 34:15, California to RB. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! :) Extremely, extremely slow run. Everything feels a bit worse for the wear after core strengthening and the longer faster run yesterday. L foot felt funny throughout as well, making for a kind of consterning experience all around... but felt much better after a large helping of turkey and stuffing and gravy with Peter. Wonderful day except for the run...
Friday 11/23: 36:06, Monterrey to rock. Put in the squishy pair of orthotics again. Had a suspicion that the new orthotics that unloaded pressure off of the second toe was starting to put undue pressure on the third toe, so wanted to give that little guy a break. Considering alternating days to see if that helps, but did notice that the old pair of orthotics does a worse job of keeping my ankles aligned. Almost took a nasty spill on the way back, rolled out the L ankle, but no popping sound and minimal pain so just ran through without breaking stride. Still kind of consterned though, a bit of soreness during PT afterwards. Argh.
Toes felt better after today. Stride felt smoother, just took it really easy and felt like the system was recovering. Maybe its a good thing the gym is closed, so core strengthening will get pushed back to tomorrow. A bit more food in the stomach than I'd like though... there is just so much food around these days. Must try to mitigate the weight gain though, as that will certainly not help out my feet.
Saturday 11/24: 38:53, Parked a few blocks up on California, ran to RB. Some football game going on at the RB, traffic backed up and streets blocked off where I would normally park. Felt particularly cantankerous today about these annoyances... Had to run some extra pavement (eee...) minutes to get to car, which made the run longer than intended. Also had a meal uncomfortably close to running time, so felt kind of blimp-like and breathing constricted. Otherwise, a nice, chill run. Feet felt mostly okay, nothing felt sore or tired, hi-fived a drunk guy on his way back to his car.
Core strengthening at the gym with Peter, had to squeeze the mandatory 3rd session in this week on the last day. Felt a renewed sense of consternation about how weak my core is... but have to plugging away at this. Can actually feel some new abs growing under the layer of turkey-induced blubber.
Target Training: 3 hours 30 minutes
Actual Training: 3:38:05
The first week has safely been complete and I find myself mostly well. My toe is doing well, the feet and ankles have had their aches and pains but nothing major or chronic, so all things considered, good. What I hadn't really expected though, was to be so exhausted. It's not so much the running itself, which is, minimal... but there's physical therapy every day for my bad feet, then there's the grueling hour of core strengthening every other day for my bad hips...
When all is said and done, my body is getting used to a drastic increase in exercise, which sometimes makes it feel like progress is very, very slow. It's sort of like, before, through brute force I was getting relatively efficiently to some sort of training local maximum, but this point would forever be limited by injuries and misfortunes. I like to think that now I'm on a new path, that by being patient and creative, I am traversing the topographical map of my running ability, towards a point that will eventually be higher, even if the starting point is somewhat farther away.
Sunday 11/18: 33:57, California to RB. Feeling the effects of exhaustion, both from lack of sleep and dehydration, and also from yesterday's core strengthening. Vague headache throughout the day, hopefully from tired and dehydrated, and NOT from the beginnings of coming down with the plague... but otherwise, the run felt fine--it was just slow. Felt good about the fact that locking into the right stride and effort level is coming easier now. The only evidence of tiredness is the headache and the slow overall run time.
Monday 11/19: Off. Woke up in the morning and the low level headache is persisting. Stomach also feels barfy. Argh. Going to cash in the off day and still keeping those fingers crossed for NOT plague. I think I'll feel well enough for core strengthening in the PM.
Tuesday 11/20: 35:24, Monterrey to rock. Several consecutive nights of not getting a good night of sleep is getting to me. Almost tripped and fell on my face not once, but twice... argh. Kinda felt sloppy today, and after the run, my left foot felt funny. Definitely one of those runs that is closer to the type that is just slogged through, rather than enjoyed. On the plus side, I don't think I'm coming down with the plague... headache is gone, thankfully. I think I blame the chicken wings at IH on Saturday... stomach has been feeling vaguely barfy since then. Much better than yesterday though. Met a funny old retired man whose morning pastime is to collect errant golf balls from the Arroyo golf course and place them on car windshields to freak out the golfers who come chasing after them.
Wednesday 11/21: 39:30, 3 x Arroyo Tempo Loops plus jog back up the switchbacks to car. As of this morning, felt tired and still waffling about whether I should increase the training minutes at all this week... but by the time I left work early, full of free turkey and holiday cheer, it seemed a waste to piddle away my day-where-I-am-NOT-exhausted-from-core-strengthening on a shorter run.
Goal was to run a steady medium-easy pace for ~40 minutes to test if the feet would tolerate some longer runs. Loops ended up being in 38:04 (12:53, 12:28, 12:43) for just above 8:15 min/mile pace, which is just about base pace if I were in shape... which means I probably put too much effort into them. I always feel kind of iffy about base runs where the pacing is erratic like that, it usually means some funky psychological phenomena is at play, compromising ideal training effort level. I think a little bit of frustration definitely went into this run--I've been feeling crappy about the past few days, cranky about feeling physically unwell, and exasperated at how little my body seems to be able to handle.
I knew that I was expending more effort than the usual pleasantly plugging along state, and I tried to tone down the last lap, but it was honestly hard to curb the aggression. I did manage to stick to the breathing out of my nose only rule, and I didn't feel tired at the end going up the little hill to my car, and I felt like I kept good form and relaxed shoulders throughout, so it wasn't as if it was an egregious effort... but I think what troubles me is the lack of ability to control my emotions. It's this sort of impatience and frustration that left unchecked, will eventually cause me to do something stupid and end up back on the injury heap--and for ONCE in my life I want to avoid that mistake and complete a season of *something*.
Thursday 11/22: 34:15, California to RB. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! :) Extremely, extremely slow run. Everything feels a bit worse for the wear after core strengthening and the longer faster run yesterday. L foot felt funny throughout as well, making for a kind of consterning experience all around... but felt much better after a large helping of turkey and stuffing and gravy with Peter. Wonderful day except for the run...
Friday 11/23: 36:06, Monterrey to rock. Put in the squishy pair of orthotics again. Had a suspicion that the new orthotics that unloaded pressure off of the second toe was starting to put undue pressure on the third toe, so wanted to give that little guy a break. Considering alternating days to see if that helps, but did notice that the old pair of orthotics does a worse job of keeping my ankles aligned. Almost took a nasty spill on the way back, rolled out the L ankle, but no popping sound and minimal pain so just ran through without breaking stride. Still kind of consterned though, a bit of soreness during PT afterwards. Argh.
Toes felt better after today. Stride felt smoother, just took it really easy and felt like the system was recovering. Maybe its a good thing the gym is closed, so core strengthening will get pushed back to tomorrow. A bit more food in the stomach than I'd like though... there is just so much food around these days. Must try to mitigate the weight gain though, as that will certainly not help out my feet.
Saturday 11/24: 38:53, Parked a few blocks up on California, ran to RB. Some football game going on at the RB, traffic backed up and streets blocked off where I would normally park. Felt particularly cantankerous today about these annoyances... Had to run some extra pavement (eee...) minutes to get to car, which made the run longer than intended. Also had a meal uncomfortably close to running time, so felt kind of blimp-like and breathing constricted. Otherwise, a nice, chill run. Feet felt mostly okay, nothing felt sore or tired, hi-fived a drunk guy on his way back to his car.
Core strengthening at the gym with Peter, had to squeeze the mandatory 3rd session in this week on the last day. Felt a renewed sense of consternation about how weak my core is... but have to plugging away at this. Can actually feel some new abs growing under the layer of turkey-induced blubber.
Target Training: 3 hours 30 minutes
Actual Training: 3:38:05
Monday, November 12, 2007
Week of 11/11/2007 - 11/17/2007 (Pre-Base Week 1)
And... it starts again.
Post vacation, I think I logged one solid week of training, through the nasty ash-filled southern california air... before succumbing to a variety of medical troubles, respiratory and otherwise. 2 weeks and one podiatrist appointment later, it starts again. The Season-that-will-either-be-known-as-Track-2008-or-XC-2008 begins now!
While yet another doctor has been mostly flummoxed by my medical mystery foot... I've gotten another pair of orthotics and the go-ahead to try running for 1 month to see if correcting some mechanics will reduce the pressure point on that toe. Apparently the bone structures looks normal, so scar cartilage or something from the ankle breakings and toe smashings is suspected. Lets hope it doesn't come to surgery to scrape it away...
Sunday 11/11: 32:57, California to the RB and back. So far as being restricted to the same 5 miles of Arroyo every day goes, this is one of my favorite routes, given the variety in scenery. Went real easy, felt good. Tried to think about correcting the mechanics in my right (uninjured) footstrike (per the video analysis at the foot doctor's) on the thought that maybe an imbalance here is somehow creating the pressure point on the opposite foot. Since no one seems to know, my theory is as good as anyone else's. Orthotics not as crappy as I thought they would be. No pain.
Monday 11/12: 35:52, Monterrey to the rock and back. Very sunny, felt uncomfortably warm, ergo sluggish, but not terrible. Not that I was in any sort of shape before, but a couple weeks off certainly sets a person back, no matter where they are. Just aiming for some good easy 30-35 minute runs all this week to get back into it. Definitely do not feel as crappy as the first time coming back though. Starting to feel the first ill-effects of orthotics, in the form of a nice expansive blister on the R arch... argh!
Tuesday 11/13: Off. You hope for good starts to new things, but it doesn't always happen so. R hip became inflamed during the night and couldn't sleep. Iced, stretched and took 1 Aleve and 5 enzyme tablets early in the AM. This is a familiar exhaustion injury, its just really demoralizing when a sum total of 1 hour of running makes your body so tired it breaks. Suspect that this has to do with trying to correct the footstrike on the R side. Something that keeps the leg aligned properly is NOT used to working hard.
Core strengthening with Peter in the PM. Ran into Feldman at the gym. Maybe he'll do the Tiger Run in my place this year... haha. Realized that I severely lack core strength, especially post-fasting. Felt totally exhausted afterwards... Also saw Natalie Muren at the gym, she's one of those people who reminds me that I am weak, fat, slow, and pathetic. She is also one of those people who remind me how much I do NOT want to be those things, and how I've got to be strong and keep fighting through this.
Wednesday 11/14: 33:43, California to RB. Back in the metaphorical saddle again. The good: both feet held up well, no pain, felt like the running system is taking well to the mechanical adjustment to my R side, felt smoother and more natural. Hip felt a little sore, but not painful. The bad: core strengthening makes me really more exhausted than running. I woke up and my whole body felt like lead. Had to run realllly slowly, and with this feeling that my legs were shoving a dead weight forwards. I really wish I could just abandon core strengthening, but as they always say, the people who find X most painful are the ones who need it the most. I'm hoping that some day, this will all be worth it when my hips can keep my legs straight and my feet healthy and my shoulders don't cramp on long runs.
Thursday 11/15: 35:24, Monterrey to rock. Finally getting the hang of this morning thing. It makes it a lot easier because its been pretty warm out :). Felt groggy and was slow in the beginning, until something clicked with my stride and I was suddenly running much smoother and faster and with less effort. There's just so much to think with every step I take, and I'm still at the point where it feels like an effort to coordinate everything, and that it doesn't always quite come together... but when it does, its kind of nice to see that I am rewarded for my efforts.
Feet are feeling better this week than ever before in the past 7 months. I've been doing physical therapy every day--I've noticed that it seems to help a lot more to do the exercises immediately after running and stretching, than to leave it until the end of the day or whenever I have more time. This necessitates waking up a little bit earlier, but seems to be well worth the pain. More core strengthening in the PM... I hope that at some point my body gets used to this, and it will cease to be quite so painful to hold my torso upright during the run on the day after. I suppose we will see tomorrow if there is any improvement...
Friday 11/16: 32:34, California to RB. Not feeling particularly creative this week... the 30-40 minute time limit sort of limits the destinations that are available too. All things considered, a good effort--felt exhausted from yesterday's core strengthening again, but this time, somehow managed to keep the shoulders relaxed and retain some quality. Felt better at the end than the beginning again, but the switchover point from groggy to smooth happened closer to 1/4 of the way in rather than 1/2, so that's encouraging.
Saturday 11/17: 34:31, Monterrey to rock. An unexpected good run! Just felt like the running system was operating harmoniously, finally. By far the lowest effort and fastest pace of the week. Felt very relaxed, almost forgot to turn around and go home. These are the runs that make the crappy days worth it. A little soreness on the bottom of my L foot makes me a tad suspicious about the sustainability of the new orthotics, but I'll just keep an eye on it. Maybe I can wear them every other day, if this persists.
Target Training: 3 hours and 15 minutes
Actual Training this week: 3:25:01
Post vacation, I think I logged one solid week of training, through the nasty ash-filled southern california air... before succumbing to a variety of medical troubles, respiratory and otherwise. 2 weeks and one podiatrist appointment later, it starts again. The Season-that-will-either-be-known-as-Track-2008-or-XC-2008 begins now!
While yet another doctor has been mostly flummoxed by my medical mystery foot... I've gotten another pair of orthotics and the go-ahead to try running for 1 month to see if correcting some mechanics will reduce the pressure point on that toe. Apparently the bone structures looks normal, so scar cartilage or something from the ankle breakings and toe smashings is suspected. Lets hope it doesn't come to surgery to scrape it away...
Sunday 11/11: 32:57, California to the RB and back. So far as being restricted to the same 5 miles of Arroyo every day goes, this is one of my favorite routes, given the variety in scenery. Went real easy, felt good. Tried to think about correcting the mechanics in my right (uninjured) footstrike (per the video analysis at the foot doctor's) on the thought that maybe an imbalance here is somehow creating the pressure point on the opposite foot. Since no one seems to know, my theory is as good as anyone else's. Orthotics not as crappy as I thought they would be. No pain.
Monday 11/12: 35:52, Monterrey to the rock and back. Very sunny, felt uncomfortably warm, ergo sluggish, but not terrible. Not that I was in any sort of shape before, but a couple weeks off certainly sets a person back, no matter where they are. Just aiming for some good easy 30-35 minute runs all this week to get back into it. Definitely do not feel as crappy as the first time coming back though. Starting to feel the first ill-effects of orthotics, in the form of a nice expansive blister on the R arch... argh!
Tuesday 11/13: Off. You hope for good starts to new things, but it doesn't always happen so. R hip became inflamed during the night and couldn't sleep. Iced, stretched and took 1 Aleve and 5 enzyme tablets early in the AM. This is a familiar exhaustion injury, its just really demoralizing when a sum total of 1 hour of running makes your body so tired it breaks. Suspect that this has to do with trying to correct the footstrike on the R side. Something that keeps the leg aligned properly is NOT used to working hard.
Core strengthening with Peter in the PM. Ran into Feldman at the gym. Maybe he'll do the Tiger Run in my place this year... haha. Realized that I severely lack core strength, especially post-fasting. Felt totally exhausted afterwards... Also saw Natalie Muren at the gym, she's one of those people who reminds me that I am weak, fat, slow, and pathetic. She is also one of those people who remind me how much I do NOT want to be those things, and how I've got to be strong and keep fighting through this.
Wednesday 11/14: 33:43, California to RB. Back in the metaphorical saddle again. The good: both feet held up well, no pain, felt like the running system is taking well to the mechanical adjustment to my R side, felt smoother and more natural. Hip felt a little sore, but not painful. The bad: core strengthening makes me really more exhausted than running. I woke up and my whole body felt like lead. Had to run realllly slowly, and with this feeling that my legs were shoving a dead weight forwards. I really wish I could just abandon core strengthening, but as they always say, the people who find X most painful are the ones who need it the most. I'm hoping that some day, this will all be worth it when my hips can keep my legs straight and my feet healthy and my shoulders don't cramp on long runs.
Thursday 11/15: 35:24, Monterrey to rock. Finally getting the hang of this morning thing. It makes it a lot easier because its been pretty warm out :). Felt groggy and was slow in the beginning, until something clicked with my stride and I was suddenly running much smoother and faster and with less effort. There's just so much to think with every step I take, and I'm still at the point where it feels like an effort to coordinate everything, and that it doesn't always quite come together... but when it does, its kind of nice to see that I am rewarded for my efforts.
Feet are feeling better this week than ever before in the past 7 months
Friday 11/16: 32:34, California to RB. Not feeling particularly creative this week... the 30-40 minute time limit sort of limits the destinations that are available too. All things considered, a good effort--felt exhausted from yesterday's core strengthening again, but this time, somehow managed to keep the shoulders relaxed and retain some quality. Felt better at the end than the beginning again, but the switchover point from groggy to smooth happened closer to 1/4 of the way in rather than 1/2, so that's encouraging.
Saturday 11/17: 34:31, Monterrey to rock. An unexpected good run! Just felt like the running system was operating harmoniously, finally. By far the lowest effort and fastest pace of the week. Felt very relaxed, almost forgot to turn around and go home. These are the runs that make the crappy days worth it. A little soreness on the bottom of my L foot makes me a tad suspicious about the sustainability of the new orthotics, but I'll just keep an eye on it. Maybe I can wear them every other day, if this persists.
Target Training: 3 hours and 15 minutes
Actual Training this week: 3:25:01
Week of 10/14/2007 - 10/20/2007 (Traveling Week 2)
A Fat American in Europe – Part the Second
Like many unfortunate runners, I suffer from a phenomenon called a very weak stomach. Eat the wrong thing before a run? Drink too much water? Stars aligned incorrectly? and WHAM! a run starts more closely resembling a mad treasure hunt from public restroom to public restroom than ... well, training.
In the U.S. I consider myself an expert at ferretting out peeing spots. I've got every park and public restroom in and around my runs mapped out, I know every store where there isn't *technically* a public restroom but the employees don't care, and in times of dire straits, I can invent a tear jerking tale of epic woe to convince a random establishment along the way to conveniently convert itself into an emergency pit stop for me.
This doesn't really fly in Europe, apparently. They are much more protective of their restrooms. A lot of them require payment to even enter, and the ones belonging to restaurants and other workplaces are kept under a watchful eye of some old lady who can and will turn into a wailing banshee if a random person from off the street dare trundle inconspicuously in to use the facilities... Thankfully, though for the most part there is also an abundance of relatively quiet forest trails in which, if heaven forbid one would need to pee, the nearest tree is 2 feet away.
Sunday 10/14: off. Weather forces us to descend from the mountains :(. Wanted to run in the trails again, but felt that a day off was advisable, so drove back to the flatlands of Peschiera. Plan was to bike a little bit with Peter but this turned out rather poorly. Suffice it to say that it lasted only about an hour, and included 2 flat tires, 1 Power Bar from the year 1991 and some unfortunate medical problems.
In the evening drove to beautiful Verona to see the quirky Italian ex-triathlete and his non English speaking Cuban wife. Walked around the old city, ate pizza and embarked on the ultimate quest for an authentic Cannoli. Luckily for me, Marco was extremely knowledgeable about that subject area. Felt afraid for my life/the integrity of the paint job on our poor little rental vehicle in the narrow 0.5 lane cobble stone roads, but everything was worth it for the Cannoli.
Monday 10/15: 31:57 in the AM. Extremely grouchy due to morning and cold… Tried to find some trails to run on but was mostly unsuccessful. Ended up running up and down a short segment along the river bank feeling irritated. Unfortunately this morning excursion was necessary in order to catch the train to Venice!
Probably the most striking city we saw, for obvious reasons. Really liked all of the little canals and bridges and old buildings. Bought gifts, ate dinner by the water, and some delicious mystery pastries for dessert. Lots of walking, feet were not delighted by the end. Really liked the city except for the discovery of a rare species of Restaurant Nazi—the kind that don’t let you use the bathroom, and scream like a banshee if you try to sit down with your cup of coffee. Apparently sitting down makes your meal twice as expensive, leading to the curious phenomenon of neat little rows of empty tables and throngs of customers milling around the counters stuffing their edibles down in the upright position. Got back pretty late, then drove up to Salo on the west side of the Lake.
Tuesday 10/16: Hiking! Felt close to death in the morning after the coldest night of my life. Apparently heating is a luxury of expensive hotels here… what’s most outrageous is that there IS a heating unit IN the room… it just doesn’t WORK. Did not get any sleep at all due to it being cold.
Day turned out much better though, we departed the town of freezing cold, went to a neat Italian supermarket. Bought some delicious cheese, cookies and probably bought more fruit than we needed due to the novelty of the “print it yourself” weight and price sticker machine. Took the food with us on a hike in the Alps above Tremosine. Followed a mountain bike path for a bit, then veered off onto a smaller trail, which turned out to be a fantastic choice. Walked along a narrow 0.5 person wide trail carved into the side of the mountain, including rock face. I would have rejected the path as incredibly dangerous and impassable, but it didn’t seem to faze Peter. Was exhilarating in that “HOLY CRAP I’M GOING TO DIE” way sort of like a roller coaster. The best part was finding someone’s adorable little mountain hut at the top. Had a picnic lunch nearby and headed back down a safer larger trail. Really fun. Feet were not happy by the end though. Drove straight to Milan from trailhead, ate at a funny little restaurant called GROG.
Wednesday 10/17: Central heating at last! Really enjoyed a full night of sleep and the towel heater and mini fridge. Peter went to meet the professor at the university in the morning, then we went to explore the city in the afternoon. Emerged from the train station into the mother of all shopping districts. There were Prada stores and Gucci stores on every corner like Starbucks! Trying to imagine the amount of money that must change hands here every day to keep all of these shops in business was just mindbending. We found suits for 2000 Euros or like $3,000 and shoes for 950 Euros. Peter was instructed to buy business attire here, but somehow that didn’t end up happening… We did find some culinary treasures, such as the best Gelato I’ve ever had, and this funny little shop that sold inexpensive fried/baked calzone-like edibles.
Thursday 10/18: Left Milan in the morning in search of some more hiking prior to dinner with Peter’s professional triathlete friends. Wasn’t quite as successful finding good trails today, not to mention the intermittent drizzle… Aborted a few extremely steep rocky paths, then found a quaint little route that we didn’t have enough time to explore. Feet not feeling great.
Drove back up to the North side of the Lake to complete our circuit of the circumference, and had dinner with two professional triathletes who were married to each other. They were surprisingly down to earth and non-scary, but I was very thankful nonetheless that the topic of my athletic incompetence did not come up in conversation.
Friday 10/19: Drove back to Germany. Failed in the quest to find another SMA brand supermarket where I had hoped to buy a lifetime supply of pastry cookies, pasta, cheese and mini croissants… was very sad about that, but we managed to find a different supermarket the size of a shopping mall on our way back that had a large variety of pecorino cheeses, which I was persuaded to view as acceptable compensation for the lack of pastry cookies and mini-croissants that I had wanted. Had coffee and a fantastic apple strudel with another of Peter’s friends, then drove (through the snow!) to the Olympic stadium in Munich. Was sad that the track was closed, but we got to see the inside of the swimming complex.
Saturday 10/20: The last day :(. Bought last minute gifts, saw some more people, packed. Went to an authentic Bavarian restaurant to eat potato dumplings and cabbage for lunch. Peter does not understand my extreme fondness of sweet red cabbage, but I ordered a second helping anyways. We also had Meinhold Family Dinner with all of the brothers and sisters and their significant others, was impressed with delicious home made Indian food. Was exhausted afterwards, happy to let Peter hit the bars with the boys while I had a nice hot bath and read in bed.
I guess this doesn’t really qualify as a training week. I’m just hoping that all of the walking and hiking has at least kept me from becoming morbidly obese and out of shape. And that it hasn’t destroyed my feet… but we’ll see.
Like many unfortunate runners, I suffer from a phenomenon called a very weak stomach. Eat the wrong thing before a run? Drink too much water? Stars aligned incorrectly? and WHAM! a run starts more closely resembling a mad treasure hunt from public restroom to public restroom than ... well, training.
In the U.S. I consider myself an expert at ferretting out peeing spots. I've got every park and public restroom in and around my runs mapped out, I know every store where there isn't *technically* a public restroom but the employees don't care, and in times of dire straits, I can invent a tear jerking tale of epic woe to convince a random establishment along the way to conveniently convert itself into an emergency pit stop for me.
This doesn't really fly in Europe, apparently. They are much more protective of their restrooms. A lot of them require payment to even enter, and the ones belonging to restaurants and other workplaces are kept under a watchful eye of some old lady who can and will turn into a wailing banshee if a random person from off the street dare trundle inconspicuously in to use the facilities... Thankfully, though for the most part there is also an abundance of relatively quiet forest trails in which, if heaven forbid one would need to pee, the nearest tree is 2 feet away.
Sunday 10/14: off. Weather forces us to descend from the mountains :(. Wanted to run in the trails again, but felt that a day off was advisable, so drove back to the flatlands of Peschiera. Plan was to bike a little bit with Peter but this turned out rather poorly. Suffice it to say that it lasted only about an hour, and included 2 flat tires, 1 Power Bar from the year 1991 and some unfortunate medical problems.
In the evening drove to beautiful Verona to see the quirky Italian ex-triathlete and his non English speaking Cuban wife. Walked around the old city, ate pizza and embarked on the ultimate quest for an authentic Cannoli. Luckily for me, Marco was extremely knowledgeable about that subject area. Felt afraid for my life/the integrity of the paint job on our poor little rental vehicle in the narrow 0.5 lane cobble stone roads, but everything was worth it for the Cannoli.
Monday 10/15: 31:57 in the AM. Extremely grouchy due to morning and cold… Tried to find some trails to run on but was mostly unsuccessful. Ended up running up and down a short segment along the river bank feeling irritated. Unfortunately this morning excursion was necessary in order to catch the train to Venice!
Probably the most striking city we saw, for obvious reasons. Really liked all of the little canals and bridges and old buildings. Bought gifts, ate dinner by the water, and some delicious mystery pastries for dessert. Lots of walking, feet were not delighted by the end. Really liked the city except for the discovery of a rare species of Restaurant Nazi—the kind that don’t let you use the bathroom, and scream like a banshee if you try to sit down with your cup of coffee. Apparently sitting down makes your meal twice as expensive, leading to the curious phenomenon of neat little rows of empty tables and throngs of customers milling around the counters stuffing their edibles down in the upright position. Got back pretty late, then drove up to Salo on the west side of the Lake.
Tuesday 10/16: Hiking! Felt close to death in the morning after the coldest night of my life. Apparently heating is a luxury of expensive hotels here… what’s most outrageous is that there IS a heating unit IN the room… it just doesn’t WORK. Did not get any sleep at all due to it being cold.
Day turned out much better though, we departed the town of freezing cold, went to a neat Italian supermarket. Bought some delicious cheese, cookies and probably bought more fruit than we needed due to the novelty of the “print it yourself” weight and price sticker machine. Took the food with us on a hike in the Alps above Tremosine. Followed a mountain bike path for a bit, then veered off onto a smaller trail, which turned out to be a fantastic choice. Walked along a narrow 0.5 person wide trail carved into the side of the mountain, including rock face. I would have rejected the path as incredibly dangerous and impassable, but it didn’t seem to faze Peter. Was exhilarating in that “HOLY CRAP I’M GOING TO DIE” way sort of like a roller coaster. The best part was finding someone’s adorable little mountain hut at the top. Had a picnic lunch nearby and headed back down a safer larger trail. Really fun. Feet were not happy by the end though. Drove straight to Milan from trailhead, ate at a funny little restaurant called GROG.
Wednesday 10/17: Central heating at last! Really enjoyed a full night of sleep and the towel heater and mini fridge. Peter went to meet the professor at the university in the morning, then we went to explore the city in the afternoon. Emerged from the train station into the mother of all shopping districts. There were Prada stores and Gucci stores on every corner like Starbucks! Trying to imagine the amount of money that must change hands here every day to keep all of these shops in business was just mindbending. We found suits for 2000 Euros or like $3,000 and shoes for 950 Euros. Peter was instructed to buy business attire here, but somehow that didn’t end up happening… We did find some culinary treasures, such as the best Gelato I’ve ever had, and this funny little shop that sold inexpensive fried/baked calzone-like edibles.
Thursday 10/18: Left Milan in the morning in search of some more hiking prior to dinner with Peter’s professional triathlete friends. Wasn’t quite as successful finding good trails today, not to mention the intermittent drizzle… Aborted a few extremely steep rocky paths, then found a quaint little route that we didn’t have enough time to explore. Feet not feeling great.
Drove back up to the North side of the Lake to complete our circuit of the circumference, and had dinner with two professional triathletes who were married to each other. They were surprisingly down to earth and non-scary, but I was very thankful nonetheless that the topic of my athletic incompetence did not come up in conversation.
Friday 10/19: Drove back to Germany. Failed in the quest to find another SMA brand supermarket where I had hoped to buy a lifetime supply of pastry cookies, pasta, cheese and mini croissants… was very sad about that, but we managed to find a different supermarket the size of a shopping mall on our way back that had a large variety of pecorino cheeses, which I was persuaded to view as acceptable compensation for the lack of pastry cookies and mini-croissants that I had wanted. Had coffee and a fantastic apple strudel with another of Peter’s friends, then drove (through the snow!) to the Olympic stadium in Munich. Was sad that the track was closed, but we got to see the inside of the swimming complex.
Saturday 10/20: The last day :(. Bought last minute gifts, saw some more people, packed. Went to an authentic Bavarian restaurant to eat potato dumplings and cabbage for lunch. Peter does not understand my extreme fondness of sweet red cabbage, but I ordered a second helping anyways. We also had Meinhold Family Dinner with all of the brothers and sisters and their significant others, was impressed with delicious home made Indian food. Was exhausted afterwards, happy to let Peter hit the bars with the boys while I had a nice hot bath and read in bed.
I guess this doesn’t really qualify as a training week. I’m just hoping that all of the walking and hiking has at least kept me from becoming morbidly obese and out of shape. And that it hasn’t destroyed my feet… but we’ll see.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)