So, its been a while...
From that you can extrapolate that the injury situation played out closer to the "worst case scenario" side of things. It turns out that I did manage to give myself a mild stress fracture of the R femoral neck, another one of those obscure injuries only seen in elite athletes and the extremely extremely stupid/unlucky. I'll let you guess which bucket I'm in. Anyways, welcome to "you may never run again... " take two.
I've generally found motivation to be much lower than last year. Last year I was extremely motivated to keep up my fitness and pursue a super conservative transition plan to running... but since that lead to... this... well, let's just say I'm feeling a little bit more on the "fuck this" sort of mindset. Nevertheless, the worst of it has all come and gone (fingers crossed) so I'll report on what's been going on:
May: Hmmmm... a whole lot of nothing. Really, literally... lots of sitting around, eating, fattening and disgruntle-ating. I tried to use crutches for a while, but gave up because it was so painful, I don't really know how I endured this for 6 weeks last year. Instead, I tried to stand on my left foot a lot, and avoid walking places. The rate of healing slowed a lot after I got back from Japan. I blame stress, sleep deprivation and unhappiness. Oh yeah, there was a heck of a lot of insomnia in there too. I wasn't built for the sedentary lifestyle.
June: Some PT, half hearted attempts at exercise. I learned from the PT that I run leaning too far back so that my center of mass is braking into every step... I guess its sorta nice to know that my slowness AND stress fractures are being caused by the same basic problem... but on the down side, the 3 minutes of running on the treadmill to ascertain this fact made my hip hurt :-/. Tried to do some light biking and swimming a couple of times a week but mostly failing. Discouraged by residual aches and pains.
July: More of the same, but started to get serious about swimming every day about halfway through July. Swam after work at the Caltech pool, something between 40 -60 minutes, maybe 5-6 days a week. Hard to get out of work early enough to make it to the pool by 6 pm (get kicked out at 7 pm). Started with 15 x 100 yards, on 2:30 cycles. Felt pretty crappy. Tried to incorporate some drills from Peter, with limited success.
August: Just as I was losing focus on this swimming thing, got opportunely "adopted" by the Caltech Masters swim club and their awesome coaches. Organized workouts make all of the difference. Practice is Mon-Thurs 7 - 8:30 pm and Sat 7 - 8:30 am. At first the 90 minute blocks were a stretch for me, so I only went a few times a week, but gradually committed to going every available day, and swimming easy on my own for 40 minutes on the off days. Also started adding in some cycling on the weekends, at first just long-ish commuting rides to/from errands, maybe 15-20 miles total. Did a few "real"-ish rides, including 7 laps of the RB at 10:10 - 10:25 per lap, which is actually a decent pace.
Started my running recovery regimen too, starting with 1 lap of the south field. Had some inordinate trouble with my calves in the pool which made things go a little bit more slowly than I'd like, but plugging along. Also got sick somewhere in there. Implemented weight loss plan super extreme to ease the transition to running. I was 107 immediately before the hip injury and back up to 120+ within a few months of immobility. Battled it back down to 110, which means that I think I'm in relatively good shape to ambulate in a manner that does not resemble the Michelin Man. Awesome!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
The in-between space
03/28/2010 - 04/03/2010
The in-between space is where you go before you know whether it's going to be 3 days off, or 3 weeks... or 3 months. It's really very rare for me to have muscular injuries, so I'm not really sure what to expect. Though, it's still kicking around the back of my mind that backing off my calcium regimen has caused a stress fracture of the femural head. It's actually not THAT crazy, given the diffuse hip pain and painful ambulation.
I've been resting vigilantly with minimal movement in hopes of being able to run a little bit while in Japan for the next two weeks, but so far it isn't looking good. This week produced little improvement in the general state, with new pains emerging every so often. It's really hard to pinpoint exactly what the issue is, other than that it affects my ability to lift my R leg. Iliopsoas strain is likely with some groin involvement. According to the internet, recovery is about 2 weeks. Grrrrr... arghhh...
04/04/2010 - 04/10/2010
Flew out on Sunday, which was coincidentally the first day that I could almost kind of walk normally. Monday was sort of lost due to the time difference, but I decided to make the most of my new found semi-mobility by going on a 60-90 minute walk on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wow, it feels good to be mobile.
Thankfully, the walks did not produce new pain, so I decided to embark on the planned upon short hike with my cousins on Thursday. Climbing for about 90 minutes felt really good, but a steep-ish decent on the other side made my hip ache. Uh-oh. Stretched out real good at the hot springs on the way back, felt not horrible after that. Took it easy through the end of the week, and it seems like I haven't done any permanent damage. On the other hand, discovered that anything remotely resembling running is still very bad... as evidenced by when I tried to hurry back to the car, and almost crumpled to the ground. Ouch.
04/11/2010 - 04/17/2010
Didn't have a whole lot of time this week to worry about running, which I guess was good, because my hip continues to make progress only about at a glacial pace. The beginning of the week was devoted to furniture sort and lifting boxes, during which I almost threw out my back. Supposedly you're supposed to lift with your legs... but not so if you're trying to heal a strained... something. I figured my back was more expendable than my legs.
L calf has also started bothering me, not really sure whether it's some sort of compensation for favoring my R leg, or whether my calf strain never completely healed. Gah, you just can't catch a break around here, can you? Had a little bit of play-time left at the end of the week, but most of it was spent seeing long lost relatives, so I wouldn't have had time for my planned day trip to run at Fuji Five Lakes anyways. Started testing out about 10 steps of running on Friday and Saturday and it feels slightly strange but kind of like it might be okay.
Back to the US on Saturday. Gained 16 hours, was awake for about 36 and then was completely exhausted. Trip was actually pretty fun, despite being full of family feuds and furniture sorting. I noticed that simply not having to go to work makes me feel happy and relaxed. While I'm anxious to start running a little bit again, I'm kind of also thinking that running is going to have to take a back seat until I figure out what to do with the career/job situation. Maybe that's good, take the pressure off a little bit.
The in-between space is where you go before you know whether it's going to be 3 days off, or 3 weeks... or 3 months. It's really very rare for me to have muscular injuries, so I'm not really sure what to expect. Though, it's still kicking around the back of my mind that backing off my calcium regimen has caused a stress fracture of the femural head. It's actually not THAT crazy, given the diffuse hip pain and painful ambulation.
I've been resting vigilantly with minimal movement in hopes of being able to run a little bit while in Japan for the next two weeks, but so far it isn't looking good. This week produced little improvement in the general state, with new pains emerging every so often. It's really hard to pinpoint exactly what the issue is, other than that it affects my ability to lift my R leg. Iliopsoas strain is likely with some groin involvement. According to the internet, recovery is about 2 weeks. Grrrrr... arghhh...
04/04/2010 - 04/10/2010
Flew out on Sunday, which was coincidentally the first day that I could almost kind of walk normally. Monday was sort of lost due to the time difference, but I decided to make the most of my new found semi-mobility by going on a 60-90 minute walk on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wow, it feels good to be mobile.
Thankfully, the walks did not produce new pain, so I decided to embark on the planned upon short hike with my cousins on Thursday. Climbing for about 90 minutes felt really good, but a steep-ish decent on the other side made my hip ache. Uh-oh. Stretched out real good at the hot springs on the way back, felt not horrible after that. Took it easy through the end of the week, and it seems like I haven't done any permanent damage. On the other hand, discovered that anything remotely resembling running is still very bad... as evidenced by when I tried to hurry back to the car, and almost crumpled to the ground. Ouch.
04/11/2010 - 04/17/2010
Didn't have a whole lot of time this week to worry about running, which I guess was good, because my hip continues to make progress only about at a glacial pace. The beginning of the week was devoted to furniture sort and lifting boxes, during which I almost threw out my back. Supposedly you're supposed to lift with your legs... but not so if you're trying to heal a strained... something. I figured my back was more expendable than my legs.
L calf has also started bothering me, not really sure whether it's some sort of compensation for favoring my R leg, or whether my calf strain never completely healed. Gah, you just can't catch a break around here, can you? Had a little bit of play-time left at the end of the week, but most of it was spent seeing long lost relatives, so I wouldn't have had time for my planned day trip to run at Fuji Five Lakes anyways. Started testing out about 10 steps of running on Friday and Saturday and it feels slightly strange but kind of like it might be okay.
Back to the US on Saturday. Gained 16 hours, was awake for about 36 and then was completely exhausted. Trip was actually pretty fun, despite being full of family feuds and furniture sorting. I noticed that simply not having to go to work makes me feel happy and relaxed. While I'm anxious to start running a little bit again, I'm kind of also thinking that running is going to have to take a back seat until I figure out what to do with the career/job situation. Maybe that's good, take the pressure off a little bit.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Things fall apart
03/21/2010 - 03/27/2010
As Chinua Achebe says, things fall apart. I guess sometimes you can help the process along too. I got so excited after last week, that I did something stupid. To my credit, I haven't done anything stupid for a good long while. Sometimes though, the one time you don't look before you cross the street is when you get mashed by a car. I think I strained some hip and groin muscles pretty severely. As in, to get out of bed, I have to use my hands to lift up my right leg because my hip flexors have completely stopped functioning. Gah.
Sunday 03/21: 14.3 miles, 2:12:14 (9:15 min/mile) High Line Canal Trail (Denver)
I wasn't feeling awesome after yesterday's run, so I was disinclined to do a long run today, especially if it involved more than 2 laps of the park. So Peter plunked me down at a nice trail head so that I would have the motivation to do a proper long run. Given feeling crappy and being at altitude, the original plan was to do 10 miles, nice and easy. Unfortunately the trail was marked at 0.5 mile intervals, and there's something about demarcations that make me want to say "just one more!". Started out feeling unusually good, despite the fact that there were some pretty rough spots where snow and slush had made the trail a quagmire of shoe sucking mud.
I had to backtrack a little bit after getting lost, but the 5 mile marker came and went pretty happily. I had started to notice some twinges in my R hip, but figured it was a cramp and would work itself out. Then the 6 mile marker was kind of in an unsatisfyingly un-scenic location, so I decided to make it a 14 miler like last week. It was only when I reached the turnaround point, that I realized that I was actually quite tired... but there were 7 miles left to get back. Miles 8 - 11 felt like pulling teeth, but I was hanging on to 9 minute miles... then with ~3 miles to go, I was totally out of gas. It hit almost instantaneously like a ton of bricks... I imagined that this might be what it feels like to "hit the wall" in a marathon, but I was done. I slowed to a shuffle and even so, I had to stop to stretch my hip at every mile, was completely dehydrated and could barely sustain my 10-11 minute mile pace. At last, after 30+ minutes, the car became visible and I have never been so glad, nor so unsure that I would manage the last 50 meters without walking. So, so, so, so, so, tired.
Monday 03/22: 1.25 miles, 9:47 (7:50 min/mile) 4 x North Field Laps (barefoot)
A little shake out after work. Felt completely drained and achey and sore all day, but somehow it all dissipated for the short duration of this wonderful barefoot run. It's sort of like... impossible to run any slower when I'm barefoot!
Tuesday 03/23: 5.3 miles, 47:11 (8:54 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Today was the first indication that something was seriously wrong. Beyond being sore and achey, this run... hurt. Every step on my right side felt like a weird stabbing pain in my R hip. It became somewhat bearable after 10 steps or so, but didn't let up throughout the entire run. Afterwards, R hip hurt doing my exercises, and then I could barely walk the rest of the day. Felt awful.
Wednesday 03/24: Off. Still hard to walk, ergo... no run :(
Thursday 03/25: 5.3 miles, 44:52 (8:28 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Felt significantly better after a day off, so tried another short run. Felt a lot better than Tuesday, but I could definitely feel my R hip with every step. Thought it was getting better, but towards the end of the day things started to clench up and complain loudly basically through the entirety of my R hip/groin/upper thigh area. So painful it really wasn't possible to figure out exactly what was hurting.
Friday 03/26: Off. Pain seems to be getting worse. Can't lift R leg really at all, have to walk funny... like I'm about to do a faceplant with every step. Still can't really pinpoint what exactly is wrong, but it seems like the groin, hip flexors and upper IT band are involved at a minimum. R quads also really sore, that's not helping either.
Saturday 03/27: Off. No improvement from yesterday. Still hard to walk/lift up R leg. Very unhappy.
Week Total: 26.2 miles, I have this bad feeling that a lot of time off is forthcoming...
As Chinua Achebe says, things fall apart. I guess sometimes you can help the process along too. I got so excited after last week, that I did something stupid. To my credit, I haven't done anything stupid for a good long while. Sometimes though, the one time you don't look before you cross the street is when you get mashed by a car. I think I strained some hip and groin muscles pretty severely. As in, to get out of bed, I have to use my hands to lift up my right leg because my hip flexors have completely stopped functioning. Gah.
Sunday 03/21: 14.3 miles, 2:12:14 (9:15 min/mile) High Line Canal Trail (Denver)
I wasn't feeling awesome after yesterday's run, so I was disinclined to do a long run today, especially if it involved more than 2 laps of the park. So Peter plunked me down at a nice trail head so that I would have the motivation to do a proper long run. Given feeling crappy and being at altitude, the original plan was to do 10 miles, nice and easy. Unfortunately the trail was marked at 0.5 mile intervals, and there's something about demarcations that make me want to say "just one more!". Started out feeling unusually good, despite the fact that there were some pretty rough spots where snow and slush had made the trail a quagmire of shoe sucking mud.
I had to backtrack a little bit after getting lost, but the 5 mile marker came and went pretty happily. I had started to notice some twinges in my R hip, but figured it was a cramp and would work itself out. Then the 6 mile marker was kind of in an unsatisfyingly un-scenic location, so I decided to make it a 14 miler like last week. It was only when I reached the turnaround point, that I realized that I was actually quite tired... but there were 7 miles left to get back. Miles 8 - 11 felt like pulling teeth, but I was hanging on to 9 minute miles... then with ~3 miles to go, I was totally out of gas. It hit almost instantaneously like a ton of bricks... I imagined that this might be what it feels like to "hit the wall" in a marathon, but I was done. I slowed to a shuffle and even so, I had to stop to stretch my hip at every mile, was completely dehydrated and could barely sustain my 10-11 minute mile pace. At last, after 30+ minutes, the car became visible and I have never been so glad, nor so unsure that I would manage the last 50 meters without walking. So, so, so, so, so, tired.
Monday 03/22: 1.25 miles, 9:47 (7:50 min/mile) 4 x North Field Laps (barefoot)
A little shake out after work. Felt completely drained and achey and sore all day, but somehow it all dissipated for the short duration of this wonderful barefoot run. It's sort of like... impossible to run any slower when I'm barefoot!
Tuesday 03/23: 5.3 miles, 47:11 (8:54 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Today was the first indication that something was seriously wrong. Beyond being sore and achey, this run... hurt. Every step on my right side felt like a weird stabbing pain in my R hip. It became somewhat bearable after 10 steps or so, but didn't let up throughout the entire run. Afterwards, R hip hurt doing my exercises, and then I could barely walk the rest of the day. Felt awful.
Wednesday 03/24: Off. Still hard to walk, ergo... no run :(
Thursday 03/25: 5.3 miles, 44:52 (8:28 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Felt significantly better after a day off, so tried another short run. Felt a lot better than Tuesday, but I could definitely feel my R hip with every step. Thought it was getting better, but towards the end of the day things started to clench up and complain loudly basically through the entirety of my R hip/groin/upper thigh area. So painful it really wasn't possible to figure out exactly what was hurting.
Friday 03/26: Off. Pain seems to be getting worse. Can't lift R leg really at all, have to walk funny... like I'm about to do a faceplant with every step. Still can't really pinpoint what exactly is wrong, but it seems like the groin, hip flexors and upper IT band are involved at a minimum. R quads also really sore, that's not helping either.
Saturday 03/27: Off. No improvement from yesterday. Still hard to walk/lift up R leg. Very unhappy.
Week Total: 26.2 miles, I have this bad feeling that a lot of time off is forthcoming...
Friday, April 9, 2010
The first/last good week
03/14/2010 - 03/20/2010
As such things go, we're due for a meltdown pretty soon... but somehow I've been lulled into a false sense of security. Which is why I figured that it would be a good idea to actually start training now, like REAL training, with different days devoted to different elements, rather than 4-7 days per week of nondescript medium/short runs at a medium/slow pace. This week was pretty neat because it had a real long run, and a tempo run and a barefoot run. I was pretty happy. Little did I know how short lived it would be...
Sunday 03/14: ~14 miles, 2:01:36 (~8:41 min/mile) Cherry Canyon Adventure Run
Happy Pi Day! An auspicious day for an auspicious run: super awesome long run through Other Arroyo/Cherry Canyon with Talia. Maybe I should have taken my first day back from the calf issues a little bit easier, but who could resist a long run with the Ogliores? Arrived a little late, but managed to intercept the group (Ryan, Talia, Ian and Evelyn) a few minutes in. Talia and I took the scenic route through Cherry Canyon along the single track. A few parts towards the top of the hill were too steep and washed out for running, but we arrived at a cute little loop that descended back via the fire road. Headed back to the RB via Other Arroyo and tacked on an extra 20 minutes south towards the Arroyo Tempo Loop to make it 2 hours. Felt surprisingly good and non-tired! Calf hurt a little bit on the steeper uphill parts, but loosened up again after a little stretching at the turnaround. Delicious breakfast at Corner Bakery afterwards with Ian and Evelyn.
Monday 03/15: Off, resting. Calf okay. Phew.
Tuesday 03/16: 5.3 miles, 44:18 (8:22 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Slept in, but felt good. Took it easy, no ill effects from the long run, and calf seems back to normal. Today was the trial run for whether I will attempt a tempo tomorrow, and all signs point to yes.
Wednesday 03/17: 7.6 miles, 1:03:32 (8:22 min/mile) 2 x Arroyo Tempo Loop Workout
A relatively acceptable little tempo. The goal for today was just to not bail on the second loop. Warmed up with one loop in 14:18, then two more at "tempo" pace (11:29/11:17), then a long-ish cooldown around the 3 mile loop in 26:28. Felt surprisingly good, kept a very comfortable, controlled, "breathing out of nose" pace for the first 1.5 of the tempo loops, and pushed a little bit coming back on the downhill. Was glad to see the negative split. Somehow I find it really reassuring when the times match perceived effort. Felt a bit too worn out on the cooldown for striders though. Maybe next time.
Thursday 03/18: AM: 5.3 miles, 45:32 (8:36 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Tired today. Took it easy but thankfully didn't completely blow up. I guess that's okay, calves are still okay, that's the main thing. Looking forwards to testing out a short barefoot segment after work.
PM: 1.25 miles, 9:45 (7:48 min/mile) 4 x North Field Laps
Barefoot after work. NF is nice after dark, felt good, but a little bit less spry than last time... perhaps because I felt a little bit more tired. Nonetheless, calves felt fine, probably okay to add this back in to the weekly routine!
Friday 03/19: Off, shots and travel to Colorado.
Saturday 03/20: 6.2 miles, 53:01 (8:33 min/mile) 2 x Washington Park Loops
First time from new house, which is conveniently exactly 0.5 miles from the park! Felt not so good though... part of it was because there was a lot of snow/slush and the trail was really slippery, but I guess I'm also not used to the altitude anymore after a few months away. Just kept getting slower and slower, so made a conscious effort to run a little bit harder the last half mile back home.
Week Total: 39.7 miles, not bad for 2 days off. Overall pleased with this week!
As such things go, we're due for a meltdown pretty soon... but somehow I've been lulled into a false sense of security. Which is why I figured that it would be a good idea to actually start training now, like REAL training, with different days devoted to different elements, rather than 4-7 days per week of nondescript medium/short runs at a medium/slow pace. This week was pretty neat because it had a real long run, and a tempo run and a barefoot run. I was pretty happy. Little did I know how short lived it would be...
Sunday 03/14: ~14 miles, 2:01:36 (~8:41 min/mile) Cherry Canyon Adventure Run
Happy Pi Day! An auspicious day for an auspicious run: super awesome long run through Other Arroyo/Cherry Canyon with Talia. Maybe I should have taken my first day back from the calf issues a little bit easier, but who could resist a long run with the Ogliores? Arrived a little late, but managed to intercept the group (Ryan, Talia, Ian and Evelyn) a few minutes in. Talia and I took the scenic route through Cherry Canyon along the single track. A few parts towards the top of the hill were too steep and washed out for running, but we arrived at a cute little loop that descended back via the fire road. Headed back to the RB via Other Arroyo and tacked on an extra 20 minutes south towards the Arroyo Tempo Loop to make it 2 hours. Felt surprisingly good and non-tired! Calf hurt a little bit on the steeper uphill parts, but loosened up again after a little stretching at the turnaround. Delicious breakfast at Corner Bakery afterwards with Ian and Evelyn.
Monday 03/15: Off, resting. Calf okay. Phew.
Tuesday 03/16: 5.3 miles, 44:18 (8:22 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Slept in, but felt good. Took it easy, no ill effects from the long run, and calf seems back to normal. Today was the trial run for whether I will attempt a tempo tomorrow, and all signs point to yes.
Wednesday 03/17: 7.6 miles, 1:03:32 (8:22 min/mile) 2 x Arroyo Tempo Loop Workout
A relatively acceptable little tempo. The goal for today was just to not bail on the second loop. Warmed up with one loop in 14:18, then two more at "tempo" pace (11:29/11:17), then a long-ish cooldown around the 3 mile loop in 26:28. Felt surprisingly good, kept a very comfortable, controlled, "breathing out of nose" pace for the first 1.5 of the tempo loops, and pushed a little bit coming back on the downhill. Was glad to see the negative split. Somehow I find it really reassuring when the times match perceived effort. Felt a bit too worn out on the cooldown for striders though. Maybe next time.
Thursday 03/18: AM: 5.3 miles, 45:32 (8:36 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Tired today. Took it easy but thankfully didn't completely blow up. I guess that's okay, calves are still okay, that's the main thing. Looking forwards to testing out a short barefoot segment after work.
PM: 1.25 miles, 9:45 (7:48 min/mile) 4 x North Field Laps
Barefoot after work. NF is nice after dark, felt good, but a little bit less spry than last time... perhaps because I felt a little bit more tired. Nonetheless, calves felt fine, probably okay to add this back in to the weekly routine!
Friday 03/19: Off, shots and travel to Colorado.
Saturday 03/20: 6.2 miles, 53:01 (8:33 min/mile) 2 x Washington Park Loops
First time from new house, which is conveniently exactly 0.5 miles from the park! Felt not so good though... part of it was because there was a lot of snow/slush and the trail was really slippery, but I guess I'm also not used to the altitude anymore after a few months away. Just kept getting slower and slower, so made a conscious effort to run a little bit harder the last half mile back home.
Week Total: 39.7 miles, not bad for 2 days off. Overall pleased with this week!
Friday, March 19, 2010
My calves will never be the same
03/07/2010 - 03/13/2010
This was a week entirely dedicated to jogging in order to calm the horrible pain in my calves. Rather, I suppose the affliction was more localized to my R calf, which in and of itself is a sobering reminder to me regarding the weakness of the L foot. I did notice that it was harder to do a proper forefoot plant on that side while I was running, which would explain why that calf didn't really work as hard as the other one.
I was honestly really bowled over about being so completely vanquished by a tiny little 3 mile run. It really took the entirety of this week for this horrible sharp pain and general warm, inflamed feeling to dissipate from my calf. One could potentially argue that it was worsened by my lack of backing off of the mileage in the days immediately after the soreness was acquired, but that's neither here nor there at this point. I'm going to try for a shorter barefoot session sometime next week once I'm able to walk normally again... some day.
Sunday 03/07: AM: ~10.8 miles, 1:34:10 (~8:43 min/mile) Lot K to Cherry Canyon Gate
Yesterday's jog convinced me of the veracity of the theory that if you jog slowly for long enough, the pain will subside. So today, I set off on my extra long jog, eager to explore the new Arroyo trails again. Unfortunately, I got off to a bit of late start, so I was a little bit warmer and a little bit more dehydrated than I would have liked. Perhaps more unfortunately, my calves loosened up pretty nicely in the beginning, but started cramping and complaining loudly again after about 45 minutes, which made the remainder of the run relatively tough. Thankfully it was mostly manageable with a slow pace. Distance uncertain, but extrapolated based on pace for the Rose Bowl perimeter part.
PM: 45.7 miles, approx. 2:53:00 (15.8 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop
Rainy afternoon ride with Peter, started out with KB, Ian and Ben, but fell off the pace significantly once the non-downhill parts hit. Felt pretty awful by the end. Had some shot bloks a few miles into the lousy part and felt better for a little bit, but the exhaustion was more or less overpowering. Also not used to the shifting on Big Red, which made it a little bit harder. Man, I am out of biking shape... this ties my slowest ever Short Long Loop, which occurred on the day after Wrightwood. On the plus side, kept my heels down and got some nice calf stretching in.
Monday 03/08: Off, arghhhhh.... soooooo.... tired. Also, calves hurt significantly more than yesterday--crapppppppp!
Tuesday 03/09: 5.3 miles, 47:16 (8:55 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Felt tired and lousy still, but mostly the problem was that R calf was still bothering me. It just wouldn't loosen up, and felt crampy and weak the entire way. Jogged slowly and considered if I really just needed to take a few more days completely off to make it heal. The pain actually subsided in the hours after the run though, so I'll try one more day.
Wednesday 03/10: 5.3 miles, 45:58 (8:40 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
R calf still achey and weird feeling, but there is definite improvement from yesterday. I think the 5 mile jogs are manageable for the time being. It's kind of hard to get a good push off from each step though, which means that I'm traveling at a snail's pace either which way.
Thursday 03/11: 5.3 miles, 45:03 (8:30 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
A little more improvement, but there's still some intermittent cramping and weakness. Walking around during the day is okay now though, so that's a relief. R calf is still a bit warm and weird feeling to the touch though, which is sort of disturbing. Can't believe it's still not 100%!
Friday 03/12: Off, lazy, tired. I guess I decided that taking another day off wouldn't be so awful for my poor R calf either.
Saturday 03/13: 5.3 miles, 44:38 (8:25 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
First day that my calf basically felt normal. Was thinking about trying a bit longer run, but it worked out such that I didn't get up early enough and it was uncomfortably warm out. Decided that doing one more easy short day wouldn't hurt. Best to rest up for a big day tomorrow. Felt really good to run with a semi-normal stride again! Calf held up pretty well throughout the run and afterwards. Phew.
Week Total: 32 miles, I guess this down week was an investment in my future of continued ability to run.
This was a week entirely dedicated to jogging in order to calm the horrible pain in my calves. Rather, I suppose the affliction was more localized to my R calf, which in and of itself is a sobering reminder to me regarding the weakness of the L foot. I did notice that it was harder to do a proper forefoot plant on that side while I was running, which would explain why that calf didn't really work as hard as the other one.
I was honestly really bowled over about being so completely vanquished by a tiny little 3 mile run. It really took the entirety of this week for this horrible sharp pain and general warm, inflamed feeling to dissipate from my calf. One could potentially argue that it was worsened by my lack of backing off of the mileage in the days immediately after the soreness was acquired, but that's neither here nor there at this point. I'm going to try for a shorter barefoot session sometime next week once I'm able to walk normally again... some day.
Sunday 03/07: AM: ~10.8 miles, 1:34:10 (~8:43 min/mile) Lot K to Cherry Canyon Gate
Yesterday's jog convinced me of the veracity of the theory that if you jog slowly for long enough, the pain will subside. So today, I set off on my extra long jog, eager to explore the new Arroyo trails again. Unfortunately, I got off to a bit of late start, so I was a little bit warmer and a little bit more dehydrated than I would have liked. Perhaps more unfortunately, my calves loosened up pretty nicely in the beginning, but started cramping and complaining loudly again after about 45 minutes, which made the remainder of the run relatively tough. Thankfully it was mostly manageable with a slow pace. Distance uncertain, but extrapolated based on pace for the Rose Bowl perimeter part.
PM: 45.7 miles, approx. 2:53:00 (15.8 mph) Peter's Short Long Loop
Rainy afternoon ride with Peter, started out with KB, Ian and Ben, but fell off the pace significantly once the non-downhill parts hit. Felt pretty awful by the end. Had some shot bloks a few miles into the lousy part and felt better for a little bit, but the exhaustion was more or less overpowering. Also not used to the shifting on Big Red, which made it a little bit harder. Man, I am out of biking shape... this ties my slowest ever Short Long Loop, which occurred on the day after Wrightwood. On the plus side, kept my heels down and got some nice calf stretching in.
Monday 03/08: Off, arghhhhh.... soooooo.... tired. Also, calves hurt significantly more than yesterday--crapppppppp!
Tuesday 03/09: 5.3 miles, 47:16 (8:55 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Felt tired and lousy still, but mostly the problem was that R calf was still bothering me. It just wouldn't loosen up, and felt crampy and weak the entire way. Jogged slowly and considered if I really just needed to take a few more days completely off to make it heal. The pain actually subsided in the hours after the run though, so I'll try one more day.
Wednesday 03/10: 5.3 miles, 45:58 (8:40 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
R calf still achey and weird feeling, but there is definite improvement from yesterday. I think the 5 mile jogs are manageable for the time being. It's kind of hard to get a good push off from each step though, which means that I'm traveling at a snail's pace either which way.
Thursday 03/11: 5.3 miles, 45:03 (8:30 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
A little more improvement, but there's still some intermittent cramping and weakness. Walking around during the day is okay now though, so that's a relief. R calf is still a bit warm and weird feeling to the touch though, which is sort of disturbing. Can't believe it's still not 100%!
Friday 03/12: Off, lazy, tired. I guess I decided that taking another day off wouldn't be so awful for my poor R calf either.
Saturday 03/13: 5.3 miles, 44:38 (8:25 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
First day that my calf basically felt normal. Was thinking about trying a bit longer run, but it worked out such that I didn't get up early enough and it was uncomfortably warm out. Decided that doing one more easy short day wouldn't hurt. Best to rest up for a big day tomorrow. Felt really good to run with a semi-normal stride again! Calf held up pretty well throughout the run and afterwards. Phew.
Week Total: 32 miles, I guess this down week was an investment in my future of continued ability to run.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Barefoot
02/28/2010 - 03/06/2010
Against all odds, I did my first barefoot run this week. I'm not a fan of trendy-hype-y things, and well, that's what barefoot running has started to seem like lately. In addition, I have abysmal arches, and previous attempts to deviate from my orthotics have lead to bad things. Nevertheless, I've noticed an improvement on the injury front after making an active effort to transition myself to being more of a mid/fore-foot striker. Upon hearing Dr. Shapiro's treatise on the benefits of not having a heel to one's shoe... I decided to test out the theory by running barefoot on the North Field.
My barefoot run, despite being serendipitously placed as a late night double on my one "hard" day, was surprisingly awesome! Running has never felt so much like flying--easy, natural, fast. Towards the end, I was hitting paces I haven't been able to touch in years with ease. Wow, super awesome run... almost worth the 2 weeks of being crippled that has ensued.
Sunday 02/28: Both distance and time unclear: 8.5 miles, 75 minutes for the sake of book-keeping, The Other Arroyo Adventure with Ian and Dennis
Felt inexplicably "off" from the get-go, which made this run moderately miserable despite the snail's pace... but that was compensated by the coolness of the new trail. We were originally destined for Brown Mountain, but apparently that route is now patrolled by rangers, keeping folks out :(. Instead, headed into the Art Center hills via the heretofore theoretical Other Arroyo Trail. Really neat discovery, will definitely explore further when I feel a little less lousy.
Monday 03/01: 5.3 miles, 46:44 (8:49 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Arrrrghhhh.... lousiness continues. Whole body feels tired, just plodded along, and then eventually I finished this run. Also 6 am run has re-deteriorated to 7 am run... nuts...
Tuesday 03/02: AM: another lazy person's workout: Mini-tempo in the Arroyo + 6 x striders
1 lap warm up jog around Arroyo Tempo Loop (14:22), then one lap sub-threshold tempo (11:24) was hoping to do two, but for some reason I'm really scared to push the limits these days... so I stopped while I was still feeling good. To atone for this deficiency, I did a long-ish cooldown along the Arroyo 3 mile loop (26:10), with 6 x striders embedded, ~6.1 miles total. Felt sufficiently worn out afterwards that I didn't feel quite as badly about abandoning the second tempo loop.
PM: 3.1 miles, 23:58 (7:44 min/mile) 10 x barefoot North Field Laps
Super awesome barefoot run after work. NF maps really conveniently to 500m, so I decided to do 10 laps. 2K-2K-1K splits were 9:53, 9:30, 4:35 which means that I started out at a little over 8 min/miles and finished off near 7:20 pace. Felt easy and good the whole way, so good that I felt giddy with excitement! Barefoot boggles my mind... calves felt surprisingly good until the 9th lap when I could start to feel the cramping coming on, but the rest of me felt so great, I had to finish the original plan for 10 laps. If the cramping hadn't happened, I was debating staying and running for an hour.
Wednesday 03/03: 7.6 miles, 1:04:21 (8:28 min/mile) Steve's Lil' Engine to Alpine via Huntington/Garfield/Mission
Holy moly, my calves hurt so badly every step feels like I'm about to do a faceplant. For some reason I decided that the way to cure this was to do an easy jog, so I plotted a nice grassy route home from dropping my car off in the morning. I kept waiting for my calves to unclench, but... somehow that never happened. They felt momentarily better after stretching at a few lights, but went straight back to horrendously painful about 50 feet later. Ohhhhhh man. On the upside I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was actually not running the 10 minute miles that I felt like I was running.
Thursday - Friday 03/04 - 03/05: Off. Calves were 100% worse after yesterday's run, so I decided that perhaps I should give it a rest. Unfortunately there was minimal improvement even after 2 days off. I feel like my walking stride is even altered, because my calves do not support any weight anymore. Ouch-y.....
Saturday 03/06: ~7.7 miles, ~1:07:30 (~8:46 min/mile) California around RB perimeter
Me and Dennis were super late to KB's Arroyo run... as a result, Dennis was able to catch up with them, and I was not. Basically, my calves started killing me as soon as I started running, which made it physically impossible to do anything other than shuffle along at an inordinately slow pace. Resigning myself to running alone, I decided to stick with my theory that enough slow jogging would loosen up my calves. Fortunately after about 35 minutes, the pain started to ease up a little bit, enough to allow a more normal stride/pace. In the interim, I fell into a thigh deep water pit during the river crossing at the North end of the Rose Bowl. This was so discombobulating to me that I forgot to re-start my watch... and therefore the time of the run is estimated.
Week Total: 38.3 miles, not bad for 5 days.... but holy crap I hope I haven't incurred permanent damage to my calves....
Against all odds, I did my first barefoot run this week. I'm not a fan of trendy-hype-y things, and well, that's what barefoot running has started to seem like lately. In addition, I have abysmal arches, and previous attempts to deviate from my orthotics have lead to bad things. Nevertheless, I've noticed an improvement on the injury front after making an active effort to transition myself to being more of a mid/fore-foot striker. Upon hearing Dr. Shapiro's treatise on the benefits of not having a heel to one's shoe... I decided to test out the theory by running barefoot on the North Field.
My barefoot run, despite being serendipitously placed as a late night double on my one "hard" day, was surprisingly awesome! Running has never felt so much like flying--easy, natural, fast. Towards the end, I was hitting paces I haven't been able to touch in years with ease. Wow, super awesome run... almost worth the 2 weeks of being crippled that has ensued.
Sunday 02/28: Both distance and time unclear: 8.5 miles, 75 minutes for the sake of book-keeping, The Other Arroyo Adventure with Ian and Dennis
Felt inexplicably "off" from the get-go, which made this run moderately miserable despite the snail's pace... but that was compensated by the coolness of the new trail. We were originally destined for Brown Mountain, but apparently that route is now patrolled by rangers, keeping folks out :(. Instead, headed into the Art Center hills via the heretofore theoretical Other Arroyo Trail. Really neat discovery, will definitely explore further when I feel a little less lousy.
Monday 03/01: 5.3 miles, 46:44 (8:49 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Arrrrghhhh.... lousiness continues. Whole body feels tired, just plodded along, and then eventually I finished this run. Also 6 am run has re-deteriorated to 7 am run... nuts...
Tuesday 03/02: AM: another lazy person's workout: Mini-tempo in the Arroyo + 6 x striders
1 lap warm up jog around Arroyo Tempo Loop (14:22), then one lap sub-threshold tempo (11:24) was hoping to do two, but for some reason I'm really scared to push the limits these days... so I stopped while I was still feeling good. To atone for this deficiency, I did a long-ish cooldown along the Arroyo 3 mile loop (26:10), with 6 x striders embedded, ~6.1 miles total. Felt sufficiently worn out afterwards that I didn't feel quite as badly about abandoning the second tempo loop.
PM: 3.1 miles, 23:58 (7:44 min/mile) 10 x barefoot North Field Laps
Super awesome barefoot run after work. NF maps really conveniently to 500m, so I decided to do 10 laps. 2K-2K-1K splits were 9:53, 9:30, 4:35 which means that I started out at a little over 8 min/miles and finished off near 7:20 pace. Felt easy and good the whole way, so good that I felt giddy with excitement! Barefoot boggles my mind... calves felt surprisingly good until the 9th lap when I could start to feel the cramping coming on, but the rest of me felt so great, I had to finish the original plan for 10 laps. If the cramping hadn't happened, I was debating staying and running for an hour.
Wednesday 03/03: 7.6 miles, 1:04:21 (8:28 min/mile) Steve's Lil' Engine to Alpine via Huntington/Garfield/Mission
Holy moly, my calves hurt so badly every step feels like I'm about to do a faceplant. For some reason I decided that the way to cure this was to do an easy jog, so I plotted a nice grassy route home from dropping my car off in the morning. I kept waiting for my calves to unclench, but... somehow that never happened. They felt momentarily better after stretching at a few lights, but went straight back to horrendously painful about 50 feet later. Ohhhhhh man. On the upside I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I was actually not running the 10 minute miles that I felt like I was running.
Thursday - Friday 03/04 - 03/05: Off. Calves were 100% worse after yesterday's run, so I decided that perhaps I should give it a rest. Unfortunately there was minimal improvement even after 2 days off. I feel like my walking stride is even altered, because my calves do not support any weight anymore. Ouch-y.....
Saturday 03/06: ~7.7 miles, ~1:07:30 (~8:46 min/mile) California around RB perimeter
Me and Dennis were super late to KB's Arroyo run... as a result, Dennis was able to catch up with them, and I was not. Basically, my calves started killing me as soon as I started running, which made it physically impossible to do anything other than shuffle along at an inordinately slow pace. Resigning myself to running alone, I decided to stick with my theory that enough slow jogging would loosen up my calves. Fortunately after about 35 minutes, the pain started to ease up a little bit, enough to allow a more normal stride/pace. In the interim, I fell into a thigh deep water pit during the river crossing at the North end of the Rose Bowl. This was so discombobulating to me that I forgot to re-start my watch... and therefore the time of the run is estimated.
Week Total: 38.3 miles, not bad for 5 days.... but holy crap I hope I haven't incurred permanent damage to my calves....
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The horribleness rears its ugly head!
02/21/2010 - 02/27/2010
Gah, I'm not exactly sure what went wrong, but the horribleness seems to be off to an early lead this week. First the lack of a proper long run, then the unintentional day off, then the horrible workout/horrible re-spraining of the ankle. GAHHHHHH...
Sunday 02/21: 7.1 miles, 59:26 (8:22 min/mile) Monterrey to Rose Bowl
The cop-out long run. Didn't sleep well and felt really lousy and stomach-achey through the morning. Finally dragged my unhappy self out to the Arroyo in the final hours of daylight. Felt lousy until the turnaround point, then a little better. I guess given how the day started out, its probably a win to have done a run at all.
Monday 02/22: Off, woke up and my stomach hurt so I slept in until it was too late to do a run. Nuts...
Tuesday 02/23: ~5.3 miles, 5 laps North Field, 2 x mile with 1 lap jog recovery, 5 laps North Field
Horrible, horrible workout. Felt congested and lousy when I woke up, and was already huffing on my warm up. Not a good sign... but per not having enough time to drive back to the Arroyo and not really wanting to run 45 minutes on the North Field (I have a low tolerance for runs that don't go anywhere) I was committed to the work out. Well... maybe not as committed as I could have been. Was supposed to be 3 x mile... but bailed after two sub-standard miles in (7:02/7:10) feeling substantially worse than last week's tempo or the previous week's workout with Susan... isn't training supposed to make you FASTER? To add insult to injury (or rather, injury to insult in this case), I horribly sprained my newly healed R ankle during the last lap of my cooldown.... gahhhhhhh. So sad and unamused.
Wednesday 02/24: 7.1 miles, 57:16 (8:04 min/mile) Monterrey to Rose Bowl
6 am run awesomeness with Dennis in the Arroyo. Actually felt really good. I like the early morning hours, very peaceful and calm. A moderate but comfortable pace, I guess I have energy left over from running SO SLOWLY yesterday. I really wish I knew what made the bad days come and go. Let's see if I can get up this early again tomorrow.
Thursday 02/25: 7.1 miles, 1:01:32 (8:40 min/mile) Monterrey to Rose Bowl
Decided to cash in my recovery jog today instead of yesterday. I think the jog on the way out, run on the way back works well for me in this regard. (33:29/28:03) probably could have put some more effort into the jog part, but oh well, sort of tired and groggy--felt a lot better on the run back. Day 2 of getting up at 5:45, but did an involuntary snooze until 6am so everything was 15 minutes late today.
Friday 02/26: 7.1 miles, 58:13 (8:12 min/mile) Monterrey to Rose Bowl
Day 3 of 6 am run. Same route with Dennis, felt pretty good, but not quite as good as Wednesday, so we went a little bit slower, but it actually turned out better than I thought it would. I guess I'm kind of in a rut with this route (4th time this week)... but to be fair, a 7 mile rut is much better than a 5 mile rut!
Saturday 02/27: 5.3 miles, 45:52 (8:39 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Fail on waking up early. Did some light jogging during one of the breaks in the rain. Arroyo was extra muddy for some reason, footing difficult, almost did a faceplant at various points. Felt okay otherwise, just taking it easy in preparation for attempting a decent long run tomorrow. Really hungry today for some reason.
Week Total: 39 miles, not bad considering lack of long run.
Gah, I'm not exactly sure what went wrong, but the horribleness seems to be off to an early lead this week. First the lack of a proper long run, then the unintentional day off, then the horrible workout/horrible re-spraining of the ankle. GAHHHHHH...
Sunday 02/21: 7.1 miles, 59:26 (8:22 min/mile) Monterrey to Rose Bowl
The cop-out long run. Didn't sleep well and felt really lousy and stomach-achey through the morning. Finally dragged my unhappy self out to the Arroyo in the final hours of daylight. Felt lousy until the turnaround point, then a little better. I guess given how the day started out, its probably a win to have done a run at all.
Monday 02/22: Off, woke up and my stomach hurt so I slept in until it was too late to do a run. Nuts...
Tuesday 02/23: ~5.3 miles, 5 laps North Field, 2 x mile with 1 lap jog recovery, 5 laps North Field
Horrible, horrible workout. Felt congested and lousy when I woke up, and was already huffing on my warm up. Not a good sign... but per not having enough time to drive back to the Arroyo and not really wanting to run 45 minutes on the North Field (I have a low tolerance for runs that don't go anywhere) I was committed to the work out. Well... maybe not as committed as I could have been. Was supposed to be 3 x mile... but bailed after two sub-standard miles in (7:02/7:10) feeling substantially worse than last week's tempo or the previous week's workout with Susan... isn't training supposed to make you FASTER? To add insult to injury (or rather, injury to insult in this case), I horribly sprained my newly healed R ankle during the last lap of my cooldown.... gahhhhhhh. So sad and unamused.
Wednesday 02/24: 7.1 miles, 57:16 (8:04 min/mile) Monterrey to Rose Bowl
6 am run awesomeness with Dennis in the Arroyo. Actually felt really good. I like the early morning hours, very peaceful and calm. A moderate but comfortable pace, I guess I have energy left over from running SO SLOWLY yesterday. I really wish I knew what made the bad days come and go. Let's see if I can get up this early again tomorrow.
Thursday 02/25: 7.1 miles, 1:01:32 (8:40 min/mile) Monterrey to Rose Bowl
Decided to cash in my recovery jog today instead of yesterday. I think the jog on the way out, run on the way back works well for me in this regard. (33:29/28:03) probably could have put some more effort into the jog part, but oh well, sort of tired and groggy--felt a lot better on the run back. Day 2 of getting up at 5:45, but did an involuntary snooze until 6am so everything was 15 minutes late today.
Friday 02/26: 7.1 miles, 58:13 (8:12 min/mile) Monterrey to Rose Bowl
Day 3 of 6 am run. Same route with Dennis, felt pretty good, but not quite as good as Wednesday, so we went a little bit slower, but it actually turned out better than I thought it would. I guess I'm kind of in a rut with this route (4th time this week)... but to be fair, a 7 mile rut is much better than a 5 mile rut!
Saturday 02/27: 5.3 miles, 45:52 (8:39 min/mile) Monterrey to Third Bridge
Fail on waking up early. Did some light jogging during one of the breaks in the rain. Arroyo was extra muddy for some reason, footing difficult, almost did a faceplant at various points. Felt okay otherwise, just taking it easy in preparation for attempting a decent long run tomorrow. Really hungry today for some reason.
Week Total: 39 miles, not bad considering lack of long run.
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