Saturday, September 13, 2014

This week in running 9/7 - 9/13




Day Mileage / Workout Comments
Sunday 6.5 Running in West Wendover 
Monday Off Knee wasn't happy
Tuesday Off Knee wasn't happy still
Wednesday 4 Taped up my knee. Limped through 4 miles
Thursday 5 Feeling better, but knee still hurts
Friday Off Rest the knee
Saturday 16.25 Nice long run. Now my calf hurts.
Total miles for the week: 31.75 - YTD: 1227


Summary


This week started out extremely stressful.  Work has been filled with a lot of pressure with lots of last minute bug fixes, changes and requests.  I felt like an octopus at times because I had some many fingers into different tasks, it was hard to keep them straight.  To say I came home frazzled would be a bit of an understatement.

Hence, I was really itching to go for a run, but my Jumper's / Runner's Knee was clearly not happy.  I did due diligence with it and iced it and took the occasional anti-inflamatory.  I did a lot of walking - about 2 miles at work at lunch and then another 1 - 3 miles when I got home.  It made my heart heavy though to see runners enjoying the last summer days running past me on the bike trail.  I wore some of my marathon shirts on the trail to sort of say "even though I am not running, I am one of you".  Funny how runners find solidarity.

Watching Starsky and Hutch while icing my knee

I managed a couple of painful miles midweek.  I didn't seem to be making it worse and it did feel good to get out and log some miles.  

I was going to do my long run on Friday night, but wound up meeting with another runner.  Paul from http://plaviska1970.wordpress.com/ was in town from North Carolina and I've followed him on Twitter for the better part of a year.  I've never seen anyone more excited to visit Utah and I wound up having dinner and taking him up to the top of Big Cottonwood and show him the course for the marathon he was going to run in the morning: http://www.bigcottonwoodmarathon.com/.  It is always nice to show someone where I live and see their exuberance. Makes me grateful for where I live. 

Also, I am constantly amazed at how many friends I've made through running / racing.  There is almost an instant bond between runners that crosses gender, age and geography... get two runners talking about races we've run and the conversation never stops.  If your social life sucks, my advice: start running.  Seriously.

Saturday Long Run


I want to say my 16 mile long run went extremely well.  Of late, I've started out fairly fast, gone about 12 - 14 miles and then the last 2-4 miles are a death march.  I wound up running fairly evenly.  My knee was also extremely quiet (except the first mile).  I put on some KT-Tape and a neoprene wrap and it seemed to keep it protected.  Hopefully I've turned a corner.

However, about 1.25 miles in the run my right calf lit up like someone had hit it with a baseball bat.  It stopped me in my tracks and felt a pain in the back of my knee that radiated a bit up the hamstring and down the calf.  I wound up stretching it and figured I'd keep going another .5 miles.  If it got worse I'd turn around.  Well thankfully it was tight for the rest of the run but it never got that bad.  It definitely slowed me down going up any sort of incline.  I had problems with my calf this spring, so obviously there is something going on.

I wound up running 16.25 miles in about 2:40.  Which is about 10 minute miles.  I knew it wasn't going to be a fast run but overall I am pretty impressed that my pace didn't deviate too badly.

About the point I turned around on the bike trail
My route for the 16 mile run

Cool little snake crossed in front of me



Frustration


I continue to be embarrassed / frustrated that my times are as slow as they are.  Some of you out there may thing "Wow I wish I could run as fast as me".  But the point is, I am a LOT slower than what I used to be.  Often times I'll tell people what my times are but then end it with, "But a few years ago I ran this".

I do realize I am getting older, my body composition is changing (which I can fix if I start to avoid the buffet trough),  I live at higher altitude but none the less it does effect my ego.  I am wondering when I'll be happy to break 2 hours in a half when just a few years ago I was a regular 1:34 - 1:37 and my training half marathon time was 1:44.


Upcoming Races


Depending up on if my calf makes it tolerable to run, next Friday I'll head out to Wendover, turn south and hit up Ely for their half marathon.  I'll probably make a go / no-go decision by midweek.  My hotel can be canceled up to Thursday without repercussions.

If marathon training continues to go well, I'll probably stay local and do South Jordan Marathon.  It is practically in my backyard (well two cities south) and they do a fantastic job.  Again this all depends how training goes.  I don't want to jeopardize Vegas at this point.  Naturally I have the Vegas Marathon and a couple of Thanksgiving 5Ks coming up in the next few months.




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