P90X: D5

Today I went for my little morning run and pulled a muscle in my lower right calf at mile 2 of 4. In the past I would have looked at this as a devastating injury. I mean it hurts and is a bit tender but I know the score on this one. I can't get any speed on it but it will carry me if needed. So I will move my running game indoors until it works itself out. So that means I will be doing 9 miles on the treadmill tomorrow. Not somethin I am looking forward to but I will do it.

On the P90x side I had to do legs and back today. But I had to take it easy on a few of the exercises due to the muscle pull. I did an honest workout and feel wiped out. but I can't sleep for some reason.

Injuries ... Again

I was doing fine with my program and then I went to my martial arts class on Saturday and ended up with a weird injury. We were doing these drills where your opponent holds your leg and then you hop. The drill is intended to help you practice keeping your balance and prevent take downs. I am not sure how well this works. But it is a good concentration drill and hoping for a couple of minutes is difficult. It is very difficult for me. Since I did my marathon last year, my right hip is not 100%. When you are not 100% your body adjusts to keep the injured part from taking all the impact of an activity. This is what happened. As my hip was crying over the impact I was subconsciously turning away from the impact of the hopping and this meant I was landing to the side of my leg and I ended up with a bit of a high ankle sprain in my right leg. So as last week was a down week anyway, I took two days off to recover.

I ran last night without incident but sometimes things happen and you have to adjust. Today is for speed work so wish me luck.

Ambition with a Dose of Reality

I had been off to a good start of my December-thon; however, Friday changed that. I tried to go to the gym to keep up my streak but did not know that it closed earlier on Fridays. This left me holding the bad so to speak. I am not recovered enough to run the roads so I could not run. I have decided that as I am officially injured that this was probably poor timing on the run thirty days in a row thing. I ended up taking Saturday off as well. On the plus side my leg feels much better today than it did last week. It is obvious I needed time to heal.

The thing I notice about being 40, rather than when I was 30, is that I get injured alot more. It is a nagging sort of thing that takes a day here and there from me. One has to be relentless in regard to this sort of thing. I would rather live with the little injures here and there than not do the exercise in the first place. But it has taken some getting used to. I am generally in good health and as a result these sorts of nags here and there are not that much of an issue. So I will need to keep my ambition in line when I need to recover. It will take some doing as my sense often times is out of line with my desires. In other words, I can be a knucklehead at times.

For the rest of the Month, I will do my best to do 5 days of week either on the elliptical or on the roads. I won't try running outside until Friday, this will give my left calf extra time to get back into line. I do feel about 95% better today, but I want to take it slow just to be sure. I have no pain walking up and down stairs. I only get a little jolt when I stretch it. So there it is.

What is next??? That is a good question. I have the American Odyssey Relay with some great blogging pals coming up in April but that feels like I should do something else before then. I did qualify for the National Marathon in D.C. which takes place in March. I would only do that half, I like the half. It is a challenge but it doesn't beat you to death like a full will do. Also, the training for the half is more manageable with my life. The marathon training consumed my life. Hmmm, not exactly sure, I will get back to you on that one.

December-thon 2008, Days 2 - 4, and 1 again

The December-thon was going well until day 3 rolled up on me. I went out for a run at night and I landed ... well wrong. I am not sure what the actual cause of the injury was but I hurt my left calf pretty badly. It is tight beyond belief and it is slowly, very slowly getting better. I get a nice pain to wince at every time I walk up and down stairs so that is nice. But I can walk fine. I can tell this will be with me for a couple of weeks at least. I can still use the elliptical machine at the gym so that is what I have been doing. But I did take Sunday off to see if some rest would speed things along, not so much.

This is a manageable injury, I just have to conform to the limitations that it presents. So I had to re-start the December-thon on December 1 with some elliptical time. I am willing to drop the December-thon if the injury proves to be more serious but for now it looks more like a serious pull than a tear. As I said, it does not hurt to walk only when I over extend the calf muscle when walking stairs. I will just try to gently stretch and loosen it up with some heat. It will take time - the funny thing about being 40 is that you get injured more.

So 1 day down and 3.25 miles in the book. As one of my Kenpo instructors, Bud Barrett, would say, "If you look for an excuse long enough you will find one you like." So I won't be calling off the December-thon unless it is absolutely necessary.

Better Safe than Sorry

From running in shoes that were not quite right, I had done a little damage to my knee. It was hurt but not injured. I could tell some rest was in order so for the past week and a half I have not been running. I have been running for a couple of years now and I have found out when I need rest. This was one of those times.

My right knee was giving me some trouble even when I was walking. I felt like it was time to just let it rest a bit. Well now I am running again, well as of tonight. I have to say I think I did the right thing. My right knee didn't give me a peep. I am not sure if that would have been the case if I had tried to run through this one. I have to admit knees make me paranoid. I will try to run through almost anything but knee problems, no way. That is my wimp reflex. Knee tweak ... hold on lets rest a bit. That is my baby factor. I like to think I am pretty tough when it comes to pain, but there is my soft spot. Anything else and I will grit it out.

How did it go tonight, well I did 4.6 miles and everything felt fine. I have to kick it up now to get ready for the half marathon at the end of November.

Returning to the Scene of the Crime

I really began running last March, and my first run was the Broad Street Run. This is a great race. The course goes straight through Philadelphia for 10 miles and is downhill the whole way. It is not a steep downhill but it is downhill. I feel like I have come full circle in a way. This weekend the Broad Street Run is here again and this will be the first time I have run a race a second time. It is exciting.

This was my first race ever. I think for that reason it holds some special meaning for me. The excitement and atmosphere was electric. There are thousands of folks with bands and well wishers. It was amazing. I think my real love of running was born on this course.

I am really looking forward to breaking my record from last year. This should not be a major feat as last year my pace was 14:26. I would like to blame it on the sprained ankle I had at the time. But the truth is that I was very fat and very out of shape. This was my start and since then I have dropped about 70 pounds and I generally run about 3 and1/2 to 4 minutes faster per mile. More than the marathon, this one means something to me.

I have learned a lot since last May. I am hoping to have a great time and hope to run a good race. This is great.

Here is my Last year's Broad Street Run race report.

Injury news:
-- After the stretching from my martial arts class last night, my hip feels about 25% better today than yesterday. I think my odds of running the marathon are now about 85%, if this keeps up I see no trouble. I will hold off on any running until Thursday to foster healing but I will continue to stretch and cross train. I have to hit a couple of times a week or I don't feel right. I am a strange man.

20 Miles .... is far

This will be a short post, mostly due to my own uncertainty about things. I did my 20 miles on Sunday as planned at an 11:15 pace for the entire run. I am happy about that. After the run was over my hip was barking again, even after doing the whole thing on trails. It was much worse this week than it was previously. I am a bit concerned over my ability to deal with this injury over 26.2 miles. It is concerning me. I will do my taper and see what I think in three weeks. However, there is a chance that I will not run the Marathon on the 18th of May due to injury, not sure. If I had to lay odds I would say there is a 75% chance of running and 25% against. I will let you know as time goes on.

Just an Update (of sorts)

This weekend was a pretty tough one, I went out for a quick 8 miles on Saturday and this was a miserable tough run in the humidity. I remember the full force suck that is running in humidity. Terrible. I managed to pull out an 11:10 pace but it was a Herculean effort to get that out. Sunday, I did my long run. I ran for 3 hours and 23 minutes and ended up with 18.25 miles at an 11:09 pace. This does put the full effect of the suck that was my Saturday run in context.

On Sunday I ran more than 10 miles more and ended up with a faster time. Anyway, the long run taught me a few things (besides that I am a bit off balance for considering this distance) first miles 15 to 17 seem to be a bit of a lul period. Nothing serious but I have been worried as my pace drops by 30 seconds or so during this stretch. I was concerned that this would keep dropping and keep dropping. I have found that I found a second (third or maybe forth) burst of energy at mile 17 and I was able to run about 11:00 pace from 17 to 18.25. This is only a mile and quarter but it is a good sign that there are a few more energy reserves. Well this week is a scale back week and then next week is my 20 mile run. That sounds far.

Bad news from the run, I blew out my shoes. Well I probably did it before but after the run I felt my hips, back and ankles. I need some new shoes there is no doubt. I am at about 300 miles on this set so I should go get some new ones this week. Today my hips are stiff but this appears to be a minor thing.

Bring it On...

I registered for my first marathon this week. It is a big date on the calendar to say the least. I used the end of the week to really gauge where I am in terms of fitness in getting ready for this upcoming ordeal. In addition I do have a half marathon to do on March 9th, or one month from now. So how did this week shape up, sort of like this (well exactly like this):

2/4/08.....3.88 miles.....45:32 time.....11:44 pace.....744 cal
2/6/08.....3.65 miles.....44:27 time.....12:11 pace.....643 cal
2/8/08.....4.90 miles.....56:31 time.....11:32 pace.....907 cal
2/9/08.....11:00 miles....2:12:24 time.....12:03 pace.....1944 cal

I have been nursing a sprained ankle. It is not bad enough to not run but it is bad enough for me to take it easy a bit. I intentionally slowed down on the first couple of days of the week to keep the pressure off. I think the progress is good.

My run tonight does give a good gauge of my ability. I ran the first ten miles sub 12:00 pace; the last mile I just bled time (13:13 pace for mile 11). It was late when I hit mile 11 so perhaps I was just tired, maybe if I was running during the day that mile might have been faster. It doesn't really matter, even when considered with the rest of the run it is still a very fast time for me for this type of distance. The strange thing is that I was ignoring pace and just trying to do the distance. But it all worked out. I think I have developed a good running base for the half marathon. I think I would beat my last time by at least 15 minutes today, I was on pace to do that tonight.

The other good news, when I ran my last half marathon in September, I could barely walk at the end of it. My ankles and hips were a mess. It was a week before I was normal again. Today, I did 11 miles and I just have a little tweak in my sprained ankle. No blisters, no soreness, nothing. So as to the half marathon, bring it on. As for the marathon, I think I am starting at a good spot to get ready. Things are coming up well for me in terms of the training.

Injury Management

I mentioned that I sprained my ankle last week. It was a light sprain but even with a light sprain the standard practice is R.I.C.E. We all know this rest, ice, compression and elevation. Rest? Well how much rest should I take. Well most of the literature I have looked at suggests 4 to 6 weeks. That would be 4 to 6 weeks of no running. I don't think so. But Rob, the doctors say 4 to 6 weeks of no running, what is wrong with you. Well there is plenty wrong with me but I will refer you to the Running Bible (or Lore of Running by Tim Noakes, MD). This is the single best running book, period; everything else pales in comparison. Dr. Noakes suggests that you should not take running advice from a non-runner even if they are a doctor. He points to general lack of understanding of running injuries in the medical community to the point of recommending unneeded surgeries. Yikes, I say.

Dr. Noakes goes on to say that the last thing you should do when injured is to stop running. (There are some limits but for the most part this is the advice). If you stop running completely the same stress the caused the injury will be waiting for you when you get back to running. Id. p. 754. Run to the point of discomfort is the advice of the day. Id. p. 755. I have really always done this since I started running. Back to my situation, I sprained my ankle last Wednesday and was on an eliptical on Saturday and Sunday and was back on the streets on Monday. I have dropped 30 seconds a mile off the pace, but I am running. Thanks Dr. Noakes for telling me what I felt had to be true.

I would recommend everyone who runs to pick up a copy of this book, it is the single best running book I have ever bought and I have bought a more than a few.

The Week in Review

As I mentioned, I took on a small ankle sprain on Wednesday in the midst of my run. That sucked to say the least. Nothing like an injury to set you back a step. I did manage to make a respectable week out of it, here are the figures:

1/28/08......7.09 miles.....1:22:23 time ...... 11:37 pace.......1373 calories
1/30/08 ....3.75 miles ..... 44:47 time ......... 11:57 pace ......671 calories
2/2/08 ..... 4.10 miles ..... 54:00 time ........13:10 pace ...... 705 calories
2/3/08 ...... 3.88 miles ..... 50:00 time ........12:53 pace ..... 685 calories

Total ......... 18:82 miles (not terrible)


The last couple of days I did my time on the eliptical machine at my local gym. I hate the thing but with a light sprain I choose a little wisdom. I did my time and hope to be back on the roads this week. While I was at the gym I did some weight time as well, which was a nice change.

A Little Recovery Time

I sprained my ankle last Wednesday in the midst of my evening 5 miler. It is not a bad sprain so no worries, but there is no reason to be an idiot about it. I could have run outside today; however, my lateral movement is a bit compromised. If I had to avoid any obstacles I am not sure if I would feel comfortable doing so. That said I went to the gym today and ran on an elipital trainer. The eliptical I was on is a good one, which is to say I only hated it a little.



All things being equal I would rather be outside. I do know that to get back outside I have to be smart. So the eliptical it was. I put in 4.1 miles on the thing at a 13:00 pace. my ankle is sprained after all. I took it easy and did my time and just reeled back with the thought that this is recovery. I then did some weights for a half hour and went home.



At the gym, I ran into a gent that I worked with at a previous law firm. He is a nice guy and is pleasant to be around. He was telling me how weights were really the only way to exercise and that other forms of exercise were just not as good. He didn't say this as direct as I just did but his point came across. I think that I might have been just as biased if I had decided to argue with him. I merely stated that I thought that weights were a good way to stay fit without chiming in that I thought endurance training should not be ignored. You don't have to run, but you can't argue that it is good for you in numerous ways. I also won't argue that those that decide to focus on lifting, playing basketball or dancing are less athletic than I might be (or will be). I know that the man I used to work with did not intend me to have this type of reaction to his statement. He was only saying that he felt that weight training should be the focus of anyone's fitness routine. I just have a different focus, endurance. Endurance first that is my focus. It is only a different focus, not right or wrong. We are all individuals and do what we think is right in terms of our fitness and abilities.



Have fun out there.