September 4th, 2010
This is the 300th post to this blog and I celebrated with a recovery run with the extra loop in the canyon. I did pretty well keeping my HR proper, only going over my 70% max when I came out of the canyon and up to the neighborhood. The canyon this morning was a lot less humid than the last couple days, I think the winds cleared it out a bit. My legs feel pretty good, no further pain except usual tiredness (maybe a bit more than usual…) Tonight = more foam rolling.
I signed up for the Pints to Pasta 2010 run today. Really don’t like paying the fees for online payment on activities, be it races, concerts, whatever. But I am lazy and want it now, so there you go.I am looking forward to running another race to cap off the summer.
So my big toe that I have been having splitting nail issues mad it self known the other night. I thought the split part was healing, but I snagged it and ripped a chunk off of my toe. I bled all over the place. At first I was worried about how it would feel on my next run, but it wasn’t going to stop me and it actually wasn’t bad at all. I used a salve called Oregon Cream II on the area and then a band-aid over the top, wrapped around my toe it stayed on for the run. It seems to be getting better as long as it doesn’t get infected I’ll be ok running this week and Pints to Pasta on 9.12.
My college buddy who I road tripped with last week is reading Chi Running which I sent him (and some sport beans and runners junk mail). He has been doing a few ten minute runs. He is pretty active so in good shape, but he says he feels new muscles. I’m glad he is getting into it. I am curious to hear more about how (and if) he employs “the way”!
Good recovery day!
Tags: 10k, 2010, chi running, Pints to Pasta, toes
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September 2nd, 2010
My break from running was short, but for some reason my body was thinking it was longer. I have run 4 out of the last 6 days with two set of back to back days. I am feeling really slow and experiencing a few minor injury problems. It is as if I brought my conditioning to a pretty high level and after the break my body is rebelling.
I have been having periodic issues with my hip lately. I have had these in the past, but it seems as if they have decided to flair up this week. I have been using the foam roller on my hips and that seems to help quite a bit, so perhaps that is the answer I am looking for.
On Sunday my running partner and I did an enjoyable nine miles in Forest Park, toward the end we decided to pick up the pace as we left the park and headed down the hill. Running downhill is supposed to build strength in the legs and running fast downhill is even better. The hard part of doing the fast downhill is letting go and not holding back. If you can relax your legs and gate to let your body just carry itself forward the downhill run can be a good thing. But if you are holding back you tighten up and can more easily cause injury to your legs and back. I think I was able to relax in our run down Thurman St. and we finished feeling good. My problem came later.
After our run and sushi my running partner wanted to go to the gym for a shower so I decided to bus home. The light rail took me from NW to downtown where I could pick up a bus to my neighborhood. On the train ride I saw that I had plenty of time to catch my bus, or so I thought. When I got off the train I had about a five block walk to catch the bus and when I turned into the bus mall there went my bus. The buses make a lot of stops downtown and tend to go slowly, so I thought I could catch it if I sprinted. Three blocks later I just made my bus! Phew! But as I sat down I realized my left leg was in pain. I could barely lift it. My sprint had been all I could take and I appeared to strain my left thigh. I seriously could not lift my leg, I could walk ok as long as I shuffled.
That evening I did a lot of gentle stretching and foam rolling concentrating on my left leg and it seemed to do the trick. Well that and taking a couple more days off combined with more stretching and rolling. My first run after the strain went pretty well. It was basically a junk run, over 70% of max so no recovery benefit and not nearly fast enough to be a quality run. But I put in some miles, eight of them, and most importantly was relatively pain free. I felt a little bit of occasional pain in my hip, but I was able to align myself and run through it. The only odd issue was feeling somewhat exhausted, like I still hadn’t recovered from my running break.
The next day (today) I started out resigning myself to another junk run. My thinking was that I might need to build up some regular running as a way of getting back into running form. Before I knew it I was cruising along at a pretty good clip with my HR in 160s. I quickly decided that my fear of doing quality workouts was not based in reality and today’s junk run became a slow tempo run, but still a tempo run and still a quality run. I felt pretty good as I maintained my high HR for five and a half miles or so before I slowed to a cool down for the final mile. The run felt great and I was really glad to beat the heat that showed up in the afternoon.
On another note we are considering doing the Pints to Pasta run that goes from the Widmer Brewery to the Spaghetti Station. Free food and beer and a new shirt are all part of the deal. Its a 10k and would be a good way to get another race it this year. My partner wants to do the Race for the Cure 5k the week following, so this would be a good warm up for that for her. More on this soon.
Tags: downhill, injury, long run, ms, Pints to Pasta, running
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August 29th, 2010
So with my anticipated break due to work load in the past I decided to go on a road trip with my photographer buddy and that became my newest running block. We ended up doing some photo shoots in a wind farm and a tree farm and got some good shots (according to my buddy anyway.) Other than those short sprints I took a nice break from running for the past six days. The air quality has been really bad as there have been many forest fires in WA and OR so another good reason for not running.
Running breaks are really hard to do in some respects, I found myself really wanting to go out for a run. The rest was good even though much of it was in a car. We took numerous photo breaks which broke up the drive really well. We did get a short hike in so that was a nice break as well.
Today I ran for the first time in six days and just did a basic run, nothing special. Tomorrow we’ll do nine miles, probably up Thurman and the Leif Erickson trail. So a good return back! Today’s six and a half miles came pretty easy but I am somewhat sore. I am going to do some stretching tonight and maybe even some foam roller.
There was an additional running moment on my trip. We managed to drive several dirt roads north of Pendleton and managed to find the old pig farm I used to spend my summers at. It was here I got my start at running when I was 13 or so. I used to run up the dirt road to the top of the rolling hill and then I would run down back to the house, maybe a full mile. I remember my friend’s dad having me rolling my foot form heal to toe and while I try to be as flat footed in my foot strike as I can, I still think about this and apply some of those stride patterns today. It was awesome seeing the old place and even though it has changed a lot since I was last there 28 years ago, it still felt like home a bit. Good ole Hog Flats, OR.
Tags: break from running, chi running, ms, running
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August 23rd, 2010
I had expected to not have time for running this week due to some new work that came my way. Turns out the work was less time consuming than I had thought (one job I couldn’t do, the other hasn’t started if I even get selected to do it). So I had plenty of time for running this week and managed to get in five straight days for exactly 40 miles. Of those 5 runs, 2 of them were quality runs as well as an LSD run to close out the week. I feel pretty good about the running and a bit worn out. This week I more than likely won’t get any running in though for sure. I am going camping for the week in western Washington. I am bringing my shoes, but with no way to wash off the grime I think I’ll just take a break instead (unless we wind up near a river or something…)
I think a break would be a pretty good idea as I have really been inching closer to over working. I can feel some slight pain in my feet (new pains, not the old ones!) And some stiffness in my knees as well. I think a schedule of five running days a week is probably the max and over the last 3 weeks I think I only missed 3 or 4 days. Overall the mileage feels good. I would like to start adding in some longer runs to balance out the quality runs I am doing.
Tags: break from running, ms, running
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August 22nd, 2010
Good news on the work front this week as I start at least one and possibly two new jobs. However, bad news on the running front. These last couple weeks have been a boon to the regularity of my running, but I know a lot of that was due to an increase in spare time. Not all of it, but I doubt I will get another 40 miles in. I plan to do an 8 miler tomorrow early at a slow pace. Though possibly I should do less with rehearsal that night. Hmmm, probably less is better for tomorrow.
I suppose I could start getting up earlier to squeeze them in, I just need to go to bed earlier.
Tags: break from running
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August 20th, 2010
Today was an eight mile recovery run that for the most part I managed to do under my ceiling. I had a couple of hills where I pushed it and jumped up to high 50s and into the low 60s. I have added onto my trail running in the canyon by doing a full lap and through the eastern part of the north side. I took off a little bit of my East Moreland portion and I need to find a good path after coming up from the golf course. I felt pretty strong through most of the run which I didn’t really expect after my intervals I ran the day before.
At the track 24 hours previous I managed to finish nine laps of straights and curves, so a total of 18 sprints. The track was pretty empty for the most part with one fast distance guy doing a couple laps. There was also a woman in a walker that was doing a pretty good pace around our track doing arm exercises. I was pretty impressed.
As for my run, my heart rate never got too high mostly in the high 160s and I felt like my sprint paces were pretty decent as well with the first four and most of the rest peaking under 6 minute miles. I also did the 1.5 canyon run that day as well and ended up putting in teh miles at just under nine miles.
There is a group that runs on Sundays that I might try. They have it broken up into 12 mile and then eight additional mile chunks. A 20 miler sounds pretty challenging, but I might go for it if the weather is going to be cool. I am not much of a group runner but it could be fun especially if any of my regulars I see are doing it.
Tags: hills, straights and curves, trail running
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August 12th, 2010
I didn’t run yesterday as I used the excuse of not having any gels to power through a hill repeat run. Well the gel came that afternoon, so no excuses remained. Actually I was fine with that as I knew I had to do some hills to keep on track with my fluctuating quality run plan.
So a note on the gel: I purchased a 26 serving bottle of Chocolate Hammer gel for $20 on Amazon. I use 3 oz gel flasks and dilute 1 to 1 with water. It takes some shaking to get it mixed up, but it is a lot cleaner and less wasteful than the individual servings not to mention cheaper. I really like doing my gels this way. The bottles I have a weird and are rounded so they don’t stand up but feel good in my pockets. I like the diluted gel as well. The chocolate was a little sweet, I have had espresso as well and I thought that was less so.
So in addition to my diluted gel I also brought a pack of Honey Stinger fruit energy chews. They are a bit like Sharkies only more jelly like, sort of remind me of the old jelly candies my Grandma had. They are ok, I don’t think I care for the Honey Stinger product lines so much. They are a bit too strongly honey tasting for me. I had some gels from them as well that I got as samples at the Portland Marathon and they were the same way, like eating a tablespoon of honey. Good but too honeyey. I had maybe 3 or 4 of them on the run to the hills and then the gel halfway through. I felt pretty good energy wise, good combination of gel energy and electrolytes.
So the hills were tough. My hill route I went on today has 10 or 11 hills about a quarter mile long of varying steepness. I zig-zag up and down along this three block long ridge. So down for three blocks, over one, up for three blocks and over one and so on. Halfway through I turn around and go up the ones I went down the first time through. The workout tapers a bit to the mid-way point with the hills getting easier, but the way back is murderous and by the time I near the end of the hill portion, the final two hills are brutal. Here is the run. I felt pretty strong throughout the run and my HR dipped pretty low on the recovery portions (130-140). My max HR was 185 for the run, but more often in the high 170s. It was a good workout and one I feel pretty rested from now that the afternoon has waned.
I missed my rebif injection yesterday, so I did it today after the run. I have been doing the shots after workouts for awhile now and so far I have bot seen any sort of issue with it. I am not sure if the exercise makes it any more or less effective, but there don’t seem to be any problems. Even today when I did my shot into my leg all pumped up after the hill repeats, no issues. I do notice that when I inject in the morning I sometimes have to take ibuprofen in the evening to cull a headache, but it doesn’t happen often. I do worry about taking so much ibuprofen and acetaminophen and its effects on my liver. But I guess I’ll deal with that when I have something concrete to deal with.
Tags: gels, hill repeats, injections, ms, rebif, running
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August 11th, 2010
After running for eight days in a row, personal record for me I took two days off. At first I was just going to skip one day, but convenience turned into two. Monday morning I ran out with a vague plan of a tempo run. As I warmed up my pace felt good and I decided to go for it. I forgot to set my lap at the start of the tempo portion so the first quarter mile got factored in with my slower warm up. Miles one and two were almost identical at 8:16 and 8:17. The pace felt good and like I could step it up if needed, but the third mile is just grueling and slow as I slowed down and then did all the uphill at the end. Next time I think I’ll just do laps on the reed college strip until I hit three miles, should be about two laps, maybe a bit more.
Today I felt enthused to go out and run a recovery run. I did a good job of keeping the heart Rate under 70% of max. There is even a hill as I climb away from East Moreland Golf Course that I always get up into the 150′s. Today I did the entire hill under 144. I really focused on breathing from the belly, I think it makes a big difference.
Also I was listening to the moody electronic trance of William Orbit on the first part of the run. Then when I hit the canyon I switched to Talking Heads and there went the HR. But it is a harder run as well, but I still think music has a huge effect on a workout.
Tags: ms, multiple sclerosis, recovery, running, tempo runs
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August 7th, 2010
Today I bused up to NE to run in my running partner’s hood. It marked eight days in a row of running. I don’t think I’ll be able to continue as I have a gig tomorrow and I don’t like to run on days when I am playing in the band. Its too hard to play for two hours, my fingers get really tired and lazy.
The run today was nice with plenty of breaks. It was a great way to recover further (this is my second recover run in a row, though the nearly eight miles I did yesterday was faster than a true recovery run.) If I do manage to run in the evening after the show tomorrow, I think I will repeat the effort of today.
Yesterday and odd thing happened. I came to a corner with a older guy on a bike to my left with a stop sign. I crossed in front of him and nodded as I passed. He was staring at my as if studying me. I thought it odd, but continued on my way. A couple of blocks later he pulls up along side me and begs an interruption. I take off my headphones and he apologizes and assures me that it will be worth it. He tells me I could improve my running posture by bringing my nose down and looking ahead “like a cockroach.” I didn’t ask him to explain, I just listened to him. I didn’t even find out what the benefit was going to be from doing this. And then just as suddenly as we met, we parted ways; me wanting to run and he probably embarrassed for stopping me and giving me a lecture.
After the encounter I tried the old guy’s advice. For the entire run I aimed down slightly and then looked ahead with roach eyes. My breathing felt clearer! I was able to breath through my nose and exhale through my mouth, sometimes a combo of both. I am not sure if my sinuses were especially clear before the run or if it was just mental, but I felt better, felt like I ran faster and definitely pushed the pace a bit on what was supposed to be a recovery run.
I researched (and my running partner did as well) and we couldn’t find anything about it. Some advice to the contrary (in general breathing advice seems to go against itself with one sure fire method negating another) saying don’t look down, hold your head up, look straight ahead. I think it comes down to doing what feels natural.
Tags: breathing, posture, recovery
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August 4th, 2010
I say six, but it is really seven in a row as one of the days I ran twice. Since getting back to the NW I have really been enjoying the lower altitude. Breathing has been easier in general and my times seem to have benefited from the 10 days at a mile high altitude.
I have been doing a good job of alternating the quality runs with recovery runs. I think this has had a huge impact on how successful these six runs have been. I don’t feel exhausted at all despite doing a quality run this morning. The other positive aspect has been the cool weather, but I don’t think that has too much to do with things as I ran a couple of days in the heat.
I have been pretty happy with myself and pushing the pace at several times during these runs. The tempo run that I did as part of my two-a-day workout felt really good at the speed I did the first two miles (sub 8 min miles). I also got in a 440 workout that went pretty well. I didn’t really push the speed for that run, but I felt like it went well. I was tired, but not deathly so. Today’s run to Mt. Tabor also had some good fast pace elements. I pushed the first two miles a bit and did solid 8:45 min miles. The two miles of climbing were quite a bit slower, but I was able to pick up the pace for the final portions.
One of the weird things about this string of good runs is that I am doing it with a slight strain to my left upper hamstring. It could also be a gluteus strain, but hamstring specific stretches that I have been doing really seem to pull at the affected area. The strain seems to really only be an issue at the start of my runs, say the first two miles. Then the pain seems to fade away. I could feel myself holding back on a smooth flow, sort of a choppy pace. I think at one point I even was ding some injury to my other side. I have been working on the area with stretching and Arnica gel. It seems to have been working as today I had no pain at all.
Tags: hamstring, hills, injury, ms, running, speed work
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