Day after running

Well I biked home from work again today, a decision I made because my knee felt better. It was still slightly achy, but much better then yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow I will try running again, but who knows.

Not much to update in a running blog when I have not done much running right?

Post Race Injury Analysis

After the marathon I quite frankly felt pretty good. And the Thursday after I even went for a 2.5mile run and it felt good. But then later on in that day my knee started to hurt and upon further investigation I think I had runners knee.

Basically my kneecap is slightly mis-aligned or something like that. So I took the next week off of running (and biking to work mind you). So then this week I finally was able to bike to work, and my knee felt good while on the bike. My ride is about 7mi each way, but when I got home and walked up the stairs to my apartment my knee started to hurt a bit. So I decided to ice it and try again tommorow. Then Tuesday I biked again, but there was no knee pain going up the stairs Yay!

Then yesterday I did not bike as it was raining, but when I got home I decided to go for a run. My kneed had moments where it hurt a little bit, like going down hills and up stairs, but it felt pretty good in general. Once I got home though I felt a pretty sharp pain. So ice and this moring I was pretty good, so I decided to bike again. Hopefully I can get back to running every day in a week or so.

Twin Cities Marathon

I finished in 3:16:49 Great finish for me. Finally ran my race. I felt great the whole time. I loved it. I took a whole hour off of my PR, and let me tell you, when you take 25% off your PR, it feels like you spend a lot less time out there. The race goes quick! I also finished in the top 7% of the whole field. That was super cool in my opinion.

I'm so motivated to qualify for Boston. I truely believe that I can do it now. I no longer have to take 1:05 off my PR, but only 5min! I can do that!!!!!

After the first Week of Spring Training...

I feel good. I am really liking the elliptical machine on easy days, at least for a while. It should keep me out of any early season injury trouble which for me is usually a good thing since I seem to be injury prone. Anyways I did the whole week of Hals Spring Training Advanced and felt good every day.

Also I recently bought "The Stick" which for me as been amazing. I have never had sore muscles after using it, and I recommend anybody that is doing hard training of anysort get it.

A week after the Birkie...

Well last weekend I completed the American Birkebeiner Cross country ski race. It was a 51k hilly course that I did quite well on. My wind felt good all race long, but it was my legs that tired. (This was because I did not do a lot of skiing this winter, like 10k total). And I did quite well, as this was my first major race in about 2 years that I was well trained for (relatively) that did not have any incidents. So that inspired me to go all out for this year's marathon season. Grandmas in Duluth and the Twin Cities Marathon. Grandmas I hope to finish in about 3:40 to qualify for the first wave of the Twin Cities Marathon where I hope to qualify for Boston.

I don't know how often I will update my blog, but we'll see. Who knows.

Also to try and eliminate early season injuries I have decided to do my easy days on an elliptical machine since I have been prone to running too many miles in the early season and getting shin splints.

Take care.

I guess I'll give some results

The sunny skies and 90 degree temps dashed my hopes of BQing at the Twin Cities Marathon. I finished a personal worst of something like 4:18, but yet it was a personal best of where I finished percentage wise. So one worst, and best in the same race! Yea.

I guess I will have to try next year. I'm thinking of Grandmas.

Still running.....

My last two days

Yesterday I went for my first hill repeat of the official 18 week training program. After a spring of hill repeats, which grew to 10x, the 3x was a breeze. I went for a nice 2mi warm up and then a 1.5 mile cool down. I was experiencing just a little bit of discomfort in my shins (which is probably me just blowing this whole thing out of context) but to be safe I decided to do a cold water run today.

See here were I am it has been hovering in the 60's in the Fahrenheit scale, which is only about 16 degrees Celsius for those of us who prefer a measurement system that makes sense. When I woke up then this morning at my usual 4:30, the temp was at a frigid 44F and 7C. BRRRRRR! So I decided to play the chance that I might be willing to go for a run after work. Well after some mental preparation I finally plunged into our pool. Again I must type BRRRRRR! But after about 5min my legs just went numb, and if I was able to keep my torso dry, I was only just regular cold. So I ran in there for about 28min covering about 1.2 miles or 2K. Not far but come on I was running in water. Anyways I think I will be good for my tempo run tomorrow. Its not a big deal, just a 30min one.