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.

First day is in the books!

Well here is the schedule I will be trying my best to adhere to.

Week	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
1	3 m run	3 x hill	3 m run	30 Tem	rest	5 m pace	10
2	3 m run	30 Tem	3 m run	3 m pace	rest	5 m run	11
3	3 m run	4 x 800	3 m run	30 Tem	rest	6 m pace	8
4	3 m run	4 x hill	3 m run	35 Tem	rest	6 m pace	13
5	3 m run	35 Tem	3 m run	3 m pace	rest	7 m run	14
6	3 m run	5 x 800	3 m run	35 Tem	rest	7 m pace	10
7	3 m run	5 x hill	4 m run	40 Tem	rest	8 m pace	16
8	3 m run	40 Tem	4 m run	3 m pace	rest	8 m run	17
9	4 m run	6 x 800	4 m run	40 Tem	rest	9 m pace	12
10	3 m run	6 x hill	4 m run	45 Tem	rest	9 m pace	19
11	4 m run	45 Tem	5 m run	4 m pace	rest	10 m run	20
12	4 m run	7 x 800	5 m run	45 Tem	rest	6 m pace	12
13	4 m run	7 x hill	5 m run	50 Tem	rest	10 m pace	20
14	5 m run	45 tem	5 m run	5 m pace	rest	6 m run	12
15	5 m run	8 x 800	5 m run	40 Tem	rest	10 m pace	20
16	5 m run	6 x hill	5 m run	30 Tem	rest	4 m pace	12
17	4 m run	30 Tem	4 m run	4 m pace	rest	4 m run	8
18	3 m run	4 x 400	3 m run	rest	rest	2 m run	race

Today as you can see was just a simple 3m run plus some strength training. I did this real early in the morning (I left the house at about 4:40) and it was real nice. I think I might like this early morning running stuff. No pain, no nothing. Just a good quality run.

Here we go! 18 weeks til the marathon

Well to catch you all up on my life, I am now going to be a roofer for the summer. This is a tough job so running during the week is going to suck. So I will be running BEFORE work. I will be trying to get up at insane times like 4:30am to go for my runs. I am officially starting Hal's 18 week Marathon Training (Advanced-II) which incorporates speed work which I love so much. Tomorrow I will be doing just my normal 3 mile run with strength training.

And btw yesterday I was able to run a good 7 miler with no pain. I think I should be fine to take this program hard!

Quick Update

Well on Monday I went for my first ever bike ride with a road bike, and after 28 miles I simultaneously blew both of my tires! AHHH. But my mom was riding with me and was able to ride home and pick me up with the car. Then later on that day I went on a ride with my dad and uncle and my uncle blew a tire after hitting a nail! I never realized there was so much waiting biking.

But then today I went for a real running run in between job interviews. It was only 2.5 miles but I was able to make it a quasi tempo run. First mile 9:30, Second mile 7:10. Since I FINALLY got the pool ready to go I might take easy tomorrow and do some water running.

I aquired a road bike today!

My uncle Erv who is majorly into road biking lent me his old bike for a while. It rides great from the little 300m trek I went on today, and I'm excited to get out onto the road. Also I finished preparing our pool today, so I can go watter running tomorrow too! Its all so exciting that I get to start working out again.

So I completely failed on my last couple weeks of the spring training. I still benefited greatly from it, and based on my 5k time, I should be training for a sub 3:00 marathon! Things are looking up for me!

Another day of rest

I rested again today. Unfortunately our pool is not yet ready for people, but hopefully tommorow I can run laps in it for about 30-45 min. I'm just really dying to get out and start running like I am used to.

On a side note I figured out today while playing a little basketball, I can feel my shins hurt as I go UP when jumping, and not so much when I land. I always figured it to be the opposite, but I guess when you are running, all the pain kinda melts into one. Perhaps I can learn to take off a little more gently rather then trying to land softer like I have been. If nothing else, its just one more thing to try.

No I have not abandoned you

I've been busy moving, graduating, registring for grad school, all of this fun stuff. I have also not been running much as I keep having a couple shin splint episodes during every day activities, so I rule on the safe side. On sat though I did run a 5k with my mom. I was doing good, and my wind felt fine keeping up with the leaders by about the half way mark. (I don't know exactly where it was because there were NO MARKERS on the course). Then I got some shin splints and finished in 20:40. Oh well, not bad I guess.

But now for the summer I am living with my parents who have a pool, so perhaps I will be doing some water running soon! I just really want to start training again!

No shoes? No problem!

Today I went for a .85 mile jog in my bare feet! I did not go on the grass somewhere, but in the street. Some people sitting outside yelled out to me "You forgot your shoes". Another lady walking her dog asked me, "Does it hurt". And really, it does not. I've read a lot about the benefits of how your running form improves dramatically, as well as your ability to improve the strength of your foot, ankle, and lower legs.

I really liked this jog and I think that i might just consider doing a barefoot run every week like this just for the heck of it. In fact, most elite athletes do a barefoot warm up and cool down for every workout they do (in shoes).

Tomorrow I will try and do 10x400 intervals! woo hoo!

I gotta keep the tempo!

I went out for my first real run in a couple days. Sunday I went about .5 miles before I decided to head back due to shin pain. But today I went out not knowing what I would be in store for. I figured if it came down to it, running around the block would not be the worst thing in the world. But if I felt good I might keep going, and perhaps I would even do some speed work.

Well I felt great, and during the early stages of my tempo run, I had to hold myself back. My fastest mile split was exactly 6:00, and I have to say that I am pleased. I also felt NO pain today. But that is not going to stop me from being cautious. Tommorow even if I feel good I am going to take a day off just to make sure that I get plenty of rest. (plus I don't want to ruin myself for my 5k this Friday)

This also reminds me that I finally picked a marathon. I will be running the Twin Cities Marathon up here in Minneapolis where I will be attending graduate school. Yay.

Time to step back a touch

During my recovery run today I started to feel some pain in my shins again, as well as some shin pain after my workout. So I have decided to cut back some of my training miles for a tad. So I am not going to run tommrow, take it as a rest day. Then on Sunday I am supposed to run 10 miles, but perhaps I will just run 7 or so. Then monday full out rest again etc.

During the days of rest I think I will take the time I was going to run, and instead use it to do strength excercises for my shins. I found a good reference for them at this site: http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0161.htm

They usually have lots of good advice for anybody with any running questions. Well that is it for tonight.

Hot Fartlek Coming through!

As of Saturday I will be a college graduate. yay. Now what does a man who is supposed to have all this intelligence do? Decides that when it is 90 degrees outside and sunny, running a 45min fartlek at 3:00pm would be a good idea. My diploma should be ripped up.

It was sunny, so I wore sunscreen. I forgot that sometimes sunscreen block your sweat pores. I got real hot real fast. Eventually I was able to use the sweat from my head to wipe off my sunblock, allowing me to sweat. Then As I was running, and running hard at times because this was a fartlek, I started to feel dizzy and get tunnel vision. Immediately alarm bells started ringing in my head, so I stopped by a nearby tree and did some stretching for a couple min. I then ran over to my fraternities house and got some water.

Feeling better I was able to finish off my fartlek in a manner befitting a fartlek, but for the most part I think that this day was wasted as far as speed training goes. But on the plus side I re-learned a couple important lessons about hot weather running. DON'T DO IT! There was a reason I was doing all my running at night this past week, it was because running in hot weather sucks.

Late night runs

Since it is starting to get a bit too warm around noontime for my cold addapted Wisconsin blood, I have taken to the late night runs. Its kinda nice with few cars, cool weather, and neat views of the stars. But when you find yourself on a stree with poor lighting, it can be a real pain to run. I stepped in a pothole today and it scared me real bad, luckly nothing was twisted or what not. (Not that that would matter, since my ankel tendons are so stretched. I played many years of volleyball my ankes have been twisted so many times that I can just keep running.)

The run itself was only a quick 2.8 miler to help my body recovery from yesterdays interval session. I then did a full 20min of stretching and then 20min of icing of my legs when I got back. I think I am in pretty good shape for my Fartlek tommrow. (A 45min one).

Another thing I wish I could do is have two of my toes chopped off at the tip. The toe next to my big toe is my biggest toe, and since this is freakish, shoe makers assume that that one is smaller then the big toe. So that one gets rubbed and rubbed against the front of the shoe and almsot every other week I perform my own little surgerys on it to keep the pain only minor. So if any of you know of somebody who is real accurate with a butcher knife let me know :)

Spooky Intervals at the track.

Yes, I am back. I did 16x200 intervals with 200m jogs in between. So running to and from the track plus the intervals gave me about 7.3 miles for the day. I ran my intervals late at night, and it was spooky at the track. When I got there I saw another guy running, and as he was coming around the corner I took off, and 200m later I looked for him, and he was gone. Then my next lap a bird seeming came out of nowhere from the track and flew right in front of my face. The strange thing is that I was looking right at the spot that it was coming from. Then the next lap I was looking for the bird again, and again it came out of nowhere. All the while there is lightning looming on the horizon. Then the next lap I noticed, or I think I noticed that a stack of hurdles moved closer to my lane. Finally for the rest of my run every time I ran past this one light it always turned off. So I don't know what was going on exactly, but since I have a hint of superstition, I thanked my little "ghost" after leaving the track and thanked him for letting me run and not killing me.

I got back to my apartment just before the storm hit, and while I like running in the rain, this would have been much, especially with the lightning. I then drank my slim fast high protein shake to build up my muscles, (my legs were burning at the end of the run, it felt great). Then I took another ice bath and wrote my spooky blog.

Yesterday Rest, Today a Recovery Run

I realized yesterday that my body was a bit sore, especially in my hamstrings and knees, so I just iced them and took a rest day. Better safe than sorry. (Plus its finals week for me and I have a lot to get done, so it was not as agonizing a decision for me to make)

Then today I was scheduled to do a 3 mile recovery run and strength training, and I AM FINALLY BACK ON HAL'S SCHEDULE!!!! I feels very good to type that. I ran without much of an incident. I stopped a couple times briefly to massage my shins, but as long as I was running slow I was great. Then today I took another ice bath, and now my legs feel great!

Tomorrow is supposed to be a 16x200 at the track. I'll try to do that.

And on a personal note, I have gotten rejected from all but one grad schools I applied to, but I got great news today that the University of Minnesota (which rejected me) will allow me into their physics program if I agree to pay for my schooling! So I am going to be attending grad school! Yay!