Tag Archive for 'training'

A couple more miles

Published
by
Phil
on /2007/December/8/
in Running
. 0 Comments

It’s great to be running. This being the day I would normally try to put in a long run, I decided to go a little bit extra. So I did slightly over five. The hip pain is still there, doggone it, but I have to feed the addiction. My next physical therapy appointment is Monday, so hopefully it will help me make some progress.

There are no such things as trash miles for me. It’s all good. One of the perks about running on a non-work day is I get to start out a little later, when there is light, and I wear my iPod. When I run on a work day, it’s really early and usually totally dark, so I don’t have my iPod with me–all my senses are needed to detect oncoming vehicles in the dark, etc. But today I had no such worry, and I let the tunes rip. Motivatin’.

Another nice thing about these quick runs in the hood is just being able to go out my front door and take off. For some reason, the same old scenery has not bored me. Two loops around the subdivision, including all the cul-de-sacs, gets me a little over five miles, with minor, gentle elevation changes, like so:

Elevation chart for 5-mile run

So, it was good just to get out, run a little, break a sweat, breathe fast, get my heart rate up, think about my life, not think at all, smile at a neighbor walking her dog, appreciate the cool weather, huff and puff, admire the overcast sky, splash through rain puddles, notice the various and sundry Christmas decorations in the yards (including all the deflated blow-up kinds that look rather sad, pitiful and forlorn, which I have a special, weird appreciation for), and overall, feel good to be alive.

Here are the obligatory numbers:

Total Time (h:m:s) 0:48:07 9:29 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 0:47:56 9:27 pace
Distance (mi) 5.07  
Moving Speed (mph) 6.3 avg. 8.3 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +237 / -227  
Temperature (F) 41 F avg. 41 F high
Wind Speed (mph) NE 5.8 avg. NE 5.8 max.

Morning Celebration Run

Published
by
Phil
on /2007/December/4/
in Running
. 1 Comment

Today I celebrated my arrival on the planet 52 years ago by running once more. I had not run in three days. It was a pleasant enough run, given that my hip flexor is still bothering me. I kept it gentle, and I am continuing my exercises and physical therapy. I doubt if I will be able to do the Hangover Classic on Jan. 1 (10 miles), but I sure would like to get better and heal up fast. If getting to where I can run long distances again means that I have to wait to run those distances, though, so be it.

Here are my morning numbers:

Total Time (h:m:s) 0:30:11 10:09 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 0:30:11 10:09 pace
Distance (mi ) 2.97  
Moving Speed (mph) 5.9 avg. 7.8 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +237 / -227  
Temperature (F) 28.4 F avg. 28.4 F high
Wind Speed (mph) WSW 5.8 avg. WSW 5.8 max.

Once more into the breech

Published
by
Phil
on /2007/December/1/
in Running
. 0 Comments

Today I ran for the first time since Tuesday (five days ago). I saw a Physical Therapist yesterday who examined me, analyzed my running and put me on a stretching program (link to PDF of his recommended stretches here). He also had me do a little bit of Pilates, which I had never done before. While I was doing the Pilates stuff, it didn’t feel like it was working me that much. I am used to breaking a sweat at the Y, and also when I run. I figure if you don’t at least break a sweat, it isn’t worth it. Well, this morning I could definitely feel it. So maybe there is something to it.

Anyway, normally I would do 10 miles on my “long run” day, but he said for me to just do a little, and while I still have pain, it’s tolerable at the moment. While on the run, I could feel some discomfort, but I was not concentrating on it. In fact, I felt elated just to be running again. I grabbed the iPod before I went out the door and put it on shuffle. The song of the run, as hokey as it may sound, was “Dancin’ On The Ceiling.” The sun was out, and I was running again! Oh yeah, baby. For historical and selfish reasons I want to keep track of what I do as I try to heal, so here are my numbers for today:

Total Time (h:m:s) 0:29:55 10:00 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s) 0:29:56 10:00 pace
Distance (mi ) 2.99  
Moving Speed (mph) 6.0 avg. 7.7 max.
Elevation Gain (ft) +237 / -227  
Temperature (F) 32 deg. F avg. 32 deg. F high
Wind Speed (mph) E 5.8 avg. E 5.8 max.

Hip – Thigh Injury

Published
by
Phil
on /2007/November/20/
in Running
. 0 Comments

I have decided to take both today and tomorrow off from running. This pains me in spirit, but I need to address the physical pain in order to get back to the activity level I am currently pursuing. I feel a significant pain in my right outer hip and thigh area. From what I understand after reading about it so far, it’s an overuse injury of the hip flexor variety. I suspect that on the right side, my tensor fasciae latae muscle and possibly the iliotibial band near the hip have become inflamed. It could also be bursitis at the hip. I will need to address this with ice packs and anti-inflammatories, as well as stretching. Stretching is the area I need to focus on most, I think. I have so not paid the attention to that. I have a race on Thursday I am signed up for, and I intend to run it. (I will be doing some serious but gentle stretching before and after.) But I may scale back and not run on Friday or Saturday after the race.

Ten miles to feed my addiction

Published
by
Phil
on /2007/November/17/
in Running
. 0 Comments

This morning I completed my long run for the week.  For the past three weekends in a row, I have been doing 10 miles.  Previously I incorporated about three miles of trail running into the ten mile run, but today, I just stuck to the roads.   I covered the distance in 1:41:57 at a pace of 10:09.  The temp was not too bad, 41.4°F, with a slight wind of around 6 mph.  By the time I started running at 7:30 am, the sun was already up, and it was nice to run in daylight for a change.  I normally have been trying to run five days a week.  Monday through Thursday I get in three miles a day before work, and it is usually quite dark then.  I try to take Fridays off, then a long run on Saturday, and a recovery day off on Sunday. 

Perhaps a little history is in order.  This past July, I weighed 267 pounds.  I stand about six two or so and have a large frame, but there was no doubt about it, I was way overweight.  I think an apt description would be fat.  I had tried to start running again this summer (I had done some running back in 2001 but never trained properly and gave it up), attempting to jog and walk a bit on the weekends, but I was not backing that effort up with additional weekday attempts, nor was I even the slightest bit considering going on a diet.  I had not been a meat eater for quite some time, but I consumed lots of soft drinks and chips and pizza and pasta, and I never wanted to exercise that much, even though I have actually always loved getting out to the woods, and going on the occasional bike ride.  But as my weight kept increasing, I was finding those activities harder and harder to do.

So around the first week of August this year, a friend decided she was going to try a diet, even though, in my opinion, she didn’t need to go on one, and I did.  It was called the Fat Smash Diet.  I never had much belief in diets, yet alone something with a “fad name,” but something about how she described it to me made sense…I could eat all the fruits and vegetables I wanted, and I had to incorporate cardio.  This seemed quite a logical and healthy way to lose weight.

When I first started out, I was hardly running at all. In fact, for that first month, I barely could run for 5 minutes without significant pain in my knees and ankles, and I was totally out of breath after about one minute.  But I still lost about 20 pounds, just from eating better.   To be honest, I haven’t even read the Fat Smash book fully.   I just followed the general guidelines, and it’s been working.  The bottom line is I have lost over 40 pounds (with a goal of losing about 30 more) and I am now running about 22 miles a week.   Oh yeah, and I am now a running addict.