I thought I was done with deciding between the treadmill and running in blizzards. I was wrong. Treadmill won, but only because I have a new Incubus video to watch. We are flying out to Denver tonight, so this is all for today. Unless you can count runaway kids in the airport. I am fully expecting that to happen.
Vacation this weekend at my parents house in Denver area. We survived the ordeal of flying with kids. Our flight was delayed almost 2 hours and the kids were tired. All in all they did well though. I ran from my dad's house this morning and jumped on the bike/run trail that is never ending. I followed it as it wound through neighborhoods, fields, along canals, etc. It was even gravel for a mile section. I could pretty much run all the way into the city (I am in Thornton). I am way jealous. I went out 6 miles then returned the same route. Felt pretty good, but was fighting a good stiff wind.
Bethany was able to join me for a few miles today on the bike while I ran. She kept me company for 7 miles then I dropped her off at the house. It was sure nice to chat with her while I ran. I ended up on the same trail as yesterday, no big deal since I am not sick of it and it is pretty nice. I headed back out for 12 more miles. Pretty uneventful. My legs were a bit sore in certain spots due to the deep tissue massage I got from my Dad. He is going back to school to get a massage therepists license/degree thing and it was awesome. He tells me my leg muscles are all out of whack and meshed together. He has been able to re-align and separate most of them. Pretty much all the legs muscles were united in destroying the ITB.
I don't want to run 28 miles today or anything crazy like that, so I figured I could eat 28 cookies or doughnuts or 28 pieces of cake. Now THAT is a birthday gift to myself. We'll have to see how that goes.
Ran into Providence and into Von's Park. Did some exploring and headed home.
Had a fun day yesterday. Enjoyed a good night out with Beth and no kids. I needed to burn off some excess food so I went out for a small workout this morning. Young Ward loop with 5 miles at Tinman tempo pace. Started out feeling sluggish and finally got into a groove. I was glad it was only 5 faster miles though. (6:20, 6:21, 6:15, 6:12, 6:10).
AM: Canal Trail in the rain. The power was out for half of Logan and I had to dodge the cars that didn't realize they are supposed to stop if the signal light is off. "Hmmm, no red light, sweet!"
T-61:50 (7:44) 144
PM: 3.5 on the Planet Walk. Lead-filled legs. No time.
Ran to Jon's house and picked him up this time. It was nice to have company again after so long running by myself. I have turned into a hermit. Oh wait, I was always that way. So we ran up to the start of the River Trail via the canal trail. Felt much better than most of this week, but still have some sore muscles. I will work on them this afternoon. We ran into Drew M on the canal trail. He was looking good (moving along nicely). He is in great shape. I ran Jon home and then finished my run. Easiest Saturday run in ages as it was the first one that was not a race or a 18+ miler in a few months. Taper time has begun....
400 W route this morning. Started out slow at 7:40 but picked it up over the run as I got warmed up. Topped out at a 6:33 mile. Most were around 7 though. Did some scraping last night and the legs felt better today. Still some soreness to overcome, but I still have 5 days.
Landfill loop in the morning. Felt good except for the last mile where I had some weird breathing issues. I have also been watching my foot closely as it seems I bruised the bottom. Just making sure that is all it is.
Easy 6 miles into Providence. I did manage to get in one final fast mile as prep for Ogden. It was downhill though (~2%). 5:34. Legs are starting to come around. Starting to get excited....
2 easy miles. Yep, thats it for today. Hardly was worth it at all. Actually, it was very relaxing and nice. Did 4x20 sec striders to satisfy the desire to run faster. In 24 hours from now I will in Ogden Valley running around Pineview....
Ogden Marathon (26.2 Miles) 02:43:48, Place overall: 9, Place in age division: 2
Slow miles
Fast miles
Total Distance
2.00
26.20
28.20
Ogden Marathon
2:43:48 (by my watch) 9th Overall
Race day began with some easy running in Huntsville as a few of us stayed at Logan Fielding's grandparents place the night before. That was super convenient and nice. We were all pretty anxious, but ready to go. The race started at 7 and the sun was already up and warming things up quickly. I wish this race would start at 6. The race started out pretty good with the body agreeing with the watch on the correct pace. We created a group of 3 pretty quickly (Walter, Ben, and I). Chad and Jeff created their own group not too far ahead and the leaders (Logan, Sasha, Clyde, and Seth Wold) were taking it easy for the first few miles too. The race was pretty un-eventful as we cruised down South Fork chatting and such. We stayed together really well but had a guy who recently moved from New Hampshire? join us for a while. I was feeling pretty good on the easy downhill and as we transistioned to the rollers at mile 9+ I was still happy with the pace. We took it easy (but it still felt like a race). I also was careful to hydrate well taking water or Gatoraide at every station. Things were shaping up nicely with us hitting the half in 1:20:20 (more or less). That was my personal goal was to hit the half in 1:20-1:21. It came so naturally too, so I was pleased. We stayed together (minus the guy from back east) up the big hill and along the lake. We overcame another older gentlelmen who we didn't talk to. We held back until we hit the Dam. I decided to go with the flow and sped up. I gapped my group, and tried to keep the momentum going, but fatigue was setting in. It didn't take them long to catch up with me and we ran together down Ogden Canyon. Ben had a run-in with a half marathoner, but other than that, we just tried to keep it together. I felt a lot better this year in this section, but I was struggling pretty bad. We exited the canyon and entered the trail and I fell apart. I knew I had only 5K to go, but no amount of willpower would make me keep my pace. I felt like I was barely moving. I tried tricking my mind into the "only this mile left, after that you can walk" trick, but it didn't work very well. We got strung out through here and had Kory overtake us all. He had been 30 seconds behind us the whole second half and made his move at a good point. I was in survival mode all the way to the finish. I think the only guy who suffered as bad as me (in my group of course) was Walter who walked to take a drink at mile 25 and couldn't get going again. Pathetic kick at the end for me, but I didn't care at that point. I managed to not pass out or collapse and seemed to recover reasonably well. I was impressed with Ben's race as he was strong the whole way. He got his revenge on all the races I beat him this spring....Now look out for him once the joins the blog. He will be shaving even more time...
I am happy with my race. It turned out about as expected. I really wanted 2:40, but I feel I ran my best race I could for the day. 9 min improvement over last year. ~2 min equivalent effort PR over St.George last year (based on Sasha's calculator). Still some serious work to do to get to 2:30 at SGM, but one step at at time.
It was a good day for Bloggers as we took 10 of the top 12 spots for the men and had one in the womens top 3 (Michelle), and another in the top 10 (Josse). Nice job everyone....
Splits:
1- 6:00 (adjusted for the misplaced marker - they really struggled with marking this race)
After 3 hours of hauling 5 cubic yards of dirt in a wheelbarrow to various points my backyard, I was free to go for a run. It was slow and easy. I am still working on letting my legs recover, so it was nice to take it easy. I noticed that the Logan River was the highest I have seen it in years. Should be interesting for the next week as it continues to rise.
Easy 8 on 400 W route. I think I am just about recovered. Still a few knots and tiredness, but way past the worst of it. I should be good to ramp up the miles next week.
We were blessed today to have Walter join us Loganites for the weekend. Fresh blood is good. So what do we do? We take him to the hilliest trail for miles (Deer Fence) and tell him keep up or you walk back to Lewiston (half hour drive away). He managed just fine. In fact, it was me who was the most tired of the 3 (oh, did I mention Jon came too?) It was a fun run with lots of chatting. Trail running season has finally begun. 2 trail runs this week. Recovery week is over, back to 70+ mileage now.
Woke up yesterday to a new pain in the foot. I dont know if it was bruising from the Deer Fence run on Saturday or from wearing cheap sandals the rest of the day saturday, or some other foot problem. It wasn't any better today, but I hoped staying on the trails would give me some padding. I ran with Jon and Walter from First Dam on the Shoreline trail to Green canyon and up the canyon to the end of the road. Weather was perfect. Not the usual Green Canyon Snow/Blizzard tradition. Great day for a run. That is why I didn't turn around at 5 miles when I knew my foot needed to. I wanted to enjoy the best part of the trail. I should have turned around. I am limping horribly and will likely be not running for a bit now. Cross my fingers it is just bruising and will heal quickly...I know I know Ice Ice Ice....
Well, it is official. I am injured. My foot is not happy. I am still not sure what caused it. Whatever it is. I have some theories. It hurts right at the end of the 5th metatarsal. It doesn't hurt if I push on it with my hand, but there is a sharp pain present when I walk/run. It is worse on the push-off. If I keep my foot flat, it is minimized. See image to see where it hurts.
I don't think it is a stress fracture, but it is possible. I am leaning towards a Tendonitis in one of the Peroneus tendons. It is possible that it is a Jones fracture or a psudo-Jones fracture. Ok, I admit I ahve no clue which one of these it is. Either way, I am resting it to see if it heals. I am trying to stay off of it, but just basically limp around all day. One day at a time...
I was planning on pool running this morning at the outdoor pool near me, but the thunderstorm made me think twice. Most likely would have been closed. I will go tomorrow morning for sure. An extra day of rest is probably better anyway.
The foot seems to be improving a bit. It still hurts to walk, but less severe. I can almost hide the limp if I go slow enough. I can even take the first 10 steps or so pain-free before it starts to hurt. I have been icing and scraping. The swelling has gone down and is minimal.
Here are the original symptoms
Swelling
Pain when walking or flexing the foot
No pain to the touch (no matter how hard I push)
Pain is localized to the 5th metatarsal and cuboid bone
I am still leaning towards tendonitis in the Peroneus tendons (not sure which one). I hesitate going to the doc as a stress fracture would not show up yet and if I am right then I would already be doing the recommended actions. Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation...and scraping (I doubt a doc would recommend this but I believe in it). I have not been able to find any other injuries that fit my symptoms other than one of those two injuries.
I have seen improvement in a few days with resting. Now if I am maintain some fitness in the pool without aggravating it, I can be back in action quickly. If not, then I am the next casulty for WBR. I figure my chances of being healthy enough to race are 50/50 at this point. I will know more in a week...
PM: Got out for 7.75 miles on the bike (counting it as 3 cross-training miles). I have this old mtn bike that has a kid seat on the back. It was a workout just getting the thing moving. It even broke down right after I turned around to go home. I had to push it on my good leg until I found someone with tools to fix it. No pain at all biking. Good sign...I wore the Garmin for fun.
I woke up all ready to go to the pool to do some pool running. Well, I got there and no one was there. What the? False advertising! They claim lap swimming from 5:30 to 8:30 am. what a rip. I went over to the Rec center hoping they had a pool, but no pool there. Where can I find an open pool in the morning in Logan? I thought about going to a motel pool and see if I can get in one of those, but didn't. At least I was on my bike and got 3 miles in. I decided to bike to work instead of the scooter. 5 More miles in. I will count it as two miles of cross training.
The foot continues to progress. I can walk without a limp now, but I still feel "something" every step. It is not pain, just something not right. Maybe tomorrow I can walk without that "something".
Turns out that the lap swimming doesn't start until June 2. So starting Monday I can go in the mornings.
