djplong

Been a long time since I checked in here... So, here's what happened... Ran the BAA 10K in a very slow time. Hip continued to aggravate me - sometimes seeming like it would heal, then coming back and becoming worse. I kept trying to keep a mild running schedule going and it wasn't easy. All the races I'd planned to run all summer with the exception of that one 10K were for naught. Finally, a few weeks ago, it was getting to the point where any pain I had would actually fade the more I ran. I might feel it in the morning, but during the run it wasn't so bad. While my hip was finally healing - and the orthopedist was no help - my Achilles continued to be in varying amounts of pain. However, again, when I would run, the pain would fade during the run. Over time I started losing some of the weight I'd put back on. The strangest part was the frustration I was feeling at not being able to run. Finally, there's no hip pain (though the Achilles is still bugging me) and what happens? Weather. I'm getting back to a normal running schedule - trying even to do long runs from time to time (got up to 5 miles a couple of weeks ago). My 'standard' runs are usually something over 5K. The latest surprise was this past Wednesday when the Gate City Striders (the running club I joined) did their annual Candelight Relay. Random teams of four do four miles - each member doing four laps of the track at a local high school. What I didn't know was that you ran one lap, waited for your teammates to run their laps, then ran your next lap, etc. So it was four 1-lap runs. I proceeded to set 4 1/4 mile PRs. During my normal run/walk sessions, I'm averaging about 11 minutes/mile. Well, when I did the last lap, I decided to leave it all out on the track with a kick on the final straightaway and I ended up doing the 1/4 mile at a 7:01/mile pace (previous laps were around 7:51/mi and practice was at 9:45/mi)! I remembered a time in junior high school when I couldn't run once around the track. I was so winded from trying, I could barely walk the rest of the way and even my TONGUE hurt... 400 meters was more than I could do. Granted, being on my feet at all was an accomplishment since I had a doctor tell my mother that I'd never walk again (after major surgery on my feet when I was 6), Now my biggest frustration is the rainy weather keeping me from getting out.

The BAA 10K is Sunday. Since my last post, I've been convinced that I'll never run it and I've been sure that I will. This hip injury lingers but it's healed enough that I can do SOME running but I feel the effects for at least 2 days afterwards. But this last time (Tuesday) it didn't seem so bad as I've been limiting myself to one 5K distance worth of intervals per week. Happened to be in Florida and got to try a new trail and it didn't feel bad at all. In all this, I was able to do my three #runDisneyShorts races with slow times as I was still doing intervals. So Sunday I'm going to show up at the Boston Common and do my "race" - but certainly not at a race pace even for me. I've paid for this race and, blast it, I want my medal! I'm supposed to see the orthopedist on 7/1 and they may have to 'scope' my hip to repair the labrum - but we'll see what happens.

Aaaaaand the whipsaw goes the other way. I woke up this morning feeling MUCH better than yesterday and decided to go give it a try. I did my first 5K since the injury. Not a great time, but that wasn't what I was looking for. I just wanted to log those miles. I even posted to Facebook with the #runDisneyShorts tag. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do 5K by the deadline - and this even counted for Runkeeper's Global 5K! All in all a VERY good day (but I'm sore again - though it seems to clear up quicker so I'm still hopeful)

It's been a long and extremely frustrating road and I was making progress. First I was able to do some light jogging in the middle of walk sessions (about a mile) Then a little more jogging (up to 2 miles) Then I thought this week I'd try for a 5K at a slow speed (around 11:00/mile). Unfortunately, I went out too soon after some lunch and was feeling a bit nauseous so I ended up stopping at 2.8miles. The next morning, the pains were coming back. I'm still signed up for a pair of virtual 5K races (though I only want to finish - not worried AT ALL about my times). And then there's the BAA 10K in June. I've been on a whipsaw of hope and disappointment trying to get back from this damn hip injury.

How long have you been in those shoes? Admittedly there could be a lot of things aggravating your physical symptoms but that one came to mind. Also, if you're in pain, ease off. Perhaps you can still do the 5K but do it as a run/walk (I do 4/1 intervals when I'm training - and that's what I'll be going back to when this hip injury heals - I just don't know how many I will be able to do at first)

A piece of advice I got when I was struggling last year was "If you can go slower, do it". The idea is to build up your endurance and THEN work on speed after that.

One step at a time. Literally... So the pain is reducing, over time. I'm getting all kinds of new stretching exercises to do and I got the green light to power-walk. (In fact, I was ordered to by my physical therapist) I'm still signed up for the BAA 10K but I don't know if I'll be running anything before then. The next race I'd wanted to run was a 12K towards the end of this month but I doubt that'll happen. Now the most frustrating thing is that lousy weather has moved in for a while so there's no biking either. Showers around every day for the next WEEK!

The 10K didn't happen. A lot of other things DID. I ended up with an MRI on my hip and got the proverbial good news / bad news. The good news is that it's not serious and surgery is an option if things get bad. The bad news is that I have fraying in my labrum and some degeneration of the cartilage in my hip - all due to the shape of my hip exacerbated by the fact that my femur doesn't come up into my hip at quite the proper angle (due to my birth defect). The good news is that therapy can overcome this. This will fix itself, if cared for, and after PT, I've had a particular strength and endurance coach recommended to me. My physical therapist has also recommended yoga in addition to the exercises she's giving me (which appear to be helping). The other good news is that I got the green light to get back on the bike and I've already done so. I have to keep moving. So it'll be interesting to see when I can get back to running again and what it is that I'm going to need to do to stay on my feet and not have my hip barking at me. The doctor says that the July half marathon might be out of the question, but the ones I have slated in the fall are still possible.

My frustration knows no bounds. My injury from last year seems to have reared it's ugly head again. This time, the hip flexor trouble is only on the right side. One positive is that it's not as bad as it was last July when I couldn't run for 3 months but I'm supposed to run the BAA 5K in Boston on Saturday. It all started when I started stretching myself out a little over 2 weeks ago. I did my longest run ever - 7 miles - doing 4/1 jog/walk intervals. I was more sore than I'd like the morning after so I gave myself an extra day of rest before the 'normal' run - about 3.5 miles. After that I was feeling the horribly familiar twinges. I took 11 days off trying to let things calm down. There were times when I wasn't feeling any pain, but then it would come back. Finally, last Saturday, I decided to take a run (4/2 intervals) and try and finish up a distance challenge I had signed up for with MakeYesHappen (I was about 4.6miles away from finishing a 66-mile challenge). The last 2 intervals were telling. I thought I slipped or something when going from a walk to a jog the penultimate time. But for the last interval, I knew something was wrong. The pain was back. I've been trying to take it easy and have been taking plenty of Advil during these last few days. Today I went to the doctor (sports medicine specialist) and it looks like more of the same from last year. Last time I got it on both sides but the right side cleared up VERY quickly - it was the left side that didn't heal for 3 months. This time, instead of the cortisone shot, I'm electing for the MRR (an MRI with dye injected into the hip joint). I'm also heading back to physical therapy starting next Wednesday. In addition to the 5K on Saturday, I'm signed up for a 10K on the 24th that I was really looking forward to. I had a goal of doing a half marathon by July. This is REALLY ticking me off.

Well, this definitely lets me know how I feel about running. I am FURIOUS at myself! I was supposed to run in the Shamrock Shuffle 5K this weekend. It's the first race of the New Hampshire Grand Prix - 8 races throughout the year. Finish them all and you get the status of "Granite Runner" and a jacket. I put the date in my calendar and have been planning my running schedule around it. Sometime after I put the date in my calendar, I saw a source (that I can no longer find) that implied I'd put down the wrong date. I had Saturday in my calendar and this said Sunday - so I changed it. Didn't think anything else of it. Which means I never triple-checked the date. And it was yesterday as I just found out a few minutes ago. Words can't describe how MAD at myself I am! It's certainly not about the money in a wasted registration fee - that's no big deal. It's everything else around it. It was the first 'other' race I was running since joining the running club a few weeks ago (meaning not the Freeze Your Buns series that the club runs). I feel like SUCH an IDIOT! The information was all around me but I thought, because I'd corrected myself once, that I didn't need to again! The only positive coming out of this is that I never would have thought I'd be MAD at myself for missing a *running* date. I'm just absolutely STEAMING right now!!

What O/S are you on? Iphone's iOS or an Android machine? My gut feeling is that there's something wrong in the O/S. When you run, do you get an accurate map of where you ran?

Life will get in the way, whether you let it or not. Over the last two weeks, for every reason from weather, to business, to having a last-minute work-related trip to San Antonio, I wasn't getting my usual 3 runs per week. This past week, I only ran twice - Sunday's final Freeze Your Buns 5K and yesterday, when I finally got to get back to the park where I prefer to run (now that the snow has melted). The race? Well, for the first time I did NOT improve my time. I could feel, going into it, that I wasn't in my best 'place' but I got through it and still kept a sub-10-minute pace (9:50, 30:31 total time). But yesterday it was time to see where I really was. Running in the park, I can pretty much go however long I want. I can take any number of paths and, no matter where I stop, I'm never too far from the parking lot (which usually makes a good cool-down walk). When I run the neighborhood course, it's 4.1 miles with few options unless I'm having a real bad day and there's a bailout point that results in only going 1.6 miles. It was a magnificent day at nearly 60F - and the parking lot was PACKED. But I warmed up, started running and really felt a lot better than I feared. For some reason I'm still coughing some while running, but the results were there. I didn't tax myself too much and still ran nearly 5 miles at a pace, including walks or 10:11/mile. I didn't want to push it too much and I'm glad I didn't as I'm a bit sore this morning. So, right now, if I were in my 'training for the half marathon' mode, I'm somewhere around Week 4, 5 or 5+ (Week 6 wants 7 miles). I'm beginning to believe I'll be more than ready for that half marathon in July.

I always repeated a 'failed' session. But I was also using a tracker (like MapMyRun or Runkeeper) so that, even in a 'failed' session, I could usually see improvement - that I went further or lasted long or maybe went faster than a previous session. It would make it very satisfying when I'd finally break through and conquer a troublesome session.

I took the half and full marathoners and put them into a table in a file I carry around on my phone. The half marathon is 13 weeks, while the marathon is 20 weeks. For each week, "Day 6" is your "long run". Week 1 starts out at 3/2 intervals (3:00 jog, 2:00 walk), times 6 doing 3 miles. They up the number of intervals in successive weeks to 8, 10, then 12 (6 miles). In week 5, the long run changes to 4/1 intervals (times 8 for 4 miles) and gets upped to 14, 16, 18, dips to 12, then goes to 20 (10 miles) on Week 10. You taper off with 16, then 12 intervals and Week 13 is your half marathon - 26 intervals for 13.1 miles. All this time, you're doing shorter runs on Days 1 & 3 & 4 (sometimes 3 is skipped) with cross-training exercising on Days 2 & 5. The marathon has a similar structure (though it's usually Day 4's run that is skipped if that week is skipping a run). The Long Runs start at 3/2x10 for 5 miles and build up to 3/2x18 (9 miles) on Week 6. Then it's 4/2 intervals going from 10 times (6 miles) on Week 7, then 20, 10 and 23 (14 miles) by Week 11. Week 12 starts the 4/1 intervals - 14 times (7 miles) and then going 32, 13*, 38, 13* and then 40 (20 miles) on Week 17 (the ones with the '*' are 5/1 intervals). Then you taper off with 5/1x17 (10 miles) on Week 18, to 5/1x10 (6 miles) on Week 19 and your marathon - 4/1x52 - at the end of Week 20.

I know exactly how you felt. I registered for a 5K and 10K on consecutive days when I was just a few weeks into the program. (Fortunately the races were many many months away) Concentrate on the here and now - the later will come.

I started the program a year ago and had some challenges. Don't worry about speed. One of the things I read was "If you can go slower, do it". The idea is to be concentrating on building up your endurance from wherever it is. Everyone starts at a different point. I was worried because, at my pace, I wouldn't be able to do the 5K in 30 minutes. Now, I'm 53 and never ran a lick (except playing softball) until last year. When I finally started races this year, I came in at 37 minutes, then 32:45, then about 30:30 and then 30:01 (my best so far). While training yesterday, my watch told me that a 30-minute 5K was in reach but I was looking to go longer so I stayed at the more comfortable pace I was jogging. The speed improvements will come. Trying to push speed too much WILL cause injuries. Let your body tell you what's possible and just go with the flow - you'll be surprised.

Well, I signed up. I'm now a member of the Gate City Striders. Another in a series of Things I Thought I'd Never Say. Missed too much running this past week because of weather and (to be honest) attitude. Things just weren't feeling right. But I got back on the horse Saturday and that went well. As well as that went, yesterday was that bad. Same run, same course - and yesterday had better weather. But whereas I ran Saturday with no problem, yesterday a couple of the hills were like walls and I had to take unscheduled walk breaks. The only difference that I could point to was that yesterday was a work day and, truth be told, I was ready to take a nap when I got home. Not exactly an energetic start. Was hoping the warmer weather would lead to a better time but that was not to be. What I *did* do was start to map out my 'running calendar'. After the final Freeze Your Buns 5K this coming Sunday, I think I'll start the New Hampshire Grand Prix with the Shamrock Shuffle 5K in Lebanon NH in a couple of weeks. Looks like I have targets all the way into October and I'll have to hop on a training plan shortly if I'm going to make the July Half-Marathon in Portland ME.

Congrats! I know how great it feels when you up your interval time and charge right through it!

The weather here, at this time of year, occasionally makes it difficult to plan one's running days. -15F one day, over 40F 16 hours later. I'm still learning. Last week had a day of learning that I should allow more time to digest a larger meal before running. I'd forgotten I'd had a late lunch, but even 3 hours wasn't enough as I just couldn't get into a breathing rhythm one day. Fortunately, the weather and everything else was better two days later so - no worries. Yesterday it was time for another Freeze Your Buns 5K - though the weather should have renamed it the Thaw Your Buns 5K. Ran it with one walk interval for 40 paces at about the 2.5 mile mark. I'd been pushing myself to see if I could do another PR. (A longer term goal was a 30-minute 5K) Coming up the final, long, uphill incline, I could see the clock at the finish line and it was reading about 29:30. I didn't know how long it would take me to get to that clock at the line but I put everything I had into that final push and I *thought* I came in at about 29:58. When they posted the official results online, I missed it by ONE SECOND! 30:01 was my finishing time! I mean, sure, that was the gun time and it was a couple of seconds to get to the start line from where I started.. But, still, seeing the numbers online make THAT number 'real' for me. Afterwards, as I was turning in my bib (you use the same bib for each FYB race), I mentioned that I would love to thank the person who came up with the idea for this race series. Turns out that I said that to the very person who started the series many years ago. I loved the fact that I had something to keep me focused so that I didn't just 'take the winter off' and stop running because it was too cold. So I'm probably going to join the Gate City Striders running club and now I'm looking at a series of 7 races in New Hampshire that make up the New Hampshire Grand Prix. Finish them all and you get a neat jacket. Of course, one of those races is a half-marathon... It fits with my goals. I still wonder if my body will allow me to do this. My right Achilles is still barking from time to time but ibuprofen seems to take care of it. It's really only a problem when I'm walking barefoot for some reason. When I'm wearing pretty much ANY kinds of shoes, it's either nonexistent or much less pronounced.

Yolanda - I keep my status updated in "Progress log from the Granite State". I've been checking the calendar for half-marathons and I'll key my training plan to whatever the first one is that I run. There are four or five that I'm looking at right now and I'll have to start upping my training in April to make the first of them (Currently I'm doing about 12+ miles per week - 4+miles/day, 3 times a week).

Still no *specific* goals set but I *did* finally finish a virtual race (via MakeYesHappen linked to Runkeeper) of 31 miles this week. It's been frigid here in NH so the idea of going out and running in the windy cold isn't very enticing. One good piece of news from the 5K I ran on Sunday.. I actually cracked 10:00/mile for an average pace. Ok, it was 9:59 - but, still, my race time (30:58) was almost 2 minutes quicker than my previous 5K which was 4 1/2 minutes quicker than my first! I'd like to think that, in warmer weather, not bundled up so much, I can crack a 30-minute 5K.

I bought a knee brace and iced my knee down after every running session back when I was having trouble. Also used ibuprofen (Advil) from time to time. Now? Not a lick of pain in my knees.

Time to head out for my 4th race. The next in the "Freeze Your Buns" series. Sure, it was in the 50s and touching 60F during the week but, now, it's back down to a very chilly 24F. I've just been running 4/1 intervals on my neighborhood course twice during the week and trying a longer weekend run to keep my legs in shape. I really need to set a goal and pick a half-marathon that isn't in the fall so that I can work the training program backwards from that date. I work a lot better when I have goals in mind.

That's what I did - repeat the sessions until I made it. One thing I've noticed these days. I have a neighborhood-circuit 4.1 mile route that I had been running one way (clockwise) that resulted in starting off going up a long gradual hill. When I reversed that and started running it counter-clockwise, my times got drastically faster. By drastically, I mean a full minute per mile faster (11:07 to 10:06/mile). The difference? Running it counter-clockwise meant starting off on a level part of the course. The hills came later, after my body had warmed up more and my breathing was more regular.

Week by week, you'll see your progress. You'll wonder how you'll ever do some of the upcoming challenges and then feel euphoric when you finish them!