Pushing up the mileage

Posted: December 2, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The back of my thighs are killing me today. It took two times to try and run today when the first time I couldn’t even make it a block until I decided that I had to turn back, go home and stretch my legs out. This isn’t a normal practice of mine no matter how often I tell myself and other people that it should be. It took stretching for almost an hour to feel normal again.

I like using this stretching video from YouTube to remind me of what I need to do to make my legs feel good again.

Its just 22 minutes in length but it makes everything feel so much better when I’m through with it. I got in the habit of stretching  couple of months ago but then I feel out of habit when I didn’t think that it was important any more. But the back of my thighs just bark at me every time that I run that I got to the point where I couldn’t run any where.

The main reason why this happened today is that I ran ten miles yesterday without stretching before I did it. Being that I haven’t run that distance in some time I knew that it was going to take a toll on my body that night into the next day and I was right about that. I had a hard time sleeping last night because my back was sore from the run and of course my legs were which made getting out of bed very difficult. If there is something that will make you feel like an old man quickly its running ten miles, your going to feel the next day. At least I did.  I forgot how painful it was to run that distance and for that length of time, 1 hour and 20 minutes.

There wasn’t a time so long ago that I could break off ten miles in just over 60 minutes and feel great after wards. Running these longer distances for me is reminding my body of what that felt like and what kind of effort that it took to reach that point in my running career. I keep telling myself that at least I don’t live on the second story of an apartment complex like I did before I moved about 18 months ago.  Those final steps up the set of stairs can be the most painful if you don’t stretch out your hips.  That is one of the stretches that the women does in the video that I posted above.

What I tell myself to stay motivated is that I put in the miles today that when race day comes around here in twelve more days then I will more prepared and hopefully that day will be less painful.

I know that I’ve talked about this in the blog some where and that is buying a hard foam roller to roll those problems with your legs away.

The one shown in this video is longer than the one I bought, but either way these hard foam rollers are amazing! I was worried when I made this $40 purchase because I didn’t think that this little roller could be so much good, but it saved my running career.

R.I.P. Injury Free Running

Posted: November 12, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

It was a recent revelation while I was out for a jog that I will never run again 100% injury free in my life again.  Over the past five years I have had one issue or another plague me that is running related. Whether it be problems with both knees being tight and swollen. Or the arches of the bottom of both feet hurting.  I have had problems with tight hamstrings, even after stretching them for a good amount of time over a number of days.  Of course I have experienced tightness in the front of my thighs also.  Now that I have written everything down I guess the only area on the lower half of my body that I don’t have any problems with are my calves. They are still as strong and as muscular as ever.

My body hurts whether it is before, during or after running reminds me that most of my life when I could run miles and miles and I would be fine during and after. I didn’t consider a recovery time or how my knees were going to feel the next day, I just did. I didn’t think about stretching out so much because my legs felt fine afterwards.  And I didn’t pace myself. Whether it be per mile as to not run so fast, the number of miles per run or the number of miles that I ran during the week. Now today I feel that I have to do all of those things because if I don’t I will feel the pain tomorrow morning when I try to get out of bed, those first steps are going to be creaky and painful.

Another thing that I have to watch is my water intake after I run.  Turns out for a long time I probably wasn’t drinking enough fluids after I ran on sun filled days in southern California. I would sweat and sweat during the run but had a habit of not drinking or eating anything once I got back home.  One recent afternoon after I had returned from a long run my wife noticed that I didn’t enough water and she remembered seeing me after other runs struggling to cool myself for hours after I stopped running. So from that day forward I have forced myself to drink more fluids post run than I really think I need. And I don’t think there has been a day that I have regretted following that rule since I started it. I was running a fluid deficit from one day to the next and my body was going through dehydration over and over, and even worse times when I would add mile after mile to my runs.

Luckily, my mind is much stronger when it comes to running than when I started back in the mid 90’s when I was in high school. It remembers the pain that my body has endured over the years.  All of the miles and stress that I have placed on my feet. All the times that the sun has burned my sweating skin and whether or not I can squeeze an extra mile out of my life. Finally, in my mid 30’s my body listens to my mind and vice versa. That has lead to my greatest successes and the least amount of pain. I’ve found my boundaries and hopefully they will lead to fewer injuries as I continue to run throughout the rest of my life.

Plantar Fasciitis

Posted: June 6, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Todays subject is what I have been copping with for the past couple of months and the main reason why I took the entire month of May off from running. It was quite depressing knowing that I would have to restart, not quite from zero but not at the mileage that I was running at before I decided to shut it down for an entire month.  My right foot was killing me. So much so that I could barely walk on it when getting up in the morning and it make it very difficult to go to work many days.

During that month off I did go to the doctor, got x rays, taped, prescribed pain pills, bought a brace to hold my foot up in place and stretch the muscle out, bought insoles from zappos and of course didn’t run at all. The doctor was very useful in that she told me how I could help prevent the problem from getting worse. Basically I would have to stretch my foot out at the very least I ran and try to remember to stretch it out while I was sitting around the house watching TV. The x rays were good so that I could actually see the cause of these very sharp pains in the bottom of my foot. It both looks liked a knife in the x ray and felt like a knife in the bottom of my foot.  The pain bills numb the pain but makes my foot feel better, but no matter what I eat or how big of a meal that I do have my stomach then hurts after I take the pill.  Its a tradeoff I guess.  The brace has been helpful when I have the time to sit around and keep my foot propped up. And the insoles from zappos.com have added a lot of support to the arches of my foot. I only have one pair of them right now so I switch them between the shoes that I am wearing right now but when I have enough money in my budget I will purchase another pair so that I don’t have to do that any more and that one pair doesn’t have to work all of the time when I am out doing things.

I started back running full time last Monday with just 1 mile. My high last week was 5. This week I started out with 3 and I’m going to try for a high of 6 and see how things feels going into next week. At this point I feel that a lot of this is trial and error.  How much more stress can I put on the foot at a time and still feel good after wards. Most of the time that it does hurt, when it does is in the first mile of running and then after that its an after thought. Still lingering, but not as painful as it was when I started running.

Right out of the gate I’m not going to be able to achieve the 6:38 miles that I was when I stopped running over a month ago but I am encouraged that I haven’t stopped running because of the pain since I started again last week.  And that most of my mileage splits are about 7:00/mile right now. Yea, not what I was doing when I stopped but not so bad either.  Also, when you go from running 50+ miles a week to then 0 in the span of two months you are going to put on some weight and I did and I’m looking forward to ramping up my running so that I can tone up and take some of that weight off from the summer months.

Mileage Over Minutes

Posted: April 19, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Last week was a struggle. My mind said go go go, my body said wait, wait wait. Combined Monday and Tuesday of last weeks I ran 19 miles. I felt good, sorta.

My mind said that I should get back to running full time, after all it had been nearly three weeks since the marathon and like I told myself before I ran it, I would take some serious time off after I had ran it. And thats what I did. The week after I didn’t run at all. At my best I could have jogged, slowly at that and I wanted too but I promised my girlfriend and myself that I would recover almost fully and then get back to running like I had pre-marathon. I had a new goal in mind after running the LA in 3 hour, 3 minutes, I now want a sub 3 hour marathon time and my next shot at during that is 7/29/2012 at the San Francisco.  I thought to myself that I should create a goal and that it should start two weeks after I ran LA.  I write this about a month after LA and I’m just starting to get back to pre LA condition. My legs feel strong, my recovery is good and I am taking precautions about running too much, too fast knowing that I literally have 3 months until the SF Marathon.

Also, I could run that marathon tomorrow and probably finish in the 3 hour 10 minute area.  What is going to be a challenge at SF are the hills and the roughly three miles that I am going to climb on the Golden Gate bridge. Yes, both ways the bridge it at an incline. Oh ya, and the 530 AM start time. That will be fun.

Ok, back to today. My right heel continues to hurt and ache. I can walk, but without shoes it is very painful. In the morning and the evening it is the most painful, when I get going throughout the day I don’t really have a problem.  One of the smaller goals that I have been working on for some time now is cramming 9 miles into an hour and I almost did it today. I did it in 61 minutes almost exactly. I felt particularly strong at mile 8 and I knew that I had a shot at doing it.  It was a bit windy here in Long Beach today and for the most part it was a headwind. I felt winded at times today because I felt that I was carrying around more weight than I was used too. And I am. About 5 pounds more than when I ran the marathon. Today I weigh 179. I have eaten more than in the past but I felt like I had to get some of my features back, that maybe I’d lost too much weight in the first place on Weight Watchers.

I tell people that running is a habit for individuals who have patience.  It is also for one for people who are looking to build patience. I feel that I am one of both of those people. I am patient, but I am also hasty some times in my life. I bring this up because of the bad habits I feel that I have in running is looking at my watch to much and the physical and mental effect that it has on me. When I look at my watch I have made it a symbolic act.  I say this because when I do look at it, it only displays two numbers, and they fixed in a way as to remind myself what really matters to me and in the orders that they matter to me. Its mileage over minutes.

Even on the worst days that I have running, or maybe when I go out for a run when there is something pressing and stressing on my mind I tell myself, mileage over minutes. Words to live by in my opinion if are going to take distance running seriously no matter who are you. Why I feel this way is that if you are constantly  mentally grinding yourself over a time that you are looking for before you worry about the mileage and the repetitions of distances to achieve those times then you are wasting your time. I still struggle with this mentality even though I tell it to myself all the time and have more months. I’m sure some where some body has written the exact same words that I have, but nobody came to me with such a simple way of looking at things.

I have friends that run and the majority of them are new to running and they want results that usually their bodies are not ready to handle. I worry for them because it is a new runners mistake to take too much on when running long distance and it can lead to burn out, fatigue and injury.

I’m concerned about all three of these equally. It makes me concerned when new runners run a 5K and then next month sign up for a 10K in hopes that they are going to be able to finish it with a doubled time of a 5K, of course because it is just double the distance.  When in reality I believe that they should get a good grasp on the 5K distance ahead of moving on to longer races because eventually they will be able to double their 5K time at 10K race and even look forward to doing so.

Fatigue concerns me because I know that as a runner who is new they don’t feel fully invested into it when it could be life changing and because they want results up front right away they will do it too much and mentally and physically it will not be attractive to them any longer. Distance running is both a checking and saving account for your body.  When you run a 5K for the first time you draw on everything you have because your excited and you want to prove to yourself and others that you can run and finish the race.  But as your graduate to a 10K and further distances it becomes a savings account because you can draw on those previous experiences and all of the savings/wealth of knowledge that you have. Not to mention all of the mileage that you have accrued running at least 4 times a week.  You no longer have to draw everything you have to run and finish races.

And of course injury.  Injuries are a part of running no matter which way you cut it. You get injured and your going to have to figure out what to do about it and whether you can run with it or not.  I have  a feeling that this dissuades a lot of people from running because they don’t want to chance hurting themselves. Every runner understands that. My best advice. Listen to your body. If you planned to run 5 miles and your legs feel tight, stop running and walk. Stretch if you would like. I’m not a big stretcher myself and have had minimal leg injuries because of it. If you feel winded and your heart is pounding, remember mileage over minutes, slow down and let the milage come to you. You are not going to able to run that next race from a coffin.

If running is a habit that you are going to allow to mature in your life then you will also come to a better understanding about body than you did before. The more you run, the more you will have time to think about ways not to injure yourself.  Heck, and maybe even change habits that you thought were good when you were first running and now you’ve learned that they aren’t.  For example, something that I have learned and keep in mind on longer runs is that it ok to be slower than when covering a shorter distance.  I used to go out and pound the pavement at the same cadence no matter the distance and I would pressure myself for equally good results no matter which distance I ran that day.  For instance, today I ran 9 miles. When I think of running that distance I break it up into 3 5K runs and used each of the three for something different.  First 3, concentrate on getting a good pace, find your stride, start to sweat. Second 3, find your breathing pattern, maintain cadence, stay mentally engaged. Last 3, ask yourself, “what’s left in the tank”, start to concentrate on finishing time, think about tomorrow.

2012 Honda LA Marathon Recap

Posted: March 20, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Just over 48 hours ago I finished the LA Marathon with a time of 3 hours, 3 minutes and 8 seconds crushing the previous time that I had run the marathon in 2007 by 1 hour and 16 minutes.  When I set out to run the LA Marathon about a year ago I had the goal of finishing the race between 3 hours and 3 hour 10 minutes but it was only brought to my attention a couple of week before this years LA Marathon that for my age bracket at the 2013 Boston Marathon that I had to run a qualifying time of 3 hour and 5 minutes or less. It was then that I sought out that qualifying time for the 2013 Boston Marathon in my first marathon in five years.

The days leading up to the LA Marathon made me worried that I was not going to get enough rest because recently I had switched Walgreens that I worked at. At the store I had come from it was a no brainer that I was going to get the time I needed off from work as I had requested and been approved for the time off four months in advance and was looking forward to cruising into the marathon with three days off ahead of it. Because I was asked to move store I assumed that it would jumble up some of time off requests as is known to happen when you work with new people, not everything meshes very well sometimes. In the end, on the last day my old boss bailed out the guy that I work for now so that I could have the Saturday before the marathon off.  I really don’t know why the manager at my new store thought that I wouldn’t fight having the day before a marathon off from work, especially since I was told that I would be give these days off when I moved stores. I almost got screwed because of some one scheduling error in something that I had trained a year for and lost 40 pounds to run. What the hell!

Now that I got that off my chest time to move on to what it was like on the day leading up the marathon and then the day of. The day leading up was a lot of rain and it was expected to rain on the day of the marathon. It was rainy and 50 degrees in Long Beach, CA and as J and I drove up to Dodger Stadium, the location of the Expo and the starting point for the race.  At least I felt healthy, mentally and physically prepared to run in the rain if thats what was needed to start and finish the marathon in the time that I told myself I would.

The expo was fun and laid out with plenty of room in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium. Thankfully parking was free and there were quite a few vendors and freebies which is always nice. At the Expo I signed up to run the San Francisco Marathon on 7/29/2012 figuring that it was going to the cheapest to sign up in person without any processing fees and any questions answered by the rep from the marathon. Jessica signed up to run the 5K at the OC Marathon on 5/6/2012.

After the expo it was time really start relaxing and thinking about how the rest of the day was going to work out. To think about what the weather was going to be like at 7:24 AM, Sunday, the time the race was going to start and the fact that we’d made plans to wake up at 3:30 AM in order to make breakfast and take plenty of time to get to Dodger Stadium incase there were any traffic problems. I thought, well its LA traffic problems are always an issue, even at 4 AM on a Sunday morning.

I went to bed at 8PM on Saturday, before that I had a great spaghetti and meatball dinner knowing that it would have all night to process and leave me ready to run early in the morning. I got a good nights sleep in, waking up here and there up overall I woke up feeling refreshed  and with plenty of time to eat and get on the road. Jessica and I picked up Elaine along the way, and the three of us went on to the stadium were we sat in the car waiting for the day break, watching the clouds and the 1,000’s of people pour into the stadium parking lot for 90 minutes before we got out of the car and made our way to the starting line.

By this point some runners at been waiting at the starting line for an hour but I didn’t want to wait in the cold. So within 15 minutes of getting to the starting line the race had begin and for the next 3 hours and 3 minutes I would run and run and run some more until I got to Santa Monica were at the finishing line I would walk around for at least 20 minutes attempting to stop what was going to be a pulled thigh muscle if I did stop walking.

The start of the marathon needs to be wider. According to various sources, from the LA Marathon officials to the Los Angeles Time there were between 23,000 and 26,000 runners in this race but at the very beginning of it I had to run by walkers, who started walking at the starting line. It took a couple of miles and I’m sure a couple of minutes off of my time dealing with the fact that the course, at the start isn’t wide enough for all of the people and their various expectations of the race.  I would say, only by mile 6 did the runners that were going to forge ahead an get a 3 hour time or below and the rest of the pack languish in the slight hill that took us back to Sunset Blvd.  The first six miles of the race were run, running through downtown and there were plenty of people cheering us on, but with the late start it got me thinking early on what that would cost me later in the race, when I would tired and hard pressed to make up time in mile 20 through 26.2.

It was around this point the race, mile 6 that the race actually started to me, when in my head I thought, well 20 more. And about 15 minutes away I would plan on seeing my Mom, Ann, her husband Mike and my middle brother Andy. It was going to be nice to see people that I actually recognized and I knew that they would have something to eat and hand warmers. And the three of them were just beyond the 8 mile point in the race and just short of an hour into the race for me. I couldn’t eat the Clif bar that they had for me, it was just to hard to chew when my mouth at that point in time for was nearly frozen shut and totally concentrated on breathing. I kept the hand warmers around for a couple of miles as it was nice to have something to hold on to and for it to be warm was a million times better.

It was at this point in the race I would say between miles 8 and 12 you realize how the streets pitch upward when your running them like you never noticed in a car. Even the slightest degree of extra energy that your legs have to exert is noticed, and at this point in the race you are starting to the notice that your grouped with same people for the next two plus hours of running barring some kind of injury.

Overall this is a fun, well planned out race that had plenty of volunteers, cheer squads, music from rock bands, to an 80’s band to a punk band and even a soul one that performed in Hollywood. It seems like at least every half mile there were people handing out refreshments, whether they were with the LA Marathon, runners groups, businesses or just people on their own handing them out. It was amazing to see so many people cheering on the runners and having a great time doing it. Also, I went to the bathroom once during the race but if I had to go again there were always plenty of bathrooms around each mile marker to be able to jump in, go and start running again. Also, there was no mistake as to where the race lead or went. Plenty of police and paramedic presence up and down the course. The location of the course and the neighborhoods that it goes through makes you feel like your a tourist in a city that you live near by, at least for me because I live in the LA area. And if I wasn’t from LA I would like that it travels through so many diverse areas and landmarks of the LA. From City Hall in downtown to the Hollywood walk of Fame, Rodeo Drive and of course ending at the foot of the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica.

At the finish line there was plenty of room (two blocks at least) for runners to get medical attention, food and drink until they could be greeted by their friends and family. Seriously, medical attention is all over the place. A nursing student from Santa Monica Community College approached me as I was staggering around  at the finish line and walked with me for at least 20 minutes to make sure I was going to be OK. I really appreciated all of the volunteers who were at the end doing anything they could for the runners to be comfortable. The finishing line was so well planned out the planners didn’t put the only thing all of us wanted at the end, chairs. The worst possible thing for people who had a just finished running 26.2 miles because they knew would be all stiffen and cramp up and it would make our day even worse. Plus, we probably wouldn’t want to move out of the finishing area either.

It was all you and eat bagels, bananas, pretzels and plenty of other snack items.  Of course there was plenty of water and pink, bubblegum tasting like water also to be drank, in other words, nobody from the marathon was rushing you out of the finishing area, runners could stay as long as they wanted to and indulge in everything multiple times over. And the best part was that there was plenty of room since the area was completely blocked off by covered fences and there was security at the end of the finishing area as to not let anybody else in. It was only when you were ready to venture out to find your people that you actually had to, and if you wanted to go back into the runners area to get medical attention or more food you could without a problem.

I would say that this race is a complete success. Great course, plenty of resources and volunteers, the text messaging of times, splits and estimate of arrival of the runner to the end of course was great, and included in the purchase price of running the marathon. Great idea to start it at Dodger stadium instead of the previous course which had participants park in downtown LA and Metro up to Hollywood for the course start. No extra parking fees for the expo or to park for the race start was great, and just having all of that room to park for the 1,000’s of people both running the race and watching it made us feel at ease because we didn’t have to worry about looking for a place to park. And if I need to take a tram from Santa Monica or Central Station in downtown both were available also, all built into the cost of the marathon price. Looking forward to running it next year, although I hope I’ll be planning on getting into the Boston Marathon which runs 4/15/2013.

Off Days and Injury Recovery

Posted: December 21, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Long Distance Running | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment

Today was one of the two days a week that I didn’t run.  Although I would have preferred to blow off steam after not having a good day at work but I knew that if I waited 15 or so more hours that I would have a more productive workout tomorrow morning.  Off days are not something that I look forward to. They are times when I think about what I would rather be doing, and that is working out. They are also days that I probably consume the most food during the week.  Part of me finds that ironic and the other part doesn’t.  I find it ironic because I hear it time and again from people who know me saying that I should eat more because of how much I run and I find myself wanting to say to them, “do I ever complain that I’m hungry?” The truth is that when I am hungry I will eat. And when I think I can put off eating crap for something healthier later in the day I am going to chose the healthy choice nine out of ten times. Yes, there is going to be that one time where I am going to allow myself to slip and not make the best choice when it comes to eating. That’s ok I think. If I always chose the healthy eating choice I don’t think that I would very happy with myself all  of the time.

But I think this is also telling in our society that people would rather eat crap now than enjoy something that is better for them later.  It is also these same people who are overweight, can’t control what they eat, who probably don’t workout one day a week, and have health problems attempting to give me their opinion about about a topic that I know a lot more about then they do.

I wish that I could feel better about having off days, but right now they are the two most depressing days of the week.

Off days are good for one thing. To recover from injuries and right now I am injured. I was reminded of it twice today at work. For the past couple of months my left anklish area is killing me.  There are other days when things are just fine but I have worn a brace on it for the past couple of weeks and that has helped a lot. I have tried not to take any pain relievers because I don’t believe they help the root of the problem.  But then again I’m not going to stop running for a month or longer to let this heal right now either. And surely I am not going to the doctor because I am convinced that there is nothing that they can do for me except for casting my foot and ankle.  I feel that I have torn something on the lower part of my ankle. I feel this way because it is so tender when it is tweaked one way or another day just slightly.  Although there are other times that I walk and run without the brace and everything is fine for miles and miles. By the way, I do not run with the brace.  I wear it to work and around where I live. Also, I don’t wear it to sleep because it is very uncomfortable in bed.

I hope that eventually it will heal and grow stronger over time with just two days off a week of working out right now.