At the risk of jinxing myself and suffering a new and substantial set-back I am going to say it.
I think I might be getting on track in regards to me legs. 2 runs so far this week. 7 miles on Tuesday and 8 today. Both went w/o incident aside from some post run soreness and some tightness early in the run. I iced for my shin splints as well.
I've also introduced a more substantial core session this week. I viewed Josh Cox's video for Runner's World and started to incorporate those exercises. I also started doing renegade rows <--OUCH!
Its a tough workout and I was definitely feeling it at the end.
I'm also going to start incorporating lower leg exercises to try to help my issues a bit.
Alright back to watching SuperSize me for the first time ever. I'm already grossed out...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Woohooo! w00t!
Ah so a bit of an update after my short, angry and fed-up post from last Tuesday.
Well as was likely obvious, I took off the remainder of the week from running. I let my calf rest and luckily all was well this past Saturday for my first 5k of the year. Actually, I didn't work out at all. Not just avoiding pressing my legs, just plain old took off for a few days. A lot was going on personally and despite those of you who are shaking your heads at me right now it seems it was a good thing to do. I'd been going 2.5 months without a break and a few days of coming home from work without having to go to the gym was nice. Friday I managed to get myself to the gym, more from guilt than anything else. I got a decent 30 minute workout in on the erg. 1 5k and 1 2k with a few minutes of rest in between and did some core work.
Speaking of core work. It became very obvious to me this morning that I need to put more time and effort into my core. I was trying to do renegade rows and man was it tough. More on the core on another day.
Anyways, Saturday I had a 5k race. First race of the year. First race since Thanksgiving when I did the 5 mile Turkey Trot. This run was about 40 minutes driving away from home so it worked out well with eating breakfast and hydrating prior to the race start. 2 slices of whole wheat bread with natty pb and a liter of water and I was good. I've found that I particularly like bread and PB prior to a race. Good combo of carbs and proteins in one shot. Brought a NuGo bar with me as well for post race protein.
Got to the race site around 8:30, got my bib, stripped to my running attire and started my warm up. I did a 10 minute warm-up and stretched for about 15. I did another warm-up run when I found out there was a fun run at 9 and the 5k was at 9:20. Managed to give both calves a good stretch as well.
I started the race about 50' from the start so I lost a few seconds there. I went out at what felt like my usual pace for shorter runs. Passed the 1 mile marker at 8 minutes, 2 miles at 15:30 and crossed the line at 23:41.7. Felt good the whole race and at one point while passing another runner, noticed just how controlled my breathing was. I don't think I pushed hard enough but hey we'll never know. The race felt good. I felt strong and kicked it in the last 200 meters. Calves gave me no problems and were only a little tight.
Took Sunday off. Had things to get done. Have a 7 miler for tomorrow. I am contemplating running in the AM but we'll see. Hopefully my calf cooperates. I will also be introducing more lower legs exercises in addition to my core work to try to alleviate some pain and keep myself healthy the rest of the way to May 3rd. 1.5 months!!!!
Well as was likely obvious, I took off the remainder of the week from running. I let my calf rest and luckily all was well this past Saturday for my first 5k of the year. Actually, I didn't work out at all. Not just avoiding pressing my legs, just plain old took off for a few days. A lot was going on personally and despite those of you who are shaking your heads at me right now it seems it was a good thing to do. I'd been going 2.5 months without a break and a few days of coming home from work without having to go to the gym was nice. Friday I managed to get myself to the gym, more from guilt than anything else. I got a decent 30 minute workout in on the erg. 1 5k and 1 2k with a few minutes of rest in between and did some core work.
Speaking of core work. It became very obvious to me this morning that I need to put more time and effort into my core. I was trying to do renegade rows and man was it tough. More on the core on another day.
Anyways, Saturday I had a 5k race. First race of the year. First race since Thanksgiving when I did the 5 mile Turkey Trot. This run was about 40 minutes driving away from home so it worked out well with eating breakfast and hydrating prior to the race start. 2 slices of whole wheat bread with natty pb and a liter of water and I was good. I've found that I particularly like bread and PB prior to a race. Good combo of carbs and proteins in one shot. Brought a NuGo bar with me as well for post race protein.
Got to the race site around 8:30, got my bib, stripped to my running attire and started my warm up. I did a 10 minute warm-up and stretched for about 15. I did another warm-up run when I found out there was a fun run at 9 and the 5k was at 9:20. Managed to give both calves a good stretch as well.
I started the race about 50' from the start so I lost a few seconds there. I went out at what felt like my usual pace for shorter runs. Passed the 1 mile marker at 8 minutes, 2 miles at 15:30 and crossed the line at 23:41.7. Felt good the whole race and at one point while passing another runner, noticed just how controlled my breathing was. I don't think I pushed hard enough but hey we'll never know. The race felt good. I felt strong and kicked it in the last 200 meters. Calves gave me no problems and were only a little tight.
Took Sunday off. Had things to get done. Have a 7 miler for tomorrow. I am contemplating running in the AM but we'll see. Hopefully my calf cooperates. I will also be introducing more lower legs exercises in addition to my core work to try to alleviate some pain and keep myself healthy the rest of the way to May 3rd. 1.5 months!!!!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
And again...
And still the battle goes on. As I sit here icing I wonder exactly what is wrong with my calves. Is it a stride issue? Is it my heavier weight?
My right calf is still bad after a week of no running. Icing it now and hoping for the best after another few days of rest.
My right calf is still bad after a week of no running. Icing it now and hoping for the best after another few days of rest.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Another day, another run, another challenge
Well with every new run comes another new pain. The newest pain is now in my right calf, on the outside, just behind my tibia. I was doing great in my run on Sunday. I was about 7 miles in and the pain started. I'd done some decent running that day. It was cold and blustery, a lot of the run was into the wind and I had a few decent hills to climb. I kept my pace controlled (or so I thought....i really need a nice GPS/HRM) at around 8:30 min/mi. Whether that's accurate or not is up to my the Distance program on my iphone, which I am not totally sure kept counting after the program fell asleep (despite the fact that it shouldn't fall asleep).
Anyways, this injury is probably more a result of me choosing a bad route than a recurring problem. I chose to go down a very very steep hill. Steep like 10% grade....like they close it when it rains in the fall because the leaves make it too slippery to climb. so...stupid of me. I didn't go with the hill partly for fear of being hit by a car coming up the hill at 60 mph and partly cause i didn't want to fall on my ass. Anyways, I got down the hill and ran maybe another .5 miles and the pain started. Eventually I could not press off the outside of my right foot and it turned into a slow painful shuffle home.
Oh yeah...the last .25 miles of my run ended with an uphill section.....OUCHHHHHH!
R,I,C,E...HEAT! STRETCHHHHH.
3 1 mile repeats on Wednesday. Hope I'm ready.
Anyways, this injury is probably more a result of me choosing a bad route than a recurring problem. I chose to go down a very very steep hill. Steep like 10% grade....like they close it when it rains in the fall because the leaves make it too slippery to climb. so...stupid of me. I didn't go with the hill partly for fear of being hit by a car coming up the hill at 60 mph and partly cause i didn't want to fall on my ass. Anyways, I got down the hill and ran maybe another .5 miles and the pain started. Eventually I could not press off the outside of my right foot and it turned into a slow painful shuffle home.
Oh yeah...the last .25 miles of my run ended with an uphill section.....OUCHHHHHH!
R,I,C,E...HEAT! STRETCHHHHH.
3 1 mile repeats on Wednesday. Hope I'm ready.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Always a battle...
Well here we are at the end of February. It's been 2 solid months of running, after trying to attempt a "beginners" training plan. And it has been a battle the whole way.
My calves...they nearly rival the disasters which I call my shoulders. To put that in perspective, I dislocated my shoulder the other day, in bed, while sleeping. Who does that? The right isn't enarly as bad but I can't do a military press with dumbbells, or a bar...i can't do squats with a bar because my shoulders will pop out.
Anyways...my calves...they hate running. HATE running.
HATE RUNNING!
It's an inconsistent problem. Some days my calves hurt, some days they don't. Some days my calves hurt the day after from the run the day before, some days they don't. Sometimes the pain is minimal, sometimes its unbearable.
I've altered my running volume to allow more rest and less strain on my body (I was supposed to run a 20 miler this coming weekend, yet still the pain persists.
I ice, I compress, I elevate, I stretch (A LOT) yet the pain relents. WTH?
/rant
My calves...they nearly rival the disasters which I call my shoulders. To put that in perspective, I dislocated my shoulder the other day, in bed, while sleeping. Who does that? The right isn't enarly as bad but I can't do a military press with dumbbells, or a bar...i can't do squats with a bar because my shoulders will pop out.
Anyways...my calves...they hate running. HATE running.
HATE RUNNING!
It's an inconsistent problem. Some days my calves hurt, some days they don't. Some days my calves hurt the day after from the run the day before, some days they don't. Sometimes the pain is minimal, sometimes its unbearable.
I've altered my running volume to allow more rest and less strain on my body (I was supposed to run a 20 miler this coming weekend, yet still the pain persists.
I ice, I compress, I elevate, I stretch (A LOT) yet the pain relents. WTH?
/rant
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