Going With The Flow

AM - 3.2 miles. I wore my racing flats because they make me have better form. It's hard not to run fast in those shoes - picked it up for a slight uphill mile at 6:35.

PM - 1.8 miles at Sugarhouse. 

Interesting Article - What (and When) Elite Runners Eat. Pretty much what I expected...

AM - 2 mile warm up then 2.5 mile tempo with Jake. 6:17, 6:10, 3:02. Walked for a few minutes then jogged a mile home. Muscles working better today and it was nice to have Jake along for the ride.

AM - Easy 5 miles with Allie, Jake, Rossy, and Nate. Disappointed in the lack of sun and warmth but good company.

AM - 2.5 miles easy.

PM - Upper body weight training and strengthening for 30 minutes. Two miles with Jake.

 I'm in the middle of Tyler Hamilton's book The Secret Race: Inside the Hidden World of the Tour de France. It's a truly captivating story...I can't quite put my fingers around how I feel about it - I am sad for those that were never able to be the best b/c they refused to dope, disappointed in the athletes that got themselves so involved in the drug world, and feel stupid that I was so oblivious and supported the sport during this time. But to get an inside look on it all sheds another light on how obsessive and defensive they became with the drugs. Crazy stuff. 

AM - I'm getting really good at these 2.5 milers. 

PM - 3 miles in Sandy, work loops.  

AM - 2.5 slow miles. Feeling lousy and sick :(

PM - 30 minutes of upper weight training and strengthening exercises. 3.2 miles with Jake. Still feeling lousy but it was nice to run.

AM - 2.8 miles, found Jake on his cooldown and ran with him. PM - 3 miles with Jake. I'm going to a different therapist today that was recommended to me...I'm happy to be running 30 mpw, but I would love to take it up a notch. I'm convinced that I have some muscle movement dysfunctions so we'll see if the new guy can help. I even made a nice table of my injury progression - 

 

AM - 3 miles.

PM - 3.5 miles, beat Jake on our usual meet-up route from work so ran a little more. Felt little bits of the "old me" running. Very good sign.

New therapist was good...He compared my strength in a lot of the muscles with a force gauge. The strength numbers were good, and I was within 1% comparing one side to the other. I already suspected that, but it was a good confirmation. This is definitely more of a neuromuscular problem with improper firing of muscles during exercise. I'm starting to get a better grasp on all of this and have come up with some of my own re-training exercises that seem to be working. The therapist gave me some additional things to try as well. He talked about doing a gait motion analysis, but I'm hesitant because I'm not convinced that it will give any useful information. I'll have to think about it more..

AM - SLCTC Winter Series 10K. I decided to take this as a moderate run because I'm still trying to work out all my kinks. No warm-up so I started out slow and eventually caught up to Preston after a mile or two. He was aiming for 7-7:15 so I stuck with him for the rest of the race. The race went by much faster with him and I had a good time, despite the brutal conditions on the second half of the race. My hamstring became a little overactive at 4.5 miles but was able to keep it under control with some form adjustments. I'm doing a lot better with the two-a-day shorter runs right now, so I'm planning to stick to those for a while longer. It was great to see so many friends today - good job to everyone that ran! The first LDR Circuit race went very well! :)

AM - 3.2 miles with Jake on his way to meet the group. Slush mess outside! 

PM - 3 miles with Jake. 

AM - 2.5 miles easy. Pretty happy to have run 40 miles last week! It's been 6 months since I've been able to run that much. 

PM - Weights and strength training at lunch for 45 minutes. Spent 50 minutes in a hyperbaric chamber then proceeded to run a superhero-like 2.5 miles afterwards. 

Interesting review of studies on Exercise and School Performance.

"A single 20 minute session of brisk treadmill walking improves academic performance in pre-adolescent children especially reading comprehension."

AM - Met up with Allie for a run around Sugarhouse, 4.6 miles around 7:30 pace. Felt really good today.

PM - Jake begged me to run with him this afternoon so 2.4 miles easy. 

It might be worth buying all vitamins with a USP certification b/c of no FDA regulations - Vitamin D Supplement Labels May be Misleading .

AM - 2 miles. 

PM - 2 miles with Jake. 

I'm giving up injuries for Lent!!

AM - 2.2 miles with Jake. Then I did gait analysis at physcial therapy (ran at least 1.3 miles during this at 7 min pace). Results - not good. I'll post pictures/video when I get it. The jist of it is -

1) upper body is too upright, need to lean forward more
2) lots of pelvic movement when I'm running especially with the right side, need to work on the gluteus medius muscle
3) not enough hip extension, need to work on hip flexibility
4) knee moves valgus on impact probably related with the overactive hamstring and gluteus medius, need to roll out hamstrings

It all makes sense, but it's kind of depressing. I still have a long way to go. I probably shouldn't be running much right now while I'm working on improving form...I might try doing more cycling and uphill walking. I have to get these problems fixed or I'll stay in this injury cycle forever so I'm glad I have some direction on what needs to change. This approach is going to work, I have a feeling :)

PM - 20 minutes walking at 8% 4.0mph.

AM - 2.5 miles easy. 

I'm heading to Juiz de Fora, Brazil tomorrow for work and will be there for the next two weeks.

Upside - Weather is awesome with highs 85 lows 65.

Downside - I can't go outside by myself b/c it's dangerous, I can't speak Portuguese, and who's going to make sure Jake tapers for the marathon??

AM - Ran 3.5 miles with Jake for his warm-up, took a break for a few minutes b/c my psoas and hamstring cramped up, then ran the rest of the way home for 4.5 miles total. Not feeling great this past week...lots of new aches and pains. So I'm planning to take the next two weeks in Brazil easy and maybe do other cross training. 

Afterwards we had a few friends over for breakfast - just what I needed before leaving! :)

Crazy travel day. 17 hours worth of flying went okay, but the finding my co-worker at the airport proved to be quite the challenge. Two hours later we finally found each other and the driver then took the two hour journey to Juiz de Fora from Rio. This is probably the curviest road I've ever been on and I got pretty car sick. I was totally wiped by the time I finally got into the hotel. I managed 30 minutes on the spin bike. My psoas and hamstring have been cramping up every couple hours for the last two days and the medial side of my knee has decided to start hurting all the time. Not sure what happened to cause this, but it's not a good idea to run on it. The bike seems to be okay, so I might stick to that until the knee pain resolves. 

Brazil Day 2. It's HOT! Apparently it was Daylight Savings Time last night so I was ready to go with an hour to spare. Rode on the bike for 30 minutes. The open gym is probably 80 degrees - I was drenched in sweat with my heart rate only at probably 120 bpm.

PM - 30 minutes on the bike. 

AM - Brazil Day 3. 30 minutes on the bike. Woke up with a dehydration headache - need to drink more. Only drinking bottled water makes staying hydrated a little more difficult here. 

PM - 20 minutes of drills then 10 minutes of weights/strengthening. 

AM - Brazil Day 4. 20 minutes of forward and backward walking then 10 minutes of drills. I'm sore from drills yesterday! There is a nice balcony outside where I can do the drills so that's nice.

PM - 30 minutes of cycling.  

AM - Brazil Day 5. About four miles running around blocks in downtown Juiz de Fora with my coworker. It felt SO good to run! Not ideal running area, lots of dodging and people and really bad smells. My knee became more noticeable as the run went on so I still need to be careful until this resolves. 

AM - 30 minutes easy on the bike. 

PM - 10 minutes of biking then 20 minutes of weights.

AM - BEAUTIFUL hike in Petropolis, Brazil called Morro do Açu. The pictures just don't capture how truly beautiful the area is. 360 degrees of rainforest mountains and unbelievable terrain. The hike is anywhere from 13-18 miles with 3000-4000 ft of elevation gain, depending on which site you look at (obviously exact numbers are not important in Brazil). My boss and I were so fast hiking up that we lost the guide on several occasions and had to wait for him :) I'm pretty sure my boss was trying to show that he was in just as good of shape as me which was ridiculous because I have 7 months worth of pent up energy. I let him feel proud of himself though (he is my boss, after all). Anyway, we spent some time at the top enjoying the views then headed back down. About 1.5 miles from the finish, a huge thunderstorm came through and it POURED. All part of the adventure - it is a rainforest, after all! It was probably my favorite part of the hike - running down the trail with the rain loving every second. We saw a frog the size of a football too! Great day, I'm so happy I was able to do this. Maybe I should stick with hiking for a while?

See pics from Saturday here. Today was a shorter hike near Petropolis, Brazil again. I actually have no idea what the mountain was called, but it was about 7km in length and had great views to the city of Petropolis and Rio de Janeiro. Another fun day of being outside!

AM - 35 minutes of walking, stairs, and step-ups. Check out my pictures from the last two days! I had such a great weekend...a much needed break from the stresses of work here. I'm a little achy today from all the hiking but nothing much worse than usual. My hip flexor didn't hurt at all - surprising considering all the uphill travel we did. Hamstring and glute the most bothersome but managed quite well. It was hard to find food so I made it through with a jar of Nutella and some crackers - really brought back good memories from backpacking. Jake - I need more mountain adventures! I hope it's warm in Utah by the time I get back :)

PM - 30 minutes of stairs, step-ups, and a little walking.

AM - 30 minutes of cycling. Two more days then heading to Phoenix! After all this, I'm going to be so tan compared to you poor winter folks :)

PM - 30 minutes or lots of random exercises - stair climbing, dancing, jumping, wall sits, punching, sit ups, push ups, etc. Just trying to keep things interesting. 

AM - 40 minutes of walking up and down the steep hills here in Juiz de Fora. 

PM - 10 minutes on the bike then 20 minutes of arm weights.  

AM - 10 minutes on the bike then 20 minutes of drills and strides. Afterwards I accidently used menthol creme (like IcyHot) as lotion instead of actual lotion ...not a good idea. An hour of intense burning cold sensation later, I felt almost normal. My coworkers thought I was nuts going outside in 80 degrees with a jacket and sweatshirt on! 

I'm flying back to the states tonight!!