Going With The Flow

5 miles with Allie around Sugarhouse, 8 min pace. I felt good today. 

One great thing about coming back from a long injury is that my metabolism ramps up after even a short run and I can eat a lot of food :)

2.7 miles with Jake. 

Today is a great day - I finally finished an 18 month project at work! Stress levels are down 5000%! 

Ran in the Corporate Games 5K this morning, a cross country grass course at Cottonwood Complex. The course was about 3/10 of a mile short so I probably would've run somewhere around 21:20 had it been the right distance. I ran the typical XC style race - went out too fast (6:35 first mile) then tried to hang on (6:55 pace for the rest of the race). I was actually quite relieved that the course was short. I'm not going to lie, I did not like getting beat by a bunch of guys that did not look very fit.

Running on grass is a lot harder than roads and it became evident that I am still favoring my right side quite a bit. My form is not fluid and I'm collapsing to my left side on each stride. Once the race was over, I could tell that my pelvis was tilted. Lots of strengthening and form work needs to be done!

It was great to see several friends out there today...Carina and her training buddy Tara beat me handily in the race (Carina was pacing hence the 2nd place). Nice to chat with the Jamesons as well. 

Also, wearing an oversized t-shirt to race is not comfortable! 

AM - 10 mile bike ride with Jake then I went out for a run by myself. Ran 5 miles at 8:20 pace around the Millcreek. Probably my best feeling run so far, at least until 4.5 miles when my abdominals cramped..still working through that. 

It has now been 1 YEAR since I got injured. My blog from a year ago today was the 15 mile run at Jeremy Ranch that destroyed me...it was also the best shape I had ever been. Sad to think about everything I have missed in the past year, but I am so thankful to be running again. I actually seem to feel better on the days that I run and think it has something to do with neuromuscular retraining. I'm finally on the verge of a breakthrough with this injury.

PM - 5 miles on the bike with Jake.  

AM - 3 miles easy, 8:40 pace.

If you haven't read the book In Defense of Food yet, I would definitely recommend it. Michael Pollan is a great writer and really makes you think about what you're eating. One of my favorite quotes from the book -

“The human animal is adapted to, and apparently can thrive on, an extraordinary range of different diets, but the Western diet, however you define it, does not seem to be one of them. ” 

PM - Went to PT and he added bum walks and a really hard psoas contraction exercise.  

5.7 miles with Allie at Liberty Park. After 1.5 mile warm-up, we did 3 x 1 mile w/ 0.4 mile recovery jog. Miles were 6:30, 6:20, 6:18. I am happy with the workout - it's a great start to running fast again. Allie is coming back quickly after the marathon and pushed me to run faster than I would have solo (this is my 5K pace right now, after all).

My plan is to convince Allie to make this a weekly tempo workout and be able to gradually increase the duration that I can run this pace with her.

My second plan is to laugh at this workout in a couple months. Longest run yet!!

PM - 5 mile bike ride with Jake. 

2 mile jog/shuffle around the block at 9:20 pace. A little achy this morning and I debated whether to run or not....figured a short and slow 2 miler wouldn't hurt.

AM - Ran 1.5 mile warmup then started the workout of 9 x 30s with 45s recovery at average 5:40 pace. I thought I ran 10 but it doesn't really matter - the goal was to run short efforts at a faster pace and work on good form. 1.5 mile cooldown.

PM - 6 miles on the bike with Jake. 

AM - Horsepark loops with Jake. Not feeling as great today and can feel some compensation patterns creeping in. It's hard to find the right balance between faster running (to encourage good form and re-teach how to run without pain) and just jogging around. It's also hard to hold back - I need a dose of unstoke!

PM - 4 mile bike ride with Jake. He talks A LOT. 

Happy Friday!  

4.5 miles split between 3 runs throughout the day. It was fun watching great performances at PC 15k this morning then spending the rest of the day lounging around Park City.

Ran 6.5 miles on the Mid-Mountain Trail with Amiee in Park City! The trail was amazing and I had so much fun running in the mountains! We are actually really happy people when we aren't forced to lay on the couch injured all day :)

29 miles this week!

AM - 3 mile morning jog around the block, 8:30 pace.

PM - Strength class for 35 minutes. Arms and a little lower body. 

AM - 5.3 miles at 8:20 pace, mostly with Jake. I am really enjoying the ability to go out for a run every morning!

Day off. Did about 20 minutes of arm weights.

6 miles around the tempo loop with 2 x 1/2 mile at 6:30 pace. Taking yesterday off helped reduce some achy areas so I felt better today.

4.3 miles around the tempo loop. Saw Teddy the golden doodle! Everything felt right this morning and my 7:52 pace showed for it - first time (in a long time) beating the 8 min guy!

3 miles at Wrightsville Beach, NC. 

7.1 miles at the beach, 8:12 pace. The humidity is quite a shock to the system - so much sweat! I'm really happy with the run and can feel my stride starting to come back. Now for some maxin' and relaxin' on the beach.

4 mile run with Jake and his parents at UNC Wilmington. Jake's dad pushed the pace so we would hit under 8 min/mile. Nice run in the 100% humidity (fog). Feeling better running every day.

3.5 miles with Jake in the middle of the afternoon in NC. The heat and humidity sapped my energy within 5 minutes and it was a shuffle the rest of the way.

7.5 miles in Wrightsville Beach / Wilmington with Jake, 8:10 pace. We wandered around and found a nice shaded trail to run on for a while. I can't get over how great it has felt to run with no pain the last couple days.

AM - 3 miles at HOME in TN! Perfect weather and morning for running.

 PM - 7-8 mile bike ride with my parents on a greenest in Maryville. 

4 miles around home, 8:20 pace. Felt a little groin discomfort and adductor soreness which caused old compensation patterns to phase in and out. I think the bike ride yesterday made it all a little tired. Easy the rest of the day should take care of it. 

6 miles around home, 8:45 pace. I didn't feel great in my groin but the slower pace was better. Probably need a day off.

Day off. Yesterday did me in with the 6 miler followed by too many hours of standing/walking. Went for a walk later in the evening with my parents after a full day of rest. Got lots of lectures this weekend about how I shouldn't run anymore because of the surgery. Frustrating. I also managed to get a "compliment" about how much better I looked - have I gained weight? Seriously the worst question you could ask an injured runner.

3.6 miles around home. Adductor muscle still feels sore/weak so I didn't want to run too far. I decided to do a couple comfortably hard effort 2x400s and they ended up being around 5:45 pace. Flying back to SLC tonight!

4 miles on the tempo loop, 7:45 pace. My legs were happy to not run the TN hills!

I went to the physical therapist today. As he was looking me over, he noticed that my left leg is significantly bigger than my right leg (this is new in the last 2 months). I hadn't really looked but now it is obvious - sure enough, when he did the strength evaluation the left leg is much stronger. I'm obviously favoring that right leg still. I also had significant weakness of the adductor muscle that I had surgery on but that was expected. Getting my psoas to work correctly is #1 priority still. New/adjusted plan:

- Psoas inhibition
- Psoas activate then heel slide
- Step downs (2x more on right side)
- Lateral step up/step down
- Clam shells
- Hip abduction (while laying and side step monster walks)
- Hip adduction
- Glute activations

Haven't been feeling good since last Saturday when I overdid it. I'm used to feeling sore/achy for a day or two but it's been 4 days and I'm getting worried. Going to take another day off today and hope it helps. My right side from  my ribs to my knee feels weak and the groin area feels like it is pulling with relief only when I lay on my stomach. This is my designated "down week" anyway but I wasn't expecting to be feeling worse. 

Horsepark loop, 5 miles at 9 min pace. 

I liked the Outside Online Article "Your Diet is Going to Fail." especially the What to do About It points:

1. Most of us don’t exercise enough to ignore what we eat. As I pointed out a couple of posts ago, the key is to both exercise and build low level physical activity into your routine.
2. Should we have incentive-based health-insurance-premium schemes? In other words, should we charge people for their unhealthy behaviors? A majority of people support this concept for smoking but fewer support it for obesity. As a society, we need to consider whether and how to hold people accountable for things they can control. Already, the push back against this idea is fierce.
3. Do we need fat taxes, soda taxes or other restrictions? So-called sin taxes and other policies have had a dramatic effect on smoking. Should they be tried for the food we put in our mouths?
4. How else can we add activity into our daily lives? Biking and walking friendly communities might be a good place to start. How about more PE in the schools?
5. Support research that stresses adherence and focuses on long-term behavior modification. The idea that there is some sort of magic-bullet diet out there that will make it easy for people to lose weight and keep it off is nuts. Evidence is accumulating thatmindfulness training about eating can help reduce food cravings.   

3.6 miles around the neighborhood, 8:40 pace. Upper abdominal cramping came back today, meaning that my psoas is not firing properly again. Taking the next few days off from running and heading to the San Juans for some serious altitude fun (we are sleeping at 10,500!). 

AM - Hiked the Ice Lakes Trail in the San Juans....7 miles and 2500ft. SO BLUE. 

PM - Walked/ran around Molas Lake for 1 mile of each.