Going With The Flow

AM - Ran for 1.5 miles, then the run/backwards run for the next 2 miles. A lot more forwards than backwards :)

PM - 3 miles of hill repeat walking with a few short jogs, took about 46 minutes.  

We had a great time down in Moab over the weekend...after so long in this injury state, I just reaally needed a fun adventure with friends. A few pics - 

AM - 2.5 miles of running/backwards running. 

PM - 1.5 miles of walking at Sugarhouse Park. Walking is 10x more boring than running. 

Injury Update: I'm making a little progress...the injury is much more at bay than it was several weeks ago. Obviously, only running (forward!) for a mile at a time is not where I want to be but still an improvement. The past couple of days I have started to feel symptoms of IT band tightness - I'm taking this as an okay sign because 1) it's different from the terrible hamstring/hip issues and 2) I know how to treat IT band and am not running enough to really irritate it. My new goal is to be able to run 5 miles pain-free by my birthday (November 3). 

AM - Elliptical for 25 minutes then 15 minutes of yoga core. I have to be really smart right now and not do too much because it could make or break whether I keep making progress or regress back into this injury cycle.

PM - Boot camp class for 30 minutes at lunch. Walked a lap (1.8 miles) around Sugarhouse Park after work.  

AM - Out with Jake and back home. Ran 2.2 miles straight and 3.1 miles with only one backwards running section. I might just be able to run the entire Utah Fittest 5K in 9 days!

PM - Weight training for 20 minutes at lunch. After work, walked hill repeats while Jake ran them.  

AM - Ran 5K straight!! No backwards running, walking, or other silly stuff :)

Went to the doctor that did the steroid injections into my spine this morning...as you've probably seen on the news, there has been a huge outbreak recently of meningitis due to tainted steroid injections. My doctor told me that the injection I received was from the company that had these tainted injections but it was not the same drug. Still, I should go to the emergency room immediately if I have any symptoms. Scary!

Good luck everyone on races this weekend!

AM - 2.3 miles with Jake on his warm-up for the race. Felt really good this morning. Watched the race then ran 0.7 more to get 3 miles. 

PM1 - Hiked Mt. Aire with Jake, Allie, James, Kevin, and Hannah...that is a steep hike! 1.8 miles with about 2000ft of vertical.  

PM2 - Rollerbladed alongside Kevin and Jake on their shakeout for 5 miles.

Lots of exercise today - I hope this wasn't too much!!

Jake and I are super hyped up today about running after so many great performances at St. George, Chicago, Twin Cities, etc. this weekend! So proud everyone and I just can't wait to get back in shape and race again. My improvement the past week or two is very positive. I was able to run 3.6 miles today and really felt like a runner again. I had a little IT band tightness but otherwise felt great. I need to be careful now and set limits so I can continue this trend :)

PM - Rollerblading 4 miles with Jake. 

AM - 30 minutes of elliptical then yoga. No running today because I'm trying to be safe and not do too much too soon. If I continue to progress and not have any setbacks, I should be up to 40 mpw by the beginning of December. Eight weeks seems like a really long time to get up to that mileage, but that's with two days of no running a week and lots of cross training...I will be thrilled if I finally get out of this injury cycle by then (hopefully a lot stronger and less injury prone too!).

AM - 4.5 miles with the birthday girl!

AM - 2.7 miles around neighborhoods in Millcreek. I felt the old injury pains a little more than I would've liked. I'm taking tomorrow off so hopefully that will do some good.

Everyone that has a desk job needs to get themselves a standing desk - Using a Standing Desk Boosts Calorie Burn. "The students that stood burned an average of 0.34 calories per minute more than those who sat." I am the only person at my work that has a standing desk (and sits on a ball), and it has really helped me to not sit for hours on end, mostly in terms of my injuries but the extra calorie burn is good too :) 

PM - Hill surges 10 x 10 seconds. My hip is acting up today but this actually seemed to help a little. Thinking about doing these in place of running continuously every once in a while.

AM - I slept until 7am so I wouldn't be tempted to do any running or elliptical. Just yoga for 15 minutes. 

Just wanted to get the word out - Jake and I created a USATF - Utah Facebook page  to get more visibility to the organization and try to get the Long Distance Racing Circuit to become a big deal in Utah. Please like our page if you are interested - the more visibility, the more likely that races will be willing to join the Circuit next year! :)

PM - Weight training for 25 minutes. Then 10 x 10s hill surges, then 5 x 10s flat surges.

AM - 3.1 miles around Sugarhouse Park with Jake. 

So the big question is...do I wear my bright pink Saucony uniform tomorrow and risk embarrassing the Hurricane team by running a 25+ minute 5k or wear normal Saucony clothes so I'm not as noticeable? :)

Two months ago I signed up for this silly race, thinking - surely I'll be healthy by then. Well, it turns out that injury cycles are the worst and really hard to get out of. I am making very slow progress but not as fast as I would like. It was only this week that I thought I would be able to run a 5K without causing additional damage. So I would say this is a huge success - I even get to change my picture back to a runner since I broke 25 minutes (by 4 minutes, take that SlowJoe!).

A bunch of us met at Allie's place and the enthusiasm and excitement from the doubleheader crew was priceless. They all left soon after, and then I was hanging out with the PhD nerds. We watched the runners in the half go by at mile 1 and again at mile 8 and the finish. The best part of the finishes was Jake yelling to Devra and Allie to run faster so they would have more time (20 minutes) to warm-up for the 5K :)

We all lined up for the 5K and I saw lots of familiar faces. I love the racing scene -it's so fun! I decided to run with Allie and Kevin as long as I could keep up without injury problems. The race went by fast, mostly trying to keep Allie's mind off of her previous 13.1 mile race and grumbling stomach. I really enjoyed the race - I wasn't really "racing" so there was no pressure and I could just enjoy being out there. My psoas muscle started to get tight during the race but no real issues. We all finished strong and broke 21 minutes.

Afterwards, we ran a short cooldown then waited far too long to get a bunch of medals. I ended up with the red ribbon medal because it matched my red shoes. Honestly, it gave me some confidence that maybe, just maybe, I can get my health back soon. On that note, I bought an EMS/TENS unit today...a guy was selling a commercial grade one on KSL for 1/8th of what it's worth. So my PT is going to teach me how to use it on Monday and maybe that will expedite my recovery. At any rate, I probably won't be racing until my 2013 breakthrough year :)

No pics today... I forgot to bring the good camera and Jake's iPhone doesn't take good pictures in the dark.

AM - 3.1 miles on horsepark loops. I woke up with a very tight psoas muscle so I was a little nervous about running. It actually loosened up as the run went on - a first with this injury and a good sign. 

PM - Headed up to Snowbird with friends for a tram ride + short hike + rock scrambling. Had sooo much fun and the colors and snow made the views beautiful. Then rollerblading with Jake for 4.5 miles.

AM - Scheduled day off from running. Walked on the treadmill at 3% incline for 25 minutes while reading Alberto Salazar's book 14 Minutes. Really liked this statement:

"...but a runner of any caliber almost never outlives the need to run. Once you get hooked - once the day comes when you suffer more by not running than by running - you're stuck with it. Your daily run becomes your solace and your refuge, the place you go to reflect, heal, and pray." 

PM - Weight training for 35 minutes. Then ran 0.8 miles on the treadmill during PT. Haven't been to PT in a month or so (b/c I did diagnostic imaging and such). I told him that the traditional strengthening exercises just weren't working. So he put me through a painful session of ASTYM - a soft tissue therapy. He scraped from the toes up to the hip and said we would know if this helps after 2-4 treatments. If nothing else, it will get rid of a lot of scar tissue!

AM - 3 miles around the neighborhoods. Sore from the ASTYM yesterday. 

AM - Horsepark loop 4.3 miles. Pretty happy about this. Minimal hamstring/IT band/everything else injury problems. 

PM - Walked for about a mile with Jake.

AM - 30 minutes on the elliptical talking to a co-worker/cyclist about all the drug problems in sports right now. Obviously, the topic of Lance came up and my co-worker had the philosophy of "everyone was taking them so Lance was still the best" that a lot of people seem to have, but I think I convinced him out of that by the end. Not everyone was on drugs, it's just that the ones that weren't could not reach the same levels. Some people that we've never even heard of might be the ones that would've been in the top otherwise. Many gave up the sport because of it. It is interesting to me how they seem to crack down on this drug problem in individual sports, but isn't it pretty widespread in sports like football and basketball too? Can all those guys really get that big without them? 

PM - Weight training for 35 minutes, then walking for about a mile. 

AM - 30 minutes easy on the elliptical. Lots of aches and pains - I feel like I'm 50, not 25!

AM - Injury problems were bad today. I had another ASTYM session last night, and I am so bruised and painfully sore from it. No running again today, instead Jake and I went on 3 walks throughout the day for about 4.5 miles. 

AM - 2.3 mile walk around the neighborhoods. Still too bruised from teh ASTYM to feel comfortable running.

AM - 1.5 miles around the block. 

PM - 30 minutes of pool running with Jake. I had a few aches in the hip every once in a while and I could feel my distal hamstring when I extended each time, but nothing painful. Lots of good range-of-motion stuff, plus 20 minutes in the hot tub using the jets to massage and get everything loose. We are planning to do this tomorrow and Wednesday as well, before our trip to Zion this weekend.

Teena Marie was nice enough to spend time with me yesterday afternoon and evaluate my injuries. I was so impressed by her knowledge and expertise...she had a very different view as to what is going on with my hip, and it makes much more sense than I've heard from any other specialists. I now have a checklist of all the items she recommended and am planning to do them religiously. She also showed me how to use the e-stim machine correctly. The best part was when Jake and I were getting ready to leave and all of Teena's kids were out doing a skills challenge (like the NBA does) in the front yard, timing each other and all. I sure hope my kids are like that!!

Also...USATF final standings are now up, giving away $6400 worth in prize money!! Make sure to RSVP for the banquet too.

AM - 2 miles around the block in the mist. I would say 15% progress to how I felt yesterday running. Illiopsoas tightened up a little about a minute before I stopped. Yoga for 20 minutes. Just a little achy in the illiopsoas and ischial tuberosity area now. Good thing I'm in a corner at work and can do e-stim now :)

PM - Pool running for 35 minutes, with hot tub before and after. The hot tub really helped loosen me up. 

AM - 2.2 miles around home, felt about the same as yesterday. Still have some glute annoyances going on. 

PM - 40 minutes of pool running. Distal hamstring a little irritated afterwards. 

Interesting study by Roger Kram's lab that especially applies to Utah with all it's downhill courses - the mechanical energy required to run downhill is significantly less than flat or uphill. This is why downhill courses aren't allowed for OTQ anymore :( Ideal grade, in terms of mechanical energy, is actually between -6 to -9 degrees (-10 to -15% grade) as long as your legs can handle that extreme pounding!! As a comparison, Halloween Half this weekend is about -3% gradient, so about -2 degrees.

AM - Woke up this morning freezing and saw the thermostat at 61 degrees - definitely time to turn on the heat. Couldn't resist running in the snow this morning! Found a nice snow-covered field and did a few laps. So much fun :) Off the Zion this afternoon!

Down in Zion for a long weekend. Hiked about 8 miles total today. We went up to Angels Landing, which has been on my to-do list for a while. My hip started acting up about 2 miles into the hike on the stepper uphill parts, but luckily you have to stop all the time on the last scrambling section because it gets a little crowded. The 360 views from the top were incredible - this is a great hike if you aren't afraid of heights! Then we walked over to the Emerald Pools (which were less than spectacular since there isn't much water running this time of year). Jake only talked about running for about 30% of the time we were hiking so that was quite a surprise :-)

 Hidden Canyon hike + Riverside walk. About 5.5 miles total, a little challenge to keep the injury at bay during uphill sections. Really loved Hidden Canyon - it was more secluded and fun for exploring a little. Another beautiful day!

Headed up to the Upper East Canyon of Zion and hiked to the Canyon overlook + a short scrambling route, then a couples miles in the Clear Creek wash. We stopped at Checkerboard Mesa for lunch and made our way back to SLC. About 3 miles of hiking.

AM - Treadmill run/rest. Ran 20 x 20s at 6:18 pace with 20s rest. Total of 1 mile or so of efforts. I am testing out a new idea with this injury - never allow the muscle to get fatigued: Run a good pace to get full range of motion and correct form, but not for long enough to allow muscles to get tired and cause the same old pain. Could work, or could be a total failure. Good thing about this idea is it should be obvious pretty quickly so it's worth trying. Tell me if this is a terrible idea, Teena :) 

PM - Arm weight training for 20 minutes. Well, my idea turned out to be kinda stupid (read the comments). But at least I'm being proactive, right? 30 minutes of pool...hamstring felt a little off, so I just did whatever activity (kicks, paddling, twirling, backwards, running, hopping) that didn't hurt. 

Lots of great pictures from our long weekend to Zion. Tough to be back at work today!

AM- 25 minutes of merely moving my legs on the elliptical + 20 minutes of yoga...wouldn't even consider it exercise. 

AM - 25 minutes easy on the elliptical, then yoga.

PM - Upper body weight training and went on a one mile walk in the evening. Teena taped up my piriformis and psoas muscles.