Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

Ran the Parent/Coach  race at FootLocker West in CA. The course ended up being on the rods this year due to weather. The knee felt mostly ok so I pushed the first mile to see what would happen. The knee complained a little so I backed off to more of a tempo/threshold pace and it felt ok enough to finish. Ran 17:21 for 3.22 miles with very slight rolling terrain. 1st mile was 5:04 and felt good except for slight knee pain. Ok, but wish I could have run faster and harder.

AM - 10.1 easy miles with Sasha at 7:22 avg. pace. Trail was pretty slick due to snow and ice in spots and it ws about 24'F today. A bit colder thant he 67'F when I left California. Good news is the knee was ok. Not 100% but probably at least 90% at this point.

PM - 5 miles with kids from my house. 1.5 with Jared and James and then 3.5 more with James. Overall sub 8 pace and 7:30 pace with James. Knee is pretty good again. I felt it at the slower pace for the first 1.5 miles with Jared but when we picked it up to 7:30 pace it felt a lot better. I can go up stairs with essentially no pain which is huge improvement from last week when I could not go up stairs unless I took one step at a time with my right leg only.

Things are looking good for the Del Sol Team. We should have a great team to go out and win it. I should be able to put out the team roster by the end of the week. 

AM - Easy run with Sasha on normal Provo River route in exact same time as yesterday. However, we ran the last 1/2 mile much faster with splits of 1:25 and 1:17 for the last 2 quarters.

PM - 6 miles with the kids and Sasha and his kids. Did 8x200 strides with James and Sasha and also ran last 1/2 mile at sub 6:00.

AM - Easy 10 again with Sasha in about same time as last three days except today we did not finish fast like yesterday. We did a lot of talking about the USATF and the future development of our sport or lack there of. Knee is feeling better each day so getting close to the point where I almost don't notice it.

PM - No run tonight life seemed to get in the way! I hate it when that happens.

AM - 10.1 with Sasha 7:09 average with 8x100 strides at 19sec each. Felt really sluggish today. Flying to KS tonight so not sure if I will get in another run.

PM - Managed to squeeze in another 5 miles before heading to the airport. 

In Kansas only 2 miles with James.

Ran on the XC course in Kansas. It was 22'F and freezing rain and wind. Not a fun day. James got tripped at about the 1/2 mile mark and went down pretty hard. He had a good start and was in the top 10 when he went down. After that he had to try and get up and get going again but was caught up behind a bunch of runners and had a hard time passing during the rest of the race as the course gets a lot narrower. So not a good day for James. A couple of boys he beat at Footlocker last week ended up 8th and 11th so he was pretty dissapointed. I fell once on the ice and pulled a muscle in me lower back that is very sore today. The knee is still not 100% but hopefully I can start getting the miles back up soon.

AM - The UHM with Sasha but today it was only uneventful if one describes the pace. However, it was eventful in that the trail is all ice and snow still and it was 24'F. It made for some slow going and some close calls. We were sub 8:00 average but not by a ton. The only thing that I worries me about the ice is my knee. It was ok today but I felt it a few times when I slipped. I need to be cautious with the ice and make sure I do not take cause more issues. I think for the winter it becomes a base building phase because of the weather. Plan is to keep the miles up but probably less quality as weather dictates. I would like to convince Sasha to go to the indoor track for a workout every once in awhile if the weather prevents us otherwise. We will see how things go.

PM - Added 3.2 easy miles tonight with boys.

AM - 14.1 miles on the Provo River Trail with Sasha at 5:00am in the dark and cold (19'F). Started a little fster than yesterday and slowly got faster. Even with the dark, snow and ice we were able to get under 6:30 eventually. Average pace for whole run was 6:48.

PM - No PM run. Family had other plans and I guess I just didn't feel like it. I am making myself feel better by telling myself that it is ok to not double every once in awhile. I guess it is sad in a way that I have to justify to myself that it is ok to not run a second run occasionally. Some would call this a sign of an addiction but in this case I guess it is at least a good addiction. Still looking at getting 90-100 miles this week as long as the knee doesn't act up. Then upwards and onwards from there!

AM - Had work commitments this morning at 5:30am so ended up running at 7:00am and decieded to run indoors on the BYU track. It is 5 laps to the mile so I did 50 laps. I am not a big fan of the indoor track but the BYU track is pretty nice and at least their is no ice on the ground. I figured I would just run comfortably and just try and gradually pick up each mile based on how I felt. I did not have a tempo planned but this sort of turned into a tempo as I went. The first mile felt very easy and was a 7:10 so I just kept rolling from there as I kept going I realized every lap was getting gradually faster and each mile kept dropping without a lot of effort so i just went with the flow. At 5 miles I realized I could catch the 6:30 guy without much effort so went after him. With two miles to go I realized I had caught the 6:30 guy and decided to keep up the effort and see if I could hit 64 minutes for 10 miles. I ended up at exactly 64 minutes so 6:24 average for the 10 miles. Splits are below (I only listed mile splits instead of listing all 50 boring laps):

1	7:10
2	6:38
3	6:30
4	6:24
5	6:23
6	6:21
7	6:15
8	6:12
9	6:08
10	5:59

PM - Took James and Jared over and joined Sasha for evening run with kids followed by an easy 5 miles. So 18.1 for the day total.

AM - Very cold morning at 15'F. Easy uneventful 15.1 miles at 7:24 average. However, someone passed Sasha and I going the other direction at about 8 miles into our run and when we turned around Sasha starting picking it up. I was not in the mood to pick it up so was a little cranky when he did. He said he wanted to catch the person and we could do so running 6:00 pace. I just was not in the mood to go any faster than 6:30. Physically not much holding me back from doing so just mentally I was not willing to do so. So Sasha went ahead anyway and I just stayed stubborn and grumpy and chugged along at 6:30 pace. I caught up to Sasha and the other person, Tyler shortly there after. Met Tyler and found out he was a decent high school runner and is trying to get back in shape. So I think we convinced him to join the blog. If so he has potential to be pretty fsat with the right training.

PM - James wanted to do a 1 mile time trial today so I took him to the BYU indoor track and we did 1 mile warm up then 1 mile time trial then 1 mile cool down. He was sick with the cold and cough that I have had so I was not sure how he would do but he wanted to do it anyway so we went ahead and did it. The BYU indoor track is 5 laps to the mile. James started pretty fast the first lap and then settled in. He struggled a little on laps 3 and 4 but then finished well. He was pretty happy since he set his PR with no competition on an indoor track and with a cold. He really wants an FRB singlet for running 5K races so I guess I will have to order one from Steve for him. Anyway his splits were as follows:

1:03, 1:06, 1:07, 1:09, 1:05 = 5:30 mile
 

AM - Uneventful 15.1 miles with Sasha. We chated about a lot of things this morning which makes the run much more pleasurable. We averaged about 7:30 pace overall. Other than the fresh snow making it slick outside it was pretty uneventful.

PM - 3 miles with James easy pace average 7:40. Off to a work Christmas Party.

AM - 16.1 miles at 7:15 average. Just an easy run with Sasha along the Provo River. Measured stride length in snow and discovered I have some big differences in stride length from left to right foot and also some big differences in how the feet strike and leave the ground. Not sure how to fix this or if it is fixable but I'm sure it does not help my running. This was not a surprise to me because my shoe wear patterns are very different as well. I think it is a hip issue but I am not sure who to go to to get it checked out and ultimately adjusted or fixed.

AM - 15.1 miles with Sasha at 6:30am. It was pretty warm (28'F). The fact that we consider 28'F warm is kind of sad but it was very close to shorts weather. Still having issues with the knee every once in awhile but nothing bad. However, my hips are still not right. They seem to really tighten up about 8 miles into a run regardless of pace. The hips start to feel tired and then the upper gluteus and lower back start to feel it. Sasha noticed that my right leg does not move as freely and smooth as my left leg and this makes sense as it is my right leg that feels like it is not getting any push off and it feels like the knee does not lift as much, almost like it is lagging behind. So I guess I need to find someone to take a look at this. Overall we ran a pretty good pace today as Sasha wanted to pick it up every once in awhile throughout the run. So we picked it up to about 5:45-6:00 pace off and on for a total of about 3 miles I guess. Overall 15.1 miles at 6:44 average and the last 13 miles in 6:34 average.

PM - 4 miles no watch with kids. James picked it up the last 1/2 mile so a little faster at the end.

AM - Easy progressive run of 14.1 miles for me ended up with an average of 6:59 pace. Gradually got faster as I went with the lst few miles at about 6:15 pace or so. Started with Sasha and at the 10k mark he wanted to do his 7.5 mile tempo so I let him go and just did my own run. We linked back up at the end. Good run today but still need to get the hips fixed.

AM - Easy conversational 10.1 miles with Sasha around 7:35 average. Although weather was warmer, 37'F, it was raining which made it not much fun. I would almost prefer it be 10'F colder and snowing.

PM - 

AM - 15.1 miles in the heat wave at 6:30am this morning with Sasha. It was a balmy 39'F this morning and it was shorts weather again. We did the now somewhat routine 15.1 mile route and did 10x1min hard 1min easy in the middle. The 1min hard fartleks were at 5:12-5:20 pace for the majority of them and then the 1min rest was at about 7:10 pace. Overall average for the whole run was 6:59 pace. Felt ok overall but I still need to get the left knee and right hip fully healthy.

AM - 15.1 miles at average pace of 7:14. So the awrm weather quickly dissappeared and it was cold and very snowy and icy today. Overall a very uneventfull run until the very end when Sasha took a fall. He ended up with a bloody nose and bloody lip but other than that he said he was ok. I am off to Washinton state today to spend the holidays with the inlaws. We will drive to Bosie tonight and then the rest of the way tomorrow. The knee problem is still lingering thus the lack of second runs this week.

AM - Easy 13 miles around Lake Mason in Washington. Lot's of issues with right calf and shin today along with left knee still bugging me. Beautiful loop around the lake in rolling hills. It was cold but still shorts weather at about 32'F this morning. In the shadows it was a bit icy at times. I have been debating on taking time off this week. I hate taking time off but at the same time it may help. I feel like I am whimping out or using small issues as an excuse not to run when I take time off. The problem is I know I can run even with the pain as it is not bad enough to stop me and it seems ok especially after I get a couple of miles into the run. Still nags but not enough to slow me down to much. However, I really want to heal up so I can get after things next year. Maybe a compromise will be to do the kids runs only this week. We will see how I feel and I guess just take it day by day. I know that next week I will be looking for a chiropractor in Provo that can try and adjust my hips. I know that fast times are on the horizon if I can get 100% healthy. When I have a good day with Sasha I realize that the speed is there and it is only a matter of time before things really start coming together. An example was the other day doing the 1min fartleks with Sasha it felt so easy running at 5:04-5:20 pace. If I could feel like this more often I would be very happy. Most days the legs and lungs feel fine and the horses are ready to roll but either the knee, hips or both are screaming at me. This is a more recent issue so I think it is fixable. Ok, enough complaining for one post.

AM - Well after 6 days off I am home and joined Sasha for 10 miles this morning. The knee feels better but still not 100%. The left calf however is still bothering me a bit. Not a very fun run overall but part of that is just from not running for six days. I will take it easy this week and see how things progress. Six days off was not very fun. I am itching to run and hopefully will be able to start the new year off feeling a bit better.