Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

Easy 10.2 miles at 4:45am with Sasha on the Provo River Trail. Felt a little tired today. Right hamstring was tight along with left calf. Also felt some tiredness in lower back and towards the end of the run the quads were tired. Temperature was 18'F and I actually commented to Sasha that it was nice out. It is sad when I consider 18'F nice. At least it looks like the rest of the week is going to be warmer. One of these days we will actually get to run in shorts and a t-shirt and it will feel great. Also did the push-up and sit-up routine of 125 push-ups and 125 sit-ups. The workout I have been doing is not all 125 straight but in sets. I do 40 push-ups then roll over and do 40 sit-ups (with hands behind head) then sets of 30, 20, and 10. Then top it off with one last set of 25 each. Try not to rest too much between sets just enough time to transition from push-ups to sit-ups. If I had to do them non-stop I can probably hit about 90 push-ups and 95 sit-ups without stopping. The goal is to get over 100. The most I have ever done in two minutes is 100 push-ups and 102 sit-ups.

Normal tuesday run from Sasha's house at 4:45am. It was about 21'F today so on the warm side. Instead of doing the normal 2.5 mile tempo in the middle of run decieded to do 2x1 mile with 1/2 mile running rest in middle. Felt a little tired still and the cough is still hanging around a bit. The first mile was 5:22 followed by 3:59 1/2 mile rest then did a 5:26 for the second mile. During second mile I felt like I did not have much more speed but it also felt like I could hold the same pace for another mile. The speed is not really there yet but that is ok as we have not done any speed work at all. On the way back Sasha wanted to do the 2.5 mile tempo. I wanted to make sure I did not push too hard so started out with just an easy gradual pick up. First mile was a very relaxed 6:41 followed by the second mile in 6:13 and the last 1/2 mile in 3:06. The last 1.5 at 6:13 pace felt relaxed and under control. Legs were a little tired but the pace was comfortable. Plan on riding the mountain bike later today for 10-15 miles. For those running this saturday's Striders 5K the profile link is below. Looks like a pretty tough course climbing from 4700ft to 5000ft in the first 1.5 miles. It also looks like a chance of rain/snow Saturday morning.

 Ended up riding 16 miles on the mountain bike tonight. Good second workout for the day!
 

Very easy 10 mile run at 4:45am from BYU alog Provo River Trail meeting Sasha along the way as usual. Just under 7:30 pace the whole time. Ran very easy today as the legs were pretty tired from yesterdays workout and the 16 mile mountain bike ride last night. Was a balmy 20'F again so thigns are getting better. Hopefully the warming trend will continue and the inversion will not get as bad as it was. My cold and cough are still hanging around but not as bad. Trying not to push too hard this week overall as I want to let the body rest a bit and hopefully get over the cough altogether. Once it clears it will be time to increase the miles and effort once again.

Well, I thought the congestion and cough were going away  but this morning I woke up very congested. Worse than I have been. Ran the 10 mile run with Sasha easy, just under 7:30 pace overall with 6x100m strides during run. Body and legs felt very sluggish and tired this morning. Most of the run the legs were asleep and I felt awkward running. However, at about mile 9 I started to feel a little bouncy. Suddenly the body woke up and the legs and back felt springy. I'm not sure why but we ran the last 1/4 mile in 1:32 and it felt very easy, I had to hold myslef back from going any faster. Strange morning for me. Overall this week has not been a good week for me compared to last week. I have had a few aches and pains that have popped up the last couple days. Hopefully they all go away soon. The biggest plus was the weather, 39'F. For the first time in 54 days it was above freezing for our run in the morning. Looking back it has only been above freezing for our morning run 7 of the last 91 days!

Cut the run short this morning. Normal time of 4:45am but yesterday my right foot/tendons were really bothering me all afternoon. Not sure what I did but they are sore and irritated. I could feel it every step. Not enough to not run but thought it would be good to only run 6 easy miles. Will have to ice it some tonight as it is still bothering me today. We will see how things go tomorrow at the hilly 5K. I'm not expecting any great results but I need to get back in a race to remember what it is like to race. I have not run a race in over 2 years!

Not a great day for me but since it was my first race in over two years I am happy to just be back out there again. Going into the race I was not feeling great and definetly not expecting much. With the nagging ankle and foot problems along with the cough I was not too excited. This course has to be one of the toughest 5K courses I have ever run if not the toughest. Kind of lost it mentally during the 2nd mile. I felt like I checked out mentally and just backed way off. Around 2 miles I was passed by a couple runners and that somewhat woke me up again. Mile splits were 5:53, 6:24, and 5:31 according to GPS. The first two mile markers agreed almost exactly with the GPS. However for some reason the third mile on GPS and the 3m cone were off by 8 seconds. From 3m cone to finish was measured at .1 so it was accurate but overall distance came out as 3.14 miles. I guess I must not have run the tangents very good during the last mile or the GPS was off by .04 during mile three. 12 miles total for the day after running with kids when I got home from the race.

It was nice to meet a lot of the fastrunningblog community in person and it seems as quite a few had good races today. Congrats!