Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

Well, today was a test for the knee and body in general to see how things are doing after Saturday's adventure. So far so good. The knee is still a bit swollen but it does not really hurt to run on it. It feels a little stiff but that is about it. However, I did discover a few other bruises. I have one on my left knee that I did not notice untilI felt it during the run and afterwards when poking around at it found that it was bruised a little as well. Overall I am pleased as I am not very sore (the legs at least) and the knee seems ok. Most of my soreness is actually in the upper body from the kayak and probably some from the bike as well.

I ran an easy 11 miles along the Provo River and joined Sasha as usual. He wanted to get two miles of tempo work in and I wanted to err on the side of caution and not really push it. However, I did gradually pick it up for a couple of miles at what I would consider marathon pace effort running about 6:10 and 5:59 for the mile splits. Felt a little fatigure in the legs but otherwise not to bad. Overall averaged 7:11 pace for the 11 miles. Did 100 push-ups and sit-ups and could really feel the soreness in the shoulders and back. 

Easy 12 miles this morning with Sasha. Everything felt ok but I felt really awkward running this morning for some reason. It could have something to do with little sleep lsat night but I just felt really uncoordinated or something. Never really had this feeling before so it was kind of strange. Averaged 7:13 pace for 12 miles and did 10x100 meter strides. Still in recovery mode. I will try and keep the miles up this week but not psuh it unless I am feeling good.

Sasha was doing speed work and i went on ahead on the trail and right in the middle of the trail ran into a skunk. I stopped to avoid getting sprayed by him as he was not to happy to see me and did not really care to move out of the way either. All of a sudden here comes Sasha doing one of his 400s and I tell him to watch out for the skunk on the path. He just flys by me and right up on the skunk. After he went by I continued down the path and could really smell the skunk. I then ran into Sasha at the end of the path and as I went by him I could smell the skunk odor again. At this point I was wondering if he got sprayed. I continued on my run and he continued his workout and when I passed him again later I smelt the skunk again. Now I was pretty sure he was sprayed. When we finally linked up after he finished his workout I could still smell a bit of the skunk odor and told him that I think he may have been sprayed by the skunk. Not for sure but I think he may have been hit. We will have to find out if his family smelt the skunk when he went home. I'm sure he will write about it in his blog. 

15 easy but very cold, wet and miserable miles early this morning. It was snowing very heavy but it was warm enough that I was drenched and soaked to the bone so I was about frozen by the end of the run. Not much else to write today. Oh yeah average pace was 7:08 today and I am feeling ok in general but my knees are still bruised up but getting better.

Good luck to all of the Del Sol Relay guys this weekend! 

On a field training exercise with cadets this weekend in the hills and woods sleeping outside on the ground so getting runs in was going to be very difficult. Only three hours of sleep each night and not much time where we were not busy conducting exercises. However, we pretty much a lot of miles all day each day so I guess that counts for something. A lot of hills. I did manage to get in an 8 mile run in the evening which was a hilly run and I was not feeling so great from all of the walking all day. I did manage the last three miles or so at 6:00-6:30 pace.

After three hours of sleep I did not expect to get a run in today as we had a full day from 4:00am until midnight planned with no real breaks to speak of. I waas on my feet hiking over rough and hilly terrain the entire time trying to observe as much trainng as possible with the cadets. I hiked at least 9 miles and probably more so I gave myself credt for 9 miles. Not the same as running but believe it or not my legs are actually a little sore from all of the hiking.

After a second night of three hours of sleep and about 3 miles of hiking from 5:00-8:00am I finally got home and crashed for a few hours before taking James down to the BYU track for a run. He wanted to do a 5K on the track and see what he could do. We warmed up a mile and then ran the following for his 5K. 

Mile 1 = 7:02

Mile 2 = 6:54

Mile 3 = 6:44

5K = 21:22

So James set a 5K PR and did so with each mile getting faster. He ws hurting pretty good the last mile but he is starting to learn how to push it better all of the time. Not bad for 12 years old I guess.

Afterwards we cooled down a couple laps and then decieded to see how fast James could run a all out 100m. I had him do three of them. He complained at first beacause he was tired from the 5K but he did ok. He ran a 17.19 on the first and a 17.21 on the second. I then decieded to see what I could do on the third one and I hit a 14.5. These were all from a standing start. After one more jog lap I told James we were going to test his 400 meter speed as well. He protested a little but was willing to give it a shot. He chose lane 7 from the stagger and we ran 1:25 which is now his fastest 400m as well. So he now has PRs of the following:

100m = 17.19

400m = 1:25.25

1 Mile = 6:29

2 Mile = 13:38 (last 2 miles of 5K)

5K = 21:22