Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

10.4 easy miles at 7:45-50 pace from BYU at 4:30am. Met Sasha as usual about 2 miles into the run on the trail. The quads are a bit sore but bearable. The good news is the knee was only a little stiff this morning and the sharp pains that I was having last week for the first couple miles are gone! It looks like the ice and ibuprofin routine are working. Hopefully this continues this week and it completely heals up. Overall I actually feel better today than I did all last week. However, I will take this week one day at a time and run how the body feels. I want to fully recover and get back to feeling good again so I do not want to push it to hard to fast. As one of the other bloggers sayings goes "patience and perseverance". 

Once again good racing overall by the FastRunningBlog community. The blog had some great results including 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 11th overall just to name the bloggers that I know in the top group. By Sasha's analysis he feels this course is similiar time wise to the Great Salt Lake 1/2 which he has caluculated to be 2-2:30 slower than a flat sea level 1/2. 

Alarm did not go off this morning and I slept in. Did not have time to run in the morning so I had to wait until I got home from work this evening. I was planning on doing at least 10 miles and maybe even throwing in some fsater stuff but once I got going the wind was killer and I felt like crud so I just decieded to turn around and go home. I think my body is still trying to tell me something and I am trying hard to listen to it right now. I struggle with the decision to cut things so short as I think I am just being weak and should push through it. It is probably the right thing to do but I just wish I was feeling decent again so I could get on with the training I know I need to be doing. :-(

11 easy miles with Sasha for about 8 miles. I actually felt half way decent this morning. Not great but a lot better than I have been feeling. Sasha was tired from his hard workout and he actually was having to slow me down which is probably a good thing because even though I feel better I should probably not push it the rest of this week and give the body a true chance to truly recover. A much better sign as I was starting to get a little concerned with what was happening.

I slept in again today. At first I kind of felt guilty but then I figured that I must need the rest as it is not typical of me to sleep in, usually my internal alarm wakes me up before the alarm goes off. I was going to run after work but I just didn't feel like it when I got home. Again, a little guilt tried to convince me to run anyway but overall I felt I needed the break both physically and mentally.

Met Sasha and ran an easy 7.25 miles just talking about training and different workouts that have worked in the past etc... We did a couple of strides and then a 400 at the end. The 400 was 1:19 and felt very comfortable. Overall an easy run. I am very glad I took yesterday off as my legs felt a ton better and mentally I feel like I am ready to start getting more serious about my running. Up until now I ahve been running with no plan. Just kind of putting in the miles and doing whatever each day. No plan in advance or any long term training plan other than just putting in miles. I think it is time to sit down and lay out a real training plan. I need to sit down and plan out a 4-6 month day by day training plan in writing. When I have done this in the past it has really helped me focus on my training and really improve. Of course it adjusts and changes as things progress but at least it gives me focus and direction in my training. I think I will lay this plan out to start following Ogden with the goal being Top of Utah or St. George (if I can get a race entry!).

Busy last 24 hours but a decent race result. Not super fast but ok for the course. This week was a very low mileage week but I needed it. Next week I will try and get things going again. Friday night I had a military formal ball that I was at and did not get to bed until after 11:00pm. I then woke up this morning at 4:30am and jumped in the car for the 3 hour drive to Cedar City for the SUU Army ROTC 5K that the cadets put on each year as a fund raiser. Thwy did a great job and there was about 200 individuals registered this year. They had a ton of prize give aways and almost everyone walked away with something. I won a free pizza and a free desert. They even gave away a microwave a TV and a three day vacation. Not bad for a local 5K race. Now for the race report.

It was a hilly course and at 5,900 feet elevation with a little bit of wind as well so I knew the times would not be fast. The course is a two lap course around the SUU campus and starts with a gradual uphill for the first 1K that has a shorter (100m) steeper section right before the 1K. It then turns on a gradual down for about 800m. It is then fairly flat for 600-700m and turns back up for another decent climb (200m) bcak to the start area. Repeat and finish half way up the last hill on a 100m gradual hill. My GPS measured the course at 3.12 miles so pretty accurate. I do not know any local runners in Cedar City so had no clue as to how fast things would be. At the start I could tell they were one or two that looked like the running type but hard to tell. I decieded to go ahead and push the first 1K up the hill just to see if anyone was serious. I took it out and two guys seemed to jump in behind me. By the time we reached the steeper section of the hill right before 1K I noticed I was pulling away from them. I just cruised the down hill and tried to relax. At the end of the first lap I had a good 200-300m lead and was in time trial / tempo mode. I tried to hold steady up the hill again and keep things going well to the end. My goal going in was to break 18 minutes and I accomplished that running fairly steady. Mile splits were 5:30 (1k up and 600m down), 5:50 (600m flat and 1K up), 5:44 (mix of up and down). Loaded in course analyzer and it says it is 7 seconds per mile slower than a flat course. Overall I guess I am pleased. Not as fast as I would like but ok. I think with someone pushing I could have run 20 seconds faster or so.

Time to get back to some real training now that I am done slacking off this week!