Recovering From Microfracture Surgery

6 easy miles along the Provo River Trail with Sasha, Jeff and Ben. Another beautiful morning today with temperature around 43'F. The Provo River is about as full as I have ever seen it after all of the rain this weekend. In a couple of spots it is about to run over the bank and flood the trail. Overall a pretty easy day with average pace just under 7:30 or so. Knee was a little stiffer the first mile than normal but ok after a mile or so. Afterwards went to BYU and worked out with ROTC group.

Ran 7 miles today from BYU campus with several ROTC students. First 1/2 was easy then we gradually picked things up on the way back. Mile splits below:

8:12

7:16

6:53

6:31

6:44

5:59

I slowed down during mile 6 to let someone catch up and then picked it up again the last mile. The last two half mile splits were 3:05 and 2:54. Felt pretty good today overall. I like having days like today where things seem almost normal again. I really felt like I could have gone even faster the last three miles. So total time for 7 miles was 48:50 and average sub 7:00 pace for the entire run. Another beautiful day as well! 

6 easy miles very early today (5:15am) with Sasha and Jeff. Nothing eventful and legs and knee feel ok today. Average pace was 7:17 per mile. Maybe a little longer tomorrow.

Eight miles from BYU campus along Provo River. I ran with Colby and Issac from BYU and as we were passing on the trail near Sasha's our timing was perfect and Sasha and Jeff were just getting on the trail. We ran with Sasha and Jeff until we hit our 4 mile turn around point. We ran pretty even most of the way with the last couple miles in about 6:30 pace. Overall averaged 7:07 for the eight miles. Knee was ok but a bit tired today overall. Need to run a little easier tomorrow. Feels great to get a 40 mile week in this week.

Total of 8.25 miles this morning. I ran 6 miles with Sasha, Jeff and Colby from Sasha's house at about a 7:20 average pace overall. Easy day with tired legs but knee felt ok at least.

Then at 9:30am my son Jared had a school race that they do every year where all of the kids in 1-6th grades have to run a fun run. So about 300+ kids in a 2.25 mile run. It is a pretty hilly course as well. Last year he was 29th overall and 5th for 4th graders. This year he ran a much better race. He finished 7th overall and 3rd for 4th graders. What is amazing is how strong the 4th graders are in comparison to the 5th and 6th graders. A 4th grader took first place overall and then 5th, 7th and 11th overall as well. So 4 of the top 11 were 4th graders. Infront of Jared there was one 6th grader, two 5th graders, two 4th graders, and one 3rd grader. His time was his best time as well. He ran 16:36 for 2.26 miles with an average pace of 7:22 per mile on grass and a hilly course. His splits by quarters were as follows: 1:50 (grass), 1:57 (grass), 2:07(uphill), 2:03(uphill)(7:57 mile), 1:50, 1:38(down), 1:40(down), 1:42(flat)(6:50 mile), 1:44(flat) and then 4 secs to the finish after 2.25 mile mark.

So I went to help Sasha run the FRB8K and took my son James to run as well. We needed to run 6 miles any and Sasha needed the help so why not. So I wasn't sure what I could run but I was thinking under 6:30 pace average would be good especially after lsat night. Last night was our ward Father Son camp out. We were up in the canyon and it got very cold. I normally can sleep ok in a tent but last night did not go well. Between the cold and just not being able to get comfortable I think I got about 3 hours of sleep at best.

So the knee was stiff like normal the first mile even after warming up for a slow mile. The good news is that after the first mile my legs were tired enough that I did not notice the knee as much. I was pretty tired the whole way and just tried to keep some sort of tempo going throughout. Anyway I ended up much faster than I anticipated running 30:41 for 5 miles (6:08 pace). Splits are below and I guess I can't complain about being able to run 6:08 pace for 5 miles after 6 months of no running and only 4 months into my post surgery recovery training.

1 - 5:55

2 - 6:03

Turn Around - (2.5m) 14:57

3 - 6:05

4 - 6:12

5 - 6:26

So mile 5 is when the wheels came off. My legs were shot at this point and I was feeling pretty beat. My right quad and right calf were very stiff and sore. At least the knee was not hurting. Well, I guess this is a start even if I can't even run sub 6:00 pace for  5 miles when before the accident I could run sub 6:00 for 26 miles. Over 40 miles for the week and doing good. Legs very sore but knee seems to be handling it ok, not pain free but not getting any worse.