Artichoke's Running Blog (Ken Spence)

5 easy recovery miles at 5:00 a.m.  Skyline standard route and back along the lower loops.  30 degrees and clear.

5 miles at 5:00 a.m. easy run.  Ran a bit with Liz and Roland on Skyline and back via lower loops.  40 degrees.

4 miles at 5:30 p.m.  Nice to run with some daylight.  Westland loop.  Slight pickups on Coleman.  My back is still hurting, but tolerable. 

5 very slow easy miles at 5:00 a.m.  Did the Upland and Loma Vista loops going up and through Elk Ridge loop and Skyline coming back home.  Back not good this morning.

5 miles at 5:00 a.m.  30 degrees.  Easy run along Skyline to Grimm's gate and back via the lower loops.

18 miles at 8:00 a.m.  2:42:41 or 9:02 average pace.  With Tina for about 11.  Smelter Road hills to 6 miles then back down and through Erda and to the north end of Stansbury.  38 degrees and cloudy starting out.  A lot of runners on the hills today, including Pat who's headed to Boston with me next month.  Didn't set out any water.  Stupid.  Stupid.  Stupid. I've never ever done that on a long run in 28 years, so why do I try it now at age 55!  I'm an old man for crying out loud!  Tina ran out of petrol about 1.5 miles from the end.  I didn't fair much better.  Glad she had some bottles of water in her car as we drove home.  We were both feeling like crap.  My back loosened up after about 7 miles and felt fairly good until about16.  Somewhat encouraging run.  52 miles this week.

5 TM miles at 4:14 p.m. in 43:30.  Progression run from 10:00 to 8:00 min. pace.  Doctor appointment tomorrow morning to see about the SI joint pain.

5 TM miles easy in 46:51 at 9:00 a.m.  Went to the doctor afterward who gave me a cortisone injection and some other drugs, like prednisone.  PT this afternoon at 4:00 a.m.  Doesn't think it is a stress fracture like two years ago since I actually feel better after a few miles than I do starting out.  Trying to knock down the inflammation.  Wants to try that approach before going through MRI and CT scans.

6 miles in 55:31 at 5:30 p.m.  I'm becoming an evening runner again, just like my early years.  Daylight makes it nice.  Ran up into Middle Canyon a mile or so and back home.   My back or SI joint is still hurting, but I do better in the afternoon than I do first thing out of bed every morning.  PT again tomorrow, reducing weekly mileage some after hitting 52 last week.  That may be my peak.  I'll take what I can get.

5 miles in 47:01 at 3:15 p.m.  Sunny, warm at 60 degrees, but breezy.  Physical therapy at 4:30 p.m.  Feeling about the same, but a bit better afterwards.  Standard Skyline route to rim of Middle Canyon and back.

4 miler at 6:00 p.m.  Very easy to base of the dam and back home via the alleys and loop around the high school.  Back hurting pretty bad for 3.5.  Hope I do okay tomorrow.  Solo 18 miler scheduled in the morning.

18 slow ones without Tina this morning.  8:30 a.m.  About 14 minutes slower than with her last week.  Interesting run, just the same.  I planned on being solo, but 1/2 mile in I see these runners coming towards me as I was going up Skyline.  A bunch of guys all in black shorts and gray t-shirts.  About 50 of them.  Turned out to be the U.S. Army Reserves on a run.  I greeted everyone with a thumbs up.  It was actually pretty inspiring.  Then as I was nearing the top of the big Smelter hill, a bunch of runners coming down the hill in the Tooele High Track Club 5K, an annual fund-raiser.  People started telling me, "you're going the wrong way!"  Perhaps 100+ runners and walkers, a few who I knew.  Then as I was coming back down, Pat was coming up, doing a 20 miler for Boston.  I turned around and ran with him for a short bit.  We're planning on getting together to plan our Boston travel in the next couple of weeks.  After I left Pat, Matt 1 was coming up the hill, so he turned around and ran with me to the bottom of the hill until I turned and headed towards Erda and Stansbury.  A decent run.  Back was hurting a lot very early, but felt good by 7 miles and through the end.  Weird!   Two more sessions of PT this week and then Moab next week.  Probably won't be pushing it much down there.  Just enjoy the experience and hiking afterwards to Delicate Arch.  My son, Mark, going with me to mountain bike while I run.  We've made this an annual event since about 2002.  I love it down there.

5 mile trail run behind Little Mountain at 5:00 p.m.  Very easy and a bit muddy in places. Ran after physical therapy session.  Felt a bit better most of the day, then hurt pretty bad throughout the run.  A bit discouraging.

5 miles at 6:00 p.m. Nice evening!  Short sleeves and shorts and still sweating.  To mouth of Middle canyon and back.  Easy running.  Back is not getting any better.

4 miles easy in the rain in 38:45.  Skyline to 1.5 and back and then high school loop and home.  Last run before Moab.  Don't know how I will do.  Just want to get through it without hurting my back any more.  I probably need some serious time off before Boston. We'll see.

No running today.  Hurting most of the day.  Went to PT.  Rob hit a trigger points on my piriformis that may help and tried to get my hips more in alignment.  We'll see how it goes on Saturday.  A training run at best.

No running today.  Half marathon tomorrow.  Traveling to Moab.

Disaster at the Moab Canyonlands 1/2 Marathon.  I had decided to just run this from start to finish as a training run to be safe.  I've been in P.T. all week.  I never pushed a single mile, but still could not get loosened up until mile 8.  I had run 18 miles each of the previous two Saturdays and have always felt pretty good after about 6 miles or so and have felt no back issues during the last miles, so I thought 13 easy ones would not cause any problems.  Believe it or not Moab only falls 77 feet overall from start to finish.  My 18 milers started at 5100 ft. and climb to about 5500+ ft. and then the last 12 miles fall from 5500' to about 4300', so the downhill at Moab was not the problem.  Finally I felt somewhat better from miles 8 through 11, but then started hurting again the last 2 miles.  I was super tight at the finish, limped to the car and then into the hotel.  Took a hot bath, then about a 1 1/2 hour nap, and when I got up I could not walk.  I had so much pain putting weight on my left leg with extreme pain from my lower back to my left hip.  We opted not to hike to Delicate Arch that afternoon and I just stayed in the hotel limping around in great pain.  I even had to opt to miss our annual post race dinner at the Fiesta Mexicana and my son went to get take out instead.  I was not any better the next morning.  The drive back was okay.  I had no pain while sitting, but I just couldn't walk.  My piriformis was so painful.  By the time we got home I actually could walk a bit better with somewhat less pain.  I think I'll take two weeks off, have some more PT and see what next week brings.  Boston may not happen, but we'll go anyway and watch.  Or maybe I'll be good enough to at least start out and drop.  We'll see.

P.T.  this afternoon.  Working the lower left back and piriformis muscles.  Lots of heat therapy, e-stim, ultra-sound, and stretching.

Molly worked me over good at PT today.  More e-stim, ultrasound, deep massage, traction, stretching, icing, then sent me up to the doc for a shot of cortisone in my left piriformis.  We'll see what happens.  The injection he gave me a couple of weeks ago was more near my back, and it didn't do anything, but everything is looking more like piriformis syndrome right now.

Minor improvement getting out of bed this morning.  Walking feels a bit easier.

Best I've felt getting up and moving this morning.  PT this afternoon.  Rob did more deep tissue massage and said things didn't feel as tight on the piriformis.  The injection may have worked some this time, along with the PT, no running, pain pills anti-inflammatory pills and stretching.  Probably a combination of all of the above.  No running all next week, not even cycling, and then will attempt something next Saturday to see where I feel like I'm at for Boston.  This is a literal pain in the a#$%*!

PT today, 4:00 p.m.

P.T. today at 3:30 p.m.