Elite Jogging For Dummies

Met up with folks at Radda for the loop through Holladay. Roads were in really bad shape generally from the overnight snow and cold temperatures. Ran the first four miles at easy pace. Decided I was going to try to add a third mile to my tempo workout by starting at the bottom of the hill at Casto Lane and Holladay Blvd and then running up to Wander Lane for the remainder. This was really tough from the outset. With the ice and some general fatigue, it was very difficult to get any kind of real momentum. I was continually looking for sections with consistent footing. That first hilly mile was slow: 6:35. Then the other two miles were really slow too: 6:17 and 6:18. That's not terrible in these conditions on this route, but not fast. Nevertheless, I suppose I got out of it what I wanted to get out of it. I ran some strides at the end of that and then backtracked to hook up with the rest of the group and then cooled down back to Radda.

Assuming I have used Sasha's course tool analyzer correctly,I figured out that running this tempo route at 6:25 pace is equivalent to 6:00 pace on a flat course, so I feel somewhat better.

More snow! It basically looked like a mini-blizzard outside when I woke up so my plan was run 2 miles to the gym, run 4 miles on the treadmill, then run home. Once I got outside though, it wasn't too bad. The snow was very light and not too much slush or ice yet.  The traction was mostly decent. So I ran down to Memory Grove and basically did a couple laps up Memory Grove to the bottom of City Creek, then south on W. Bonneville over toward the Capitol and back down to Memory Grove.  Not much traffic out (human or vehicular) and it was quiet and enjoyable running in the new snow. 

Easy run with the group. From Foothill Village, a group of four of us started at 5:30 am and ran a 7.3 mile loop.  We returned to our starting point and picked up another four people. Then we ran a ten mile loop together, up to 11th Ave and back.  Cold this morning, but an enjoyable run. 

After coming home and napping a bit and eating a little, I went up to Snowbird and skied for a few hours under bluebird skies with some very nice snow.

I originally planned to run down to Liberty Park for a couple of loops, but once I got to Memory Grove, I headed north instead of south and that plan went out the window. Once at the bottom of City Creek, I headed back toward Capitol Hill and then dropped west into the Marmalade District. I meandered around there for a few minutes, eventually heading north to Warm Springs Park. I knew that there were hot springs in this area,but I had never seen them. However, when I followed a couple of paths, I soon saw steam rising out of the reeds and could smell sulphur in the air. It was pretty cool; there are 4 or 5 little pools where a determined bather could soak in some healing waters from the earth if they wanted. Too bad it's a largely industrial neighborhood; it kind of takes away the charm. My friend David who lives in that neighborhood said that homeless guys like to bathe there.  Makes sense. Anyway, it was a fascinating to see something a little different. I dipped my hands in the water and it was very pleasant.

On my way to the workout with the black sheep this morning, I realized I forgot my watch, so no split times today or exact distances. We met at Sugarhouse park and began with a warm-up loop.  We ran 4 x 110m strides to perk things up.  Then we did 6 x 400m on the more or less flat section on the north side of the park.  Following some easy running we then ran 4 x 600m starting at the flat stretch over by the entrance to the Highland track  and heading south then up the hill on the southeast corner of the paved road. No splits, but intensity was decent. The push up the hills were manageable.  I have had a little taste of pirifomis pain for a couple of days and I actually didn't push to hard today. I'm concentrating on trying to open that up a little.  It can be a tricky area to target though I've had some help with a few good stretches.  We were next going to run on the track for a bit, but it was a little icy and still had some snow on it at the corners.  So we did some more strides at a higher intensity and then did a cool down lap.

How about that goose egg up there? After Tuesday's workout, I felt pain in the piriformis area all day long. I have seen a few good runners go down with this injury and knew to play it safe. So instead of running, I went and had Mark Oftedal give me a massage.  It was an excruciatingly painful experience. It was helpful, though. My hip and glute muscles on the right side are all kinds of tight. I was in mild pain the rest of the day; as much from the massage as the pf injury.  I have some good stretches that I have been doing consistently.  The TP massage ball has helped a lot too.

It was beautiful out and so hard not to run.  It was nice enough that on my drive home from work I saw all kinds of "joggers" that come out of the woodwork when it is nice out.  I wanted to join them, but knew I shouldn't.  I would wait until Thursday. . .

I ran an abbreviated Radda loop with Casey and Katherine.  I was very watchful of the piriformis.  I did have some discomfort, but not too serious.  I think the pain may have something to do with the SI as well; all that nervation seems to be connected. I don't like the shooting sciatica pain.  Mostly, it was just a localized ache, though.  I may run a little later today to test things again. Or I may not.  I'm glad I wasn't planning to race this weekend.  

Easy five miles just to test the glute muscles after a day off.  It was mentally tough more than physically painful.  There was some sensation of discomfort with almost every stride and it was thinking about that discomfort throughout that was more difficult to manage than the discomfort itself.  When I ran with what felt to be my "perfect" form the discomfort was minimal, but the discomfort re-emerged when I let myself get a little sloppy.  The pain was not referring down my leg so much today; it was staying local--just a pain in the butt.

Lots of stretching and some core work through the day.  My right hip/glute region is so much tighter than my left.

Congrats to all who ran the Strider's 10 miler. Another excellent showing from the FRB crew. 

I'm still planning to run Canyonlands next weekend and I'm trying to think of this injury maintenance as a taper. 

Running five miles seemed like a reasonable proposition.  After  stretching for a while, I put on my shoes and went out the door.  Within about 10 minutes it was clear that I wasn't doing myself any favors.  The piriformis/SI discomfort was consistent.  To avoid another two steps back, I cut the run short at 2 miles.  Then I decided to go to the gym and see what I might be able to find there that wouldn't cause too many problems. I found that the elliptical trainer allowed me to "run" with virtually no discomfort. This is probably because the pain was firing on impact with the ground and this is low-impact.  I did that for 30 minutes, then did some core work.  I'll call it 3 miles worth of "running."

At least this may give me something to do for the week while I continue to try to stretch and heal.

35 minutes on the elliptical trainer at the gym.  What a shame on such a beautiful morning!! There  can be no doubt that winter has loosened its grip.  I would have love to run outside, but I am hopeful that taking it a little easy for a short period will mean that I can run throughout the season and not have to take off a long period. More important than to me than racing, racking up miles, or any other competitive aspect of running is just the joy of being able to get out the door each day and do what I love to do.

Another deep, painful massage from Mark. It's worse than the last 5 minutes of a 5k, I swear.  I do feel some relief, but I am sensing that the problem is somehow structural.  Perhaps it's time to look into some chiropractic adjustments.  I should also get in touch with my PT acquaintances and get their thoughts. I ran up and down the block a little to test things out and with "perfect" form, the discomfort was minimal, but still present.  I have avoided taking any anti-inflammatories because I have been concerned about pain-masking, but I may start that just to keep down any swelling and, hopefully, let things heal.

What a long strange week it has been.  From a training perspective, one of the most discouraging weeks I can recall in a long, long time. Frankly, I am amazed I am writing about a race at all.

I have had no entries in the last few days because I simply had nothing to report.  I basically had pain consistently in my lower back, upper hamstring, and glute all week.  After a couple of massages that should have done something, but didn't, I started to get fairly discouraged.  I started to think about the two words that no runner wants to think about . . . stress fracture.  More specifically, pelvic stress fracture. I seemed to have the right ingredients, an increased training load over the last couple of weeks accompanied with an increasing in overall intensity.  The fact that nothing was resolving with the body work contributed to my thinking.

So I didn't run.  What I did do was get an appointment to see Dr. Jim Macintyre, who has received excellent reviews from other runners I know.  He couldn't see me until Friday.  Now, the thing was that the Canyonlands Half Marathon was the next day.  That has been a goal race for me this season.  I wanted to run well down there, something I have never really done. I have thought about it a lot and tried to tailor my training in preparation.  By mid-week, however, I had essentially abandoned the hope of running the half marathon.  How could I think of running 13 miles when I couldn't run 100 meters without pain?

Dr. Macintyre ran through some diagnostic tests with my legs and pelvis and concluded, quickly, that I didn' have a stress fracture.  What I had was a pelvis that was torqued forward and up on the right side.  He thought I might have had some acute issue; but I don't remember anything like that. He and his assistant then ran through a series of manipulations and exercises to try to get things back in order. It didn't take them long.  Suddenly, I felt a whole lot better. Whereas I couldn't stand on one leg and lean forward without pain when I walked in, I could do that now.  They also showed me the exercises to do to get things back in line. So I talked with him about my running and racing this weekend.  He figured I was good to go for the half and that I should just stop and walk if I hurt.  After explaining that I didn't really view that as an option, I told him that they do offer a consolation race--the five mile run.  He thought that would be fine.  I told him I was unsure about racing it fast; he said it should be fine to run how I felt. 

Okay.  Things were looking up.  I went in hoping for the best and expecting the worst and I came out alright. However, since I had already mentally checked out of racing this weekend, I had basically logistically checked out of doing so as well.  Even if I wanted to go, I still had a full day of work ahead of me and would then need to get to Moab by 9pm so that I could get to the race expo in time to change from the Half to the five mile option.  I worked efficiently enough that by about 2:30 I made the game-day decision that we would head to Moab.  I coordinated with Heather to get our stuff together.  We would have to be on the road by 5pm if we had any hope of getting to Moab by 9pm.  I got home at 5:10 and we were on the road by 5:20.  That little time gap would prove significant. 

We hurried toward Moab as swiftly as we could, stopping just once.  It didn't look good for time, however.  When we rolled into Moab at about 9:05, it became clear to me that all the effort could be for naught.  We got to the expo at 9:10.  There was a race worker out front waving people away and blocking the entrance to the parking lot. I persuaded him to let me pass, but he didn't think I stood much of a chance of getting in. He was right. The doors were locked. After standing out front for a minute or two hoping someone inside would notice me (knocking was futile), a more kind-spirited race worker came and unlocked the door and let me in. Everything was in shut down mode, but amazingly I managed to pick up my packet and get them to switch me from the half to the 5 miler.  Whew. 

I still had not had a chance to run after seeing the doc.  I did that first thing in the morning. I went out and ran about .5 of a mile, just testing out various paces and forms.  It felt ok. Not amazing, but decent. Good enough to race.  Next thing I knew I was up the canyon hanging out at the starting area for the race waiting to go.  They don't let you warm up on the road because of the bus traffic, but you can head up Negro Bill Canyon, which is the staging area for the 5 mile race. I had not been up there before and it was gorgeous on this morning.  I went about 1.5 miles out and back total. 

Now it was time to line up for the start. I didn't recognize any runners except Mike Evans.  There was a large contingent of runners from Dine College in Shiprock, New Mexico.  They appeared to be young and fast.  I was correct.  The race itself was a bit of a blur.  I pushed through the first mile in 5:21. The pain in my glute came back almost immediately but didn't really get worse and the discomfort was manageable. I knew it was a short race.  Although my first mile split seemed promising, I couldn't hold it. At mile 2  you have that big hill that comes at mile 9 in the half marathon. I decided this year to call it "the Dragon."  It sounds adequately dramatic.  After that, my miles were all slower.  I just couldn't get my legs to turn over faster! Maybe it was a loss of sharpness from the lack of running all week.

The places shook out by mile 2 and didn't really change from my perspective.  A few of the Shiprock runners, Mike Evans and a couple other youngsters were ahead.  I was in 7th and stayed there.  The last two miles; which are no fun in the half marathon, were no better in the 5 mile. That is to say, they are interminable.  But I finally found the finish line.  I was pretty spent, even though I don't feel that I ran very fast. My time was 28:46, a pace of 5:45 per mile.  I was seventh, holding off at least one or two of those Shiprock kids. It's funny, if I ran this time at this race last year, I would have finished third.

I cooled down with one of the kids who beat me, a high school runner from Denver, Matt Bell. 

It felt good to be running, but I have mixed feelings about the race. I would have preferred to do the half, but was not ready for it on race day. I am glad I got to do something, however.  I look forward to finding my way through this hiccup and seeing what I can do on the other side. 

Easy miles with Heather in Moab, on the scenic by-way paralleling the Colorado river, going toward Potash.  We stopped and looked at the petroglyphs, which are endlessly fascinating.  Heather drank all of her water and got kind of dehydrated so I ran back to the car and came back to pick her up.  I can't blame her for being cautious; she is six months pregnant. 

Well, at least I'm running.  I'm certainly not fully healed, but I felt good enough to get in some training miles. I no longer have any pain when I'm just walking around, but running is still not entirely comfortable.  Things felt better in the last couple of miles.  I have a long post for my Saturday entry in the works that I'll post tonight. That should provide an update on my recent disappearance from the face of the blog.

I felt good enough to try a little speed session so I showed up for the workout with the Black Sheep. We met at Sugarhouse park, warmed up for one loop. Then we did 1 minute on/1 minute off for another loop. My little pelvis issue was nagging at me, but it seemed the more I ran the better it felt. We moved over to the Highland track after the second loop. We ran 6 x 800, with the goal to pick up the pace a bit in the second lap. I ran these with Josh Steffen, who is coming off an awesome run at the Canyonlands Half Marathon (1:16:40, finishing 8th overall). Times were modest but consistent: 2:52/2:52/2:50/2:50/2:49/2:48. Then one mile to cool down.

I found that concentrating on my form and keeping my pelvis tilted forward and my alignment centered seemed to help a lot; "like a needle wrapped in cotton," as the ChiRunning advice goes.

This afternoon I have an appt. with a chiro.

It was raining steadily when I woke up, so I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill. In addition to not getting soaked, I thought running on the treadmill might help me to keep a closer eye on my form so I can work out the SI issues.  Of course it stopped raining by the time I started running and I could have enjoyed a perfectly nice run outside, but I stayed on the treadmill anyway.  Miles were gradually descending; starting at 7:30 pace, finishing at 6:30 pace; the middle five were huddled in the 6:45 range. 

The SI pain is certainly still present, but I am less afraid of running on it since I have a better idea of what is going on.  I went to the chiro last night (Dr. Wimmer) and he took xrays. I have another appt today to look at the pictures and figure out what precisely needs to be done.  He spent quite a bit of time talking with me about my running and how the pain occurs. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do.
 

Easy run through Holladay with the Radda crew.  The SI was much improved today.  I still had some discomfort in the beginning, but it seemed to subside more quickly than in the last couple of days.  A chiropractic success story?  Hard to say yet.  I have another adjustment tomorrow. 

Cucina Loop with Sam.  We call it the Cucina loop because the standard meeting spot is at  the Cucina, a cafe/deli on 2nd Ave.  We still call it that even though we sometimes start at my house, as we did today.  We start with a zigzag up through the Avenues to 11th Ave, west to B street, and then down to the bottom of City Creek, where we climb east above the canyon on the Shoreline trail, then just follow the Shoreline trail over to Dry Creek, down that canyon, and then zig zag back home through Federal Heights.  We started at about 5:50 so it was dark for much of the run on the trail.  I need to upgrade my headlamp, which is lightweight but a little wimpy (Petzl Tikka w/ one LED bulb).  I did fall once, but it was when it was already light so I can't really blame anyone but myself for that.

 
The SI held up pretty well.  I am noticing a pattern; discomfort for a couple of miles at the start and then it kind of fades into the background as I become more warmed up.

The trails should be a muddy mess at this time of year, but it was quite dry, no mud to speak of.  Last year at about this time, there was a legitimate "creek" running down Dry Creek, this year . . . it's just dry.  All things considered, this was a great run. 

We were up in Sun Valley, Idaho for the weekend.  Since the plan was to ski, a long run wasn't in the cards.  Nevertheless, I did a loop with some spiciness; though not quite a tempo run.  I ran from the Sun Valley Lodge, up and over Dollar Mountain, through the Elkhorn section and down Elkhorn canyon, back to S.R. 75, back into town, and back to Sun Valley road. 

It was a nice day and nice temperature.  I didn't feel great though; I had plenty of SI discomfort to think about. Frustrating.  It certainly takes some of the fun out of the run. It also didn't do really well skiing.  On the groomers it was fine, in the bumps (which I didn't ski much) it was worse. I really did try to avoid them.  But I can't complain too much. We had a great time and I kept my SI concerns to myself.

Bonneville Golf Course loop. This felt like two different runs. The first part not so good, the second part not so bad.  

The Black Sheep group was running hills today and I didn't feel up to that with my SI issue. So I warmed up with the group and then Kathryn and I ran a few more easy miles.  We connected back up with the group for the flat part of the workout, which was 6 x 400m, half flat/half hill.  Fortunately the rest of the group, i.e., Josh, were already wiped out from running the hill repeats before this and it at least appeared that I could hold my own.  

The SI followed the typical pattern today; pain in the first couple of miles, and tapering off after that.  It's actually not so bad once it warms up but it's no fun at the beginning.  I'm trying hard to run with my pelvis tilted forward, and really work the forward lean. ChiRunning, basically.

From 15th/15th with Josh, Megan, and Amy.  Josh and Megan are running Boston in a few weeks and gradually winding toward the taper.  Josh says sub 2:50 would make him happy, but he's running with sub 2:40 fitness right now, I think. 

We ran the HCI loop, with fog, snow, hail, and a little rain at various points.  It was never coming down hard, though, and was actually a great morning for running.

 The chiro told me to track closely how long the SI pain lasts in my run.  Today, it was at about 2.5 miles that it started to dissipate.  That was after stopping and stretching for a minute to wait for the light at Foothill to turn.   It was still talking to me for about another mile after that, but the rest of the run was not bad at all.

A small ray of hope in the run with the Radda crew this morning.  Whereas I have typically had real pain in the first few miles of a run, today the SI felt much more stable right from the start.  I could still notice it, but it wasn't something I had to think about with every step. I ran comfortably for the first 4.5 and then Sam and I added a couple of "spicy" miles on Wander lane, 6:20's.  Not quite ready for the full tempo burst yet, but feel like I'm able to put a little more stress on my legs with less risk.  I also had a chiro adjustment after the run.  So, we'll see how it goes day-to-day.   Saturday I may be up for 12-15 if things feel ok.  I have an appt. with Dr. Macintyre tomorrow also and could use his additional input.

Bonneville Golf Course loop.  Another fairly encouraging run.  Definitely aware of the SI at the start (but no "pain") and if I stretch a bit after a few miles I don't have to think about it too much.  The one thing that's proving to be a challenge is running at pace downhill.

Today's run was the longest in a few weeks, at least since I've had the SI problems.  Things held up really well today.  I had a hard time chasing Casey up to Wasatch at the end of the footbridges while we were heading south, but overall I found I could run with little discomfort. This actually turned out to be a decent week of training, all things considered.  Dr. Macintyre saw a lot of improvement in the movement of the joint yesterday and said I shouldn't need to go back to him for now.  I will continue going to the chiro, however.  I think that has helped the SI and probably improved my running economy overall.