Elite Jogging For Dummies

Dusting off the blog following a long absence due to (in no particular order): birth of second child (a boy! Luke-he's awesome), injury (problems with the left knee arising from tight IT band and hamstrings), work (work), etc. (understatement). I have been running 2-3 times per week, usually between 4 and 7 miles. Most other days, I have been in the pool working on not drowning. I can now do so for a mile at a time.

I have been trying to solve the injury problem by completely reevaluating my form, literally starting from the ground up.  I have abandoned my beloved Asics Kayano's and have been training either in barefeet, my Teva watershoes, or in my Asics Hyperspeed racing flats. My focus has been to get off of my heels (which causes the knee pain) and on to the midfoot and forefoot. My big Kayano's have lulled me into indifference about my footplant and I think this has, over time, contributed to some bad habits in my running form. In addition to footstrike, I am concentrating on cadence and more rapid turnover. Most importantly, I have just been trying to be conscious about what I am doing while I am running and decreasing the amount of cushioning between my feet and the ground. At least psychologically, this has helped me to think more carefully about my form. And though I can't yet say I am healed, I do think I am healing. Using the massage tools and continuous stretching have helped loosen up the IT band and hamstrings and that has contributed to a significant reduction in knee problems.

Although I am not completely pain-free, I did feel good enough to hook up with Josh and Megan this morning for a little tour of the Avenues and City Creek canyon. Nice to run with them again, it has been a while. Josh is on fire this season (1:08 at Bryce half??) and I hope he continues to run well. Megan has big big plans in the works as well and I think she can get there. Oh, I did run a 3 mile race (3.06) this past weekend at the Utah Bar Convention in Sun Valley. I finished first in 17:56 on an out and back with a slight climb on the out and a slight down on the return. No real reason to push the pace much but the final mile was 5:34 and it felt good to move quickly.

I know the thousands of devoted followers of my blog have missed my daily one sentence entry about running around Federal Heights and I cannot assure you that I will immediately resume providing daily updates. This running season, as far as I am concerned, is simply about getting healthy and getting back to basics. My life is so full right now that the most I can ask is that running be a compliment to life--rather than a duty to be fulfilled. I do, however, wish all the best to all my friends on the blog and hope that everyone keeps up their speedy speediness and demolishes their goals, whatever they may be.

Since the pool was going to be closed today, I decided to see how my legs would do on back to back days of running.  Turns out they did well during the run but I have had some residual problems the remainder of the day.  I ran up through the cemetery to 11th Ave, dropped off Emily Bates' check for winning the Law Day Run and then headed over to City Creek Canyon. I was feeling fairly well rested, and a little plump so I decided to see if I could run the first mile up city creek canyon at a relatively hard pace.  I was shooting for 6:30 but ran 6:34, which is not bad since it is a difficult uphill mile. It felt pretty good overall. I ran easy back down the canyon, had a drink of water, then headed over to gravity hill where I decided another relatively hard mile was in order.  This one finished just north of the capitol, in 5:36.  Again, a respectable effort  in my opinion all things considered.  Then just an easy jog home over on 4th Ave.  

Was this a workout? No, really just an attempt at fat burning while working on good, sustained running form.  Perhaps I was feeling a little spicy since Des News was this morning and I am on the sideline. 

The knee felt fine during the run but I have had several twinges of pain throughout the rest of the day--usually while walking up or down stairs.  A strong reminder that it's too early to get all crazy with the running.  Most likely back to the pool tomorrow morning.

No running, though it was nice to have a couple of back to back days on the road.  I swam for a while at Steiner, probably 800m before I decided that was enough.

The plan was to run for five miles and then swim for a while. I partked at Steiner and then ran up and around the U, into Fort Douglas.  I  ran on grass quite a bit on campus, wandering through areas I don't usually run over there.  On my way through Red Butte I ran into Lisa Madsen and ran with her up to HCI and then down to Miller Park, nice to catch up wth her.  After I got back to the car I realized I didn't have time to swim after all, so that was that.

No running--I went up to Steiner and swam a mile. I did the workout as 4 sets of 400m each. That helped the swim go quite a bit more quickly. It took about 35 minutes to complete the mile, that seems pretty slow.

Headed up through the avenues to the mouth of city creek canyon and then on to the 1.5 mile mark from there. On the return, I headed around the capitol before dropping down the stairs to cross over to 4th Ave.

 I had some twinges of pain in the left knee on the way up City Creek, but nothing terrible.  It was just enough to remind me that I still need the rest days. On the flat stuff, it didn't bother me at all. I wish that there were more flat routes right from my house. I suppose I could head to Liberty Park more often ...
 

It is not often that I get up at 4:40 am on a Thursday.  But last night I got swept up in a plan to go for an open water swim at East Canyon Reservoir and so I was up very early.  We had a total of 7 or 8 people.  This was my first open water experience. I borrowed a wet suit and was amazed at how buoyant it was. Also the water was very warm. I thought I would be shivering, but it was probably 72 degrees.  I swam one "triangle" out to a series of three buoys.  The sun was just coming up over the mountains and it was very peaceful.  Compared to swimming laps in the pool, it was like running outdoors after being stuck on a treadmill for several weeks. I was very slow, of course, but just went my own pace and enjoyed the experience.

The plan this morning was an easy run out to This is the Place monument and back. As I ran up to Red Butte amphitheater to get a drink of water I thought instead I would try to head up Red Butte Canyon and then onto Shoreline Trail.  This seemed like a good idea, but once I got onto the trail it was apparent that the steep ascents and descents were too much for my knee.  So I bailed out off the trail and ran back toward home through the U.  After stopping to stretch for a minute, the knee felt much better.