Elite Jogging For Dummies

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.