AM: 5 Mile running. 3/10 on the soreness/tightness. Following up with 25 mins on bike. I enjoyed running on the dusting of snow we got last night. It was great padding.
AM: 4 miles running - 30 mins on bike. Not getting better, not getting worse. Patience is not one of my virtues.
PM: Basketball game - 2 miles of sprinting then shuffling then sprinting. 0 points, handful of rebounds, a few steals, but mostly missed shots. Not my finest performance.
Epic mountain climb with Joe. Poor Joe, he picked a bad day to join me and my stupid ideas. I have always wanted to hike up to the reflector towers and I decided today was the day. Never mind the knee deep snow and 40 mph winds near the top. Man was it cold! It took 1:20 to get to the top from first dam and only 43 back. We spent just enough time at the top to snap a few photos and then it was a race to get down the mountain before hypothermia set in. It got pretty hairy for a bit, but we survived and still have all our extremities. I seriously considered adding on once we got back to the car but decided to play it safe. No leg pain today, but that is because there was very little actual running.
AM: 4 miles running. Still have a persistent pain over the side of the knee. It didn't worsen during the run though. Got home and rode the bike for 30 mins.
LUNCH: 4.5 miles on BST from Green to First Dam and back. It was an ice rink and muddy all at once. What a nightmare. I wont be hitting that trail again anytime soon. I detoured to the road for a bit, and that section hurt my leg. I need to find a clear trail to run on and my leg will thank me.
AM: Ran the first 12 holes of the golf course. It was sure nice to be on grass. Leg hurt for the half mile run home. It stopped hurting once I stopped. Rode the bike with no issues for 35 mins. Making an appt with a doc today. (Appt on Friday)
PM: Biking only until doc is my plan. 40 mins in the evening
It wasn't THAT epic, it was only intensely difficult. We hiked up the side of the mountain as fast as possible. Ok, back to the beginning. We started at Rattlesnake Gulch of the Wellsvilles and hiked up the snow covered trail in snowshoes. Once the trail seemed to disappear, we decided to do the best we could going straight up the mountain. Amazingly, we picked a line that intersected the actual trail and we were back in business. Of course, the trail was covered in snow and we only knew it was a trail by the lack of bushes on either side. We were making great time. About 30 mins per mile when the trail headed west. The problem was that it was on the east side of a steep ridge and the snow was too soft to make it up the ridge. We kept sliding back down. So we went a different way and from then on, we were forced to head straight up the mountain or to give up and go home. We never give up and so we went up. Our pace suffered. It took us 20 mins to go a quarter mile with no breaks. We nearly shouted with joy upon reaching a ridge we could hike normal on. The view was glorious and well worth the effort.
Coming down was a bit of a struggle as the 10 or so faceplants made things interesting. You would be fine running down a mountain and mere seconds later, your toe would sink in and poof, down you went. It was a blast!
So, 5.5 miles in 2:40 mins. 4000' vertical (mile 3 took us 52:24)
Joe and I near the top... Will we make it??
We didn't make it to the top, but close. We ran out of time and steam at the same time...
**On a related note, my doctor visit yesterday was interesting. I definitely have ITB tendonitis in my right knee. Although not as severe as last year. Not much I can do about that aside from what I am already doing. Stop any activity that hurts it. R.I.C.E.
I had them do an x-ray to make sure that there was nothing else wrong with it as I still have pain on the inside (MCL area). Plus pain on the shin bone as well. Tender to the touch. The x-ray was negative. No bone issues. Good. But, what is the problem? They had theories, but would need an MRI to know. I have been thinking about this injury for over a year now and since it is reasonably manageable I have not done a lot about it. Now is the time to check it all out and get a proper diagnosis. So, I had an MRI done as well on friday. Pretty expensive day, but hopefully I get some diagnosis from it. I get the results on Monday so I will post those then. I don't expect a major problem to be found as obviously I am able to hike up a crazy mountain the day after the test, but even a negative result would put me at ease. At least then I know I will just have to deal with the pain I do have.
The MRI results came back today. No major issues thankfully. The multiple issues I am experiencing are all due to inflammation of different tendons. I have inflammation of the patellar tendon, Illio-tibial Band, and the Hamstring tendon. There were no tears in the meniscus as suspected. There was minor chondromalacia, but its not bad enough to really be concerned with at this point. It does explain the kneecap pain I had last summer when I was biking so much.
So, what now? Well, I need to reduce the inflammation ASAP and get it healed up. I can do any activity that does not aggravate my leg. My plan is to stick with biking and hiking for a bit before any running. Basically, I need to balance out my muscle groups and pay closer attention to any tightness. I have noticed a trend of getting injured when my hamstrings are tight. Better stretching and definitely better warmups and cooldowns. Especially in the cold weather.
So, it looks like my 2012 is shaping up to be a repeat of 2011. If I can get a handle on the inflammation faster, I can still have a fun year....
AM: bike for 80 mins. Leg feeling great. Patience...
PM: Needed a break from biking. Headed up to Providence Canyon and hiked up the trail. It was pretty powdery, but the microspikes helped a ton. I jogged very slowly for a half mile heading up and for a half mile heading down. I kept it pretty slow. No pain during, but soreness later on. Not ready for running yet for real.
Snowshoe hiking today. I ventured up Spring Hollow as far as time would allow me. I didn't quite make it to the overlook, but got a great workout in nonetheless. 2600' vertical climbing, the trail all to myself. It was a great morning. The only other tracks I saw were the deer and moose tracks that nearly followed the trail the whole way. No running today still, but still very enjoyable.
PM: Planet Walk 2 Mile run. No pain or tightness. I love the Altras. I don't need all the room in the toe box, but it wasn't detrimental. The shoes felt like my MT101's. I like the low profile. I have also been doing Myrtl Hip Exercises. They seem to be helping. I had no idea my hips were so tight. Gonna keep doing them 2x's a day.
AM: 80 mins on the exercise bike. Watched War of the Worlds.
PM: 2.5 miles running. I did laps around the driving range and the willow park ball fields. Leg felt great on the grass. Last half mile home, not so good. I am not seeing much improvement. Followed it my jog with 30 mins on the bike.
Headed up the stairmaster (Providence Canyon). My main goals were to get a ways up the canyon and not get stuck in a blizzard and die. I succeeded on all accounts. I hit 9K+ feet elevation while staying on snowmobile tracks until the last grunt up a hill. I was enjoying myself until I hit what I think was the lower slopes of Providence Peak when the storm hit with a vengence. I quickly decided to tuck tail and head down. Not a moment too soon. I was soon in a whiteout and would've given my right knee for some ski goggles. I was running blind down the mountain. I made it back to relative safety near the quarry before deciding I had better stop running. Too late, though the damage had been done. My knee was now really sore. I ended up walking the rest of the way down the canyon waving to 30 snowmobiles as they headed up into their playground.
Overall, it was great fun, but I really need to figure out this injury. Apparently, it is not ready to handle actual running yet. Better lay low and reassess.
T- 3:10 (17:16) 4000' vert (about 2-3 miles of actual running)
No running lately - Decided to take a break and actually let my leg heal.
More importantly, I have better things to do this week anyways. We welcomed another addition to our household on Leap Day! Everything went great and now I just have to figure out how to get the in-laws to go home....
