Old Man Still running

Good workout.  Ran a couple miles at 3/4th speed.  Minimal pain, less than 7 months ago.  I missed the Freedom run where I had three straight years of age group placing.  Oh well.  Daughter and son-in-law ran, but I avoided it, too tempting and I'm not ready for full speed yet.

Rec center workout, tough ellitical.   Added inclined treadmill, 12:00 pace at 20%.  Worked pretty well, not much pain.

In the afternoon, I went for my first "trail run" in five months.  I ran up to the place where the fire started.  The place is such a shooting mess.  I'll have to get a picture.   Because that area was only burned in the very beginning on day 1, the heat wasn't very hot.  Some trees in that are were saved and most the bushes had their tops burned off to the ground but their roots are still living.  Green shoots are coming up.  Ant hills still have ants.  In other areas burned on day 2, the desert floor is so sortched, there is no trace of bush stumps, no green shoots, only ashes and death.

I ran five miles at average slow pace of 16:30, but it is a start.  My top pace for a little while was 9:30.   Near the end the leg was sore along the fracture line, so that is the limit. The soreness was gone in a couple hours, so that is good.

I'm encouraged.  For recreational runners, a 5-mile run around there and back would have worn them out.  I didn't feel tired at all, so much of the fitness is still there.

Tough workout, but these are getting easier.  Ended out with three miles out doors.  Soreness afterwards for a few hours but then went away.

Going to back off again.  Three miles running on the pavement was too much.  The leg was sore for the rest of the day at the fracture point. Now, any pain gets me discouraged, so I'll be even more careful.  38 hours later, pretty much pain free again.  So I'll get totally pain-free and then ease into it again later this week or next.

A little update.  Ups and downs.  Some times I get worried that things aren't going well but as I compare week-to-week, I still see improvement.  I can walk pain-free this week and in addition the leg feels strong again.   I can go pound the elliptical like crazy, it feels like a marathon-pace effort on hills.  At first I could only do that for 10-15 minutes.  Now I can do it for an hour or more.   People in the rec room are again making comments about how crazy my workout is.

The running motion still puts pressure on the facture area, but running on grass seems to minimize it as long as I keep the pace easy.  Monday I did run a 12-minute mile on the grass and that seems to be the speed limit right now.  However, I can keep a 15-minute pace going for over an hour just fine.

So, that is where things are.   If I remember how I felt in March, I had my doubts if I would ever get this far.

I think much of the pain I still feel now and then are soft tissue pains as it gets used to being used again and adapting to the new bumps on the bone.  Pains don't stay and they aren't bone aching pains that I used to feel all the time.

Had some alarming pain for about 24 hours but then in mysteriously disappeared.  Pretty typical.  Seems like pain crops up more now when I'm resting.  When it comes and stays for awhile, it gets me worried that I'm pushing too hard.  But then it disappears.   The real pain left seems to be on the back of the leg under the calf muscle, probably attachments near the fracture line.

Was able to run at 9:00 pace on the treadmill for a little while without pain.

The family was going to go up Timp so I decided to join in.  A 2:15, knocked on Connor's door and as expected the teenager was "too tired."   Kevin, Jon (son-in-law) and I drove to the American Fork Park and ride to meet his brothers and father at 3 a.m., but we discovered they would be at least 40 minutes late.  So Kevin and I decided to go ahead, we would probably run ahead anyway.

I had no idea what to expect.   Perhaps I could only do a couple miles.   But it turned out pretty good.   I used trekking poles the entire way to try to keep some weight off the bad leg.   I led out going up and was pretty quickly slammed by the altitude.  I haven't been up in the mountains at all this year....well, not above 7,000 feet.   We settled into a managable pace that didn't bring too much pain.   I noted that by the 1 hour mark, I was about 10 minutes behind my usual comfortable pace.

Kevin went on ahead as we approached the switch backs below the basin through the rock slide.  He was quite a ways ahead, but I knew out to catch up.  I just went straight up the slope with the poles and reached the top of the trail before him.

We hit the basin as the dawn arrived and passed many hikers.   Up to the summit went pretty well.  There were large groups descending after viewing the sunrise.   We summited (my 68th) and turned around to head down.   I expected the downhill to be more painful, but back to the saddle went well and I could keep ahead of Kevin.

Heading down to the basin, I had to stop twice to tighten up the laces.  I need new shoes.  All the trail shoes I have just don't give enough support for the bad leg.    Kevin was running good about five minutes ahead.   I tried picking up the pace through the basin but as I did the pain increased, so I just backed off and was very careful.  

Near the bottom of the basin, I ran into Ryan, Jon and brothers.  They were doing well but on pace for a very long day.   I reminded them that they couldn't stop at the saddle.  If they did it wouldn't count has "hiking Timp."

I ran into many people who I knew or who knew me.   First, jun and ScottW.  They were running very well uphill.    I stopped to talk to several other groups too who asked about my leg and were surprised to see me up there.

The last three miles were slow and a little painful but I got it done. I worried that jun and ScottW would catch me, but they didn't.  Kevin had finished a half hour before me.

So, it was a good test.  Lingering pain stayed for several hours and I felt pretty tired into the afternoon, but it was good to be at it again, even for a short run.  On the bright side, my fitness was good enough that I could go faster than 90% of those on the mountain.  I was surprised to see how many runners there were....about 20.  That is amazing.  4-5 years ago, it would just be me, Phil, and an occasional other runner or two.   Now hundreds of runners use the mountain.

Progress.  A couple months ago I thought I would never again be on top of that mountain, instead just be an old man with a cane.

Miles for the week.  Was on vacation in California.  Wed-Sat ran among the redwoods south of Santa Cruz with bro-in-law Ed, son Kevin, and brother Bob.   I'm still pretty slow, but each day was better than the one before.  On Saturday I didn't have to use the trekking poles and on the down hill did a short stretch at 7:30 pace.   We had great fun running on ancient rail beds in the forest.

Six month aniversary of the day I first got the stress fracture.  Remarkable improvement.   The joy of running is finally coming back. 

Previously it only involved very concerning pain.   Good progress.   Ran 9:00 pace on the treadmill for quite awhile with 10% incline.  Very little pain.

Run mostly on golf course.  Pain still felt, discouraging, but I have to remind myself that a couple weeks ago I couldn't do this.  Better than 12:00 pace.

I sent in my withdrawl for Cascade Crest 100.  Today was the deadline to get some of the entry back.   I would have had to decide to buy the plane ticket in the next few days, and I know I won't be pain-free in a week.

So, instead, I'll focus on adventure runs and enjoying running again.  Maybe I'll pace someone at Wasatch.

Next race I'm signed up for is Northcoast 24-hour.  8 weeks away.