Chad's Runs

This is my third week of crappy miles.  Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I was sick and Wednesday I spent taking down Christmas lights so today was my first run of the week.  I could tell I haven't been putting in regular miles.  I shouldn't feel this tired after an 8 mile run.

I'm running shorter distances for a while until my ankles feel better.  I was encouraged the first 2 miles but then the right one started to hurt again.  Crap.  I walked for a bit each 1/2 mile or so after that hoping that I'll recover sooner.  I'm going to try again tomorrow.

Took it easy.  My ankles have been sore for several days after any kind of run.  Then on the next run with no pain in my ankles at all, that only lasts for about 2 miles and process starts all over again.  So today I took it extra easy.  I walked occasionally and I focused on a relaxed and flat foot strike.  Then afterwards I stretched and iced.  I think it worked.  I'm not sore at all now.  I felt it acting up a little at the end of each run segment but the walk cooled things down.  I'll wait to see how it feels tomorrow.  I want to get over this and move on.

Did another run walk thing.  My ankles felt pretty good.  I iced them afterward and they felt pretty good.  They actually felt good the rest of the day.  I'm entering this on Sunday and they don't feel as good this morning.  I took some ibuprofin and iced them again.  I hope they are a little better tomorrow because I want to run, 16 miles this week if I can manage it.

I wanted to go 6 but my right ankle was hurting more than I wanted so I erred on the side of caution and went 4.5.  My left one didn't hurt at all so that is great progress.  I'll find out tomorrow how much better it is.

I should have run yesterday but I couldn't find the motivation.  Crap, I've got to get with it. 

No running today.  My ankles do feel better today than the day after previous runs so that is encouraging.  I'll be back at it tomorrow.  So #3 just turned 8 a few months ago and has his first pinewood derby today.  Check out this cool car we built.

6 miles on the JRP.  I ran south this time into Saratoga Springs.  I haven't run that far south for a while and I forgot what great views of the lake there are.  I really enjoyed it.  Down in Saratoga Springs I heard a bunch of geese.  They were loud!  As I got closer to the sound the sky turned black.  There was one, maybe two thousand GEESE.  There is a big field north of the neighborhood I was running in.  They must have been there when something scared them.

As for my ankles?  They didn't feel as good as they did on Tuesday.  Crap.

I love running in the rain.  I wanted to run 7.5 but thought my ankles would keep me at 6.  I ran south again into Saratoga Springs and was really enjoying the run.  My ankles felt good so I ran past the 3 mile turn around then ran past the 3.75 turn around and finally turned around at 4.5.  There were beautiful views of the stormy lake and lakeside houses.  There is even a little gravel trail right down next to the lake that I didn't know was there.  There wasn't quite enough gravel to keep all the mud away but it wasn't too bad.  So I turned around at 4.5 and took roads next to the lake view "mansions" on the way back.  This added the about an extra half mile.  My ankles didn't bother me at all after about 2.5-3 miles.  That was very encouraging, but I was still adding in a one minute walk break out of every seven.  I'm going to keep doing that until the day after improves.  I'm always sore the next day and I hope these extra miles don't set me back.  I haven't been bringing my GPS.  I want to run what feels good, so the miles are actually estimates based on the time I'm running.  It's probably pretty close.

4.5 in the snow.  It's hard to see with snow flying in you're eyes.  The JRP wasn't slick and there wasn't anyone on it.  I was actually able to just close my eyes part of the time.  That sounds really weird but it worked when running into the wind.  I'm making it sound worse than it was.  It wasn't all that cold and I didn't get very wet.  As for my ankles, they didn't feel as good as they have the last few runs.  It was a little discouraging.

Two days in a row.  Sweet.  Things felt better than yesterday but that might have to with the ibuprofen I took before this run.  I haven't run two consecutive days for quite a while and I'm not much more sore than with an extra day's rest.  I am still walking a minute every mile or so and that is frustrating but I can tell it helps giving my ankle some rest periodically.  I may try cutting down on some of the walks next week depending on how I feel.

I ran down into Saratoga Springs again and the sun setting in the west lit up Timpanogos in the east with a bright pink color.  It was quite a sight looking at it across the lake.  I'm glad the days are getting longer.  The sun would have already been down for this run a month ago.  Still the sun was set for the second half of this run and all the wet spots on the trail froze.  I had to slow down and tread lightly here and there.

Stretched the run time between walks by a minute which added a mile to my run.  I was really pleased with how my ankles felt for the first three quarters but for the last mile or two they got tired.  Not sore necessarily, but tired-sore.  It was good and wet again but not cold.  I'm going to run 10 or so on Saturday which will get me to 27-28 miles for the week.  That is the most I've had for more than a month.  Sad.

Wonderful run. Sometimes you just feel like you can run forever.  I felt no pain in my ankles for most of this run, they only got tired toward the end.  I didn't get out until 9:30pm.  I usually just blow it off by then but this time I talked myself into getting out.  The temperature was in the low 20s but I never felt cold.  I even had to take my gloves off for a good portion of this run.  I ran south again on the JRP and then down into Saratoga Springs.  Saw some great views of the lights on the east side of Utah Lake reflecting off of the lake.  I also enjoy running by all those sweet cribs that border and lake and look out over it.  I wonder how much farther I'd have to run before I run into the golf course.  Oh yeah, I so some deer, one of which was a huge 5 or 6 point buck.  They weren't afraid of me, they just stepped a little further off the road and watched me run by.  Cool.

I haven't been out for a 5am run for a couple of months.  I have been working some on the weekends because my afternoon runs cut into my work hours so I'm going to try and get in some early runs.  It takes a while to get warmed up on these early runs and my ankles were sore from the 10 miles I ran on Saturday night.  Not a big deal, I expected it.  I think they will start feeling better by the end of the week again.

I think one of the big reasons I am having these ankle issues is because of bad form when I first tried the Altras.  I was focusing on a strong push off on the middle of the ball of my foot.  I am mostly a neutral runner but sometimes I over pronate a little.  So I was doing a little research on the POSE method and learned that it is more than posture/mid-foot strike.  Momentum comes for leaning forward, not from pushing off.  From what I gathered, the leg should be "pulled" forward with no push off.  I was just putting a lot of stress on the bottom of my tibia and those tendons that run right behind the ankle keeping my foot tight and pushing off.  This pull instead of push will keep my foot relaxed instead of tight.  I hope I understand all this form stuff a little better and it helps me heal and reduce future injuries.  I don't have any experience with this stuff so maybe I'm up in the night but I'm going to try run this way for a while and see if it helps endurance/speed/injuries/etc.