dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran approximately 7 miles this morning in 52:15.  I ran to school and met up with Tyler, and after running about 4.5 miles with him I ran home.  During the run home something unexpected happened.  I stopped to do my business in some tall grass near the road.  In order to remain invisible to the cars I had to hold a rather awkward position, squatting down really low to the ground while keeping my feet far enough forward to avoid soiling them with my excrements.  When I stood up to run again my back did not hurt as much as it did prior to performing the squat.  This made me wonder if squatting in that fashion somehow caused my pelvis to realign itself naturally.  Now, this wasn't some sort of miracle cure, as my back still hurts while I type, but it did enough to make me wonder if there is more to explore there.

I ran 7 miles this morning in 53:27.  I ran the first part of the run with my running class, and I ran the rest of the run on my own.  When I woke up this morning my back felt the best that it has felt in a while.  This persisted through the first part of the run today, but unfortunately it did not last.  My back started to get stiff and hurt a bit partway through the run, persisting until the end.  The positive that I am taking from all of this is that things are getting better.  Progress is painfully slow (literally), but at least I can say that I am making progress.

I ran approximately 7 miles this morning in 54:30.  I was supposed to meet Tyler, but he never showed up so I ran alone.  My back felt decent but not great this morning. This is a positive for me because I helped a neighbor move a couch into his apartment last night and my back was fairly sore afterwards.  I was worried that I would experience a fair amount of pain, which never materialized.

About 5 miles into the run I performed a little experiment.  I mentioned on Tuesday that while hiding in some tall grass I had to squat super low in order to remain unseen while doing my business.  Upon commencing running once more I noticed that my back felt better.  Today I decided to see if there was something inherently special about holding a super low squat, so I stopped, spread my legs out a little wider than normal (to simulate the attempt to avoid getting my nastiness on my shoes when in the bushes) and I squatted down really low, holding the squat for about 20-30 seconds.

I didn't notice anything special at first, but I remembered that on Tuesday I had also bent forward at the waist to get my torso lower to the ground.  When I did this I felt like there was a slight stretch in my low back, and when I stood up I felt less discomfort.  It made me think that my pelvis rotated just slightly when I squatted like that, prompting a slight decompression on one side of the vertebrae.  Unfortunately, whatever happened did not last and within a mile I felt no different than I had felt previously.  The positive is that I felt better after I held the squat, while the negative is I still do not know what actually happened to make things feel better.

I may try squating as such on occasion during my runs or while at school/work if my back is feeling off.  Maybe I will get a better idea of what is happening through repetition.  I also think that I should name the squat.  Since I discovered this while doing my business maybe I should name it based on it origins?  Something like "nature's squat", or maybe the "squatting dog", or "excreta's squat".

I ran 7 miles this morning in 53:51.  I ran the first half of the run with my running class, and I ran the second half on my own.  During the second half of the run I picked up the pace four times for 10-20 seconds.  The point of doing this was to see how my back and leg would respond to running fast without risking injury by running hard for long periods of time.  Picking up the pace a bit actually caused me to wonder if the problems I have been having with my left quad are partially due to some sort of nerve impingement.  I still feel a pinching sensation in my quad (at the proximal end just below the ASIS) despite the absence of pain for the last week or two.  I actually notice this sensation more when walking than when running.  Sometimes this pinching sensation actually radiates upwards into my pelvis and low back as well.  I will have to look more into that.

I ran 7 miles this morning in 45:16.  I got out the door later than planned and as a result I decided to run a little faster so that I wouldn't miss any of general conference.  I didn't want to risk hurting myself, but recently I have felt like the pain I have been feeling is not muscular, but maybe nerve related and as a result I felt like I was not taking too large of a risk by running a little faster.  What I did not realize was how fast I would naturally start to run without really trying to run fast.

I started the run, and I figured that if I started below 7:30 for the first mile I could then speed up to sub 7:00 pace, maybe even 6:30-6:40.  Still worried about potential injury I did not feel comfortable going faster than that.  I ran the first mile in about 7:20, and a little over a minute later when I hit the trail (where there are markers every quarter mile) I started timing my splits.  I felt like I was running around 6:40 pace, maybe a little faster, so I was rather surprised when I hit the half mile mark in 3:05.  The pace felt so easy that I decided to just keep going.  The next half mile was 3:00, followed by 2:53 and 2:51 for the next two half mile segments after which the trail ends (so, 6:05 and 5:44 mile splits, 11:49 for 2 miles).  I felt like I was maxing out aerobically at about 5:40 mile pace, which is unsurprising considering my training (or lack thereof), but I was happy that the effort did not feel too taxing from a muscular standpoint.

After using the port-o-potty nearby I ran a little extra until I hit my turn around, came back, and started heading back on the trail towards home.  On the way back I was running slightly uphill (vs. slightly downhill on the way out) and I ran splits of 1:29, 2:51, 1:26 (5:46 mile), followed by 2:48, and 2:47 splits (5:35 mile, 11:21 for 2 miles).  I definitely felt like I was going anaerobic near the end of the second mile when I was running up a steeper uphill grade and I was going faster than I had run early on.  Overall, running hard today felt really good.  It has been a while since I have run hard, and I was missing it (no hard runs since I got mono in July).  To top things off, my back was feeling better today than any other day this week, and the different focus during the run shifted my focus away from my back and I was able to ignore things for all but the first mile of the run.

On a side note, I figured it would be good to post a few more pictures of my little people.

Anita holding baby Kamran

Anita holding Kamran #2 (she loves holding him, it is very cute)

Kamran doing what he does best, sleep!

Kamran smiling in his sleep while wearing the blanket that Grandma McClellan made for him

Shayon taking a nap on the living room floor

While watching general conference today one of the speakers spoke about developing physical endurance and related it to the development of spiritual endurance.  Since this is a running blog I figured that mentioning this talk here specifically was relevant.  The speaker, Elder Maynes, mentioned that our testimonies, like our bodies, need to be in shape if we are to endure.  We will not be in good spiritual shape just from watching general conference, just as we will not be in good physical shape if all we do is watch sports on television.  The "price" that Elder Maynes said must be paid to develop spiritual or physical endurance is "dedication, perseverance, and self-discipline".  I feel like those words ought to be remembered by any runner who is striving to imrove and get faster, for it is impossible to do so without maintaining consistency in training and avoiding injury.  If we are dedicated and persevere we will out of necessity maintain that consistency in training that is required to develop strength and speed, while self-discipline can be employed to avoid the common pitfalls that cause many of us to become injured, etc.

I ran approximately 8 miles this morning in 1:01:43.  I ran about 5 miles with my running class, and then another 3 miles on my own after class was over.

I met Tyler this morning, and we ran together.  As I was running to meet Tyler I felt really sluggish, averaging slower than 8:40 per mile on the way to our meeting point.  After we started running together my legs seemed to really wake up, and the two of us sped up quite a bit.  At one point Tyler looked at his watch and it claimed we were running about 7:10 pace (we were out in the open so the gps was probably reasonably accurate).  After we got back onto campus I ran with Tyler towards his apartment for a few minutes before turning back and heading home.  Total of about 9 miles in 1:08:31.

I ran approximately 8 miles today in 1:03:44.  I did not get much sleep last night because of a school assignment so I felt really sluggish today.  My running class met at the ISU cross country course, and while there I ran the 5k course in 24:34.  There are a lot of hills on the course, and I could tell that my back was pretty stiff going downhill but otherwise my back actually felt pretty good.

On the other hand, my leg has not really been making any progress over the last week or so, which is frustrating.  I am becoming more and more convinced that there is some sort of impingement on the femoral nerve, as I feel clicking in my hips when I straighten my legs out while in a prone position, I have point sensitivity on one or two of the vertebrae in the lumbar spine, and the location I most frequently feel discomfort in the left quad is right where the femoral nerve exits from under the inguinal ligament.  The discomfort also has a distinctively non-muscular feel, more like a pinching feeling, and less like a stretching or compressive force, while on occasion the pain will radiate up through the iliac crest and into my back.  I feel like I am just about at the tipping point where I will go to see a doctor for this, as it has been 3 months since I started having problems with my leg, and I have tried just about everything that I know how to do to fix the problem. 

8 miles this morning in 1:03:07.  I ran about 4 miles with Tyler and ran the rest of the run alone. My back felt pretty stiff starting off, but it felt better after I got warmed.  My leg felt similar to my back, hurting more at the beginning and feeling better as I was able to relax more.

I ran the first 3.5 miles of the run today with my running class, after which I ran another 4.5 miles on my own.  Total of 8 miles in 1:03:09.  My leg was bothering me more than normal during the last mile or two of the run.

I ran 9 miles today in 1:06:14.  I have felt recently that when I stretch out my hamstrings after my runs that my quad hurts less, so today I decided to try stretching them out beforehand.  Results were mixed, as the quad and back still hurt, but they felt better than yesterday.  I stretched the hamstrings out again after I got home.

I ran on the indoor track this morning as I had my running class run a 2400m fitness test (I just called it 1.5 miles when I explained it to the class).  After they were done I just stayed at the track and ran there rather than running outside.  I switched directions every so often, and ran in the outside lanes when running backwards.  As a result I still had to approximate the distance despite running on a track.  Approximate total of 8 miles in 59:00.  The very last lap that I ran I decided to run fast while still maintaining control (i.e. not hurting myself).  I ended up running 300m in 0:56 (5:00 pace).

General takeaways from today:   My leg and back still hurt... darn, they were feeling a lot better yesterday.  At first, running counterclockwise around the track (the way you are supposed to run) hurt more than running clockwise around the track.  Once I got used to the turns my back and quad felt more achy than anything (less pain than normal... yay).  The discomfort I was feeling was largely contained to the area of the inguinal ligament, and the iliac crest as it radiated upward towards the low back (this is fairly normal for me, but generally the pain radiates farther down into my leg, and farther up into my back).  5:00 pace felt easier than i thought it would, and I was surprised to see 0:56 for 300m, I was expecting 0:58-0:60 based on effort.

I didn't post any pictures last week, so here are a few random pictures from the last few days:

Anita sleeping.  She fell asleep on the couch last night (while still wearing her church dress) and we just left her there.  This is what I saw when I got up this morning.

Kamran finally lost his belly button scab!  It is gross, but his scab was much bigger than our other kids' scabs so I took a picture.

Kimia and I started a competition of sorts, the details of which will remain unwritten, however I am going to post our score to my blog so that I can remember.

Following day 1:  Kimia - 2, Jeff - 1

I ran 8 miles this morning in 1:01:47.  My back felt very sensitive this morning, almost like one bad step would cause it so seize up, so I was very careful not to make any sudden twists or turns.  Luckily, there was not much pain, and when I was able to relax more there was less discomfort.  I am starting to feel like my hamstrings are becoming more flexible as well, so hopefully this helps decrease pain over the long term (I say this while working under the assumption that I have an anterior tilt to my pelvis, and that working towards greater flexibility will help keep my pelvis in a more neutral position).

Here are a few more pictures of my little people:

Kamran hanging out

Anita spending time with her baby brother.  She really loves to hold him and cuddle with him too!

Continuing the competition that Kimia and I are having...

Total score after day 2:  Kimia - 3, Jeff - 2

I misjudged how much I would run with my running class today, so I ended up running more than planned as I ran the first part of my workout before class today rather than after like I normally do, and also ran home afterwards so that Kimia could go to the hospital (more on that later).  I left the house this morning, and ran about 4.75 miles before class in just over 37 minutes.  During class I was purposefully running much slower than normal trying to run a shorter distance (I go back and forth to check on students, so running slower does actually help me run less), however the unfortunately did not work very well and I still ended up running about 4 miles in class.  After class was over I ran home an additional 1.5 miles for a grand total of 10.25 miles with a total time of about 1:24:00.  So, it was more than planned, but I felt decent, so it was not a big deal.  In fact, I felt the least amount of pain that I have felt on any given day since I started running again after getting mono in July.

Now, back to Kimia.  She started bleeding again while my mom was visiting at the beginning of October (she had previously stopped bleeding completely).  We weren't sure why, but the bleeding was similar to a period so we were not too concerned (we even thought that maybe her period had started again earlier than usual).  However, over the last few days the bleeding has progressively increased, and last night Kimia passed a number of rather large clots.  She ended up going into the ER late in the evening, and she found out that a piece of her placenta is still embedded in her uterus.  She had to go into the hospital this morning to have it removed.  Hopefully everything goes well and she is able to leave the hospital as soon as she wakes up.

Total score:  Kimia - 4, Jeff - 3

I ran 8 miles this morning in just under 1:01:00.  I ran on the indoor track because I had a student that needed to make up her fitness test.  I ran a couple miles before she showed up, I ran a couple more while she was doing the fitness test, and I ran my last few miles after she left.  My back was a little sore this morning because Anita was late for the bus and I was running while holding her in my arms.  This caused a little bit of soreness while running, but overall my back felt okay.

On a side note, Kimia seemed to be feeling a lot better today.  After the procedure yesterday she threw up and was loopy for a while because despite her requests they gave her some strong pain meds.  This morning after she got a full night of sleep she seemed to be doing a lot better.

In an effort to keep things quiet in the house last night, I took the kids out so that they could have some fun.  Here are a couple pictures of the kids trying on hats at the store.

Total score after day # 4:  Kimia - 4, Jeff -4

I ran 8 miles this morning, running a little over 5 miles with my running class, and then running the rest of the run on my own.  Total time of 1:01:12.  Today was the last day for the running class, so I will be running alone on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from here on out.

I was not planning to run anything fast today, but as I was finishing the run with my class one of the students who had gone out further than the rest of the class (today's run was a timed out and back) realized that he needed to speed up in order to finish in 40 minutes.  As a result he sped up to sub 6:00 pace for the last mile or so, and I ended up running the last mile with him.  My leg felt kind of sore and tight when I sped up with my student, so when I ran on my own I ran another half mile fast to see if the tightness was just a result of speeding up quickly or if it was something else.  I made a point of speeding up gradually (1st quarter in 88, second quarter in 82), and sure enough I did not notice the tightness that I noticed earlier, despite running sub 5:30 pace for the second quarter.

I also noticed when warming up with my class that if I slide to my left I feel some pain in my quad, lower back, and along the iliac crest.  This further reinforces my belief that my pelvic alignment is off.  I also notice a clicking in my hips when I extend my legs from a prone position, or if I perform hip adduction/abduction exercises.  More and more, the question for me is to ask myself how long it will take before I stop experimenting and finally cave and see a physical therapist?

Total score:  Kimia - 6, Jeff - 6

I ran 10 miles today in 1:13:08.  I didn't look at my watch until I was 3 miles into the run, and I had averaged about 7:30 pace up until that point.  I then ran 4 miles in 7:17, 7:34, 7:31, and 7:25.  I hit the 5 mile mark in 37:19.  I slowed down a little (although not much), between the 7 and 9 mile markers due to a fair amount of uphill running, making it to 9 miles in 1:07:28.  I had decided partway into the run to run the last mile fast just as a test of how my back and leg were feeling.  I ended up running the last mile in 5:40, which all things considered is not half bad (lots of hills and turns during this mile).  The only time my back complained during this mile was during a very short but steep downhill section, while my quad felt pretty good for pretty much the whole thing as well.  Another positive that I will take away from the run today is that I had to keep consciously making an effort to slow down.

Total score:  Kimia - 9, Jeff - 7

Kimia and I finished our little challenge for the week.  Kimia won with a total score of 10-9.

I ran 9 miles this morning in 1:09:21 (33:56 first half, 35:25 second half).  I started off the run really slowly, and I hit my 2 mile mark in about 17:00.  Just before I hit this mark I saw another guy out running and I sped up in order to catch up to him.  Just before I caught up to him he noticed that I was coming, and he sped up as well, so I didn't really slow down after catching him.  It ends up that it was one of the Iowa State runners out on a morning run.  I met him once while running last year (November maybe?), and he guessed correctly who I was, simply because he couldn't imagine anyone else running him down from behind.  I ended up running with him for about 2 miles (about 6:30-6:40 pace average) before he turned off to head back to campus.  I then slowed back down again, and finished the run on my own.

At school I helped out Liz collect some pilot data for her research, and I ended up running about 4 more miles while helping her.  I ran a short warm-up, and then ran just over a mile while forefoot striking, followed by running just over a mile while heel striking, and finished up by running just over a mile barefoot.  I also helped Liz by experimenting running "barefoot" with socks, and running barefoot without socks.  I performed all of the running trials on a treadmill, with an accelerometer attached to my right tibia.  Essentially, Liz is going to be looking at the data collected to see how randomly the timing of my footfalls is distributed about the mean, and is trying to see if there will be differences depending on footstrike pattern.

I ran a total of 9 miles this morning in 1:12:02 (36:12, first half, 35:50 second half).  I felt tired this morning, so I didn't make any effort to run fast, even when I realized that I had a good chance of catching the 8:00 guy at the end of the run I didn't really speed up much.  I think I was tired because yesterday I ran more than I am accustomed to.  It is kind of pathetic that running 4 more miles than planned wore me out as much as it did.  I probably need to keep things easy for the rest of this week.  Hopefully the max stress test I am doing in class tomorrow doesn't wear me out too much.

I only ran 7 miles this morning because I was going to run a max stress test in the afternoon.  Total time was 53:58.  I felt much better today than yesterday.

In the afternoon for the stress test I ran what I will call 2 miles.  Total time was 21 minutes, with a 5 minute cool down at the end.  Total distance was probably less than 2 miles, but I maxed out at a 22% grade going 6 mph, while the test started at a 10% grade.  My HR maxed out at 189 at the end of the test.  I guess this gives me a benchmark that I can use to gauge fitness improvements.  If I do this again in a year maybe I can hit 24 minutes instead of 21.

I got a replacement HR monitor strap yesterday, so I was able to run with the HR monitor for the first time in about a year and a half.  The results were about what I expected to see, although not what I wanted to see.  My HR was between 5-10 bpm higher at a given pace than it used to be when I was in better shape.  My best guess is that this coorelates with about a 30-40 second per mile reduction in pace compared to before.  It looked like I was hitting about 131 on the HR monitor at about 8:10 mile pace.  2 years ago, I would have been about 7:30-7:40 mile pace with a HR of 131.  Total time for the run was 1:11:48 for 9 miles.

Total score thusfar for week two of the competition that Kimia and I are having:  Kimia - 7, Jeff - 7 (I was down 7 to 4 at the beginning of the day).

Total time of 1:10:28 for 9 miles, with an average HR of 133.  So, 1:20 faster than yesterday, with an average HR that was 1 bpm slower.  That makes me think that I was still slightly fatigued yesterday after the max stress test on Wednesday.

My leg and back have still caused intermittent pain recently, though I have not made daily mention of it as I did previously.  The pain tends to radiate through the iliac crest and down into the quad/groin, or up into the low back.  I really should go to see a physical therapist soon so that I can try to get rid of the pain completely.  My hesitation however, has been that I have been mostly successful at eliminating the pain without the need to see a doctor.  I keep thinking that maybe I will figure out something new to fix things on my own, and the possibility excites me considering how close I actually am to doing just that.

Anyhow, I figure that my kids need a little more love today, so here are a few pictures.

Shayon holding Kamran.  He doesn't like doing this very often (although he loves giving the baby kisses), so we had to persuade him to hold the baby so that we could take a picture.

Anita and Shayon pretending to be Darth Vader at the Halloweed store.

Shayon decided to be an artist today.  Here he is painting his face with the face paint that was supposed to be part of his halloweed costume (a skeleton).

I ran 11 miles this morning in about 1:26:00, with an average HR of 133.  My back did not hurt much, but it felt off today.  I wonder if I need to start sleeping on the floor again.  I tried stretching out my back after I got home, but it didn't seem to help much.

Total score for week 2 of my competition with Kimia:  Kimia - 10, Jeff - 9

I ran 10 miles this morning in 1:19:38.  Average HR at 132.  My left leg still feels like something is not right.  Today, my back did not really hurt, and my groin did not really hurt, but things did not feel right.  I'm not completely sure what to think.  My right tibia has also been bothering me just a bit lately, as I smacked my leg on my bike pedal the other day.  My ankle bled a little from the hit, and over the last few days I feel like there is a little soreness in my leg while I run.  Part of this might also be the increase in mileage over the last month or so, and it is simply more noticable because I hit my leg.

I figured out yesterday afternoon that the tension I was feeling in my right leg was not due to the bike injury I got a few days earlier, it was actually due to a tight soleus.  I massaged the muscle out yesterday afternoon, which was somewhat painful.  During the run today I did a little heart rate fitness test to see what my HR would be at about 6:00 pace.  I ran a half mile in 3:01 (92, 89) with an approximate HR of 162 at 6:00 pace.  When I was in better shape my HR would hit about 155-157 at 6:00 pace (at altitude).  Unfortunately my little test was more than my calf could handle, and for the last 4 miles of my run my calf was complaining.  Total of 10 miles in 1:15:19 with an average HR of 137.

Some more pictures of life recently:

The pumpkin that I carved for the kids

Shayon standing with the pumpkin pie that Kimia made using fresh pumpkin

Kamran hanging out after his bath

I ran 10 miles this morning in 1:19:44.  Average HR of 128.  Not sure why the HR was lower this morning than on others.  A few factors were in play, as I left the house earlier this morning so I hadn't been awake as long, I started off slower (first mile in approximately 9:00), there was a lot of fog in the air so there was more moisture than normal, and I put wintercrest on my calf prior to stepping out the door (to help with the calf soreness).  Any of these factors could have played a role in the lower than expected HR, or possibly none of them (hopefully the later).  I averaged 7:51/mile for a 4 mile stretch with an average HR of 130, which is much more in line with what I used to see when out running (still a little higher, but much closer).

I was supposed to meet Tyler this morning to run, but he didn't show up, so I ran alone.  Total of 1:19:12 for what I will guess was 10 miles.  Average HR of about 130.  HR was lower again this morning, with similar conditions to yesterday minus starting out at 9:00 pace for the first mile. I averaged 124 bpm for a mile at 8:00 pace early on in the run.

Here are a couple pictures that we took last night before the ward trunk or treat.

Shayon, eating an organic lollipop while sitting on the toilet.  He was mad that I put face paint on him, so we gave him the lollipop as a distraction.

All the kids just before we left.  Anita is Rapunzel, while Shayon and Kamran both wore glow in the dark skeleton outfits.