Sean's Running Blog

Wasn't very confident about being able to run today but I managed 8 miles taking it super easy (7:05-7:10 pace). Mild soreness on the top of the left foot but nothing that inhibited my stride. I doubt I could race on it, but it was 90% fine for an easy training run. I iced it when I got back and took some ibuprofen. Hopefully, I am ready to jump back in. Looking forward to P90x tonight. It's Cardio X day.

P90x -- Cardio workout...um...not really all that impressed from a cardio perspective. As  runner I pretty much get my dose of cardio in a given day and week. Oddly, the Lean program for P90x omits the Plyometrics workout from the routine so I may swap out Cardio for Plyos.

A chilly but gorgeous sunny day in Seattle. Ran through Marymoor Park and the Sammamish River. Foot pain was much more noticeable today than yesterday. I was ready to stop at six miles but then it started to get better, or at least hurt less....kind of like cold fingers hurt less once they are numb enough. Set up an appointment with the PT for tomorrow morning.

P90x -- Tonight was Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper X. I don't have heavy enogh weights yet but they are on their way. It was the Ab Ripper  that crushed me. It's 15 minutes of non-stop ab exercises. It claims something like 330+ exercises/reps in a 15-minute period. It is the hardest thing I have ever done and that was just the first five minutes.

 Today was another sunny but chilly day. Low 40s but sunny. Today was the first run I've had in a few weeks where I actually felt really good. I saw the PT in the morning. No stress fracture for sure but just some angry tendons. Got a good treatment on it and it seemed to help a lot. My balance is awful which bore itself out at the PT this morning. Lack of balance is a lack of strength and my left ankle in particular is very weak right now.

P90x -- Yoga night. 90 minutes of it. I'll admit it...I always thought of Yoga as girly, sissy stuff. Umm...I was wrong. It is quite a physical workout. I didn't sweat at all nor was there any cardio to speak of, but my muscles were really working and it is super helpful with not only getting stronger, but more limber. I will say that Yoga is incredibly boring to me. Very useful, but boring.

Another consecutive of of running that felt good. A bit of lingering discomfort in the left foot but nothing that noticeably affected my easy run. Another chilly afternoon and this time the fog never cleared making it slightly less enjoyable. I'd rather have a 30 degree sunny day than a 35 degree foggy one.

P90x -- Tonight was Legs and Back. Let's just say I have some work to do on pull ups. Almost one week in to P90x and I'm pretty confident 90 days from now I will have reaped some running benefit.

 Very busy day for the Sundwalls so my run had to come very early. I was running by 6am which is still almost 90 minutes prior to sunrise. It was a starry morning but chilly with a temp of 23 degrees. Fortunately, it has been dry the last several days so i didn't have to deal with ice but I was definitely bundles up. I managed to stay pretty warm but I'm glad I wasn't running 20.

Foot feels great. It needs to regain some strength but no more pain.

P90x -- Today was Kenpo day. I would say this is the best cardio workout of any of them. It's amazing what a fake boxing match can do for your cardio. This workout, like yoga, exposes my inflexibility more than any other. Lots of work to do but I feel like it's going to help.

 12 chilly miles along the Sammamish River Trail. The whol 4:15pm sunset thing really bites. In fact it was more like 3:45 when the sun went down over the Western hills. Brrr..

P90x -- It was Core Synergistics night. Had to do it alone as my wife had other things going on. This is a really good workout for runners. Works on flexibility and core strength. Looking forward to Plyometrics tomorrow.

 There are maybe two or three times a year when I run on a treadmill. Today was one of those dreadful days. I had no time during the day to get my run in and I knew it was going to be dark with temps in the teens by the time I did it in the evening. So I opted for the treadmill. Still not sure how I got through an hour of running on a moving rubber belt.

P90x -- Today was Plyometrics day. The "Lean" schedule I am on has today as the Cardio day but I have found that workout to be all but worthless so my wife and I have substituted the Plyos DVD and I'm glad we did. It is a fantastic workout both from a cardio perspective and and muscle building perspective. My legs were on fire. Loved it. The only bad part was at the end I realized I was one workout closer to Yoga. Ugh.  

Another really cold day today. By the time I got out it has "warmed" to 26 degrees. Can't remember a more beautiful December in Seattle, but it's come at a cold price, at least by our standards. Decided that if I am going to run the Kent Christmas 10k on Saturday I should probably do a little speed work. So I did a 5x1:00 hard with 2:00 rests in between. According to my watch I was anywhere between 4:55 and 5:25 pace. I felt really lethargic. Saturday should be really interesting.

P90x -- Arms and Shoulders + Ab Ripper -- Ummm..it kicked my butt tonight. Actually, my arms then my abs. I'm amazed at how thorough these workouts are. The Ab Ripper remains an absolute muscle crusher. It would be my dream to get through every rep of every exercise in that 15-minute routine without stopping.

We're in a full blown heat wave now. 36 degrees. Wow.

I learned something today: the importance of arms. Last night my P90x workout focused on arms and shoulders. It was pretty challenging and I was pretty agressive (for me) on the weights and reps compared to the week prior. I've been doing P90x for almost two weeks now and never once have I been sore the morning after a workout. HOWEVER, today my arms were worthless. They were not sore, but they had no power or energy in them. They were like my legs after a marathon: jello minus the soreness. About halfway through my run I just felt like I was missing a gear yet my legs were fine. Then it dawned on me that my arms were shot and it was having a very real impact on my overall energy level and my ability to use my arms to power through even an easy stride.

P90x -- Yoga Night -- Still hate it. 90 minutes of flexbility torture. But it's helping.

Loving the sunshine but not digging the frigid temps. Today is supposedly the last cold one for a while. Back to the mid 40s and rain on Sunday.

My arms are still tired but felt much better as did my run. There's actually now 10% of me that's looking forward to tomorrow's 10k race in Kent. That's 10% more than yesterday. Probably going to skip P90x tonight and double up tomorrow.

Wanted: One good left leg.

Then Kent Christmas Rush is one of my favorite races but I haven't been able to run it for three years because it always conflicts with Cross Country Nationals. But since I didn't run Nationals today I decided to give the Kent run a shot.

To be totally honest, I was really nervous I wasn't going to have the fitness to even hold 5:30 pace. As it turns out, my fitness is a bit better than I thought, but my luck is not.

Start of the race was frigid. 28 degrees. That temperature is cold enough with a heavy jacket and pants on. But it's a lot worse when you strip down to shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt.

My goal was sub 33:00 although I wasn't so sure that was possible. First mile was in 5:11. Everything felt great. Mile 2 was in 5:13. Still feeling great but looking forward to the turnaround. Mile 3 I crossed in 5:15 so I was well on pace to break 33:00 by the time I hit the turnaround. I was also a solid 250 meters ahead of the second place guy. THere was a pack of guys who stayed with me through one, but when we passed through in 5:11, I heard a collective sigh indicating they weren't wanting to go that fast.

Mile 4 felt good as I hit 5:14. Other than feeling a bit out of tip top shape, I was pleased with how things were going except for the fact that my fingers and other body parts were about ready to fall off. But fitness wise I felt fine and I knew I was on pace for a sub 32:30.

At Mile 5 things started to get a bit dicey. I was coming up on all the 5k runners and having to do a lot of darting and weaving. I hate that. And then shortly after the 5M mark, disaster struck. My left hammy totally seized up. I've never had a hammy go out on me ever. Not in training. Not in races. Never. Until today. As I winced in pain I could hear behind me the "Oh No's" from the 5kers I had just passed. I stopped for about 15-20 seconds trying to stretch it out and massage it. Started to jog and it still felt terrible. I couldn't fully extend my left leg. I stopped again for about 10 seconds to stretch it out again to no real avail.

At this point I cared less about finishing the race and more about getting my wounded self back to my warm car. So I started jogging along and slowly I was able to get some semblance of a stride back. But Mile 6 came in at something like 6:19. Ugh. Right at Mile 6 is when I heard the footsteps of the second place guy. I tried to stave him off but with about 100 meters to go, my limping stride was no match and he passed me. At that point I just hobbled it in. What a bummer. First time I have ever been injured during a race.

So I am ready to sell off my left leg. I'm not sure if Craigslist allows this. The only thing I haven't hurt on me left leg in the least three months is my knee.

What I'm really concerned about is how long it will take to recover from this. If I can run on Monday then I would be thrilled. If this sidelines me again for another week or two, I'm going to throw a fit.

A very gentle two miles this morning and then another two in the evening with my son. Definitely tight but no pain. Rest day tomorrow.

Six easy miles today at lunch time. Tight but no soreness or pain. I feel like my gait is 90% of normal.

Inching back to some kind of normal mileage. Hammy seems to feel better each day. Haven't had even a hint of pain...just occasional tightness.

The beautiful running weather continues. No work this week or next so it's been nice running at different times thorughout the day. Leg feels good.

Christmas Eve this time last year was a very snowy and bitter cold day. Not this year. It was seasonably cool but beautiful sunshine ruled the day.

Merry Christmas. The only time for a run today was early..around 5:30. It was chilly but ever so quiet. I think I saw two cars the entire 68 minutes. I'm cautiously optimistic that the hammy is healed. Now I just need to get it stengthened and flexible.

Another beautiful day in the Northwest. Sunny skies and cool temps. This morning I ran the Tokul loop. It was really windy...gusts over 50mph. It was also a tale of two climates. There were about two miles nestled behind Mount Si that weren't exposed to the wind at all. The result was frozen, frost covered roads and sub freezing temperatures whereas the rest of the run was "warm" in the mid 40s. Weird the little microclimates we get.

Hammy felt fine although I think it is fatigued. Hard to know what is mental vs. physical. Deserved rest day tomorrow.

So I'm wondering when we will have to pay for this awesome winter weather. Ran this afternoon under sunny and relatively "warm" skies. Ran along the rolling hills of Snoqualmie Ridge. The uphills seem to expose any weakness I might still have in the hammy but things seem to be progressing nicely. I will just focus on mileage this week and not worry about speed work until the new year.

10 easy

Another easy ten miles this morning under cloudy, drizzly skies. It was actually kind of refreshing and it wasn't all the cold.

At the start of the soggy run I was thinking 8 miles would be enough but I got into a rhythm and stretched it a bit. Felt Good.