Making the Grade

Despite two missed runs, one of the mid-week variety, the other of the long weekend type, I still managed to hit my monthly mileage goal! Even though I'd missed 30km of mileage I was able to hit the 172km target for April by including some running to AND from work.

Today was what put me over the hump as I ran 5.5km in the morning at a nice easy pace, and then ran another 7.3k in the afternoon on the way home to total 12.8k for the day and 172.8k for the month. The target was set based on the 40km per week that I'd wanted to average (ie. (40/7)*30 = 172). In keeping with my plan, which started off in January where I wanted to average 25km per week and adding 5km to the weekly total each month thereafter, I will be trying for 45km per week in May. The total will have to add up to 200km. Yikes! I know that for some that is a total only worthy of off-season type routines, but for yours truly it will be a new milestone by a long shot.

Anyway, things are looking pretty good even if I am running slow as molasses and continue to baby a couple of aches and pains, namely those of the right kneecap and left Achilles. I am starting to see some benefits from the leg weights I've been doing and have stopped wearing my patellar strap for running, which is nice. I've even stopped icing the knee throughout the day as I've found that stretching and strengthening are more beneficial to my recovery than simply numbing the hell out of it.

I guess that counts as a monthly recap, of sorts. But here are the detes:

• Total mileage: 172.8km (goal was 172km)


• Weekly average: 40.3km (goal was 40km per week)


• Body weight: who knows, who cares, feeling good, eating pie.

Here's hoping your April was great, and that May will be even better!

Kicking Balls

In my seemingly unending effort to keep my body well enough to keep running I will try almost anything. Case in point I woke myself up extra early on Tuesday morning because I had to fit the run in before work, or not at all. Instead of trudging around the concrete sidewalks of my neighbourhood I decided to grad my son's soccer ball and head over to a local pitch.

It was less than one kilometre to get there, and I felt a bit weird running while holding the ball. Nevertheless, as soon as I hit the grass I dropped the ball and proceeded to kick it ahead of me as I ran around the field for the next eight kilometres. It was great! The ball kept my bouncing left and right (though not as much as I'd expected since I thought I'd be useless at dribbling, but it turns out I am not that bad after all) and varying my pace. The grass was very forgiving and I definitely benefited from getting off the concrete. After finishing on the grass I really felt a tremendous difference when running home from that hard concrete. The 10km was very easy and I'm sure helped all sorts of ways as far as muscles and tendons go. I will do this again no doubt.

In the evening Owen, my eight year-old, ran his first ever 5k with my wife! Congrats Owen! They even incorporated a really tough hill up Beechwood Drive. I am thinking of signing us up for a 5k race sometime later in the year and running it with him.

Today it was back to work (I'd been at a conference for two days, and so no weight training and such). After dropping the kids off at the bus I walked 2k to warm up and then ran the rest of the way, 4.5km, to work. It was nice and easy, and I continue to absolutely love commuting on foot.

In the afternoon I hit the gym for an upper body weight training session. At the end of the day it was time to hit the streets again to run home and then onto Owen's baseball practice. The run was pretty good, actually. Certainly better than I expected it to be, though I did overheat a bit. I ran across Queen Street and then dropped into the Don Valley up to Pottery Road, at which point I ran up that massive hill and home. I'd planned on running eight kilometres, but ended up running 9km for a total of 13.5km on the day. I am just twelve kilometres shy of my monthly goal now, and knowing myself it looks like that will likely be the mileage I will be aiming for on Friday, the last day of the month of April.

A Quick Weekly Review

Went out on a windy windy morning and ran 15km nice and slow. The Achilles still continues to be a trouble spot, but it is perplexing somewhat - the pain comes and goes. Must be careful.

The total for this recovery week ended up at 36km and I am hoping that this slow running thing will allow me to get back to my regular three weeks of higher mileage with one week of recovery regimen. I am at a conference for the first two days of this coming week so my legs will get a bit of a break in that I will only do one weight training session on them, and not until Thursday.

Slow and Low, That is the Tempo

After missing my long run last Sunday I've stayed true to my intention to "listen to my body" for all of 2010 and did not try and make up for the lost mileage this week. Instead I picked up the training plan during what was supposed to be, and continues to be, a recovery week.

On Wednesday I walked a couple of kilometres and then ran (and I use the term loosely) the rest of the way to work. It was a slow and easy 4km during which I kept the heart rate under 130bpm and pretty much did not even break a sweat.

On the way home I once again started off with a bit of a walk and then ran the rest of the 6.75km nice and easy. The left Achilles was definitely still tender, but it didn't get any worse during the run and felt no worse for wear afterwards. The totals for the Wednesday were 10.75km, if my elementary school math is correct.

Today I took advantage of the beautiful weather and got outside at lunch. I ran around downtown and through the UofT campus for a total of 10.25km. The Achilles was not so bad, though a couple of times I'd feel it coming on and then the discomfort would miraculously disappear. Just have to keep it slow and low for a bit, but I think as long as I continue to stick to this plan I will give myself the best chance to not miss any more training runs on account of this pain.

Next up is a slightly longer run on Sunday in the 12-15km range. I will definitely miss my monthly mileage goal for April, but such is life.

On the runner's knee side of things my leg is all of a sudden showing signs of improvement. I have been diligently doing leg weights a couple of times each week and recently added another exercise that I do every evening when I am stretching. I sit on the floor with my good leg bent at the knee, foot resting flat on the floor, and then tighten the quad muscles of my right leg to make sure it's as straight as possible. This is actually where I find a lot of the pain comes from, when my quads are engaged and the kneecap is pulled up as a result. I've also noticed that in my bad leg (the right one), when I do tighten the quad, my heel does not come up off the floor nearly as much as when I do the same thing with my left leg. I've been working to improve the range of motion and that, too, is getting better. Anyway, once my leg is straight I lift it up off the floor slowly about six inches and lower it back down slowly for a total of ten repetitions. This definitely works out parts of the quad that the exercises at the gym do not isolate as well. The Vastus Medialist and Vastus Intermedius definitely get worked. I do a couple of sets of this each time and afterwards, when I tighten the quad, the pain in the kneecap is much much less and I'm able to list my heel off the ground a lot higher. Also, I've stopped wearing the patellar strap when running and it seems to be fine. Someday my legs will be strong enough and my runner's knee will finally be a thing of the past. At least that is my hope.

Damn It!

Looks like it's the DL for me. That left Achilles Tendon is definitely not going to let me run tomorrow, and probably for a bit longer. I spent the morning helping to prepare the diamonds for the local baseball league and now every step hurts. And things were going so well too! I absolutely hate setbacks... Won't hit my mileage target for April now.

Guess this means I can do more weights of the upper body variety for the next little while. Just hope this heals in time to let me run the Ottawa half-marathon at the end of May...

A New Twist

After missing Wednesday's walk/run I was itching to test out the Achilles today and decided to do the whole walk to work and then run home thing on a Friday. As I was walking this morning I couldn't help it and decided to test the heel by running TO work.

I walked for 2.5k and then started up in a slow jog. It was OK, I suppose, though I didn't want to push it for a couple of reasons. One, I was afraid of a setback, and Two, I didn't want to sweat. I kept my heart rate below 130bpm and arrived dry after a decent 4.5km run.

At lunch I decided to mix things up a bit and instead of going to the gym (figuring that running twice in one day entitled me to a little bit of rest rather than adding an extra upper body weight workout) I went to the Art Gallery of Ontario. I am lucky in that I work right around the corner from the AGO and also have recently purchased a family membership. This allows me to, in theory for this is my first visit other than seeing the King Tut exhibit, to go there for a short stay and not worry about any costs. I wanted to check out the Thompson collection of model ships, and I must say that it was very cool. I was definitely impressed with the skill that is required to build these models, many of which are hundreds of years old. I then went exploring a bit and had a surreal experience when I happened upon an exhibit that included a running film projection of atomic bomb explosions. The surreal part was that these explosions were all taking place in the water, filmed from the air, and right in the middle of a large number of ships set up to test the destructive effects of these weapons. The whole experience left me a bit angry actually. Thought provoking, as art should be.

After work I hit the streets again for my run home. If you could call what happened a "run", that is. More like a hobble. Let's just say I was not having fun as I jogged 10km. At least I got all the way home. I am really perplexed why my body continues to give me trouble. I am being as conservative as possible and yet aches and pains are a constant companion.

At least I did manage my first "two-a-day", though it was forgettable at best. Here's hoping my Achilles recovers by Sunday so I can get my long run done.

Bound to Happen

Well, I suppose eventually I would be tested. I mean that I would have to live up to my promise to "listen to my body". And today is the first exam.

My left Achilles Tendon has been pretty sore over the course of the past few training runs and it hit a tipping point of sorts on yesterday's lunchtime jaunt. I've been icing it and all that, stretching and stuff, and thought that it felt pretty good to go as I started off on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon for what would turn out to be a slow and uncomfortable 10km. The Achilles was tight from the get go, and it never got better. Typically the type of pain I was feeling would dissipate as I warmed up, but the fact that it actually got a bit worse is a huge red flag.

And so, for the first time since the middle of December, I did NOT walk to work this morning, and will NOT be running home at the end of the day. Damn!

Additionally, I have learned through experience and by reading all sorts of advice over the past two years that I must NOT try to make up the mileage for the week that I will miss today. Double Damn!!

Here's to listening to my wonky body. And hoping for a speedy recovery...

At least I can still go do some upper body weights today. Yay for upper body weights!

Pain. A Tradition Unlike Any Other.

It seems like my body needs at least one thing to be hurt at any given time. For the past year it's been my right knee patella. Before that, for more than a few years, it was the wonky right ankle. So what's the deal with my left Achilles tendon suddenly giving my issues? And, more to the point, why hasn't the knee pain miraculously disappeared at the same time?

I'm joking, of course, but it does seem strange how I am forced to run with something lingering somewhere. At least this year none of these pains and aches have stopped me from running and I have yet to miss a single training run.

This morning I completed the week with a tough long run. I think I started out a bit too fast and paid for it toward the end, but I did manage a decent 18km in just a shade over 1h39m. The average pace was 5:30/km and the heart rate ended up at 146bpm. I did the same loop around Taylor Creek and up Beechwood Ave and as my last 18km back in March, and pushed a bit harder than that time. That hill up Beechwood Ave doesn't seem as imposing as it once did, but it certainly is not easy by any means.

In the end, it was a good long run. I managed 46km this week and have now run more than half of all of last year's mileage, and it's only April 11th! Good times.

A Short Week Goes By Fast

The short work week just flew by and it seems that Friday just snuck up on me. Even with what seems like very little time to run I did manage to keep up with my workouts. On Tuesday it was really ugly weather outside and so I confined myself to the treadmill for a fairly uneventful, and uber boring, 8km. I wore my heart rate monitor for this one and even though I ran at a steady 5:12/km pace (7.0mph setting at 1.0% incline) my heart rate kept on climbing throughout the run. I was overheating a bit, and really that's one of the reasons I don't much like treadmills. I suppose I could snag the one big fan they have at the gym and stick it in front, but then I'd feel like I was hogging it and my eyes would totally dry out with that steady air blowing at my face the entire time. Nothing doing.

On Wednesday I did my usual walk to work so I can run home thing. It turned out to be a tougher run than it probably should have been and I felt sluggish the entire way. I managed to complete 9.5km and arrived at Owen's school just before 6pm to pick him up, glad to have the run finished.

After a tough leg workout on Thursday I got outside for my lunchtime run today even though the temperature was hovering not too much above freezing and the sky was threatening with rain. Lots of wind too. It was the right decision to shun the treadmill as I had a decent run. I started off feeling a bit kinked, but as the run progressed I felt better and managed to complete 10.5km with a sizable negative split. The first 5k I averaged about 5:23/km, and in the second 5.5km it was about 5:06/km. The heart rate averaged out at 147bpm, but despite running faster in the second half it held steady at between 143bpm and 146bpm, sneaking up to 147bpm only in the last half-kilometre.

So far I have completed 28km for the week with my long run still to come on Sunday. Also, I am just a hair over 10km away from completing exactly half of my entire mileage from 2009, and it's only the beginning of April! Either that means that my mileage total from last year is pretty pathetic (which it is), or that I am pushing too hard this year. I'm thinking its the former...

Long Weekend, Long Run

The long weekend is now almost over (with just the NCAA Final to go), and we are back from Ottawa. Didn't do too much this weekend, but got to hang out with the family and watched the Harlem Globetrotters for the very first time. The kids loved it, though I must admit that it is very difficult as an adult to suspend disbelief enough to really get sold on the jokes and tricks. Although I was entertained I also left a bit disappointed in the basketball skills that I saw. Not "amazing" enough...

On the running front I ran the longest long run of the year on Sunday, managing 20km in almost exactly 2 hours. (2:00:18 to be exact. First 10k average pace was 6:36/km, second 10k average pace was 5:24/km.) The first 10k I ran with my lovely wife and it was great. The pace was kept in check and my heart rate remained in the mid-120bpm range or lower the entire time. The second 10k I ran alone (after a much needed bathroom break) and I pushed the pace a little bit, but not really that much. I have been training without carrying any water or carbs or gels or drinks, and I was curious to know what "hitting the wall" would feel like.

I think I might have hit that wall at about the 18km mark. The last 2km was tough, but my legs felt fine. I think it was my brain running out of fuel that made it increasingly more difficult to keep going. That being said, this is exactly what I am looking for in my long runs. I want my body to learn how to convert fat into energy and push the point at which I hit the wall further and further away. I know that I will need to eat some sugar for my brain, but I would like to minimize my reliance on that type of stuff as much as possible.

In the end it was a great run. I also ended up with the highest weekly mileage of the year, and second highest of my life: 50km! This coming week is a bit of a step back and my mileage will not be as high, but close. Can't push it up too much every week or I will break down.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Hope this weekend finds you running.

Ran 10km this morning, and felt stiff and sore. Not used to getting up "early" and running. Though 7:30am is not that early, it really took a while to start feeling loose, and I'm not actually sure I ever got there. Will have to run in the morning more often to get used to it since the marathon in September starts at 7:30am.

Now, off to Ottawa!