The Week in Brief

It's been a typically busy week for me, even though I've been diligently sticking to my plan and making sure this was a recovery week for my wonky legs.

As such, I've still been going to the gym lots, riding the stationary bike now and then, and after skipping Tuesday (when I would typically go out for an easy 5k or so) I walked to work and ran home. The run was not too bad, but about a kilometre and a half from Owen's school I had to stop to wait through a red light and once I started up again my right knee decided to remind me that it was not fully healed. I felt a pretty bad twinge under the kneecap and had to stop to stretch and evaluate my options. I was very close to home and considered heading there, grabbing the car and using that to pick up Owen. Instead I decided to jog as gingerly as I could.

Perhaps that was a mistake, perhaps not. I finished the 8km run and walked home, a bit chilled in the wind and rapidly cooling winter weather. The temperature has since gone totally frigid and Toronto is finally feeling like Winter has arrived.

Anyway, Thursday I didn't run, but made it to the gym for some leg weights and then rode the stationary bike in the evening. My knee feels a bit better this morning and I am planning to do an easy 5-6k on the treadmill at lunch.

Here's an early summary of my January exercise exploits to date (because I do not have the time or energy to go into it in detail). The month is rapidly coming to a close and I enjoy seeing this calendar filled up with stuff. A surprisingly good motivator!:

A Really Tough Run

After my first full week of weight training I am more than a little sore, though it is a good feeling and I am glad to feel this way because it tells me things can only get better and the ceiling is way up there. Along with that comes the highest mileage week I've run since last Summer, making things even more difficult. In a month or two this will be considered a real short and easy week, but now it's a bit of a milestone.

So, when I headed out for my morning run I was not feeling so hot. My legs were sore, I had very little energy, and the wonky ankle was hurting me more than I'd like. Nevertheless, I was determined to put in a good 10k or so, no matter how slow it was.

I chose a new route just to make things interesting and ran through one of the more affluent parts of town. Although I felt totally out of place the houses and properties I saw along the way kept me distracted from my pain.

I ran a total of 10.5km at a very lethargic pace, but was happy just to have finished. The weekly total ended up at 29.5k and my body is ready for a nice recovery week. I will run just three times next week and max out at 22k before getting back to building up mileage in February, hoping for a weekly average of 30k for the month.

Tomorrow it's back to cross country skiing! And some football watching, no doubt.

A Little More Treadmill

I went to the gym again at lunchtime and ran a nice and easy 5km on the treadmill. This being the day after my first leg workout, and with my hamstrings feeling a bit sore, I figured it was better to stay really conservative. So I set the speed at 6.2mph and ran for 30 minutes. I felt pretty good, all things considered, and I look forward to walking to work and running home tomorrow.

After the treadmill I did some upper body weights, again really easy and light because I don't wish to be too sore, or worse, in the first week back at weight training. The routine was pretty easy:

• Bench Press 2X15 95lbs
• Seated Rows 2X15 80lbs
• Standing Dumbbell Shoulder Press 15-12 20lbs
• Dumbbell Biceps Curls 15-12 25lbs
• Cable Triceps Extensions 2X15 40lbs
• Captain's Chair 2X25

That is all...

Another Full Weekend

Whew! What a weekend.

Saturday: two Birthday parties to attend, one by each loin fruit. Then baseball practice for Owen. Before that I ran 9.1km to complete the week at a total of 27km. Slowly, but surely...

Sunday: Off early to cross country ski, where I managed 13km adult style, and another 2.1km with Owen after lunch (total of 15.1km of skiing, at is was fun!). We definitely were tuckered out when we got home. I spent the evening cleaning dishes, washing kids, folding laundry, and watching the Jets pull off a great upset over the Chargers. Here's hoping they can do it again next week.

Today I went to the gym to do my first leg strengthening session. It was light, short, and I got through it without too much trouble. The routine went like this:

• Crunches 2X50
• Captain's Chair 2X25
• Dead lifts 2X15 (20lbs dumbbells)
• Leg Extensions 2X15 (20lbs, 30lbs)
• Squats 2X15 (10lbs per side, on the Smith Machine because the squat rack was being used)
• Calf Raises 2X15 (75lbs)
• Adductor thingy (1X25)

I really hope that this will eventually lead to complete recovery of my ongoing patellar tendinitis. My right leg is definitely weaker than my left, and that explains the problem I suspect. In fact, I measured the circumference of my legs and my left is almost an inch bigger than my right! Today was the first step towards balancing that out. I'd love to be able to do one-legged squats someday...

This evening I rode the stationary bike for 30 minutes and called it a day. I'm not even sure why I still ride the stationary bike on days when I don't run, seeing as I bike 20-25 minutes each way to and from work, but it seems like the right thing to do somehow. I don't count commuting as part of my fitness regimen, though I suspect it does help a little bit.

Tomorrow I am probably going to hit the treadmill for my run unless the weather is really nice. If it is nice I will instead do some upper body weights. That's the plan, anyway...

Back on the 'mill

Had my first treadmill run in well over a year today, and it actually was fun! I remember dreading the treadmill, but that was when running outdoors was still a novelty. Now the novelty is the treadmill itself.

It was my first visit to the gym in well over a year as well, and now that I have a corporate membership prepaid for an entire year it will become a key part of my fitness routine. My main goal is to strengthen my legs for running, but secondary goals include strengthening my upper body and utilizing the treadmills to up my mileage.

With that in mind I hopped on and ran for a total of 30 minutes, completing 3.37 miles (or 5.4km) (works out to 5:32/km or 8:54/mile pace). It seems that all the treadmills are set up to work in miles per hour, so I will have to do the conversion to my more familiar metric units, but that doesn't bother me so much. I ran a bit of a pyramid this time, and I don't even know why, other than it was fun:

5 minutes at 6.2mph
5 minutes at 6.5mph
5 minutes at 6.8mph
5 minutes at 7.1mph
5 minutes at 7.5mph
1 minute at 7.0mph
1 minute at 6.8mph
1 minute at 6.6mph
1 minute at 6.4mph
1 minute at 6.2mph

Way more complex when it's written down than it was while I was running.

Afterwards I "familiarized myself" with some other equipment in the gym and did a few leg and upper body things that are not even worth mentioning. As I was moving around trying this and that I also realized that I don't work very well without some sort of plan. As such, I will have to devise some basic leg routines and upper body routines so that I don't walk around aimlessly wasting time wondering what to do next.

Tomorrow I have 10-12k on the books to complete, and I will run very slowly indeed. Sunday we are back at cross country skiing, this week hopefully to get more of a workout that last. Have a great weekend!

As Smoothly As Can Be Expected

Here we are just a couple of weeks into aught-10 and I am already taking stock. WHA?!

OK, perhaps not taking stock so much as looking down the line and trying to figure out if I am going to be able to do what I intend for the coming year. The latest thought, of many as far as variety goes, is that I would like to average 25k/week in January, 30k/week in February, 35k/week in March, and 40k/week in April. That would lead into May where, if all goes well, I can average 45k/week, or that magical 25 miles, that I believe will prepare my body for the planned marathon training, which is due to commence in June and lead me across the finish line of my first 26.2 at the end of September.

Is it just me or is there just never enough time? When I was planning on building a good base for marathon training I was really hoping to run 25 miles per week on average for a good three months before starting training for the marathon, but given my history of injury I am hesitant to hike up the weekly mileage so aggressively.

It also doesn't help that the Internet articles, and those in running books, are all over the place when it comes to advice for building a solid base prior to marathon training. What I've described above is conservative as conservative can get, but even with that in mind I still have reservations about how my body will respond to this plan, which amounts to more running than I've ever done.

With that in mind I am still on track for another successful week. On Tuesday I made it home in time to strap on the old Garmin and such and run an easy and enjoyable 5km on my way to get Owen. Then, on Wednesday, I walked to work (6km total) and dashed out of work to run to Owen's school and a parent-teacher interview that was rescheduled since early December because the teacher was ill.

This 7.5km run was a bit frustrating. My Garmin would not lock onto any satellites and so I had to just push the start button and go or risk being late for the interview. I ran about 2km before the thing picked up a signal and then started giving me really odd readings throughout the run. Noticing that I was running a bit late I also pushed the pace a bit more than I would have liked and got there with exactly one minute to spare. However, because of the pace, my right knee was bothering me for the rest of the evening and continues to hurt today. I'm hoping that the day off will help it heal and allow me to stay on track for the next two runs, a short one on Friday and a slightly longer one on Saturday.

Also, my gym membership starts tomorrow and I may end up doing my Friday run on the treadmill! It's been over a year since I've used one and my hatred for these contraptions has been dulled by the passage of time; I actually look forward to getting on one again. That will also mean that I don't have to rely on the Garmin, which is in my doghouse at the moment for screwing me out of my prized metrics...

Of course, a large part of the reason for joining the gym was access to weight training equipment so that I can work on my legs and (hopefully) leave my patellar tendinitis issues behind me for good. I find my legs to be weak and I can't seem to get any real progress doing exercises at home.

A Weekend Packed With Accomplishments

Wow, what a weekend! Sometimes it’s actually a relief to be back at work, though equally rewarding to look back and be happy with all that was accomplished.

On Saturday the first thing I did was go for a run. I wanted to go somewhere between 8 and 10k, but ended up running a bit further because I misjudged the length of the route I had decided to take. As a result I ran further than I had since last summer, a total of 12km. My pace was decent as well, even though I am not yet concerned with it and don’t pay attention to it while running. It ended up being 5:39/km (9:06/mile), which is pretty good for me at the moment. The whole thing took 1:07:58 to complete and my right knee felt pretty good as well. I was worried that running that far, when my previous longest run since my surgery and layoff was 9km, would be bad, but in the end I feel fine. Must keep doing the exercises that seem to be helping…

The rest of the day was spent driving one kid to a birthday party, taking the other one grocery shopping, dismantling the Christmas Tree and putting all of that stuff away (a surprisingly time consuming task), preparing our skiing stuff for the next day, and taking Owen to his first indoor baseball practice of the year.

On Sunday we were off just a few minutes past 8am for our first cross-country skiing trip of the year. The weather was absolutely perfect for the kids’ first lessons, and for the parents’ own jaunt on the finely groomed trails. After two hours we all met up for lunch, where tonnes of food was consumed thanks to the packing of said massive amounts by the lovely Monica. After lunch I took Malcolm out on the trails while Monica went off with Owen. Malks was so good on the trails too! He got over his fear of downhills and showed off his new gliding abilities. He was so cute! I did a total of 10km of skiing, which was a decent amount for the first of the year. More imprtantly, the knee didn't bother me at all, which means I will be able to push a bit harder on subsequent trips and actually get a great workout!

After we got home I had to work on my bike to get it ready for the week, a task that is not always pleasant, but so necessary given how grimy everything gets during the winter with all the salt that gets put down on the roads. Not sure why I’m mentioning this here, but it does feel like yet another thing that got accomplished, and my bike ride to work this morning was very smooth as a result.

Whew! What a weekend… Next weekend looks to be much the same, except BOTH kids have separate birthday parties to attend. There just simply isn’t enough time to fit everything in.

A Couple of Runs and Squeezing a Tennis Ball

This week is almost at an end (well, the working week anyway) and I managed a couple of runs after skipping Tuesday's due to discomfort in my right knee (more on that later).

After walking to work on Wednesday I ran home for a total of 6.2k. It was pretty nice out, all things considered, though the city seems to be putting down way too much salt on the sidewalks for my liking, making everything all slushy and gross. My running was very slow and even because I had a pretty heavy backpack on, but overall I felt pretty good. The right knee gave me less trouble than I'd expected.

On Thursday I made it home in time to make a quick decision about fitting in another run before picking up Owen from his school. I ran a total of 6.8k and again felt pretty good. Though my pace continues to be super slow (as in right around the 6:00/km, or 9:30/mile range), I am not worrying about it right now. My focus is on listening to my body and slowly building up my weekly mileage. I really want to have a consistent year of running rather than the up and down, off and on sort of thing that happened throughout 2009.

As far as the right knee is concerned, I think I have found something that might help. As I continue to read up on all the potential causes of the dreaded "runners knee", I came across an article that talked about a potential cause that I hadn't encountered previously: lateral quad strength out of balance with medial quad strength. Everything else I'd ever read just referred to overall quad weakness as the culprit, and so I continued to work on hip flexors and glute meds, all the while completely ignoring the inner thigh. For the last couple of days I've been doing a very simple exercise that seems to be helping. I squeeze a tennis ball between my knees while in the sitting position. And let me tell you, those muscles are not very strong!

So far, the knee seems to feel better while running, but it's only been a few days. I look forward to trying other exercises for the medial quads, especially once my gym membership kicks in and I have access to all sorts of fancy equipment. I think the technical term for this motion is adduction, but I get it screwed up with abduction. Either way, I figure a little of both is in the cards. (I also look forward to having treadmills at my disposal, which will hopefully help in the process of gradually upping my mileage at a nice controlled rate.)

This weekend I have a run of between 8 and 10 kilometres on the books for Saturday, and then we are off to cross-country skiing for Sunday. Looking forward to both!

The Beginnings

I have been more than a little lax in keeping up with this blog, and I hope that this does not signal the beginning of the end because I am just as committed to running as I've ever been. My time, however, seems to be more scarce than ever before and so I have trouble working up the energy to fire up the computer to write something about my running travails.

That being said, I do have a few things that I should record on this little thing. First, I have been running and listening to my body. Six days into the year and at least I've made it that far without breaking that resolution! Case in point, yesterday I skipped my run because my right knee was bugging me. The fact that it was snowing and more than a bit windy helped in the decision making process, but I'm confident that I would have stayed home even if it had been perfect weather for running. Instead I did some stretching and hip flexor/core strength exercises, then rode the stationary bike for 30 minutes while watching the World Junior Hockey final. (Great game, BTW, and a big kudos to the team from the USA who coughed up a two goal lead with three minutes to play, but still won it in overtime.)

Today, I walked to work and am going to run home the 6 or so kilometres nice and easy. The knee problem has been a persistent pest for a good year now, off and on, and I am really hoping that I find a solution soon. I continue to work on my glute and hip flexor strength, but now I am also thinking that my quads are weak. When I look at my legs in the mirror and tighten the muscles (bringing the kneecaps up, just so you can picture it) I notice a significant difference in the size of the Vastus Intermedius on the left as compared to the right. That's the muscle right in the middle of the quad, and I'm guessing this might have something to do with it. I plan on correcting this problem as fast as is safely possible. My new gym membership starts in a couple of weeks, so that will give me access to all sorts of equipment to aid in this endeavor, but until then I will be refocusing on stretching and strengthening at home.

Also, we are starting our annual weekend cross-country skiing trips this coming weekend with the boys. They will be taking two hour lessons on their own this year, and this will give Monica and I a chance to ski on our own. I am very much looking forward to it since it is a lot of fun and an awesome workout as well! The next eight Sundays in a row, at the very least, will be dedicated to hitting the trails and so my weekend run will be confined to Saturdays.

I guess that's enough for now. Will try to rededicate myself to maintaining this blog as it does help in the motivation department. Here's hoping!