Apr 28, 2007

Back At It

I've been able to run for about a week now. At first I wore a knee brace that I bought. It seemed to help with my knee but bothered the rest of my leg. Finally I've been running without that for the last few days, slow and easy, and things seem to be okay. Now I need to start trusting it more mentally and hopefully speeding up a little bit in my workouts. That being said I did test it a little bit last Wednesday night when Namban Rengo had our monthly 5k time trail at the track. I ran it in 20:41, which, even though it is a little slow for me, I was happy with as I really didn't want to push it at all.

Next week at the TELL 10k I'd really like to be under 41 minutes. I think it's possible but I would really have to have a good day, considering my training hasn't been optimal for the last couple of weeks. In reality though I guess I'd be happy if I survived without any problems in my knee and anything under 45 minutes. Relatively pedestrian but I'd take it. I don't even know what to think for the Kanuma Satsuki half. Just surviving?

Apr 19, 2007

Shut Down

I haven't been able to run since last Friday. I went out Saturday morning for what is usually an easy run. This time I was going to add a few hills. However from my first steps I noticed something wasn't quite right with my right knee. Totally out of the blue. It isn't in the joint itself, but in the tendons on the inside, back part of it. The medical term is pes anserinus, number 5 on this picture. There really is no pain, especially when I'm not running. More it is a different sort of sensation that there is movement back there that shouldn't be happening. I went maybe a half mile walking and jogging to try to loosen/warm it up but it didn't work. I tried it again on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and after a couple minutes it acted up again. With the rest it wasn't as bad but I still wasn't able to run on it. To be more accurate I didn't want to run on it. More rest.

So this week I find myself to be a little restless and mildly irritated. Didn't notice it in the back of my mind at first and didn't actually place the cause right away. But now I see it is there. I want to run and train and gather the data and analyze and pass judgement. In two and three weeks respectively I have a 10k and half marathon coming up. Hopefully I'll at least be able to get around on the courses even if I'm not in racing form.

Apr 12, 2007

An Improvement

I've gone back to the FH workouts with better results this time. Still not sure if I will push to do all 4 of the workouts he specifies but I do like the 8k in 33 minutes one. Basically it is a tempo run. Anyway, I wrote a few weeks back that I did this workout for the first time with okay results. Not great, not bad. This week I've done it two more times with better results.





I could have had even slightly faster times this week with a stronger mental approach; in each session I let one lap slide a little too much. 100% mental error. But I'm still happy to be working my way down to the goal time and with a lower HR. I will continue with this workout for a few more weeks and see what kind of progress I make. I'm hoping it will be a key contributor to PB's in upcoming races (see sidebar). Confident it will help in the 10k, less so about the half.

I guess the motivation to run the extra workouts lasts about one week. That's okay, I'm still happy to get in my in my normal runs, just didn't feel the need to do the extra ones.

Apr 8, 2007

I'm back...


...from Hawaii at least. But the running is slowly coming around too. Hawaii was beautiful. We spent most of our time on Kauai, mostly in the pool and exploring for waterfalls, beaches and big waves. Luckily, on Kauai none of those are hard to find.

I did get out for a couple easy runs while in paradise, just around the resort grounds but that included a stretch by the ocean so it was nice enough. All in all it felt pretty good but I definitely noticed the effect of the heat and humidity. The effort and HR were slightly elevated compared to the pace.

Since returning I've kind of been enjoying running a little more. Mostly I've cut back on the pace in order to get more miles in. I have this half marathon coming up in May. Since I seem not to be able to get in a lot of quality miles, at least I can get boost the quantity of miles. That being said I did have a good run yesterday of 12 miles. The first 8 averaged 7:52 per mile and the last 4 were 7:19. I like to do the fast finish long run occasionally but usually it is too much for me to handle. I think I need to slow up the first part a little bit more so that I can speed up the last part.

Last week I had an odd sort of desire to run; unusual for me. Wednesdays workouts are usually in the evening at the track. However I wanted to run that morning so I got out for a short, slow little run. Thursdays are usually my day off because of the Wednesday nights speed sessions but again I wanted to run. Another short, slow run. Today, Monday, is another normal day off for me and it looks like it will stay that way. I wonder if this motivation will continue.