Finally started running again. Haven't run regularly since October. Most of the winter I was letting heal a stress fracture in my lower left fibula (self-diagnosed) and then, when I was about to start running again at the beginning of March, I got the flu and related complications including pneumonia. Man, this has been a rough five and a half weeks. I have resolved that if I ever suspect flu or pneumonia again, the specific symptom being feeling the slightest bit winded (or more) on taking a deep breath, I will go to the doctor right away. Maybe by writing this down I'll remember it the next time I am unlucky enough to get it.
Anyway, the run was good, considering. A mile and a half in 20 minutes, and that's stopping to walk five or six times. It had been a warm day in the 60s so I took off from work early and did the run before dinner. Barefoot, of course. I've been trying to keep my feet conditioned somewhat with my gravel tray, but it seems there was a lot of tiny bits on the road that pricked my feet. No broken skin, just had to brush the feet off several times. My lungs did okay, too. Didn't have to stop to cough and there were no coughing fits afterwards. In comparison, I did a half hour of light exercise (heart rate between 130 and 140) on the elliptical on Sunday and although I had no coughing during it, there seemed to have been increased phlegm and coughs for several hours after.
Some background on the fibula problem. It started out as a minor ache in the muscle just above the ankle and between the tibia and fibula. This was after I started wearing shoes (Stems) again to run, on account of the cold mornings. So I iced it three to four times a day for two weeks and it felt great. The next run things were going fine until about two miles in when there was a sudden minor pain in about the same area. I kept running, silly me, trying to adjust my form to no avail. So, iced it again for two weeks, then three weeks and still not better. I had stopped running in favor of the low impact elliptical, but now started to notice the pain was a little worse after even the low impact exercise, so I stopped that too. That was about the third week of December. Then, around New Years, we got our first substantial snow and I noticed the ankle felt a little better after a day of wearing my thick, stiff sole, ankle high boots. So I wore those daily and after two weeks the leg felt pretty good. I did a slow, sample run and found the leg was somewhat better--about like it was when the problem first started way back in October. I read up on stress fractures and how long it takes to heal, kept wearing the boots, started on the elliptical again in February and set my running sights on March.
Then the flu hit and now we've come full circle, so it's as good a place as any to end this post.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Saturday, September 29, 2012
The Half Way to St. Patrick's Day 5K
There are probably a lot of these around the US but this one was in Manchester, NH. I got a hankering to try to run a race barefoot a few weeks ago, found this one and signed up. Wasn't early enough to get a t-shirt or a kilt--maybe next year.
My only goal was to do it in 24 minutes or better. Since May I've been working my way up to 5 mile runs at what seems a slowish pace to me. Not really the Maff training that a lot of people talk about, just breathing only through my nose to keep my heart rate from maxxing out. I also wanted to see what running fast on a mostly flat course was like. All my runs around here have hills that take at least twice the effort to run. After signing up I worked in some faster, shorter runs.
This race had the bib chip so I didn't have to worry about getting a strap for my ankle. The weather was perfect. It had gotten down to 44 where I live in the hills. In Manchester that would've been closer to 50. Race time was 10:00, still cool and breezy, too. Waiting for the start, though, I tried to stay out of the shadows so my toes didn't get too cold. Not really necessary as the city pavement was still warmish and dry.
They were trying to get the faster people up front with announcements for the fastest, 7mm, 7 1/2mm, etc. From where I was (near the back, in the sun) I didn't see any movement so I worked my way through the 900+ people until I got to people who looked like they might run my speed. After starting, it took a quarter mile or so before people were spaced out enough for me to realize that I was with slower ones, so I was passing until about the last mile of the race.
The road surface was pretty decent to run on--pebbly pavement, but they were smooth pebbles compared to some of the roads out where I live. The course has a very slight incline until just before the halfway point where it rises about 40 feet in about 1000-1500 feet, and the second half is the same only inverted. It's basically a loop on two parallel, adjacent roads.
It was hard for me to tell how fast I was going since I was passing a lot and getting maximum air intake, two things I haven't done much of. Still, I wasn't gasping, just breathing at the same rate as usual only through the mouth. At one point it felt like I got one of those small blood blisters like the one I got a few weeks ago midfoot when I was running on a gravel/dirt road. Only here, there weren't many rocks at all on the road, so I assumed my form was slipping, that maybe I had been pushing off. That probably kept me from pushing too hard and I kept repeating my mantras--lift and place, knees bent.
With about a mile left, a woman spectator noted the barefeet and said something about me being crazy. I just smiled and waved. Then closer towards the finish there were more people along the course cheering and urging you on, so naturally I picked it up a bit--it's hard not too! In the last fifty feet we run over the starting matt before getting to the finish matts and there's someone over the intercom announcing names as the people cross--technology today, a personalized cheer. I didn't hear any of this at the time, only afterwards when I stopped to cheer people in.
After milling about for a few minutes, I realized there was a trailer with some electronic screens, and sure enough, you could get your time right then. Pretty decent time. I might have beat 22 minutes if I had been closer to the starting line and didn't have to work my way through the crowd. The winner did it in 18-19 minutes and he was listed as 49 years old--it gives me hope for next year!
When I finally looked at my toe there was a small dark spot at the edge of the pad in the soft area under the knuckle. It looked like a deep blood blister and I didn't feel any break in the skin. By next morning though, when it had gradually increased in pain, I dug into it with tweezers and pulled out a large grain of sand.
Overall, it was a fun run and I'm glad I did it. Lessons learned: I need to get closer to the start with others my speed and always brush off the feet if there might be something stuck.
 |
| Outside the Wild Rover, a sponsor and the start/finish line |
My only goal was to do it in 24 minutes or better. Since May I've been working my way up to 5 mile runs at what seems a slowish pace to me. Not really the Maff training that a lot of people talk about, just breathing only through my nose to keep my heart rate from maxxing out. I also wanted to see what running fast on a mostly flat course was like. All my runs around here have hills that take at least twice the effort to run. After signing up I worked in some faster, shorter runs.
This race had the bib chip so I didn't have to worry about getting a strap for my ankle. The weather was perfect. It had gotten down to 44 where I live in the hills. In Manchester that would've been closer to 50. Race time was 10:00, still cool and breezy, too. Waiting for the start, though, I tried to stay out of the shadows so my toes didn't get too cold. Not really necessary as the city pavement was still warmish and dry.
They were trying to get the faster people up front with announcements for the fastest, 7mm, 7 1/2mm, etc. From where I was (near the back, in the sun) I didn't see any movement so I worked my way through the 900+ people until I got to people who looked like they might run my speed. After starting, it took a quarter mile or so before people were spaced out enough for me to realize that I was with slower ones, so I was passing until about the last mile of the race.
The road surface was pretty decent to run on--pebbly pavement, but they were smooth pebbles compared to some of the roads out where I live. The course has a very slight incline until just before the halfway point where it rises about 40 feet in about 1000-1500 feet, and the second half is the same only inverted. It's basically a loop on two parallel, adjacent roads.
It was hard for me to tell how fast I was going since I was passing a lot and getting maximum air intake, two things I haven't done much of. Still, I wasn't gasping, just breathing at the same rate as usual only through the mouth. At one point it felt like I got one of those small blood blisters like the one I got a few weeks ago midfoot when I was running on a gravel/dirt road. Only here, there weren't many rocks at all on the road, so I assumed my form was slipping, that maybe I had been pushing off. That probably kept me from pushing too hard and I kept repeating my mantras--lift and place, knees bent.
With about a mile left, a woman spectator noted the barefeet and said something about me being crazy. I just smiled and waved. Then closer towards the finish there were more people along the course cheering and urging you on, so naturally I picked it up a bit--it's hard not too! In the last fifty feet we run over the starting matt before getting to the finish matts and there's someone over the intercom announcing names as the people cross--technology today, a personalized cheer. I didn't hear any of this at the time, only afterwards when I stopped to cheer people in.
 |
| Official running time 22:22 |
When I finally looked at my toe there was a small dark spot at the edge of the pad in the soft area under the knuckle. It looked like a deep blood blister and I didn't feel any break in the skin. By next morning though, when it had gradually increased in pain, I dug into it with tweezers and pulled out a large grain of sand.
Overall, it was a fun run and I'm glad I did it. Lessons learned: I need to get closer to the start with others my speed and always brush off the feet if there might be something stuck.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Winter/Spring recap
I suppose it's about time I wrote a new post, since I've been running again for a few months. Didn't run this morning but I did go out the previous two mornings. I've been trying to adapt to running at least five days a week and have been pretty successful.
I'll try to do a brief recap of what's happened since the PB Chip Chase.
I was trying to heal my left ankle by resting, icing, massaging, to no avail. I did occaisional runs to see if it improved much. Finally went to my doctor, at the end of March I think, who said it was where the outside edge of my achilles tendon inserts, and to give it two weeks icing 3-4 times a day, using heat on the ankle before a run and ice immediately after. Wouldn't you know, in two weeks it was all better, but two days after seeing the doctor, my right knee started giving me problems.
After looking at anatomy pictures and descriptions, it seemed like my new problem was the tendon of the semimembranosus muscle in the hamstrings. If you sit in a chair, feet on the floor and tense your hamstrings, you can feel three tendons under your knee. The semimembranosus is the higher up of the two tendons on the inside of your leg. Mine seemed to be irritated right there and sometimes when I bent my leg from straight position it would feel like it was being plucked. I figured since I was icing my ankle I'll just ice that as well.
A few days after that the same knee started getting some bursitis-like symptoms, which running seemed to aggravate. It would feel like pressure was building up between femur and tibia when it was bent and which was releived by straightening. Upon straightening, the knee would pop softly and if I repeatedly (5 -10 times) bent and straightened it would pop a little louder each time until the last time it when it would click and feel fully releived. The joint also felt a little loose. So I didn't run for a few more weeks.
The ice didn't seem to do much for my knee. What seemed to help after 2 weeks of frustration was a vigorous massage. I'd hold my knee between my hands and move them up and down and back and forth, oppositely, kind of like rattling my knee except without any sound. This would give immediate relief of the bursitis symptoms for anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours. So I repeated this as often as needed and in a few days felt better enough to run again. After a few weeks of that, during a period of heavy rain and I used the elliptical for exercise two days in a row, the tendon problem felt a lot better.
So now, the semimembranosus is out about 98%; I still feel a slight pluck sometimes but the area isn't sore to the touch like before. The buristis isn't all better but the joint doesn't feel loose and there's not the constant slight ache. There is still some pressure build-up but the popping and final click are a lot less.
In getting in the five runs a week and in lieu of the recent injuries, I started out with low mile runs, 1.5 to 2 miles per run. I'm now up to 3 to 3.5 and the injuries are still pretty minor. My achilles problem did come back but I've been keeping that at bay with massage and ankle exercises.
All in all I feel pretty good. Soles have thickened up nicely with minimal callouses.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Peanut Butter Chip Chase 5K
I did my first race ever today (actually yesterday by now), the Peanut Butter Chip Chase 5K in Temple NH. I was a little hesitant to do it since my left ankle has been bothering me for a while--pretty much since I started wearing minshoes when it got cold in October. My last run was the day before festivus when I did 6 miles--my farthest ever. The ankle hurt more than it had been, still a tolerable low level pain, but I figured I'd give it a rest anyway. So with a week off it felt mostly good and I thought the race would be a good test to see if I was ready to run again.
When I arrived to register there was a guy with a camera came up to me and asked if I was the guy he'd seen running BF last summer. Said I must have the toughest feet. I said well you have to let them gradually adapt. His name is Don and he lives farther down the road from me.
After registering, I still had some time before noon when the race starts so I took a warmup run to the house and back, stopping to get a few tissues for nose runs. I had earlier thought about changing my hoodie sweatshirt for something a little lighter but forgot all about that. It was in the low 40s and windy and most of the run would be with some tree shade so it didn't matter too much. Plus I wasn't going to really push myself much with the ankle possibly not all better. I was running in my new Stems and a few weeks ago had found them to be a little warm with socks at this temp, but I totally forgot about that too so I was wearing what I had on, which was some heavy hiking socks. It turned out there was no problem at all; with Reynaud's, some of my toes can go from numb cold to tingly hot in a few minutes.
Back at the center of town I was milling about until someone called out 10 minutes to race time and everybody started walking toward the starting line, which was about 100 feet around the corner. That was to get the finish line in a common area (parking lot) off the main road. Most everybody was wearing the modern conventional running shoes--not so many of the super thick, high heeled ones some call boat anchors, although I did see some of those too. I also saw two guys with VFFs and one guy with some orange, fairly thin Merrills--trail gloves? The guy with the air horn turned out to be Don, who spoke to me earlier. He announced the 5 or 6 minute mark and the 1 minute mark. When the horn sounded the fast runners took off up over the first hill and I didn't see them again until much later.
There was a good sized crowd. I was about 20-30 feet back from the start and after we were all running I guessed there was about 50 people ahead of me. It stayed about like that all the way through but maybe ending with 60 ahead of me. I really didn't keep track of how many I passed and how many passed me, though both happened. I expected I would run it in about 25 minutes. I haven't actually done that short of a run recently but my 6 mile run was in 58 minutes. I figured I'd be going a little faster in the race, what with other people to keep up with. This is all very new to me, running with other people. I haven't done that since basic training, which I totally forgot about until just now.
The first part of the course, maybe a 1 1/4 miles is mostly uphill. Short hill then level, repeat 4 or 5 times. At about a mile in people had settled into their positions. I had a guy behind me huffing and stomping and it sounded like he was really killing himself with this run. The second leg was gradual downhill but I didn't take off right away, I was recovering from all the uphill. After about 1/2 mile I took off and left the huffer stomper behind. The bottom of the second leg turns onto a dirt road with 3 small rolling hills. It was a little muddy from some recent rains but not really deep mud as the ground underneath was still frozen somewhat. Somewhere along this part a young girl about 10-12 years old said I was doing good--I forget the exact words. I think I remember that she was passing me. It was also somewhere along here that we started seeing some of the winners, who had finished and were running the course in reverse, giving encouraging words to those of us still plugging along. All this time I can tell my ankle is going to hurt a bit afterwards, although it never hurts much during a run.
The third leg is about 1/2 mile and back on paved road--gradual uphill, then a short steeper hill with about a 25 foot rise, then it levels off. This hill is also the sunniest, with the sun on your back. This is the first time I regretted wearing the hoodie. Near the top of the hill I walked for maybe 100 feet until I heard the huffer stomper approaching so I took off again. Sorry dude, I couldn't let you beat me.
The finish line was a little corral of sorts that starts with someone typing your number in as you cross and ends with someone ripping a tag off your "bib." The tags are then all scanned in I guess and they match up names, numbers and times. I crossed the line at about 24:55, right on time. I milled about for a bit, picked up a water bottle and clapped for some runners just coming in before heading to the town hall where there was soup, orange slices and cookies. I had some cookies and orange slices and overheard someone say 180 people ran. It was another 30-40 minutes before everybody finished--there were some walkers--and they started announcing the awards. The overall winner's time was under 17 minutes. Many categories: fastest male and female overall and runners up; fastest male and female in several age groups and runners up--the young girl who spoke to me was tops in hers; fastest Temple resident; best costume. My time was about 4-5 minutes from any medalling. The lead walker came in just under 4 minutes after me.
In my training runs, I had been breathing only through the nose, so I knew I would have to do some mouth breathing eventually if I wanted to hit my target time. I was just surprised how fast that point came up--probably at about 1/4 -1/3 mile in. I will have to rest my ankle for sure now, the walk back home after standing around for an hour was a bit awkward. Something in the peroneal tendon area, and the outside of my right hip was a little sore (fine now as I write this). But ice after showering seemed to help so I'll be doing more of that and rolling the calf and some massage. I'm not sure if it comes from running in minshoes or if it's just that I hit the 4 mile mark in my runs about the same time or if there's some "muscle imbalance." I do seem to land harder wearing the shoes. I catch myself doing it often and so keep trying to run lightly. It is my left leg again, which seems to have taken the brunt of the transition to BF issues. I do wonder what's up with that.
Overall, it was a good new experience for me and I'm glad I did it.
When I arrived to register there was a guy with a camera came up to me and asked if I was the guy he'd seen running BF last summer. Said I must have the toughest feet. I said well you have to let them gradually adapt. His name is Don and he lives farther down the road from me.
After registering, I still had some time before noon when the race starts so I took a warmup run to the house and back, stopping to get a few tissues for nose runs. I had earlier thought about changing my hoodie sweatshirt for something a little lighter but forgot all about that. It was in the low 40s and windy and most of the run would be with some tree shade so it didn't matter too much. Plus I wasn't going to really push myself much with the ankle possibly not all better. I was running in my new Stems and a few weeks ago had found them to be a little warm with socks at this temp, but I totally forgot about that too so I was wearing what I had on, which was some heavy hiking socks. It turned out there was no problem at all; with Reynaud's, some of my toes can go from numb cold to tingly hot in a few minutes.
Back at the center of town I was milling about until someone called out 10 minutes to race time and everybody started walking toward the starting line, which was about 100 feet around the corner. That was to get the finish line in a common area (parking lot) off the main road. Most everybody was wearing the modern conventional running shoes--not so many of the super thick, high heeled ones some call boat anchors, although I did see some of those too. I also saw two guys with VFFs and one guy with some orange, fairly thin Merrills--trail gloves? The guy with the air horn turned out to be Don, who spoke to me earlier. He announced the 5 or 6 minute mark and the 1 minute mark. When the horn sounded the fast runners took off up over the first hill and I didn't see them again until much later.
There was a good sized crowd. I was about 20-30 feet back from the start and after we were all running I guessed there was about 50 people ahead of me. It stayed about like that all the way through but maybe ending with 60 ahead of me. I really didn't keep track of how many I passed and how many passed me, though both happened. I expected I would run it in about 25 minutes. I haven't actually done that short of a run recently but my 6 mile run was in 58 minutes. I figured I'd be going a little faster in the race, what with other people to keep up with. This is all very new to me, running with other people. I haven't done that since basic training, which I totally forgot about until just now.
The first part of the course, maybe a 1 1/4 miles is mostly uphill. Short hill then level, repeat 4 or 5 times. At about a mile in people had settled into their positions. I had a guy behind me huffing and stomping and it sounded like he was really killing himself with this run. The second leg was gradual downhill but I didn't take off right away, I was recovering from all the uphill. After about 1/2 mile I took off and left the huffer stomper behind. The bottom of the second leg turns onto a dirt road with 3 small rolling hills. It was a little muddy from some recent rains but not really deep mud as the ground underneath was still frozen somewhat. Somewhere along this part a young girl about 10-12 years old said I was doing good--I forget the exact words. I think I remember that she was passing me. It was also somewhere along here that we started seeing some of the winners, who had finished and were running the course in reverse, giving encouraging words to those of us still plugging along. All this time I can tell my ankle is going to hurt a bit afterwards, although it never hurts much during a run.
The elevation graph from MapMyRun
The third leg is about 1/2 mile and back on paved road--gradual uphill, then a short steeper hill with about a 25 foot rise, then it levels off. This hill is also the sunniest, with the sun on your back. This is the first time I regretted wearing the hoodie. Near the top of the hill I walked for maybe 100 feet until I heard the huffer stomper approaching so I took off again. Sorry dude, I couldn't let you beat me.
The finish line was a little corral of sorts that starts with someone typing your number in as you cross and ends with someone ripping a tag off your "bib." The tags are then all scanned in I guess and they match up names, numbers and times. I crossed the line at about 24:55, right on time. I milled about for a bit, picked up a water bottle and clapped for some runners just coming in before heading to the town hall where there was soup, orange slices and cookies. I had some cookies and orange slices and overheard someone say 180 people ran. It was another 30-40 minutes before everybody finished--there were some walkers--and they started announcing the awards. The overall winner's time was under 17 minutes. Many categories: fastest male and female overall and runners up; fastest male and female in several age groups and runners up--the young girl who spoke to me was tops in hers; fastest Temple resident; best costume. My time was about 4-5 minutes from any medalling. The lead walker came in just under 4 minutes after me.
In my training runs, I had been breathing only through the nose, so I knew I would have to do some mouth breathing eventually if I wanted to hit my target time. I was just surprised how fast that point came up--probably at about 1/4 -1/3 mile in. I will have to rest my ankle for sure now, the walk back home after standing around for an hour was a bit awkward. Something in the peroneal tendon area, and the outside of my right hip was a little sore (fine now as I write this). But ice after showering seemed to help so I'll be doing more of that and rolling the calf and some massage. I'm not sure if it comes from running in minshoes or if it's just that I hit the 4 mile mark in my runs about the same time or if there's some "muscle imbalance." I do seem to land harder wearing the shoes. I catch myself doing it often and so keep trying to run lightly. It is my left leg again, which seems to have taken the brunt of the transition to BF issues. I do wonder what's up with that.
Overall, it was a good new experience for me and I'm glad I did it.
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