I've been sidelined for several days. It has been a real struggle. The last day I ran (before today) was the 19th. I'll give you a recap of how I became injured.
Last Sunday after my run, I was messing around with my wife. Turns out, she does not like being tickled. To avoid my tickling ambush, she flailed and accidently kicked me in the chest. It hurt quite a bit but I didn't think anything of it. Monday rolls around and the weather was awful so I ran on the dreadmill (see post). Nothing was wrong and nothing hurt.
Tuesday the 19th. I'm not sure what happened. I was running with Ben and about a mile into the run I realized my chest was hurting. It was pretty chilly and Ben thought it might have been the cold. We finished the run (6.2 miles that I didn't write about) and I was gasping for air. My chest felt like someone took a bat to it. It hurt to walk, breath, sit/stand, and pretty much do anything. I was pretty nervous but there was no swelling or bruising. Needless to say, I didn't sleep very well that night.
I obviously knew that I had to take a few days off. Wednesday (the 20th) I went to Immediate Care and got my chest checked out. I was still in significant pain. Luckily they had a X-Ray machine and I found out I did not have a cracked rib. Huge sigh of relief. The doctor believes that I have torn or pulled some muscles/cartilage in the chest. His prescription: rest and extra strength Ibuprofen. The medicine has significantly reduced the pain.
I've been itching to run. Finally my chest wasn't hurting when I took a deep breath anymore so I decided to give running a chance today. Well, the weather was a balmy 24 degrees with a stiff wind out of the west. Brrrrr.
Thankfully Selke was willing to run with me today; I doubt I would have made it too far because of the cold. There are two things I hate about running: too hot and too cold weather conditions. Ugh. Since Selke's foot is really bothering him we ran on some snow covered trails. Running in the snow is always fun as long as it's less than a few inches. Most of the mud and puddles were frozen, except the one I stepped in (of course). Now I only wanted to test out my chest to see if I could take some deep breathes. Therefore, we only did a 4 miler. Throughout the run I was feeling pretty good but I could still feel a little pain. Nothing too serious.
We got back to my car and my chest is a little sore. This is pretty good news. I was pretty worried that I would have to withdraw from the Race with Grace on Thursday morning. I will just take it pretty easy the next couple of days and see what Thursday brings.
I'm really glad that I was able to run today. 4 days of rest is definitely enough. This injury is probably a blessing in disguise. Marathon training begins in exactly 1 week! Let's go!
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Dreadmill
The one piece of equipment that I despise the most is the treadmill. Properly termed: the dreadmill, as it makes me shudder every time I think about having to get on it. Unfortunately, last night I decided to give it a go. I probably could have gone out for a run but the weather conditions were not really conducive to running.
With winds near 35mph and the temperature below 40, I thought it best to run on the dreadmill. Naturally, that means my mileage was shorter. I don't know what it is with the dreadmill but I can't seem to run further than 3 miles at a time on it. It's not like 3 miles is a struggle because it's not. 3 miles is a cake walk. Alas, 3 miles is all I can handle on the wicked dreadmill.
On the positive side - my ankle is not hurting. This is really good news. As the Race with Grace nears and official marathon training approaches, I want to be injury free. Sure there is some mild aches and pains but that's part of the game.
With winds near 35mph and the temperature below 40, I thought it best to run on the dreadmill. Naturally, that means my mileage was shorter. I don't know what it is with the dreadmill but I can't seem to run further than 3 miles at a time on it. It's not like 3 miles is a struggle because it's not. 3 miles is a cake walk. Alas, 3 miles is all I can handle on the wicked dreadmill.
On the positive side - my ankle is not hurting. This is really good news. As the Race with Grace nears and official marathon training approaches, I want to be injury free. Sure there is some mild aches and pains but that's part of the game.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Muddy Sunday
Yesterday (Saturday) I decided to run really short just to test out the ankle. Everything seemed fine which is great news. Naturally, I made plans to run on Sunday.
I ran with Ben and Selke today. Selke and I have both been nursing injuries so we wanted to run on soft surfaces. We decided to run at Oatka Park in Scottsville. I have never run there up until today so I wasn't sure what I was expecting. Last night, Ben told me he wanted to run 8 miles and I chuckled to myself because I wasn't sure how Ben would hold up.
Driving up to Oatka Park I was pretty sure that we were going to get murdered. You know those times where you are driving out in the middle of nowhere and the houses look like really sketchy people live there? Yeah, that is exactly what the houses looked like on our way.
The weather was really good for the 17th of November. It was a comfortable 50ish with a slight breeze and on and off sprinkles. The rain didn't stick around too long and soon the sun appeared. I was glad that I chose shorts and a tshirt. We sort of knew that it was going to be really muddy. That is an understatement.
Less than 2 miles into the run there was some uphill trail for a little. The entire hill we were slipping and sliding all over the place. At one point in the run, Selke actually bite it and got covered in mud. These runs are fairly fun if you don't mind getting muddy. We decided that we should test out our nagging injuries and do a 30 second pick-up. Selke and I took off and were probably running close to 6 minute pace and we left Ben in the dust. Poor Ben. Both Selke and I felt fine and it was definitely worth the one pick up.
About half way through the run I rolled my ankle real bad. We took a break to allow me to walk it off. Of course this is the ankle that I have been nursing. I was a bit nervous that I really hurt it but I walked it off within 5 minutes. So we took it a bit slow for a few minutes and just in case I needed to head in. Thankfully, nothing was wrong and I trucked on.
We're about 40 minutes in now and Selke and I notice Ben is struggling a bit. Naturally we asked him if he wanted to keep going. He groaned. We kept going. As we approached the car we didn't bother picking the pace up and kept steady. As we pull up next to the car Ben just sits down as he was completely gassed. We figured we did about 7.5 miles covered in mud.
Overall, it was a great run. My ankle isn't hurting and the weather was ideal for late fall running. The only thing that will make this day better is some winter ales.
I ran with Ben and Selke today. Selke and I have both been nursing injuries so we wanted to run on soft surfaces. We decided to run at Oatka Park in Scottsville. I have never run there up until today so I wasn't sure what I was expecting. Last night, Ben told me he wanted to run 8 miles and I chuckled to myself because I wasn't sure how Ben would hold up.
Driving up to Oatka Park I was pretty sure that we were going to get murdered. You know those times where you are driving out in the middle of nowhere and the houses look like really sketchy people live there? Yeah, that is exactly what the houses looked like on our way.
The weather was really good for the 17th of November. It was a comfortable 50ish with a slight breeze and on and off sprinkles. The rain didn't stick around too long and soon the sun appeared. I was glad that I chose shorts and a tshirt. We sort of knew that it was going to be really muddy. That is an understatement.
Less than 2 miles into the run there was some uphill trail for a little. The entire hill we were slipping and sliding all over the place. At one point in the run, Selke actually bite it and got covered in mud. These runs are fairly fun if you don't mind getting muddy. We decided that we should test out our nagging injuries and do a 30 second pick-up. Selke and I took off and were probably running close to 6 minute pace and we left Ben in the dust. Poor Ben. Both Selke and I felt fine and it was definitely worth the one pick up.
About half way through the run I rolled my ankle real bad. We took a break to allow me to walk it off. Of course this is the ankle that I have been nursing. I was a bit nervous that I really hurt it but I walked it off within 5 minutes. So we took it a bit slow for a few minutes and just in case I needed to head in. Thankfully, nothing was wrong and I trucked on.
We're about 40 minutes in now and Selke and I notice Ben is struggling a bit. Naturally we asked him if he wanted to keep going. He groaned. We kept going. As we approached the car we didn't bother picking the pace up and kept steady. As we pull up next to the car Ben just sits down as he was completely gassed. We figured we did about 7.5 miles covered in mud.
Overall, it was a great run. My ankle isn't hurting and the weather was ideal for late fall running. The only thing that will make this day better is some winter ales.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Rest is nice.
After taking two days off I thought my ankle would be good to go. The swelling went down and the pain subsided. The rest was great. I started a core workout schedule which should help in general but I really hate taking breaks.
Every week I try to get a run in with someone. Running miles in the dark by yourself suck. So last night I ran with Ben. Typically when I run with Ben we're out there for 4-7 miles and nothing super fast. Last night was no different - an easy 5 miles in 39:18. Solid pace and beautiful conditions. Around 2.5 miles though, my ankle started bothering me again. Nothing like it was on Monday during the 16 miler, but enough where there is some mild discomfort walking around today.
After the run I did some stretching and headed over to one of my friends' house to enjoy some empty calories. We bought a variety pack of Saranc beer. They're delicious. I know a lot of people are complaining that Christmas advertising/winter is coming too soon. I agree to an extent, however, winter beers are my personal favorite.
Overall, 5 miles and some nice cold beer to wash away the pain in the ankle was a great Thursday night. I'm probably taking today off just in case. Off to work and the ice bags!
Every week I try to get a run in with someone. Running miles in the dark by yourself suck. So last night I ran with Ben. Typically when I run with Ben we're out there for 4-7 miles and nothing super fast. Last night was no different - an easy 5 miles in 39:18. Solid pace and beautiful conditions. Around 2.5 miles though, my ankle started bothering me again. Nothing like it was on Monday during the 16 miler, but enough where there is some mild discomfort walking around today.
After the run I did some stretching and headed over to one of my friends' house to enjoy some empty calories. We bought a variety pack of Saranc beer. They're delicious. I know a lot of people are complaining that Christmas advertising/winter is coming too soon. I agree to an extent, however, winter beers are my personal favorite.
Overall, 5 miles and some nice cold beer to wash away the pain in the ankle was a great Thursday night. I'm probably taking today off just in case. Off to work and the ice bags!
Monday, November 11, 2013
Veterans Day Struggle
Since this is a very important day for all of our active military and our veterans I figured I could go out there and struggle for for a bit. After all, I'm more than positive the military has is harder than running 16.4 miles. The route: Brockport to Greece via the Erie Canal path.
This is probably one of my last long runs of the year and man was it pretty tough. Running 16 miles is no joke. Thankfully the run was a net downhill and pretty much all on gravel. The temperature was upper 30s lower 40s with a strong southwesterly wind. Another positive for the run, 14ish miles was going with the wind! It was a win-win situation for me. However, around mile 4 or 5 the rain started to come. From there out I could tell the rest of the run might be ugly.
I'm really thankful I have a lot of running friends that find the same joy of causing pain to the body as I do. With that said, I'm pretty sure I couldn't have run this whole route without my good friend Selke. Now, Selke is a much faster runner than I but he doesn't mind taking easy recovery days. Naturally, I thought this was going to be a slower run since it was a long one. Not so fast. We went through 5 miles around the 38 minute mark - much of that pace was due to the wind. Several times I said "we should probably slow down a bit." Naturally, we didn't slow at all.
Finally we get to mile 11. We're soaked and it's the first and really only rest stop of the run. Yesterday I purchased some GU bars and I brought one with me to experiment. It was strawberry flavor and it tasted alright. I'm convinced that if I didn't have that I wouldn't have made it the rest of the way. It was a short break and then we were back on our way.
The other day I mentioned my ankle was a bit sore. Up to this point (mile 12ish) I was doing alright. We start going around this bend and I feel some pain in the ankle. Uh oh. I told Selke about it but we just pushed on. He reasoning - we're almost done! Silly for me to have thought about calling it a day and walking in and cutting the run short!
The last 3 miles were the worst. I thought they were going to be very easy at the beginning since there is a really nice down hill around 13.5. However, at that point we turned northwest and were not running almost right into the wind the rest of the way with the rain picking up. Not fun. To top that off, my ankle was throbbing. I sacked up, however and continued forward.
The last 1.5 miles:
We are just about to turn west - directly into the wind. I'm certain the wind has picked up and I know for a fact that it is raining harder. I'm pretty beat and Selke can tell. Allegedly he claims to be pretty beat at this point too but I have my doubts. I tuck in behind him and at this point we're just holding on to whatever we have left. Every step of the way I'm just thinking about how much further we have to go and how nice it will feel to be inside and warm. Finally we have a half mile to go. Nothing is left in my legs. We tick off another quarter and now we know we'll make it. We put it in cruise and just finished.
The end:
We reach the destination. There was talks early of maybe tacking on the extra .1 miles to make it 16.5 but there was no way that was going to happen now. There was no signs of delight to be done. We were just glad to be heading inside. At my parents' house we sat down and my dad had fresh pineapple and hot coco ready for us. It was so nice to be warm and sitting. I immediately went for the ice pack as my ankle was and still is visibly swollen.
I'm glad my father drove us back to the my apartment from where we started. The ride was nice and I was definitely glad to have ran when we did since the weather conditions got worse. We finished the run in 2:10:59. The last 2-3 miles was pretty slow due to the wind and my ankle. I'm sure we were probably averaging around 7:35-7:40 pace which I find to be quite impressive. Overall, I'm glad I got the 16 in for the day. I'm also glad that tomorrow is a rest day!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go devour everything in sight and fall asleep.
This is probably one of my last long runs of the year and man was it pretty tough. Running 16 miles is no joke. Thankfully the run was a net downhill and pretty much all on gravel. The temperature was upper 30s lower 40s with a strong southwesterly wind. Another positive for the run, 14ish miles was going with the wind! It was a win-win situation for me. However, around mile 4 or 5 the rain started to come. From there out I could tell the rest of the run might be ugly.
I'm really thankful I have a lot of running friends that find the same joy of causing pain to the body as I do. With that said, I'm pretty sure I couldn't have run this whole route without my good friend Selke. Now, Selke is a much faster runner than I but he doesn't mind taking easy recovery days. Naturally, I thought this was going to be a slower run since it was a long one. Not so fast. We went through 5 miles around the 38 minute mark - much of that pace was due to the wind. Several times I said "we should probably slow down a bit." Naturally, we didn't slow at all.
Finally we get to mile 11. We're soaked and it's the first and really only rest stop of the run. Yesterday I purchased some GU bars and I brought one with me to experiment. It was strawberry flavor and it tasted alright. I'm convinced that if I didn't have that I wouldn't have made it the rest of the way. It was a short break and then we were back on our way.
The other day I mentioned my ankle was a bit sore. Up to this point (mile 12ish) I was doing alright. We start going around this bend and I feel some pain in the ankle. Uh oh. I told Selke about it but we just pushed on. He reasoning - we're almost done! Silly for me to have thought about calling it a day and walking in and cutting the run short!
The last 3 miles were the worst. I thought they were going to be very easy at the beginning since there is a really nice down hill around 13.5. However, at that point we turned northwest and were not running almost right into the wind the rest of the way with the rain picking up. Not fun. To top that off, my ankle was throbbing. I sacked up, however and continued forward.
The last 1.5 miles:
We are just about to turn west - directly into the wind. I'm certain the wind has picked up and I know for a fact that it is raining harder. I'm pretty beat and Selke can tell. Allegedly he claims to be pretty beat at this point too but I have my doubts. I tuck in behind him and at this point we're just holding on to whatever we have left. Every step of the way I'm just thinking about how much further we have to go and how nice it will feel to be inside and warm. Finally we have a half mile to go. Nothing is left in my legs. We tick off another quarter and now we know we'll make it. We put it in cruise and just finished.
The end:
We reach the destination. There was talks early of maybe tacking on the extra .1 miles to make it 16.5 but there was no way that was going to happen now. There was no signs of delight to be done. We were just glad to be heading inside. At my parents' house we sat down and my dad had fresh pineapple and hot coco ready for us. It was so nice to be warm and sitting. I immediately went for the ice pack as my ankle was and still is visibly swollen.
I'm glad my father drove us back to the my apartment from where we started. The ride was nice and I was definitely glad to have ran when we did since the weather conditions got worse. We finished the run in 2:10:59. The last 2-3 miles was pretty slow due to the wind and my ankle. I'm sure we were probably averaging around 7:35-7:40 pace which I find to be quite impressive. Overall, I'm glad I got the 16 in for the day. I'm also glad that tomorrow is a rest day!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go devour everything in sight and fall asleep.
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Getting back to basics
Since I have been running quite a bit this year (763 miles after today on the year which is more than double than last year) and I have officially decided to run the Buffalo Marathon in May 2014, I figured I should start writing again. My last post was back in February? Crazy. There has been so much going on with the training, I'll try to sum it up quickly!
Up to date, running has been going great. I've run a few races on the year and have one more coming up on Thanksgiving Day. I've stayed pretty much injury free besides the little aches and pains. I have also lost a toe nail. I've run 14 for my furthest run and have a 16 miler scheduled for Monday. Overall, I'd say training and my base has been going great. Official marathon training begins December 1st.
Until December 1st, you'll get to read my ramblings about the miles leading up to the real training. For instance, todays run was a nice little 6.3 miler. Nothing too exciting to report. The temperature was in the upper 40s with a slight breeze. The breeze made it feel like it was upper 30s. I'm glad I wore tights.
When I was out on the roads with Ben I felt really comfortable. The pace wasn't killer and the legs felt great after taking a day off. I do have a slightly sore ankle and I was and am a bit worried about that. Nothing ice can't fix I suppose. We'll see how tomorrow and Monday go.
Up to date, running has been going great. I've run a few races on the year and have one more coming up on Thanksgiving Day. I've stayed pretty much injury free besides the little aches and pains. I have also lost a toe nail. I've run 14 for my furthest run and have a 16 miler scheduled for Monday. Overall, I'd say training and my base has been going great. Official marathon training begins December 1st.
Until December 1st, you'll get to read my ramblings about the miles leading up to the real training. For instance, todays run was a nice little 6.3 miler. Nothing too exciting to report. The temperature was in the upper 40s with a slight breeze. The breeze made it feel like it was upper 30s. I'm glad I wore tights.
When I was out on the roads with Ben I felt really comfortable. The pace wasn't killer and the legs felt great after taking a day off. I do have a slightly sore ankle and I was and am a bit worried about that. Nothing ice can't fix I suppose. We'll see how tomorrow and Monday go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)