Mean wind

Saturday means an LSD day! Timing was a little off today for the run because we were going to Chuch E' Cheese's with Lily for her friends birthday party. I decided that I would leave the B-day party half way through and run home. I knew it was only about half the distance I needed and that it was mostly uphill but thought that it'd be good to go uphill and knew I could just keep on running for the extra time/distance that I needed. The first 3.9 miles were brutal. Not only are they mostly uphill (steep uphill) but there was this nasty headwind blowing directly opposite the way I was running that pushed me around quite a bit. It was a great workout and pushed me even though I was just trying to run long and slow. Once I got to our houes I added a little to the run by going around the dog park by our house and then ran for 30 more minutes through Briargate.

30 minutes into the run my calf was a little sore but that went away. Then off and on the last 30 minutes my left heel and plantar surface of the foot we tender. Have some ideas of what that could be, but I will rest and next week is a light week so hopefully we can get on top of that pretty quick. Total stats for todays run 8.3 miles, 80 minutes, average of 9min 38sec miles.

Uphill fun followed by a run with my love

Saw some free time on my schedule today so I brought my running clothes to work with me today, not really being sure of when I could run, but wanting to. My last morning appointment cancelled leaving me a few hours open so I decided it was time to get my car into the auto shop from a check engine light that came on a few days ago and is not turning off. I thought I might get a small run in after this in the afternoon. As I was about to go the the auto shop Julie called and asked if I wanted to go running with her since she had just dropped Lily off and had some free time. I said maybe and told her I'd call her at the auto shop. I dropped the car off and called Julie, she was still wanting to go.

Luckily, I had my running clothes with me at the auto shop so I just changed my clothes there and ran 2 miles uphill to our house to meet Julie. These first two miles felt horrible. My legs were just sluggish and tired, I am coughing a lot right now, and I in general felt sluggish (did I mention I ate a donut at the auto shop on my way out the door to go running...I really should stop doing that!). I wasn't sure if I was even going to be able to finish a run with Julie. I got to our house, picked up Julie, and off we went together. I did a lot better and I think it is because we ran on more level terrain. It is really nice to be able to run with her. We don't get to do it too often, but it is great when we do. We went an additional 3.55 miles doing 3 pick-ups for about 1-2 minutes each time, 2 of them uphill and 1 downhil. I was only going to do maybe 40 minutes total for the run but ended up at 55 minutes...ooops!

Finally got the LSD in!

For those of you who don't know, LSD stands for Long Slow Distance in the running world...so don't jump to mal-conclusions (I think I just made up that word)! This weekend was insane time wise and I literally had no time to get my long run in. THAT's THE BIG ONE for me! So I saw a little bit of open time late this morning on my schedule and decided to squeeze the run in there. Only about 1/2 mile from my office is a trail head to the Santa Fe Trail that runs all the way throught the Springs north and south. It's a great place to get a long run in. So after my last morning patient I got into my running clothes and popped out the door.

I decided to run south on the trail this time from where I get on the trail. I normally go north to try and stay at a little higher altitude, but was thinking about it and it is only a few hundred feet difference which really doesn't make much of a difference since I live at a higher altitude than the trail! I thought that going south might be better in that it is downhill going south, so the second half of my run would be a slow uphill; not much grade, but at least it is uphill. The run was very nice. The trail follows the fountain river the whole way and for the most part it is a pleasant view. The occasional graffiti was annoying, but it was very relaxing and the smell of the trees and bushes along the river coming back to life after Winter was a nice touch.

I ran 32 minutes out and 28 minutes back. I did this to give myself a little bit of a cool down walk to get back to the office. Now if I'm doing a steep uphill workout I always do this because I go a lot faster on the downhill half of the run. I made it a total of 6.8 miles which averages out to 8 minute 49 second miles. I have been surprised lately that I am running a little faster average times than before and it doesn't feel that way. I guess I'm getting into better shape. Getting the run in during the morning gives me a good 12 hours this afternoon to add to a full days rest tomorrow than all day Tuesday before I run again. Didn't get the LSD on Saturday, but I'm working it in to this weeks schedule.

Inclined treadmill workout

I got up at 5am Thursday morning and worked all day and into the night finally getting home around 10:15pm... long day! I was so tired and just wanted to go to bed, but I also needed to get another run in. My plan was a hill run also. The thought of going out in the dark and running hills on a dark street in Briargate was so far from appealing, but I knew I needed to do something because my Friday is slammed. I finally got the will power up to get dressed for a run and then fell asleep on my bed fully dressed. I woke up 15 minutes later and forced my butt off the bed to go running. I decided to go to our apartment gym and run an inlcine on the treadmill for only 30 minutes.

I started off with a quick warm-up and then started the run at 6.0 mph. Every minute into the run the first 10 minutes I would increase the incline by 1.0 and decrease my speed by 0.2 mph until I got to an incline of 10.0 and a speed of 4.8. I maintained this for 5 minutes and then went down to 8.0 inlcine for 5 minutes, then up to 10.0 incline for 5 more minutes and then 8.0 again for 5 minutes. I finished with a cool down.

My quads were burning really well the whole time, but cardiovascularly speaking I felt good and my calf was not bothering me. This is great news. After stretching I finished the whole session with a set of 16 eccentric loads to my right calf. I sure hope this is working!

Right calf saved....?

I keep a journal of numbers and very few words from my runs and I noticed on March 29th that I was landing mid to forefoot while running and I started messing with trying to land more with a heel strike and found that my calf didn't hurt as much doing so. Hmmmm...interesting. So I have been trying to run with a heel strike lately and my calf has not been as bad...am I on to something...I SURE HOPE SO!!! But part of my calf problem has been that my achilles tendon is bummy too. I had heard about eccentric loading to help achilles tendon problems rehab and finally read an article about it last night and the principles behind it make sense. After my run tonight I did one set of 12 reps eccentrically loading my calf. Let's see what happens!

I ran 3.55 miles aroun Briargate tonight at a 8 minute 27 second pace. It was just a little faster than I have been running and I did alright. Well...I did eat a couple cookies before my run and think that was a bad idea. But they sure tasted delicious!

Back after a small break

So last week I stepped up the training a bit with both the number of days and the intensity of training...what was I thinking doing both in the same week!!??!! By Saturday my legs were really tired but I was determined to get my long run in for the week, a 55 minute jaunt around Briargate. I went out on my run at 10:45pm (first chance I had all day) and felt like I was running slower than normal because of my legs being so tired. When I got back I was shocked to find out that I had run those 55 minutes at a pace about 40sec per mile faster than my normal LSD workouts!

The next day I was at the park with my daughter Lily and she got this look of terror in her eyes and shouted, "I have to go pee!" With no bathroom in site the only choice we had was to run uphill one block back to our apartment. I immediately picked Lily up and started to run trying to avoid getting peed on. Only 3 seconds into the run my legs had no energy in them and were telling me, "You're more likely to get peed on than to make us move like that!" We made it to the bathroom without incident, but my legs were shot. Because they were so tired I decided to take the next two days off (Mon and Tues) to let my legs recover some. Unfortunately, due to my schedule that turned into 6 days off!

So tonight I did my only run of the week. I didn't feel like running through my neighborhood in the dark late at night again so I did a 53 minute treadmill run in our gym. My legs felt good and were not tired. At the last minute I felt a little tightness in my right calf and decided it was time to end. It was nice to get a run in after a week without!

Qualifying for the Ascent

Before Race

After Race

So now I'm hooked on the Ascent, a half marathon to the top pf Pikes Peak, 14,115' in elevation. I ho-hummed around about it for a couple of months then I finally looked into the race and saw that you have to qualify to be able to run the race. To qualify you have to have run a half marathon in under 2 1/2 hours. I divided that by 13.1 and found that I'd have to average 11 minute 27 second miles over a half marathon to qualify...I could do that! The were now two problems that I was faced with, 1)I had been nursing an injured right calf and didn't want to push it too hard and  2)it was now November and most races were done for the winter in Colorado and I needed a qualifying time by registration in March. I picked the last half marathon available in this region in 2010 on December 4th in Pueblo, CO as my half marathon day, the Rock Canyon Half Marathon. I'd been running between 4-6 miles consistently all summer long, so I pushed it a little bit with my training, kept close watch on my calf, had a lot of soft tissue work done to my calf, and was ready for the December 4th race.

On race day it was a nice 38 degrees and sunny. The race started and it was very hard for me to hold back and let all the overachievers pass me early on in the race. I had a game plan to stay at 9:30 miles foe the first few miles and either speed up or slow down depending on my calf. All I HAD to do was stay under 11:27 miles to qualify for the Ascent. So I let the people pass me, even Santa Clause passed me, and stayed at my slower pace. About 4-5 miles in I was feeling really good, not tired at all, with no real sweat broken. So I slowly picked up the pace. By  then, a lot of the people that had passed me early on were running much slower and I began to pass people, a lot of people. I was feeling real good and keeping track on my wrist watch I noticed that each mile I ran got a few seconds faster than the one before and I kept on passing people. I never pushed myself really hard because my goal was to qualify for the Ascent, not run as fast as I could. I finished the race strong for the goal I had set and was happy to see my finishing time of 2hrs 00min and 40sec, a half hour under my cut-off, finisher number 307 of 600. I didn't realize how tired I was until I started to relax, but I made it and qualified for the Ascent. I didn't realize how good it would feel to finish a half marathon, but it was a real good feeling and I'm glad I did it.

BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, the same day as the Rock Canyon Half Marathon I had volunteered to work a shift at the hotel not too long after the race...WHAT WAS I THINKING! If I would have just gone home and rested I would have been okay. Nevertheless, I went to work at the hotel. I felt good at first, tired and excited, but good. About and hour into the shift with all the relentless walking that happens, my right achilles tendon began to ache just a little. I ignored it thinking it was just fatigue from the race. A few hours into the shift I could barely walk and had excruciating pain in the right achilles tendon. I ended up just standing in the hallway doing absolutely nothing until one of my managers Annie walked by. She could tell that I was hurt (I don't ever just stand there immobile away from the parties). She let me go home early and I nursed my achilles. This turned out to be the single biggest mistake I could have made fro my training. My achilles was now hurt...really hurt! I hypothesize that I pushed my legs limit with the half marathon and that my achilles was weakened by that. If I would have just rested that week and slowly eased into running again, it would have probably been fine. Instead, I pushed it past its limit and brought injury to myself. I have now been nursing it ever since and am at a point again where I am training on it without pain, but it aches mildly every day.

How I Started This Insanity

Ever since we have moved to Colorado Springs I have been in awe staring at Pikes Peak. It stands ever present in the background of all that we do here in town. It has always seemed to call to me, challenging me and beckoning me to climb it. I'd done the Manitou Springs Incline a few times and hiked on Barr Trail (the trail to the top on the eastern slope, and even took the cog rail train to the top, but had not yet done the whole thing. I'd heard of the Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent before moving here, but thought that was only for those crazy people of the world...until last summer.

My friend Eric called me up late last August and said, "You want to hike Pikes Peak on Saturday?" I paused mometarily and asked him, "You mean, like, to the top? That's over 20 miles round trip! Don't you have to kind of get in shape for that type of thing?" He said something to the effect of no problem. So I thought (no offense to Eric), "Well, I'm in better shape than Eric, so at least he'll give out before me..." So I told Eric 'sure let's do it' and it was set for a few days later meeting at 5am.

As we got into Manitou Springs that Saturday, where the trail head is located, I noticed a bunch of traffic barracades piled on the side of the road. I turned to Eric and said, "I think we may have chosen to hike the same day as the Pikes Peak Ascnet." He looked at me and said, "No, they'd have it all blocked off by now." So we went on and I had that doubt of hiking to the Peak today still in the back of my mind. It was a cool morning and watching the sunrise on the side of the mountain base was awe inspiring. It was a great day for a hike to the Peak. Sometime into our hike coming up from behind us came a runner, bounding with ease up the trail with a racing number on the front of his shirt. I thought to myself about the Pikes Peak Ascent and started to seriously wonder if there was about to be a hoard of people droning up the side of the mountain. Eric and I looked at each other, too late to turn around, and kept on hiking. Not much time later started the droning line of people testing their will at 'running' to the top.

Eric and I decided that it'd be best to get out of the way of poor souls 'having fun' beating their bodies into the ground running up the mountain, and we spent a lot of time standing on the side of the trail watching these long miserable faces slowly trudge past us. Most looked spent, exhausted, unhappy, in pain, some covered in dirt with blood trickling down a leg or an arm from a spill earlier on the trail. Eric looked at me talking about how insane all these people must be to try and do this. I looked back and said, "I want to be one of them next year." The thrill and exhilleration that filled my body watching these people and thinking that I could do that too was overwhelming. I was hooked, and nothing was going to stop me from trying.