Running Aimlessly Around the Countryside

Another week, still sore. The run on Saturday didn't make my leg any worse, but I wasn't better either. On Tuesday I remembered that my running store, The Running Company , has a trainer come in occasionally. A quick e-mail got me the answer that the Tuesday was the June day, otherwise I would have to wait until July. I felt a little like this was fate, so I quickly got changed and headed to the Broadripple store. I was the third person in line and got my turn after about a 30 minute wait. The trainer felt around and felt a suspicious spot on my Tibia, that just happened to be where the pain was centered. Because of the location of the spot, he wasn't sure, but considered a stress fracture a real possibility. He suggested I continue waiting and testing, but thought the season would get away from me and suggested I see a doctor. I have taken his advise and have an appointment with a sports medicine doctor this week. On the heels of Will getting his road bike and wanting to...

So last weekend I realized that as I am not running, I am making myself and everyone around me miserable with my moping. But what could I do about it? Quit sitting around waiting for everything to get better all by itself, get off my butt, stick and roll my leg and do something about it! And so it went. I was diligent about sticking and stretching my lower legs. I got in 3 bike rides of 10+ miles and 2 sessions of aqua jogging. By Saturday things were feeling good enough to give it another chance on the run. During warm-ups for Anna's open water swim meet, I went out for what I thought to be an easy 6 miler. What I didn't realize is that I was in the only landlocked hilly location in the north half of Indiana. The hills combined with strong winds, humidity, and reduced fitness to really kick my butt. The good news was the leg didn't bother me. I didn't get a lot of cool down time in as I spent the rest of the day watching Anna rock a 5th place age group finish in her ...

I'm still off of running and I'm still sore. I'm getting frustrated because I really can't nail down what I'm dealing with. One time in the day I feel sore in one place, another time no soreness at all, then in another place, and back to the first one. Throughout the day, the soreness randomly moves from place to place. I did a better job of cross training, but not what I needed to or should have. I only got out for one bike ride, and I just found it easier to mope around and make my family miserable. I look in the mirror every morning and can just sense all of that great base training from the last 5 month draining out my pores. On a lighter note, Anna has done a good job sticking with her base mileage. She has needed to be prodded out the door a few times, but has done the runs. She and Jil even shared some nice mother-daughter time for a couple of runs. We had a swim meet this weekend, with great results for both kids. Anna swam all three days and had perso...

I took the week off from running to rest my right leg. On Tuesday morning I woke to zero leg pain, so I jumped to the conclusion that I had been experiencing a muscle knot and it finally released. My knee still hurt a bit, but I figured that was because of altered walking and I would do the right thing and wait until Saturday to test it. I was a good runner and waited for Saturday. The kids were gone, so Jil and I spent Friday night out of town. I was ready to test the leg, I love to run with Jil, and I love to explore new places on the run; the stars were aligned. Jil and I went out for and easy 5 miles. I felt good, but felt a little twinge here, then a little twinge there. I thought I was just being overly sensitive to every little thing. The run went fine, but after finishing the pain started to come back; I guess it wasn't the stars, but the perfect storm. As the weekend wore on I found that leg pain wise I was back to where I was a week ago. There is a little more going o...

A little variety this week, none of that boring training talk. The leg finally become sore enough while not running, that I determined it was time to stop doing that. I've been resting and icing as much as my busy evening schedule has allowed. I'm now on rest day 4 and it seems to be improving, but of course I have my internal microscope out, analyzing every twinge. My current plan is to take this week off, then next week start cross training with swimming and aqua jogging. If I'm feeling okay with a little pressure, I may throw in a little biking. I will not run until I can walk without pain. This one has left me a little frustrated. I haven't built up my miles too quickly and I have mixed my training intensity between easy, medium, and hard. Admittedly, I did stretch my last pair of shoes too far, but I didn't start to feel this until I got the new pair of the same model, so I don't think it's because of that. I'm also fretting the potential loss of ...

Now for the lull after the event. Overall I felt fine after last weeks half, although that was a slow training run for me, so I wouldn't have expected otherwise. I was tired, but that had more to do with getting up for the race and then getting up just as early on Sunday to go to a swim meet for the entire day. Yes, we are back into the swim meet season, this time for long course (50m or Olympic size pool). I wasn't really into the swim meet, and part of it is the pool change from 25 yard to 50 meter. The seed times are converted, so they aren't a good representation and I need to relearn the different time standards. I was kind of in a slump, but have all of a sudden been very excited about hitting the roads again. I got in my 7 milers on Monday and Thursday this week. I missed Wednesday because of a corporate community service day. I didn't mind missing, as the project is all about giving back to the community. Thursday I altered my route a bit to cut through the ...

Thursday and Friday left us all on edge. The weather forecast had storms in the forecast, increasing from a 30%-60% chance, and the race website was starting to focus on it's safety flag procedures. The prospect of one lightning strike bringing out the black flag was not in the plans when the running group started to train for this race back in February. I didn't help matters on Friday evening when I began scouring the internet for backup races. I thought I was doing what I could to influence the weather outcome (like I could really do anything!), but it was viewed as negativity on my part. After a normal pre-race, poor night's sleep a quick check of the radar and forecast showed the front had moved through and we should be clear of the storms for the race, only a potentially windy day (hmmm, maybe I do have some influence). The rest of the group arrived at our house at 5:30 and we left for the race. Traffic was of course light - who else in their right mind is driving ar...