While trying to come off an injury, lessons in patience and restraint are hard learned.
Yesterday I ran for 5 miles on the track at 10 minutes per mile because i was keeping my heart rate below 80% in order to not over train. That went ok, after all I was trying to recover from a beating of a massage therapy session two days ago..
Today's planned run I was worried about because the leg was a little tight during the day....
I got to the track, stretched and then ran a quick quarter mile (1:59/8 minute pace), walked one. Ran another quick quarter mile (1:46/7 minute pace), walked another. I continued this way for 3 miles and finished with my quarter mile split at 1:39/6:40 minute mile pace! I've not run this fast before - even during interval training (which is what this morphed into unexpectedly).
I stretched on the walks and did a number of strengthening plyometrics while walking.
At the end I stretched a ton. I felt great.
Got home and got the evening routine started after gobbling down somewhere around 1,000 calories to recover.
Then I sat down on a chair with my right leg (previous trouble leg) at an acute angle from the chair to the floor.......
All was well until i stretched a bit after getting up... The tightness was incredible - I thought I was going to break something..
I'll be slowing down again after passing the rolling pin over my IT Band 20 or 30 times tonight....
I'm thinking I might swim tomorrow... Mike Phelps' Olympic performance in the pool is inspiring me :)
Either way, I'm getting a bit faster while also improving the decrease in the number of heart beats per second when i finish exercising (measured as the change in beats per minute between the end of the exercise and 2 minutes later). Currently I am trending a drop of around 42 beats per minute. It's a really good way of measuring fitness level. The beats per minute dropped in a short period of time indicates your recovery rate from difficult exercise.
Enough about that technical silliness.
Assuming all goes well and injuries stay away, this is all great news to anyone following along.
Stay tuned!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
reminder! Give til it hurts!
This is a reminder that my deadlines for donations are coming soon for the NYC Marathon.
Here is the site: http://www.active.com/donate/teamibdkids/jason_white_01
Give til it hurts!
And thank you to all who have been so generous and kind already!
Here is the site: http://www.active.com/donate/teamibdkids/jason_white_01
Give til it hurts!
And thank you to all who have been so generous and kind already!
Back to running - healed I hope
There is nothing more irritating to a runner training for a long race or goal than having to slow down (or stop) running.
Just ask anyone who is tapering for a marathon what time it is and you're liable to get a response more persnickety than the one you are expecting.
I've now taken a week off of running in order to heal my problems in my legs brought on by over-training.
I've been... grouchy to put it mildly.
Now I am back on the wagon. I am back running with zeal but also with caution. I am remembering that not every run should be a "tempo" run. Tempo runs being those that you run near your race pace (which forces you to operate at about 95% of your maximum heart rate constantly). You can't possibly run tempo runs all the time without injury. Difficult lesson to learn but I've learned it now.
I am running most runs now at 85% of my max HR or lower (below 80% for my long run). This is helping my legs greatly.
It is very frustrating that my cardio capacity is very high but my body can't withstand the pushing and pounding ALL the time.... getting older i suppose. Must allow a little more time before getting extreme with the training.
Having run a couple middle-of-the-road runs this week around 85% max hr (4 and 6 mile runs), one long run at 75% max hr (13 miles) and a recovery run very slowly (3 miles), I'm hoping I am getting over these injuries. Running on nothing but flat surfaces has helped greatly as well.
I look forward to making many more posts on this blog where i run and run and stay injury free for a while. It would be nice to get back into my 5 days a week of running rhythm.
Stay tuned as I continue training for my next major race (the nyc marathon)!
Just ask anyone who is tapering for a marathon what time it is and you're liable to get a response more persnickety than the one you are expecting.
I've now taken a week off of running in order to heal my problems in my legs brought on by over-training.
I've been... grouchy to put it mildly.
Now I am back on the wagon. I am back running with zeal but also with caution. I am remembering that not every run should be a "tempo" run. Tempo runs being those that you run near your race pace (which forces you to operate at about 95% of your maximum heart rate constantly). You can't possibly run tempo runs all the time without injury. Difficult lesson to learn but I've learned it now.
I am running most runs now at 85% of my max HR or lower (below 80% for my long run). This is helping my legs greatly.
It is very frustrating that my cardio capacity is very high but my body can't withstand the pushing and pounding ALL the time.... getting older i suppose. Must allow a little more time before getting extreme with the training.
Having run a couple middle-of-the-road runs this week around 85% max hr (4 and 6 mile runs), one long run at 75% max hr (13 miles) and a recovery run very slowly (3 miles), I'm hoping I am getting over these injuries. Running on nothing but flat surfaces has helped greatly as well.
I look forward to making many more posts on this blog where i run and run and stay injury free for a while. It would be nice to get back into my 5 days a week of running rhythm.
Stay tuned as I continue training for my next major race (the nyc marathon)!
Father and Son at the track
Today was fun,
We mowed the lawn(s), weed whacked, had friends over for dinner with their daughter and what else? Oh Yeah! I took Jordan (7) to the nearby running track and ran a bit.
I went there to just take a short jaunt of 3 miles (veeery slowly) after my big long run yesterday of 13 miles in order to "recover" my legs.
Jordan and I both packed a couple 20 ounce bottles full of Gatorade powder and ice and headed off to the track - as if we were heading to the Gobi Dessert or something. We also brought sunscreen and sunglasses along to protect us from the sun.
Jordan did very well! I ran one lap and walked the subsequent one each time. He joined me on about half of the laps. When he got a little wimpy I suggested we regale the local wildlife with our impressive physiques (take our shirts off and run) and this motivated him enough to keep running with me.
I'm glad he tried it. Both our children love to try new things each day and that makes me feel like we are at least getting one thing right :)
Best part of all: holding hands with my 7 year old son as we trotted along, hand in hand with shirts off and sunscreen on - taking in the mid-day sun and cool breezes from the approaching storm to the north.
Who says running is boring?
We mowed the lawn(s), weed whacked, had friends over for dinner with their daughter and what else? Oh Yeah! I took Jordan (7) to the nearby running track and ran a bit.
I went there to just take a short jaunt of 3 miles (veeery slowly) after my big long run yesterday of 13 miles in order to "recover" my legs.
Jordan and I both packed a couple 20 ounce bottles full of Gatorade powder and ice and headed off to the track - as if we were heading to the Gobi Dessert or something. We also brought sunscreen and sunglasses along to protect us from the sun.
Jordan did very well! I ran one lap and walked the subsequent one each time. He joined me on about half of the laps. When he got a little wimpy I suggested we regale the local wildlife with our impressive physiques (take our shirts off and run) and this motivated him enough to keep running with me.
I'm glad he tried it. Both our children love to try new things each day and that makes me feel like we are at least getting one thing right :)
Best part of all: holding hands with my 7 year old son as we trotted along, hand in hand with shirts off and sunscreen on - taking in the mid-day sun and cool breezes from the approaching storm to the north.
Who says running is boring?
Ice Bath. No really!
Well, some of you may know and some of you may not.
An ice bath is something even you can do!
Not that you would ever want to but, assuming you decided to pursue some arbitrary and masochistic goal, you too could enjoy the thrill of immersing your lower body in water averaging 50 degrees Fahrenheit once a week or so.
Seriously, this is what I am doing now after each long run weekly in order to ensure i overcome my latest overuse injuries (one a variant of the shin splints and easily overcome with specific stretches while running, and my Ilio-Tibial Band Syndrome (ITB) translated as very tight ligament on outside of each leg - problem).
Tried the first ice bath Saturday and it was, remarkably, ok. None of the tell-tale twitching occurred regarding deep lactic acid release but still, felt good to ice both legs effectively.
Seems to have helped minorly as well.....
I recommend this to anyone seeking a "take your breath away" experience on a regular or irregular basis :)
An ice bath is something even you can do!
Not that you would ever want to but, assuming you decided to pursue some arbitrary and masochistic goal, you too could enjoy the thrill of immersing your lower body in water averaging 50 degrees Fahrenheit once a week or so.
Seriously, this is what I am doing now after each long run weekly in order to ensure i overcome my latest overuse injuries (one a variant of the shin splints and easily overcome with specific stretches while running, and my Ilio-Tibial Band Syndrome (ITB) translated as very tight ligament on outside of each leg - problem).
Tried the first ice bath Saturday and it was, remarkably, ok. None of the tell-tale twitching occurred regarding deep lactic acid release but still, felt good to ice both legs effectively.
Seems to have helped minorly as well.....
I recommend this to anyone seeking a "take your breath away" experience on a regular or irregular basis :)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Pushing too hard is....... pushing too hard
Sometimes pushing too hard is really just... pushing too hard. Truer word were never spoken eh?
I frequently tell others that if they want people to seek their advice, don't force it on them when they aren't asked.
A wise man once said (and yes we are assuming this was some time ago long before women became wise - like in the 50's or something) - Giving advice is easier than following your own.
True dat wise man.
Recently I kept trying to push the envelope on my nagging overuse-of-the-knee injury by running a bit more but paying very close attention to the recovery of my knee (ITB Band) during and after each planned run. Problem is, each time i ran... I felt fine before running and not after. This may sound simple but it is less than.
Each day I had slated for running on my training plan, I would "listen" to my knee and see if it's recovering. Each day it feels like it has recovered from the last run... Then I run - even slowly as to not provoke the over-training gods. Then I enjoy knee pain the rest of the evening (I generally run after work if at all possible).
What to do?
Well, in the absence of a Panacea, and/or the willingness to take NSAIDS (Advil) prior to and after running while wearing more and more supportive knee stabilizing straps etc..... One must stop.
It sucks of course because it forces me to remember that I'm getting older - which no one likes. When you get older (as old people will tell you) things don't heal like they did when you were 18, or even 30...
So, I've derailed my running training for a week (starting yesterday with no running) in order to allow my legs and knee the chance to heal and recover from the recent beatings. I really don't know what else to do that wouldn't just be insanity to heal my knee.
I am making more trips to the pool to swim the equivalent TIME that I would have run. I am also kicking off the wall with only my left leg (non-injured knee) when I'm not distracted by a swimmer wanting to compete - prior to their inevitable disappointment in their own poor judgment :)
I've read and heard so many stories from marathon runners that everyone should take a week off in their training for marathons to heal and recover and then go again.
Hopefully, much like unsolicited advice, the lack of a thing will make the opposite reaction a very positive one.
Stay tuned!
I frequently tell others that if they want people to seek their advice, don't force it on them when they aren't asked.
A wise man once said (and yes we are assuming this was some time ago long before women became wise - like in the 50's or something) - Giving advice is easier than following your own.
True dat wise man.
Recently I kept trying to push the envelope on my nagging overuse-of-the-knee injury by running a bit more but paying very close attention to the recovery of my knee (ITB Band) during and after each planned run. Problem is, each time i ran... I felt fine before running and not after. This may sound simple but it is less than.
Each day I had slated for running on my training plan, I would "listen" to my knee and see if it's recovering. Each day it feels like it has recovered from the last run... Then I run - even slowly as to not provoke the over-training gods. Then I enjoy knee pain the rest of the evening (I generally run after work if at all possible).
What to do?
Well, in the absence of a Panacea, and/or the willingness to take NSAIDS (Advil) prior to and after running while wearing more and more supportive knee stabilizing straps etc..... One must stop.
It sucks of course because it forces me to remember that I'm getting older - which no one likes. When you get older (as old people will tell you) things don't heal like they did when you were 18, or even 30...
So, I've derailed my running training for a week (starting yesterday with no running) in order to allow my legs and knee the chance to heal and recover from the recent beatings. I really don't know what else to do that wouldn't just be insanity to heal my knee.
I am making more trips to the pool to swim the equivalent TIME that I would have run. I am also kicking off the wall with only my left leg (non-injured knee) when I'm not distracted by a swimmer wanting to compete - prior to their inevitable disappointment in their own poor judgment :)
I've read and heard so many stories from marathon runners that everyone should take a week off in their training for marathons to heal and recover and then go again.
Hopefully, much like unsolicited advice, the lack of a thing will make the opposite reaction a very positive one.
Stay tuned!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Marathon Training Week 1: Blisters, Blisters Everywhere
Yes, as some of you may know already - I'm training for the 2008 NYC Marathon.
As a result, I got new shoes...
Little did I know the pain to come.
Lesson learned - always get fitted correctly for your running shoes and ALWAYS consult the nearby running store (where i learned that running in cotton socks is a REALLY bad idea...).
I also highly recommend a "foam roller" for Illiotibial Band stretching.
I did my first week of marathon training pretty well until I ran my long run with cotton socks. Long run was 14 miles this week too....eesh...
Am recovering by doing crosstraining (swimming/biking)... not the same though....
As a result, I got new shoes...
Little did I know the pain to come.
Lesson learned - always get fitted correctly for your running shoes and ALWAYS consult the nearby running store (where i learned that running in cotton socks is a REALLY bad idea...).
I also highly recommend a "foam roller" for Illiotibial Band stretching.
I did my first week of marathon training pretty well until I ran my long run with cotton socks. Long run was 14 miles this week too....eesh...
Am recovering by doing crosstraining (swimming/biking)... not the same though....
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