down but not out...nevah!!!!!

After my last post, for those who care, I was really hoping for a week of no injuries from over-training. AND I GOT IT!

Then I the stomach flu for a week... eesh..

Today I got back to running again.

I ran 7 miles at race pace or better (9 minute miles) which i was shocked about. It was not super easy but it felt great to push.. and not get injured. Well, there was the massive endorphin rush afterwards which was incredible...

Another update is that I'm going to see an actual M.D. (Sports Medicine doc at the University of Colorado Sports Medicine) on Thursday to have "biomechanical analysis" to analyze gait, shoes and body mechanics. Hopefully this will give me some pointers on how to stay injury free...

A very good week so far...

Monday - rest
Tuesday - 6 miles (at marathon goal pace!)
Wednesday - 3 miles (on trails!)
Thursday - 3 miles (on pavement)
Friday - rest

So far so good. I'm pain free for the first time since starting marathon training!

Saturday - 18 miles (last week was 15)
Sunday - 3 miles (walk/run on a track)

Tomorrow is Saturday and will be reeaaally slow (like last week's long run).... if all goes well... i could be past my major over-use injuries for a while and most of you will not be subject to my whining... about that anyways :)

... and I don't need a shot

Today Jordan received his Chicken Pox vaccination shot.... This has been a source of consternation and fear for him for the last week or so....

Yesterday Lauren saw the doctor in order to determine she had stomach flu...

Upon the doctor entering the room yesterday, here was Lauren's self-introduction:

"Hello, I'm Lauren.. And I don't need a shot" - hehe

Lisa sent me this in a text message during a very tense moment in my office at work... The moment quickly passed :)

site updates

For those that constantly remind me.. there is more to life than exercise and running and such... to which I answer that yes, there IS biking and swimming but i digress...

To that end, the blog site has been updated to include a couple of gadgets that let you translate your words to yoda-speak and also (at the bottom) a yoda daily-quote generator.

Enjoy!

Faster and faster

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!

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!

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)!