Long Recovery Run/Walk - 14 miles

It was supposed to be a long run, but technically it was a run/walk. I did a lot of walking, but by the end? Those last few miles were all walking.

This was my first "real" run back, and the reason I use quotes is that there were a few runs in between to see how I felt, but nothing serious. Today was to be an all-out, give it what you got, back to the schedule long run. This whole week was, as a matter of fact, and I'm happy to report that I made all three runs.

Anyway, about today. I was doing pretty good toward the beginning, but after the halfway point, things started to go south. I started walking here and there because soreness was starting to set in. It's amazing how quickly fitness can be lost!

Anyway, here's how it looked.



Splits
Mile 1: 9:12.23
Mile 2: 9:22.95
Mile 3: 9:47.12
Mile 4: 9:58.65
Mile 5: 9:53.72
Mile 6: 10:20.06
Mile 7: 12:21.31
Mile 8: 12:40.83
Mile 9: 10:40.46
Mile 10: 11:21.71
Mile 11: 19:21.96
Mile 12: 18:10.01
Mile 13: 20:44.94
Mile 14: 20:48.07

As you can see, things just fell apart at the end, and in the last 4 miles I finally gave it up completely and walked.



All that said, the soreness I was feeling was entirely from not running for a period. The pain from my injury was for the most part gone. I could tell there was something going on, but nothing to stop me from running. This is great! Now I need to work on my stamina and speed, which will come just from running again.

After this run, last week was 25 miles, my highest mileage in almost a month.

Meanwhile, on the way home from work on Friday, I got a call from Fleet Feet to let me know my foam roller's come in! When you purchase $250 in merchandise from them, they email a $25 voucher to you. I now have a $25 voucher, along with a $5 coupon that I got from the Get Your Game Back seminar. The foam roller will be free.

I'm glad to be back.

You Call Those Sprints?!?! - 6.04 miles

I ran 6.04 miles today. The run scheduled for today was 10 minute warmup, 5x1k w/400m rest intervals. As far as pain goes, there really wasn't any, but there was some soreness in my thighs. Trying not to push it too hard and hurt myself, I ended up running 1/4 mile intervals adding the rest of the time of each to the rest intervals. I had the Garmin set to record 1k interval splits, so I'm not worrying about posting them here.



After I was finished, I did whatever I could to reduce the amount of soreness I experienced. I stretched for about 15 minutes, then iced both my knee and lower-leg for 15. Then I wore my knee brace the rest of the day.

Tonight other than a bit of soreness, I feel really well. Hopefully I'll feel this good in the morning.

Recovery Run - 10 miles + New shoes...

Have I got an update for you guys. I'll try to make it short, but I don't know if that's possible. *ahem*

As you guys know (or maybe not), I've been wearing Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8's for quite some time now. I've had my current pair since November, the pair before that I think I got in June, and I have no idea when I got the pair before that. I should also add that all my life, I've tended to lean my feet outward when I walk...

When I first picked them up, it was at a smaller Fleet Feet store that didn't spend much time with me. They watched me run across the store and back a couple times, then sent me on my way. With the 2nd pair, I was having a similar issue to the one I've been having (not the knee issue, but the one with my lower leg). I went into the bigger Sacramento store, and a guy in there spent about an hour evaluating my feet to see what might help.

He said the same thing: that I was a pronator, and need a stability shoe. He said that the Adrenalines were fine, but that I tend to turn my right foot outward as I run, and suggested insoles. I posted about it in the health thread at the time, he recommended green Superfeet. It made sense, since those are the same insoles I've been using for two years in my hiking boots.

The problem I was having got a little better, but never went completely away. I went through two pairs of Adrenalines with Superfeet insoles. That was when I started tracking my shoe usage, but you figure three, maybe four months with that first pair. So we're talking, running a year with Adrenalines.

My pastor had the running group going this Saturday morning, and I thought you know, I've had it. Let's take another trip to Fleet Feet, then run with the group and see how it goes. At Fleet Feet, I went through my history with them, and we went back to the drawing board. They had me put on my Adrenalines and run across the store.

When I got back the girl said, uhhhh, you're not pronating. Your feet are turning outward.

So she got 3 or 4 pairs of different types. She brought out a pair of Brooks shoes, some New Balance, and Nikes. This time around, I was comparing not the feel of the shoes on my feet, but how my leg felt as I ran. It was a tossup between the New Balance and Nike, so I put on a pair of each. The Nike won.

I give you Nike Pegasus 25


I ran 3 or 4 times across the store and they felt good. We also got the opinions of two other people in the store. So that's THREE people who felt I supinate instead of pronate. Finally to see how it felt, we put the Superfeet into the Pegasus shoes, and they felt fabulous. So I walked out the door with them.

I didn't make it to meet up with the group at 11. I got there at 12:15, and they were just finishing up. We talked about my new shoes for a while, and I decided that since I was alone, I'd go ahead and do my 10-miler as an easy recovery run. I didn't even wear my Garmin, I just went out by feel and decided to run/walk, walking occasionally just to see how I felt. At the 5-mile point I did a judicious amount of stretching, and in the end I think I walked about 1 out of 10 miles.

My average pace was 12 minutes per mile, although I was closer to 10 when I was actually running. As an indicator as to how easy I was running, my average HR was 122, and it never peaked over 145. I burned 957 calories as well. Overall I didn't feel too bad, but the real test would be later in the day.

We did errands and sure enough, as I got out of the car to walk into Walmart, the pain hit. In my leg. In my knee. So while there, I picked up a knee brace. I've never worn one before but figure what the heck, right?

Back at home when I put the brace on, it was like magic. ALL pain was gone, including the one in the middle of my leg. So I played around a little, moved my leg around. If I moved it at certain angles it would hurt, but nothing like before.

So I've been wearing the brace all day today. I don't plan to run with it, but my hope is that by wearing it when not running, while working and even at the gym, it will help it heal. *fingers crossed*.

Meanwhile, I'll keep you guys appraised as to how the Nikes are working out.