2006 in review

First things first: Thursday I went back to the so-called track and was planning on going 4 miles. Around 3 and a quarter, I didn't feel quite right. My knee/IT band wasn't hurting but my mind was thinking that it was gonna hurt any second, so I stopped and stretched it out just in case. Just like chicken soup for the common cold, it was a great remedy and I ran the last 3/4 of a mile without any problems. It's great when stuff like that happens, eh? Friday I wanted to see how things held up by running on consecutive days, so I did an easy 3 at the same place. Sure enough, things were great.

But great was short-lived. I don't have the luxury of having a foam roller out here, so I've had to improvise. The sports med doc I went to see about a month and a half ago recommended filling a two-liter bottle with water, sticking it in the freezer, and then using that as a roller once it has completely frozen over. Well, I did that and my IT band definitely didn't respond well to it. The bottle was just hard as a rock and didn't have any give like a foam roller does.

Saturday there was just a dull pain, but I knew that was from the two-liter bottle. I went snorkeling and swimming and things seemed to feel fine. This morning, I was planning on just walking around (since that never hurts now) and maybe jogging a mile if things felt alright. Well, that turned into 4 miles. I jogged 2.5, walked around for about 20 minutes, and then jogged another 1.5 before I felt a slight burn in my knee, so I called it a day. Grand total for the year - 869 miles.

Enough of that... here's my analysis on 2006, the year that was:

It ROCKED because: I bought new racing flats and - in my first race after that - shattered my 5K PR by a whopping 22 seconds. I also ran two other 5K's faster than the PR I had before said flats. I set a 10-mile PR by over 2 minutes, albeit in my second ever 10-mile race. I got the courage to sign up for, train for, and run a full marathon. And, saving the best for last, qualified for Boston!

It SUCKED because: Injuries, injuries, injuries. Two in particular, which I've spent much time blogging about: my calf tendonitis in mid-summer and the IT band syndrome of recent times. It all adds up to two months of running straight down the proverbial drain.

I ran 869 miles this year, and had recently been somewhat disappointed because somewhere down the line I had decided that my goal was 1000. As I was looking back at my log, I read a goal I made on January 1, 2006: Run 750 miles this year. Well, I certainly accomplished that feat and I'm really not sure where the push for 1000 came from. I also had made two other goals - stretch every day (I think I missed only 6 days) and do 100 pushups AND situps each day. The second goal kind of fizzled out after January, but I still do my fair share of situps and pushups.

As for 2007, my main goal is to run 1000 miles. I know it's not that hard (and all my non-running buddies are probably thinking "that's a load of shit!") because it's only 19 miles a week. The bulk of that mainly relies on one thing, otherwise known as my second goal: stay injury free! Maybe I'll come up with a couple more goals in the next week, but nonetheless, the new year brings a clean slate and a boatload of optimism.

Anyway, happy new year to everyone. I can't block quote this because I'm using Safari out here, and Safari doesn't fly that way, so I'll just plainly type my last quote of 2006....

"It's been a long December and there's reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last." --The Counting Crows

Tis the season to be sick

All this sun and sand is keeping me from typing up a post on a regular basis. It's also too bad that the sun and sand can't keep me from getting sick. It almost seems like clockwork - I always get sick right around Christmas and this time around it was a pretty decent cold. Oh well....at least I'm in the "getting over it" phase.

Let's see...Saturday I swam, Sunday I ran 4 miles. I did the same "course" as I did for my previous run, and I had wanted to do a somewhat longer run of at least 5 miles. Well, I took it easy and just went with how my body felt, and I ended up only doing four because I had a little discomfort on the knee. The way I figure, a little bit of discomfort is much better than a lot of discomfort. Monday I took a rest day because I was really feeling sick, and then Tuesday I ran again.

I found another place close to here that resembles a track. It's an asphalt sidewalk that makes a figure-eight - inside one circle is a soccer field and inside the other is a softball field. I measured the loops on runningmaps.com and the one surrounding the soccer field is a quarter mile.....perfect! The main reason I wanted to run here as opposed to the previous spot was because this sidewalk "track" was surrounded by soft grass whereas the other place wasn't, so it was definitely easier on my knee. I took it easy and ran 3.5 miles, and felt great afterwards.

I really think I'm finally getting over that injury hump, just as long as I keep taking care of business which includes icing the knee/IT band 2-3x a day, stretching a bunch, and doing the exercises they gave me in physical therapy. Patience is a virtue.

Aloooooooooha!

The weather is beautiful out here and I wouldn't want it any other way....especially on the first full day of winter :) It has been unseasonably warm back in Michigan, but that just doesn't compare.

VERY good news on this side of the computer though! I went running on Tuesday afternoon, fully intending to do 2 miles, but I was able to make it 3 miles without any noticable pain. I could have probably gone longer but I didn't want to ruin a good thing. Wednesday was my travel day, Thursday I swam a few laps without any pain, and then today I went running again. Like I said in the last post, it's pretty hilly where we are, but I was able to find a fairly flat stretch close to home that measures about a quarter-mile long. It has two rolling hills that don't seem to have more than a few feet of incline and decline.

Getting over there was exercise in itself because I had to traverse a couple of steep hills, but if I could effectively walk up and down those hills with no pain, I knew I was in great shape. I did 6 laps for a total of 3 miles and I did have a sort of burning sensation on the top of my tibia near the end of the run, but that quickly went away. All in all, it was another good run. I'd say I was doing 7:30-8:00 pace, so it was right in my comfort zone - not too quick, not too slow.

Tomorrow is definitely gonna be a swimming day, but I decided that I'm gonna revert back to the marathon schedule I made for myself to train for Detroit. That means running on Sun, Tue, Thur, Fri and cross training or resting the other days. We'll see how it works out, but so far so good.

Freaking out...or maybe not

You'd think I'd have more time now to write a post, but apparently that's not how the script is written out.

I was freaking out this past week because I thought it was the 16th week out from Boston, which means I'd ultimately have to make a decision of whether or not I'm gonna run it. That is, until I checked my calender and realized that the week of Christmas is the 16th week out, so I do have a little more of a grace period to decide what's gonna happen.

I really feel that the knee and IT band are healing, and the PT is really helping. On Thursday I hopped on the elliptical for 4 miles, biked 5 miles on a stationary bike on Friday, did 4 miles on the elliptical on Saturday, and did 5 more miles on the elliptical on Sunday. All in all, everything held up. I do have pain in my right knee area, but it's in the tendon of one of the hamstrings...so I'm pretty sure it's unrelated. I think I accidentally just pulled something.

Today at PT they attached wedges to the underside of my new inserts to make my legs line up better and effectively make me run more biomechanically efficient. Sounds great to me! You know what else sounds great? I'm headed out to Hawaii on Wednesday. It's pretty hilly in the area where we're gonna be, so I don't know how much running I'll be able to do. I may have to find a flat stretch, measure it out, and then run back and forth to get in some flat miles that won't put too much stress on my knees. That's all assuming I can run without pain. I'm also planning on doing a bunch of swimming too, so that'll help.

Anyway, cheers for now.

I'm done

Since my last post, I have completed two papers (one was 12 pages with all the juicy good stuff that all long papers should have), taken one "midterm" exam, and taken three final exams. Oh yea, and I also graduated! I'm now proud to call myself an alum of Michigan State University. :)

So you can see why I haven't had time to post until now. Let's update on everything that has happened... last Tuesday I started physical therapy and they did their initial evaluation. It's hard to explain in words, but what they found is that my arches are higher than normal and when I put pressure on the feet (such as when running), the arches collapse and it creates torque on the outer side of the knee. So they told me to buy these stabilizer inserts that effectively keep my arch from collapsing too much and reducing that torque. They've been working so far...

Thursday was my first real session of PT and they put me through all sorts of exercises and wow, was I sore the next day! That's what I get. Friday I went on the elliptical for 3.5 miles and felt great, so I decided to try to run on Sunday.

Yea, riiiiiight....I stayed close to home just in case and sure enough, the knee started hurting after about 2 miles. Nothing like a lingering injury to dampen an otherwise okay day. The pain slowly went away as afternoon turned to evening turned to night and then it was gone the next day. Weirdest thing ever. And it didn't hurt at all during my PT session yesterday. Today I biked about 10 miles and did a bunch of walking and it all felt fine. I just don't understand it...all I want is to be running again, is that too much to ask?

Ugh. More physical therapy in the morning. I wish I could add this injury to the list of things at the top of the post that I'm done with.

I could do without the ice

This is what school does to me, especially when finals are looming next week - it doesn't leave me much time to sit down and write a post on here. So I apologize to those who wanna know what's up with my knee...

Wednesday I had my appointment with the sports med doc. He examined my x-rays and that he's not going to give me any orthotics or anything. Sure, my leg bones are a little different length in each leg, but I've got a very good core where I'm effectively compensating for that. He said the tilt of 0.2cm is pretty normal and that the smallest orthotics he prescribes are for people who have a hip tilt of at least 0.5cm, and even that isn't that bad.

Based on how I thought my knee felt and based on his pokes and prods to test the stability of the knee and such, he also said I can probably start running again. Hell yes! The problem was I didn't have time to do it until Friday, but whatever - this was very good news to me. He also referred me to a physical therapist, so I set up an appointment for tomorrow. Basically they're gonna be able to get some ultrasound on there to stimulate the deep muscle and get my knee over the hump. So anyway, I wasn't planning on running til Friday...

Oh Friday.

Overnight Thursday into Friday we got the huge winter storm that the rest of the country got, but most of our weather was ice rather than snow. So I don't know if it was because I had to walk on ice or if it was because the temp changed so drastically overnight, but my knee hurt really bad on Friday. I'll tell you, it's awkward looking at the weather report on Wednesday, seeing that it's 63 degrees outside and that you're under a winter storm watch.

Anyway, Friday was bad and I didn't run. Saturday and Sunday it got progressively better, and it felt real good today. I did some extra biking at the fitness center today and ended up doing about 11 total miles throughout the day, and it really doesn't feel bad at all. So I'm hoping that some ultrasound or whatever tomorrow will make it feel excellent.

Not to mention that these extra stretches and exercises I've been doing have really been helping. Keep on keeping on....