First day back, again

Yesterday was the first day I went on a run since I hurt myself and my grandma died. I'd been getting antsy about not running or working out and eating garbage for last couple of weeks. I was afraid to actually weigh in, I was convinced that I'd just about erased all the hard work I did earlier in the year. I was nicely surprised that I was actually still slightly under 200 pounds.

I took extra long to strech out this time. Pookie sent me an email a couple of days ago with her opinion that my long runs were probably either a cause or at least partially responsible for my constant injuries. While allowing for the fact that she is both smarter than I am generally and knows more about running than I do, I have to disagree with her. My long runs would generally consist of 10-15k (roughly 6-10 miles). I don't think that is necessarily a problem to start running that distance. Granted, it takes a couple of weeks to gradually ramp up to those distances. Also, I wasn't running those distances at a particularly speedy pace. My iPod puts my usual 5k pace at about 6-6:30 min/k and I was running longer distances at roughly 7-8 min/k. So that wasn't the problem.

What I think causes most of my injury problems are bad equipment, lack of stretching/cross-training, and lack of rest. The bad equipment problem was most pronounced when I first started running. I bought the wrong shoes without going to a running store and getting my feet checked out. Big big big mistake. I would hurt myself roughly every 3 weeks, with various degrees of pain. I've solved that problem (and hurt myself when I did) by getting my feet checked out. I bought the proper shoes and some comfy socks which seem to have solved that problem. The other two problems are still a problem though. I don't think I strech out enough before or after a run. I always try to, but I don't think it's enough. I should also be doing more weightlifting/non-running exercise, especially for my legs. The final problem is probably the worst. From the reading I've been doing various running and exercise magazines, the good effects of running stick with you for about 2 days or so. That means you can run one day and still have a heightend metabolism and healthiness for a couple of days. I haven't been paying attention to that. I'll go running on a monday and do it again as early as possible on wed. Or I'll do a long run and follow it up with a short run the next day. I'm simply not able to do that and I should know that by now. For example, this current injury happened becuase I ran Race Judicata on a Thursday, The adventure race (which was close to 5 miles of running) on that saturday or sunday, then shortly after that, I did a endurance training. What killed me was not that I ran a particularly long distance, it was that I didn't recover enough and my body simply gave out. What I should have done was run those two races and then spend the next couple of days lifting and streching.

So, back to the point here. I went out yesterday with the intent to do a slow recovery 5k to get back into the swing of things. I also was feeling gross from not working out and stressed out about various things. Not to mention that I have to start getting ready for the Bucktown 5k in a couple weeks. I saw there was a Sox game on so I made a snap decision to run passed Comisky and check out the crowd. Everything was fine until I got to the corner of 35th and the Dan Ryan. There was a girl passing out some sort of Quaker Oat Snacks. Unfortunatly for her, there was a perfect convergance of crap. Right as I started to approach her, I noticed a large crowd of people coming and if I didn't speed up I would either have to run through them, stop, or run all the way around. Also, at that particular moment, Pennywise came on the iPod. Without thinking I started to sprint through the gap between the Oat Girl and the crowd. Right as I started to pass her, she stuck out her hand to get ready to hand someone some oat snacks. Yup, right as she did that my hand pumped forward and I punched that damn oat snack right out of her hand.

My own mental compulsion wouldn't let my legs stop sprinting. So I did the manly thing and blurted out "sorry" as I watched the oat snack skitter across the ground. I didn't even look at her face, I was too embarassed. I just ran away as fast as I could. I felt pretty bad about it later, and thought about going back, but I didn't.

The rest of the run was good. I had some phantom pains in my legs, but at this point I know the difference between actually have to stop pain, and my body just making shit up. when I got done with the 5k of running I walked and cooled off for about another k. My legs were rubbery and sore, but in a good way. I'd like to run again on Friday, but I'll be busy. That's probably a good thing.

Training

Aka, last post for today.

Today marked the first day of training for the Bucktown 5k. I have to get in much better shape so I can reclaim my honor and dignity from Pookie. Worse comes to worse, I’m going to Tazer her before the race. You might say, wait, your giving away your game plan here, Pookie’s gonna know what’s up with you before the race. I say good. That will motivate me to actually beat her, and perhaps, strike some fear in to her mean little corporate heart.

Anyway, I weighed in a nice round 197 pounds this morning. I’d like to drop that down to 187 for the race. It would be nice to run the race a nice 10 pounds lighter, even lighter than the Sox race. I had a respectable time of 29:18 there, and I’d like to beat that by 5 minutes. That might not put me in contention against Pookie, but it will at least be a respectable loss.

Today’s run was a Nike+ endurance interval. Ten minutes of bad music (Pussycat Dolls) to warm up, then 4 sets of three minutes of hard running (and bad music) followed by 3 minutes of rest running (and bad music, this mix really sucks) followed by 10 minutes of cool down (actually a cool Pharrell song). My warm up was good; I managed about a 7 min/k pace. The first two sets were good, I felt like I was charging, including a good uphill over the bridge at Bubbly Creek. The second sets, well, they sucked. I had to drop down to a walk for most of the rest sets and my legs were shot by the end of the run. I clocked in about 6.5k in roughly 50 minutes. The cool down was pretty hard and my legs were cramping by the end. I also walked a little at the end. Holy crap, I’m sweating just thinking about the run today.

After the run, my body felt ok for the most part. I had some lingering cramps from Saturday’s adventure race before the run and my calves were not happy to run today. As the day wore on though, my right knee has started to bug me. I feel like someone is digging around in there with a flat head screwdriver. I’m going to ice it and see how that feels. It better not complain too much, I’m running a easy 5k tomorrow whether it likes it or not.

Race Judicata

Race Judicata 07 was supposed to be my triumphant victory over my buddy, Pookie. You might not guess by looking at her but Pookie is perhaps just a touch faster than say, Speedy Gonzales. We made a nice little bet, 20 bucks followed by an automatic rematch at the Bucktown 5k. Pookie was even handicapped by 3 minutes to give me a fighting chance.

The race took place in Grant Park at 6:30 on a muggy Thursday evening. For whatever reason, maybe it was the desire to see a bunch of lawyers pushed off path in to the lake or get run over by a bike, the organizers left the course open. It might not have been as bad had there not been some 3000 runners. It was hot and the humidity was oppressive, but I was optimistic (stupid).

I got there, listened to some pretentious twit whine, met Pookie, stretched and milled around waiting for the start. Once the race started the chute was so clogged with people that it took a couple of minutes to actually move forward. My Nike+ gear decided to act up while I was going forward towards the start. I really need to figure out a better system for getting that settled before a race. Once we got going I freaking flew! I killed 2k in 10 minutes. I would have made a record time and perhaps even won 20 bucks. The race gods, they thought differently.

I wanted to puke at about 2k and had to slow down. Pookie passed me on her way back at about 2.33k. By 2.5k I was walking, jogging and simply willing myself to finish. I finally got in at 34:18, worse than even my training runs. Obviously, I lost the 20 bucks and a small portion of my dignity. I blame three factors for this poor showing; the heat and humidity, bad pace control, and to a lesser extent the race format (evening start, open course).

After the race Pookie and I stuck around for the post-race entertainment, Chicago's own Ska gods, Skapone! I haven't seen them in years so that was a treat. We were also treated to a bunch of free beer, which went down nice after the race. The schwag from the race was pretty sweet; concert, shirt, USB thumb drive, beer coozie and a stress ball, oh, and free beer.

Great race, but I have to do better.