Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Jan 16th Run (Week 13, Run 54)

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Jan 16th Run (Week 13, Run 54)

Click the link above for my run details!

Man it was great to get back out on the road again! It had been awhile. Bad news again today!

I got through my stretches and warm up and took off on my run. Everything was great until I got back. It was a little icey and I slipped a little on the trail, not sure if that added to what happened next. I did have to walk just over a half mile due to my knee... same issue that I think is ITBS.

I finished the run and walked back to the house, as was my norm, letting my heart rate drop a little and getting some water in me. I get back to the area in front of the garage and begin my cool down stretches. The norm, hamstring stretches, quadricep stretches, a little extra attention to my right knee, etc. When I go to do my back stretches, my lower back muscles sieze up. I litterally had to push myself up to get back upright. It was excruciating pain! So, needless to say, I'm hurt again and have to figure out how to get over this injury bug that is plaguing me!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

One Step Closer


I went and picked up my running jersey from the post office today.  It looks so sharp... the picture doesn't do it justice.  Key features are 3 larger pockets across the back, they look like they will do fine to throw a few packs of sport beans in.  Additionally, the zipper on the front sips down to about my belly button so if I start to overheat, I can run the race J. Lo style!

Maria is going to help me modify it a little bit. We are going to figure out where to embroidier the names of the people I am running in memory & in honor of.  Any ideas?

Jan 12th Run (Week 13, Day 53)

I got off of the midshift this morning and had some stuff to do on base, so I went to the gym & got a run in on the elliptical.  Man, this snow is a real bummer for running.  I did see this afternoon that the bases running trails were cleaned off.  I guess they spray them with deicing liquid so we can run on them, it's just not done very often, kind of a last priority thing.

Hopefully I will be able to get back out on the roads soon.  Probably not tomorrow since they are calling for a major ice storm tonight.  Booooo!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Jan 7th Run (Week 14, Day 52)


Yep, no link today.  I woke up this morning to a fresh layer of icy snow on the sidewalks.  There's no way I can run with me trying to check out my knee on ice today.  So, I threw on some tunes, and ran on the elliptical in the Dog House.  Sorry, the Dog House is the first floor of our house here in Germany.  It's my area... all my uniforms, my bathroom, a spare bedroom, and our game room.  Basically, it's my area in case Maria ever gets mad at me, I can get away and she doesn't have to see me till she calms down.  Not to mention, with as much running as I have been doing, I didn't want to track my smelly clothes through the house!

I ran for 30 minutes today, granted there was no real impact on my knee to check it out 100%, but I am comfortable saying that I am at at least 80% right now.  It ffelt really good to run in just shorts & a short sleeve shirt today!  It's been awhile since I have been able to run with this little clothing!  I felt almost free!  Hahaha!


This will not count in my final tally for mileage & time.  I am only going to count the runs that I do out on the street for that.  I really think our elliptical console is unreliable as it said I only ran 1.4 miles today in 30 minutes!  That's extremely laughable since out on the road I am running 6 miles in an hour and I run 1.5 miles in around 12-13 minutes.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back out on the road on Saturday for my long run day.  I probably won't go the full 10 miles like I am supposed to, but I got to get caught back up to where I can do my LRDs.  Without those, April will be a flop.  I will probably just let me knee decide what Iam going to run on Saturday.  Wish me luck ya'll!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The IT Bands Have It

I think I have self diagnosed my knee issue that arose last week.  Basically, as a refresher, I felt a little pop & started getting pain as I ran up hills.  I did a pretty exhaustive search online and came up with what I think is my issue... say it with me now kids,

     Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ill-e-o-tib-e-al    ba-n-d    sin-dro-m-e)

In  a nut shell,
ITBS is one of the leading causes of lateral knee pain in runners. The iliotibial tract (iliotibial band) is a superficial thickening of tissue on the outside of the thigh, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. The band is crucial to stabilizing the knee during running, moving from behind the femur to the front while walking. The continual rubbing of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle, combined with the repeated flexion and extension of the knee during running may cause the area to become inflamed. 
That according to the experts at Wikipedia.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here ya go!



So, basically, it's a more severe form of Bursitis.  See the bursa that the line is pointing to above.  Well, you have these sacks of fluid where tendon or ligaments can rub against bones.  These sacks of fluid prevent chaffing of the tendons & legaments.  Something happens creating friction on the sack, which in turn causes swelling & inflamation of the bursa, also called, you guessed it, Bursitis.

For those of you who knew me at Korea, I had a bout of Bursitis in the same knee, though it was below the knee where the patellar tendon connects, that had me hobbling around base for a good month.  This one hasn't been as bad.  Not really sure what caused the bout in Korea, but this one I think was either caused by running on the ice, which is a crazy ballet style of running; or by taking the break then jumping back in to it running all out.  Not really sure, but could be both, who knows.

Anywho, I am going to attempt to run again tomorrow and see what it does.  Hopefully I won't be too far set back.

Weekly Data Points

For the data lovers.

Count: 2 Activities
Distance: 12.84 mi
Avg Distance: 6.42 mi
Time: 02:22:15 h:m:s
Avg Time: 01:11:07 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 2,093 ft
Avg Speed: 5.4 mph
Avg HR: 161 bpm
Calories: 2,506 C
Median Distance: 6.42 mi
Max Distance: 7.47 mi
Median Time: 01:11:07 h:m:s
Max Time: 01:21:35 h:m:s
Avg Elevation Gain: 1,046 ft
Median Elevation Gain: 1,046 ft
Max Elevation Gain: 1,567 ft
Elevation Loss: 2,217 ft
Avg Elevation Loss: 1,109 ft
Median Elevation Loss: 1,109 ft
Max Elevation Loss: 1,620 ft
Max Avg Speed: 5.5 mph
Max Speed: 19.3 mph
Max Avg HR: 161 bpm
Max HR: 178 bpm
 
Enjoy!