Running Down the Right Home Remedy

I have had a few "injuries" since I have started my marathon training.  The reason I say "injuries" is a throw back to playing high school football.  Our coach, Jim Sizemore, the high school coaching legend in the Hattiesburg, MS area, would always ask players who went down if they were "injured" with quotation fingers.  He subscribed to the theory that an injury means you cannot get up or continue to perform.  I agree with that.  It's more of getting hurt.  You can keep going if you are just hurt.  This, my friends, is a running INJURY!

I have been both hurt & injured during my training.  My knee was an injury.  I could barely move, not to mention I could've never run on it after I injured it.  My shin, on the other hand, is a hurt.  I have also had a hurt foot, a hurt knee, and several... SEVERAL... hurt muscles!  When you repeated slam 240ish pounds on to your feet on to pavement, you are bound to hurt something!

For my hurts, I have found some, less than officially licensed means to help.  Let me break them down for you.  You may be surprised what you can use, just around the house, to help some of your hurts.

Large Muscle Soreness - for large muscle groups, like the thighs, calves, & glutes, I use a wooden rolling pin.  This allows for broad even pressure to be placed on the muscle to work out the soreness. 

Arches of Feet - for sore arches, I have resorted to placing a golf ball on the shower mat in my bathroom, and rolling my foot across it for a few minutes.  Do be careful with this though, as too much pressure kind of hurts.

Shins & Feet Aches - I have found that a raquetball feels REAL good on my sore shin and on the tops & sides of my feet.  Even on the balls of my feet.  I will rub the raquetball all over the sore areas of my shins & feet and the grip it gets due to it's texture really feels good & helps massage away the pain for awhile.

Muscle Cramps - you all probably already know this one, but bananas ain't just a song by Gwen Steffani!  The potassium in bananas helps prevent muscle cramps.  It's just plain science!

Tight Shin Muscles - there aren't many stretches you can do for tight shin muscles.  One that I did find is to sit in a rolling desk chair and place your foot back behind you.  Now, with the other foot, slowly pull yourself forward, stretching the shin muscle.  This works & really helps.

General Aches & Pains - there is no substitute for vitamin M as most folks in the military refer to it as.  Motrin, or some form of Ibuprofen, is proof that God loves runners!  800mgs of this wonderous concotion soothes the pain & makes life after your first 5 miler much easier!

These are just a few of the tricks I have found to help keep me on the roads, running & abusing my body more.  They really have helped me stay out of the hospital though, and if I can avoid that place, I am super happy!

Weekly Data Points

For the folks who like to see the numbers!

Count: 3 Activities
Distance: 20.03 mi
Avg Distance: 6.68 mi
Time: 03:28:26 h:m:s
Avg Time: 01:09:28 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 2,812 ft
Avg Speed: 5.8 mph
Avg HR: 157 bpm
Calories: 3,965 C
Median Distance: 6.60 mi
Max Distance: 8.17 mi
Median Time: 01:08:12 h:m:s
Max Time: 01:26:46 h:m:s
Avg Elevation Gain: 937 ft
Median Elevation Gain: 825 ft
Max Elevation Gain: 1,310 ft
Elevation Loss: 2,790 ft
Avg Elevation Loss: 930 ft
Median Elevation Loss: 807 ft
Max Elevation Loss: 1,353 ft
Max Avg Speed: 5.9 mph
Max Speed: 10.0 mph
Max Avg HR: 162 bpm
Max HR: 174 bpm

Not too shabby for 3 days of running!

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Nov 28th Run (Week 20, Day 41)

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Nov 28th Run (Week 20, Day 41)

Click the link above for my run from this morning.

Now, before anyone says anything, yes, I know my run was slow for having the past 2 days off. Happy Thanksgiving to ya'll by the way! :)

I started looking at my running chart I made to track all my run days and such on. As I progress, I will be gaining a mile each week. This morning, I figured I'd test my knee to see if it's the mileage that hurt it last time. As you can see in my GPS tracker above, I ran the same route and got roughly the same distance. My knee feels great so far... it's been about 5 hours since I ran. I ran intentionally slow so if I felt any twinges of pain of unusual snaps or pops, I could stop and try to isolate where it's coming from, plus I don't need to overdo it.  It felt good during... well, except for my left shin is still bothering me, and today, it felt like someone had pulled my right arch so tight it was about to snap. I looked that up and will be trying some home remedy using a golf ball & raquetball... I'll explain in a later blog about home remedies for the runner.

It was cold this morning, but I warmed up quick. It's nice seeing all the Christmas lights & decorations going up little by little. It's actually helping to motivate me to see what's new along my route! I love this time of year!

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Nov 25th Run (Week 20, Day 40)

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Nov 25th Run (Week 20, Day 40)

Click the link above for my run from this morning.

Today's run was a pretty good one. Almost had to stop a little short as my distance was getting close to 6.66 miles! LOL! Call me superstitious, but with the problem I had with my knee & my current shin problem, I'm not chancing it! But I was able to make it to my stopping point at 6.60 miles.

Shin was a little better on the pain scale, but nagged me a little longer than on yesterday's run. I'm just working to get to my 2 day break after my long run & I'm going to ice the mess out of it. I may even soak it in an ice bath for 20 minutes to see if that'll help it... not really!

It was nice & the sun was shining today. What a welcome change from either runs before dawn, runs after sunset, or runs through dull gray fog. It was a little foggy, which made me realize something kind of neat.

When I was training for my SCUBA certification, we talked about something called a thermocline. See Allen, some people actually do pay attention in class! :) A thermocline is a point in the water that you can actually see, where the temperature changes. That's what it was like today! I was running through some light fog, that was actually hitting about mid chest level. Then I ran down a hill and I was fully in the fog & it was colder. As I climbed back up the next hill, I felt the warmth go from my head, all the way down to my knees before I went back down into the fog. I've said it many times on here, I'm a science nerd, so seeing something like that on my run made it all worth while!

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Nov 24th Run (Week 20, Day 39)

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Nov 24th Run (Week 20, Day 39)

Click the link above for my run from this morning.

Decent run this morning. Shin is still tender. I don't know what's wrong with it... don't want to go see a doctor about it either as he'll probably tell me to stop running and to give up the marathon training. I already have 200ish miles & 36+ hours invested in this training, so I cannot forsee me giving up.

The rain was coming down as an icy, driving drizzle this morning, making me pretty chilly to begin with, but by the turn around point I was shedding the gloves & unzipping the collar of my all-weather outer shirt.

Other than my shin, I felt pretty good though.

Weekly Data Points

For the data-heads!

Count: 4 Activities
Distance: 23.81 mi
Avg Distance: 5.95 mi
Time: 04:03:08 h:m:s
Avg Time: 01:00:47 h:m:s
Elevation Gain: 2,693 ft
Avg Speed: 5.9 mph
Avg HR: 161 bpm
Calories: 4,688 C
Median Distance: 5.58 mi
Max Distance: 7.50 mi
Median Time: 00:57:26 h:m:s
Max Time: 01:16:33 h:m:s
Avg Elevation Gain: 673 ft
Median Elevation Gain: 545 ft
Max Elevation Gain: 1,262 ft
Elevation Loss: 2,864 ft
Avg Elevation Loss: 716 ft
Median Elevation Loss: 595 ft
Max Elevation Loss: 1,255 ft
Max Avg Speed: 6.0 mph
Max Speed: 10.2 mph
Max Avg HR: 165 bpm
Max HR: 187 bpm

Enjoy!

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Nov 22nd Run (Week 21, Day 38)

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Nov 22nd Run (Week 21, Day 38)

Click the link above fro my run from this evening.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I ran on Sunday. We went out on K-town with some friends on Saturday after I got off work, so I had to push my long run to Sunday evening.

Was a good run today... 7.5 on the button. My shin is really sore when I start running and after running, but while I am on my run, it feels okay. I don't know what it is, guess I will have to look it up.