I got up early, had a cup of coffee, and headed out the door by 8am. I took a gel and my hand held water bottle with me and drove down to Mission Creek to run along the Greenway. Erik stayed home to sleep a little longer because he was racing later in the day.
Today the plan was supposed to be running without orthotics for one hour and then wear them for the rest of the run but I really didn't feel like doing an out and back twice again, and the last time I did that, my feet felt weird with the heavy lumpy orthotics in them. So, for better or worse, I decided to do the whole run without them and cross my fingers.
It was mostly overcast and fairly cool, about 8C, 46F and it had showered off and on overnight so I wore my tights, my Sugoi Mid Zero jersey, and my new Versa jacket. After about 30 minutes, the sun started to peek through the clouds and it warmed up a bit so I took off the bolero style sleeves and tucked them into the jacket's back pocket. Voila, I was now wearing a vest - easy!
At this point, I was running on the more secluded part of the trail, so I decided to take out my headphones to be more aware of my surroundings. I enjoyed the sound of the birds and the rushing creek, as well as the smells of new leaves and damp earth, and I realized once again, I am lucky to live in such a beautiful place.By about the 40 minute mark, the posterior tibial tendon at the right ankle was starting to get sore so I decided to slow down a bit and focus on my form. I wanted to make sure I wasn't overstriding or doing anything else that might give me pain later. All the way along the trail, there were tiny trails from little snails crossing. I had to be careful where I stepped so I didn't crush them. I was running slowly, not quite this slow...
Overall, I was feeling great. In fact, I felt like I could probably have run for 2-3 hours without too much trouble. I had turned around at the 40 minute mark, but decided that today I would run 1:45 instead of 1:30. When I got close to the parking lot, I took another route and ran all the way down to Lakeshore, then doubled back and did another loop to enable me to get the extra time in.
Near the end of the run, I made my way down to the water, took off my socks and shoes, and put my feet in the freezing water. And boy was it cold! The water is high right now with all the snow melt and I could barely keep my feet in the water for more than a few seconds at a time. After 5 minutes of dunking in and out, I put my socks back on and walked the last 1/2 km to the car.Overall, I ran about 15 1/2 km in 1 hour and 45 minutes. I went straight home, ate, stretched a little, and got ready to leave for Erik's race in Penticton. All the way along the 1 hour drive, I iced my foot, ankle, and posterior tibial tendon. Tonight my lower legs are feeling pretty good although my hip is aching again.
Tomorrow, I should probably do a 2-3 hour bike ride but the weather has been awful and I'm not sure I'll be able to get outside. Trainer in May? That's unheard of!
2 comments:
Just oming back from my evening run, the cold water on your feet looks like a great idea! Mmmm...
Don't give way to despair over the hip pain -it doesn't sound like you are. I had groin pain crop up about 12 years ago and x rays showed some spurring and a subchondral cyst in the head of the femur (old ski trauma?). I still had joint space (i.e. cartilage. The orthopod told me to stop playing tennis (knowing that I wouldn't). I did stop running for much for almost ten years relying on my bike and not much else for aerobics. I am now back to running and am training for runs, du's and, ultimately, tri's (my swimming sucks). My point is that I had pretty bad and persistent groin (hip) pain but over the years it dissipated. I saw the orthopod last summer and he told me to do what I wanted to do and, if anything, my joint space looked better than before. My point is that you may or may not have a labral tear and it may or may not be anything that requires surgery. You may at some point need the dreaded "layoff" from running for awhile to let inflammation settle down. I really like your podcast (as well as the Tri Chat spinoff). Yours is one of the better ones. I appreciate your incisive remarks about the manipulation of healthcare. The rest of my story includes sudden cardiac death on a tennis court two years ago. Lucky for me, a cardiologist was playing for the other team. He and another doc who happened to be in the house administered world class cpr for over 12 minutes until the rescue squad arrived to shock me back to life. There are more details on my blog.http://rickstrongcafe.blogspot.com/ Again, Thank you for an inspiring and educational approach to the sport.
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