It was a little windy this morning but I felt like I needed to get out for a short jog to start loosening up. My legs got tighter and more sore as the day went on yesterday. Both of my calves are sore today but no more than what I would consider "symmetrical soreness" or normal soreness. Actually, my left leg is just a little more tired than my right. Probably from compensating slightly for the right calf on Sunday. It was a slow run today. I didn't wear a watch but it was around 40 minutes for 4 miles. I should have run 5 miles for Cinco de Mayo. Oh well, I didn't think of that until just now.
I will take this week as a recovery and then start logging more mileage in preparation for my 30 miler birthday run on July 5th.
The big news on Monday was that a local runner from Palmdale, Sergio Reyes, won the Cincinnati "Flying Pig" Marathon on Sunday with a time of 2:20:37 only two weeks after running the Boston Marathon in 2:19. It was his first marathon victory and he nearly broke the course record out there finishing just 12 seconds over (see picture and article here). He didn't know that he was so close to the record when he was running. He won the race by almost 8 minutes! See his finish and video interview here. Congratulations Sergio!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
OC Half Marathon 1:27:22
My regular blog readers are probably wondering how the right calf felt today. Well, the best thing I did for it over the past week was to NOT run. I did run on Thursday for 5 miles but after that did nothing but stretch, massage, and ice. By Saturday night it was feeling fairly good but I had no idea how it would feel once I started running.
Clay drove Dale, Neil, and I down to Newport Beach on Saturday afternoon and we went right over to the Orange County Marathon expo. It was the last few hours of the expo and ended up being a great time to go if you were interested in buying merchandise because everything was 50% off. It was not a great time to go if you were picking up your race shirts because all they had left was XL shirts. I figured this was not going to be a super fast race so I wasn't interested in buying an OC marathon mug, towel, or poster. I did get some coolmax socks and a headband for Andi.
We got to bed early in our hotel room which was right down by the starting line. The race started at 6:30 so I was up around 5:30 and heading down just after 6:00am. Clay was running with Dale, who was running the full marathon, and had a goal of sub 3:20. The marathoners ran with the halfers until about 12 miles. Neil was hoping to break 1:20 for the half. We met up with Dave (55-59 age group) who was shooting for a sub 1:30 half. I decided to start with Dave and see how I felt. If the calf cooperated then I could pace him and he might win his age group.
The temp was in the mid 50s at the start and it was deceivingly humid. Why is humidity such a silent killer? Not only do you sweat a ton leading to a dehydration, but if there is little wind like today then there is no way to cool you down, your core temperature rises quickly, and the body starts to shut down for fear that you will do permanent harm. The amazing human body has its own emergeny stop switch.
I let Dave go for the first mile so I could test out my right calf. It felt surprisingly great so I caught back up with him and said, "Let's go!" We cruised down the PCH and I told him we were ahead of schedule. I felt a little "twinge" in the right calf at about 2.5 miles but it didn't cramp and didn't get any worse so I continued with Dave. We already had about a 2-3 minute cushion by 6 miles (I think our 10k split was around 42 min) and Dave started to fade. I didn't realize he had been walking around Disneyland the day before. He told me to take off and so I did and settled into a nice pace around 6:20ish. There was a steep short hill at mile 9 and I was able to shorten my stride and push off more mid foot to avoid stressing my calves. My right calf finally started to tighten on a longer gradual hill between mile 11 and 12. I gutted out the last 2 miles with a nice closing mile of 6:14 and a total time of 1:27:22 (6:40 pace) good enough for 33rd place and 9th in my age group. I was able to get an ice pack from the med tent afterward but had no way of holding in on so I sat down and placed it under my leg for a few minutes.
As a physical therapist, I tend to watch everyone else run during these longer races. Today for some reason I saw a ton of supinators or underpronators. It is much more common to have the opposite problem. The supinator has a very high arch, rigid and tight foot and ankle, and runs on the outside of their foot. This can lead to 5th metatarsal fractures, plantar fasciitis, and joint pain from inadequite shock absorption (the reason for normal pronation). They require a neutral cushion shoe to help absorb as much ground reaction force as possible. They typically require new shoes more often as they wear out the later side of their shoes quickly. See video. And another here.
My mile splits today were 6:58, 6:35, 6:21, 6:48, 6:53, 6:46, 6:36, 6:22, 6:23, 6:29, 6:21, 6:48, 6:14. I was pleased with the time considering the amount of training and the recovery from my right calf strain. I was happy to be under 1:30.
I have 6 months now to build up my training enough to be able to maintain that pace for twice the distance. The goal is 2:55 at the California International Marathon on December 6th.
Neil ended up running a break through race in 1:19:05. Dave faded to 1:36 but was still good enough for 2nd in his age group. Had he ran under 1:30 he would have won his age group.
Clay helped pace Dale to a 1:40 half as Clay came through in 1:40:45.
Dale had a rough second half which included high humidity, heat, a freeway overpass late in the race, and two gnarly blisters (one on each arch) leading to a bloody shoe. Check them out here. He ended up 3:38:25.
Other local participants included Chuck Fieland who ran the full marathon in 3:17 at 50 years young, good enough for 2nd in his age group. Congratulations Chuck! A great time on a tough day.
Clay drove Dale, Neil, and I down to Newport Beach on Saturday afternoon and we went right over to the Orange County Marathon expo. It was the last few hours of the expo and ended up being a great time to go if you were interested in buying merchandise because everything was 50% off. It was not a great time to go if you were picking up your race shirts because all they had left was XL shirts. I figured this was not going to be a super fast race so I wasn't interested in buying an OC marathon mug, towel, or poster. I did get some coolmax socks and a headband for Andi.
We got to bed early in our hotel room which was right down by the starting line. The race started at 6:30 so I was up around 5:30 and heading down just after 6:00am. Clay was running with Dale, who was running the full marathon, and had a goal of sub 3:20. The marathoners ran with the halfers until about 12 miles. Neil was hoping to break 1:20 for the half. We met up with Dave (55-59 age group) who was shooting for a sub 1:30 half. I decided to start with Dave and see how I felt. If the calf cooperated then I could pace him and he might win his age group.
The temp was in the mid 50s at the start and it was deceivingly humid. Why is humidity such a silent killer? Not only do you sweat a ton leading to a dehydration, but if there is little wind like today then there is no way to cool you down, your core temperature rises quickly, and the body starts to shut down for fear that you will do permanent harm. The amazing human body has its own emergeny stop switch.
I let Dave go for the first mile so I could test out my right calf. It felt surprisingly great so I caught back up with him and said, "Let's go!" We cruised down the PCH and I told him we were ahead of schedule. I felt a little "twinge" in the right calf at about 2.5 miles but it didn't cramp and didn't get any worse so I continued with Dave. We already had about a 2-3 minute cushion by 6 miles (I think our 10k split was around 42 min) and Dave started to fade. I didn't realize he had been walking around Disneyland the day before. He told me to take off and so I did and settled into a nice pace around 6:20ish. There was a steep short hill at mile 9 and I was able to shorten my stride and push off more mid foot to avoid stressing my calves. My right calf finally started to tighten on a longer gradual hill between mile 11 and 12. I gutted out the last 2 miles with a nice closing mile of 6:14 and a total time of 1:27:22 (6:40 pace) good enough for 33rd place and 9th in my age group. I was able to get an ice pack from the med tent afterward but had no way of holding in on so I sat down and placed it under my leg for a few minutes.
As a physical therapist, I tend to watch everyone else run during these longer races. Today for some reason I saw a ton of supinators or underpronators. It is much more common to have the opposite problem. The supinator has a very high arch, rigid and tight foot and ankle, and runs on the outside of their foot. This can lead to 5th metatarsal fractures, plantar fasciitis, and joint pain from inadequite shock absorption (the reason for normal pronation). They require a neutral cushion shoe to help absorb as much ground reaction force as possible. They typically require new shoes more often as they wear out the later side of their shoes quickly. See video. And another here.
My mile splits today were 6:58, 6:35, 6:21, 6:48, 6:53, 6:46, 6:36, 6:22, 6:23, 6:29, 6:21, 6:48, 6:14. I was pleased with the time considering the amount of training and the recovery from my right calf strain. I was happy to be under 1:30.
I have 6 months now to build up my training enough to be able to maintain that pace for twice the distance. The goal is 2:55 at the California International Marathon on December 6th.
Neil ended up running a break through race in 1:19:05. Dave faded to 1:36 but was still good enough for 2nd in his age group. Had he ran under 1:30 he would have won his age group.
Clay helped pace Dale to a 1:40 half as Clay came through in 1:40:45.
Dale had a rough second half which included high humidity, heat, a freeway overpass late in the race, and two gnarly blisters (one on each arch) leading to a bloody shoe. Check them out here. He ended up 3:38:25.
Other local participants included Chuck Fieland who ran the full marathon in 3:17 at 50 years young, good enough for 2nd in his age group. Congratulations Chuck! A great time on a tough day.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Test run 5 miles in 39 min...calf still tight
I took the last 3 days off completely. I have been massaging, icing, ice massaging, taping and stretching during this time. The calf felt pretty good this morning and I felt like I should test it today and not Friday. The morning weather has been excellent the last two days. I ran down to Joe Walker and did two laps. I slowly picked up the pace until I was at 7:00 pace and the right calf started to tighten up again. So I backed off and finished the run: 5 miles in 39 minutes (7:50 pace). Sunday will not be a fast run for sure. I will have to run totally based on how the calf feels, it may be a SLOW day. This is getting very frustrating.
April mileage total was 90. I thought I was getting more consistent this month but this calf issue slowed that down.
In more positive news Rick Ball out of Canada broke the world marathon record for below knee amputees with a time of 3:01:50! That is incredible, he could run a sub 3 hour marathon on almost any other course. Truly inspiring.
Finally, Amby Burfoot blogged about new research that shows hip weakness causes injuries in runners! Doesn't sound like any new mind blowing cutting edge findings to me. I see it almost every day. Take a look at a still picture of yourself running. If one hip is lower than the other you probably have a hip/glut weakness or imbalance. Try some of these:
April mileage total was 90. I thought I was getting more consistent this month but this calf issue slowed that down.
In more positive news Rick Ball out of Canada broke the world marathon record for below knee amputees with a time of 3:01:50! That is incredible, he could run a sub 3 hour marathon on almost any other course. Truly inspiring.
Finally, Amby Burfoot blogged about new research that shows hip weakness causes injuries in runners! Doesn't sound like any new mind blowing cutting edge findings to me. I see it almost every day. Take a look at a still picture of yourself running. If one hip is lower than the other you probably have a hip/glut weakness or imbalance. Try some of these:
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Long run cut short by calf cramping again!
I felt great yesterday and woke up this morning to fairly calm conditions so I decided to get out while I could. I was hoping to get in 10 or 11 miles easy. I felt great through 7 and then my right calf started to cramp again! I stopped to stretch and then attempted to run again and quickly stopped to walk. Luckily, this time I was only about .25 miles from home. I stretched again, self massaged, and then iced. I finished the 8 miles in 1:03 (7:52 pace).
We all went down to Malibu this afternoon and all the walking actually helped loosen it up today. I will probably have to take it easy this week if I am going to run 13 at Orange County next Sunday.
Scott Jurek started blogging again this year. Check out his blog here. He usually has some great nutrition information and ultra-marathon news.
Meb Keflezighi and Dathan Ritzenhien ran the London Marathon this weekend and both PR'd but were 9th and 11th respectively. The winner, Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru, broke the course record. There were 3 men under 2:06!
We all went down to Malibu this afternoon and all the walking actually helped loosen it up today. I will probably have to take it easy this week if I am going to run 13 at Orange County next Sunday.
Scott Jurek started blogging again this year. Check out his blog here. He usually has some great nutrition information and ultra-marathon news.
Meb Keflezighi and Dathan Ritzenhien ran the London Marathon this weekend and both PR'd but were 9th and 11th respectively. The winner, Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru, broke the course record. There were 3 men under 2:06!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
More treadmill training, Karl is tired of the wind!
Some of you may be wondering, how windy can it be out there? This Karl must be a wimp when a little wind keeps him inside. Well for the last 6 days we have had a constant 20+ mph wind here. The mornings are usually the lightest wind but all week it has been gusty. I'm talking gusts up to 40-50mph. It just isn't fun to run in that (unless you can run in one direction the entire way). There is a reason why there are 5000 wind turbines (windmills) in the mountains just to the north of us.
So I stayed inside again today. I got on the treadmill while the boys were napping but after a mile at 8:00 pace Matt woke up, I then ran a 6:40 mile while he watched and then Micah woke up. I thought that would be my run for the day but Andi came soon after and said I could get back on while she watched the boys. I did another mile warm up at 7:30 pace and then did 3x.75 miles at 6:40 pace with .25 mile recovery at 7:30 pace (not much of a recovery). On the last mile I included a .5 mile at 6:20 pace then a cool down. Matt actually came in and sat on the bed and watched me run for another 20 minutes. So total mileage for the day was 7 miles with some threshold/half marathon race type pace included. All mileage was done at an incline of 3.
Weather.com says that this next week is not going to be any better so anticipate more treamill workouts this week.
In the news:
A high school boy from Missouri broke the national high school high jump record with a jump of 7 feet 5.75 inches (and he is only a junior)! This mark would have been 8th place at the Beijing Olympics!
Also some great advice from the Runnersworld "Running Doc" on meniscal tears and surgery in runners.
So I stayed inside again today. I got on the treadmill while the boys were napping but after a mile at 8:00 pace Matt woke up, I then ran a 6:40 mile while he watched and then Micah woke up. I thought that would be my run for the day but Andi came soon after and said I could get back on while she watched the boys. I did another mile warm up at 7:30 pace and then did 3x.75 miles at 6:40 pace with .25 mile recovery at 7:30 pace (not much of a recovery). On the last mile I included a .5 mile at 6:20 pace then a cool down. Matt actually came in and sat on the bed and watched me run for another 20 minutes. So total mileage for the day was 7 miles with some threshold/half marathon race type pace included. All mileage was done at an incline of 3.
Weather.com says that this next week is not going to be any better so anticipate more treamill workouts this week.
In the news:
A high school boy from Missouri broke the national high school high jump record with a jump of 7 feet 5.75 inches (and he is only a junior)! This mark would have been 8th place at the Beijing Olympics!
Also some great advice from the Runnersworld "Running Doc" on meniscal tears and surgery in runners.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
6 mile treadmill progression run (46:00)
The wind was howling all night last night and didn't let up this morning. So I got on the treadmill for a few miles again. I started at 7mph (8:30 pace) but increased .2 to .3 mph every mile or so until I was at 6:50 pace for the last half mile. The incline was on 3 the entire run. Workout totalled 6 miles in 46:00 (avg pace 7:40). My right calf felt great. I would say about 95% today.
Check out the new Nike commercial for the Nike Free shoe. Beware it is at least a PG-13 rating.
Brooks also has some great commercials with what they call the SUPER FANS. Here are two of my favorites. If they aren't loading well right click and select "switch to low quality".
Check out the new Nike commercial for the Nike Free shoe. Beware it is at least a PG-13 rating.
Brooks also has some great commercials with what they call the SUPER FANS. Here are two of my favorites. If they aren't loading well right click and select "switch to low quality".
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
7 mile recovery, again in 53 min
We have had some great morning weather here recently. My right calf is still sore but improving daily. It feels like the soreness you get for a few days after a charlie horse night cramp. It took me about 3 miles to warm it up today and then just didn't feel like I could push the pace. I had no problem maintaining around 7:30 miles.
I decided to try and map out some of my 30 mile run on July 5th. The plan is to start around 5 am and get 15 miles done on the aqueduct (7.5 out and back). Then two 5 mile loops which will be to Lane Park, 2 loops around, and back. Finally a 3 mile loop and then two 1 mile loops.
I mapped out a one mile loop around my neighborhood on my way back this morning for a total of 7 miles.
The Boston Marathon was Monday and, for those of you that didn't hear, Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher both finished 3rd. It was a great showing for the US as both were in the running for most of the race. Other notables included 45 year old female Colleen DeReuck from the US who finished 8th over all with a time of 2:35:37.
On the men's side local Sergio Reyes finished a very respectable 17th place overall with a time of 2:19:22 and was the 5th American finisher. Congratulations Sergio!
Most of the runners interviewed complained of a nasty headwind for most of the race.
Flotrack is video taping track races this year with a new angle. They call it "trackside" where they are actually filming in a cart on the track, sometimes in lane 2 or 3. It is a really cool way to watch a track race, you feel like you are right in the pack, and you get a true sense of how fast these people are actually going. Here is video from a track meet in Phoenix, a great women's 1500m race.
I decided to try and map out some of my 30 mile run on July 5th. The plan is to start around 5 am and get 15 miles done on the aqueduct (7.5 out and back). Then two 5 mile loops which will be to Lane Park, 2 loops around, and back. Finally a 3 mile loop and then two 1 mile loops.
I mapped out a one mile loop around my neighborhood on my way back this morning for a total of 7 miles.
The Boston Marathon was Monday and, for those of you that didn't hear, Ryan Hall and Kara Goucher both finished 3rd. It was a great showing for the US as both were in the running for most of the race. Other notables included 45 year old female Colleen DeReuck from the US who finished 8th over all with a time of 2:35:37.
On the men's side local Sergio Reyes finished a very respectable 17th place overall with a time of 2:19:22 and was the 5th American finisher. Congratulations Sergio!
Most of the runners interviewed complained of a nasty headwind for most of the race.
Flotrack is video taping track races this year with a new angle. They call it "trackside" where they are actually filming in a cart on the track, sometimes in lane 2 or 3. It is a really cool way to watch a track race, you feel like you are right in the pack, and you get a true sense of how fast these people are actually going. Here is video from a track meet in Phoenix, a great women's 1500m race.
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