Vito, that is awesome that your girl is getting into running the local 5ks. Even more awesome that she runs the entire distance. If only my wife could do that... This weekend, my entire family will be running our local Firecracker 5k race Monday. Me, my wife, my Mom, my Dad, my SIL, and my sister. It will be the first 5k for most of them. I'm quite excited, especially to see how my Dad does. He has been training so hard for months for this. This will be his first 5k. He set a goal for under 30, so we shall see how he does. My goal is top 100. I missed it by 23 seconds last year. The top 100 out of the roughly 7,000 runners receive a beer mug. I want that damn beer mug.
Getting prepared for a 6 month long police academy beginning in late July. Haven't been accepted yet but expecting to receive confirmation within a week or so. That is why I have been working so hard on solving this PF thing in my arch. I cannot afford to have any incoming injuries. Hooker...GET that beer mug!
Looking forward to a photo of your new mug filled with your favorite brew. Run like a mad dog is chasing you! Good luck.
Not much to update on my end here, just maintaining the 6 day routine. I am extending my regular distances from 3 o 4 miles, but I can't re teach myself adequete pacing. I'm still hitting a mid to low 7 minute mile pace for the first two miles, then dragging my but the last 2. I still can keep it at 8 minute/miles, but man, it's a far cry from my high school days. I'm not planning to run any marathons anytime soon, so this will suffice, but I would like to be able to hold a 7 minute mile pace for 5 miles. That would make me happy.
Kind of in the pits right now. My arch has been healing up nicely lately and I have been getting more active with my lower body workouts. Until Saturday. I went running at the mid-day mark and was at about mile 2 when I ducked under some overhanging tree limbs on the asphalt path. After I ducked I came out and continued on with my sprint up the hill. I heard something go "crack crack" in my medial meniscus area of my right knee. I had that same knee scoped out 15 years and the medial meniscus trimmed. I am praying that it was just a little bone on bone pain and that nothing else has been injured. I have been icing/elevating/anti-inflammatory on it for the past 48 hours. There is pain at the joint line and swelling. I have full range of motion probably because I have iced every hour for the past 48 hours. Man, this suck as I had dropped nearly 45-60 seconds off my mile and a half time here in the last 6 months....down to about 10:20-10:30. Now it will look like I have not been doing crud for my running if I am still allowed in to the academy. This is horrible timing for me as I am expecting to get a call within one week with a job offer to the late July police academy. I informed my Sargeant who is my case manager. I tried to pull out some favors with some orthopedic surgeons that my wife and I know to get an appt/MRI tomorrow or Wednesday. If I can get scoped (if that is required) within 1 week, I will be ready for the late July academy as I am in tremendous physical shape right now. If not....I am doomed. 10 months of hard work/discipline will go down the tubes. I just called out of work on Tues/Wed so I can handle this stuff. This is the first time in 12 years that I have ever called off sick/injured two days in a row. Feels weird.
Must have been a weekend for injuries. On Saturday during my long run I felt a nagging discomfort on the outer portion of my left knee. Around mile 8 (of 12) I thought I would stop and stretch out a little to see if that would provide some relief. Boy was I wrong! After stretch the discomfort turned in to straight out pain. The pain was only when I was bending my knee somewhere around 45 degrees. I had to walk out the last 4 miles, which had a lot of hills, so that really sucked! After getting home and doing a little internet diagnosis it seems I have a mild sprain of my LCL. For the next couple of days I took NSAID and iced the knee and skipped the run on Mon and today. It feels a TON better today and thinking I may go for a shortened easy run in the morning to test it out. VS good luck with yours, hopefully it wont be too bad and you'll heal up quickly.
Thanks for the encouragement guys. I have been aggressively attacking this injury since Saturday. I went to the doctor and I am cautiously optimistic about his diagnosis. He put my knee through a battery of tests and he felt my knee was stable and strong, without any new cartilage injuries. He believes somehow some scar tissue slipped through my joint or some old debris popped around inside my joint line, causing that popping/cracking sound. He said I could ease back into my activities today and to start with an exercise bike, which I have in my home. I am hoping this thing continues to heal and that my aging body holds up. Thanks again guys.
Guys its great to see all of you take the fitness and nutrition serious. I am an exercise physiologist at one of the top hospitals in the US. I work out regularly and use a device called the TRX for strnegth training. It was invented by a Navy Seal and is one of the best things out on the market. Great for bowhunters cause you are using your body weight and can do alot of one arm pulls and presses.
Impossible. You're location says Ohio, and we all know there is nothing good in Ohio. I do enjoy some TRX training though.
Well guys, I did not finish in the top 100 Monday. With a time of 19:56, I finished 104th, 13 seconds too slow. Oh well, just more motivation to get faster for next year's race. I still had a blast though. Once I finished, I ran back to find my Dad, then ran to the finish with him, then did the same with my Mom, SIL, wife, and sister. This was my Dad's first 5k, and for a 57 year old man with bad knees, he finished in 31 minutes. He even surprised himself. I'm taking this week off of running/training, then my 50k training starts next week. Now the real fun begins.
Hey Hook, when you take time off from running how do you pick it back up? Do you reduce the mileage the first week back or do you stay with what you were doing before the break?
I usually try to just jump right back into it, but that doesn't always work out. I just kinda see how I feel when I start back. If I feel my energy is lower than normal, I'll scale it back for about that first week back.
