Mileage Reporting 5th Week 2014

Tu, 3mi sidewalk run
We, short swim
Th, felt up to a run, but it was raining. Have raingear, but just wasn't interested in getting cold and wet. So used the stairmaster, while on my toes. Working on building up the strength in the left foot to match my right. (Left foot is recovering from a bunion.) Seemed to help.
Fr, more rain, more stairmaster, on the toes
Sa, was getting some work done on the car and leaving it overnight, so had to get in my trail run beforehand. Muddy and a few puddles! uploadfromtaptalk1391342371448.jpg This area isn't too far from the gravel. If I find this spot covered in gravel one day, at least I know that I'll be able to handle it. The scenary on either side. uploadfromtaptalk1391342513540.jpg uploadfromtaptalk1391342596209.jpg Did the same route as last week, but no horses this time, so I took my time on the gravel. Went for the hard, compacted sides of the gravel section, rather than the loose stuff in the middle, so that's progress.

My arches were getting a bit sore from the gravel. (I had skipped the gravel box practice at home that morning.) So, I made sure to take a moment to stand with a little pile of rocks under my arches, to loosen them up. That helped quite a bit, and the return trip over the gravel was much more manageable.

This trail is always different depending on the weather. We'll see what next week holds.
 
8 and a third miles. Went out and took on a hill that I had never done before. It's intimidating, but I ran it all and that made me feel a bit awesome. Even the cows acknowledged my awesomeness with some moos to cheer me on.
 
Did my coldest runs ever on Tuesday and Thursday--3.8 miles at 3F. Tuesday was a bit windy--maybe 35% of the run with an 8mph wind. With my Raynaud's, these are in stems and heavy wool socks. Saturday did 5 miles at a balmy 22F.

I had started to get some annoying toe tingles in November in my left middle toes and eventually found that scrunching the toes mid run as often as necessary helped a lot. When it finally got really cold and I wore the thick socks and prewarmed the feet and shoes there were no toe tingles at all, so I guess the tingles are cold related.

Funny, as long as I've wearing warm underwear I can wear sweat shorts and my legs don't feel the cold at all, after about a minute of running.
 
Was going to have a rest day Friday, but then we had to go dancing. About 2.5 hours of energetic barefoot dancing. Neither establishment we went to gave me any trouble about being barefoot. One entertained couple bought me a drink after watching me for a while. Never had that happen before.

Had one acquaintance ( a woman I have run into at a few parties at a mutual friend's house, but don't know that well) show up at one of the bars. She made a comment about me being "athletic", but *as she looks very sad* has bad knees. So, of course, I felt I would be helpful and mention that being barefoot can help a lot with things like that. Posted an article for her on her FB wall. She commented that she didn't want her feet to get dry and crackly. I felt this came too close to claiming false grossness about my own feet, so I tried to nicely clarify that I had very happy, healthy skin on my feet.

Saturday it was an evening of bouncing grandbabies until my arms were quite fatigued. (Cori Lou is doing wonderfully post heart surgery, btw) Funny moment when the 21 month old grandson saw me sit down barefoot next to him on the floor. He pointed to his moccasin covered feet in a way that clearly was asking me to remove those impediments from his feet. He was so happy when I did. His parents have been doing really well with the minimalist winter shoes, but he still wanted to have full function of his toes!
 
Wanted to get in a couple of runs this weekend but only ran today. Managed to run 6.0 miles in the neighborhood in the early afternoon. Had a pretty good run considering I last ran a week ago. Had some small cramping around my left knee three or four different times. Stopped and did a few stretches before the cramping became worse which seemed to remedy the issue. The weather was descent with a temp of 25F some wind but, the sun made it seem as if was in the mid 30sF.

Have been quite disappointed in my amount of running so far this year. The temps lately have been somewhat limiting with another bad week ahead. My goal has been to maintain at a minimum 6 mile runs at least 4 days a week. So far many of my runs have been short and not too consistent. Was hoping to get back into the routine of running the 9ish miles runs I had been doing last fall early this spring when the temps just start to warm. Totaled the mileage so far for this year and have 65.55 miles with todays run.

Starting to get the itch to loose the VFF's and run BF too! Have not run barefoot since last fall sometime.:( Can't wait to get out and get my feet back into the condition they were last summer/fall.:) Spring weather where are you? (Unfortunately the spring weather doesn't typically arrive till mid March. My feet will be crying until then!)
 
Ha ha ha! My husband was running and got a calf cramp. I had to leave him behind to finish my run. He caught up to me and informed me that his calf had quit cramping because "I started lifting my feet". :) I am all, "surprise, surprise". I told him I was going to tell everyone on the BRS that he had discovered a key aspect of barefoot running form. He said he'd deny it. :)
 
Ha ha ha! My husband was running and got a calf cramp. I had to leave him behind to finish my run. He caught up to me and informed me that his calf had quit cramping because "I started lifting my feet". :) I am all, "surprise, surprise". I told him I was going to tell everyone on the BRS that he had discovered a key aspect of barefoot running form. He said he'd deny it. :)

we all know how much you lie Jen.

sun- tried to run but legs wouldn't cooperate so i walked.
 
we all know how much you lie Jen.

sun- tried to run but legs wouldn't cooperate so i walked.

Well, Michael A...... Nelson, my pants DO appear to be on fire... :p

45 minutes of ST in the water. 10 very careful minutes on the rowing machine. I need to put a cushion on the seat I think it is rearranging my tailbone in bad ways. I am not doing full extension on the rowing machine because I don't want to strain my back muscles. I am surprised where I feel sore muscles - primarily my gluteus maximus, obliques, and trapezius and rhomboids. When I read that it exercises the obliques, I was like NO WAY. I'm especially happy about glute max cuz it does not get exercised much with running, or swimming.
 
No exercise for two days. The less strong side is majorly f-ed up in the sacrum, coccyx, hip and glutes -buttloads of inflammation and trigger points - I have been rolling for hours over the last couple days and it's only about 70% recovered. I had this problem years ago, all the time. There are two suspects either over-did it at the pool -which water resistance induced injuries can be really bad, believe it or not. Or the rowing machine... I find it hard to believe it could have caused problems in 5 and 10 minutes. That being said, 10 minutes on a recumbent bike will do that same area in for about 3 days. Perhaps it is about the postur, especially since my tailbone and sacrum freak out. Damn. Goodwill might get a rowing machine soon.
 
No exercise for two days. The less strong side is majorly f-ed up in the sacrum, coccyx, hip and glutes -buttloads of inflammation and trigger points - I have been rolling for hours over the last couple days and it's only about 70% recovered. I had this problem years ago, all the time. There are two suspects either over-did it at the pool -which water resistance induced injuries can be really bad, believe it or not. Or the rowing machine... I find it hard to believe it could have caused problems in 5 and 10 minutes. That being said, 10 minutes on a recumbent bike will do that same area in for about 3 days. Perhaps it is about the postur, especially since my tailbone and sacrum freak out. Damn. Goodwill might get a rowing machine soon.

Bummer. Don't you hate it when you can't figure it out, and things seemed to be going well before?
I heard proper posture is difficult on a rower. Dunno. They make me nervous. But I love the idea of pretending I'm rowing on the open water.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jldeleon
It wasn't up on my last actual mileage and I'm too lazy to start my own new thread. :)
 
I heard proper posture is difficult on a rower.
It takes a while to get the hang of it. You have to time it right so the initial push comes from your legs, then back, then finally arms/lats. Also make sure the spine is supported and not hunched over. Finally, I adapted my handle so that the grip was in neutral position. I got a little tendonitis in my elbow with a parallel grip (palms flat over the floor).

Here's Anna-Marie, a Canadian Olympic rower:
I found her instruction pretty good. Plus she has wonderfully pure mid-front vowels, and is adorably nervous in front of the camera.

Of course, no body wants to hear this, but for back and butt aches, for me, the best thing is to stretch out the hammies, ITB, and piri formis, from all conceivable angles/positions. That said, I generally don't get any back/butt aches when I'm doing deadlifts and squats consistently, and stretching out the hammies regularly. Even when I spend most of my day sitting. So go ahead and put on the clown suit. I won't tell anyone.

Anyway, I think it's cute that Sced has contaminated Jen with the wrong-week disease.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scedastic and NickW
Actually, I was sitting at less than a 90 degree angle last night and noticed it was bothering my left hip (which had finally already goneback into place). That's when I decided to put a bigger lift under my right foot (my short femur side). And doing that relieved all the pressure in my left hip. It's definitely about my specific imbalances.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scedastic
10.6km/6.7mi today, a nice pace, and I believe my left ankle problems seem to be fading now.

Next week (15th Feb) there is an 11km trail run in Port Stephens (about 3hrs north of Sydney), and I'll meet with 2 other fellow NSW bf runners (murls and kallipyjama).

It will be a good opportunity to also check on each other's form, we'll be filming it. Hopefully I'll have time for a report !
 
Actually, I was sitting at less than a 90 degree angle last night and noticed it was bothering my left hip (which had finally already goneback into place). That's when I decided to put a bigger lift under my right foot (my short femur side). And doing that relieved all the pressure in my left hip. It's definitely about my specific imbalances.
Sounds good, but given how chronic you and Mike's "imbalances" are, try to remain open to the possibility that they are symptoms, and not causes.

Anyway, let's keep weaving this silky seductive thread, looks like Andy's been caught in the wrong week web as well.
 
Sounds good, but given how chronic you and Mike's "imbalances" are, try to remain open to the possibility that they are symptoms, and not causes.

Anyway, let's keep this weaving this silky seductive thread, looks like Andy's been caught in the wrong week web as well.

Sounds good, but given how chronic you and Mike's "imbalances" are, try to remain open to the possibility that they are symptoms, and not causes.

Anyway, let's keep this weaving this silky seductive thread, looks like Andy's been caught in the wrong week web as well.

That may very well be but after two decades and thousands of dollars spent trying to find the "real cause" searching for thanswer is no longer important -learning to ADAPT TO the imbalance works just as well. I have learned that trail running manages it best. Swimming exercises, second best. Good enough!