Mileage Reporting 44th week of 2012

[scedastic]

I don't know anything about shin splints, but just to clarify, you don't touch the tibia or shin bone at all. It's the muscles on the outside of the lower leg, which work antagonistically to the calf muscles, that are the target. Roll those muscles and dig in with your fingers or a massage tool like the Knobble or Trigger Wheel. .

Thanks, Lee! I'll try that.
Part of my issue, again, is that after the run I don't roll/massage or anything, usually only before (when I get home from a run it's all "Mommy mommy I need this look at that when is breakfast/when is dinner yada yada"


Yeah, and DUH for me, when I dug in hard before on the shins, I think I was actually pressing towards the bone, but that's cuz I"m a foo

I'm contemplating ordering one of those fancy sticks you swear by, too, just to add to the arsenol.

 

[scedastic]

1.5 with my girl tonight. My boy was complaining of a cramp in his leg, tried to lift and twist his leg to show me where it hurt WHILE running, and face planted, so he wanted to go back home after that.

 

[happysongbird]

50 minutes on spinning bike (in flip-flops), minus 10 of usual because
I needed to get the bread kneaded (gloves on my hands because my skin is irritated by the yeast, but the feet were bare ), which took 10 minutes; kneading a 4 loaf batch isn't for sissies;
then, after a bit, I swam almost 25 minutes (... barefooted....) and hardly got sick at all,
followed by nearly 3 hours of fall garden clean-up (in flip-flops, because I was a little chilled after the swim and that little bit of insulation from the muddy ground helped).
I think I need a hamburger.

 

[RunningPirate]

Let it be known that I have been nothing less than lazy and slothful the past two days.

 

[Barefooting Bob]

Let it be known that I have been nothing less than lazy and slothful the past two days.

As long as you were very happy while you were doing that, then all is good . Hopefully there was a few lagers enjoyed as well.

 

[Bare Lee]

Thanks, Lee! I'll try that.
Part of my issue, again, is that after the run I don't roll/massage or anything, usually only before (when I get home from a run it's all "Mommy mommy I need this look at that when is breakfast/when is dinner yada yada"


Yeah, and DUH for me, when I dug in hard before on the shins, I think I was actually pressing towards the bone, but that's cuz I"m a foo

I'm contemplating ordering one of those fancy sticks you swear by, too, just to add to the arsenol.

Yah, it's the muscles that run alongside the bone, on the outside of the lower leg. If you order one of those fancy sticks, I'd recommend the firmer 'sprinter' stick first. It seems to work better on the front muscles. I also have the more flexible 'marathon' stick, which is a bit nicer on the calf muscles, but not essential--the sprinter stick works OK there as well. The Knobble is also good for digging in,

but fingers work too. I like to put the lower leg's ankle up on the opposite leg's knee, as in a piriformis stretch, and dig in my fingers along the shin muscles while holding the foot in a plantar-flexed position, like a ballerina on her tippy toes. You can also try to push your fingers or the Knobble in using a sort of vibrato technique, moving up and down like this every half-inch or so.

For the upper leg I like the Rumble roller.

It feels especially good on the iliotibial band (why doesn't the spell check like iliotibial?).

Last night I massaged my wife's lower legs because her foot was aching a bit, and she was in heaven. She asked me where I learned the technique. While I was a bit disappointed that she had completely ignored my travails with tofp and my discovery of its cure in August, it was nice to have what I've learned validated. In Mozambique she used to ask me to massage her feet and it never had any effect. Now we both know something about 'referred' pain. She's taking anatomy & physiology this semester as part of her pre-nursing courses, and I have to admit, I'm a bit envious. I would love to learn more about this stuff. My old bio major jones is coming back. Anyway, I hope this is your cure too. I know it's counter-intuitive to massage an area away from the spot where you're feeling the pain/ache/soreness, but it really seems to work.

 

[Bare Lee]

What was sad is that our offense actually played halfway decent, and our strength, the D, played like crap. If the Vikes are going to beat Seattle at home all they have to do is throw short passes in the middle and they will keep moving those chains. Man that sucked... The Pats exploited that weakness a few weeks a go and now teams are taking advantage...

My wife would kill me too if I let my son walk out in the cold without shoes too.

Well, the Vikes still haven't established a deep game, so hopefully we'll match up well against you guys. Still, I doubt we'll be able to game plan as well as Master Hoodie.

What really kills me is my wife won't let the boy go out in socks and water shoes in this beautiful fall weather. The poor kid was walking with this clunky winter boots that complete screwed up his gait and made him fall once in a while. I wish she would let a native Minnesotan decide what our son can and cannot handle. But if he were to get sick, she'd be the one looking after him all night, so it's pointless to argue against the cold feet theory of illness.

 

[Bare Lee]

3.2 miles / 5.1 km. 30F. I had some banking to do so I thought I'd make today's run a utility run. It's 1.6 miles to the nearest branch, or 3.2 roundtrip, which fit my planned distance for today perfectly. On the way back, a few blocks from home, I started to feel the slightest stiffness in my knee, and so was thinking about that a bit when I waved a little thank-you acknowledgement to a car stopped at a stop sign waiting for me to cross, and then promptly stubbed my right toe on the curb as I stepped off it. The right leg was in the recovery phase of the gait cycle, so it wasn't bearing weight, but still, the nail cracked and became a little bloody. The expected pain, however, never came. Then I remembered my feet were a little numb, so it might take a while to get a sense of the injury. I ran two more blocks and then thought better of it, and walked the last block and a half, just in case the injury was more serious than it felt. Man, did I feel like a real idiot. Wasn't there a thread recently about how this stuff always happens when someone's looking or you're distracted by others? So true. Anyway, the foot is warming up now and it's starting to hurt more, but I don't think it's anything serious. Hopefully I'll be good to go for Thursday's run.

 

[Abide]

Glad to hear you are on the mend Lee.

16 hill repeats this morning, easy pace (6mm) since this is my first foray back into hill repeats post stress fracture. And then a few more miles.

 

[Abide]

Yes please do get crazy with the rolling. On yesterday's walk I felt a little TOFP, the first in a while since my running's been so limited. I assume it was from the early morning running, even though my calves didn't feel particularly tight. I've been pretty lackadaisical (lacking daisies?) about massaging the last few weeks, but as soon as I got home I rolled the calves and, more importantly, the FRONT SHIN MUSCLES (hint, hint), with my 'sprinter' stick and the TOFP magically disappeared in minutes.

I like that phrase 'active recovery.' Sounds more intelligent that 'working through an injury.' Jason put the phrase in my head last week while discussing my knee-tweak, and endorsing my plan to keep running baby runs while the knee rehabs.

I've got some more hippy science for you. Try deep massage with arnica cream on both the calf and shin area. It's amazing how much arnica combats muscle soreness and helps alleviate lower limb creakiness.

I have to admit I do this nightly, I'm not sure how those hammer drugs are going to work if you don't? Also I am not taking the hammer drugs because there are a couple of non-vegan ingredients in them. I made a similar combination of vegan vitamins however it is missing the chondroitin and Chicken cartilage. I wonder if you will see better results from those two ingredients.

Active recovery is good stuff in my experience too, glad you are going with it.

 

[Bare Lee]

I've got some more hippy science for you. Try deep massage with arnica cream on both the calf and shin area. It's amazing how much arnica combats muscle soreness and helps alleviate lower limb creakiness.

I have to admit I do this nightly, I'm not sure how those hammer drugs are going to work if you don't? Also I am not taking the hammer drugs because there are a couple of non-vegan ingredients in them. I made a similar combination of vegan vitamins however it is missing the chondroitin and Chicken cartilage. I wonder if you will see better results from those two ingredients.

Active recovery is good stuff in my experience too, glad you are going with it.

Will look into it. I'm pretty good at listening to my body, so I feel confident I'll do the active recovery the right way. My idea right now is to get up in the four to five mile range and then sit there for a few weeks, and then reassess. Maybe stay there and work on pace, maybe go back to my plan to work on three different run speeds/modalities throughout the week, I dunno. I do know the knee will be close to 100% fine in a month or so. The toe is hurting like a fothermucker right now though, just took one of my wife's post-op painkillers. Should be a fun day.

 

[scedastic]

The toe is hurting like a fothermucker right now though, just took one of my wife's post-op painkillers. Should be fun day.

glad you are making the best of it!
Bummer about your toe. That kind of stuff puts me in such a bad mood.

 

[Bare Lee]

glad you are making the best of it!
Bummer about your toe. That kind of stuff puts me in such a bad mood.

Yah, well, I still don't what it is, and won't until tomorrow, when I wake up and the hydrocodone-acetaminophen has worn off (I'll take some more in a few hours and before I go to bed), but the fact that my knee was just fine today has me in a pretty good mood. Then again, the cheeriness could just be the opiates now swimming around in my brain blood. Still, I'm assuming worst case scenario is I miss a few days of running, but I'm still hopeful I'll be up and running on Thursday. If not, more weights and more rest for my knee, which isn't really such a bad thing. In the meantime, I'm treating myself to cheese and sausage for lunch, normally a no-no.

 

[scedastic]

Yah, well, I still don't what it is, and won't until tomorrow, when I wake up and the hydrocodone-acetaminophen has worn off (I'll take some more in a few hours and before I go to bed), but the fact that my knee was just fine today has me in a pretty good mood. Then again, the cheeriness could just be the opiates now swimming around in my brain blood. Still, I'm assuming worst case scenario is I miss a few days of running, but I'm still hopeful I'll be up and running on Thursday. If not, more weights and more rest for my knee, which isn't really such a bad thing.

OH, yeah, if your knee were bothering you, you wouldn't feel it now, so be careful.

 

[Bare Lee]

OH, yeah, if your knee were bothering you, you wouldn't feel it now, so be careful.

Good point, thanks. But it felt pretty good on the run, and was fine all day yesterday, even after close to five miles total walking and running mileage on Sunday, so I feel pretty good about it. Still, I'm avoiding all lateral movements for the next week or two, even doing day to day stuff.

 

[scedastic]

~40 min gym workout. 30 minutes on elliptical then a few weights and situps, not enough to call it strength training, though, but not bad on 3.5 hrs of sleep.
last night's easy run w/ my daughter left me feelign just a tiny little twinge here and there (about 3x) during the run, a little tenderness after, but almost nothing otherwise. Up half the night sitting or crouching or slouching in front of a computer, no rolling, no stretchign, only a little standing (too tired), a whole lotta stress eating to stay awake, and this morning I can't feel any tofp at all; it's as though it never ever happened. Go figure.

 

[dutchie53]

2 slow miles in a balmy +6C. I was feeling hardcore like Barefooting Bob. I was out in shorts today.

 

[happysongbird]

8.1 miles in 55 sunny degrees. All but 0.1 barefoot. Over dressed, but was able to layer off the long sleeve shirt at 1.5 miles. Definitely the route with rougher asphalt sections. Tried to not worry about time and let my feet do the running. Felt good, but I think I need to find a little smoother route if I want to work on better times for my distance. Any thoughts from you longer distance runners? How do you all pick your routes? Maybe I should start a separate thread on this subject....I think I will.

 

[NickW]

2.47 rainy hilly miles today in my huaraches. They are still agitating me between the toes and with causing the left foots middle toes to go numb. Also did almost an hour in the gym doing shoulders, back, and legs. Tomorrow will just be a stationary bike day unless my Zems get here today. If they do then I may have to take them out for a run tomorrow and see how they work out.

 

[scedastic]

8.1 miles in 55 sunny degrees. All but 0.1 barefoot. Over dressed, but was able to layer off the long sleeve shirt at 1.5 miles. Definitely the route with rougher asphalt sections. Tried to not worry about time and let my feet do the running. Felt good, but I think I need to find a little smoother route if I want to work on better times for my distance. Any thoughts from you longer distance runners? How do you all pick your routes? Maybe I should start a separate thread on this subject....I think I will.

That's how I ended up being more of a huarache runner than a bf runner. My times still stink, so that wasn't the issue, but around here my road route options are severely limited (rough chip seal i don't like, attacking dogs, dangerous driving high speed coutnry roads, overly cambered rough roads with no room in the ditches for when cars pass, too many deterrents). At least with the huaraches I have some options rather than, say 8 loops around the 1 mile of chip seal in my neighborhood. And rough asphalt? Really? I guess there coudl be such a thing. Asphalt would be dreamy......
As for routes, after controlling for abovementioned constraints, I pick for scenery, open areas (for nighttime---moonlight works better), shade in the day, hilliness, etc. Have a time exploring on google maps or whatever.
It was a lot of fun for a while plotting routes then trying to implement them for the first time--like mini adventures or races w/ no support crew.