A quick slushy run last night with the dog, about 6 km of stop and go's. This is not helping my pace setting training, unless I want to stop and smell the roses every couple of minutes.
8 miles on Wildwood and today I enjoyed it -especially since the unevenness of the trails, realigned my hips. My hips had gone out of alignment during one of my last pavement runs, because of running with a leg length discrepancy on a flat surface - and when they go out of alignment, I get a chain reaction of problems INCLUDING everyone's favorite, plantar fasciitis on my long leg side (it gets t...ired of taking up slack and takes it out on my arch)!!! I can only run on pavement, from now on, WITH huaraches with a thickness difference to account for my leg length difference. Unfortunately, the luna/brancas that I sneak around wearing at work, are too form-fitting to run in (cuz as they shift around, the sole thickness changes and they are unable to effectively balance my leg length discrepancy) - I have tried running with them before, and what happens is, I end up with trigger points all around the inner and outer ankle of my right foot, because the ridge where the shoe has molded to my foot makes that big of a difference. So...that means, unless I can come up with a CHEAP solution to this problem -which would involve cutting up all sorts of "shoes" from Goodwill, glue, sail canvas thread/needle, and time to experiment- I will NOT be running a half ON PAVEMENT (which I have scheduled for December 15th).
They sell Vibram soling material in different thicknesses. Maybe you could DIY huarches? The material isn't exactly cheap though.So...that means, unless I can come up with a CHEAP solution to this problem ...
2.25 mile 65lb pulk pull last night in my luna's (needed traction). Lots of effort and resistance used as I went from snow to bare concrete. Temps were hovering around -20 with the W/C. I don't know who had more fun.....me or my 65lb kid who was giggling all the way and yelling out "Mush, mush Daddy"
Had a challenging 11-mile run down by the river yesterday afternoon in somewhat icy conditions, 29F/-1.7C, 14-18F windchill, depending on whom you want to believe. Several times I almost buckled and put on my back-up Vapor Gloves. If I wasn't doing the Winter Challenge, I probably would have. So this is the first time the Challenge has influenced my running, something I swore I wouldn't let it do. And now today I've got my kids' head cold. Cough, cough, sniffle, sniffle. Maybe there's some truth to keeping one's feet warm to ward off illness? Nah, I've just gone too many days without proper sleep.
My left shoulder feels 100% this week so I was able to push the bench presses a bit on Monday, but then had to skip my st on Wednesday due to time constraints. I'll try to do some ST today and tomorrow, then run again on Sunday, when temps are supposed to start warming up again, but we probably won't be seeing any more highs above freezing for a while. So that's it for this week's mileage: a little less than 26 miles.
I moved up to 19" on the box jumps in my MINT sessions this week, so I quickly graduated from the initial 14" of a week ago. It was pretty easy, the secret is to swing the arms fully and squat a bit more pre-jump. I may try my new adjustable plyo box’s 24” max adjustment next week, but 19” feels just right right now. Man, I’m really sold on box jumps!
Also got in a nine-mile run (8.92 mi / 14.36 km) down by the river on Tuesday afternoon, in pleasant conditions: 44F / 6.7C, 32F / 0C wc. Legs felt a little heavy, perhaps from the box jumps earlier in the day, but I was able to push the pace a bit on the last mile anyhow. That’s always a good sign—to finish strong. Stopped for a quick stretch on Northern Pacific Bridge Number 9, an old railroad bridge converted into a pedestrian walkway connecting the U of M’s West Bank campus with the East Bank campus. An older lady looking like a humanities prof said “I wish I could do that.” I wasn’t sure if she was referring to my barefootedness on a chilly day, or the fact that my foot was perched up on a chest-high guardrail.
As I finished up my stretch on the other leg, I had flashbacks about watching my first Jean Claude Van Damme movie, “Bloodsport,” in Thailand while vacationing from Japan, where I was training karate and learning how to do the splits for the first time. I think JCVD’s Volvo commercial posted on another thread brought it all back to me. After returning to Japan, I spent the next several months torturing myself with ropes and hot baths until I could finally do the splits too, albeit not suspended in air like Jean Claude.
More stretching/yoga is on the agenda now, along with my conditioning push. Got a Bikram Yoga for Beginners book coming next week. Like everything else, I’ll try to pick and choose the stuff that works best for me and work a bastardized version of it into my morning MINT routine. Time to up the Bozo activity.
On the early morning run commutes I'm running closer and closer to tempo pace. As motivation to get warm again increases, so does the pace. Good practice perhaps, in a greasing the groove sorta way. Today I drove though.
you need to eat more beef5 mile trail run on Wildwood in the FREEZING (yay!) weather. It was crystal clear out! I had to cut it shorter then I wanted though cuz of digestive issues.I ate beef the day before, I may as well have eaten a damn brick! I knew better!