Mileage Reporting 49th week of 2012

This week. Sunday, off. Monday - very slow 6 miles. Tuesday - very slow 8 miles. Calf is completely recovered, but my hip still has a "niggle". Wednesday - very slow 3 miles. Thursday - 22 mile hike and run in Zion National Park with about 7000 feet elevation change. Used my sandals because of unknown trail conditions. I think I could have done more, but didn't want to push my hip.

So in my case, I'm staying slow for a while. Using the GPS only for mileage tracking and not using the pace unless it is to slow me down. Tried the shoes, tried the speed. I'm just not ready yet.

Take care of that hip ASAP you don't want it to turn into an ITBS injury.
Wise of you to lay low for few days.
 
Sounds good I'll give it a try, maybe I need to start blogging to help get into the groove. Is Saturday an adverb? Saturday, I ran a race and finished?

Yep, it is. Fantastic scene-setting; it's Saturday. Now the reader is ready for the story arc: you ran. Great! OK, now for some rich description: you ran a race. I'm drawn in now, wondering how it will all end. OK time for the climax: you finished. Totally captivating. See how simple that is? These are the tricks all the great writers exploit. Except they usually pad their stories with another 200 plus pages of boring and superfluous detail.

Yeah don't get stuck in paralysis by analysis just lift heavy weights and do it consistently and it will work, arbitrarily at least. I read this crap for fun instead of watching TV. I've been bored of reading books for some reason lately and the library collection of exercise books sucks, so I hunt for blogs about strength training. Strength training is much more involved than running so I tend to read and think more about it.

Yah, I hate TV, except when football is on, or better put, recorded on Tivo. Keep the ST links coming. I'm kind of burnt out on the running stuff now, after starting from almost complete ignorance 6-9 months ago, so I tend to agree with you, there isn't really that much to it, especially when you don't race, like me. Basically, it's this:

Bio-mechanics: good posture and proper foot landing--both tend to come naturally when you run faster.
Performance components: speed, stamina, endurance--do different kinds of runs to work all three.
Performance factors: pace and distance--figure out what paces you can sustain for a given distance, factoring in temps and terrain.
Injury prevention: stretch, massage, and strengthen, build-up gradually and rest often.

For the weights I've been doing the same basic stuff on and off for thirty years, endlessly tweaking it and adding in a few new exercises from time to time, like those face pulls and Cuban presses you recommended. Basically, I'm a free weights kinda guy, the routine goes something like this:

Focus on a body area for each session (I used to have a back day and a front day, now I have a front, back, top, and bottom day),
start with the heavy stuff, low reps, pyramiding,
then do lighter weights somewhat higher reps at one or two different weights,
then finish with some mobility stuff and ab work at the end.

Finally, alternate anerobic days with aerobic days.

It works for me.

By the way here is another interesting article specifically about his thoughts on the difference between a male and female marathon runner.

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online...ining_performance/cosgroves_five_ahha_moments[/quote]

Great read, everything he says makes sense. I'll be tuning into that site more often. I like how he notes that cardiovascular cross-training benefits aren't as great as folks assume. That was my hunch too, but I thought I was the problem. This lets me off the hook and makes me feel better about just doing three days of running/aerobic work per week, and four days of ST. It's always nice when science, or at least pseudo-science, aligns with one's instincts.

Just had a nice Top ST session down in the garage, starting to push the shoulder presses a bit. Tomorrow more intervals.
 
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Thanks Dama. I have a history with ITBS, I'm not going down that road again. I've got to do more crosstraining. The hiking helped, but I'm looking forward to some cross country skiing. The skating motion is great for the hips.

Sounds good but the hip needs attencion now because you don't have snow yet, do you?
 
a little over 2 miles, for warm up before a teeny little ST, on the rectangular track at the gym, in thin socks.
SO BORING. SUPER BORING.
I'm so out of habit from running indoors. Monotony. Yick.
The weather was perfect for running outside (misting wet, high 30s a little foggy--love that masterpiece theatre weather) but I just didn't have the lung capacity for a 'real' run (fighting cooties, chills, asthma, headache, end of semester whines)
 
Sounds good but the hip needs attencion now because you don't have snow yet, do you?

There is a little bit of man made snow at our local ski area. I was going to take the kids up this weekend.

A little history on the hip problem. 5 weeks ago I ran a half marathon in sandals. I was feeling good at the time, so I pushed the pace and finished in 1:41. Which is much faster than my comfortable barefoot pace of 9-10 mm. I ended up with a sore right hip. After some recovery time, it was feeling fine and then it showed up again on another half marathon 3 weeks ago at the end of a 50 mile week. That catches us up to the Thanksgiving week and the problems mentioned prior. Now, it seems ok, just a little annoyance and slow running does not bother it. In fact, motion makes it feel better and it gets a little achy when I am sitting, example being on the forum or scooping gravel in a tractor. So at this point I think activity is ok. Thoughts?
 
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There is a little bit of man made snow at our local ski area. I was going to take the kids up this weekend.

A little history on the hip problem. 5 weeks ago I ran a half marathon in sandals. I was feeling good at the time, so I pushed the pace and finished in 1:41. Which is much faster than my comfortable barefoot pace of 9-10 mm. I ended up with a sore right hip. After some recovery time, it was feeling fine and then it showed up again on another half marathon 3 weeks ago at the end of a 50 mile week. That catches us up to the Thanksgiving week and the problems mentioned prior. Now, it seems ok, just a little annoyance and slow running does not bother it. In fact, motion makes it feel better and it gets a little achy when I am sitting, example being on the forum or scooping gravel in a tractor. So at this point I think activity is ok. Thoughts?

Sound like really tight hip flexors.
Do some hip release exercises(google them) and roll you butt and hips with a golf ball, when you roll pass a sensitive are with the golf ball hold the ball on that said spot for awhile.
I think activity is ok to do just avoid going downhills. Do you have some compression tights that you could wear? They really work for the hips.
 
Thanks for the info Dama. I researched the exercises when I was having the ITBS, but I wasn't very religious about doing them. Time to start back up. I sit on a baseball to get those tight spots and it hurts so good. I'll think about the tights, but it seems like the looser the clothes I wear on my lower half, the better the circulation for my feet on the cold weather runs.
 
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I only got in 30 min of intervals on the recumbent bike. Ran out of time. My wife is off today which has thrown off my whole schedule and plus I have to go to the tutor for this stupid logarithms stuff in my pre-calculus class. It's complete Greek to me. Final is on Monday for this class, so will spend most of the day today in with the tutor and all day tomorrow. This is the part that got me last time I took this class...
 
Good grief! I've been bitten by the bug! I started running for exercise and weight management. Now, I catch myself looking longingly at satellite maps trying to figure out where the nearest trail is. There's one! Oh no, it's just a clearing for high tension power lines. Found one! Open sunrise to sunset? Oh, foiled! Well, maybe a barefoot run around the neighborhood will be helpful...
 
Good grief! I've been bitten by the bug! I started running for exercise and weight management. Now, I catch myself looking longingly at satellite maps trying to figure out where the nearest trail is. There's one! Oh no, it's just a clearing for high tension power lines. Found one! Open sunrise to sunset? Oh, foiled! Well, maybe a barefoot run around the neighborhood will be helpful...
I did some trail running this spring and summer. It's great! Problem for me is the nearest trail of any length is a 25-minute commute away, one-way, and my semi-regular errand out in that part of town lapsed this fall. If I could though, I would do at least one trail run a week. I think I would make that my weekly LSD run.
 
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Thanks for the info Dama. I researched the exercises when I was having the ITBS, but I wasn't very religious about doing them. Time to start back up. I sit on a baseball to get those tight spots and it hurts so good. I'll think about the tights, but it seems like the looser the clothes I wear on my lower half, the better the circulation for my feet on the cold weather runs.
Do you do strength training at all Rick? I looked into ITBS a bit recently, and some say the root cause is muscle weakness and imbalance. All the other stuff--rolls, massaging, stretching--may alleviate the symptoms, but not address the underlying cause. But I don't know how widely accepted that point of view is, and my 'research' was superficial at best.
 
Problem for me is the nearest trail of any length is a 25-minute commute away, one-way, and my semi-regular errand out in that part of town lapsed this fall.
The nearest trail is also about 25min away for me. Looks like the quickest way there is to use a toll road. Awesome...

I can't tell from the satellite map what kind of trail it is. Seems like some sand/dirt and some gravel maybe...

Edit: Looks barefoot friendly. Now, who is posting pics on Google Streetview from the middle of a trail?
 
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Good grief! I've been bitten by the bug! I started running for exercise and weight management. Now, I catch myself looking longingly at satellite maps trying to figure out where the nearest trail is. There's one! Oh no, it's just a clearing for high tension power lines. Found one! Open sunrise to sunset? Oh, foiled! Well, maybe a barefoot run around the neighborhood will be helpful...

Yeah, I knew you weren't doing it just to maintain your health and weight. People don't usually do 40+ miles/wk (and the highest at 59??) just for health reasons. Addict. ;)
 
Yeah, I knew you weren't doing it just to maintain your health and weight. People don't usually do 40+ miles/wk (and the highest at 59??) just for health reasons. Addict. ;)
Addict? Gosh, me? No way.
59 miles = I was trying to lose some holiday weight, with all that turkey, then the Sunday brunch.
Wed, I was curious how far I could go.
Tonight, well tonight I just need a quick fix, just something to get the blood flowing, that's all, just a quicky. Ok, my name is Sid, and I'm an addict.
 
The nearest trail is also about 25min away for me. Looks like the quickest way there is to use a toll road. Awesome...


Save some gas/money and run to the trail. It's only 25 min after all :)
 
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I only got in 30 min of intervals on the recumbent bike. Ran out of time. My wife is off today which has thrown off my whole schedule and plus I have to go to the tutor for this stupid logarithms stuff in my pre-calculus class. It's complete Greek to me. Final is on Monday for this class, so will spend most of the day today in with the tutor and all day tomorrow. This is the part that got me last time I took this class...

Good luck with your class. You'll be glad when it's over.
 
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No running for me today. Volleyball fun instead.
 
3-4 miles today. I would consider this my first MAF run. My truck broke down 3 miles or so from home. The tow truck and my truck went the opposite direction from where I lived. So I wound up walking the 3-4 miles home in -20C temps (windchill added as the air temp was -14C). So I do think this walks rates as a MAF run, does it not? :D
 
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