Speaking of the forest and the trees, I was startled during yesterday's run when I heard a loud crack and then a heavy sounding (WHUMP). I looked ahead to my left to see a large section of rotted out tree that had just fallen into a gulley on the side of the road. It was loud enough to startle me over the podcast that I was listening to.
Would it have still made noise if I hadn't been running by at that exact moment?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The forest and the trees
I'm still keeping up with the running, I'm just lazy about writing it up. The amount of time I have to work out in a given week depends on two things: my meeting schedule at work and my family plans on Sundays. I go to the gym every day to work out at lunch and then I usually plan a two hour block to exercise on Sundays.
I've been tweaking my weekday gym schedule lately to be more running-focused. I had been lifting 4 days a week and doing cardio 1 day. Now I'm doing 3 days of cardio, and two days of lifting. Since the weather is still in the high 40s I'll usually run my 6mi. loop two of those cardio days and do some kind of machine at the gym the other cardio day. I've been having rotator cuff pain recently so I'm limiting my weight lifting to exercises that keep my arms by my side or don't bear any weight. Basically arms and legs only for now.
My running has been going pretty well lately. One of the runs during the week I'll try to go at about 90% - 95% effort for tempo training and for the other I'll back off to 80%. I do a long run on Sunday (lately anyway) and I'm finding this to be an enjoyable combination. We'll see if I'll keep this up when the temps drop to the low 40s or high 30s in the heart of winter. I don't know if I want to push this hard in that kind of weather. We'll see what I can scrape together for winter gear.
Last weekend I did a 12 mile run but I didn't start until about 4pm. I thought for some reason that it wouldn't get dark until 5:30pm which was about an hour off. It was getting pretty dark 4 miles into the run. Luckily I had the foresight to bring along a bright blinky light and a reflective vest to wear over my white long sleeve shirt. I probably looked like a Fred but I came back unscathed after a good hour running on the shoulders with no street lights on a dark overcast night. It was strange running down a long hill with no traffic where I couldn't even see the road under my feet. I felt great during the run which went by pretty fast while listening to NPRs Fresh Air podcasts.
Today I took to it again in the middle of the day. I didn't do very well with my pre-run nutrition and had heartburn during the 2nd half of the run. I had some soreness in one calf as well, likely from the long gym session Friday evening where I did: Squats, Lunges, Leg Press, Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, Calf Extensions, Adductor and Hip Flexor exercises plus 40 min of cardio. I'd run my 6 mile loop at lunch on Friday so my legs were a little sore come today.
I ran an out-and-back course today that passed a small store 4 miles into the run and then again 10 miles into the run. This worked out perfectly as I just carried a bag with 2 scoops of HEED in my pocket and bought a bottle of water from the store each time I passed by. I brought two Hammer Gels with me as well. I didn't feel very good after eating the first one so I didn't bother with the second. I forgot to bring any electrolytes but I was able to get away with it because of the low temps and light rain that kept me pretty cool the whole run. It certainly seems that no matter where I run in Gig Harbor, it's hilly. I managed to register a Garmin-claimed 4500' of ascending on today's 15 mile route. I don't have a good way to baseline the accuracy of my watch yet but I don't think it's far off. I only remember a few flat sections come to think of it.
I kept a pretty good pace but I was starting to feel fatigued by the 12 mile point. It wasn't terrible and I'll chalk it up to my poor pre-run eating and sore muscles. I hope it'll be better next weekend. I timed the run perfectly with my podcast selection and managed to listen to Competitor Radio Podcasts featuring: Chris McCormack, Bill Rogers, John McEnroe, and Erica Davis finishing the last podcast with 200m to go.
I don't know what I'm training for if anything. I'd like to get back into the occasional race if I can do it in a way that doesn't impact my time with the family too much. I have zero interest in entering another marathon* but local 50K races sound like a better deal financially and enjoyment-wise. I started today's run just after my daughter went down for a nap and as soon as I got home I changed and we took her to the pool which she loved but my back and hamstrings didn't. I chatted with Chris (over SMS) today and based on that decided to bring my HRM on the run. I came up with the following data:
Avg HR: 144
Max HR: 165
HR 1hr after the run: 60
HR now: 46
As for the run:
Dist: 14.98mi
Time: 2:06:53
Pace: 8:28/mi
Alt: 4580
I wonder how much faster I'd be if I were 10 lbs lighter. :)
* Paying $100+ to enter a marathon seems silly now that I've done a dozen of them. I don't see myself entering any more marathons with the following exceptions:
New York City: I was going to run it in 2003 but got injured and never got to run it.
Big Sur: Once for the scenery
Some decent race if I can ever convince my sister to run one with me. (Portland?)
I've been tweaking my weekday gym schedule lately to be more running-focused. I had been lifting 4 days a week and doing cardio 1 day. Now I'm doing 3 days of cardio, and two days of lifting. Since the weather is still in the high 40s I'll usually run my 6mi. loop two of those cardio days and do some kind of machine at the gym the other cardio day. I've been having rotator cuff pain recently so I'm limiting my weight lifting to exercises that keep my arms by my side or don't bear any weight. Basically arms and legs only for now.
My running has been going pretty well lately. One of the runs during the week I'll try to go at about 90% - 95% effort for tempo training and for the other I'll back off to 80%. I do a long run on Sunday (lately anyway) and I'm finding this to be an enjoyable combination. We'll see if I'll keep this up when the temps drop to the low 40s or high 30s in the heart of winter. I don't know if I want to push this hard in that kind of weather. We'll see what I can scrape together for winter gear.
Last weekend I did a 12 mile run but I didn't start until about 4pm. I thought for some reason that it wouldn't get dark until 5:30pm which was about an hour off. It was getting pretty dark 4 miles into the run. Luckily I had the foresight to bring along a bright blinky light and a reflective vest to wear over my white long sleeve shirt. I probably looked like a Fred but I came back unscathed after a good hour running on the shoulders with no street lights on a dark overcast night. It was strange running down a long hill with no traffic where I couldn't even see the road under my feet. I felt great during the run which went by pretty fast while listening to NPRs Fresh Air podcasts.
Today I took to it again in the middle of the day. I didn't do very well with my pre-run nutrition and had heartburn during the 2nd half of the run. I had some soreness in one calf as well, likely from the long gym session Friday evening where I did: Squats, Lunges, Leg Press, Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, Calf Extensions, Adductor and Hip Flexor exercises plus 40 min of cardio. I'd run my 6 mile loop at lunch on Friday so my legs were a little sore come today.
I ran an out-and-back course today that passed a small store 4 miles into the run and then again 10 miles into the run. This worked out perfectly as I just carried a bag with 2 scoops of HEED in my pocket and bought a bottle of water from the store each time I passed by. I brought two Hammer Gels with me as well. I didn't feel very good after eating the first one so I didn't bother with the second. I forgot to bring any electrolytes but I was able to get away with it because of the low temps and light rain that kept me pretty cool the whole run. It certainly seems that no matter where I run in Gig Harbor, it's hilly. I managed to register a Garmin-claimed 4500' of ascending on today's 15 mile route. I don't have a good way to baseline the accuracy of my watch yet but I don't think it's far off. I only remember a few flat sections come to think of it.
I kept a pretty good pace but I was starting to feel fatigued by the 12 mile point. It wasn't terrible and I'll chalk it up to my poor pre-run eating and sore muscles. I hope it'll be better next weekend. I timed the run perfectly with my podcast selection and managed to listen to Competitor Radio Podcasts featuring: Chris McCormack, Bill Rogers, John McEnroe, and Erica Davis finishing the last podcast with 200m to go.
I don't know what I'm training for if anything. I'd like to get back into the occasional race if I can do it in a way that doesn't impact my time with the family too much. I have zero interest in entering another marathon* but local 50K races sound like a better deal financially and enjoyment-wise. I started today's run just after my daughter went down for a nap and as soon as I got home I changed and we took her to the pool which she loved but my back and hamstrings didn't. I chatted with Chris (over SMS) today and based on that decided to bring my HRM on the run. I came up with the following data:
Avg HR: 144
Max HR: 165
HR 1hr after the run: 60
HR now: 46
As for the run:
Dist: 14.98mi
Time: 2:06:53
Pace: 8:28/mi
Alt: 4580
I wonder how much faster I'd be if I were 10 lbs lighter. :)
* Paying $100+ to enter a marathon seems silly now that I've done a dozen of them. I don't see myself entering any more marathons with the following exceptions:
New York City: I was going to run it in 2003 but got injured and never got to run it.
Big Sur: Once for the scenery
Some decent race if I can ever convince my sister to run one with me. (Portland?)
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Where did the summer go?
I've been enjoying the summer and I've been running a good bit of it. I haven't put together any training plans or entered any races but I've been fairly steady about going to the gym and running a mile or two as a warm-up every other day, running on Fridays after work at the Bridle Trails (until recently) and running on the weekend with the B.O.B. jog stroller more recently.
I'm always torn on how to spend my ~45 min a day at the gym during the work week. I usually warm up with a few min. of cardio and then hit the free weights. The last two weeks after watching my weight approach 200lbs I thought I'd try some outdoor running a couple of the days. I found a good 6mi. loop to run from the gym.
Being competitive I push the pace and so far (the 4 times I've run it) I've been able to improve my pace each time. The loop is split between gravel path, asphalt shoulder, dirt trail, and sidewalks. It's quite a hilly for the area. According to Garmin it gains/descends just over 2,000' in those 6 miles. I start fast and watch my 5 minute splits. I try to average at least 0.7 miles every 5 minutes. I don't know where I came up with that ratio but it's a good goal for me right now. So far my times have been:
47:06 (8:02 pace)
45:43 (7:40 pace)
44:20 (7:22 pace)
43:07 (7:11 pace)
It's a nice feeling to finish a hard run where you've been pushing yourself the whole time. I feel like I'm going between 90% - 100% effort the whole 6 miles. It reminds me of several years ago when I used to run with the Palo Alto Running Club. I treated the Tuesday night run as a hard tempo run and pushed to stay with the leaders, guys with sub-37 min. 10K PRs and sub 3 hour marathoners. They were running at 75% effort and I was at 95%. It sure made me run faster in the long run.
In any case, my current pace is a bit surprising given my recent running history and having knee surgery just over a year ago. I still try not to run back-to-back days and my weekly mileage has yet to break 25. I have no plans for racing this year but I'd like to do a 50K and maybe a marathon next year.
Today I got out for an easy run that I'd planned to be just recovery from the faster runs I'd done Tue/Thu. I ran out to Fox Island and back in just under an hour.
6.92 mi
59:51
8:39 pace
I felt like I was just trotting along at an easy highly conversational pace yet I averaged 8:39/mi. Surprising to me as I thought I was going about a minute/mile slower. No complaints, no knee pain. Works for me.
I'm always torn on how to spend my ~45 min a day at the gym during the work week. I usually warm up with a few min. of cardio and then hit the free weights. The last two weeks after watching my weight approach 200lbs I thought I'd try some outdoor running a couple of the days. I found a good 6mi. loop to run from the gym.
Being competitive I push the pace and so far (the 4 times I've run it) I've been able to improve my pace each time. The loop is split between gravel path, asphalt shoulder, dirt trail, and sidewalks. It's quite a hilly for the area. According to Garmin it gains/descends just over 2,000' in those 6 miles. I start fast and watch my 5 minute splits. I try to average at least 0.7 miles every 5 minutes. I don't know where I came up with that ratio but it's a good goal for me right now. So far my times have been:
47:06 (8:02 pace)
45:43 (7:40 pace)
44:20 (7:22 pace)
43:07 (7:11 pace)
It's a nice feeling to finish a hard run where you've been pushing yourself the whole time. I feel like I'm going between 90% - 100% effort the whole 6 miles. It reminds me of several years ago when I used to run with the Palo Alto Running Club. I treated the Tuesday night run as a hard tempo run and pushed to stay with the leaders, guys with sub-37 min. 10K PRs and sub 3 hour marathoners. They were running at 75% effort and I was at 95%. It sure made me run faster in the long run.
In any case, my current pace is a bit surprising given my recent running history and having knee surgery just over a year ago. I still try not to run back-to-back days and my weekly mileage has yet to break 25. I have no plans for racing this year but I'd like to do a 50K and maybe a marathon next year.
Today I got out for an easy run that I'd planned to be just recovery from the faster runs I'd done Tue/Thu. I ran out to Fox Island and back in just under an hour.
6.92 mi
59:51
8:39 pace
I felt like I was just trotting along at an easy highly conversational pace yet I averaged 8:39/mi. Surprising to me as I thought I was going about a minute/mile slower. No complaints, no knee pain. Works for me.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
A sh*tty run
As I did last Friday I went to the gym after work yesterday (Friday) with plans to run. I think we were on 8 consecutive days of rain come yesterday. It was raining pretty hard in the early afternoon but stopped by 5:30 when I stepped out of the gym ready to run. I turned on my Garmin watch and stretched while I waited for the GPS to pick up my position. Following that I headed down the parking lot to 148th ave and then North for maybe half a mile until I reached a dirt (mud now) trail that went due West for about a mile. It's mostly flat and muddy which makes it very slippery to run on. The trail has a couple of short very steep climbs and drops. Nothing that you'd have to walk but enough that my pace really slowed as I was working my calves pretty hard to grunt up it or bouncing side to side on the edges of the muddy trail on the way down so that I didn't slide down it on my butt.
Eventually after about a mile and half I hit the NE corner of Bridle Trails State Park. I finally found a trail map online of the basic layout of the area and where the major trails went. My plan was to run around the entire perimeter of the park depending on how well I'd memorized the shape of the park from the map. With all of the rain lately the trails were a bit slow (Did I mention that it was muddy?) and on top of the frequent mud puddles there were frequently piles of horse crap. It's funny that people give you a hard time if you don't pick up after your dog but no horse owner would ever think of picking up after their 2000lb animal and the giant piles that it creates right in the middle of the trails. The downside of the mud and crap was that I had to zig-zag across the trail frequently to avoid the mud that was deep enough to pull my shoe off as well as the horse flop.
I had the place to myself it seemed. I only saw one other person the whole time I was there, a young woman running the opposite direction. It was really nice to just jog around these deserted trails with my iPod in one ear and nothing but trees around me. No houses, no wind, no cars, no horses. I got a little lost coming around the southwest corner of the trail and a little mixed up when I hit the gravel path that bisects the park but was able to make it up as I went because of the orientation of the park. It's a rectangle with a few bits cut out of it and the edges point N/S and E/W. I always knew roughly where I was and what direction I needed to go. Eventually I got around to the South East side where I'd exited the park last week and this time continued North back to my starting point. This was by far the worse section when it came to the mud. The tree cover was the lightest here as well. There were plenty of sections of trail that were all mud and water and I did my best to run along the edges of the trail or slightly off-trail to avoid getting too muddy. Eventually I completed the loop which measured about 4.8mi. I then followed the same path back down the path to 148th ave and back to the Gym.
Oddly I ended up with 8.0 miles right as I stepped foot in the Gym parking lot. This isn't a true measure of the distance I ran though. I was stopping the watch when I'd stop for anything (stoplight, lost, traffic) and then I wouldn't start it up again until it registered a sub 10min pace for me. I do this because my pace/speed graphs get completely skewed otherwise with brief spikes for 1mph input points from the GPS watch. I probably had another 1/10th - 2/10ths of a mile that wasn't accounted for on the watch.
I did keep rough track of my splits for a change though:
Lap Dist Time AvgHR
---------------------------
1 1.00mi 8:03 138bpm
2 1.01mi 9:35 155bpm
3 1.00mi 9:09 149bpm
4 1.00mi 9:23 149bpm
5 1.07mi 10:09 151bpm (hit the lap button late)
6 0.93mi 8:32 150bpm
7 1.01mi 9:20 152bpm
8 0.99mi 8:31 150bpm
T 8.00mi 1:12:48 149bpm
I got back to the gym and had to go to the showers and wash off my legs before going to the weight room for the rest of my workout. Great place to run, I look forward to running there after a few days of Sun when I'm not struggling to find a path through the slop. Great way to burn 1200 calories.
Eventually after about a mile and half I hit the NE corner of Bridle Trails State Park. I finally found a trail map online of the basic layout of the area and where the major trails went. My plan was to run around the entire perimeter of the park depending on how well I'd memorized the shape of the park from the map. With all of the rain lately the trails were a bit slow (Did I mention that it was muddy?) and on top of the frequent mud puddles there were frequently piles of horse crap. It's funny that people give you a hard time if you don't pick up after your dog but no horse owner would ever think of picking up after their 2000lb animal and the giant piles that it creates right in the middle of the trails. The downside of the mud and crap was that I had to zig-zag across the trail frequently to avoid the mud that was deep enough to pull my shoe off as well as the horse flop.
I had the place to myself it seemed. I only saw one other person the whole time I was there, a young woman running the opposite direction. It was really nice to just jog around these deserted trails with my iPod in one ear and nothing but trees around me. No houses, no wind, no cars, no horses. I got a little lost coming around the southwest corner of the trail and a little mixed up when I hit the gravel path that bisects the park but was able to make it up as I went because of the orientation of the park. It's a rectangle with a few bits cut out of it and the edges point N/S and E/W. I always knew roughly where I was and what direction I needed to go. Eventually I got around to the South East side where I'd exited the park last week and this time continued North back to my starting point. This was by far the worse section when it came to the mud. The tree cover was the lightest here as well. There were plenty of sections of trail that were all mud and water and I did my best to run along the edges of the trail or slightly off-trail to avoid getting too muddy. Eventually I completed the loop which measured about 4.8mi. I then followed the same path back down the path to 148th ave and back to the Gym.
Oddly I ended up with 8.0 miles right as I stepped foot in the Gym parking lot. This isn't a true measure of the distance I ran though. I was stopping the watch when I'd stop for anything (stoplight, lost, traffic) and then I wouldn't start it up again until it registered a sub 10min pace for me. I do this because my pace/speed graphs get completely skewed otherwise with brief spikes for 1mph input points from the GPS watch. I probably had another 1/10th - 2/10ths of a mile that wasn't accounted for on the watch.
I did keep rough track of my splits for a change though:
Lap Dist Time AvgHR
---------------------------
1 1.00mi 8:03 138bpm
2 1.01mi 9:35 155bpm
3 1.00mi 9:09 149bpm
4 1.00mi 9:23 149bpm
5 1.07mi 10:09 151bpm (hit the lap button late)
6 0.93mi 8:32 150bpm
7 1.01mi 9:20 152bpm
8 0.99mi 8:31 150bpm
T 8.00mi 1:12:48 149bpm
I got back to the gym and had to go to the showers and wash off my legs before going to the weight room for the rest of my workout. Great place to run, I look forward to running there after a few days of Sun when I'm not struggling to find a path through the slop. Great way to burn 1200 calories.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Back in business...
but for how long?
I've been quiet for almost a year now. Here's why:
Knee pain forced me to stop running. I could barely run at all without pain. Here's what happened last summer:
I got Xrays of my left knee: nothing wrong.
I went to a Physical Therapist: It's because of your arches. Come do exercises at my office while I pay no attention to you and buy Orthotics from me. (no change)
I got an MRI of my knee: Torn meniscus.
Knee surgery last July: 25% of my right Meniscus (Left knee) removed. Vicodin sucks.
Knee pain and scar tissue continued until near the end of the year.
I started walking then running 1/4 of a mile at a time at 10min pace. Slow progress.
In January I was up to 1 mile on the treadmill at 9min pace a couple of times a week. I've gone up a bit from then and started doing some outdoor runs as well as treadmill runs. I'm still having pain in my Left knee where the bottom incision port is scarred internally but I can run pain-free every other day.
Friday I took a run through the Bridle Trails park near work. It's a beautiful forest with dirt (some muddy) paths zig-zagging and intersecting through it. There are a few signs but I had no idea where to go so I just headed in a general direction for a while and then turned and headed another direction. I was trying not to get too muddy and avoid hitting any trail-side plants with my healing tattoo on the side of my leg. Great run overall. I ended up exiting the trail and heading south for a bit longer than I wanted to and ran the long way around and back to the gym for a total of just over 7 miles in 1:02 most of it on the trails. I got to the gym and didn't feel winded really or sore for that matter. I'm surprised and happy about this.
My knee was sore on Saturday however. Today though was another story. I got out and ran 2.5 miles in light rain with my daughter in the jog stroller. My daughter didn't care much for the experience all bundled up in her fleece jacket and hat with a warm blanket. She dozed off a couple of times which would have been nice but the rain was starting to pick up when we were heading back home. Right after dropping her off at home it really started to just dump hail. I'm glad that I wasn't caught out in that with her. I waited about 5 minutes for the hail to calm down and then ran the One Store loop with my iPod in the varying rain. Again I tallied up just over 7 miles in just over an hour.
I have to say that I like the Garmin Forerunner GPS watch but the accuracy is crap. I download and view the data and there are spikes galore in my pace / speed graphs. I assume it just loses signal for a second, assumes that I haven't moved for 10 seconds, marks my pace as 1mph and then jumps right back in to sync. Awesome Garmin.
At least I'm running again.
I've been quiet for almost a year now. Here's why:
Knee pain forced me to stop running. I could barely run at all without pain. Here's what happened last summer:
I got Xrays of my left knee: nothing wrong.
I went to a Physical Therapist: It's because of your arches. Come do exercises at my office while I pay no attention to you and buy Orthotics from me. (no change)
I got an MRI of my knee: Torn meniscus.
Knee surgery last July: 25% of my right Meniscus (Left knee) removed. Vicodin sucks.
Knee pain and scar tissue continued until near the end of the year.
I started walking then running 1/4 of a mile at a time at 10min pace. Slow progress.
In January I was up to 1 mile on the treadmill at 9min pace a couple of times a week. I've gone up a bit from then and started doing some outdoor runs as well as treadmill runs. I'm still having pain in my Left knee where the bottom incision port is scarred internally but I can run pain-free every other day.
Friday I took a run through the Bridle Trails park near work. It's a beautiful forest with dirt (some muddy) paths zig-zagging and intersecting through it. There are a few signs but I had no idea where to go so I just headed in a general direction for a while and then turned and headed another direction. I was trying not to get too muddy and avoid hitting any trail-side plants with my healing tattoo on the side of my leg. Great run overall. I ended up exiting the trail and heading south for a bit longer than I wanted to and ran the long way around and back to the gym for a total of just over 7 miles in 1:02 most of it on the trails. I got to the gym and didn't feel winded really or sore for that matter. I'm surprised and happy about this.
My knee was sore on Saturday however. Today though was another story. I got out and ran 2.5 miles in light rain with my daughter in the jog stroller. My daughter didn't care much for the experience all bundled up in her fleece jacket and hat with a warm blanket. She dozed off a couple of times which would have been nice but the rain was starting to pick up when we were heading back home. Right after dropping her off at home it really started to just dump hail. I'm glad that I wasn't caught out in that with her. I waited about 5 minutes for the hail to calm down and then ran the One Store loop with my iPod in the varying rain. Again I tallied up just over 7 miles in just over an hour.
I have to say that I like the Garmin Forerunner GPS watch but the accuracy is crap. I download and view the data and there are spikes galore in my pace / speed graphs. I assume it just loses signal for a second, assumes that I haven't moved for 10 seconds, marks my pace as 1mph and then jumps right back in to sync. Awesome Garmin.
At least I'm running again.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
short test run
Now that my wife is cleared to run again she asked me if I wanted to go out on a 3 mile run around the 'habba with her and the baby. My first thought was "no, what a stupid question, I'm injur....." I thought about it for a minute and figured "why not?" what am I going to do, have more knee pain? I didn't think that it would be too bad at my wife's pace either. She runs a 2min / 1min ratio of run/walk.
We loaded up the baby in the B.O.B. jog stroller with the rain cover and went on our way. The run went smoothly, the baby didn't cry and we both got pretty wet from the rain.
Here we are 3 hours later and my knee isn't much worse than it was before. If I notice much more pain it'll probably be in the morning. I was stretching before I took a shower and noticed that my knee caps aren't even close to level. My left kneecap (the painful one) is a good bit lower than the right. I'm betting that the orthotics take care of some of this when I'm wearing them. It lends some credibility to my cousin's (who's a physical therapist) theory that the knee pain relates to my PS/SI problems from a few years ago. I'm visiting her next weekend in CA so I'll have a chance to ask her about it in person and show her my kneecaps.
I need to get some new running shoes that are better suited for my orthotics as well. Maybe in a few weeks...
We loaded up the baby in the B.O.B. jog stroller with the rain cover and went on our way. The run went smoothly, the baby didn't cry and we both got pretty wet from the rain.
Here we are 3 hours later and my knee isn't much worse than it was before. If I notice much more pain it'll probably be in the morning. I was stretching before I took a shower and noticed that my knee caps aren't even close to level. My left kneecap (the painful one) is a good bit lower than the right. I'm betting that the orthotics take care of some of this when I'm wearing them. It lends some credibility to my cousin's (who's a physical therapist) theory that the knee pain relates to my PS/SI problems from a few years ago. I'm visiting her next weekend in CA so I'll have a chance to ask her about it in person and show her my kneecaps.
I need to get some new running shoes that are better suited for my orthotics as well. Maybe in a few weeks...
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Therapy of the physical kind
I went to Physical Therapy twice last week. The office is in Bellevue so I've been taking morning appointments, working out there for an hour and then going to work afterward. So far it works out like this:
20 min. walking backwards on a treadmill at 2.5mph with a 12% incline.
hamstring stretching exercise
really hard hamstring stretching exercise
Hip extensor balance exercise
partial squats with a 25lb Kettle Bell
Pulse Ultrasound
Ice
Walking backwards on a treadmill with a steep incline was hard to get used to initially. You can't see how close you are to the controls of the treadmill and you don't want to bump into them so you end up walking on the bottom/back half of the belt. You end up getting closer than you'd like to be to the edge of the belt so you're constantly adjusting where you're walking. I'm still struggling to walk backwards without either looking down at my feet or looking at the mirror across the room and watching my feet. Walking backwards also exposes my tendency to pronate my left foot pretty badly.
I've read blogs and books that recommend walking backwards uphill to help with runner's knee. I guess it's good for stretching out the hamstrings, which are typically severely under-worked by athletes (esp. runners). I'm surprised that I work up a decent sweat in 20 minutes walking backwards uphill. I suggest you try it some time... no holding on to the treadmill either. :)
The two Hamstring exercises are good for me and something I'm now trying to do at home as well. The first is just laying on my back with one leg up against a wall as high as I can go and still keep it straight with my toe pointed. The other leg is on the ground and I lift it (keeping it straight) up higher than the wall leg.
The second one (much harder for me) has me standing, feet together with a small rubber ball between my knees. I put my hands above my head and bend over slowly sticking my butt out so that I can keep my back straight. I bend over until I can't keep my back straight any more, then squeeze the ball with my legs and bend the rest of the way. I also come back up to standing keeping my back straight.
The other exercises aren't too hard, but the hamstring ones give me the most trouble given my lack of flexibility.
After PT on Friday my knee was sore the rest of the day which worries me. I'm a little scared that I won't be able to run for a while on my knee if this is how PT goes for me.
Still 2.5 weeks away from getting the Orthotics in any case.
Ouch.
20 min. walking backwards on a treadmill at 2.5mph with a 12% incline.
hamstring stretching exercise
really hard hamstring stretching exercise
Hip extensor balance exercise
partial squats with a 25lb Kettle Bell
Pulse Ultrasound
Ice
Walking backwards on a treadmill with a steep incline was hard to get used to initially. You can't see how close you are to the controls of the treadmill and you don't want to bump into them so you end up walking on the bottom/back half of the belt. You end up getting closer than you'd like to be to the edge of the belt so you're constantly adjusting where you're walking. I'm still struggling to walk backwards without either looking down at my feet or looking at the mirror across the room and watching my feet. Walking backwards also exposes my tendency to pronate my left foot pretty badly.
I've read blogs and books that recommend walking backwards uphill to help with runner's knee. I guess it's good for stretching out the hamstrings, which are typically severely under-worked by athletes (esp. runners). I'm surprised that I work up a decent sweat in 20 minutes walking backwards uphill. I suggest you try it some time... no holding on to the treadmill either. :)
The two Hamstring exercises are good for me and something I'm now trying to do at home as well. The first is just laying on my back with one leg up against a wall as high as I can go and still keep it straight with my toe pointed. The other leg is on the ground and I lift it (keeping it straight) up higher than the wall leg.
The second one (much harder for me) has me standing, feet together with a small rubber ball between my knees. I put my hands above my head and bend over slowly sticking my butt out so that I can keep my back straight. I bend over until I can't keep my back straight any more, then squeeze the ball with my legs and bend the rest of the way. I also come back up to standing keeping my back straight.
The other exercises aren't too hard, but the hamstring ones give me the most trouble given my lack of flexibility.
After PT on Friday my knee was sore the rest of the day which worries me. I'm a little scared that I won't be able to run for a while on my knee if this is how PT goes for me.
Still 2.5 weeks away from getting the Orthotics in any case.
Ouch.
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