October 19, 2013

SoJo 5K


Andrea approaching the end of the SoJo 5K

Its been a long time since Andrea and I lined up on the starting line for the same race. Today we both ran the South Jordan 5K, and hopefully this is a new beginning and we'll be on similar race schedules again going forward. I'm really impressed by Andrea's run this morning - 4 months ago, she could barely run 3 consuecutvie miles (at a slow pace) without stopping as she was recovering from her injury and surgery. Today she ran under 6:00 pace for 5K! She'll be running in the 17s (and probably 16s) again before you know it... but this was an excellent step forward. For me, it was a nice tuneup effort and part of one of my last bigger workouts before the Monumental Half Marathon in two weeks.

Our race recaps from Fast Running Blog (click to read):  






The "official" results were a little off :-)  ....

October 14, 2013

My Brother's Wedding Weekend in TN



My brother got married this past weekend, so I headed to TN for the festivities. It was a beautiful wedding, and I really enjoyed being a part of the bride and groom's special day. And I'm so happy to have the bride become part of our family. Here are a few of my favorite photos!



















October 13, 2013

Post-TOU Training and Big Races for the Fall

I took a day off after the TOU Marathon, and then the next three weeks have looked like this:



At first glance it looks like the worst post-marathon recovery period ever designed, but like I said after the race - I wasn't running all-out, and I wouldn't have been able to train like this afterwards if I had. I realize its sort of walking a fine line and a risky move to "train through" a marathon, but I might have pulled it off.

Week #1 after the marathon was just very easy running and a lot of time spent stretching and in the hot tub - keeping the muscles loose. Six days after the marathon I did a short track workout (400s in 68s and 200s in 33s) just to wake my legs back up a little. A nice 15 miler at Jeremy Ranch with the high school team was a great way to cap off that week.

Alta High School XC

Week #2 after TOU re-incorporated some workouts (6 mile tempo at 5:09 avg, and 5K tempo at 5:01 avg) and a long run up in Park City. My mileage for the week got about as high as I've gotten all year.

Long Run in Park City

Week #3 after TOU, things really start to click. I started off the week with a 8 mile MP tempo (5:17 avg), then a few days later knocked out a big session of mile repeats (10 x 1 at 4:57 avg), and capped off the week by doing a 23 mile long run with 10 miles under 5:30 pace at the end. This was actually the first week I've been over 140 miles all year (after doing it a lot, too much, last year).

Right now I'm 8 weeks out from CIM, and I'm excited about the challenges of the training (and the possibilities of where it might take me) over the next couple months. A few of my friends in SLC (low 2:20 guys) are also running CIM, so we're trying to do workouts together when possible as we all move towards a common goal.

But first up, in three short weeks, is the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon. The race has put together an excellent field of runners who are trying to dip under the Olympic Trials standard of 1:05:00.

As I mentioned in my summer training recap, over the next two months I'm going to continue to focus on the big workouts and take extra recovery days between those harder sessions. In an ideal world, I'll turn myself into a marathon machine... who can also pop off a fast half in early November.

October 1, 2013

Recovery and Rehabilitation from Athletic Pubalgia (Sports Hernia) Surgery - Part 3: 3 - 4.5 months

The two previous post-surgery recovery blogs are located here and here. At three months post-surgery I really started seeing some results. I spent most of August running about 30 miles per week and then was able to increase my mileage up to 40 mpw for the month of September. What a huge relief to be able to run regularly again!

Here is a general summary -

August: The first week of August I got roped into the Corporate Games 5K for work. The grass was significantly harder for me to run on than the road because of the uneven terrain and my weakness with lifting my leg.
Corporate Games 5K
Throughout the rest of the month, I increased my longer runs from 5 to 7.5 miles. I was able to run outside of a one mile radius of home since I was gaining confidence in my ability to run further without pain. I did get overly excited and tried to do a few faster workouts, but it was too soon. My physical therapy was similar to what it had been but with a few adjustments/modifications.

- Psoas inhibition
- Psoas activate then heel slide
- Step downs (2x more on right side)
- Lateral step up/step down
- Clam shells
- Hip abduction (while laying and side step monster walks)
- Hip adduction

- Glute activations

The second week of August, I started having a lot of upper abdominal cramping when running. It would slowly build until it was a very painful cramp and would remain until I finished running. I was told that this is common for people whose psoas muscle is not functioning, so there was still a lot of work to do there.

September: Over Labor Day weekend, some friends and I went to Silverton, CO for fun in the San Juans Mountains. I was able to do some long hikes and felt great. I even went on a 9 mile (hard) trail run up at Molas Pass!

Hiking Highland Mary Lakes Loop
I jumped into two races the next couple weekends - the Alta Peruvian 8K as a fun run and then the Flat as a Pancake 5K, which I ran in 19:13. This was a 2.5 minute improvement over Draper Days 8 weeks before - a great indication that I am in fact coming back. I began running one mini-workout and one longer run a week while keeping my mileage steady. I started getting some compensation in my IT band/hamstring so I really need to work on strengthening my hips more before I try to increase my workload any more. I found that going to the hot tub every day really reduces the amount of discomfort I had in my groin the following day.

I think this graph of my weekly running mileage pretty much sums up the level of activity I was able to handle since surgery on May 8th.



I definitely am not completely healed yet and have a few more months of limitations, but I can see the end of the tunnel now. I WILL GET BETTER! I can only hope that I have enough time to train and get fit enough to go after that Olympic Trials time standard in 2014-2015! :-)

Recovery and Rehabilitation from Athletic Pubalgia (Sports Hernia) Surgery - Part 2: Weeks 7 - 12

The first six weeks post-surgery blog is located here. The next six weeks were slow but steady improvement. I was still very limited by groin and compensating pain, but those became a little less overwhelming by the week. Here is a weekly recap -

Week 7: Started running a little more. I went to Duluth with Jake for the Half Marathon Champs and I needed to run. I would stop as soon as I started to hurt (usually 1 mile or so). Lots of compensation still, adductor soreness, and groin discomfort. But better! Same PT exercises.

Week 8: Added some biking and got up to 2.5 miles of running about every other day. The biking and running added some stress on my groin area, so I started doing PT on the alternate days from running. My groin and adductor got quite sore and my right knee felt slightly unstable but had to start somewhere!

Week 9: 4th of July week. We went up to Hebgen Lake, MT with some friends. I was having sporadic periods of feeling terrible then feeling great. I ran my first race - Sawtelle Stampede 5K. I paced my friend to a sub-25 and felt great for 2.5 miles (it's amazing what the racing atmosphere can do!) before my groin got weak and achy.

Week 10: My psoas hurts. I focused a lot on the psoas inhibition exercise and relaxation pose (see previous blog post). I was working really long hours and had a lot of stress which definitely contributed to the pain. I was able to run a little more than the previous week and got up to a 4 mile run this week. I went to PT and he added back extension exercises and more glute isolation exercises to my routine. 

Week 11: Starting to feel like I am really running again with several 4 milers. I ran my second race post-surgery as a test to see where I am. I ran 21:28 at the Draper Days 5K, and it was tough! I also went on my first hike since surgery and did well for 3.5 miles before my right leg got tired.

Week 12: We went up to Jackson, WY for the week. I didn't run much but was able to do a lot of hiking! It was a huge accomplishment to hike for 9.5 miles up to Ampitheatre Lake and back. I put my legs in the cold lakes as often as possible and iced with my feet up the rest of the time. It was very exciting have some fun adventures again.