Resurrecting Chicago

No running to report as I'm being a good boy and doing the complete running rest thing. My wife really does not like when this happens as I get really grumpy. I've been doing the eccentric heel drops and after the first couple of days found the tendon was better, but that the calf was feeling a bit overworked. I find this interesting as I really felt I had been going a great job of stretching out the calves, both straight legged and bent knee, pre-run after a 5 minute warm-up walk and then another 2-3x per day over the past few weeks. Something to be learned there.

So running related if you will, I've been keeping up with the swimming (1 mile 2x/week) and Pilates (2x/week). Interestingly enough, I'm finding the swimming more difficult than when I was running, and that tells me I'm probably starting to lose some of my aerobic fitness. I'm going to push up the frequency of swimming until I can get back on my feet running again.

Question for the troops regarding cycling and the AT. I've read a number of things that indicates that low/mid intensity cycling is a good recovery tool for AT. Anyone have experience with this? Any advice on do's and don'ts? If I am starting to lose aerobic base, cycling can be another outlet to keep it stable during recovery, but don't want to exacerbate the situation. Since it does not seem I'm going to be lucky enough to get a cancellation at the Dr's office that will allow me to get in before the 27th, right now it is a case of "Runner, heal thyself" . . .

Finally, apologies to all for not visiting your blogs recently. As I said, I'm a bit of a withdrawn grump now.

Tom H wrote:No running to report as I'm being a good boy and doing the complete running rest thing. My wife really does not like when this happens as I get really grumpy. I've been doing the eccentric heel drops and after the first couple of days found the tendon was better, but that the calf was feeling a bit overworked. I find this interesting as I really felt I had been going a great job of stretching out the calves, both straight legged and bent knee, pre-run after a 5 minute warm-up walk and then another 2-3x per day over the past few weeks. Something to be learned there.

So running related if you will, I've been keeping up with the swimming (1 mile 2x/week) and Pilates (2x/week). Interestingly enough, I'm finding the swimming more difficult than when I was running, and that tells me I'm probably starting to lose some of my aerobic fitness. I'm going to push up the frequency of swimming until I can get back on my feet running again.

Question for the troops regarding cycling and the AT. I've read a number of things that indicates that low/mid intensity cycling is a good recovery tool for AT. Anyone have experience with this? Any advice on do's and don'ts? If I am starting to lose aerobic base, cycling can be another outlet to keep it stable during recovery, but don't want to exacerbate the situation. Since it does not seem I'm going to be lucky enough to get a cancellation at the Dr's office that will allow me to get in before the 27th, right now it is a case of "Runner, heal thyself" . . .

Finally, apologies to all for not visiting your blogs recently. As I said, I'm a bit of a withdrawn grump now.

Don't be a grump, Tom. Keep the faith. It'll get better.

Bummer Tom, sorry to hear about the AT troubles and not being able to get in until the 27th...fingers crossed you get in earlier.

Running news will take second place here, because I just became a Grandpa! Katie, my daughter and marathon partner last summer in Alaska delivered Rebecca Anne late Monday night and all are doing great! .



In running news, no news. Still taking rest and swimming/cycling until I can get to see the doc. Was supposed to be today, but he had an emergency surgery he had to do so I got pushed to next Monday. Good news is that the rest and stretching has been working. Everything feels better but I still am going to have him check me out to see if he can spot any mechanical issue (bone spur, etc.) that may have developed since I really cannot identify any real changes in what I've been doing.

Congrats Grandpa!

Hope the niggles improve and you're back out there soon.

Congrats Grandpa Tom!! Glad to hear everyone is doing well also.


Also good luck with the appointment on Monday, hope to see you back on the roads.

Congrats Grandpa!



Fingers crossed for good news on Monday.

Congratulations Grandpa! Cool!

Congratulations Tom, that's great news.

Congratulations Grandpa Tom!!!

Grandkids are awesome, according to my parents. And granddaughters are so sweet and cute. Enjoy! Glad they're doing well.

Congrats, grandpa! And make sure to pass on the congrats to the happy family, as well!

Good luck at the doctor's office tomorrow. I'll be crossing my fingers.

Two weeks with no running is not fun. I am so lucky to have had my Granddaughter arrive early, it provided a great distraction.



So finally got to see the new sports podiatrist yesterday. I felt pretty good about him when I saw to Boston finish display cases in his waiting room, and the video he had looping on the TV was about proper shoe selection, pronation, etc. He did xrays, had me walk and a thorough exam. At the end of the day, said I'd done all the right things in the last two weeks (Thanks for all the advice!) and that at this point, there is only some bursitis at the AT insertion point. Doctors orders: Go out and do some short runs to see how things feel. So I did that this morning with a easy 4 miles. Walked for 5 to warm-up, then did both straight and bent knee calf stretches to loosen up the area. I could feel an ache in the mid-AT for the first quarter mile, but that disappeared as I warmed up. At the end of the run, all felt fine. So far, so good.



Chicago BQ. Those two words don't belong in the same sentence anymore. Chicago Marathon? Maybe. It is only 8 weeks off and I'm waaaay behind. Best I think I can hope for is to run it for the experience as an LSD run, but I'll see what the next few weeks bring. I still have no idea what brought this issue on as I didn't ramp mileage, start any speedwork, switch to running on a different surface, change shoes, etc. Hmmmm, I did have a birthday in there. Maybe it is just the body's version of saying "getting old sucks!"

Well Tom no matter what Chicago ends up being for you this year, at least it looks like you are back on the roads running again. Glad to read that you found a good doctor that you like. There will be plenty other races for PR's and a BQ. I know that it is easier to say that, but hey at least you are getting better and again running. Better then not running.

Schuey wrote:Well Tom no matter what Chicago ends up being for you this year, at least it looks like you are back on the roads running again. Glad to read that you found a good doctor that you like. There will be plenty other races for PR's and a BQ. I know that it is easier to say that, but hey at least you are getting better and again running. Better then not running.

Well said!

Good to see you're back on the road again! You never know, things may just click, you'll get in a 20 or two and Chicago may end up being great. At the very least, I can guarantee you'll have a great time meeting everybody who will be there!

Whew! Glad there's no bigger problem at play, Tom. Good to see you out on the roads again, even if Chicago is a big question mark.

As to what happened, only you can figure that out. You might want to look back at your training diary since Eugene - I have a hunch that some things will stand out enough to help you avoid a break-down next time.

Easing back into things after Wednesday's run. Saw no ill effects to bumped it up to a 60 minute effort today at LHR. Avg pace of 9:12 acceptable all things considered, more importantly the run felt really good. Ankle/foot didn't complain at all after it got warmed up, and the effort was not taxing at all. I think the focus on cross-training during the downtime is definitely paying off.

The one thing that the doc did put me on was Voltaren, a prescription topical anti-inflammatory. He has me treating a 'zone' which extends from the mid calf down the back of the leg (over the AT) around the heel to the middle of the bottom of the foot. It was either the Voltaren or Traumeel and I've had good experience with Traumeel in the past. I know some of you use the Traumeel, so would be interested in your feedback on it. Is it over the counter? I think it may be as it is homeopathic. One of the problems with the Voltaren is that insurance does not cover it and it ain't cheap ($60 per tube).

I use Traumeel and I buy it at my local GNC. I've had good results with it, and it is fairly inexpensive as it is a homeopathic.

Give Bio Freeze a shot too. The active ingredient is menthol and I've had good luck with it soothing soreness and inflammation. You can find it at a chiropractor or PT most likely. They have a website you can search for local suppliers. Go here:

http://www.biofreeze.com/whereToBuy.aspx

My 10 miles today was in great weather - 60 degrees and overcast. Thus, you'd think it would portend a great run, no? Well, no. For whatever reason the easy run wasn't easy at all. Supposed to be standard stuff, LHR and cadence of >90, but it felt a lot harder. End result was not terrible, pace turned out to be a 9:38 within HR range which, while not great, was a lot better than I felt it would have turned out. I guess I'm not overly surprised with the two weeks of no running, but it served as a good reminder that I've got to stay focused as I get back up in mileage.

Tom, belated congratulations on becoming a grandfather! That's great news. I hope your daughter and the new baby are doing well.
As for today's tough run, I guess two weeks of no running will do that to you. No matter...I hope you just stay healthy and get in a good rest of the training cycle before Chicago.

I think you can expect a few tougher runs until your body gets back into the swing of things. It'll come, back though.

And even a crappy 10 miles is nice after having to not run for a couple of weeks. (I'll be looking forward to a few crappy runs once my foot heals up, myself.)

Seth and Mark, I wasn't surprised by the effort it took, just grumpy about it. One lesson I think I'm taking away is to use the elliptical (if possible) during the downtime as it does a much better job of maintaining running fitness than swimming and biking.

So today was another 10 as there were no ill effects from the LSD on Sunday. Unlike the ideal conditions on Sunday, today was bright sunshine but still not hot, 70ish. I feel so fortunate to have this running climate every time I see the nationwide weather map. I really feel for all of you that are getting beaten up by the heat. Keeping to LHR targets, the run was an easy one but I have no stats as my Garmin magically reset itself at mile 7. I restarted it right away, but somehow still lost a mile. The course was an out and back and I know I turned at the 5 mile mark, so it had to be 10 miles, but the sum of the two Garmin records is only 9 miles. Go figure.

So the last week was 30 miles which, as a comeback week, is more than I thought I'd be able to do. Paces at LHR are lower than I would have liked to have seen on the longer runs, but probably shouldn't be too surprised after the layoff. If I can get the mileage up to the 40's before too long and the paces improve a bit, it'll provide some food for thought on Chicago. Unfortunately I have a 4-day non-running break coming up starting next Saturday as I'm on a fishing trip that is based on a floating lodge in Alaska, so no running there. I suppose that I could run on the bear trails on the shore, but I have no partner to be faster than when the bear starts chasing me , so I'll just use this as a recharge time I guess. Sucky that it happens to be just when I'm getting things rolling again, but it is what it is.

Sorry you had to miss running for 2 weeks, that is tough!

I have used biofreeze, too. It helped me.

30 miles for a comeback week sounds really good. hang in there and try to keep positive.

How is the grandbaby?

Well, 30 miles isn't a bad week to get back into it. Including this week, you have 9 weeks until Chicago. I think 7 more weeks of ramping up and a 2 week taper will get you pretty close to, if not slightly better, shape than you were in for Eugene. Just don't rush it and you'll get there. Consistency (and of course, having a good time with it) is the key!