I have not been posting because I got fed up with working out on the elliptical trainer and writing about how I can not run. I got the results of my MRI - not good. I have a tear in the medial meniscus on my right leg. I am not that impressed with the orthopaedist so I will not be letting him cut me open. I am trying to decide if I should get the knee scoped or not. I can run without pain (when my shin does not hurt) and I have heard so many horror stories about butcher doctors ending people's running careers. I would rather put up with a little tenderness and be able to run rather than get it fixed and never be able to run again.

I did run 3 miles today and did about 50 minutes on the elliptical trainer. Let's see how long this lasts...

AM: 5 eq (35+) I did 4 miles on the elliptical and then ran 1 mile on the treadmill. Again, I could feel my shin but there was no pain.

PM: 4 eq (28:00) On the elliptical trainer. I did not have much time so I had to cut it short.

I had my MRI today, although I will not get the results for another week when I meet with the orthopaedist again. I did not realize that it took so long - almost 25 minutes in that tube. The worst part is that you have to stay completely still. I think that that magnetic fields were causing my muscles to contract or twitch because I had the weirdest feeling in my legs and stomach and my leg kept twitching. The technician had to redo at least 1 of the scans which made it take longer.

AM: 5 eq (35:00) On the elliptical. Still no dice on running.

PM: 4.5 eq (33ish) I did 4 equivalent on the elliptical and ran 1/2 mile on the treadmill. There was no pain, but I could feel my shin so I backed off.

I lifted with both upper and lower body today.

PM: 9 eq (63:00) On the elliptical

A new week and I started it off on the elliptical trainer. I just wanted to be cautious after feeling a bit of tenderness in my shin at the end of my long run yesterday. I also lifted with both upper and lower body tonight.

Miles For Week = 55.5

It is sad that I was running more than twice this just a month ago, but not bad for the first week back and just 6 days of running.

AM: 12.25 (?) I forgot the watch today so I have no idea about time, but I know it was 12.25mi since I ran at Mine Falls Park again. This was my first run over 6 miles in over a month, since my injury, and I felt really good for the first 10 miles. I felt a slight discomfort in my shin at that point so I shut it down to 7:30 pace and just cruised back to the car. It is not a real pain and does not hurt enough to make me stop running (like when it first happened), but it is slightly tender and I feel the "creeking" as I dorsiflex my foot. I will do tomorrow on the elliptical to let it calm down and I iced and took advil 3 times this afternoon.

I spent about 30-40 minutes working on my right leg with the foam roller and Stick. It made a huge difference because almost all of the tightness in my knee and IT band was gone and my range of motion in my knee increased by probably 5 degrees. I still have my MRI on Wednesday so I will know shortly after that if the knee pain is due to a meniscus tear or if it is just scar tissue. I am hoping that it is just scar tissue because I can work that out with friction massage and PT. We'll see.

PM: 6.25 (41:19) One run today and headed over to Mine Falls to squeeze it in. I did not intend for it to be too quick but I was under a time constraint. The early part and end were a tad under 7 min/mi pace but I was probably going close to 6 min/mi in the middle. I felt good but my right IT band is a bit tight - no pain, just needs to be stretched out. Long and easy tomorrow.

AM: 4 (28:17) Easy run before work. I did not think it was 7 min pace, but whatever.

PM: 6 (42:52) At the gym on the treadmill. Did most of it at 2% incline and miles 3-6 alternated between an incline of 1% @ 6:40 pace and 3-5% incline @ 7-7:20 pace.

AM: 6 (41:06) Easy run at work during lunch.

PM: 3 (21:57) Lifted with my legs and then easy on the treadmill. (2% incline again). Nothing special.

AM: 6 (43:22) Easy run in Mine Falls. Felt good to run outside on the trails and breathe in the fall air.

PM: 3 (22:06) Another slow run on the treadmill with the incline set to 2%. Started out the run at 8:00 min/mi pace and finished up the last mile at 6:40 min/mi pace.

Was able to run twice today with no pain, although I did not get to the gym to lift. I was able to get in some lunges and leg curls. I will try to do some core work while I watch the election coverage.

AM: 5 (38:00) Pretty slow but the treadmill was at 2% grade and it was pretty early.

PM: 4 (30:30) Again, this run was pretty slow, but the treadmill grade was at 2% again. It felt easy and I just want to ease into the mileage this week. If I play it safe I should be between 50 and 60 miles this week and close to 90 the first week of December.

I met with the orthopaedist on Wednesday and have an MRI of my knee scheduled for 11/12. The shin injury is pretty much cleared up and I am actually running again, if you call 2 or 3 miles a day running. I have some residual pain on the medial side of my right knee from an injury that I had last April and I just want to make sure that it is not a meniscus tear. I have been doing a lot of strength training (squats, leg extensions, hamstring curls, abductor/adductor work as well as lunges and some upper body work) and spending 45-60 minutes per day on the elliptical trainer. One thing that seems to help my knee a lot is spinning backwards on the elliptical trainer for about 10 minutes. I finish up each workout with some running. On Friday I ran 1 mile, yesterday 2 miles and today a whopping 3 miles. All the running is on the treadmill and I set the incline to 1.5-2.5 percent grade and plod along at about 7:30 min/mile pace.

Today: 45 minutes on elliptical + 3 miles running (22:09)

Back in the Saddle ... Almost

So, I am pretty positive that the pain was anterior tibialis tendonitis because I have no more pain and the x-rays came back negative. I have been doing a couple new PT drills to increase the strength and balance in my lower legs, specifically the shins. I have not run in over two weeks, although I have been to the gym to hit the elliptical trainer and weights a couple times this week. On Monday I thankfully start the long journey to my first marathon next fall and get to start running again. I really need it both mentally and physically. I am not going to sweat it, but I have probably put on 5 pounds in the past two weeks because it is hard to go from 110 miles/week to zippo and adjust your eating accordingly. I am still eating for at least 90 miles/week and I have let myself have a couple beers here and there, which I do not generally do while training. I think that I am going to start out slow with about 50-60 miles/week in the beginning and jump about 10 miles each week. I plan on doing a 90, 100, 110, 120+ miles/week pattern each month to give myself a rest every four weeks. If I can hit 90 miles the first week in December I should be in good shape.

News from the Doctor

I went to see the doctor about my leg today mainly to determine whether it is a stress fracture or not.  I had an x-ray of my lower leg and knee and the doctor said it was negative for tendinitis and stress fractures.  Now, I am not a doctor but I am not so sure that an x-ray would show any information about soft tissue damage or a stress fracture only 6 days after the injury.  I was under the impression that they had to do a bone scan for stress fractures and an MRI for tendinitis.  A stress fracture only shows up in an x-ray after it has started to heal.  The diagnosis was that I have Osgood-Schlatter's Syndrome.  What!?!?  That is not even the right part of the leg - Osgood-Schlatters is in the upper anterior part of the lower leg, just below the knew cap.  My pain is on the lower anterior portion, basically the shin.  I don't doubt that I had OSS when I was younger since I have a noticeable bump in my leg just below the knee cap, but I have not had any pain there since high school.  I am beginning to think that the injury is anterior tibialis tendinitis based on this website.  I definitely feel the "creaking" they talk about and it only hurts when I pull my foot/toes up.

After pestering them a couple times on the phone my PCP got a second opinion from another doctor and they are going to refer me to an orthopaedist.  The other doctor said that he noticed some "early degenerative changes of the knee joint" and wants me to have blood work done to rule out an iron deficiency, thyroid problems, etc...  The word "degenerative" does not sound good though.  I have no pain in my knees so I am not sure what this means.  I will be 36 tomorrow and hope to run (and walk) for many more years.  I guess that we will see in the next couple of days and weeks.

Renato Canova Files

Since I can not run right now, I figured I would make these files from Renato Canova available to people. They were discussed in this thread on Letsrun.com and George Malley (malmo) was emailing them to people (me included). If anyone is offended that I put them up here just let me know and I will take them down - I am just making them available to people. Unfortunately, you can not download the files from the site since they are just Google documents, but a work around is that you can print them as a pdf (primopdf is free).

Renato Canova files:

haemoglobin after training at altitude

General period for strength with circuits (for Amos)

Factors causing differences between various places in altitude

Differences between performances

Atleti degli altipiani a livello del mare ed europei in quota ING

Joseph Mutua (indoor season)

Kenyani prima-dopo sea level ING

Kimwetich

limiting factors in altitude performance

Paul Kosgei (before WHMCh)

physiological effects during training at altitude

Race inside 48 hours after coming-back at sea-level

Training in altitude for marathon runners

Training in altitude for juniors athletes

valori kimwetich ING

Valori Kosgei ING

6 weeks training for kenyan juniors

Altitude, barometric pressure ans O2 saturation
Lydia Cheromei (last 10 weeks of training before marathon)done
Program Moses Mosop (Nov 8)

There is no new progress on the injury - it still hurts and I am still icing, taking Advil and doing some light stretching and PT drills. I may get back to running, but I am not holding my breath for it. I will probably be out for 2-3 weeks and then start the spring training.

I figured that in the mean time I would fill in the blanks in my training for this season. I started on Monday, June 2nd from zero and fought with injuries until the end of August trying to build my mileage. The key to dealing with my injuries, all of which were due to over-pronation, was to get a pair of Sole inserts. I also tried the Superfeet inserts and like the Sole inserts better because my right arch is high and my left arch is low and the Sole inserts are cusomizeable. I was able to supercharge my mileage at that point from somewhere in the 70-80 miles per week range to well above 100 miles per week. Here is my mileage progression:

Mileage: 41, 47, 57, 59, 65, 46, 72, 20, 85, 85, 97, 61, 120, 100, 109, 102, 111, 94, 66 (last week of four days)

In the last week I was targeting 115 miles and then I was supposed to start cutting mileage to hopefully peak the first week of November. So close ...

The 20 mile week was due to an injury. The 61 miles in the 12th week was intentional to give my body some rest after the big mileage ramp and before the speed work started. I got the Sole inserts during the consecutive 85 mile weeks. My highest 7 day mileage total was 127 miles and I was REALLY tired that week. I found that once I broke 100 miles/week I had to increase the number of hours I slept each night from 7-8 hours to probably 9-10 hours.

Mileage by month:
June = 214 miles
July = 133 miles
August = 387 miles
September = 445 miles
October = 135 miles (9 days)

August, September and the first part of October were very good. I probably should have spent more time lifting, cross-training and doing core work to stave off injuries. Either way this goes, this training should be a great base for the spring training.

My shin feels a bit better today than it did yesterday, but I am not even going to attempt to run today. I have been taking ibuprofen throughout the day and icing every hour or two and trying to do some basic stretches (very easy, I do not want to make it worse than it already is) and drills. It is actually a bit odd not running - this is the first morning since probably June or July than I did not have to get up at 5:30AM to get ready to head out the door for a run. Maybe the rest will do me some good. I have to find the positive in this or I will get really depressed with all the other crap going down in the world lately. If I get desperate, I may head to the gym and do a little work on the elliptical trainer.

AM: 11 (1:24:33) It was pretty darn difficult to get out of bed this morning to run, but it was just a slow regeneration run. Weighed in at 159lbs this morning, which is the first time below 160lbs in a long time. I am getting close to my goal weight of 155lbs.

PM: 5.9 (40:22) This run started out like any other run - I felt a bit tired at the start but I started feeling pretty good 2-3 miles into the run. At around mile 4 I felt a little discomfort in my right shin so I stopped to stretch a bit. By mile 5 the mild discomfort had ballooned into full-fledged pain and I nearly had to walk the rest of the way. I am not 100% sure yet, but I think that this is the same injury that sidelined me in January for 4-5 weeks after the alumni meet. I have not changed anything, increased mileage or increased intensity so I am not sure how this happened. I guess that I am going to take it easy and ice for a couple days to see if things clear up enough to get back to business. If it looks like it is going to take more than a week to recover I may just bag the rest of the season so that I do not jeopardize the spring season. This just figures that it happens the day after I start a training blog. AAARRRRRRGH!!

First post

Well, I figure that I have to enter the 21st century here and start a training blog. I have been working hard over the last year or so to get back into shape and run some acceptable times. I keep track of my training in my personal running logs, but I have been asked to share what I am up to. I added the first two entries for this week so that this week's training will be complete.

AM: 5.2 (36:50) - Easy run to shake out the legs this morning before the track workout tonight. This is the first day that my legs are not sore.

PM: Plan: 5x1600 @ 10k pace (~5:10) w/2min rest.

I ended up running a bit quicker and taking a little more rest than I planned because the first one was quicker than I planned and Dan Moriarty asked me to pace him through an even 4:56 mile (his PR).

2.2 mile warm-up (14:59)
5x1600m in 5:03, 5:02, 5:02, 5:01, 4:54 with 2:20 rest between repeats. The first quarter split was 74 seconds and felt easy so I knew that I was feeling good tonight. I felt incredibly smooth and in control throughout the entire workout and felt like I could have done several more repeats. The rest seemed to be too long in the end, but I wanted to make sure that I could pull Dan through even 74's. By, the way, Dan ran 4:55.
2.2 mile cool-down (17:20)
I finished up with 5x100m strides. Total: 10.4 miles

AM: 11 (1:18:35) It was freakin' cold this morning - about 34 degrees. Easy run to try to work out the stiffness and soreness. First 1/2 mile was miserable.

PM: 6 (41:10) Legs a bit stiff and sore still, but getting better.

Applefest Half Marathon

I ran the Applefest Half Marathon in Hollis, NH on Saturday (10/4) in 74:09 (5:40/mile average) and placed 3rd overall (results). I actually got some press for the effort! It was my first race of the season, my first half marathon ever and a very challenging course so I am not disappointed with the time, but I am not pleased either. I was expecting to run closer to 72 minutes based on workouts, but you have to see the race profile to really appreciate the course (downloaded from my Suunto T6):


Each of the red dots at the bottom of the figure are the mile splits (and 20km split). The splits were: 5:24, 5:53, 5:30, 5:29, 5:39, 5:32, 5:33, 5:40, 5:27, 5:59, 5:48, 5:38, 5:53, 0:37. I went through 5 miles in 27:57, 10 miles in 56:10 and 20km in 1:09:59. Based on the 6 mile split, 10km was probably around 34:52 so the second 10km was not too bad (~35:07). I did not sleep well the three nights before the race because of nerves. I was not anxious about the competition, rather it was racing for over 13 miles and knowing what kind of hills lay in wait for us. I could feel that my legs were a bit sluggish in the warm-up, so I figured that I would take a fairly conservative approach to the first half of the race. I felt really good through mile 7 or 8 before my legs started to feel heavy and I started to lose touch with the leaders. I now know that the down hills pounded the crap out of my quads and pretty much set me up for a miserable last 3-4 miles. Overall, it was a good learning experience and I now know that I have to exercise much more patience for these longer races. I have to lose the miler mentality.


On Sunday (10/5) I ran 21 miles in 2:27:20 and my quads were VERY sore. This is when I realized that the down hills were what did me in.

AM: 10.1 (1:09:48) Very sore quads this morning so just going easy to work it out.

PM: 6 (41:51) My quads are still stiff and sore, but they feel a lot better in the afternoon than they do in the morning.