Knock On Wood

It seems like things are finally coming together. Saturday I ran a short 3.24km on grass in 17:08. Sunday I ran the trail with a heart rate monitor and the garmin. The garmin was not working very well in the tree covered areas, so I think that the distance is a little off. It measured 9.22km in 51:40. The full loop when measured in the early spring was about 6.8 to 7km, When I use the sportTracks mapping tool to figure out the loop as per yesterdays readings, I get 6.48. That is a whole 0.5 km off. So if I add this in the total is 9.72km in 51:40. This would make my pace at 5:15, fairly close to the target I set out for yesterday. This shins are feeling good.
The heart rate monitor gave me an average of 159 beats/min. I really don't know what my max is. Using 220 minus my age is probably not that accurate (188). If I use that then I was running at 85%, but it was warm out and humid, about 26ºC, which elevatess the heart higher and should be taken into consideration as well. I am sure that my max is higher than this, I had it the low 190's last year. When I start doing track work, I'll measure it.

This weeks plan:
Monday: 15 minutes on grass
Tuesday: 15 minutes on grass
Wednesday: 45 minutes on grass
Thursday: 15 minutes on grass
Friday: 15 minutes on grass

Picture Post

This picture is for the profile.

Grass Man

I have been running around the soccer fields all week, except Sunday. It is a little boring, but not as much as the pool. The pavement feels really hard after running 4k on grass. On Wednesday, I thought that it was making the shins worse, but I stuck with it. I can still feel a little pull at the front of the shins when I start to run, but it disappears in about 5 to 10 minutes. There was no inflammation after the runs today and yesterday, but I still iced them immediately after stretching. I always stretch after my runs.

Here is the breakdown of my running so far this week.

Sunday: 5.18 km with my wife, slow
Monday: 4.24km in 21:32 (5:04/km, 8:10/mile)
Tuesday: 4.26km in 22:56 (5:23/km, 8:40/mile)
Wednesday: 3.56km in 18:29 (5:11/km, 8:21/mile)
Thursday: 3.58km in 19:01 (5:18/km, 8:32/mile)
Friday: 5.2km in 25:34 (4:54/km, 7:54/mile)

I'll do a short run tomorrow on the grass, but I am not sure about Sunday. I would like to go for a run on the local trail. The full loop is about 7km and it is about 1 km from my house. That would make about 9km in total. I think that if I run no faster than 5:20/km, or about 48 to 50 minutes, I should be OK.

Re-read Injuries In Running To the Top

I had some time to re-read a few pages in Arthur Lydiards book running to the top. The first section I went to was the injury section. It's amazing how things can seem so much clearer the second time I read things, especially after a period of time has passed since the last time I read it. In that section I learnt or was reminded of the following ways to recover from the injury:
- must use ice,
- if you want to run, stay on the flats, on grass
- no running down hills, walk if you come to one
- physio can help
- need flexible ankles
- shin splints can be troublesome for such a long period,

He also talks about the reasons why shins splints occur; one is the shoes being too stiff I already talked about earlier, and the second being tight calfs and I also noted that earlier.

Then I turned to the "how to start running". Here I thought, that because I have been running for awhile and my times are ok, I know a few things about running. Well when I re-read the basics as noted by Arthur I am reminded that it is a continuous learning process. Here are the reasons why:
Arthur writes to start by doing 5 minutes out and back. I started with a race a couple years ago and even now I started with a minimum of 5k, approach 12.5 minutes out and back maybe this was too much (at a faster pace than my first race too). I noticed that Eric was starting out at much shorter distance to see if the injury had subsided.
Try running every day, at about 15 minutes. I ran every other day.
Once you can run every day at 15 minutes, then bump it up to 30 minutes one day and then 2 days of 15, again I started at about 25.
Do you think that this section is just for beginners? Ah, not really because then he talks about my favorite part: getting sore muscles. I think that I can also use this for a recovery from an injury. He says to get out an jog every day to get the blood flowing through the area of the pain. If you stop and wait for the pain to go away, then you'll have to begin again and work through the pain, you'll have gained nothing. Here is how I use this for my own problem. I run for some good amount of time every other day. Lately I have only been doing my ankle exercises. I was biking and swimming, and one could argue that, that got my blood pumping through the area. I'll try to ignore that part, because I thought I was on to something here. What I want to do is: try light slow running every day, about 40 minutes one day and then jogging for 2 days at 15 to 20 minutes. See how that goes.

Last weeks workouts went surprisingly well:
- Monday, 4.27km in 15:15 at 5:54 pace (2.65 miles at 9:30)
- Tuesday, off
- Wednesday, 7.34km in 40:20 at 5:29 pace (4.56 miles at 8:50)
- Thusrday, off
- Friday, 7.97 in 39:30 at 4:57 pace (4.95 miles at 7:58)

You know looking at the miles paces, it seems more obvious how much faster the Friday run was. Maybe that is why the shins flared up just a touch only on that day. I have a hard time keeping my speed down. It felt like a bloody darn jog!

Today I will run 40 minutes with the kids and my wife. I'll make a plan to stick with them, instead of taking off and running faster. Monday and Tuesday I will try running 15 minutes, then 40 minutes on Wednesday and 15, Thursday and Friday.

Will it ever Heal?

I thought that things were going fairly well this week, but now I am not so sure. Every time I ran this week the shins would flare up a little and after 48 hours they would be fine again. They really seemed to flare up on Saturday when I ran a little harder, I would say about 1/2 effort. Maybe I shouldn't be running hard days just yet. I took Monday and Friday completely off from everything. I also ran Tuesday and Thursday and did some pool running again on Wednesday. When I start the run, I feel a little pull at the shins, but it goes away after about 10 minutes of running. I guess that this is when they are finally warmed up. I made an appointment to speak to the podiatrist I have been seeing in London again. Robert's official title is D.O. (MP).,D.Pod.M. Osteopath. Hugh, pretty cool. But I can't get in to see him until June 5th at 5:00PM. In the meantime I will keep trying to add to my distances at a slow pace.

The plan for this week:
Monday: Short easy run, 25 minutes or so ( already done, 4.27km at 25:15)
Tuesday: Easy Bike, to and from work
Wednesday: Easy Long run, 45 minutes
Thursday: Pool Running, 40 minutes
Friday: Easy Run, 30 minutes
Saturday: Easy, 20 minutes, if the shins feel ok

Last weeks training:
Tuesday: 6.11km at 29:45 (4:52 pace)
Wednesday: Pool Running
Thursday: 8.16km at 41:19 (5:03 pace)
Saturday: 6.07km at 30:19 (avg 4:58 pace, with a 5.08k at 22:40 or 4:27 pace)

I have been putting on a few pounds too, I am now up to 160. Gotta stay away from the sweets. 3 months ago I was around 152 to 154.

Threads Of Life

Yesterday I ran/jogged a 5k on wards island with my youngest boy, Brandon, who is 4 years old. We started off at the back of the pack to catch up to his older brother (Jared) and the sister of a dear friend of mine that was killed in an accident at work. After we passed them, I tried to keep Brandon motivated and got him to run a bit more. He said he was getting tired, he was running to fast and I told to slow down and take it easy. He did, for a bit and then said he was getting tired again. It must of been about a kilometer that he ran by himself. I then put him on my shoulders and jogged until he wanted down. I asked him if he was going to run. He said no, so told him to stay on my shoulders. The next time he asked, he said he would run. This was probably around 2km. He ran for a bit and then wanted to walk. I asked him to run until the next bench on the boardwalk. He did and then I put him back on my shoulders. We had passed a number of people even some other joggers and I didn't want them to catch up. Pretty sad, to be that competitive. We did this, running with him on my shoulders for a bit and then putting him down and getting him to run all the way back to the finish line. I don't think it took us any longer than 30 minutes. He is one fast little runner. I checked his shins to see if they were inflamed, I just couldn't resist. They were not.

My best friend was killed, when a limousine that he was working on, without stands under the axles fell off the car jack and on to him. It is a really shitty thing that happened, but for the last 2 years we have gone to this event to grieve his death. To find out more about the threads of life you can go to www.threadsoflife.ca.

Rediscovering the Library

In the last post I said I wanted to do some more research on orthotics. Searching on the internet is a fairly decent start, but it is just not as good as going to the library and picking up a good book. Even a library within a town of 5000 people has a few books on the foot. The book that I am currently reading is called the "Foot Doctor". It is mostly about orthotics. He goes on and talks about a lot of the problems in bio-mechanics that the foot can have. I had trouble truly understanding a lot of details that the podiatrist, doctor, and physio therapist have discussed with me. It probably would have been better for me to have read this book a few months ago.

Here are a few of the relevant things that I picked up:

• periostitis - inflammation of the lining of the bone, caused by the lining pulling away from the bone, which I had thought was of the muscle
  
• gate cycle has 2 parts; stance and swing,
• the stance part (foot in contact with the ground) has 3 parts; heel-strike, mid-stance, propulsion
• in first and last part there is a normal amount of pronation and supination (±4%), the mid-stance should be neutral
  
• pronation is when parts of the foots, mostly the subtalar (1 of 3 bones that make up the rear foot) rollsinwardss
• supination is when parts of the foot, mostly the midtarsal, rolls outwards
• 25% of the bones in your body are located in the foot, so pronation and supination can be a little more complicated than what I have mentioned above
  
• a computerized gait analyses may help in truly answering the question of my foot being "flat" while weight bearing as well as the amount of pronation and supination
  
• using heat on the shins may increase the blood flow to the problem areas and help with the recovery, by "superinflamingg", a type of physio therapy that worked well on my injured neck a while ago, icing afterwards is a good idea
  
• mis-alignment of the metatarsils, namely the balls of the feet, can cause over pronation or supination, which the podiatrist in London determined, that my metatarisl of my big toe is lower than the other 4, making contact to the ground first, which is why I wear the Asics Gel Empires, with the dynamic forefoot cradle.
  
• A good podiatrist can determine a persons gait by watching them walk in bare feet on a flat surface, which is what the podiatrist in London had me do
  
• So many other problems exist that I don't seem to have can cause problems (i.e. there are more good things about my mechanics than bad)
• Orthotics can not heal the wounds, but properly fitted ones may prevent an injury from reoccurring
  

What did the podiatrist say about my running problems; Overstriding and overuse! Too much too fast. When I told him that I was trying to follow the Lydiard training, he told me that I should be following the Jack Dainels or Pete Fitzinger's training instead. At this point, I really don't see that there is any difference. I am sure that Jack Daniels and Lydiard would say the same things as Robert said, too much too fast, or too fast too soon. I trained harder and not smarter.

Here is my plan for the next 2 weeks:

• try to get in to see Robert Taylor in London and talk about the overstriding and possibly getting orthotics again
  
• continue reading about the foot
• orthotics will not fix everything, but may still yet help, a computerized gait analysess may really help me choose them
• let my shins heal, and take it each day, each week and each month at a time

I have not been sleeping well lately, I think that it is too much stress from work. I have been only getting 5 to 6 hours of sleep. I ran 5k on Friday and there was a slight flare up of the shins. It may take some time to heal, but in the mean time I have an appointment with the sports medicine doctor in Toronto next Wednesday (24th of May). I will ask them if they do a computerized gait analyses. If not, then I will not be getting orthotics from them. My friend Ken speaks very highly of Robert and he has helped out some of the top runners in Canada. This is nice to know, but that really doesn't help me. Right now it is the advice that he gives to me that I need to take in and use.

Pool Running to Relax the Calfs?

On Tuesday, I did some pool running. I warmed up for 5 minutes and then did 1/2 lap fast and hard and the other 1/2 easy. I continued this for about 20 minutes. I felt somewhat tired or wore out so I just did some steady running for the remainder of the 45 minutes. When I was getting dressed I remembered to stretch. As I started to stretch my calfs, wow, were they ever relaxed. This is very unusual, these things are normally very tight.

Today was my last physio appointment. There are no signs of sore shins. One of the tests my therapist performs every time I see her is to lift my toes up, this time they went up far and easily. She looked quite surprised. I think that the pool running helped. Now I will continue to try and go it on my own, as she suggested, I did not request it. I will continue the strengthening, stretching, massaging and x-training, while I SLOWLY increase my mileage.

One of the things that I am puzzled about is the orthotics issue. A podiatrist that I see in London and a Sport Medicine doctor that I have been seeing in Toronto both indicate that orthotics are generally more necessary for people with flat feet. What they do not agree on is the type my foot is. The one says it is a medium to high arch and the other says it is low. I have heard from so many sources that orthotics are really necessary for people with flat feet. My foot is by no means flat when there is no weight bearing on it. When I stand on it, the arch does flatten, but does it flatten enough to call it flat footed? I think I need to do some research on this issue over the next 2 weeks and determine for myself if this will help reduce the chance of injury as well as the overstriding. I do not want to fork out $450 for something that is not going to help or maybe worse, cause more problems, because it modifies something that is incorrectly diagnosed.

Today I ran with some people from the local running store. My Garmin says we ran 6.4km and 2 others said 7.3 to 7.4km. Strange. The time was about 47:19. Very slow, but good, because again, there is no inflammation in the shins. It's funny how the tape was suppose to help prevent the shins from flaring up, and now without it, they really don't. Even though I feel like I am not going too fast at or just below 5:00/km pace before, it's becoming very obvious that it was, right now at this stage. Tomorrow I will stick to the plan and do some pool running.

A Good Run

Today was a good run. There was no inflammation in the shins afterwards. I ran exactly 5km at 28:06, (5:37/km) much slower than I like, but that is the point of it right now, right? Another good thing, I ran without taping up the shins.

Saturday: 45 minutes, elliptical
Sunday: 1:15 elliptical

Plan for the week:
Tuesday: Pool running, 45 with hard 2 minutes, easy 2 minutes after 5 minutes warm up
Wedensday: Running, 5k
Thursday: Pool Running, steady 30 minutes
Friday: Jog, or off
Saturday: Elliptical 1:20 minutes
Sunday: 5k on Toronto Island