OK--Pikermi is a GREAT name (Hattip to mnchick34) ---Moved from other site

So, thanks to mnchick34's Friday Fill in the Blank I went looking at the various races that one might enter in New Zealand.  There is a nice race at the bottom of the world, well not actually, but very close, a couple hours drive.  I have a virtual friend that lives on the opposite side of the South Island as this race, but it would be a trip to go there to race, so *IF* I were to ever do it, it would be with the intent to spend a few days drinking beer with my friend.

I pull up this one particular race's website, the Marlborough Marathon, as it has a Marathon, Pikermi, 10K and 5K races.  A good time for all runners.  This would be a grand way to spend a Saturday, and the best part would be posting my results here on Friday before the race.  I pull up the Course Description page with maps AND elevations (are you listening American RD's?).  Take a look at the names they use:  Course Details.  I mean really Half Marathon is bad enough, but Quarter Marathon and 1/8 Marathon?!?! That is TOO much.  I know they get a little bit of water on the brain on the South Island, but that is taking things a little too far.  What do they call the 1500 M, a 3 centiMarathon?

Cross-training hurts---or was it the sandals? NRR-I'm on the DL ---Moved from other site

I went to the Y last night in my Catchowder inspired footware.  Slipping on the VFF's I wondered down to the end of the building where they kept the only rowing machine only to find they had aquired a second.  Hmmm, I really should get up here more often, they have an espresso bar now too?!?!  Anyway, I strap in, and start pulling, I actually like rowing machines, they give you one heck of a workout in a fairly short time.  Nothing like working ALL of your major muscle groups at once for generating some sweat.  Got done, stretched and then hit the showers.  We were having an "end of summer--what are we going to do to find an excuse to drink" party in my driveway so I needed to not be too late getting home.  Plus, two of the neighbors are in the Hood-to-Coast this weekend, and we wanted to help them with their "carbo-loading".  Heh heh heh.  Pasta salads, manicotti, and a curried chicken salad (which is my lunch today).  I bagged it at 9:30, I was feeling the workout and the early morning wakeups.  Plus my heel was not happy with me.

I can't tell you the exact date that my current heel issues started, but I can tell you what "shoes" I was wearing.  I have an older pair of sandals that the Mrs. insisted I wear yesterday as it was hot at the time of the party, and she made me go put on shorts.  I for one am quite happy to be wearing jeans in the summer as the sun and I have an agreement.  I won't show any skin to it, and it won't leave me blistered and scarred (anymore).  I stick to this agreement like glue.  But after wearing those sandals for three and a half hours, my heel was YELLING at me.  So off to bed I went.  I won't tell you what time it was that the Mrs. came in and told me that the baby was asleep in the chair downstairs and that I needed to get up and go get her...and that I needed to make sure that 2 and 3 got to bed.  I had to ask where 1 was, she was sleeping across the street.

When I woke up this morning, my left elbow is very irritated with me, and my heel is pi$$ed off too.  Hmm, maybe I do need to sit on a bike at the Y.  Have I told you how much I dislike stationary bikes?  I think of them less than treadmills.  But I think if I want this heel to get better before I turn 42 I need to not be so mean to my ankle.  Oh, and the sandals are in the can to be picked up tomorrow and hauled to a nice landfill somewhere, because I'm not taking any chances.

Ahh, that didn't feel as good as clynn78's ***Updated*** --Moved from other site

OK, so I am still nursing this ankle, and I have been feeling less than stellar about my fitness level.  I can feel the lazies sneaking in.  So I called the Mrs. and informed her that I was stopping at the Y tonight for some XT.  She thought that was a great idea.  This tells me she thinks I'm getting lazy too.  Not a good sign.  I bought some KT tape last night on my way home and taped up yesterday, so far so good, the heel didn't hurt too bad today, hence the "need" to stop at the Y.

I get there and do a quick warm up on the eliptical machine.  My heel didn't really like this, but it kept itself content to just remind me that it was an "issue".  I then did the rounds of the usual machines that I used to do regularly.  Boy howdy!  It has been a while since I was on those machines.  Not only did the settings that I had down in my book not match what I could even come close to doing tonight, I was getting winded lifting weights.  In fact, over 3 hours later, I'm still feeling a bit out of it.  Anarobic excersize is not my thing.  Plus there were a couple of guys pounding out some mileage on the dreadmills, and I REALLY wanted to hop on one and remind myself why I hate them so.  In fact, I did the whole, yes, no, yes, no dance on the indoor track after I was done with the weights as to whether I was going to get on one or not.  I settled for 20 minutes on the eliptical with the resistance set at 10 and rolling through one of the "programs".  After the cool down I stretched and then hit the showers.  Dang I can tell the last seven months of running has really ramped up my sweat factory.  My cotton shirt was drenched.  I suppose I should wear one of my tech shirts, but I feel like those should be saved for running.

Tomorrow morning, depending on how I feel, both in terms of just general malaize and my ankle, I will try for an easy 4 miler.  I did one Saturday, and the ankle hurt most of the day afterwords.  But I can ice it right after, and get up every couple of hours to stretch during the day, so I should be OK.  We will see.

*******UPDATE FROM THIS MORNING*******

No run this am.  I got out of bed at 4:30 and the ankle said, "Yeah, you know all that Elliptical low impact stuff, well, here try this on... "  So I got up anyway, and went and iced the ankle and chilled (get it) for the time that I would have been out for a four miler.  Or at least part of it.  I will hit the gym again today on my way home and maybe do some rowing instead of the ellipticals.  It is supposed to be good for core muscles more so than the elliptical.

Ah, That both hurt and felt good. ---Moved from other site

So I went for a 4 miler today, and running on the flats and up hill felt pretty good.  Downhill however, kind hurt the heel a lot.  I got home and iced it.  It felt good to be back on the road, but dang, this heel pain is a pain. 

I started out thinking I would take it slow, and when I got to the two mile mark, I hit the button on the iPod and the Nike+ Super-Accurate-Highly-Adaptive-to-Changes-In-Pace Device told me that I still had .2 to go for two miles.  And, as we know, .2 miles doesn't matter.  But it did tell me that I had been running for just under 19 minutes, and that was pretty good for the first run in a week, and only the third in over a month.  Two miles later, my heel was HURTING and so were my lungs.  Man am I out of shape in a short time.  Although, there may be some correlation to my "fitness" this morning and the three rather large Rum and Cokes that I had last night.   My final stats for todays run: 4.1 miles at 9:28 pace; and one REALLY irritated heel.  I will roll my legs again tonight with the evil Stick as that seems to help for some reason.

If the heel isn't too bad in the am, I may go for a quick 3 or 4 again.  I need to get back up to decent mileage soon as I have a Pikermi that I really want to do in October.  I think I can work through this pain, but we will take things on a day to day.  Have a good weekend, and to all you either in the middle of races (you won't see this so, meh) or getting ready for one tomorrow, run well, and finish strong.

"I shoulda stood in bed" ---Moved from other site

There I was at 4:15am this morning, thinking my heel feels great, today is the day to start in with the VFF's.  So, up I get, shorts on, tech shirt on, iPod--don't worry about the Nike+ receiver I don't have a pouch for the VFF's, slip my toes in and pull up the backs and strap down.  Flashlights on, and out I go.  I knew that my legs and feet would get tired running in this niffty new way, so I opted for one of my short routes from my C25K program.  Good plan.  At about the 3/4 mile mark, my feet were getting tired, as were my calves.  So, with no shame, I started walking.  In less than another 1/4 mile my heel starts to hurt again.  OK, so maybe I was taking a few heel-toe steps while walking.  BUT, the ole left foot felt fine.  Dagnabit, I think the tendinitis isn't quite 100% gone.  I mosey home, with a couple of more jog sessions, and then stretch.  Ow, yup, tighter than a mummy's NVTS as my father-in-law would say.  Well, lets put some ice on it, and get it elevated for a bit.  Yeah, that hurt like heck 15 minutes later when I stood up to go take a shower.  Now as I sit here at work, my heel feels like I have someone placing my foot on coals that are just about ready to cook on.  Maybe I should have given it some more time, or not tried the new running style, but either way, we shall have to see how it feels tomorrow.  I think I may be relegated to the gym and the elipticals for a while...  Not too happy with that thought.

CATnip 5K RR ---Moved from other site

As two of you know, I have been fighting a bum ankle.  I was/am fighting tendinitis of my right ankle.  So as the three web-sites that I looked to for advise on how to deal with it suggested, I took about 10 days off of running and gave my ankle a lot of rest and ice at least three times a day.  So Friday was the Second Annual CATnip Friday 5K.  I like the local races for a couple of reasons, the first being that I can walk to the event and get in some warm-up running on my way there; secondly, I can train on the course as often as I want before the event.  Home field advantage is kinda nice when you are encouraging others that there are only two short little hills left, and they can make it.  I was hoping to have either Number 1 or my wife join me since this was going to be my first run in almost 2 weeks.  I was planning on going out and running REALLY slow.  Neither joined me, as the temperature was near 90 at the start time and my wife didn't feel she could do it and she didn't want our daughter to go either.  I was a bit disapointed.

I made my way to the back third of the pack at the start and waited for the horn.  When the horn sounded we took off and I meandered through the gates of the high school fields and out onto the roads I run all the time.  We wound through the neighborhood and after about 1/2 mile my ankle had warmed up nicely and I was plugging along.  There was a woman in very cool plaid running shorts that was in front of me and I noticed that she was running on her toes (like we are supposed to).  So, now I just hung at that possition and watched her feet (really).  I was hoping to stay at that pace until the first little steep downhill, I wanted to see how one runs downhill on their toes without falling on their face, but alas, that was not to be.  As we crossed the 1 mile mark, the vollunteer there calls out "8:54".  Wait!  What?!?  Um, excuse me, that is about 2 minutes faster than I want to be running.  But my ankle felt good, so I stayed even with Plaid Shorts for as long as I could.  At about the half-way point however, my lack of running for that many days started to catch up, and she left me to wonder what hills look like.

As I neared the end of the run, there were a few people starting to walk, and I get so pumped when running, I had to encourage them.  One person nodded and tried to get going again, the other just gave me a dirty look.  Oh well, I was having fun and I was running again!  As I approached the last turn on the track the timer was ticking off 28:52; 28:53; 28;54; and I was thinking, "um sub 10 miles on a 're-hab run'?".  I finished with a recorded time of 29:11 which is technically a PR.  Not what I had in mind for the evening, but hey, I get to start running again!!!  And that is the best victory of them all!


After the race, I talked to Plaid Shorts, and she was very nice and recommended that I read a book called "Pose Running".  She said it took a while to get used to running that way, and that she slowed way down at first, but she is a believer and having watched her run, I would say she was definitely relaxed moving along the roads.  I may have to give that a look.

Game Day---time to decide ---Moved from other site

So, here it is, the mid-morning of the CATnip 5K.  It is a fund-raiser for the Cat Addoption Team, here in lovely Sherwood OR.  I paid my fees, bought the shirt (it was extra, and it is BLACK!), but that was before my ankle started to give me grief.  I haven't run in two weeks, and the heel felt good yesterday after about 30 heel raises and some short sprints across the warehouse (the guy filling sandbags thought I was nuts).  I still iced it when I got home, but that was mostly so I could have a beer without having to chase Number 4 up and down the street.  Is that wrong?  The moms on here are exempt from answering.

So, back to the race, I think that I will put on the VFF's and con the Mrs. into run/walking it with me.  Our neighbor can watch the girls while we are "running" and since the race is literally less than a mile from our home, it shouldn't be too much of a hastle to get everyone there.  Plus, there will be some fun stuff for the littles to do.  I was contemplating having Number 1 go with me, but the Mrs. doesn't think she could hang for the 3.1 miles.  It will be 90+ here today, and I might bring my fuel belt along, just to have extra water for us.  Well, if the Mrs. doesn't run with me, I will run the whole way, if she does go it will be an R/W.  She has started the Couch to 5K program a couple of times now, and I am hoping that getting her to one race will infect her the way the Jingle Bell Run did me last December.  Races are such a kick in the A$$ that how can you NOT get the bug when you do one?

This will be a great test of the ankle and a nice way to spend my Friday night.  My three or four tomorrow might be the Crawfish Crawl....we'll see.

Rough couple of weeks. ---Moved from other site

So instead of my "hot date" with the Mrs., last week, I have been re-habbing a VERY sore ankle.  I don't go to Dr.s so I will only guess that it is tendinitis.  It has been responding fairly well to ice and ibuprofen, so I ice it every night when I get home from work, and then again before bed.  I do a nice 800 mg of IB just before bed as well.  It leaves me a bit groggy in the am, but then that is what the Gods gave us coffee for.  I have a 5K race on Friday, that I am currently listed as a "Game day decision" (ahh the NFL starts soon....).  We will see how I feel in the am, since the race starts at 6:50 pm.  I might be able to hobble along on Friday.  I am more interested in getting it well enough to cram for a Pikermi on 10/24 than to kill myself this week, so that is on my mind as well.

Oh, and did I mention that I kicked a stack of firewalls when wearing VFF's.  Turns out that they don't offer much in the way of "impact protection" for little toes.

 Cheers.

HAWT Date with the Mrs. planned for tonight --Moved from other site

So, after 18 years, it was official last Thursday, I still chase the Mrs. around the house, or anywhere else for that matter... I figure it is time to give her a little assistance on maybe being able to outrun me.  So tonight I am scheduling a nice little "restart" with her.  I need to get my form changed soon, and so I figure the best way to do that is to help her get into running.  Tonight's date will be Week 3 Day 1 of the Couch to 5K plan for her, and I will go along with her running in my VFF's to get me used to running in them.  We plan on running together Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings.  Nothing says you are married with kids, like the thought of going for a run or to the gym as being a ROCKIN' good time.  My heel is giving me grief again, and when I was running this morning I noticed it is probably because I am putting my foot down oddly to try and favor that side.  This is going to be an issue quickly if I don't get it corrected.

 I did a nice 8.5 on Saturday at a slow and easy 10:30 pace.  I stopped to talk to a friend that was having a garbage sale, and as I stood there I could feel my legs tighten up, so I bid her adieu and took off to finish my run.  This morning I decided that with 13 weeks until my first Pikermi, I needed to get serious about it, so I went out for a nice easy 3 miler to wake up the legs and give the heel a bit of encouragement to relax a bit.  It felt better by the end, but now as I type this up 5 hours later, it is sore again.  Tomorrow will be a gym morning to lift some weights and get a little rowing time in.

To rub it in a bit to you who have been dying in the heat, this morning it was 57 with 97% humidity.  Just a little shy of a perfect 60 and raining.  Tonight should be a nice evening for running as it will still be light enough to not need my light sticks.

 See not as inflammatory as my last post.