Mileage Reporting 42nd Week 2013

[dutchie53]

2 miles today, 1 mile running and 1 limping home. As I was running everything felt good, no discomfort when all of sudden I heard and felt a crack in my ankle. That brought my run to an instant stop. It was tender on my limp home, after icing it stiffened right up where weight bearing is kind of okay, but flexing it makes it tender. I just hope that it was some cracking of the joints like we sometimes have in our hands as this has happened before with this ankle, just not at this level. I will make my way to my doctor tomorrow and have it looked at if it bothers me when I wake up.

 

[happysongbird]

2 miles today, 1 mile running and 1 limping home. As I was running everything felt good, no discomfort when all of sudden I heard and felt a crack in my ankle. That brought my run to an instant stop. It was tender on my limp home, after icing it stiffened right up where weight bearing is kind of okay, but flexing it makes it tender. I just hope that it was some cracking of the joints like we sometimes have in our hands as this has happened before with this ankle, just not at this level. I will make my way to my doctor tomorrow and have it looked at if it bothers me when I wake up.

oh, dear.

 

[Runlite01]

Nice 8 mile run at 4:45 am., 50 deg., 82% rh... Big full moon some creepy stuff out in peoples lawn for Halloween.

 

[scedastic]

2 miles today, 1 mile running and 1 limping home. As I was running everything felt good, no discomfort when all of sudden I heard and felt a crack in my ankle. That brought my run to an instant stop. It was tender on my limp home, after icing it stiffened right up where weight bearing is kind of okay, but flexing it makes it tender. I just hope that it was some cracking of the joints like we sometimes have in our hands as this has happened before with this ankle, just not at this level. I will make my way to my doctor tomorrow and have it looked at if it bothers me when I wake up.

Oh, I hope it's just one of those weird things that comes and goes. May it go go go

 

[scedastic]

total rest day for me. I can't say I even walked a block.
Body fighting a virus, mind fighting work and stress.
Chocolate cake and wine and computer work while it rained. Cozy, though now I feel all cooped up for no exercise.

 

[Spiderweb62]

I woke up today with breathing difficulties due to the bushfires nearby. I still decided to go for my run, it is interval day !!!

Did 11.3km/7mi with 8 x 4'/2' and I did not get in any trouble with my breathing, which is cool

I think I had an epiphany the other day when I ran with the Vivo BF shoes.

Since I did not get the sensorial feedback, I could concentrate a bit more on my metatarsal pain. I believe I am a pronator, and it may squeeze my toes during the push phase (that is my theory, but it sounds plausible ).

So today, to try to correct this, I tried a few things, but the only one that seems to work is if I open my foot a little bit (about 10degrees), as this forces the ground contact under my big toe. I am just not sure if this will bring me other problems, anyone has some experience to share ?

 

[Line Kolbe]

Forgot to tell I went to the gym yesterday.
This is the week of the ankle attack I guess.. Not the only one here I see. Mine feel even better today. I'm sure it was just a little stretch of some kind and that it will be gone fast.
Plan for today: Gym again and nothing else

 

[Tristan]

First time I stopped in this week on this thread and it seems like everyone is sick or injured. Dutchie and L.K. with ankle problems, Spidey can't breath, and scedastic with a virus. I hope you all feel better!

Well this is my final taper week for my first marathon. Sunday I did 10 easy miles, and Tuesday 4.5 easy miles. Was going to run last night but I was late leaving work, put me into rush hour, and with stormy skies it was already getting dark when I got home. So maybe might try a couple easy miles tonight, and then race Sunday.

Unfortunately the weather forecast has me worried. Initially the overnight low was suppose to be low 40's, but now upper 30's. . I could probably handle around 40ºF just fine, but there is also a bit of shock factor since the coldest run I have done this year is in the 60's. Heck my long run on Sunday I was starting to overheat. The first race I did barefoot this spring was around 40ºF and I had some hotspots that were nearly blisters (10k) but back in the spring the ground was probably much colder that it is now.

 

[Scratch]

I hope the ankle turns out okay, Dutchie.

Last night, I just did a walk. Felt okay to run physically, but mentally it felt like I wanted to slow down and experience the different textures of pavement and ground at a walking pace. So I went with that, and felt much better mentally 25 minutes later. Then I had an intense barefoot running dream last night, and feel charged up to go running after work today.

 

[Bare Lee]

Tuesday am.
One-mile run-commute. Windchill 37F. Hey, first Winter Challenge mileage! Where’s YOW? The cool, wet pavement felt great.

Tuesday pm.
One-mile run-commute.

40 minutes of pyramiding deadlifts. No time left over for squats, leg curls, etc. Maxed at 275 because last week when I did 300 I felt a little soreness in my knee. With the extra sets and reps now that I'm pyramiding more, the calluses on my palms are building up, but a little painful by the fourth or fifth rep of a set. Should I sell out and wear some minimalist gloves?

Wednesday am.
One-mile run-commute. 41F / 5 C, close to freezing windchill and wet pavement. Feet were fine but I was reminded of what was to come in a few weeks.

Wednesday pm.
One-mile run-commute, then Back ST. Fantastic pump.

I’ve been pruning a few more exercises from my strength-training routine. On my Back ST day, I’ve got rid of the Kettlebell swings, which I used to do with a t-bar. I just can’t see how they benefited me much, and they seem to put some strain on the lower back. I looked into improving my form on this exercise by watching a bunch of YouTube videos, but in the end I concluded the time would be better spent doing a few more sets of bent-over rows or landmines, where the benefits are noticeable, and the movements more natural. I mean, people lift heavy things all the time (correlating with bent-over rows, or deadlifts), and sometimes heave things with a twisting motion (sorta like landmines), but how often do they heave heavy objects from between their legs (as with the motion of a Kettlebell swings)?

I’d been thinking about dumping the Kettlebell swings for a while, but was hesitant to get rid of them because a lot of fitness folks swear by them. But I’m trying to make my routines as simple and focused as possible. I’m liking more and more Abide’s suggestion to really focus on the heavy stuff, and I’m also getting back to doing lots of pyramiding or drop sets. I got my bent-over rows up to 200 pounds now.

In keeping with a naturalistic approach, without going so far as to use rocks and vines, I got rid of the back pull-downs too. Nick had a link a while ago in which one guy critiqued them, and, as Paul Chek has said,

“As I say in my seminars, I have never seen a single primate climb anything and pull it behind their head??? This is a non-physiological exercise and should be used as little as possible and only with perfect positioning.” (http://staff.washington.edu/griffin/behind_neck.txt)

I’ve been doing back pull-downs for as long as I’ve been doing weights, and have never gotten injured doing these, but I’ve never really liked them either, and always feel a little strain. So if a few respected sources say they’re bad for you, that’s enough for me. Makes intuitive sense, and I'm all for remaining relatively unscathed as I age. Doing pull-ups and front pull-downs with a lat-pulldown bar (neutral grip) still feels great though. Then I like to follow that with chin-ups. Oh yeah. Then seated rows. Uh huh. And finally straight-arm pulldowns. You betcha.

In my Bottom ST routine, I’ve also gotten rid of the leg extensions. I re-introduced them last spring I think, but I’ve read enough criticism of how they put too much torque on yer knees, that I decided to get rid of them again. I'll do more squats for quad development. I’m keeping the leg curls though, which use the same piece of equipment as the leg extensions and are also pretty unnatural, but seem to work my calves and hammies pretty well.

Thursday am
One-mile run-commute.
The night before I drove my wife out to a meditation center, as part of her theology class at nursing school. We took the freeway there, but came back on Lake Street, which parallels the Midtown Greenway bike/pedestrian path a block and a half north. I thought about what a long way it seemed, driving back, but I knew I could run it.

So when I woke up, I was somewhat inspired to get in an early am long run through downtown Minnepolis to Lake of the Isles and then along the Midtown Greenway on the way to my office. It would essentially be the long run I had to cut short a few weeks ago when I got a late start and ran out of time. But I was excited to get back to what I had been working on the day before, so I ended up coming straight to work. The pavement was cool at 37F but dry so comfortable.

Thursday pm.
Then I finished the day’s planned work a little early. Thought about starting something new, but instead decided to leave a little early and put the long run back on the table, with the start and finish reversed. I loaded up my new lumbar pack with a banana, a protein bar, and a bottle of water. I was a little nervous about being able to complete the planned 16-mile loop without bonking, even though I already had three meals in me by the time I set out.



After a few miles, I got to the beginning of the Midtown Greenway, which starts on the West River Parkway, where an old railroad bridge crosses the river.


(My point-n-shoot camera was set on Automatic for some reason, and that setting doesn’t adjust the lighting very well).

After a bit, I noticed my legs felt a bit heavy. It had been three days since my last mezzo run, so I thought they’d be fresh. I thought about abandoning the long run, and cutting back towards the river going north, but kept heading west anyhow.

A chubby middle-aged guy in full cycling gear came towards me and queried “Barefoot?!” and I just pointed straight, with my thumb up, and smiled, like “that’s right, you got it.” Which seemed to cue his inevitable remark, “you’re crazy!”

Then a while later, when I stopped for a quick stretch and calf massage, the same guy was coming back the other way, and slowed to ask me if I had stepped on some glass. I said “no, did you get any glass in your tires?” He seemed like someone who had read up a bit on barefoot running, and had been convinced of the ‘glass is everywhere’ warnings against it, and so was following the script. In fact, I did see some broken glass a bit before under one of the bridges that pass above the Greenway, but luckily I’m not blind, so it was easily avoided.


(Some Midtown Greenway scenes)

Once I got to the lakes, I left the Greenway and passed over a neat canal connecting Lake of the Isles with Lake Calhoun.



I went around Lake of the Isles southwestern side, with downtown Minneapolis poking up over the trees to the NE.



And then left the lake to connect up with a commuter bike path, Cedar Lake Trail, that starts in downtown Minneapolis and goes all the way out to the western suburbs. I had heard about it, but had never been on it. It's another part of the recent effort to make the Twin Cities "the most bicycle-friendly metropolis in the nation."

This was kind of a mistake. The first bit, Kenilworth Trail, which connects the Midtown Greenway with the Cedar Lake trail, was pleasant enough.



But then once I got onto Cedar Lake trail,


I found that it runs along the perimeter of downtown Minneapolis for a long ways, passing under freeways and along busy roads.


The surfaces were pretty smooth, but there was a lot of debris. I might have been better off going through downtown Minneapolis again and putting up with all the foot traffic and stop lights, maybe I'd have even spotted a news monkey again.

By this time, around the 9/10-mile mark, my soles were beginning to get strangely sensitive. I had run this distance many times before, sometimes over rougher surfaces, and had never had any trouble with my soles. In fact my soles have never really been an issue for me the whole time I’ve been barefoot running. When I've had trouble, it’s always been the tendons/ligaments/muscles in my legs or feet. But by this time my legs had loosened up nicely, and I felt like I could keep going for a long while. I may have to consider bringing some footwear along on these longer runs if sole sensitivity begins to be a problem, but it’s probably just a nonce occurrence.

Anyways, once I got to Hennepin Avenue Bridge,



I knew I was home-free, with beer beckoning.



It was the 12-mile mark and my pace was still pretty good at around 9:45 mm, but I stopped for a quick stretch on the high guardrail for insurance. That really rejuvenated me. Still, with my sole-sensitivity, I decided to forgo a gravel section after the Stone Arch Bridge, and stick to sidewalks along Hennepin Avenue and then cut over to Como Avenue, which crosses over into St. Paul and my neighborhood.


(Hennepin Avenue street scene--Congo Latin Bistro)

This was another mistake. I found the sandpapery sidewalks kind of abrasive, especially some of the new ones with bigger stones imbedded in them on Hennepin Avenue. My feet began to curl up, which affected my gait, and I began to slow down. Then I missed a turn to connect up with Como Avenue, and ran a little out of my way.

"Sh!t!" I thought, "this will take me to the UofM campus, and close to an light industrial road that will take me to a railroad close to home." I was worried because the connecting road, Kasota Avenue, doesn’t have a sidewalk for half the way, and the second half is a degraded chipseal bike path. I was aware of the road's relative barefootability because I had run it once before on one of my earlier route explorations.

I considered running out of my way to get over onto Como Avenue's sidewalks, but with my soles by this time in open rebellion, I didn't want to add any extra mileage. Then I discovered that the first part of Kasota had a freshly sodded boulevard.



Ahhhhhh, it was like foot balm for my plantar pain. Lovely, cool, soft blades offering soleful succor. A refreshing oasis in a desert of concrete and asphalt.

The second half, however, was more scraggly grass and weeds, strewn with trash, but still better than the crumbling chipseal path alongside it, so I stayed on the boulevard. At one point I almost stepped on a nest of broken bottle glass, but once again, having eyes allowed me to avoid it. Every time I had to cross a driveway or entrance to a parking lot, the concrete or asphalt felt unreasonably hard. I could see why naive podiatrists would recommend running on grass instead of hard surfaces--when your feet are tender, it feels a lot better. Too bad they don't bother to look at what actual, existing barefooters do most of the time.

On the very last bit I had to walk over some railroad rock,



and then under 280 Bridge through an area of trash, glass, and illicit materials, to enter my neighborhood. Then it was just a few more blocks to my house. Once home, I saw that this short-cut had left me just a little short of 16 miles,

15.95 mi / 25.67 km, to be exact.

I thought about running to the end of the block and back to even things up, but the call of a cold IPA was too great, and my respect for numerology too weak, and my soles too sore, for that silliness. Maybe it would be best to think of it as a longish 25K? A new distance PR in any case, no matter the reckoning.

Going to pick up the kids, I put on the Sketchers Go Bionic shoes that I bought by mistake more than a year ago, when I was misdiagnosed with a stress reaction/fracture. The marshmallowy cushioning felt wonderful. I guess they do have a use after all!

Today my feet are a little achy, the soles still sore, but I managed my one-mile run-commute nonetheless, with 37F / 27F realfeel on the wet surfaces. Feet got a little numb for the first time this season.

Hope everyone heals up and gets better soon!

 

[scedastic]

Two nights of sleep with more than 6 hours each seems to have made me feel much better, surprise, surprise.
5 mile run this morning. 30s. thought it would feel colder in the damp 30sF than it did and overdressed. Wore sandals, and toes stayed plenty warm, even with the wetness. Only a puddle or two, though.
Maybe I'm adapting better.
Moon was pretty.

 

[dutchie53]

Just got back from the doctor, x-rays did not show a fracture. He is speculating that I may have partially tore a ligament near the cuboid and suggested a couple of weeks in a boot. That's not going to work for me as a week of not being able to do move my foot is going to lock up the ankle due to osteoarthritis caused by having previously broken the ankle and heel in that foot. This morning when I got up it felt better already, not the "let's go for a run" better but one where I was moving better. Not too much swelling and zero bruising leads me to believe that I might have had a snap, crackle, and pop stuck in there that's that just needed to be let out. I've had those in there before where they cause discomfort until I release them, but never have I had one do this while running and instantly cause a lot of pain and discomfort. So I don't think it is as bad as I originally feared. I'll wait till discomfort is mostly gone and then celebrate by going for a run. I did go for a walk already with my dog of about 3/4 of a mile.

 

[Barefoot Gentile]

Ran 20 barefoot miles this morning before work. Time was 3:09:00. This weekend is booked with family events so no time for a long run. First time I ever ran this long before work, set the alarm at 4:45am and was out the door 5am sharp. I'm feeling a little punchy at work right now, but the day is almost over.

 

[jldeleon]

40 minutes of awesome water exercises - my CROSS-TRAINING!!! Bwahahahaaa!

 

[scedastic]

Ran 20 barefoot miles this morning before work. Time was 3:09:00. This weekend is booked with family events so no time for a long run. First time I ever ran this long before work, set the alarm at 4:45am and was out the door 5am sharp. I'm feeling a little punchy at work right now, but the day is almost over.

It is hard for me to get out the door within 15 min of waking that early, let alone for a long run like that. Good job. Did you eat anything beforehand?

 

[Scratch]

Good-feeling, easy and long run after work today. I went out thinking of doing around 4 miles, but as I began cranking out the park loops, it felt relaxed and good so I just kept going, although I made myself stop after around 6.5 miles since that beat my previous longest barefoot run by a mile and I figured that's a big enough step up for now. I think yesterday's decision to walk instead of run was a good one, it helped reset me psychologically and get fired up to run relaxed and comfortable. After around 45 minutes I just felt so good, the legs weren't their springiest but I had a solid rhythm and felt like I could just keep going going going.

Also the first time that I've run for more than a hour since late 2010. I've always liked the feeling of running more than a hour. But this was better than most any shodden run of more than an hour I've ever had. Felt alive and so fully human.

 

[happysongbird]

I am not sick or injured. Just cranky. But it helped to run 10.15 miles around my pond loop. There was enough of a breeze to keep the clouds of gnats from coming out full force. Almost had the place to myself, though one fisherman did cast out into the path right before I got behind him. I called out, "you missed me!" trying to be friendly, but I think he was cranky, too.

 

[Runlite01]

Odd 4 mile run at 10:30 am., snuck out at work, felt good! 63 deg., 68% rh...New path nothing exciting but still a nice run!!
First time in a while I have run later in the day.

 

[scedastic]

Odd 4 mile run at 10:30 am., snuck out at work, felt good! 63 deg., 68% rh...New path nothing exciting but still a nice run!!
First time in a while I have run later in the day.

4 is an even number, not odd

 

[Go Barefoot]

Thursday - Did not get to run yesterday evening as wife and I ate out after I got off work and it was too dark for a safe BF run afterwards. We were to meet up with some friends at the Texas Loud House. Oh I meant Road House. You know their food is good but the music is just played too fricken loud! When you can't hear what the people sitting across from you are talking about then the music is to loud. Out of the maybe 6 times I have ate there I am always very anxious to get the hell out of there as soon as I am finished with my last bite of food. I just find it so stressful when the music is that loud while trying to have a relaxing meal. Don't particularly feel that the workers need to be dancing around like fools either.

Today - This afternoon I drove my old military truck for about an hour then went for a run this evening. Had a great run this evening. Ran 9 miles and was not ran down by any zombies on bicycles so that was great. Was slightly underdressed again as the temps were around 50 when I began my run and then quickly cooled down into the 40's F. The moon was very interesting as it became visible over the eastern horizon. Guess it was a full hunters moon tonight. I must say the moon was as big as I can ever remember seeing it. Pretty cool.

Oh I believe the Canadian geese have begun their migration south as I heard them high overhead during my run.

Dutchie - Glad to hear that the x-rays showed no signs of fracture. Hope that ankle heels and your back on the road again soon!

Sedastic - Glad your feeling better! Did someone say chocolate cake? Yum! Chocolate anything sounds good!

Spiderweb - Are those bushfires out of control or something that is done as a controlled burn to benefit the land? Don't breath too much of that smoke.

Barefoot Gentile - That's awesome! Wish I could get in even a 9 mile run before heading off to work but I have to be to work at 6:30am which means getting up waaay before the roosters to get a run like that in.

Jldeleon - Glad to hear that you gave Migangelo's ears a break today!

Runlite - If I was to sneak out from work for a quick run I have a feeling I would decide to make it a longer run and not return to work until the next day. Sounds like a good way to spend the 10:00am break time.

Happysongbird - I have never seen or heard of a cranky song bird. That would be an interesting tune to hear.