Asphalt Junkies CLOSED AND GETTING OUR FIX (Page 152)

I agree Jeff to me it is all wrong. If they waited a few weeks then it could have been all about celebrating the human spirit but things are so bad here now they can't even justify it. I think the public sentiment is people are really upset with city moving forward with the race. Yes the city does need the money but I believe you are correct they won't make anything near what they would have had this not happened.

BTW, all great posts with lot's of good info which is always appreciated. I am still thinking about the stuff you said in regards to the improving on the bike with the biking/interval post that Karl got started.

mambos - 2012-11-02 12:50 PM

strikyr - 2012-11-02 10:03 AM

Thanks again to all for the support. I have cancelled my entry for the 2012 NYC marathon this morning. I can't get a refund on the hotel so I am looking to see if there is a way I can possibly donate that to someone who could use it. I just couldn't do this race knowing what everyone is going through. If they had put it off a few weeks then I probably would have done it but doing it now I would feel guilty about it and I would feel like I am taking away resources from people who need them more than a bunch of people running a race. I think this whole marathon thing has divided the city not brought it together which is an absolute shame.

On a brighter note I did sign up for another HIM for 2013 last night. I will be doing Syracuse 70.3 in June. I am also going to sign up for Riverhead Rocks Oly this morning. I really enjoyed doing that one last year. I need to find another Oly to do.

So I am officially beginning my offseason. I will take the next 3 weeks off so to speak. I will swim as much as I can and I will be doing a lot of unstructured workouts and I will catch up on my rest as well before I start the process of getting ready for next year and the IM training that is ahead.

Tony i also feel you made the Right decision! Just watched Bloomberg on sportscenter trying to justify the decision to move forward and it just doesn't look right! On a positive note, This will now Give me 2 people to root or when I go to NYC for next years race! I have also been looking at HIM registration pages, trying to determine if I want to "avenge" my DNF or do the bigger REV3 race! Luckily for me these races don't sell out quickly so I have plenty of procrastination time

Matt I thought about that too. It will be very cool if you guys come here next year for the NYC marathon. I will definitely be doing it next year.

Ha ha ha, makes me feel better because I feel like I post too much!!

Going  to try to answer without quoting a gazillion times if I can remember everything.

Dirk as for my orthotics, I had previously been wearing them with my Mizuno wave inspire shoes which I believe are a moderate stability shoe with a traditional drop. I wore that combo for years until Mizuno changed the model, I developed some pain in my metatarsals and my podiatrist ordered some new custom orthotics with specific metatarsal padding.  Just because I wore that combo for years does not mean it worked well because during that time I rolled my ankle so many times that I tore a tendon.

Now, during the time I wore the new orthos I developed the tendonitis in my right ankle area which I still had I think when I originally joined the Junkies last winter. That went away with some MAT treatments, change in work shoes to Earth shoes, dumping orthotics all together and switching to the Saucony Mirage (for road) and Peregrine (for trail) which are both neutral shoes with a low drop.

So, maybe the orthotics in these shoes will be a better combo? We'll see I guess. The painful area feels better today just walking around the house with them on.

Jeff, the cyst is directly between my ankle and the arch of my foot (strangely enough the same area I had tendonitis in the other foot I think).  The ortho does not come in direct contact with the cyst.   The pain I am getting is up the tendon into my lower leg sort of between my shin and calf on the inside of the leg. I did only feel it when I walked downstairs but now it is painful just walking around the house.

Yes, I take my insoles out when I wear the orthos.

Now the question I have is should I continue trying to run? No question that running absolutely makes this worse. I am torn thinking a little running like a mile or two would be better than nothing and not cause that much stress but then maybe I should just take a couple of weeks, let it recover, wear the orthos and then try again.

Describing my back as loosey goosey is a fair description . When I originally started PT she noticed that when she asked me to lean back I arched like a standing backbend, nothing from my lower back - all rear end and upper back. I think I probably arched like that while swimming too. I'm going to have read the rotation info again!

All this talk of foot pain makes me wonder about you two? Dirk how is the PF and Jeff how are your heels?

My heels are currently back to their status quo.  Not comfortable but not horrible.  I will be talking to my orthopedic surgeon in 4 more weeks at which time we will consider injections and whether a prescription for PT will be helpful. 

I can train right now...because I don't have much need to run fast at this time of year, but I'm already apprehensive about next race season and the need to run fast a little bit to be race ready.

BTW, As of Wednesday I'm out of my sling!  The shoulder feels great, considering.  I went in to detail on Wednesday with my surgeon about the repair and found that this repair entailed only 2 bone anchors versus 6 for the other shoulder.  So that's why it's a lot less painful.

Today I swam with my daughter and actually held on to a kickboard.  The challenge there is extending the arm straight ahead like that.  So it's going well.  I also believe, based on the description of the repair, that I've got less risk of a reinjury to my supraspinatus tendon than I'd thought and so I will probably resume outside running and cycling sooner than 6 months.

As for your pain, the area you are describing sounds like the posterior tibial tendon.  Look at this picture:  http://www.hss.edu/images/articles/JMM_posterior_tibial_tendon_insufficiency_foot_diagram_thumb.jpg

What it labels the 'Navicular Tuberosity' sounds like the area you are describing as your cyst.  And the pain you are describing up to the lower leg looks like it's following the tendon.  Would you agree?  I think most people would mistake this for shin splints.

Looking at that picture you can see how pronation (internal rotation of the foot) would stretch that tendon and contribute to injury to it.  So putting your orthotics in might be helpful when running.  What I've done successfully in the past when there was an injury brewing that had a rotational component is to pick the appropriate side of the road to run on.  If this were your right leg we are talking about, you'd want to run on the side of the road where the slant is down to the right.  That's either the right side of the road if you're in the road or the left side of the road if you are on a sidewalk.

Are you sure your cyst is really a cyst?  It could be a badly inflammed bursa right there at the tendon attachment point.

The rule with injuries is to stop running if that running makes it worse.  If it stays the same even though running you might be able to keep it up.

Well someone finally came to their senses the NYC Marathon has been cancelled for this Sunday. It was just announced.

mambos - 2012-11-02 12:50 PM

strikyr - 2012-11-02 10:03 AM

Thanks again to all for the support. I have cancelled my entry for the 2012 NYC marathon this morning. I can't get a refund on the hotel so I am looking to see if there is a way I can possibly donate that to someone who could use it. I just couldn't do this race knowing what everyone is going through. If they had put it off a few weeks then I probably would have done it but doing it now I would feel guilty about it and I would feel like I am taking away resources from people who need them more than a bunch of people running a race. I think this whole marathon thing has divided the city not brought it together which is an absolute shame.

On a brighter note I did sign up for another HIM for 2013 last night. I will be doing Syracuse 70.3 in June. I am also going to sign up for Riverhead Rocks Oly this morning. I really enjoyed doing that one last year. I need to find another Oly to do.

So I am officially beginning my offseason. I will take the next 3 weeks off so to speak. I will swim as much as I can and I will be doing a lot of unstructured workouts and I will catch up on my rest as well before I start the process of getting ready for next year and the IM training that is ahead.

Tony i also feel you made the Right decision! Just watched Bloomberg on sportscenter trying to justify the decision to move forward and it just doesn't look right! On a positive note, This will now Give me 2 people to root or when I go to NYC for next years race! I have also been looking at HIM registration pages, trying to determine if I want to "avenge" my DNF or do the bigger REV3 race! Luckily for me these races don't sell out quickly so I have plenty of procrastination time

By now all of you know that the NY marathon has been canceled.  I'm glad they finally did it.  Bloomberg seems to have finally caved to the pressure of public opinion.  The sorry part about that is that it had to be public opinion that finally swayed him.  I think he should have done the right thing as early as possible and called off the race sooner.

There is certainly going to be a backlash of fury from many of the runners that made the trip there and now are unable to run.  They will have lost money and time to travel but they would have been able to minimize those costs slightly if they had known not to come out at all.

Edit:

I guess I should have read all of the pages before posting the above

My injury seems to be getting better slowly.  I have been doing much more stretching, rolling a ball on the bottom of my foot (primarily the heel but on the arch as well) and using the new running shoes and techniques.  It has made a significant difference but there is still some pain there.  I ran 8 miles yesterday on my slow progression up the mileage scale toward Boston and I had a fair amount of pain following the run, yet none while on the run. 

Today that pain has diminished to a very low point and what I would describe as slowly decreasing.  I have quit taking NSAIDs more than once a day.  I had been taking "Aleve" twice a day for 2 weeks and now I am down to once a day (AM) and I will  do that for 2 weeks and then off.  I have one more week of once a day.

Sounds like you are on track, good to hear!

Yep, that picture is very accurate. I agree about running on the road as you described.

I'm actually not sure it is a cyst, just an educated guess. I've had them before - once in the same area on the opposite foot. At that time I had some knee problems (from the road bike but thought it was running) so I stopped running for a while and it went away. I went to the doctor for that one and she confirmed it was a cyst, said to take NASIDS for pain and watch it for dramatic changes. Well it went away and has never come back but you know, I did get tendonitis in that foot later that year. I had another one in my wrist when I was doing yoga all the time. Went to the doctor for that one too and heard the same story. This is why I did not go to the doctor this time, I've heard it before, but maybe I should have it looked at.

I'll stay away from running for now, take some Aleeve, ice, compression and I'm even wearing my stabilizing boot around the house to keep pressure off the area all together.

DirkP - 2012-11-03 8:06 AM

mambos - 2012-11-02 12:50 PM

strikyr - 2012-11-02 10:03 AM

Thanks again to all for the support. I have cancelled my entry for the 2012 NYC marathon this morning. I can't get a refund on the hotel so I am looking to see if there is a way I can possibly donate that to someone who could use it. I just couldn't do this race knowing what everyone is going through. If they had put it off a few weeks then I probably would have done it but doing it now I would feel guilty about it and I would feel like I am taking away resources from people who need them more than a bunch of people running a race. I think this whole marathon thing has divided the city not brought it together which is an absolute shame.

On a brighter note I did sign up for another HIM for 2013 last night. I will be doing Syracuse 70.3 in June. I am also going to sign up for Riverhead Rocks Oly this morning. I really enjoyed doing that one last year. I need to find another Oly to do.

So I am officially beginning my offseason. I will take the next 3 weeks off so to speak. I will swim as much as I can and I will be doing a lot of unstructured workouts and I will catch up on my rest as well before I start the process of getting ready for next year and the IM training that is ahead.

Tony i also feel you made the Right decision! Just watched Bloomberg on sportscenter trying to justify the decision to move forward and it just doesn't look right! On a positive note, This will now Give me 2 people to root or when I go to NYC for next years race! I have also been looking at HIM registration pages, trying to determine if I want to "avenge" my DNF or do the bigger REV3 race! Luckily for me these races don't sell out quickly so I have plenty of procrastination time

By now all of you know that the NY marathon has been canceled.  I'm glad they finally did it.  Bloomberg seems to have finally caved to the pressure of public opinion.  The sorry part about that is that it had to be public opinion that finally swayed him.  I think he should have done the right thing as early as possible and called off the race sooner.

There is certainly going to be a backlash of fury from many of the runners that made the trip there and now are unable to run.  They will have lost money and time to travel but they would have been able to minimize those costs slightly if they had known not to come out at all.

Edit:

I guess I should have read all of the pages before posting the above

Dirk no you are right they should have cancelled on Tuesday they would have saved many people lot's of inconvienence and money. In any case it was the right thing to do. I watched the press conference yesterday and they discussed postpoing and changing the route as well. They were also considering making it a 10 mile race as well but in the end they figured cancelling was the best thing to do.

Dirk glad to hear you are feeling better and that the new running shoes along with the changes you have been making have been helping you.

Dina I hope you are feeling better soon and hope you are able to get out there and run soon enough. It seems like you just can't catch a break.

I was feeling really bummed out yesterday about everything going on here along with the marathon so I signed up for a 10K last night that is being run on Sunday. I wanted to do it but knew I couldn't since it was the same day as the marathon. Well no marathon so I am in for that tomorrow and am pretty excited about doing it. The organization that runs it YES (your enegery shines) does a great job with their races as I've run a few before. I did this course last year on Mother's Day and enjoyed that run. I am going to go for it tomorrow and try and PR this thing as well. If I wind up on the side of the run laying on my back so be it. It won't be for a lack of trying.

Also the Red Cross will be there taking clothing donations so it will be nice to contribute something to the relief effort. I will also be able to donate my Hotel room for this weekend. There is another site called Race2Recover which is taking those rooms and giving them to people who need them. I think a lot of the people who were supposed to run in the marathon aren't here and don't need those rooms so better to donate them to people who do.

I was thinking last night about this season and it has been a great one for me but if I have one complaint the weather was not very kind to me. Every race I was in this year is either rained before or during the events. The weather for the HIM was a nightmare and then this storm prevents me from running a race I have been waiting 3 years to run. I was thinking maybe I was not meant to run the NYC marathon? I get accepted and it gets cancelled.

I know all these things happen for a reason which we probably don't understand but at least next year is looking up. I'm already signed up for an Oly, a HIM and an IM and I will have guaranteed entry into NYC so I guess it doesn't get any better than that. As long as the Mayan calander isn't correct and the world doesn't end in December 2013 looks it is going to rock and I am pretty excited about that.

Tony, next year will be your weather year, keep your head up!

So the clan finally made it back from Dallas after being stranded until Weds night.  It's great to be home and Kathy made it through fine.  I'm glad we got a generator a few years back and that kept her and J warm and the food in the fridge cold.  You have no idea how dependent we are on electricity until it's gone.  Thanks for keeping the grid on Dirk.

Lots of good workout discussions on here.  I am about to face a similar quandary.  I was invited to play hockey last night and had a blast.  As some backdrop, hockey was my favorite sport, one I played through college.  However, I stopped when tendinitis sidelined me to the point I could not even hold a stick for a full game.  I rehabbed, took cortisone shots, rehabbed more, rested more, but after three years of no real relief, I gave up and started this crazy sport.  Fast forward to last night, and I was able to play a full two hour game without any elbow/arm pain.  Leg pain is a different story though.  Between hockey and a day of cleaning up the branch destruction in my yard today, I am FRIED and skipped my planned long run.  I can say that biking and running strength and fitness doesn't translate to hockey fitness, for me at least.

That was a long way around to my question.  I know that playing hockey like this twice a week (the team plays two games a week at a minimum) will seriously cut into my tri training in a lot of ways.  I simply can't skate hard and do much else; I don't have the recovery abilities.  I also know that if I take two nights to play hockey, I'll be less able to carve out time even when I am recovered enough to train.  So my question is this:  how much does everyone think we need to train to simply maintain, or at least not fall behind too much?  I'm not fully convinced I'll do it, but I'm debating playing hockey over the winter and getting back to tri training something like mid April, but I'd rather not lose all the SBR gains I've made over the past few years.

Sorry for the long winded selfish post, but I'm curious to hear what you all think.

Warren welcome back and glad to hear you made it home safely. I'm also glad to hear that your wife and son made it through the storm safely. The generator definitely was a wise purchase.

I would think that you should be able maintain decent triathlon fitness playing hockey twice week. I think it will really depend on how much of the time that you have overall that gets cut into though from playing hockey and the recovery from playing. For me this is the first year doing this so it's my first offseason. In the past when I was just running I did cut back in Nov and Dec and ran enough just to stay fit then I usually started picking it up in Jan.

My plan this year is to take it easy in Nov with the biking and running but I am going to swim like crazy. For Dec I will start the power/strength training for the bike and swim like crazy. Come Jan I will start the Ironman training plan. So this year is a little different for me this year. Last year I pretty much worked out all year because I was trying to ramp up to do triathlon. I started a few weeks after my Marathon in Oct. Not sure if this helps much since I only have this past year to fall back on.

Warren also glad to hear you are home safe.

As far as picking up hockey goes, I would be most concerned that you will hurt yourself . I think you can make it work. Each person is different but I personally feel like the off season is just for what you are talking about - doing something else you love. 

From my own experience, I am out with foot issues that keep me from running almost every winter. I manage to get things back together by race season and my times are consistent from year to year. No improvements but if I am able to participate that is good enough for me. Looking back to last year, I was down to 30 min of swim or bike and no running when my back was at its worst. I did not pick up running again until March, started hitting the bike hard sometime in the spring and still managed to PR almost every race this year. Of course that is probably due to racing on a tri bike instead of a road bike but still - it counts right?

So, the conclusion you can draw from that is play hockey, buy a tri bike and all will be just fine .

Seriously though, to maintain I swim 2 x a week (actually I will make small improvements from where I am currently at swimming 2 x a week), bike 2-3 times but some of those rides are just burning calories and not intense sweat sessions, and running we'll just have to wait and see.

Oh boy!  Once again, I have to catch up with the thread!  You have been busy!

I know there has been some swimming talk.  Yesterday, I did a long, continuous swim of 2100 yards in 39:00.  I was pretty pleased.  I kept the effort pretty steady the whole time.  I could have gone longer if I had wanted to.  I like doing these swims.

Next week, I'm starting on my swim plan from my swim coach.  I'm gonna DIE!!!!  It looks scary!

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing ok.  Cheers

WOW ya'll have been busy posting.

Dirk and Jeff, glad ya'll re on the mends.

Tracy I was wondering who the new person was.  The new name is magical.

Tony, yea just get ready for next year.

Warren, you asked a question Dirk asked me the other day and I do not have an answer for yet.  What do you want from tri's.  It was posted back a week or so ago that tri's are won in the "off season", not during race season.  But it could be good to give your body a short rest.  How long is hockey season?

Wife and I got up at 2:20 am to head to Panama City, FL to help w/ IMFL.  It makes me feel so good to give back to the community to, help people.   We worked security which entailed answering zillions of questions ranging from where to put their bags, to where are the portie potties.

The race was amazing.  The beach take off must have been 400 yards wide lined w/ people.  Seeing all the people was really inspiring.  1 person only swam about 1 minute and quit, felt fo sorry for them.  They had to bring at least 6 back on seadoos and I heard 1 broke his wrist.  After the race i heard several say getting thru the waves was the tough part, it kept knocking their goggles off. 

Yea the bikes were NICE, lot of $$$$ spent here.  Lots of Zipp wheels and and stuff.

We worked the food court after the race for the athletes, a lot couldn't get out of their chairs, some looked like they were just getting ready to do the race, full of energy etc, but most just hobbled around.

That was just a short post, gotta head out to work for a week so ya'll will get a break from me. 

Train hard!

Yep!  It's me!  The new name fits my place in life much better now.  I've been on BT for about 6 years now.  Change happens.  I'm glad you like it! 

It's time for us to head to the Grange for their monthly pancake breakfast.  ~yum~  I'll be running about 10 miles after my breakfast settles.  I hope everyone has a great day!

Karl glad to hear you enjoyed the Ironman Florida experience and had a good time with it. I think it's great that you and your wife went out to volunteer for it. I am definitely wanting to do that as well.

Tracy enjoy your big breakfast and your run today.

I hope everyone else is having a great weekend. I did the 10K this morning and had a great time. I got to meet another fellower BT'er Scott better know as FELTgood. I also got to meet his family as well. Very nice to be able to hook up with other BT'ers. As far as the race goes I totally killed it today. I PR'd by 4 minutes! I can't believe it, I just ran as hard and as fast as I could and I know I left it all out there today. My previous best was a 53:16 on this course and I did this unofficially in 49:21. Almost 8 minute miles, for a slow old guy like me I am impressed and I didn't think I had it in me.

The race organizers did a great job and they took donations for those affected here locally on LI by the storm so it was great that my wife and I were able to go out yesterday and pick up some clothing and blankets and things needed so we could make a donation and help out. I was also able to confirm last night that my hotel room was donated to a woman here on LI who happens to work near the hotel on the upper west side. She still does not have any power so it was nice to be able to give it to someone who needs it especially with the weather getting much colder. While I didn't get to do the marathon it still turned out to be a great weekend and I could not be happier about it.

Maintenance is simple in my opinion.  I don't think you will lose any of your current fitness if you can sustain a 2x per week (or maybe just slightly less) in everything with a moderate volume.  If your running base is 20MPW currently I think you could do 10MPW over 2 runs and likewise a similar plan for the other disciplines.

I think once you have built yourself up to a certain point the maintenance factor can be pretty simple.  Any additional mileage or time you add to your plan over the winter, no matter how small, will become small gains once the season rolls around.  Whatever amount you are able to increase in your winter volume will contribute that much more to the fitness and ability gains leading into the next season.

I also think that, as Dina said, the off season can be a time to relax your mind and body from the rigors of triathlon training.  Doing something like your are contemplating may be the thing that keeps you in this sport for the long haul, without burnout.  On the other hand, it may be that once you have the stick back in your hand for a short time the tendonitis may return and cause the same problems.  I had some similar things happen when I was doing linework everyday.  I absolutely loved the "job" but the repetitive motion had me losing sleep at night for the same reason you gave up hockey.  I know if I got back into the field aspect of linework, I would begin to suffer pretty quickly.  BUT, I would love to get my hands around a wood pole, wrench, hoist handle and a hot stick on 69kV again.

Samantha I agree, it is too bad the Mayor did not cancel earlier it would have saved all those folks coming in a lot of time and money but it was great to see alot of the marathon participants getting involved and volunteering and helping out. It is very much needed and appreciated. I hope the city can find a way to make it up to them in the future.