SWBKRUN fast, furious, and closed (Page 281)

I had my last race of the year today - an HM.  Short story: 1:41:08 for a new PR - 3 minutes and change faster than the one I did a month ago.  I am way happy with my time and don't think I left much out on the course.  The weather was great - sunny, cool and hardly any wind.

RR is here.

Great run Dan!

I can only dream of going that fast...

Oh, and notice the formatting - thanks Fatty!

Great job Dan!

Dan, that is a great time, very nice race!!

I don't have anything else to say, but I just want to try some fancy paragraph formatting

I lose two house guests today. That makes me sad. My cousin (Dave's side) is a college student in Oregon but graduates this year, so it's likely his last thanksgiving with us. Wah.

Wow!!!! Paragraphs!!!

Dan, you are "the man!"

Gosh, I hope I did that correctly!

BACK UP THE BUS.  There must have been something unclear about my post.  Not a grandma yet!!  Not in any hurry either. ;-) 

Most of the pens are shipping today! Dan I can send to Japan for less than $1.00 more than the other address in the US you gave me. If you want that send me an address in Japan.

Doug

Quiet day today.

Going for my first run of the month today, figured it was time.

the frame will look good with scraps from the trophy...   

With the unseasonably warm weather I went for a bike ride yesterday. Everything was perfect except for one thing...(wait for it)... I forgot my riding shoes! Yes another shoe issue! Anyway we went out with me riding my clipless pedals with running shoes. My coach kept changing the route and the 24 miles became 38.7! I did not get dropped and I took my pulls too.

Did start to get cramps in my toes of my left foot near the end. Major quad workout.

And FWIW: All but two pens were shipped out by USPS this afternoon.

Need some advice. 

I have a race coming up on Dec 17.  It's a 3-person relay with each of us running 10 miles (on trails).  I've been gradually adding mileage and I accomplished a 10 mile trail run on Nov. 20th.

I'm having some ongoing (like since I started running last spring ) issues with my right leg (Tight IT band, sore spot deep in the hamstring, tenderness below the knee on the lateral side--even some achilles discomfort at times.  ALL on the right side!).  I've only run once (30 min on the treadmill) in the last 8 days, but it's still bothering me.  Should I tell my right leg to toughen the "f" up and keep training for this race, or should I back off and try to give it more time to heal?  I feel like I need to be consistently running.

P.S. new insurance plan kicks in the first of the year, so I'm going to work through this on my own until then. 

Throw down your $.02 please.

Single sided pain is a sign something is out of whack.  How do you like that for a medical opinion?   The thing that concerns me most in the short term is the lateral pain below the knee.  There are two hamstring insertion points, one at your butt and one below the knee.  It is never good to have pain in this locations because it is putting major tension on the hamstring.  I had that very problem and suffered a major hamstring strain that had me out of running for two months and even afterwards it was a very slow build back.  I still feel it when I do speedwork.  My issue then was my running form--I was working on changing my gait and was putting too much pressure on my forefoot ahead of my center of gravity.  That might not be your issue.  Today, I still have a weak hamstring and have just added several new exercises from my PT to eliminate it.

Of course pain the lateral area is also the sign of a weakened or very tight ITB.  You could try a PT massage ball in the TFL area to see if that refers pain down the leg.  Releasing tension here should help some of the soreness.  Do not roll on the pain point below the knee.

Given you plan to wait to see anyone about it, my advice is you ditch any speedwork.  I'm tempted to tell you to ditch the trail run too, but I am guessing I would get a big NO WAY.

PS.  I hate HTFU when it comes to managing pain.  Pretty much anyone from the old MG can tell you that!

DANG nice run Dan! Congrats on that PR - awesome time!

Props to you... that does not sound very fun on the feet.

Wow, Dan!  Niiiiice PR.

Jayne- please take my advice with a grain of salt b/c I'm still a novice but I've been poking around on Jorge's blog and looking at his services.  Somehow I found a number of videos of running analyses he's done on people.  In watching a few of them, and listening to the analysis, it sounds like something is out of whack like Suzy says.  In one recent analysis, they pointed out how the angle of the individual's foot/hip was not neutral and therefore likely to cause IT band issues.  Granted this might not be happening but it could be a possibility. Outside of having your gait analyzed not sure how you could find out.  As for your race, not sure what I'd do in that instance.  I might try doing drills and short runs focusing on form. But again, I am probably the last person here qualified to give running advice.

Doug, way to stick with it without your shoes. 

Jayne,

I agree with Suzy's comments: TFL and the hammy insertions points (probably the one up at your butt).  Don't HTFU.  If you know a good PT or massage therapist, they can probably help sort it out quickly.   If you don't have a PT massage ball, a lacrosse ball or hard rubber baseball works (and they're a lot cheaper).

Here are some good references if you want to try to sort it out yourself.  Lots of information, but she does a great job explaining things:

http://www.athletestreatingathletes.com/self-muscle-massage-series/self-muscle-massage-series-pt-4-lateral-hip/

http://www.athletestreatingathletes.com/self-muscle-massage-series/self-muscle-massage-series-pt-2-hamstrings/

http://www.athletestreatingathletes.com/overuse-injuries/it-band/it-band-syndrome-what-is-it/

http://www.athletestreatingathletes.com/overuse-injuries/it-band/it-band-syndrome-treatment/

Good luck.  Get well.

Doug: I pm'd you my address.  Your story reminded me of a guy I met at my second Oly distance race.  He was a friend of a guy I sometimes train/race with.  The guy had a $3000 Pinarello that he had ridden 3 or 4 times max before this Oly distance race (and yes, that was the only bike training he had done).  He had clipless pedals and no bike shoes.   He did the race in his running shoes.   Turns out he was a really good swimmer and had at least 5 minutes on me coming out of the water, but I quickly caught and passed him on the bike.