Category Archives: cold

Another day, another run

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To follow up on my previous post, my exhaustion experiment was a moderate success. After the shorter run I hit practice up and it went ok. I was a little tired and had some moderate focussing issues, but it wasn’t too bad. Part of that could have been due to the band working on some new and difficult pieces, but I do think the run had its affect. I am going to attempt this again and see if I notice some patterns (well more patterns than I already see).

On other notes I am having an issue with my Altras and am exchanging them. First about two weeks ago the logo pealed off. I didn’t really care as it was just a decal that floated on the middle of the side, I actually applauded the logo falling off, but hoped it wasn’t an indication of some sort of glueing defect. Everything else seemed fine and properly attached. Then today on the same side of the same shoe another part started peeling off and this seemed more structural than decoration. So I will try another pair and see how that goes. I hope it will be ok as I really like this model.

This week I have been battling a cold I brought back with me from our Reno trip, mostly a head cold and a bit in the lungs. On Monday I went for my first run in two weeks after the trip and the cold. I chugged along but it felt pretty good. About halfway through I was getting warm so I stripped off my jacket. I usually don’t stop to unzip it and just pull it over my head on the go, which I did again. All of a sudden I felt a sharp pinch/cramp in my upper back. I stopped and walked for a bit hoping it was more of a stitch and would go away, but it didn’t in fact it just got worse. Figures I was at the halfway point of my run, quite possibly as far away as I could be on this route and I slowly made my way home. That night I took a anti-inflamatory that I had laying around and smoked some indica, a strain meant for pain relief and threw in some icing. I think both helped tremendously as I felt a bit better the next day, so I repeated my relief the next night as well. I was really worried that I was going to have a longer recovery, but my se;f prescribed methods seemed to do the trick and I was able to run today. I also kept active after I did whatever I did and went on a couple longer slow walks.

Today’s run went well, somewhat slow (10 min miles exactly), actually probably a bit faster, but my first 1.25 miles didn’t register as I had turned off my watch instead of disabling the watch bevel (it was raining a bit and leaving the watch face active tends to cause trouble in the rain, my jacket sleeve sometimes causes issues too.) So I had to edit my run on Garmin.com and I just went with the same speed as the rest of the run. The run itself was a good one and I felt strong throughout. I was not so happy with the rain and cold (it was warm for the last couple of days when my back was out, grrr) but it wasn’t too bad.I took a short walk at one point, but jumped back into normal pace pretty quickly up a hill that I could have easily walked. Good run.

Garmin issues. Since I switched over to the new Garmin Connect system I have had nothing but trouble with the watch syncing with the computer. It is supposed to immediately sync once you are within range, and that is how the old system worked. But with Connect I seem to be a run behind and often it won’t let me re-sync to get today’s run into the system. I have tried to massage the settings on the watch and thought I had it figured out, but apparently not. Still I was able to manually sync today and get the system to acknowledge that I ran today (as well as my last run which wasn’t showing up either). I do like the watch a lot and would probably get another when this one finally dies, but I am starting to get a bit frustrated with it.

This week’s long run

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This week’s long run got pushed further out in the week, I keep getting further and further away from a consistent Monday LSD run. Overall I am going to say that is ok as I have been getting them in and I keep making them longer. However Monday is the perfect day of the week for them so hopefully I can get back on track especially considering that today’s run was the second quality run I did this week (actually second run in a row too). Though to do another long run in three dyas seems excessive.

I feel like I am really building on my base, the long runs seem much easier or should I say less painful! Today’s run was 12 miles exactly and interestingly I almost kept it under a 10 min mile pace (ended at 10:04). I was under 10 through nine miles, but the final three were more or less uphill as I climbed up from the waterfront to my neighborhood. And I can’t really say the entire three miles was all up-hill either, but there are some tough patches!

This was actually the second fast run that I did. Two days ago I did eight miles at a 9:13 pace which felt really good. I was strong throughout and even considered adding some miles to make that my long run but I had a rehearsal that night and was already pushing it.

I’m not really sure what has changed to make these runs feel better. I have been eating and sleeping well, so I am sure that had something to do with it. Still it doesn’t seem like that would completely explain why I have been running so strongly as of late. Both of the last two runs have been on injection day and I have always said that I feel stronger after the rebif, so maybe that has helped as well. My weight is also down a bit and I am sure that is a factor. Whatever it is I’ll take it!

I have been curious to see how my feet reacted to the increase in miles and the consistent longer runs with the zero-drop shoes. I really feel like a convert. I don’t have nearly the fot pain that I was experiencing before with the thicker heals, in fact I wore a pair of boots the other day that made me imagine that this is what high heals must be like! Changing my stride to more of a ball landing/mid-strike (as opposed to just a mid-strike landing) is working better than I had imagined. I have always felt like more of a distance runner than a sprinter. Initially I was concerned that I wouldn’t like running more like a sprinter, but it seems to feel much better overall even though the majority of my running is mid-strike oriented. With the zero-drops I occasionally will concentrate on my feet landing on the balls of my feet and spreading out in my shoes (Altra) expansive toe box. It feels really good landing that way. Despite initially having trouble lifting my feet enough to clear cracks an other obstacles, I seem to have corrected my gate enough so that it is not an issue (even though I am not lifting my feet much higher, at least consciously).

I have been pretty good about fueling for my last couple of long runs, gels and water. They both seem to make a pretty huge difference in my running performance. Today I was starting to fade a bit around six miles. A couple slugs of Hammer gel and my energy level picked up and I was able to comfortably continue.

The long runs have been great but I am reaching that point where increasing the mileage every time is making the runs a huge commitment, both in terms of time and the mental ability to gear up for them. Two hours seems pretty doable, but I know longer runs are soon going to be getting up closer to three (an beyond). My other problem with them is having interesting places to go. I have a pretty decent 11 mile run that I can add onto so maybe I’ll use that as a base for my longer runs and then just add on. Today’s route was new(ish) to me and I could probably use that as a good base as well even though I don’t really care for all the uphill at the end (pretty much my curse living on a hill.

I am starting to think about a long race again. My pace is pretty slow even though I do feel it getting faster (or is that just the last two? Yes it probably is). Still running another marathon would be fun, maybe make it a destination run which would be super fun (then again I can’t think of a better place to sleep the night before than my own bed.) We’ll see.

Oh and did I mention it was 28 degrees when I left? Brrrrrr.

Running in the cold

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In my effort of get back into regular running, I decided I needed to go early to make sure I actually did my run. I didn’t want a repeat of yesterday where I didn’t run right off the bat and figured I just go later when I got around to it. Well I never got around to it. So out of bed and into running duds seemed to be what I needed to do, and it worked.

Adding an extra challenge to the run was the temperature. It was really cold, in the 30s. Wasn’t quite freezing, but it sure felt close. I wore my heavy running shirt and my running jacket, gloves and tights, bandanna and hat. And I was still freezing, especially my hands. Oddly when I put on my jacket I felt some lumps in the pockets. I reached in and found my shell gloves that I wore the other day in the rain. I left them on the counter and regretted that moments into my run. I could have used the extra layer on my hands.

My feet were also really cold, though fortunately they were and remained throughout the run, dry. The problem was that they felt really stiff in my shoes and started to get really uncomfortable. Maybe my feet swell a bit in the cold as well. Not really sure, but they suffered through most of the run.

In addition to the rain, the cold and lack of light, I realized another negative factor facing the Portland runner: fireplace smoke. Pretty much throughout my entire run I smelled fires. At times it was thick enough to make me cough. Ridiculous! At least its not as bad as burning garbage which I often smell in my neighborhood. Crimony, isn’t this a city we live in? Fireplace smoke I can understand to a certain degree. I really can’t see how the city can maintain air quality with it going on though. Of course people would scream bloody murder if the guv-a-munt tried to take away their fires!

Back on my feet

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Well after a lengthy cold/flu/whatever I went back to running today. What a great feeling! Despite still feeling a little congested in my lungs, I figured it was time. I had questioned myself all week, “Is today the day I can run again?” and I kept saying, nope not yet. But no longer.

I was a little worried about how winded I would get, so I took it easy. I really concentrated on my breathing and keeping it nice and smooth. I didn’t want to give in to the coughing and for the most part did ok. Hopefully with all the spitting I did nobody else will get sick. As long as they stay out of the gutters they should be ok.

I managed to go for almost a hour before ending up at the library to pick up season two of Northern Exposure. When I stopped, my breathing got sort of ragged and I kept feeling the urge to cough. This is what I was afraid of, but it didn’t last very long and I think I ended up waiting long enough to go out. I noticed this afternoon that I really feel it in my muscles. It is amazing what two weeks off will do to your conditioning. I am feeling pretty much tired all over, but I have plans to go out again tomorrow, but not for long for sure.

Back on my feet

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Well after a lengthy cold/flu/whatever I went back to running today. What a great feeling! Despite still feeling a little congested in my lungs, I figured it was time. I had questioned myself all week, “Is today the day I can run again?” and I kept saying, nope not yet. But no longer.

I was a little worried about how winded I would get, so I took it easy. I really concentrated on my breathing and keeping it nice and smooth. I didn’t want to give in to the coughing and for the most part did ok. Hopefully with all the spitting I did nobody else will get sick. As long as they stay out of the gutters they should be ok.

I managed to go for almost a hour before ending up at the library to pick up season two of Northern Exposure. When I stopped, my breathing got sort of ragged and I kept feeling the urge to cough. This is what I was afraid of, but it didn’t last very long and I think I ended up waiting long enough to go out. I noticed this afternoon that I really feel it in my muscles. It is amazing what two weeks off will do to your conditioning. I am feeling pretty much tired all over, but I have plans to go out again tomorrow, but not for long for sure.