A solid week of running last week. I feel like I am training. It might be slow and ugly, but training is the mindset where you get out there when you don't want to do to being tired or sore. That was my running last week. Each run was a struggle to get started and a struggle to complete:
Monday: 5 miles Treadmill
Tuesday: 5 miles Treadmill
Wednesday: 5 miles Treadmill
Thursday: 3 miles Treadmill
Friday: 8 miles outdoors (good to get off the treadmill)
Saturday: 8 miles outdoors
Sunday: 8 miles outdoors (and 4 minutes faster than the previous two days)
Total 43 miles (most post surgery)
I have lost about 13 pounds in 3 weeks by eating light and healthy with no snacks or desserts.
I am mixing up my running between the SKECHERS GO Run (as seen in the Super Bowl and on Meb Keflizhigi's feet in his recent first place USA Olympic Marathon Trials race). I can only say these are very interesting and comfortable shoes.
I am also trying out the Altra Instinct cushioned minimalistic shoes with the zero drop sole and a wide forefoot to let the toes spread out. I am also experimenting with both shoes using my orthotics and witihout using my orthotics.
Last week's mileage was nothing (well almost nothing). I spent the week letting my body fight off the nasty cold that everyone else in my family got. I felt run down all week, but somehow escaped without getting hit with it. Last Tuesday my new shoes finally arrived in the mail. I got an extremely comfortable pair of Altra Instincts. I hopped on the treadmill to try them out and only got in 1.3 miles as I was just feeling exhausted. Then I couldn't run from Thursday to Saturday due to another round of trigger-point injections. My left glutes are fine now. They do not seem to tighten up after runs at all.
This week I had 3 shots in my left hamstrings. I had noticed that any stretching (even if very light) I did on the hamstrings on this side was throwing that side off for a day or so. I also asked about my right glute (if the left were so filled with trigger points-why not the right). She found a couple points to inject. It all sounds so mysterious, but you sometime feel these knots immediately release as soon as they are injected. The right glutes were no way as bad as the left side had been, but my right side had become tighter than my left. I finished the week without another run, until I ran the Freeze Your Buns race on Sunday. Despite limited mileage this week, I improved my time from the previous two races finishing in 23:16. I guess the previous week's mileage and weight loss paid off. I never imagined that my recover from hip surgery would take so long after the quick start I got back to running post surgery, but I feel that each week I am slowly making positive changes on various imbalances and biomechanical problems that I am very happy for even a slow recovery. I keep telling myself that it took years to put myself into such bad compensation-filled running patterns, so I should expect a longer time of recovery as muscles and mechanics change for the better!
Saturday night I attended the New Balance Indoor Games in Boston and thoroughly enjoyed all the races. I got to see Jenn Suhr set an American Record in the pole vault (not the first time I have seen her do this in Boston), Maggie Vessey win a photo finish 800m, the Ethiopian greats Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar destroy their competition while avoiding racing each other, an interesting mens mile where Mo Farah got tripped and went down in the first lap and still recovered for 4th place, and other interesting races. Here are a few videos I took with my cheap video camera from my front row position in the cheap seats.
Jenn Suhr one leap before setting the American Record!
Tirunesh Dibaba almost about to lap the entire field in the 2 mile.
Meseret Defar destroying the field in the 3000 meters.
(as seen in the Super Bowl and on Meb Keflizhigi's feet in his recent first place USA Olympic Marathon Trials race). I can only say these are very interesting and comfortable shoes.
