Sunday, July 1, 2012

From Minutes to Mileage

I finally have some running mileage to report. I had started up running again a month ago after stopping at the end of February, but I had been only marking my progress by the number of minutes I had been running. I was only doing laps around the neighborhood. Then I started using the S.E.R.F. Strap at the end of last week. Sunday I did a 5 mile route, rather than laps, and then Monday I decided to jump into the  Mine Falls Trail 5k to start the weeks mileage with an unplanned and slow race. 

Monday: 3 miles Mine Falls 5K race
Tuesday: 2 miles
Wednesday: 8 miles (first 8 miler since the end of February)
Thursday: 0 miles running- 8 miles on the mountain bike
Friday: 8 miles  (4 minutes faster than Wednesday)
Saturday: 0 miles 
Sunday: 8 miles (3 1/2 minutes faster than Friday)
Total miles this week: 29 miles


I'll take that! I only expected I would do 15-20 miles at the beginning of the week and would have been happy with that. The strap seems to keep the inside of my hip-adductors from pinching which allows me to run pain-free. My stride isn't entirely smooth, but I get to points where it feels like I am rolling along and to run without pain is great. Both feet feel like they spend equal time on the ground instead of the left side feeling slower as it has for years. I feel real good after each 8 miler, but at nighttime my muscles around my hip tie up a bit and it takes about 24 hours to feel good again. Saturday and today I felt increasingly worse after Friday's 8 miler. I had a hard time sleeping Saturday night as the pinching was coming back. I did not think I would run on Sunday at all, but it started to loosen up on its own by mid-afternoon and I unpacked my inversion table and hung for a few minutes on that to see if would help me decompress. I did not go fully inverted but only about half-way so I was still supported by the table not knowing how my hip would take this. As soon as I got off the table, all the tenseness in my hip and glutes was gone and I decided that I would run and was out the door in about 10 minutes. It is nice starting to run road miles again. 

4 comments:

Sue said...

Way to go, Jim!!

Laura said...

Very good news! You are ambitious- I started running regularly again back in February after 2 years of hamstring issues. For weeks I had to sit on ice after running, but I am now 100% pain free. However, unlike you, I am running very modest distances - no more than 3 miles at a time. I'm happy for you!

Jim Hansen said...

Thanks Sue, I was not so smart and did the 5k today after yesterday's 8 miler. I was a little bit faster than last week, but my hip wasn't happy.

Jim Hansen said...

Laura, That is great you are pain-free. The hamstring can be a big problem for people that try running through it. And 3 miles is all you need for fun and feeling good. Did you ever do that race you were pointing towards?