Back in the saddle (and running shoes) again.

Wow - it's good to be back running again.  I'm not running a lot of miles or doing speed work or racing but running non the less.  After jacking up my sacrum in January and many, many subsequent weeks of mild, "barely counts as training", soft-peddle workouts, I'm just about to the point where I can race.  After a long (7 mile) run yesterday my sacrum is a little sore and stiff but after a good nights rest it seems to be ready for more.  Mind you, I'm still not trusting said sacrum and only running every other day and only increasing milage by 1 mile per run.  Must be careful - I don't want to get injured again.

Trail running shoes and "apre-running" moccasins 

On the cycling side of my training plan things are going quite well.  Just 4 weeks ago I did my first hard bike ride (over 3 PTE according to Movescount).  Since then I've steadily increased the length, intensity, climbing and frequency of hard rides.  Last week I did my first ThirstyBear Cycling team ride since January heading up Mt. Hamilton with several of the guys.  It was supposed to be a hard 18 mile ride to the summit and then another 30 to 50 miles of hills at an easy pace.  10 miles into the ride the group was hamming out 300+ watts and I was barely hanging on.  Thinking about the remaining 40+ steep, hilly miles I decided the wise choice would be to get dropped and put forth a more controlled effort to the summit.  Furthermore, our plan was to ride over the remote backside of Mt. Hamilton and climb back to the summit again.  I imagined myself being so whipped that I wouldn't be able to get back up the mountain and ride back home.  That would have sucked!

The bottom of the backside of Mt. Hamilton

I finally made it to the summit in 1:28:13 - about 8 minutes behind the first of my teammates.  It was my 3rd best time and 10 minutes behind my PR........and we were still planning to ride down/up the backside of Hamilton - twice!   The ride down was awesome fun, 4.3 miles, 1900' of twisty descending including a cattle-grate crossing.  Coming back up easy was fine until about the last 1/2 mile when I began to run out of gas.  There was no way I was going back down and up again.  That would have quickly made me into vulture fodder.  While it was 18 miles back to the car, it was mostly downhill - dropping 3800' interrupted by 2 short climbs.  Totals for the ride - 50 miles, 7000' of climbing.

Mt. Hamilton

While that ride did kick my ass (178 suffer score on Strava), it did reassure me that I was in more than soft-peddle shape and best of all, my sacrum didn't complain.  Building on that ride I rode even further on Monday going 70 miles, climbing 7000' and feeling pretty good at the end of the ride.

Here's a few snapshot of my training over the past couple months.  Note that the swimming "ascent" is phony.  A result of swimming with my +Suunto Ambit and its barometric pressure elevation sensor.  By April I figured out how to turn that off.

FEBRUARY:

MARCH:

APRIL (partial 4/1 to 4/18):

You can see that in February I had no running (except a brief Alter-G treadmill run) and all the "training" was at lower heart race zones (1 & 2).  By March I was able to get more Alter-G runs and start running on pavement.  Also in March there was more time spent at higher heart rates.  April is on track to have even more overall training time, more miles and hopefully by the end of the month some running speed work on the track.  

I don't want to run in one of these for the rest of my life.

In the meantime, incremental increases are the order of the day.  While I like my physical therapist, I don't want a frequent flyer punch card for the Alter-G treadmill (pictured above).  

Weeks in Training - what training??

Yeah that's right, "what training"?  The past 2 weeks were not good as my training dwindled down to a full week of nothing, zip, zero, nada, zilch due to an injury.  Let's recap:

January 21 - strained a tendon attached to my sacrum during an 8 mile run.
January 22 - Ok, how about road biking? Still hurts.
January 23 - More road biking?  It should start to get better right?  Nope, no it REALLY hurts.
January 24 - How about some gentle Dailey Method core strength?  No pounding there.  Nope, now it's killing me.
January 25 - No training - hurts to walk.
January 26 - No training - hurts to walk.
January 27 - No training - hurts to walk.

January 28 - No training - hurts to walk.  Called for a doctors appointment.
January 29 - Feels slightly better.  How about double pole rollerskiing?  Only hurts to walk down stairs.  Sore after rollerskiing.
January 30 - Rollerskiing. Sore
January 31 - Rollerskiing. More Sore.
February 1 - Rollerskiing. Yeah, this isn't working - still hurts and getting worse.  Doctors appointment.  She's useless but I get my referral to physical therapy.
February 2 - How about really easy biking instead?  Nope, still hurts a little.
February 3 - More biking?  How about some pain fella?

February 4 - Try rollerskiing again.  A little better but there's still no way I can run on this.
February 5 - Easy, flat road bike.  No improvement.
February 6 - Easy, flat road bike.  No improvement.
February 7 - Easy, flat road bike.  No improvement.
February 8 - Easy, flat road bike.  No improvement.
February 9 - Ok, I give up.  No training.
February 10 - No training.

February 11 - No training.  Ok, this is feeling much better.  Still sore, but better.
February 12 - 5 mile easy morning road bike.  Another 5 in the afternoon. Ok, not bad.
February 13 - 8 mile flat mountain bike ride.  Ok, that hurts a lot more!  WTF?  Maybe my sacrum doesn't like the saddle on my mountain bike.
February 14 - No training.
February 15 - No training.
February 16 - No training.
February 17 - No training.

February 18 - No training.
February 19 - No training.  Pain is much reduced but still a little sore.

Summary one month into this injury?  I'm better but still not anywhere near being able to run or bike as often or as far as I'd like.  It's going to be a long hard road of physical therapy and a very gradual increase of physical activity.

The good news is that I've been able to do some things other than bike or run my ass off (pun intended).  Earlier this month I drove the support vehicle for my cycling team - Thirsty Bear Cycling.  I wouldn't want to make a job out of it, but helping the guys on the team was fun and I was able to take a lot of pictures.  Driving around Napa Valley on a couple sunny, warm winter days is time well spent.  Kelly and I also spent a day driving over to the coast by the road less traveled which in the back of my mind was also a scouting trip for future bike rides.  :-)

Going forward I've got a decent plan.  The PT has hooked me up with an exercise regimen, I'm stretching regularly, drinking coffee, sitting on a stability ball, taking anti-inflammatory supplements, drinking more coffee and hitting the hot tub twice per day.

.......and I've committed to swimming laps for at least 15 minutes a day in the outdoor pool.  Hey, it's California, so why not?!

Week in Training - January 28 to February 3

How do you train when you're injured?  Very carefully.  It's now been 2 weeks since I badly strained several muscles in my lower back / gluteus maximus and I'm coming to grips with what I can and can't do for training.  Running?  No way - it still hurts to walk (particularly down stairs).  Roller-skiing?  I thought so last week but now I'm thinking maybe not so much.  Cycling?  Last week I thought not so much but now I think yes......a little.

The old Salomon SNS bindings

Such is the struggle along the road to recovery.  Figuring what kind of training I can do (and for how long) to maintain fitness without re-injuring myself is now the challenge.  After doing four days of NOTHING I thought double-pole roller-skiing would be a good way to start back up.  It's non-impact and uses only core and upper body muscles so I was hopeful.

V2 roller-skis - still handmade in Milford, NH (USA)

Tuesday, January 29 - 7.6 mile double-pole roller-ski
Wednesday, January 30 - 7.6 mile double-pole roller-ski
Thursday, January 31 - 7.6 mile double-pole roller-ski
Friday, February 1 - 7.6 mile double-pole roller-ski

Swix carbon fiber ski poles from Norway

Now that I've lived with this injury a little longer I think roller-skiing (or too much roller-skiing??) may be making it worse.  My back/butt is pretty painful after these workouts and I think it's because roller-skiing is still activating stability muscles.  Or, to put it another way, I'm discovering through trial and error that my injured muscles are stability muscles.

Historic Hanger One as seen from the Motorola parking garage across Moffett Field

Why not ride my bike?  Because before getting hurt (and doing NOTHING for 4 days), I was riding my bike and said arse muscle was killing me.  So, following the advanced diagnostic technique of "if it hurts, don't do it", I decided not to do that which causes pain - biking.  In hindsight (no pun intended), I think my butt/lower back was so jacked up that anything was going to hurt.  Now that I have a better feeling for what's wrong, I think some easy, flat road cycling might actually be better than roller-skiing.

Saturday, February 2 - 15 mile road bike ride
Sunday, February 3 - 27 mile road bike ride

The new Juniper Networks building near Moffett Field

This week I'm looking forward to my first physical therapy visit and hope to get a better handle on what exactly is wrong and what I can do to make it better.  In the meantime, all I can do is ice, heat, stretch, hot tub and not poke at my injury with the sharp stick of too much training.

Week in Training - January 21 to January 27

Some weeks of training are awesome.  You get all the desired miles, hit every quality workout like a champ, overcome inclement weather and feel the way Galen Rupp looked this past weekend. This was not one of those weeks.  This was a week that started with a small, nagging twinge (a.k.a. "pain") and ended in a full blown case of "it hurts to walk".

Yeah, I'm officially injured.  On the "DL" as they say in baseball..........but without the fat paycheck.  Disabled List?  Is that really a thing among runners anyway?  Last I checked we didn't have benches to warm or teammates to pick up the slack and take one for the team.  Instead being an injured runner is a much lonelier affair.  Your fellow runners go on, build up more miles, get faster while you sit at home and contemplate the road to recovery.  Ok, maybe not all runners do that; but I do.

So here I sit, typing instead of running or cycling or skiing or snowshoeing or something.  Did I mention it hurts to walk?  Let's see how I got to this place.  Sunday, January 20 - my first speed workout of 2013.  5x 800m at 5:30 pace.  Felt great.  All is well; great way to end the week; feeling like the aforementioned Mr. Rupp (but looking like a guy who runs the mile about 90 seconds slower).

Monday, January 21 - Our President is waving to the assembled masses on his way to being sworn in for 4 more years and I'm out running 8 miles.  All is well until about 6 miles when I feel a tightening in my right butt-cheek.  Humm, that's interesting but not exactly painful.  It gets a little tighter those last 2 miles but doesn't blow-up in catastrophic fashion.  Perhaps I dodged a bullet?

....or not.  By mid afternoon this little twinge actually hurts for real but not in a bad way.  At the time I thought it was a minor strain and would heal-up so long as I didn't race or do intervals on it.  Since I was back on the core strength bandwagon after a holiday break, I went to The Dailey Method in the late afternoon.

Tuesday, January 22 - I woke up feeling pretty good with no real pain in the butt (cheek) but decided to play it safe and ride my bike (48 miles) instead of running just in case.  While still a bit sore, this didn't seem to make things worse so perhaps I was out of the woods.

Woodside, California

Wednesday, January 23 - Raining - nice!  Again, I opted for a flat, 45 mile road bike ride to give my butt another day to get with the program.  Nice strategy, but Mr. Gluteus Maximus decided my idea of an easy day was not so much.  About 25 miles into the ride I could feel a little muscle next to my tail bone getting tighter and tighter.  Over the last 5 miles it was actually hurting quite a bit - particularly when I'd get out of the saddle.  Shit.

This is where your salt comes from (look it up)

Thursday, January 24 - Yeah this thing hurts but core strength is good for you - right?  It's most definitely very low or even no impact so how's about I do another 1 hour Dailey Method workout?  It didn't hurt once I was warmed up and working out but later that day it was screaming and I knew something was really, REALLY wrong.  Time to heat, ice, pop some Advil, stretch gently and wait it out.  This shouldn't take long - right?

Friday, January 25 - No workouts.  My butt pain still hurts - a lot.  That first step on my right leg when getting up after sitting for a few hours hurts the most.

Saturday, January 26 - No workouts.  Still hurts.  Hurts to walk.  Double shit.

Sunday, January 27 - No workouts.  Pain.  Really?  Still?  WTF?  Need to get a doctors appointment first thing on Monday.  In the meantime I'll drink away my sorrows........with coffee.

(Mono)Chromatic Coffee is now where Barefoot Coffee once was in Cupertino

So that's where I am on this Monday.  Not training.  Taking Advil.  Gentle stretching.  Hot tub.  Ice, heat, ice, heat, etc.  Waiting for my Friday doctors appointment.  Waiting sucks the most.  What is it?  Dunno.  Sacral stress fracture?  Maybe.  Torn muscle?  Dunno but that feels more likely.  Stay tuned and in the meantime don't wait for me; go on; save yourselves; run some miles; I'll be just fine.......sitting here........at the computer.....not running.  :-)

Week in Training - November 19 to 25

My recent knee issue is feeling much better this week.  A visit to physical therapy hooked me up with the exercises to stretch my quad muscle attachments and mobilize the patella.  There's still some tissue inflammation but no pain and I stopped taking anti-inflamatories.

My pelvic injury from last Summer still causes some aching in the morning but whatever I did to my calf back in September is 100% better. So, with everything going so well I actually got some decent running miles in this week.

Monday: 6.5 mile easy run - point to point from Kelly's office to home.
Tuesday: 11 mile roller ski on the Shoreline trails in the morning.  I saw Vitor Rodrigues out for his morning run.  He said I was easily recognized since pretty much nobody else in Mountain View roller skis.  In the afternoon I went up to Los Altos for a 1 hour Dailey Method core strength workout.
Wednesday: After a rainy night, it was muddy on the unpaved Bay Trail where I ran 6.5 miles out and back along Moffett Field.
Thursday: Thanksgiving Day.  1 week after some pretty acute pain in my right knee I wanted to test it on the bike again.  18 easy, flat miles on the road bike was pain free but I did experience a little increased irritation and inflammation later in the day.
Friday: Since runs to date hadn't exacerbated any of my injuries I went out for a "long run".  In this case, 9 flat miles on the road.  No post run pain - mission accomplished.
Saturday: In the morning Kelly and I went up to Menlo Park for a 1 hour Dailey Method core strength workout.  Normally I might go for a long bike ride on Saturday but with my recent knee issues I settled for a 4 mile easy run.
Sunday: Nothing fancy - just another 7 mile run on the roads.

Not a bad week of training.  I'm happy to be back up to 35 miles of running in a week but disappointed that this knee issues is limiting my cycling.  Next steps will be to slowly ramp up the running miles while adding a little speed.  As for cycling, that will depend on how my knee responds - fingers crossed.  In the meantime, there's always roller skiing.........at least until we head to Bend, OR in two weeks for some real snow skiing.

Week in Training - November 12 to 18

The week started well as I was "graduated" from physical therapy for my pelvis and calf injuries.  Good news until I managed to injure my right knee on Tuesday at a Dailey Method core strength class.  It was most likely caused by quad & glut strength exercises that require deep knee bends.

I had the same issue with my left knee in 2009 after a crossfit class.  That injury eventually required surgery.  It appears that my 25 years of running, cycling and skiing has made the cartilage in my knees susceptible to damage from deep knee bending under heavy loads.

Monday: 6 mile bike ride to physical therapy, 6 mile bike home from PT, 26 mile bike ride up/down Page Mill Road where I made this cool short test video.
Tuesday: 1 hour of Dailey Method core strength, 7 mile flat road run.
Wednesday: 33 mile road bike ride around Woodside and Portola Valley.
Thursday: Day off - right knee pain.
Friday: 12 mile skate roller ski around Shoreline Park.
Saturday: 1 hour of Dailey Method, 4 mile easy run to test my right knee - feels ok.
Sunday: 6 mile flat road run - knee still feels good.

My goal for this coming week is to get my training back on track.  I'll be going back to physical therapy on Monday where I hope to get some exercises to help my right knee track more efficiently.