Silly Man. (again)

I went out today to inaugurate the 'official' training period for the Paris Marathon. It was scheduled to be 3 miles at 10:10 and I just couldn't bring myself to do that. I went out with a co-worker and we did 5 at about 9:15 instead.

Overall, it was a good run, until we ran into the woman and her dogs. We were running two abreast on a decently wide (yet snow and ice covered) paved trail. She was on our right with one dog, and the other dog over on the left. There was also an older couple about 5m behind her, also on the right.

Being a rational beast, my co-worker took early and decisive action and fell in behind me on the left of the trail. Which, of course meant that the woman took her one dog over to join the other on the left. Right in our way. I'm sure this is some German custom about only passing port-to-port.

So, this required us to jump back over to the right. At this point my foot slipped on the ice, causing me to crash down on my left hip, knee and of course, wrist. This despite the fact that on the way out (this was the return leg of an out-and-back) I made specific note of how icy this area was. And how I really wasn't looking forward to running down this slope with all the ice. And how if I did slip, the one thing I really didn't want to do was to try to catch my whole body weight with my hand. But, yes, that's exactly what I tried to do.

So, my wrist which was just about 100% from Thanksgiving. Is now sore again. Joy.

Let's just hope this isn't a bad omen for the whole marathon experience. Which, thanks to the vagaries of U.S. Military medicine, I'm still not medically cleared to run. But the doc specifically said not to stop what I was already doing. So, to me that means I'm still cleared to 13.

Whoops (again...)

Today was a big milestone in my ankle's recovery. I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill. While I really prefer not to use them, I did it for a reason. I wanted a nice even running surface so I wouldn't have to worry about turning my ankle again. Basically, I wanted to baby it. And I did. And it felt fine. Stiff but fine. I'll venture out onto the trails again soon.

One of the nice aspects of running on a treadmill is that there are usually other people around. And sometimes they're quite humorous.

In the gym there are 2 rows of 3 treadmills, with 4 bicycles and about 10 ellipticals behind them. I got a late start to the gym today, so by the time I got there I had to grab the last open treadmill in the back row, far right. I got it set up and went to plug my headphones into the audio jack and alas, no audio.

So I was left with a choice of watching one of three TV programs-with no sound:

1. analysis of the presidential election on a news channel,
2. a rebroadcast of the Bears vs. Colts game from Sunday night, or
3. some movie that I couldn't identify.

Needless to say only one of those really lends itself to sound-free enjoyment.

It soon became obvious that the gentleman using the front left most treadmill was a big Chicago Bears fan. Every time something went their way, he'd let out a little cheer, every time something went wrong, a little exasperated sigh. This was going on for some time and it was really entertaining.

Everything was going swimmingly right until there was a "big play." I don't recall if it was a touchdown, interception, fumble, dropped pass or maybe a safety. What made it so entertaining was that as this was going on the poor guy ran off the side of his treadmill and tried to take a header into the control panel. Luckily he failed in his attempt and got right back up running again.

Nothing is more humorous than the travails of others.

So, I guess running on the treadmill isn't 100% safe either.

Whoops (update 3)

I did 20 minutes on the elliptical on Friday. It felt really good. The ankle was a little stiff (likely from lake of use) but no pain. I felt good walking from the gym to the car to put my bag in the trunk.

Then I turned my ankle on a crack in the parking lot.

I suck.

Whoops (update 2)

Well, the ankle is getting better. As expected the knee has not been an issue.

Following a strict RICE regimen it feels pretty good. Not 100%, but good. I did about 20 minutes on the bicycle in the gym yesterday without any pain, and I've done quite a bit of strength training (including lunges) without a niggle.

So I'm hoping to be back running soon, I just don't want to rush into it. I'm signed up as part of a team for a 24hr marathon relay next weekend and I'd like to not back out!

Whoops (update 1)

I mentioned yesterday that the LM helped bandage my knee. Here is his handy work. He even offered one of his special band-aids to do it! I feel very lucky!

Whoops

So.
I've been trying out some of the new features of my new watch. I figured that the auto lap detect feature was a great match for some speed work on the track. It's great. If you set it up properly, it will detect when you cross your own path and mark a "lap." Great feature.

I jogged up to the local track this afternoon to give it a try. I did the first two laps as a warm up then proceeded to alternate fast laps with slow laps. The 405 beeps every time a lap is detected, so I used that as my signal to pick up the pace or slow down.

Post run, the data the unit provides is pretty good (better than the Polar S120 I've been using anyway). Here's some of the data from my run. I didn't wear the heart rate monitor today. In the past, there has been interference on the track that prevents a good signal:

Lap

Time

Distance

Avg Pace

Avg Heart Rate

Avg Cadence

Calories

1	00:01:46	0.17 mi	10:42 min/mi	--	--	26 C
2	00:03:13	0.34 mi	09:34 min/mi	--	--	56 C
3	00:03:09	0.33 mi	09:24 min/mi	--	--	56 C
4	00:02:24	0.34 mi	06:59 min/mi	--	--	55 C
5	00:03:21	0.35 mi	09:41 min/mi	--	--	59 C
6	00:02:15	0.33 mi	06:45 min/mi	--	--	53 C
7	00:03:44	0.34 mi	11:00 min/mi	--	--	60 C
8	00:00:29	0.06 mi	08:25 min/mi	--	--	7 C

Now, the astute among you may say: "Gee, that's a short last lap. Only 0.06mi. What did you do? Wimp out?" Uh. No.

As I was rounding the first corner of the track, one of four things happened:

a) I hit an uneven spot, or
b) someone unseen by me threw something in my path, or
c) I hit the inner edge of the track, or
d) I tripped over my own two feet

I'm voting for b.

Anyway. The damage is done. I'm nursing a nice skinned left knee (which the LM has helped by putting a bandage on) and a swollen right ankle.

I'm not worried about the knee. Although it looked really bad at first. Luckily, what I initially thought was a massive abrasion and bruise turned out to be mostly some of the red surface of the track that rubbed off. After a shower it cleaned up nicely.

The ankle is ugly. It's the same ankle I've sprained on and off for years. We'll see how it develops. Right now I'm practicing the Ice and Elevation aspects of RICE. Compression will come in a few minutes.

The most frustrating thing? With all the running on trails, paths and other uneven surfaces I've been doing, where do I bite it? On a track! (and no, I wasn't looking at my pace on the watch when I did it).