After tons of ice and a little bit of time my knee got back to normal. I figured I wanted to work my way back into running slowly so that I didn't over do it. As such, I decided to hit the elliptical pretty hard on Wednesday. I did have a slight curve ball thrown my way since when I showed up to the gym there was actually someone on "my elliptical". Yep, that's right, it was literally the first time in the last three months that there was actually someone on the elliptical that I always use. Since I didn't feel like waiting, I decided to hop on the machine next to it. What I didn't realize, is that there is apparently some differences in the resistance between machines because a 9 resistance on the new machine was way harder than it was on "my machine".
While the workout didn't start out great, I pushed through the early low and was able to rock out a solid 70 minutes (~7 miles) on the elliptical. I was pretty spent after this workout but was glad that I was able to get in over an hours worth of cardio.
Once the workout was done, it was time to complete my PT exercises. I started to realize that over the last couple of weeks I have literally been spending upwards of 40 minutes a day doing my physical therapy stretches and exercises. It really made me think about how much time gets invested into doing these races. Literally, its been hours and hours and hours worth of stretching, exercising and running. Thankfully, I am finally starting to see some results as I am getting better at all the strengthening exercises and starting to see a really significant increase in my flexibility.
Looking ahead to the rest of the week, I am planning on doing a short run tomorrow (4-5 miles) followed by a physical therapy appointment in the evening. Friday, I am going to try to hit the elliptical again for a 30-40 minute workout. The big test is going to be Sunday ... the long run. This week I am going to do my long workout on the road with L Street. The planned run is scheduled for 14.7 miles ... which will officially be the longest run that I have ever completed. Keep your fingers crossed that the knee holds strong during this run since we are down to crunch time and there really isn't any room for error at this point.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The Aftermath
After my first quasi-long run I knew I was in for it, especially since the knee was pretty sore towards the end of the workout. Thankfully, I started icing my knee right after the workout and did it pretty religiously for the rest of the day. For the rest of the day the knee was really sore. As always, the pain is located right on the outside of the knee and it gets a lot worse when walking down the stairs. Overall, it wasn't all that bad but I did have some problems sleeping that night since the discomfort woke me up every time I rolled over.
Monday started as I would have expected ... with the knee being sore as shit. Again, I knew I had to do everything that I could to cut the circle of inflammation so that I could get back on the road. My go to regimen is basically Aleve and ice. Over the course of the day I was able to ice another 5 or 6 times for 20 minutes per session. I really think that the ice helps out a lot and makes a huge difference in how quickly my knee recovers.
Thankfully, by Tuesday morning the knee was back to normal and I was good to go.
Monday started as I would have expected ... with the knee being sore as shit. Again, I knew I had to do everything that I could to cut the circle of inflammation so that I could get back on the road. My go to regimen is basically Aleve and ice. Over the course of the day I was able to ice another 5 or 6 times for 20 minutes per session. I really think that the ice helps out a lot and makes a huge difference in how quickly my knee recovers.
Thankfully, by Tuesday morning the knee was back to normal and I was good to go.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Motivation - Part 1
After all of the ups and downs of my training lately, I figured it would be worth including a few entries on what serves as my motivation for taking on such a big goal and continuing to try to fight through the adversity that has seemed to plague my recent training. I guess its hard to really describe what motivates a person. I think we all have different things that push us forward to achieve certain tasks. I know that over the past few years, I have spent a lot of time reading stories about people who seem to accomplish amazing things despite having the odds stacked against them. Most of these stories revolve around soldiers in a time of war (Flags of Our Fathers, Lone Survivor, etc) but others were just inspirational stories like the one about Team Hoyt (Devoted).
In my last few entries, I have referred to this ITB / knee pain as a "speed bump" in my training. It really reminded me of a YouTube video that I became very fond of a few months back. It was something that I had seen on a TV special and had always wanted to get around to watching. Finally, on a slow call night I had the opportunity to watch the video, and I think I have watched it at least 30 times since. The name of the video is called "The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch"(just clinic on the link to be taken to the actual YouTube video). Its something that I would recommend everyone watch at some point ... just make sure you have the tissues handy. The reason that I referenced this video clip is because there is a quote in it that I have continued to think about lately. It comes about 3-4 minutes into his speech when he describes his multiple rejection letters from a job he had always desired. He calls these hurdles "brick walls" and insightfully says that:
"The brick walls that are in our way are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out, they are there to show how much we want it."
I don't know why but this quote seemed to strike a cord with me recently, since I seemed to be up against my own "brick wall" with this nagging injury. Fighting through and overcoming my "brick wall" should serve to show how bad I want to achieve this goal.
In my last few entries, I have referred to this ITB / knee pain as a "speed bump" in my training. It really reminded me of a YouTube video that I became very fond of a few months back. It was something that I had seen on a TV special and had always wanted to get around to watching. Finally, on a slow call night I had the opportunity to watch the video, and I think I have watched it at least 30 times since. The name of the video is called "The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch"(just clinic on the link to be taken to the actual YouTube video). Its something that I would recommend everyone watch at some point ... just make sure you have the tissues handy. The reason that I referenced this video clip is because there is a quote in it that I have continued to think about lately. It comes about 3-4 minutes into his speech when he describes his multiple rejection letters from a job he had always desired. He calls these hurdles "brick walls" and insightfully says that:
"The brick walls that are in our way are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out, they are there to show how much we want it."
I don't know why but this quote seemed to strike a cord with me recently, since I seemed to be up against my own "brick wall" with this nagging injury. Fighting through and overcoming my "brick wall" should serve to show how bad I want to achieve this goal.
Sunday ...
As I have mentioned many, many times before in this blog ... Sundays mean only one thing during training - The Long Run. While our running group had a solid 20 mile run planned today which encompassed the last few miles of the actual marathon course ... I had spent most of the end of the week trying to figure out exactly what my Sunday workout was going to consist of. At the recommendation of Renee, we decided that it would be best to incorporate some "on the road" running into the workout since the actual marathon is rolling up really, really quickly. After some discussion, we decided the best thing would be to run to the Y (~ 2 miles), workout on the elliptical for 1-2 hours and then run back home. This would give me the workout time I needed for a long run while also working in ~ 4 miles of actual running.
I woke up around 8 today, well after Renee had taken off to catch her bus that would take her 20 miles west of Boston where her run would be starting. After I woke up, I had a peanut butter sandwich and did some pretty intense stretching. I wanted to make sure that I stretched a lot since I was going to be running more than I had in a while. After my stretching, I took out the new Asics and put them on. Regardless of if they would help the problem, they looked and felt pretty good. As the temperature was pretty mild today ( low 50's), I actually headed out for my run with shorts, a t shirt and a wind breaker.
The run started off pretty well and was definitely much better than the 1.5 miler I completed three days earlier. I ran down west 1st street and was doing pretty well. I bet I got at least 1-1.25 miles into the run before I felt even a twinge in the knee (for that 10 minutes I thought that maybe the shoes had worked a miracle). I was able to complete the two miles to the gym without any real problems although my knee did start to have a twinge or two towards the end. Once at the gym, I spent about 5 minutes stretching some more and then hopped on my designated elliptical. On a side note, I have literally not seen any other person use this machine in the past 4 weeks ... I am starting to think the Y should just donate it to me because nobody else uses it. Once on the elliptical I punched in my normal settings ... Time = 60 minutes, Weight = 203 lbs, Resistance = 9 ... and started pedaling away.
The elliptical workout didn't start out well because my head just wasn't in it. It was really the first mild day in a while and deep down inside I really wanted to be outside running. I kept pedaling, but I really just couldn't get invested in the elliptical today. After about 10-15 minutes, I decided that it was enough and that the rest of my workout for the day would come on the road. I did a couple more minutes of stretching and then headed out back towards home. The run home went pretty well, the knee had a twinge but no where near how it felt just three days earlier. Next thing I knew, I was back at 13 Emmet and had tallied up 4 total miles for the day. I decided to switch out my phone, which I use for music at the gym, for my smaller ipod and head out to continue my run. I figured that since I had already clocked 4 miles for the day, if I was able to run down and around Castle Island I would be happy ending with a total of 8.
The run down towards Castle Island went well. Since it was windy throughout my run, I knew that Castle Island would be interested since the winds are easily 15-20 mph faster than they are in Southie or the city. What I have learned from my many runs around the island is that the key is to look at the flag when you get there and plan your run so that you have the wind at your back when you are on the far part of the loop (I learned this the hard way over the summer when I tried running against a 30 mph, lets just say mother nature won that battle). Since the winds were blowing towards Logan Airport, I decided to go counter clockwise around the loop. I was probably about 6 miles into the run when my knee really began to ache. I completed the remaining two miles alternated between running for ~ 0.5 miles and then walking for 10-20 seconds to let the knee loosen up a little. Regardless of how it went, I completed 8 miles today.
Overall, I was happy that I got a relatively good run in. I am not going to lie, my ITB was extremely sore after the run, but I have come to the conclusion that this is just something I am going to have to deal with for the next 45 days or so. The rest of the day was spent with a pretty hefty bag of ice on my knee. I included a picture which shows how both Renee and I felt after our Sunday workouts.
Looking ahead, I think my plan for the remaining weeks of training is as follows ...
1) Continue my weekly workouts on the elliptical with maybe a few 3-5 mile runs sprinkled in there over the upcoming weeks.
2) Complete the L Street long run on Sunday 3/13 which is scheduled to be a 14.7 miler.
3) Aim to do as much of the L Street long run on Sunday 3/27, which is a 20 mile run that mimics the first 20 miles of the actual marathon course.
4) Taper after that run, which will give the ITB about 18 days or so to recover before the big race
5) PT, PT, PT, PT ....
Again, this isn't anywhere close to how I picture my training would go back when I started this endeavor in November. Honestly, I had dreams of running every L Street long run and showing up completely healthy and injury free on April 18th. Unfortunately, a wrench got thrown in that plan, so I am kind of making things up as I go at this point. I figure as long as I can get these two long runs in over the next few weeks I should be alright to go from a training standpoint ... I hope.
I woke up around 8 today, well after Renee had taken off to catch her bus that would take her 20 miles west of Boston where her run would be starting. After I woke up, I had a peanut butter sandwich and did some pretty intense stretching. I wanted to make sure that I stretched a lot since I was going to be running more than I had in a while. After my stretching, I took out the new Asics and put them on. Regardless of if they would help the problem, they looked and felt pretty good. As the temperature was pretty mild today ( low 50's), I actually headed out for my run with shorts, a t shirt and a wind breaker.
The run started off pretty well and was definitely much better than the 1.5 miler I completed three days earlier. I ran down west 1st street and was doing pretty well. I bet I got at least 1-1.25 miles into the run before I felt even a twinge in the knee (for that 10 minutes I thought that maybe the shoes had worked a miracle). I was able to complete the two miles to the gym without any real problems although my knee did start to have a twinge or two towards the end. Once at the gym, I spent about 5 minutes stretching some more and then hopped on my designated elliptical. On a side note, I have literally not seen any other person use this machine in the past 4 weeks ... I am starting to think the Y should just donate it to me because nobody else uses it. Once on the elliptical I punched in my normal settings ... Time = 60 minutes, Weight = 203 lbs, Resistance = 9 ... and started pedaling away.
The elliptical workout didn't start out well because my head just wasn't in it. It was really the first mild day in a while and deep down inside I really wanted to be outside running. I kept pedaling, but I really just couldn't get invested in the elliptical today. After about 10-15 minutes, I decided that it was enough and that the rest of my workout for the day would come on the road. I did a couple more minutes of stretching and then headed out back towards home. The run home went pretty well, the knee had a twinge but no where near how it felt just three days earlier. Next thing I knew, I was back at 13 Emmet and had tallied up 4 total miles for the day. I decided to switch out my phone, which I use for music at the gym, for my smaller ipod and head out to continue my run. I figured that since I had already clocked 4 miles for the day, if I was able to run down and around Castle Island I would be happy ending with a total of 8.
The run down towards Castle Island went well. Since it was windy throughout my run, I knew that Castle Island would be interested since the winds are easily 15-20 mph faster than they are in Southie or the city. What I have learned from my many runs around the island is that the key is to look at the flag when you get there and plan your run so that you have the wind at your back when you are on the far part of the loop (I learned this the hard way over the summer when I tried running against a 30 mph, lets just say mother nature won that battle). Since the winds were blowing towards Logan Airport, I decided to go counter clockwise around the loop. I was probably about 6 miles into the run when my knee really began to ache. I completed the remaining two miles alternated between running for ~ 0.5 miles and then walking for 10-20 seconds to let the knee loosen up a little. Regardless of how it went, I completed 8 miles today.
Overall, I was happy that I got a relatively good run in. I am not going to lie, my ITB was extremely sore after the run, but I have come to the conclusion that this is just something I am going to have to deal with for the next 45 days or so. The rest of the day was spent with a pretty hefty bag of ice on my knee. I included a picture which shows how both Renee and I felt after our Sunday workouts.
Looking ahead, I think my plan for the remaining weeks of training is as follows ...
1) Continue my weekly workouts on the elliptical with maybe a few 3-5 mile runs sprinkled in there over the upcoming weeks.
2) Complete the L Street long run on Sunday 3/13 which is scheduled to be a 14.7 miler.
3) Aim to do as much of the L Street long run on Sunday 3/27, which is a 20 mile run that mimics the first 20 miles of the actual marathon course.
4) Taper after that run, which will give the ITB about 18 days or so to recover before the big race
5) PT, PT, PT, PT ....
Again, this isn't anywhere close to how I picture my training would go back when I started this endeavor in November. Honestly, I had dreams of running every L Street long run and showing up completely healthy and injury free on April 18th. Unfortunately, a wrench got thrown in that plan, so I am kind of making things up as I go at this point. I figure as long as I can get these two long runs in over the next few weeks I should be alright to go from a training standpoint ... I hope.
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| Post Sunday Workout Icing. Renee icing her feet / ankles after completing an 18 miler, which consistent of a small ankle tweak after stepping in a pot hole. And me icing my knee after an 8 miler, which was my first run of any real distance in a few weeks. |
Retail Therapy
Saturday rolled around and I was still feeling pretty down about how my last workout went. Its just frustrating that there doesn't seem to be much, if any, improvement in my knee over the past 3 weeks. As I was feeling pretty miserable about where I was in my training, I decided that maybe a new pair of sneakers would help me out. I figured ... even if they helped a little bit ... it may get me closer to achieving my goal. Thus, Saturday afternoon led Renee and I down to City Sports on Boylston. We took a peak at the shoes and talked with some of the guys who worked there. In the past, I have always been partial to Asics since they seemed to work well for me before. Since I didn't want to switch too many things up, I decided that I would stick with that brand and see if a newer shoe may help give me a little bit of support. According to my physical therapist, really the only two abnormalities that he saw in his initial PT evaluation were - 1) My left foot pronates (turns in) more than my right 2) My hips weren't that flexible. I figured that getting a more supportive / newer shoe may help work on problem 1.
In the end, I decided on a new pair of Asics aimed at stability (pic). Also, they had colors similar to the official BAA colors so how could I turn them down. The sole of the shoe is pretty rigid and really helps prevent the foot from pronating during the running motion. Like before, there was a small glimmer of hope that a new pair of shoes would be a silver bullet for this ITB ... even though deep down inside it was probably just retail therapy at its best. Whatever happens, I figured that it couldn't hurt trying a new pair of shoes and that maybe, just maybe they could help the problem.
Hopefully they will have some positive impact ...
In the end, I decided on a new pair of Asics aimed at stability (pic). Also, they had colors similar to the official BAA colors so how could I turn them down. The sole of the shoe is pretty rigid and really helps prevent the foot from pronating during the running motion. Like before, there was a small glimmer of hope that a new pair of shoes would be a silver bullet for this ITB ... even though deep down inside it was probably just retail therapy at its best. Whatever happens, I figured that it couldn't hurt trying a new pair of shoes and that maybe, just maybe they could help the problem.
Hopefully they will have some positive impact ...
 |
| My New Asics |
Test Run
So I have been doing relatively well with my elliptical workouts since I am definitely getting stronger and the intensity of the workouts has no doubt picked up in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, the Boston Marathon isn't run on an elliptical machine because if it was I might be considered one of the elites (actually, I probably still wouldn't be anywhere close to the front of the pack). Since the big race is only about 6-7 weeks away now, it was time that I got back on the road and tried pounding the pavement again to see how the knee had improved.
Since I just wanted to take it in baby steps, I decided to go to the gym and get a good 30 minute cardio workout in on the elliptical so that my days workout didn't consistent of just a 2 mile run. The elliptical workout, like I said above, was definitely a lot more intense than they were when I first started working out on the machine 4-5 weeks ago. I was able to rock out 3.4 miles in 30 mins on a course with "hills" at an avg rpm of ~160. After my elliptical workout, I spent about 20-30 minutes doing my stretches and exercises in the gym. I have found that using the stretching cage (see picture) has helped me out a lot.
With that little piece of training behind me, I got on the bus to head back to South Boston to go for my first run on the road in almost three weeks. The excitement that I felt towards actually going outside for a run was almost like a kid on Christmas. I was hopefully that the physical therapy, the stretching and the exercises I had been doing would finally pay off. Deep down inside, there was a part of me that was hoping for a miracle and was thinking that maybe I would be magically cured and that I would finally be able to run pain free.
Once I got home, I through on the winter running gear and heading outside. Armed with the Garmin watch, I had high hopes that this two mile test run was going to be awesome. Those high hopes, however, quickly faded about 1 min & 30 seconds into my run when I felt that familiar feeling of a burning / sharp sensation on the outside of my left knee. I thought for a split second that maybe it was something different ... a cramp, an itch, anything ... and that it would go away if I just keep running ... but it didn't. In total, I ran 1.5 miles in about 13 minutes and returned back to 13 Emmet Street ... down, dejected, frustrated and miserable.
It was hard to imagine that after 3 weeks of not running that the knee had appeared to get worse. Back when this started in mid-late January, the symptoms didn't pick up until at least mile 4 or 5. Now ... only 0.16 miles into the run ... they were there. Really, I don't have any words to describe how I felt that afternoon. When everything else seemed to be going so well ... my elliptical workouts had been getting better / more intense, I was gaining flexibility with all of my stretching, my cardiovascular conditioning is the best its ever been ... Every other part of my body felt good, except a 4 x 4 inch section on the outside of my knee.
For the rest of the day, I packed it in and continued to ice the knee. Thankfully, I really didn't run enough for it to be sore after I had iced it ... really what hurt was just the frustration of dealing with the nagging injury.
Since I just wanted to take it in baby steps, I decided to go to the gym and get a good 30 minute cardio workout in on the elliptical so that my days workout didn't consistent of just a 2 mile run. The elliptical workout, like I said above, was definitely a lot more intense than they were when I first started working out on the machine 4-5 weeks ago. I was able to rock out 3.4 miles in 30 mins on a course with "hills" at an avg rpm of ~160. After my elliptical workout, I spent about 20-30 minutes doing my stretches and exercises in the gym. I have found that using the stretching cage (see picture) has helped me out a lot.
With that little piece of training behind me, I got on the bus to head back to South Boston to go for my first run on the road in almost three weeks. The excitement that I felt towards actually going outside for a run was almost like a kid on Christmas. I was hopefully that the physical therapy, the stretching and the exercises I had been doing would finally pay off. Deep down inside, there was a part of me that was hoping for a miracle and was thinking that maybe I would be magically cured and that I would finally be able to run pain free.
Once I got home, I through on the winter running gear and heading outside. Armed with the Garmin watch, I had high hopes that this two mile test run was going to be awesome. Those high hopes, however, quickly faded about 1 min & 30 seconds into my run when I felt that familiar feeling of a burning / sharp sensation on the outside of my left knee. I thought for a split second that maybe it was something different ... a cramp, an itch, anything ... and that it would go away if I just keep running ... but it didn't. In total, I ran 1.5 miles in about 13 minutes and returned back to 13 Emmet Street ... down, dejected, frustrated and miserable.
It was hard to imagine that after 3 weeks of not running that the knee had appeared to get worse. Back when this started in mid-late January, the symptoms didn't pick up until at least mile 4 or 5. Now ... only 0.16 miles into the run ... they were there. Really, I don't have any words to describe how I felt that afternoon. When everything else seemed to be going so well ... my elliptical workouts had been getting better / more intense, I was gaining flexibility with all of my stretching, my cardiovascular conditioning is the best its ever been ... Every other part of my body felt good, except a 4 x 4 inch section on the outside of my knee.
For the rest of the day, I packed it in and continued to ice the knee. Thankfully, I really didn't run enough for it to be sore after I had iced it ... really what hurt was just the frustration of dealing with the nagging injury.
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| Stretching cage at the YMCA |
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Physical Therapy
I have to say, that after my nearly 3 hour long elliptical session yesterday the muscles in my legs were pretty dead today. Thankfully, I had planned on taking the day off from any type of cardio what so ever. Instead, I had a follow up appointment with my physical therapist, Declan, to continue trying to get me over these ITB issues. The appointment started out like all of the others with some simple stretching aimed at the hamstrings and hips. After the stretching, we moved to ~ 5 minutes worth of ultrasound therapy. Like I said in an earlier entry, the ultrasound therapy is aimed at increasing blood flow to the injured / inflamed area to help promote healing. Honestly, I am not sure if I buy that it works ... but I am willing to try anything. When I have a free second I am going to have to look into the medical literature to see if there is any evidence for it. After the ultrasound therapy, came the deep tissue massage. Honestly, this part hurts like hell. Its basically when the physical therapist mashes the hell out of the inflamed ITB to try and stretch it out ... it was about 5 minutes of pure pain. The next step was some slightly more intense stretching aimed more at the hip flexors / thighs. I think that my flexibility over the past few weeks has definitely increased from doing all of the stretching exercises that I was instructed to do.
As this is where my last couple of PT appointments had ended, I thought I was done. Instead, Declan had a few more exercises that he had me do wit a PT intern. The next battery of exercises revolved around resistance training / weight training aimed at the hip flexors / extensors. I have to say that doing these was harder than I thought, mostly because my legs are so out of shape. My homework was the same as before ... hamstring stretches, hip flexor stretches, ITB stretches and some gluteus medius strengthening.
Unfortunately, since I am overnight on Tuesday night I won't have time to do cardio. I am going to try to aim to run 2-3 miles on Wednesday before my PT appointment to give the ITB a little test drive. Hopefully all goes well.
As this is where my last couple of PT appointments had ended, I thought I was done. Instead, Declan had a few more exercises that he had me do wit a PT intern. The next battery of exercises revolved around resistance training / weight training aimed at the hip flexors / extensors. I have to say that doing these was harder than I thought, mostly because my legs are so out of shape. My homework was the same as before ... hamstring stretches, hip flexor stretches, ITB stretches and some gluteus medius strengthening.
Unfortunately, since I am overnight on Tuesday night I won't have time to do cardio. I am going to try to aim to run 2-3 miles on Wednesday before my PT appointment to give the ITB a little test drive. Hopefully all goes well.
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In all the times I have been to the gym, I never thought I would ever use this machine! But, apparently my hip adductors & abductors needed some strengthening so it is now part of my routine! |
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