Totally have a happy national running day..please..

National Running Day

A day where runner's take extra pride in their motivation and the running community. Where we can be a little extra obnoxious to non runners when we talk about how we ran today. Totally an awesome day...

Except if you are a sourpuss like me.

I'm totally...

I know I should have my supportive face on, put aside my injury madness... but I end up feeling like this:

I'm sure any of you that are committed to an activity, like running, and get sidelined from it due to an injury, secretly have this feeling when you see other people doing and enjoying the activity that you love.

But you probably want some content here! So let's go!

Last Friday, my physical therapist said I could try doing a back to running program, since I had a few days in a row where my knee wasn't bad. The plan was a 10-15 minute warm up, stretch, then do 5 minutes of running and 2 minutes of walking, repeat until I hit 45 minutes.  I was pumped. I felt like the wind was about to change and blow away my dark injury clouds. I was thinking ahead where I could be in a week or two! Then reality set in..

Saturday brought back a cranky knee that wasn't bending well and increased pain. I took some Advil for my pain/swelling and felt much better after.  Sunday I woke up feeling a bit more limber. I had to try the run. I didn't want to go to therapy again saying I was too scared to try.

Once I warmed up and stretched, I started my run. I felt right away that things were not right.  My right leg wasn't bending back far enough or doing the full running motion. My knee was wobbly. Yada yada yada

Mentally this was happening:

I kept hoping that my knee would magically warm up and I'd be free like a bird on the lakefront path. Once I realized I would be a train wreck, I got off the main lakefront trail and to one of the side trails closer to the lake. It was a test of madness and lost hope. The two minute walks in between the running attempts were rough, not because I wanted to run again quicker, but I was in slow time and had to accept that reality isn't ready to match my dream.

I got home and was thankful that I didn't force ill advised speed or time to happen. I was happy to not be in any intense pain or knee swelling. Although my right ankle did flare up the next few days due to the awkward stride I had.

My frustration isn't so much in the long break from running (I know many people that have had to be benched for much longer than me), but rather the repeated failed efforts to return to running. The time table for my return has always been fuzzy, so my hopes stay in limbo. If you follow sports, I feel like I am constantly on the "day to day" status for months now.

But all is not all wobbly like jello! I saw my sports doctor yesterday who told me I'm probably two to three weeks from running again. I need to use some NSAID pain relievers to control the swelling for a week, as that is what cause my pain and stiffness. My doctor and my therapist told me the reason my knee locks up and can't move without pain sometimes is that my MCL gets caught in the track for my knee cap, so getting off that hurts..Ouchies.

Okay, enough negative nancy. Let's move on.

Life isn't all gloom!

It is totally raining in our living room

And my daughter graduated to her big girl bed!

And some days, it is better to just hang around and do nothing:

I've stolen enough of your attention for one sitting! Thanks for stopping bye!
Enjoy your run :)

To run is human, to rest is feeling bovine

Hello All!

I'm still twiddling my thumbs over here, waiting to get the okay to run again. I got cleared to do light impact exercise, like the bike. I hopped on an exercise bike, and quickly got bored due to the lack of intensity I could offer the machine due to my cranky knee. Although I pressed on with the "effort" just to get some sort of calorie burn. Director's Commentary: I couldn't even get my heart rate up and my body sweating! At least I don't look gross and sweaty right?

One more complaint about my sprained MCL and I'll move on! Getting my leg muscles working and walking around for 10-15 minutes helps the blood flow, reduces swelling, and eventually, I don't have to put much thought into having a normal gait. Great right? Well, working a desk job, or sitting for more than 10-15 minutes does the reverse of walking. Freezes up my knee and makes walking an uncomfortable chore. So if you see me walking weird:

The treatment for my sprained MCL (and my ankles) at physical therapy has easily been my most painful physical therapy bout to date! My therapist, Rachel (same one I had last year), has been using the Graston Technique on both my legs, my right knee, and my ankles.  I'm sure many of you have experienced the glory yourself of the metal tools of torture breaking all that holy scar tissue in your legs. The pain is fun enough, but when they redo areas that were nicely bruised the last session, holy crap. I'm pretty sure I was having an out of body pain experience!

And when my therapist asks if I'm okay, knowing it'll help me in the long run I say:

Still no estimated return time to running. Could be next week, could be in a few weeks! The first week or two running will have hard caps on time running as well (I'm sure I'll complain about that too!).

Okay, I'm getting off my waaambulance. How about some links?

I have linked this a few times before, but come check out my subreddit! http://www.reddit.com/r/RunnersInChicago/
The community is over 600 people strong now and I brought on board a few active members to help get more events going on, like track night!

Ever want to see the public running clubs in Chicago (proper) mapped out? Well I did, so I made the map! I only used groups that have normal runs, open to the public, and some static meeting point.:
Map here!  Let me know if I missed any groups!

I found this running video funny:


I really enjoyed this interview with Steve Jones, "I Never Wore A Watch": Running Lessons From A Record-Breaking Everyman". Gave me some inspiration in this dull rehab times.

That's enough text for today! Kudo's if you know the source of some of the gifs!

I hope you have a great long weekend!

Hold my beer while I finally update my blog

This quote has as much literal meaning as it does motivational to me.:

Over the last few months, I feel like I have been cast to be in this famous story with regards to my ability to run:

My initial injury was a sprain of my left ankle in early March, when I fell down some icy stairs.

I didn't realize I had sprained it (I thought the pain and stiffness was just a bruise). I went to see a doctor a couple weeks later, and he diagnosed it. He told me I could run, just use pain as my guidance. I removed long distance and speed runs from the next week, and felt like I was improving slowly. Then I got a stomach flu and missed the next 10 days. I took this as a blessing in disguise, 10 days rest will be great for my ankle!

We are now at the week of the Shamrock shuffle. I knew I had to try to shake off dust and get at least one sustained speed test in that week. After 4 days of easy runs, I had to test my ankle and fitness. Both were not there. Race didn't happen. I ended up taking my daughter to the zoo (with the jogging stroller), thinking I could enjoy an easy pace and split up the run.

I didn't think the run through enough. Running into the wind with a jogging stroller put a lot of pressure on my ankle and set me in pain. Now we start the horrible next month or so of rebound running.  I would rest 5-10ish days, make sure all the pain was gone, pass the hop test, get all sorts of excited, thinking this would be my return.. and 1 or 2 short runs later, I was in pain again.

Finally, my left ankle stopped hurting (it was a little tight, but improving), but now my right ankle gave me pain after 35-40 minutes of running, and set me limping for a few days after (right side was overcompensating). Rebound running again.

Mentally, I'm getting pissed, frustrated, and defeated. I know I can't complain, I'm not unique in the matter, everyone gets hurt. I just hate it being such a blurry injury that teases me into thinking I'm healthy.  I take another week off, see the doctor and accept a physical therapy recommendation. I go ahead and try to run again just because I had no symptoms, and suffer the same consequences.

Now with the weather turning. the city has been filled with runners . I have to avert my eyes, my frustration builds. Remembering how just as I got injured, I was getting into some new area of sustained running speed that I didn't have last year. I wanted that back, and I want to improve so far beyond that.

As the blog post started, you fall to learn to pick yourself back up. Apparently, I wasn't done falling...Literally.

My physical therapist (same one I had last year during my Chicago Marathon training) put me on rest while she bruised my legs and ankles with Graston tools and works on getting my fibularis longus back into place. I didn't mind the pain, as it validated my complaints stemmed from an injury and were not imagined, and that they can be improved upon.

What could happen during this rest right?

Well apparently, I can sprain my MCL on my right knee! I went out to the Zombie Pub Crawl and fell of a stage while doing a dance that has you hop 90 degrees every verse to repeat the dance. (Note: There was a curtain behind the stage, which I thought was just covering a wall.. not space for me to fall) My right leg stage on the stage and get bent a bad way.

Pre fallen zombie

I went to see the doctor again, he diagnosed it easily. Thankfully he wasn't worried, as all the major injuries were avoided. I'll have to deal with the pain and limp (my knee is wrapped up) for about a week and have my physical therapist work on that as well. Hopefully I can get some estimated time for when I can start running again soon...Or maybe I should just start with walk without a limp again?

To sum this up, I'm obviously Batdad. And as soon as I get out of this injury dungeon (thanks Bane), there will be hell to pay on my running shoes.

Cheers!

Learning to Run with Asthma

Today on My American Life (Will you read this Ira Glass?)

Running with Asthma

Disclaimer: This post isn’t a study on runners with asthma or some science of running with asthma. This post is just my experience.

Upon being diagnosed with asthma in November 2013, I was under the impression I would only experience exercise induced asthma, specifically for my long runs. But my doctor cleared me up, telling me to use albuterol (the rescue inhaler) before every run and as needed. I also was put on a corticosteroid to help prevent asthma attacks.  After a couple weeks of use, I felt an improvement; I thought I was on the fast road to being normal. I’d wake up some days thinking I was cured, but it was more akin to falling asleep with your glasses/contacts on and thinking you no longer need vision assistance. Not so fast there slugger. How quickly I was reminded that I was human.

Running outside in the arctic temperatures is a challenge of will and want, but now also poses a health risk for me.  Typically, covering your mouth to keep the air warm as you run is more of an effort of comfort rather than necessity. I learned that when I’m told I now need to cover up… to do it. I had one run where the weather was around 0, and I uncovered my mouth for about 45 minutes due to feeling nauseous on my run and the cool air helped me feel better. Result? A few days of asthma kicking my ass, using my rescue inhaler as often as permitted, and calling my doctor to see if I should be worried. I was banned from running outside for a few days and was allowed to kick up my medicine temporarily… and reminded to keep my mouth covered in this rabidly cold winter.

In my efforts to keep my mouth covered during my runs for warmer air, I have had many times where I was challenged in getting enough air to feel comfortable at a faster pace through my balaclava. It becomes annoying; trying to constantly adjust the balaclava for your mouth, trying to loosen up my jacket, thinking it is too tight around my neck. In the end, I give up and just push through the run. Oddly enough this is not constant, I’ll go on to have a longer and faster run a few days later with my balaclava on and no issues at all with my breathing.  

Sometimes, I can take it off

I have done a few runs with my face uncovered for a few miles just to free up my body in a sense and gain a little speed and have felt fine. I don’t know what my temperature danger zone is yet, which is frustrating as it produces some anxiety whenever I breathe the freezing naked air.  

I have also learned that feeling normal in a respiratory sense will take a lot longer than I imagined. I’ll be on a high level of the corticosteroid until my symptoms calm the hell down, even when I am not exercising. At the workplace, people with intense and/or very chemically smelling perfume now cause me distress as well as gag. And sometimes stress can make it flare up as well.

Now you may be thinking, so your fitness sounds like it is crashing right? Well, not so much.

While I am not on a training plan for a race, I am trying to maintain a loose structure to my week.  A speed day, a day at my goal marathon pace, and a long run or two.  I’m trying to be as flexible and relaxed as possible with my running. Change my run to later in the day so it is a little warmer? Done. Run on the treadmill because it is a rough asthma day? Done.  And like right now, take a longer break due to a winter cold to avoid a combined attack of being sick and cold air on my lungs, done. 

I’m learning to be a little more patient. Some days I have to focus more on the effort I had to muster to do my run than just the raw stats. In the end, I have been able produce even stronger runs that I have in the last 6 months.

I’m running my intervals at a 6 minute mile pace and have yet to get hurt (last year I was doing them more around 6:05-6:10, and have lightly hurt myself doing them twice last year). I have been doing my long runs by feel, which has led to multiple runs from 14-16 miles in the pace of 6:58- 7:11 (and one near 8 minute mile, since I am human).

I feel happy with my progress. I’m getting back to how I felt before I got injured last July, just faster. Looking back at August to October training last year, the difference is night and day.  Maybe it is the reduction of pressure? Maybe asthma makes me better…

Next Episode:  Taking in the big city

Have a great one!

 

Invariably Human - Run Commute Update

I had trouble putting this post together, as my first few versions were pretty boring. Boring as in, I didn't even want to read what I just wrote.

Pretty photo running to work

Initially I wanted to get a week's worth of run commutes in to give my early review. I initially tried doing a review of my runs, but snoooozesville. If you want to follow my runs, jump on over to Daily Mile.

I decided to cut it down to the most valuable lessons you should learn if you ever consider a run commute.

• Be organized and have an inventory of your food and cloths you keep at work. On Wednesdays at work, I check what I have left for clothes, how many of each, and write it down. I then write out all the clothes I'll need for the next four business days. I then bring the list home and go shopping in my closet or do a lot of laundry to bring it all in on Thursday, my mandatory rest day from running. Thursday I also check what food I have left and make another list of all the breakfast, lunch, and snack food I'll need for the next four business days. I use my lunch break to go to the grocery store up the street from work and get only what I need (hello limited desk space).
  
• Trust your planning. I spent a good amount of time planning routes, alternate routes, timing out appropriate bus schedules, time needed to get ready, buffer time for delays and so forth. I just have to pick my distance and follow my spreadsheet instructions. I have had a few moments where I have mini panics if I set my alarm for the right time, if I wrote down the wrong bus schedules, but I have to stop myself and trust my previous work.
• Be aware of the variables out of your control that could disrupt your run start time or pace (especially if you are running to work and trying to start work at a specific time).  The biggest variable so far has been the weather. I have had to adjust my run routes  and times a few times due to ice and intense weather in the pre-dawn hours.  I always consider how safe the run will be, not as much to run through, but are the risks of crossing out of control cars too high as I get off the running path. 
  
• Have different run routes ready to switch to in case of weather, reroutes, or over sleeping. Even though I originally set 5 run routes, I have yet to use any of them due to partial path closures in the winter. No biggie, just made a few new ones and found areas to lap around. Also, in the comments of my last post Jennifer commented on wanting to be able to do a run commute, but the lack of showers preventing that from happening.  I started thinking what I would do? I started to think about doing run commutes home. Sounded easy enough. Just whip up some paths that end at home, get into work at 6am, leave at 2:45pm and still get home at a reasonable hour. I quickly liked the idea to throw in my rotation for days that I need to bring emergency cloths to work, weather doesn't permit a run at all in the morning, or I don't feel good in the morning.
• And remember, you are human:  As I'm sure many of you can relate, you can become obsessive and stubborn about your runs. During this winter season, my hardest to deal with human frailty is my new gift of asthma. Upon initial diagnosis, I thought I would just have to deal with exercise induced asthma on my long runs. Reality, I'm not at that point yet. Last Wednesday (22 January) on my run to work, it was moderately cold out. I had on my balaclava, but I started feeling nauseous. I pulled the cover off my mouth to let the cold air help me feel better.  But side result? My asthma flared up hard for days (just feeling more baseline today). I had to call my doctor and was told to run inside and take my medication more often for a few days. Here is where my stubborn comes in, my immediate reaction,  I made this commitment to a run commute, I'm a failure if I run inside! Then the little common sense voice in my head breaks through and says, so emergency room or run inside and listen to your body when you need to. Lesson learned. As a result, I'll be using the treadmill during this polar vortex for a couple days.
  
  
      

I'm hoping once the winter turns into a more... normal Chicago winter, I can get in a good run commute rhythm. For now, just staying as positive as I can and remembering I am a squishy human.

Okay, back to what I was doing:

Cheers mates!

Adjusting for a Run Commute

For the last few weeks I had been mentally fiddling with how manage a partial run commute.

Wait Declan! You already are able to run in your lunch hour (also known as runch) at work, why wake up earlier to run?

I'm glad you asked!

1. Limited time: I get an hour for lunch, and if I get into work earlier (as early as 6am), I can use my extra time to work out, rather than leave early. I can fit in 7-11 miles in this time frame if I run outside, but I have no time left over to stretch good after.
2. I could do so much more: As mentioned in my end of year post, I looked back and thought how I could do so much more. I want to run my miles before work, then use my lunch hour to do core and hip work, and do use the weight room to build up my upper body strength.
3. I hate treadmills: For a runch, I have two options, A) Run on the treadmill and maximize miles...but I always feel jankie for the next 24 hours, get bored, and just don't get my normal high. B) Run outside, but 60-80% of my miles are made up of getting to and from the lakefront path....and that means a lot of intersections and waiting for a pause in traffic to hopefully j-run. I end up losing about 10 minutes or so from my run time waiting for the lights.

So now, I will be doing part of my commute on foot. I live about 14ish miles from work via the lakefront trail to the S. Loop to  what I like to consider the Borderlands of Chicago.

Obviously I don't have the fitness to do this every day, so I mapped out multiple 5 different runs to do, 6.3,8, 10.75, 12.3, and 13.1 miles. Each run finishing at work, and the last 3 miles will have to suffer intersections, but I'm hoping to avoid traffic by being on the street before the normal commuting hours.

Mapping was the easy part, as this is largely papercraft (I still don't know what the emergency bathroom options will be) and it looks nice on an excel sheet.

The hard part, the logistics of making it work. I don't want to bring a full backpack of cloths and food every day. So here is what I did today.

I brought in three sets of work outfits, 3 sets of work out cloths for my lunch time work outs, bagels, carnation breakfast drink mixes, yogurts, silverware, bread, peanut butter, jelly, bananas, toothbrush, tooth paste, shampoo, (I already have soap here), deodorant, and an extra towel (two work outs, means two showers at work).  I had found an old duffel bag in my closet and stuffed it last night with all my goodies. When I was leaving this morning, I realized it had a nice rip on the side... duck tape it..

I get on the bus, and unzip it to get something out now, rather than at my work parking lot... and the zipper comes unhooked from one side and won't work now. womp womp.

I forgot to bring in my granola and cereal bars, and I brought in the wrong cream cheese.   I got into work early today, so I'll use a little of that extra time to run to the grocery store.. or stop on the way back all sweaty.. yes.. I'll do that.

So every day after work, I can wear my work cloths home..with my running sneakers on and use a plastic grocery bag to bring home sweaty cloths. I'll need to buy an extra belt (I only bought one two sided belt after losing weight) and bring in shoe polish. My rest day from my morning run will be Wednesday or Thursday, and use that day to bring in new food and work cloths.

This schedule should let me get a steady 60-65 miles per week average, with room to grow over time, help me strength my weak hips, keep up the exercises I would do at physical therapy, and not have gumby arms.

I still need to find easy things to keep at work for breakfast and lunch to feed the beast once it kick, and be reasonable about listening to my fatigue, as doing two a day work outs will require breathers from time to time.

And as I have no marathons on my agenda, I'll likely just jump in a training plan soon, do a 20 mile pace run at the end, do an easy week or so, then go again (or as much as baby #2 allows).

I'll follow up on this in a week or two with lessons learned.

Now you've read enough, here are some photos from my recent runch:

 What my desk needs to smell like:

And for those winter blues days:

 And your reaction right now to this post:

Where in the World...did my Blog Content Go?

This update is largely at the request of Mrs. Stop Running Dad, saying my blog misses me.

Post holidays, I have been pretty reserved in streaming my deluge of links, runs, and banter on the internet.  This action is not a result of being addicted to it or needing to go off the grid to enjoy life, but rather just a reset of objectives for the year.

Last year, my blog and connections were based on marathon training and subsequent characters whose life adventured I would join time to time. The year ended with rush of holiday gatherings and emotional highs. As with any extraordinary rush, comes the subsequent reaction the normalize once the stimuli are gone. This time period has had me thinking of what I want to do this year and how can I grow most as a husband, father, and friend. I haven't had any giant ideas or breakthroughs, but I am getting more excited every day for baby #2!

I haven't signed up for any races this year, which removes some pressure, but also some unity with the community I know. I am keeping June through the end of October clear for baby number two (in case he/she comes early, then the period of time where sleep will be short until sleep training begins at four months).  I briefly thought about a spring marathon, but I still need a longer period of time with more easy paces runs (and not on the treadmill) to get the kink out of my left leg. I feel the stress on the period injury flare up, and I know it isn't time to be freaking out about every run and goal time. I'll be restarting the activities I did at physical therapy soon during my lunch, and start doing a partial run commute to give myself more time to run.

The sad part about my run schedule, is that 5 out of my 6 runs a week will almost surely be done exclusively alone, as weekday runs have zero flexibility to them (and odd starting points), and who gets up super early on a Saturday?

But hey, nobody comes to this blog thinking they are reading the text from Live Journal, so here is some life for the post.

Highlights of the last six days:

On New Years day, I was able to squeeze in a short run at night (rare for me) and went out close to 8pm and traversed the snowy sidewalks of Edgewater, where snow drifts easily went from 2-4 plus feet high:

Only my steps went through here

Thorndale park area

The following day I spent a little extra time on the treadmill at work to get a few extra miles. As most of my runs happen during lunch, I am usually constricted to ~7 miles and a quick shower. I have skipped most of my post run stretches for that extra mile, but am paying for it slowly. I did 10 miles doing paces between 6:58 - 7:30. I still hate treadmills and always hurt after them, but enjoyed the satisfaction. But my legs are definitely still not anywhere close to normal yet.

On Saturday, I went for an easy 8.5 mile run at 5:30am. I got to see a bright shooting star on the first half of my run. It was pretty windy, but I enjoyed the run.

Sunday I wanted to do a long run, as the previous weekend's attempt was cut short due to ice and hazardous roads in Michigan. But it was snowing and very windy, plus I didn't have an limitless time frame to run in, so I set a roughly time limit of 1:30. Going south was pleasant..too pleasant. I knew the wind was at my back, but at least the lake front trail was plowed and salted. I ran to Fullerton, and it took me 47 minutes... return trip? 52 minutes. Wind and snow in my face, my balaclava got too wet and it was hard to breath, so I was forced to run with more of my face exposed. I ended up doing something like 11.5 miles. I was happy to have no pressure on missing a workout goal, so I had no feeling of letting myself down.

cheese!

I have enjoyed watching the new Sherlock episodes...without giving away spoilers:

I'm pretty bummed the next episode of Doctor Who isn't until August...

But at least... the mountain is ready soon (Game of Thrones).

I'm still unsure as to the direction this blog will take, if any, but for now...

Just Dance

That's all I got. Stay warm my winter readers!