Eight miles and counting

I ran eight miles this past Sat. in Mill Valley after a two week break from any activity. Not a smart thing to do but I did it. My calves are a bit sore and tight but otherwise, I'm surprisingly all right. I'm also doing a very good job of not eating the holiday treats at work and sticking to my high fruit, carbohydrate diet. I just have to stay on course with my workout schedule and I should be ready to run the Kaiser Half on Super Bowl Sunday.

The turkey trot

I've been running on and off for the last several weeks and have managed to run a consistent seven miles. With my knees feeling a little sore but not worse for wear, I decided to run the Turkey Beach Trot on my friend's registration since she was out of town last week.

I am reminded once again why running on the beach is never good for the knees nor the IT band. And I'm completely out of shape. All the gasping and huffing I did while running forced me to slow down and then walk a bit to catch my breath. Still, I finished in a decent time of a little over 9min/mi pace. I'm going to say this now. This is the last time I will run on the beach but I know I'll run this race next year.

it's the damn orthotics

Finally went out for a short jog two weeks ago and decided to have a go without my orthotics. Lo and behold, no knee pain. One and a half miles later, my legs and buttocks are a bit sore but otherwise, my knees are fine.

It's the damn orthotics. I think they over-corrected my biomechanics and caused more injury than not. I wish I knew this earlier, like three months earlier. Alas, Chicago is out of the question along with every other 12k or longer race for the rest of the year. At least I can begin training again, albeit, slowly. It's a start though. As long as I don't fall, trip up, sprain or otherwise, maim myself on my road bike, I should be okay.

unfortunate setback

This past Monday, I paid a visit to UCSF Sports Medicine for a second opinion on my MRI's. What they told me was neither good nor bad. Verdict was the same; bone marrow edema in knee cap. But the doc saw something on the cartilage that was unusual. He coudn't tell if there was a cartilage tear or what. So, the doc suggested I get another MRI in the coming weeks and a second report will be filed.

Another setback. When will this end? I just want to get better and be able to run again. It's depressing. At least I can still bike but that hasn't been going too well since I've gotten lazy and, dare I say, a little round around my midsection. This is not good.

I dropped out of running Chicago this year. I'll eat the registration fee and avoid signing up for any more races until I feel I can successfully run and complete one.

TnT has begun

The fall season of TnT started two weekends ago. We are currently on our second week of training and I have done little if any exercise since my MRI results. But I won't complain since TnT is keeping me busy socially. As the designated web captain, I'm keeping the team site up-to-date and taking photos during every team training run.

Of course, this puts me in a funk to watch people run when I am unable to. I have lost quite a bit of muscle mass. My ass is flatter, my arms are thinner, my stomach gained a couple inches of flab, and I'm tired more often than not.

I still have my weekly swimming and dodgeball. But it doesn't cut it for me. I've decided to start a cycling routine this weekend and see how my knee holds up to that. I am a bit worried though. I ran half a block down my hill this morning to catch my bus and my knee was stiff and disjointed. Not a good sign...

the good and the bad

I finally got that MRI for my right knee and the results are in...

The good news:
No meniscus tear; joints and cartilage are normal

The bad:
Intense bone marrow edema over a 15mm region

Basically, I have a huge bone bruise from blunt trauma force on the patella which I am fairly sure this occurred when I tripped and fell down a flight of stairs at Bart two days after my Tahoe Half in October. And to add to the injury, I fell down another flight of stairs right before I ran the Cal International in December. Double the fall on the knee and double the pain.

Bone marrow edema may lead to the progression of knee osteoarthritis but as long as I lay off my knees and avoid any joint pounding which sadly, includes cycling, I should be fine in four to six weeks.

So, swimming and walking are the only form of exercise I will be doing for a while.

And I bought a road bike!

After much perusing on CL for a road bike and swinging between a Trek and a Giant, I purchased a used 04' Trek 1500T WSD from an avid cyclist in Pac Heights last night. The bike is in decent shape but can use a finer tune up to fit my body/position but otherwise, it works as a starter road bike. I just need to buy pedals, shoes, helmet and bike shorts. Otherwise, I'm set and ready to go!

How exciting! I'm well on my way with training for a tri. Finally! I jogged two miles this past Sunday with a little knee soreness which went away after the first mile. Legs felt good overall and I have never been happier to be running again. A truly great feeling.

Yesterday, I had my first swim lesson at the Y and that went fairly well. A couple things I need to work on; my breathing and my arm stroke. My legs were a bit stiff in the water and I had trouble bending my knees. It might have been because of my short jog the other day and the half hour of test riding the bike before my swim class.

I planned to go for another jog today but I think I should probably sit this day out and recoup. Dodgeball starts tomorrow..

I can bike!

My doc gave me the go-ahead to "ease into" cycling, specifically on a stationary bike at the gym. Okay. I'll take anything at the moment and cycling will build up my cardio. I visited the gym for the first time in months last Thurs and rode for a half hour. I felt energized! It was an amazing feeling. Then I decided to try the elliptical and I realized how weak I am. My legs were like butter and I could not get the elliptical rotating accordingly. It was pathetic.

My right knee doesn't hurt when I step down stairwells so that's a good sign. I can do lunges, but the knee is not quite stable enough to do a squat. In any case, I'm on the right track.

I just hope I'll be well enough to run a half in three weeks after I resigned myself to back out of the Reno-Tahoe relay tomorrow. I'm bummed about that but what can I do? Running now isn't worth a life time of knee problems.

From active to injured

I seriously need new knees. This is not going well at all. I've been icing my right knee for days, every other waking hour and the swelling has not gone down yet. My left one's fine, thank goodness. It looks like I have a huge growth behind my knee cap.

I'm still limping about and gathering sympathy from everyone around me. I hope I don't have a meniscus tear. That would be very bad. And I have two races next month. I'm counting on being better in a week so I can start training again. I might have to resort to low impact exercises like swimming to get my cardio back up where it should be. I can't even hop on a bike and go for a ride because my knee won't bend all the way.

I feel like a huge log with all the eating I've been doing, too. I think I have a noticeable fat tire around my middle now. This sucks.

Didn't quite cut it

Okay, so I had a bad day in San Diego. My race was fairly miserable. The day started out slightly muggy, and overcast with a temperature of 65. It seemed like decent running weather but the humidity started to climb and despite the cloud cover, the start line resembled a sauna complete with steam rising from the asphault. I felt like I was in Honolulu in December.

I positioned myself in Corral 6 with my friend and we started off together at a moderate 9min/mile pace. As usual, I kept surging ahead and my friend had to call my name several times and tell me to slow down. At around mile 10, I lost him and later had to make a pitstop around mile 14. By mile 15, I started to get dizzy and lightheaded. Lack of oxygen to the brain? No. I was dehydrated. Not good.

Apparently, I didn't take enough electrolytes and my salt packet pretty much disentergrated in my shorts pocket from my sweat. And where was the water station? I had to weave on ahead until I found water. It was the longest mile I have ever walked.

In retrospect, there were mistakes I did that I could have easily prevented but I lived and I'll learn. I finished 10 min slower than my PR and that didn't sit too well with me. The good news is that I wasn't too sore nor stiff. Probably because I did more walking than I planned. My right knee did hold up with the Cho-Pat I purchased from my chiropractor last Friday. Of course, running with my knee brace for the first time on a 26.2 mile course wasn't a bright idea. Whatever. What's done is done.

Time to concentrate on the Reno-Tahoe relay and sprint tri.

A couple more days

As nerdy as I am, I calculated two possible time/pace scenarios for the Rock n Roll this coming Sunday based on course elevation, my corral assignment (Corral 8), weather(forecast for sunny skies in 70s), current knee injury prognosis (won't know until I see my chiropractor Friday) and the number of people who will be in my way the first five miles (thousands of them).

Scenario 1:
Alternate every two miles from 9min/m to 8:30min/m pace
Goal: 3:50
Mile 1 - 09:00
Mile 6 - :53:00
Mile 12 - 1:45
Mile 13.1 - 1:55
Mile 18 - 2:38
Mile 20 - 2:55
Mile 24 - 3:30
Finish - 3:50

Scenario 2:
Alternate every two miles from 9:30min/m to 9min/m pace
Goal: sub 4:00
Mile 1 - :09:30
Mile 6 - :56:00
Mile 12 - 1:52
Mile 13.1 - 2:02
Mile 18 - 2:48
Mile 20 - 3:06
Mile 24 - 3:42
Finish - 4:00
In this case, I have to hit a negative split in the second half otherwise I would go over 4:00 by a couple minutes.

There's the option of using a pace group and trying to hang with them or the usual route I take which is run too fast in the first five miles and then fall into a moderate pace before peetering out the last six miles and walking while cursing under my breath.

Hmmm. Decisions, decisions.

Races, races, and more races

From experience, if I shell out the money and register for races, I'll have to train for them. There's no going back especially when large chunks of money are involved. Haha! So, I registered for the sprint tri in August and due to the possible Chicago Marathon sell-out, I registered for that one as well.

I ended up switching teams for the Reno-Tahoe relay. I dropped the Reno team in favor of the Pamakids team. I just have to join their running club in exchange for my reg. fees. It's a better deal in the long run, they are bay area locals and I was planning to join their club this summer anyway.

Am I crazy? Maybe a little obsessive about running, but not crazy. I'm on track to do 12 races this year; one 4M, three relays, four halfs, three fulls and one sprint tri. That's DOUBLE the number of races I did last year. How motivated am I? Very...

good news and bad news

I awoke this morning with worse pain in my knee compared to yesterday. I probably shouldn't have run hill intervals but I needed to release negative energy and running usually does the trick. This time around, my patella, which hasn't been tracking as well as it should, side-lined me today and I've been limping around since. And it's dodgeball night! Lateral movements and quick knee jerks won't help me recoup but I'm going to play dodgeball anyway. I just might be moving a little slow on the court.

The good news is that I got a call from a team in Reno to run the Reno-Tahoe relay on June 7-8. Woohoo! How exciting is that? There's a possibility that this team will have a sponsor which means cheaper costs all around. I would have liked to have gathered up my own team but with too many indecisive friends, I decided to chuck my plan. The only drawback is that I won't be able to do the sprint tri on June 8th in Rancho Seco Park. I'll have to shoot for the Aug 5th one after all. No worries, though.

Last long training run

Saturday was the team's last long run before our SD Rock n Roll marathon on June 4th. We ran 20 miles through Marin county in gorgeous, California summer weather. Absolutely beautiful.

I did a better job pacing myself with the much needed help from my running buddy from the East Bay team. Every time I wanted to shoot on ahead, he would yell at me to slow down and remind me that it's not a race.

The first ten miles, we took it slow, around a 9:30 pace, and the second ten we picked it up to about an 8:40 pace with a finish time of around 3:07. That estimate would put us on track for a sub-four hour marathon time. My goal for the Rock n Roll is 3:55. Yes, sounds crazy but I'm trying to shave off at least 15 minutes from my marathon PR. It can be done!

I felt pretty good despite the slight pain in my right knee at mile 14 while coasting downhill but I ran through it and adjusted my form slightly due to the terrain imbalance. Eventually, the pain went away.

I still had tons of energy after the run (maybe I was happy it was over!) and I ended up walking a couple miles up and down the city hills to watch the Kaboom fireworks with a friend that night.

Next two weeks: Tapering while looking for a place to take swim lessons.
I need to start my tri training soon...

How to buy time to train

I'm a little short on time here. I could only find a four month (16-week) triathlon training schedule that suits my current athletic abilities. The sprint triathlon that I am shooting to do is on Aug. 6th. According to this schedule, I'm behind by five weeks.


I have several options to choose from depending on what part of training I should emphasize. I'm sure it's doable and I'm not exactly looking to win the race. Maybe I should look into another triathlon later in the year. Something for me to ponder..

I am not photogenic

But I am fully aware of it. Even in my attempt to avoid the photographers along the Avenue of the Giants course, I'm still caught on film.

I look awful and what's worse, I'm not even running. I'm walking with my hands at my waist as though I'm about to keel over.


That's what I get for drinking too much water and not pacing myself during the race.

Should I tri?

Doesn't this look like fun? Why, yes! Yes, it does!

I know several people who actively do triathlon races and hearing about what great fun they have on the course, I'm getting excited just thinking about trying to do a tri.

So, I decided to train for a sprint triathlon this summer with a couple friends. The swim is my weakness and the run is my strongest. As for the bike portion of the race, I have a mountain bike but I may need to splurge on a road bike if I choose to continue doing tri's. But I'm getting ahead of myself, here. Should I tri? Why not?