arsenette
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Rambling Rican
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Post by arsenette on Sept 8, 2013 19:30:54 GMT -5
Will you stop injuring yourself before major runs? LOL Great story though at least you learned from it! How many weeks left now?
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Post by dudesky1000 on Sept 8, 2013 22:54:10 GMT -5
LOL I am so injury prone, I know. >_< Luckily I'm young so I can afford to be an idiot! Oooh I don't know, 8 weeks? Haha I shouldn't even be awake if I'm too tired to look at a calendar and count. I have to start shutting down my training by the second week of October to taper for the big one, so hopefully any injury I get will have time to heal... hopefully... :-)
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Lennon
Levi Meeuwenberg
Posts: 793
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Post by Lennon on Sept 9, 2013 10:44:05 GMT -5
Jeez dudesky. I feel like I jinxed you. XD
Anyway, I took a week off from any sort of exercise that works the legs in anyway, and I 'think' it's completely gone. I'm not sure, I'm probably going to do a short test run to find out. I can jump around in place without any sort of pain. So that's good. Umm, about the questions. It was definitely on the upper part of the calf, along the sides. And I didn't feel it till I finished running, kinda like yourself. XD I always do a short warmup followed by a stretch before I run. I may bounce a little, I'm not sure. I know I try not to, and usually I start out pretty fast. Other then that I'm not sure about the other questions.
But yeah, so far I feel fine after a week break. I'll let you know if I feel anything on my short run.
Keep up the good work!
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Post by dudesky1000 on Sept 10, 2013 21:10:07 GMT -5
Hahaha, no worries! I'm already feeling quite better and barring some kind of banana peel induced slip up I think I should be prepared for the big one come Saturday. I won't be completing my goal of 60 miles this week, but I will definitely be well rested-- so a pro and a con to every situation.
Seems you've healed up as well! Enough time off will do the trick for almost every single possible injury. Sounds like you had a simple muscle pull, the same kind of thing I had to battle with during the marathon last year. The reason why I asked all of those questions are because in running, there are actually A LOT of ways to get hurt. It's good that you do a little warm up before stretching; stretching cold has literally NO benefit, and you can only get injured by doing it. Heck, I'd even drop it from the warm-up altogether, but I am not confident or experienced enough to tell you that's a good idea. I'm just always a 'first mile is my warm-up' and 'stretching is for afterwards' kind of guy, but for those who aren't running endless miles on miles on miles on end, need not take up such habits. I'm just a little injury prone myself (as you might be able to tell from this thread and last year's thread if you read through that) so I like to take extra caution (...which is admittedly an ironic thing to be typing).
Bouncing isn't terrible, but it does waste a fair amount of energy when you're going for distance or speed. For regular running (for the record most of the running I do is neither really long nor really fast), form isn't so important, but it is definitely a good habit to get into so that it feels natural when you ARE going to a personal best at say, the 5k. Think of every inch your foot comes above the ground, and think of how many times your foot hits the ground over the course of a run. Even in a 1 mile run, you are taking, I don't know, certainly hundreds, if not thousands of steps over the course of that distance. Every inch more that your foot comes above the ground, whether you are lifting it before it strikes the ground or kicking it back high up to your rear end after impact, it takes THAT much more energy for your muscles to cushion your joints from the impact every, last, time. And it adds up when repeated hundreds of hundreds of times. So the goal is to think more about digging into the ground with your hamstrings, and pushing yourself FORWARD instead of upwards. A slight lean forward also helps gravity take you forward, and pinning your shoulders back opens up your chest to make breathing easier and will balance you so you can lean forward without inhibiting your breathing. Also, while I'm at it, always try to land on your midfoot, whatever you do not the heel!! Heel striking will do you in bad! It took me a while to figure out why my lower legs were feeling roughed up, and it was because I was striking at the back of my foot instead of the ball, where my achilles tendon will take care of things instead of my shins.
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Lennon
Levi Meeuwenberg
Posts: 793
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Post by Lennon on Sept 11, 2013 11:26:03 GMT -5
That's kinda funny the way you are describing the form of good running, because that's what I've been saying about 'trying something different.' I use to run on my heel a lot and kick out my feet. But reading about better form, I started doing it the way you described it and thats when I got the pain. I noticed a definite increase in speed and better time, but it killed my calves. I'm just guessing maybe my body wasn't use to working those muscles as much.
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Post by wrestlingfan55 on Sept 11, 2013 11:38:59 GMT -5
That's kinda funny the way you are describing the form of good running, because that's what I've been saying about 'trying something different.' I use to run on my heel a lot and kick out my feet. But reading about better form, I started doing it the way you described it and thats when I got the pain. I noticed a definite increase in speed and better time, but it killed my calves. I'm just guessing maybe my body wasn't use to working those muscles as much. It could be due to not warming up, too.
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Post by dudesky1000 on Sept 11, 2013 19:42:43 GMT -5
That's kinda funny the way you are describing the form of good running, because that's what I've been saying about 'trying something different.' I use to run on my heel a lot and kick out my feet. But reading about better form, I started doing it the way you described it and thats when I got the pain. I noticed a definite increase in speed and better time, but it killed my calves. I'm just guessing maybe my body wasn't use to working those muscles as much. Like just said above, it could be due to not warming up. It could also obviously be the abrupt change from a pattern, your body becomes accustomed to operating a certain way, and your nervous system is used to applying the pressure to particular muscle groups. A simple change in form can actually radically change which muscles are under stress during the exercise, so it could just be that your calves were not used to handling the impact over and over. Between your abdominals, hip flexors, thighs, glutes, hamstrings, quads, IT bands, calves and shins, and tendons like the achilles and those in your feet, there are a lot of areas that could be imbalanced or weak, and while none of them are particularly serious or anything to be overly concerned about unless you're going onto your 30's, there are basically many ways to skin the proverbial cat. My advice is to always start your runs easy, be safe and get down the fundamentals before getting aggressive, and learn how to belly breath and run loosely with very low tension throughout your body. The moment you tense up and get tight, you're instantly more susceptible to injury. If you can do all of those, you will easily become very good rather quickly.
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Lennon
Levi Meeuwenberg
Posts: 793
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Post by Lennon on Sept 11, 2013 23:10:12 GMT -5
Actually just finished running today, and have to say my calves and my body feel a whole lot better now. I think a week break really helped and maybe got the body use to it enough.
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Post by dudesky1000 on Sept 12, 2013 22:25:01 GMT -5
Actually just finished running today, and have to say my calves and my body feel a whole lot better now. I think a week break really helped and maybe got the body use to it enough. Excellent!! So this weekend is about to get really, really interesting. Though I'm not a particularly religious person, I do try to fast for Yom Kippur as a tradition, mostly because it makes my grandmother happy, although this year I have decided to fast one day early so that I have (sort of) adequate time to fuel up for Saturday's long run. Basically since 7:30pm tonight and until 7:30pm tomorrow, no food, no water, nothing. It will be an interesting test to see where I am at with such minimal nutrition, especially on the first 20-miler of the season. It's a bit of a daunting decision, I know, but I am actually very interested in seeing how this will effect me. My plan is to hydrate as much as possible tomorrow night, eat lightly and focus on small, energy-dense carbs as well as some kind of protein-dense meal, say, a box of couscous with a can of tuna. That should be enough to supply me with what I need. After this run, I will (hopefully) be able to determine what my time goal will be for this marathon. Big goal is just to finish it, but I always like to have an 'icing' goal, something with low but reachable expectations that would be icing on the already tasty cake. Stay tuned.
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Post by dudesky1000 on Sept 14, 2013 12:22:04 GMT -5
Story of the 20-miler: Crash boom bang. Too tired to write now, will write later.
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Post by dudesky1000 on Sept 18, 2013 20:11:49 GMT -5
So here we go, the 20 mile run summary.
One thing right off the bat I can tell you is that I must have been having a GREAT day a couple of weeks ago for the 16-miler. I never felt THAT bad during the entire thing, and I pretty much scrapped any semblance of a warm-up entirely. My first mile was an 8:11. So naturally, the approach to the always-daunting 20-miler would be to run the first couple of miles a bit slower, to save energy, right?
I clocked in my first mile at 7:55.
And then my second, in 8:11.
And then, a good third mile in 7:30.
Of course, at this point, decided to slow a bit to finish my 4th mile at the oh-so conservative pace of 7:46.
But then, I felt pretty good and strong and confident, so I attacked the downhill portion to close out my first lap of 5 miles with a sharp 7:21.
Then the 20-mile monster proceeded to swallow me whole. I figured an endurance gel would fire me back up, and mentally, it probably did...too much. I had some good moments in the second lap: all miles under the 8-minute mark, with a moment of brilliance to close out the lap with another 7:21 minute mile. But my feet began to feel like they were sinking into quicksand and my breathing was just as rocky as it was when I had started (a very, very bad sign). But by this point it was too late to make any adjustments. If I slowed down, it would only mean I would have to run for longer. If I tried to hold onto my pace, it meant that I could be out of there sooner and, of course, if I COULD hold onto it, it would be a huge mental and physical boost for the rest of the season. If I could only just hold on a bit longer...
AS IF! What was in store for me was a serious reality check. SURE, I kept my mile splits under 8 minutes for 8/10 of the remaining miles, but they were undoubtably some of the most miserable miles I've ever run. And to add to the fun, at mile 17 I woke up a sleeping injury, the same achilles tendon ache that has been aggravating me almost all season periodically. And I can only surmise that the cause was the kind of fatigue where my muscles just decided 'I'm outta here' and left the dirty work to the tendons, where I had a weakness just waiting to be exposed. So I not only missed my completely arbitrary goal of 2:30:00, but I left with nothing to feel good about. I find it to be terribly unhelpful to have negative emotions at the end of such a hard effort, but injury is another thing. Of course I tell myself I will never let it happen again. But I'm sure as time goes by and my ego is once again stroked by a good run here or there, a good mile time or a great weightlifting session, I'll fall victim to it again. Such is sport and passion. Ego is a very valuable thing to have in a competitive sport, and in running it is great that you're never really concerned with beating others--just beating yourself and the clock. In running, like life, love and your relationships with others, your ego is a decisive and divisive sword which you must learn to wield without being consumed by the power it possesses. If you don't take the time and effort to refine it, despite how unexciting it may be, all you'll end up with is a dull, overused sword that can no longer serve it's main purpose, defense. If your ego is too busy thinking about how badly it wants to achieve a feat, destroy a challenge or annihilate a foe, you'll miss the signals from your brain telling *news flash* you're in over your head! ...Or it could be that I was fasting the day before the run.
That's my meditation on last week's run.
The lesson is obviously that I'll have to take the first couple of laps easier next time around. Usually I am able to get close to have a 6:xx min/mile split somewhere in these long runs but I was never even close during this one. I never let the engine warm up, and I busted a gasket. So far I'm feeling better, and should be able to hit the next 20 miler this coming Saturday. Stay tuned!
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Post by dudesky1000 on Sept 21, 2013 11:39:48 GMT -5
The ankle is fine, but I was just so gassed today that I had to stop a little after 10 miles. I was running at a very conservative pace to begin with, so it just seems that I'm due for a recovery week. Thursday I hit the treadmill hard for an hour, finishing with a 5:28min/mile. That, in combination with just how much I've been running in general, probably lead to my fatigue.
Also, and I know I'm going to sound like a broken record here, I have a NEW injury (!) this one is my toe, it's causing me quite a bit of grief every time I try to lift or bend it. Not really bothersome in a tight sneaker per se, but annoying in general and something I'm going to have to watch out for.
Going to take it really easy on the running this week, and maybe spend the week focusing on core and back exercises with some cycling.
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Post by thatoneuser on Sept 21, 2013 23:33:29 GMT -5
Geez, sounds like you're overworking yourself. Take it easy.
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Post by dudesky1000 on Oct 31, 2013 17:21:42 GMT -5
Three days until my revenge! And I'm not even injured!!!
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arsenette
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Post by arsenette on Oct 31, 2013 17:45:31 GMT -5
Awesome! Looking forward to the report!
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Lennon
Levi Meeuwenberg
Posts: 793
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Post by Lennon on Nov 1, 2013 10:19:16 GMT -5
Good luck, man! Just don't kill yourself in the process.
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Post by dudesky1000 on Nov 4, 2013 8:37:52 GMT -5
Good luck, man! Just don't kill yourself in the process. Oops Just kidding! That was seriously one of the most fun things I've done in quite some time. The crowds come in thousands and the race has a profound electricity to it. I was feeling very strong until about the 2/3 mark when I started to experience some major muscle cramps (which I had never experienced before in any run prior), but I fought through and not only finished under 4 hours, but also under 3:50:00! By one measly second LOL Full race report later.
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arsenette
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Rambling Rican
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Post by arsenette on Nov 4, 2013 9:21:45 GMT -5
I'm so happy it finally happened! Awaiting the report!
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