My back is back! The last time I ran, I twanged my back, and pretty much couldn't exercise for about 5 days. Yesterday I ran for the first time since then, and my back was good. Pretty big relief. The run felt pretty good too.
My wife and I ran the Adidas loop near Amazon park. Just three loops today, so only three miles, but that was probably perfect for the day. Di was really tired, and I knew I should probably not do too much on the first time back since my back trouble.
There were a couple fast guys out there today. One in particular, I am pretty certain is Dathan Ritzenhein, aka "Ritz". I am new to running, so didn't of him, but the Olympic Rings tattoo on his left calf seemed pretty unusual and like it probably meant something, so I looked up who might have this on the web and found Ritz. Since he lives in Eugene, I'm pretty sure that was him out there running. The guy was smokin' fast. When he lapped me (a couple times), his feet were literally leaving dirt flying behind him. The guy was tearing it up.
Anyway, happy to be running again. My knees are in pain after yesterday again, but hopefully that's just the usual, and now if I run some more, and ride of course, I can work that out.
Recently in Running Category
On Tuesday, my wife and I went out to run the Rexius loop here in Eugene. We'd never run this trail and I was looking for something flatter again, as I still had some knee pain.
We headed out on what is a really nicely done trail. It's essentially flat and the shredded wood surface is the softest I've run on to date, and was just awesome, and my knees were feeling great. However, at almost exactly one mile in, my lower back twanged, and bam, I was done.
I've had issues with the lower left side of my back, off and on, for a long time. It's residual from a severe cycling accident I had many years ago. I have essentially no feeling in an approximately 6"x6" area of my left low back/butt cheek/hip area, but internally it seems I can pinch a nerve or some such there on occasion. It can be bad enough sometimes that I can barely walk or move much. Sometimes it takes physical therapy and special drugs, other times just a little "Vitamin I" (aka Advil). Anyway, we walked back to the car, which sucked, as this looked like a great run for the day, and I was even on a pretty solid pace. Argh.
I've been doing the 3x/day ibuprofen treatment since then, and finally it's a lot better. Yesterday was really bad, as it seemed to cause some serious tightening and pain in my right knee (I believe that's a side effect of what I suspect to be a pinched nerve, as this kind of thing has happened before and that was the supposed diagnosis if I remember correctly). But today I'm feeling much better (plus I feel like all the knee pain is gone too), and expect to head out on my road bike on Friday, and maybe also Saturday. Sunday I'm planning to ride Brice Creek (mtb), then chill for the rest of Father's Day.
Today I did my fifth "trail" run. I don't consider these quite as "trail" as what we've been doing to date, but it was a good one for today to be a bit easier on my knees. I ran the full Pre's Trail over at Alton Baker park. This is a set of trails that in total cover 4 miles of almost completely flat bark covered trails. Perfect for today.
Drove over to Alton Baker with my wife and kids, and they went for a walk and checked out the ducks, etc. while I did the run. It went pretty well, and I did my longest sustained chunk of running to date at about 11 minutes. Total run was 40 or 41 minutes. Total time was 45 minutes, but with about half a mile to go, I stopped running right near Autzen Stadium and some folks asked if I was done running. I said no, but that I was taking a break (I could tell they wanted a picture). So, I said yes to taking their picture (with a "Pre's Trail" sign in it of course). Turns out they were from Ohio and were visiting. I'm not as in awe of the whole Prefontaine thing as folks who are in the running community, so seeing all this is somewhat amusing to me (had already seen it once with some others at the beginning of my run).
I spoke to them for a while, as they asked about Eugene and so on. We got to talking about how I'd moved from California, and they inquired about whether I missed the sun and beaches, etc. I said I missed surfing (true!), but didn't miss the heat, the people in general (people in Oregon are far friendly in general), love the environmental feel of Eugene, etc. The mom (I presume) said she wanted to move to Eugene, but didn't sound like they could or something (I was getting itchy to finish up my run, so I was trying to bring the conversation to a close politely at this point).
Anyway, finished talking to them and then finished up the run. Found my wife and kids, and walked a bit more, then headed home. Overall, happy with my run, especially my longer stint, and clearly I can run faster when it's all flat. But, this was a much less interesting run for me, I really do prefer the singletrack trails of Ridgeline so far. It's a good option to have though. I also want to check out the Rexius loop as another flat option for when it's needed/desired.
Update: correction, as it turns out, this trail is just over 2 miles long each way! On the map, I saw the 1.3 miles, but it's 1.3 to a junction, and then another .7 to Fox Hollow road. I have amended the entry below accordingly.
Yesterday I did another trail run, on a new trail (to me) in the Ridgeline system. It started at 52nd & Willamette, and did some serious undulating for 2.1 miles over to Fox Hollow. So 4.2 miles total, which took me a painful 50 minutes on the dot. As a comparison, the trail we've been using the most so far, is 3.6 miles and we do that in the same 50 minutes, although I am running probably closer to 4 miles, as I double back at points to re-connect with my wife (which I suspect is not going to happen much longer, as she's improving fast).
After my last run, some spots below my knee had been hurting as I mentioned in my last post. I figured they'd be ok by now, but after walking for the first 5 minutes to warm up, upon starting to run, it was a rude awakening to that pain still being there, and in force! Ouch. At first I worried about it, thinking, should I not be running right now, will this do more harm than good? I decided to just go easy a bit and see.
This trail turned out to be a bad choice. It's constantly up and down, and has a bunch of steep spots. It's also extra narrow in places, with a lot of low overhanging branches and such. For an experienced trail runner, it'd be fine I'm sure, but it's just not for me yet. Regardless, I kept going. Things seemed to loosen up a bit and I felt I was working through it.
I made it to the end of the trail (in one direction) in 27 minutes. Yikes - not that I'm a speedy runner yet, but this shows how much walking I was doing during this "run". The trip back was better though, and I ran more, and the pain wasn't bad. The return trip was 23 minutes. Overall a really cool trail scenery wise, and would be fun for hiking.
Today I'm feeling ok actually, and thinking I'll run this afternoon (on something a bit more mild :). But, I think the pain is actually reduced, so I'm hoping that I just need to run more and condition my knees/joints to those stresses. Hell, my arms and shoulders might be more sore from playing a bunch of Wii boxing last night! (I'm not even kidding!) So, now I'm scouting out trails for this afternoon's run...
Trail run #3 happened a few days ago (Tuesday), but then I went off to a conference, and am just getting to this. I had actually hoped to go for a run during the conference. I brought my shoes and so on, but never made it, more on that in a bit...
My wife and I ran the same trail as on Trail Run #2, but we in the same amount of time we ran more (covered more distance, and higher percentage of time was spent running). Very cool. She felt better on this run, and I was doing good as well, but this was probably the first one where during part of the run I was having to rest a bit more (in particular a bit after half way there was a steep hill that got me a bit). Still pretty psyched, and found that we might be able to make this trail a loop, need to research a bit.
So then I spent the rest of the week, through Sunday at a conference in Portland. I know that Portland has the great Forest Park, and was hoping to get over there and do a run (and see the park). But, unfortunately that never happened. The conference was crazy busy (8:30am to sometimes 10pm each night, with nary a break). I had thought I'd run one or two of the mornings during some keynotes I didn't care about. Timing would have wound up being tight, but honestly, the truth was I was simply too tired each day, and also found the area just below my knees to be hurting quite a bit.
I should get out on the bike today for a quick spin, see if I can work the leg/knee pain out, so that when my wife and I run again tomorrow things will be good. Hope that works.
On Thursday, my wife joined me for my second trail run, and her first. We did a different set of trails in Eugene's Ridgeline system (the entrance off Blanton). I really liked this one. It's all singletrack, has a couple steep spots, but is just a really nice environment. We saw a few other folks out running as well. This run went much better for me. Less pain on my knees on the descents, and just overall was easier for me. I think I knew more about what to expect.
I'm finding that I'll have to work on/figure out water. I took a handheld bottle again, but barely drank anything. We ran (and walked) for about 50 minutes, and the weather was much cooler this time (in the 50's). I suspect that if I do runs that are under an hour, I may be able to get away with not taking water. But, I fight this at a core level, after so many years of riding, and having experiences running out of water, and knowing how important fluids are, etc. What I probably want is a mini water bottle, maybe 10 ounces. I've seen that I think Nathan Sports or Ultimate Direction makes that size bottle, but haven't seen a handheld holder (so far I'm not interested in a waist belt/pack or backpack).
On the flip side, I realize that as I get better, and can actually run for 45 minutes, an hour, or more, I will probably want/need to consume more water.
Somehow I got the crazy idea that I should start trail running. I don't really know what sparked it, possibly Andrew Skurka's feats, or having moved to Eugene which is running crazy of course. I do think after my wife and I hiked Spencer Butte a week ago, that maybe she'd like to do some trail running and such as well. So, I propsed the idea to her, and she was game. This led to a quick bit of shopping to pick up some shoes and shorts, etc. I had done a bit of research, but we'll see how it all works out.
Today I got out for my first run, although unfortunately my wife couldn't join me. We'll go together on Thursday. I headed over to Ridgeline park, at the Fox Hollow trailhead, where I ride my bike sometimes. I know the trails there, and figured the upper loop might be a good starting point - not too long (I hoped), and reasonable ups and downs. I figured I'd do a loop and that'd probably destroy me, and I'd come home...
I started out by walking for about 8 minutes to get warmed up, see how my shoes felt, etc. Then I ran. Or, um, I call it running - my form leaves a lot to be desired I can assure you. I found I could run for several minutes, then needed to walk, run again, walk, repeat. I did the top loop in 22 minutes. I don't know how many miles it is, maybe 1.5? When I was done, I felt pretty decent actually, and decided to do another.
My legs, just above the knees were hurting a bit from the descents, so I on this lap I tried to run as much of the flats and hills as I could, and walked most of the descents. I cut 5 minutes off my first lap time on the second lap, and decided that was it for the first time out. Didn't want to overdo it, and knew the spots above my knees would probably be hurtin' a bit.
A few key learnings:
- I didn't hate it! I feared this, as I have NOT liked running in the past. I was a really great sprinter growing up actually, but never liked distance stuff. So, this is a promising start.
- The descents are what hurt the most for me. I'll have to watch this, and I may not try to do too heavy of climbing/vertical until I'm more conditioned to it.
- I do need one of those water bottle hand wrap/holder thingies. I just held a plain cycling water bottle, which was ok, but it gets kinda slippery with the sweat.
- I feel my stride is terrible, and that I run rather flat-footed (or at least the foot "landings" feel that way). I suspect I need to lengthen my stride a bit (on trail that seemed to help), generally improve of course, and also, maybe work my arms more. Need to learn more here! Recommendations/advice much appreciated!
- My shoes worked well (Salomon XT Wings), and the shorts were quite nice (some Adidas ones). So, other than the water bottle, I think I'm good on gear.
- I'm ready to do it again. As I sit here this evening, my legs are a bit sore, but I plan to go out on the road bike tomorrow and ride that out; will be interested to see how that works out.