Training Log Archive: Traut

2 mile warm-up and 2 mile cool-down at Morningside Mile

Morningside Mile

http://morningside-pa.org/run?ref=em-OiWHZW4vhrJJ

Results: http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event...

2nd 5:06

Last race of my birthday weeks stupidathon... I know I shouldn't do it to my knee, but its my birthday. Three races I would have won a year ago and I got my best result of second today, but I will take it with where I am.

My feeling before the race was similar to Tuesday a my knee didn't feel great but my foot-strike was good. I did a more full warmup today with strides, but I wasn't too different in the race from Tuesday either. I was very tight for the first half and got better in second half. This time though, the race itself was different. Instead of getting way behind and picking people off until I run out of space, I was only behind for about 200 meters and found myself in front at 400 meters. I didn't really have any choice as nobody was pushing and I certainly have no kick with the arthritis to hang on somebody and hammer it home. The young kid in the race sucked in right behind me. About 600m to go he came alongside me and I began to get in a rhythm with him and felt better. He outkicked me as expected, but I raced him decently well.

My back has been bothering me the last few days and was very tight this morning. It seems like either my back is tight or my calves etc...



Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/194002735/overvie...

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/589629230

Avg Run Cadence: 191 spm
Max Run Cadence: 216 spm
Avg Vertical Oscillation: 9.6 cm
Avg Ground Contact Time: 199 ms
Avg Stride Length: 1.67 m

Metrics were good, but they should for a short fast race.

Obviously HR is way off, not sure why.

Morning Nordic Track watching stage 15 of Vuelta, wondering why it has taken people so long to realize that cyclists (or runners) waste energy following every 'move' made in the pack. The announcers are flabbergasted that Chris Fromme is "time-trialing" up the mountain instead of racing in the pack responding to every move... Reminds me of what I was trying to teach the BSU runners all those years ago when We had those few meets that I gave them instructions every lap like a control freak.

Anyway, right knee definitely inhibited and vulnerable. More then the last few days. Hopefully the smaller multiple workouts a day will help.

Went for a walk on the trails at Ohio Township park on way to meet Gail and Claire at Mimi and Alex's. That is all.

stretching and rolling, step-downs and directional single-leg squats

watching stage 15 of the Vuelta doing morning Nordic Track. Felt OK. Knee was stiff, but edema going down to calves seems to be improving a bit.

Knee has been doing OK despite the edema and racing on it, but things did tighten up as the workday went on today. I knew I wouldn't feel good and I didn't. I was extremely awkward in the beginning and my left leg just would not loosen up in my feel or my IT band the whole run. The thing was though, my splits were not slow. In fact my last mile was the fastest last mile of a run I have had since last year. My calves were firing and I could find form, when my tightness in the quads didn't inhibit my motion when I lost focus. I was inhibited, but my fitness is there and my calves were firing. Hard to say it is a good run to have when I have a race in 2 days, but my pace and calves were so much better then I thought they would be. My knee felt like it was handling the run as well.

Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/193253329

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/588382635


Avg Run Cadence: 177 spm
Max Run Cadence: 189 spm
Avg Vertical Oscillation: 10.4 cm
Avg Ground Contact Time: 220 ms
Avg Stride Length: 1.41 m

stretching and rolling, step-downs and directional single leg squats. Left leg was struggling much more then right. There is some more edema.

20-minute morning Nordic Track. Swelling is up some, but go through with some form in tact.

Had to work late so snuck in a short ride after I picked up Claire and Gail came home. 2 laps of the lake as it got dark and rained a bit. A short ride, but that is perfect right now. Not working hard enough to put my knee in danger, but did work hard and push blood and my knee around. I felt very vulnerable at the start, but felt much better as it went on. Didn't feel good enough on my knee and form to get out of the saddle, especially in the first lap.

stretching and rolling, step-downs and directional squats. Keeping the knee working in short time frames seems to be holding up.

maybe hopeful thinking, but the swelling seemed down a little and I found it easier to get my hips over my legs today on morning Nordic Track session.

about a mile warm-up and a bout a mile cool-down with Heath Piper. Felt surprisingly better then expected in warm-up (although that has a lot to do with expectations being so low- my calf was feeling edema more and more as day went on) and my stride during the cool-down was good enough to keep the impact down on my knee. I will take that.

Asbury Heights Golden Mile

http://www.asburyheights.org/GoldenMile

Results: http://www.smileymiles.com/2014/RES14%20ASBURY%20G...

5:19.5 3rd place

Apparently being 3rd is the way to go in my Birthday week of being stupid and racing on an arthritic knee that is in a swelling phase... My 40th birthday I won the FAAP Fall Classic, this year I was third. Now at this one, competing against high school kids mostly I was third again. In reality I really should take it- considering where my body is right now, it isn't bad. This is a free race that is on a Tuesday evening that happens to be my birthday- how can I say no! I don't think there are any other races during the week anywhere else in Pittsburgh so my birthday race was going to happen.

The swelling seemed to actually recede a little bit this morning (maybe wishful thinking), but I was starting to feel my right calf building up as the workday went on. I did leave early to get down to the South Hills and race, so that probably helped. My warm-up felt better then expected as far as my foot-strike.

the race course was very unfriendly to me. It was full of sharp turns and downhills. the start had us facing straight out, but the course turned left into the driveway circle. A high school kid went straight and tripped me right off the bat. I was trapped behind a mass of highschoolers who went out too fast and the downhills and sharp turns (including a 180 degree turn around a cone in a parking lot) made it impossible to pass. Coming down to the last bit of parking lot turns I started passing a lot of kids and then caught up to the kid in second coming into about the last 100meters, but he kicked and I just can not do that right now. All in all, I was never pushing that hard it seemed but couldn't get around people. Then I focused on my form in the second half and held it together very well. I was aided by an uphill though. I wasn't even thinking about my form in the first half, but somehow it didn't have any repercussions on my knee and my metrics were great:

vg Run Cadence: 189 spm
Max Run Cadence: 209 spm
Avg Vertical Oscillation: 9.0 cm
Avg Ground Contact Time: 211 ms
Avg Stride Length: 1.60 m

it was only a mile of course though. The event was great. The seniors who lived in Asbury Heights lined certain areas of the course in chairs set up for them and I got to catch up with Heath Piper and then spend some time taking with Rich Wright (it was the Baldwin team that made up a large portion of the race). In a way, it was kind of fun to see that I could make the top 5 on a good high school team still!

Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/192357890

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/587031474

rolling and stretching, directional squats

morning Nordic Track. Back tight and definite swelling in right knee. The swelling didn't keep me from having form, but made it easy to loose it quickly and slip more. Could feel the tightness, but could ski.

worked late and went to pool to try to loosen up and keep knee moving. It felt like edema had pooled up all around my right calf, so so tight. It was very difficult to find form in the pool and I kept tightening my back to compensate. In some ways it did feel good though.

stretching and rolling and step-downs to keep moving.

Event: WPOC - Mingo Creek
 

FAAP Fall Classic Trail race at North Park.

http://faap5krace.yolasite.com/

Results: http://www.smileymiles.com/2014/RES14%20FAAP%20FAL...

Last year: http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp?userid=1164...

My body has been a mess for a few weeks now and I have some edema started. I start this in a relatively low fitness to even where I have been in previous years with the knee injury thanks to the arthritis. My plan was to run within my forms ability to keep my knee undamaged an not to let any competitiveness take me out of that restriction. I am only doing this week of racing because it is my birthday week.

I felt absolutely awful on the and the first 400 meters or so of the race were no better. I was behind the first female finisher until almost the mile mark. One guy was out really fast and I couldn't even see him at the mile mark. He beat my record from last year by 3 minutes. That is good, I was a mess last year as well and that was an extremely soft record. He is a collegiate runner right now, so I can handle that. I stayed relaxed, and another guy got in front of me before the mile. My knee already didn't feel good and I really focused on form. The second mile trail is not technical at all, but my knee found it to already be too technical. My first mile was already 15 seconds slower then last year and each mile following would range from that to 30 seconds slower. I stayed as close as I could to the guy right in front of me through that trail and even pulled him back in on the road. When we hit the white trail I had to slow down a lot to keep my knee out of trouble and he dropped me. By the power-line a young kid in an orange shirt caught me and passed me. I was feeling like crap here and even the uphills I was needing to slow down a lot to keep it together. I kept close to the orange shirt kid and after coming down from the sand hill, I saw that he was still close and the guy in second wasn't far ahead either. I pulled in closer to them on the gravel road. I could have caught both of them but I had to keep it within my restriction. I was feeling much better here and did catch the orange shirt kid about 600 meters out and beat him but that was it. No kicking for me and he almost caught be back on the final stretch.

Felt like I had preserved my knee, but it did swell up more later in the day....

Strava: http://www.strava.com/activities/191326737

Garmin: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/585278981


Avg Run Cadence: 181 spm
Max Run Cadence: 255 spm
Avg Vertical Oscillation: 9.9 cm
Avg Ground Contact Time: 204 ms
Avg Stride Length: 1.26 m

45 minute walk with Gail at Hartwood Acres pushing Claire in baby-jogger. Good end to a family day after Gail had been working so much. Right knee has definitely swelled after race. I really felt like I had kept it in check... I'll have to wait and see what happens, but I am glad the family day kept me from Orienteering at Mingo today after the race this morning or my knee would certainly be much worse off.

stretching and rolling with step downs to keep blood moving through swollen area.