Tools of Recovery
Saturday, May 19th was
the third week of AREC marathon training. I wasn’t sure if I could make it this
week because it was my weekend to work and waking up too early makes it
difficult to make it through the night while on duty. Due to the unfortunate
circumstance of my grandfather’s death last weekend, I am currently on
bereavement leave.
So back to the training run. More people
showed up this week and it appeared close to double the number compared to the
previous two. I even got to talk to a few people whom I haven’t seen for a
while. Leila was there last week but I didn’t see her until we started and she
was faster and too far ahead to catch. We were able to catch up a little bit
before today’s start. The person I was surprised to see was Monica who I ran
with a few times three years ago when she satisfied one of the must do things
on her bucket list by running a marathon. I knew that she had moved to Texas some time last year and that’s why I was surprised to see her approaching me
this morning. Two weeks ago, I happened to see someone with the same last name
as Monica’s listed in the sign up roster and she confirmed that it was her
daughter.
When we started running, I again
tucked behind Michael and Rosie who were guiding the 12 minutes per mile
runners. I saw Kim and asked her how married life was treating her because she
mentioned last year that she was getting married soon. Well I was presumptuous because
it’s not happening until June 2nd (my birthday!). After a brief
chat, I caught up with pacer Michael who had already ran 5 miles beforehand
with Rosie and Nick. Wow, some of these peeps are hard core! I saw Kathy about
30 yards ahead and told Michael that I’ll try to keep her company. She told me
she was recovering from an injury that she aggravated when she ran 21 miles at
the Big Sur Marathon course four weeks ago. We were joined by another runner
who was supposed to do the 4 mile course but gut waylaid and the three of us
ran together until 4 miles where another lady whose name I didn’t catch pulled
me to the finish. Actually, she didn’t know the course so I helped her with
that while she pulled me along. When we finished, I went back on the course to
look for Michael and Rosie. I joined them in finishing, then the three of us
added another half mile plus so they could put 12 miles in. My guesstimate total
was very close to 7 miles since I haven’t been wearing my GPS watch of late. Total
miles ~7, total time = 1 hour and 15 minutes which is the most I’ve run since
last year. Not bad for a gimp, I’d say.
Thus far, it doesn’t seem like I’ve
aggravated the tendons in my ankles despite running twice a week for the last
three weeks. I’ll have to wait till tomorrow and the next day to get a more
accurate assessment of how the ~7 miles affected my posterior tibialis tendons.
Here are the things I’ve been doing post run: When I get home and after
showering, I apply some capsaicin ointment on my inner ankles, bind them in
semi rigid braces, and pop a Motrin (after Saturday runs only). I have to keep
the braces on for a few hours for two or three days to minimize movement and
pain. Somehow this works better than icing which I stopped doing. This is what
I call my ankle remediation techniques or damage control techniques. About the frequency of running? Well,
twice a week seems to be working quite well so far. Thank goodness for that J.
The Ties That Bind
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