Saturday, May 19, 2012

AREC Training – Week 3 and Ankle Remediation Techniques

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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