Wimp Out Due To Rain? Or Rational Decision?

Saturday morning’s scheduled AREC run was 10 miles for one group and a longer 18 miles for those training for a marathon. All that to be done in the forecasted rain. Based on my injuries earlier this year, 10 miles appears to be the breaking point of my leg joints and muscles so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I set all my running rain gear out Friday evening: shoes, socks, shorts, long sleeved shirt, Goretex jacket, hat, gloves, GPS watch, ID, cell phone, hard candy, MRE’s. Oh, wait, not the last one. Should I run very easy like last week? Do the 4:1 Galloway method? Wimp out because of the rain and run on the treadmill instead? In the end, my final decision was not made because of the distance or the weather but because my ankles were still aching from last Thursday’s unplanned fartlek workout.

 Let me explain. It was supposed to be a GPSless slow and easy run, but 15 minutes into it, I decided to pick up the pace for the length of a block then recovered on the next turn. Well, instead of continuing in an easy pace, I kept doing the block-long pickups and recoveries until I finished an hour of what I considered an impromptu fartlek workout. It felt really good picking up the pace but the downside is that increases my pounding against the ground so much nowadays that it overstretches my already tender ankle joints. I was hoping that they would recover on Friday so I could join AREC on Saturday morning, but it was not to be. My ankles were hurting too much and I didn’t want them to get worst. Instead, I just repeated Friday’s recumbent bike workout plus 5 more minutes. This was the workout for Friday and Saturday: 4 minutes fast cadence on easy gear, 3 minutes on medium gear while trying to keep the cadence up, 3 minutes on heavy gear = 1 set. Repeat to finish 4 to 5 sets. Not the same feeling as running but it was gentler to my ankles while keeping my pulse rate up and my breathing heavy. Good enough. I might not try to run again until next Tuesday. In the meantime, ice, ice, baby.

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A Vitamin D Run

Having confined myself to indoor workouts last week due to problems with dizziness and lightheadedness, I finally decided last Saturday morning to go outdoors and soak up some vitamin D from the suns’ rays. I ran on a very familiar route around the Rancho Los Cerritos area. As I entered the street going into the Rancho (it’s actually a home museum), whom do I see but none other than Thom L., proprietor of Runner’s High store in Belmont Shore. I wondered what he was doing in that part of town since I think he lives in Seal Beach. I didn’t get the chance to ask him because by the time I turned around he was too far to catch and no matter how much faster I tried to run, he was way too fast. My one hour vitamin D run went surprisingly well considering how yucky I had been feeling the whole week. I may be developing adult onset diabetes because after seeing the doctor last Thursday and getting some blood tests done, my blood sugar was found to be slightly elevated. Regarding the run itself, I was able to do some unorganized pace pickups like a Fartlek workout and even managed to go into oxygen debt towards the end and had to slow to a jog for a few minutes before being able to resume my regular stride and finish the hour. I ended the run with strains of Sheryl Crow’s song “I’m gonna soak up the sun” playing in my head.

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