Random Running Thoughts for Early January 2010

Whoa! That was my first reaction when I saw the Vibram Five Fingers print ad in the January issue of Runner’s World magazine. Most subscribers have probably seen it already and I’m wondering what their reactions were. Me, I’m just catching up on reading it since I got my copy in the first week of December. For those who haven’t seen it yet, what I’m talking about can be found between page 48 and 49. Damn! There is a nekkid woman in a running magazine(please don’t correct my misspelling, it’s intentional)! I wanted to scan it to show here but it was a foldout page that was too big. Ok, I found the pics and here it is:

As runners, do you care how much you eat or just go for broke because you know you can run off the calories anyway? We know that running gives us the most bang for buck in terms of calorie burn. Well, how about when you cannot run due to injury, weather or whatever? What would you do then? Other types of workouts don’t seem to do the same job as running does. Regardless of what type of activity you do, there are no shortcuts. You still need to put in the time and effort.

While searching for new ways to deal with posterior tibialis tendon problems, I found a $40.00 over the counter rigid orthotic that looks and feels almost exactly the same as my $250.00 prescription orthotics. However it’s thermoplastic instead of graphite composite. Still, that’s a big difference in price. No wonder health insurance companies don’t pay for sports orthotics – because you might find non-prescription ones that might work or a pedorthist can make adjustments to it to fit your foot condition better.

Last Christmas was my 30^th here in the U.S. which coincides to the number of years I’ve been running. Running was the sport that enabled me to immigrate to this country after all. Thank you running and thank you U.S.A for taking me in.

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Working The Pace, etc…

Ever have one of those days when you feel that you are running hard, giving it all you’ve got, and all that effort just gives you an overall pace slower than what you perceived? All that huffing and puffing didn’t blow the house down after all. Well I had one of those days last Saturday when the average pace over 8.5 miles was 9:32, when it felt at least like 9:15. Was I disappointed? Maybe slightly, but I was content enough that the hard effort was made. Even though it didn’t feel like I was struggling with the pace, it didn’t feel easy either, so it was a good run overall. I shouldn’t really be compulsive with pace nowadays since my running is day to day, but it’s nice to see slight improvements despite the ankle pain. The more important issue is that I’m able to run.

I ran with Cyndi that day and she is still recovering from the very hard effort she gave at the Surf City Half Marathon two weeks prior. When I finished stretching afterwards, I saw a few runners finishing their run whose strides looked familiar from afar. Well, no wonder they looked familiar. Tam, Jaymi, Julie, and Jean have come back a couple of weeks after Surf City too, but they started at 7:30 while Cyndi and I started at 6:45. It was nice seeing the group and specially Tam who started running again after waiting patiently for her ankle sprain to heal.

Other notes about last weeks’ running experience: I ran my fastest pace using the Galloway 4 minute run/1 minute walk system. I averaged 9:43 pace per mile over 6 miles compared to the previous weeks’ 9:49. My ankles seems to hurt a different way while wearing the over the counter Heel That Pain orthotics, but I seem to get a better bounce in my stride while using them. We will have to see in the oncoming weeks how well that will work out.

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Trial On The Treadmill

The big attempt to restart running was made last Wednesday afternoon in the midst of several days of rain in the Southern California area. After taking 3 ½ days off from running due to ankle problems, it was time to make use of last summer’s big purchase for days like this. Make like a hamster and try to run on the treadmill.

First, a trial adjustment by swapping my three year old custom orthotics with a pair of Powerstep Inserts over the counter orthotics. I hopped on the treadmill and set it on the slowest pace possible in which I could shuffle my feet for a jog. Some minimal pain was felt, but I was more concerned about how the OTC orthotics felt too high on the arch and my Achilles tendon felt some strain. So I hopped off the treadmill after 15 minutes and switched to another over the counter orthotics called Superfeet. I got back on the treadmill and tried to get a feel for the orthotics. Superfeet has a lower arch compared to the Powerstep and also has a firmer feel which really stops overpronation, but from previous experience using both these OTC orthotics, they start to flex more when they get warmer after several miles of running. However, last Wednesday I managed an additional 20 minutes of a slow jog on the Superfeet for a total of 35 minutes between the two different orthotics. So far so good, at least I managed to run.

Last Thursday morning, another rainy day, I decided to try another treadmill run. I wouldn’t normally run two days in a row nowadays whether I’m in pain or not, but if I didn’t try to run last Thursday, my next run would have been Saturday and that would have been too long between runs. Besides I wanted to further test my ankles with the Superfeet orthotics. So I start running as slowly as possible as usual and every few minutes I would increase the treadmill speed. Believe me, the speed of the treadmill was nothing to boast about so I will leave it unmentioned here. My goal was to run more than the 35 minutes I managed the previous day, so 40 minutes would have been good. When I reached that time, I added 5 minutes more, then another, then another until I reached one hour. All the while I kept thinking “am I overdoing it?”, because I could feel twinges of pain during the duration of the run. Thinking about just running 5 more minutes at a time really helped but even though I felt good, I dismounted the treadmill after an hour. Besides I didn’t want my downstairs neighbor to complain to the homeowner’s association about the noise I was creating with my heavy stride on the treadmill.

Well, I survived those two trial treadmill runs without further debilitating myself and the next step was to try a 12 mile run/walk last Saturday. Tune in while I try to compose my thoughts about what happened during the Saturday run.

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