The Crooked Runner

If you told me four weeks ago that I would be running 9 miles this past Saturday, I would probably tell that you must be more delusional than I am. But that’s exactly what happened during AREC’s training day so I could debunk such delusion. I didn’t have anybody to pace with so I had to run mostly by myself except around 5 miles when I tried to keep up with this lady who’s name I learned later was Elsie. The problem with trying to keep up with her was that she would throw in some surges ever so often and I’m more of a rhythm runner. Besides, surges don’t sit too well with my injured ankles. So I had to let her go and I trailed about 50 meters behind her after 7 miles. I had to take a couple of 40 second walk breaks in the last mile but in spite of that I was surprised that my pace became quicker so much so that I was able to catch up and pass Elsie and also Rick who was about 75 meters ahead at the 7 mile mark. Those two walk breaks really helped make my ankles recover somewhat. Now I’m wondering if I should just do that for the whole distance instead of taking the breaks when my ankles start hurting. I was very elated to finish strong and for being able to cover the distance when I’m not supposed to be covering any distance at all. But oh, the soreness the morning after! Because I’m not able to run as often as required to avoid the said muscular soreness. There is a minimum of three runs a week to avoid the soreness but once a week of supreme effort is all I could muster. And that’s not even mentioning the tendon pain. Like I said before, I don’t mind muscle soreness but it takes longer for tendon pain to recover. I question myself sometimes if one day of running is worth the rest of the week in pain. With the type of injury I have, everything can change tomorrow and I’d be back to walking, if that. But last Saturday morning, I truly appreciated what my body allowed me to do.

p.s. As you can see in these photos, I’m mostly leaning to one side when I run nowadays due to muscular and joint imbalances, thus I am a crooked runner.

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A Fortnight of No Walking and Blogging

Oh well, I haven’t posted anything in more than a week which is my longest drought since I started this blog. Just lazy I suppose or nothing to talk about, more likely. Ideas must be running dry. Notice how I managed to add “running” to that sentence?

First, a freak injury which sidelined me for more than a week in which I had to hold off from walking. It was more about overstretching an already injured or weak tendon, that being the left posterior tibialis. I was trying to keep awake or warm one night at work and was doing squats. The first few sets were okay but when I tried to do faster repetitions, that’s when disaster struck. I guess I didn’t control my legs too well and I overstretched to tendon mid squat. I was hurting the whole night and even though I avoid taking analgesics other than a daily aspirin for heart health, I had to take Motrin for pain relief. After that I had to limit myself to stationary cycling for exercise for about a week and a half.

Second, I missed participating in the Wrigley River Run this year (I ran it the past couple of years) because I had to attend a mandatory Management of Assaultive Behavior class on the day of the race. Renewing it annually is a requirement for my job and my certification was supposed to expire the day after the class. Even if I didn’t have to attend the class, I would have missed the race anyway due to the aforementioned injury. There were physical movements involved in the class and I tried to limit myself as much as possible due to the ankle pain.

I tried walking again on the treadmill when the pain subsided last Thursday morning. Normally I would have gone to 10% incline within the first five minutes of the workout and at least 3.5 mph and gradually increasing it up to 4 mph. That may sound slow, but remember it’s an uphill walk all the way. Well, on my first day back to a walking workout, the best I could do was 7.5% incline (which I didn’t even reach until about half an hour into the workout) and 3.5 mph. It was good enough for that day and besides, I have to save something for Saturday’s AREC workout.

And that brings us to Saturday. My alarm woke me up mid-dream at 5:00 a.m. and my first thought was - do I really have to do this?. After all, it’s too soon to try a six or eight mile walk after not having done so for almost two weeks. I banished the thought and got up, prepared myself for the task ahead, then headed to our meeting area. That day, instead of starting with the group I left about 15 minutes early to get a head start before they caught up with me. Normally I would do a mile warm up, then start with the others. I incorporated the warm up with the whole workout this day and instead of doing six miles (for the half marathoners) or eight miles (for the full marathoners), I did an in between seven miles. I tried a few steps of jogging while I was at it, but the left ankle felt very tight, as if it was about to tear. So I went back to walking and didn’t try to push the pace even at that. It was brisk but not as brisk as the 13:30 to 13:45 pace per mile I did in previous weeks. I managed a few short jogs in the last three miles which was probably not a good idea, but the ankle felt okay when I finished. I’ve mentioned this before in my posts: once the endorphins kick in, the analgesic effect lasts for hours and the pain feels diminished. It wasn’t until the next day that I felt it really badly. Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation were of little help. Fortunately, when I left for work the pain had subsided probably because of the increased circulation in that area. Now, it’s a wait and see to figure out when I can do a walking workout again. Stay tuned.

Things noticed during the above mentioned walk: swim trunks are similarly cut and just as comfortable as running shorts for workouts and much cheaper too. I never knew there was a lifeguard museum in Long Beach. It was housed in what was not more than the size of a snack shack. That’s what happens when one has a meandering pace. You observe more things than when you are running breathlessly. When I took off my shoe when I got home, I found a piece of jacaranda flower in my shoe. The search for a runner’s high even when it pain is not such a good idea, but runners (or in my case: ex runner) do it anyway. Nuts, I say!
And as an addendum: In the last mile of my walk, one of the long time runners from the AREC club passed me and said "I couldn't do 21 years of running every day like you did". Thanks for making me laugh and smile Bernard! I responded - I couldn't even do 5 minutes non stop nowadays! With that, we continued on our way to the finish. Since that running streak has been long gone, sometimes I forget nowadays that it even happened.

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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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Replacing The High With Another

My left ankle had been hurting since my last run last Saturday morning but it felt good when I woke up for my next scheduled run on Tuesday morning. After changing into running clothes, putting my shoes on, and warming up, I started feeling the pain again. Should I go out to run and see if it would feel better as I warmed up, or should I just get on the spinning bike? After several shoe and orthotic combination changes, the discomfort didn’t get any better so I changed to cycling clothes and did the spinning bike instead. That would give me another couple of days of resting the ankles before I try running on them again. I was just getting concerned because the good left ankle which is now turning bad, has been hurting more lately than the permanently damaged right ankle. Working thirteen hours last Saturday night then wrestling with a patient the next night certainly didn’t help.  Better to be conservative and take several extra days off than not being able to run for a longer term.

In other running news, I ran to my doctor’s office last week to get my tetanus/pertussis shot due to the dog scratch I got (Rabies Anyone?), and while in the waiting room, a woman noticed my running clothes and mentioned that her husband runs and is also addicted to it. He runs in any kind of weather and did so in the middle of the day during Wednesday’s 98 to 100 degree heat. We talked for a couple of minutes until I was called into the clinic. I actually took a chance when I ran to my doctor without knowing if they received a fresh supply of the vaccine. Fortunately they had it and I was able to hit two birds with one stone – running and getting the shot. The round trip was supposed to be six miles but I extended it on the way out and ended up with about seven miles.

So, I continue to chase the high that I get from running, but nowadays, when I’m hurting, I try to be more prudent by taking extra days off to heal a bit. When I want to feel the same type of exertion I get from running, I get on the spinning bike and do a lot of stand ups. Whatever it takes to stay fit, get my fix, and get high.

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The Advantage of Being Horizontal

Another entry from the “blog ideas” vault which was never posted. I wrote this a few months ago when I was still able to run and what used to help me recover somewhat from the pain in my ankles. Unfortunately this technique has stopped working and no amount of being horizontal has helped.

Working 12 hour shifts, plus the time driving to and coming from work has taken a toll on my ankles. At least, that’s my belief. My ankle problems started to develop about the time we switched from 8 hour shifts to 12 hour shifts. Even though I had to work more days in a row with the 8 hour shifts, my joints, muscles and body as a whole got more rest because it was able to settle into a routine of waking, sleeping, and exercising. This is particularly more important when you are working the graveyard shift, where you sleep in the daytime and work at night.

                This used to be my routine with the 8 hour shifts: work from 11 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., go to sleep from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., run from 3 to 4 p.m., shower, dinner, and TV from 5 to 8 p.m., nap from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., then get ready and leave for work at 11 p.m. My body adjusted and rested pretty well with that routine because I worked 3 to 4 nights in a row.

With the 12 hour shifts, this is how it went: Leave for work at 6:30 p.m., work from 7 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. the next day, go home and sleep from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., exercise from 2 to 3 p.m., dinner at 3:30, then try to take a nap from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Repeat for two days.

I do not work more than two days in a row so that disrupts my sleeping and waking patterns a lot. After trying to sleep in the daytime for two days, I have to switch to sleeping at night time during my days off which is usually three days, then it was back to the daytime sleep. I find myself just hanging in there when working 12 hour shifts for two days and the long hours of staying upright contribute to lesser recovery for my joints. For those two days of working, I don’t get enough sleep and rest.

Even though I exercise every day, much can be said about the time I spend staying horizontal. The position relieves the stresses on my joints, particularly the ankles. With the 12 hour shifts, I tend to stay vertical longer than I did when working 8 hour shifts. When I am able to sleep 7 to 8 hours at night during my days off, my ankle joints seem to recover better than when I am only able to sleep 3 to 4 hours in the daytime when I’m working.

Unfortunately, there are hardly any more 8 hour shift psych hospital jobs and with the current high unemployment rate, it would be difficult to find one and switch anyway. 

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Run or Bust on Saturday

I know when one kind of pain feels different from the usual. The different pain is what I felt towards the end of what was supposed to be a slow, easy run last Tuesday morning. It’s the same old tendon overstretch story that you have probably read time and again if you’ve followed this blog for the last couple of years. It won’t be the last time it’s going to happen either because this is the nature of my injured ankle. Just from personal experience, it would either be baseline pain, overstretch pain, or tendon tear pain. The third one of course is what lays me off from running for several weeks to a couple of months. What kind of pain did it feel last Tuesday? It felt like the second type, or at least I hope it’s that one. The pain has been coming and going the last few days and I haven’t run since then even though my schedule calls for a run Thursday. Usually it doesn’t hurt as much two days later. I don’t intend to try running again until Saturday which happens to be the Wrigley River Run 10K and I don’t know how my ankle is going to feel that day. I am only hoping that taking a few days off from running will enable it to heal enough for me to run the race on Saturday regardless of how long it takes for me to finish.

On Saturday morning, I’m going to wake up early, lace up my running shoes, drive myself to the starting line, play it by ear, or in this case by ankle, and hope for the best. It’s going to be run or bust.

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Resisting The Temptation

It was so tempting to go out and run last Saturday morning even though I cancelled my 12 mile appointment with Cyndi. Just to go out and do a slow and easy Galloway run would have satisfied my cravings. Still being in pain however, I managed to hold myself back and did the elliptical trainer and a treadmill hill walk instead.

 To think that I already had the warning signs of impending injury in the two weeks preceding, I still persisted on trying to improve my pace and distance. Now I have to keep myself in check to give my tendons a chance to rebuild, recuperate and recover. I can’t say that I didn’t expect this to happen. Looking back to previous blog posts and the past years’ training logs, whenever I approached 10 to 12 miles of running without walk breaks, my ankle tendons suffer. With this type of injury, you can only hope it will not happen too often or too soon between recoveries. Like I mentioned before, I’m learning about my breaking point.

 In the meantime, I’ve been working out on the elliptical machine, recumbent bike, and upright bike and so far have managed to keep my weight steady. That’s it for the non-running part of my week. Four days and counting but the temptation to hit the road keeps on beckoning like the forbidden fruit of Eden.

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Oops, I Did It Again!

All I can think about is a line from a Johnny Mathis song “There I go, there I go, there I go, there I go again” or from a more recent artist, Britney Spears, “Oops, I did it again”. What am I trying to say? As mentioned in one of my posts a few days ago, I’ve been concerned about how my ankles have been feeling due to some hard workouts I’ve done in the past few weeks (http://noeldlp.blogspot.com/2010/04/on-brink-of-another-disaster.html). A few hours after Thursday’s undeveloped run, I felt a very sharp pain on my right ankle (in addition to my left ankle which was already hurting because I compensate with that leg). I was hoping that a nights’ sleep plus a day off from running would make the left ankle feel better. I had no such luck.

 I tried to delay calling Cyndi to beg off from running on Saturday morning to see if the ankle felt better, but after icing, elevating and bracing it numerous times without relief, I finally had to tell her that I had to bail from our 12 miler.

It appears that I have reached my ankles’ breaking point again. I’ve noticed this in previous breakdowns: when I get to a certain distance during long runs (usually 10 to 12 miles of non-stop running), my ankle tendons start to break down. It is at this point that I think I should be doing the Galloway method of running. In my case a 4 minute run and 1 minute recovery walk, until I finish the goal distance. That way, I am still able to cover the miles while giving my tendons a break. That was how I was able to finish a marathon last year. The problem with this method is that it is hard to find training partners who are willing to run and walk.

I have mentioned before that running continues to be a learning process. More so with the Posterior Tibialis Tendon Dysfunction (PTTD) I suffer. I am learning how far and how hard I can run until I reach my breaking point. This week, I not was not only at the brink of disaster, I may have gone over the brink. I will be taking a few days off from running or maybe a couple of weeks, depending on how my ankles feel. I hope the tendon didn’t tear again like it did in October 2008.

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An Undeveloped Run

Thursday’s run was one that never developed. Usually it takes a couple of miles before my legs and lungs get warmed up, then everything loosens up. For some reason there was nary a bounce in my stride from start to finish and I felt flat all the way. My shoes felt like lead weights keeping me from lifting my feet off the ground. Well, you get the idea. It was not a feel good run. Sometimes you have one of those days when what was supposed to be a routine run turns into a slog where you just manage to put one foot in front of the other. I was surprised I even finished an hour. My ankles are still hurting and I hope they hold up for the 12 miler planned for Saturday morning, and that they don't get worst.

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On The Brink Of Another Disaster

Because I’ve been doing some interval workouts in midweek, my cruising speed for the long runs has improved somewhat but to the detriment of my ankles which don’t recover fast enough. I’ve been pushing them to the brink this past couple of weeks and it seems like it has finally caught up with me. Going into the last two miles of Saturday’s run with Cyndi, I felt a sharp pain on my right inner ankle and I started to drag that foot the rest of the way because I could not push off from with it. Although the pain came and went, I didn’t like the way it felt. I cannot run hard two of the three days that I run in a week anymore or else my ankle tendons suffer. I like the feeling of being able to make a hard effort but my ankles usually disagree with me.

I wanted to run Monday morning but I had to find an excuse not to do so. First my ankles were still achy from last Saturday’s run and second the weather outside looked wet and dreary. Not only that, because I’ve been compensating with my left leg, my knee hurts slightly too. So I needed to pull myself back from the brink of another disaster and give my joints a break from the pounding, so I worked out on the elliptical machine instead. I was watching a French movie titled “Le Premier Cercle” and that kept me distracted even during the hard part of the programmed workout. After an hour on the elliptical, I did another twenty minutes on the recumbent bike to finish the movie.

After taking a couple of days off to make my ankles recover, I dared myself to run on Tuesday afternoon. The first few tentative steps didn’t give me too much discomfort even though I was mostly supporting my weight with my left leg, so that was a good sign that I didn’t tear the right ankle tendon again. You cannot imagine how appreciative I was for being able to do an hour of the 4 minute run with 1 minute walk workout. Thank goodness for the little things which bring great satisfaction.

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March’s Last Run

Waking up early Tuesday morning and looking out the window, I saw dark clouds in the sky that grew even darker on my way to the grocery store. I hightailed it back home after buying a few things because I wanted to put a run in before it started raining. The forecast was for the rain to arrive by Tuesday evening but it appeared it might start pouring much earlier.

The workout planned for the day was the 4 minute run with 1 minute walk Galloway training method. I tried to start running harder than usual without a proper warm up. The difference was I took a full minute walk break between intervals. Usually I start running again after about 40 seconds of walking even before my watch starts alerting me for the next repetition. This was just an experiment since I already know that my body doesn’t get into a good groove without starting slowly and warming up first. Not only that, my inner ankle tendons tend to hurt more because it is subjected to heavier pounding so early in the run. Needless to say, it was a rough start and my stride didn’t feel smooth until after about 3 miles.

I wanted to treat this run like a regular interval workout but since I have to be careful with my ankles especially at the start, I couldn’t really pick up the pace hard enough to the capacity of my heart and lungs. So the four minutes of running is closer to a tempo pace rather than a lung busting effort.

Well, I finished my usual hour slower than my last 4:1 workout two weeks ago. This experiment made me conclude that it is better to warm up slowly at the start then pick up the pace later with the reduced walk time, than running hard from the start and taking the full 1 minute walk break. The toll on my ankles is also lesser with the proper warm up. Another lesson learned. Even though I’ve been running for 30 years, running like life continues to be a learning process. What may have worked well in the past may not work now because of changes in your body as you age. The experiment continues.

By the way, the rain never came, the skies cleared, and the sun was out when I finished the run. 

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Watch Your Step!

Going to Saturday’s run, I was very apprehensive about how my right ankle was going to withstand the pounding I was going to subject it to, because it has been hurting the past few days.  I’ve been icing it and had it wrapped in a brace most of the time but it still hurt upon waking up Saturday morning.

I arrived at our starting area early and saw Michael, Will, Nick, Tina, and Mack beginning their run so I joined them ¾ miles out and ¾ miles back for my warm up before running with Cyndi at 7:30. They were doing 8 miles just 6 days after finishing the L.A. Marathon. What a hardy bunch of runners! Will’s 2 dogs were chomping at the bit when we started and one of them bumped my leg and almost tackled me. I finished my warm up with minimal pain so that was a good sign.

When I got back from my warm up, Tam, Jean, and Cyndi were already there but the first two were waiting for Jaymi, so Cyndi and I took off for our 8 miler. Cyndi commented that our starting pace seemed a little faster than usual and my GPS confirmed her assessment. In the meantime I was constantly monitoring how my right ankle with the PTTD felt and had to watch my step very closely and keep my stride low to minimize the impact, so I don’t make a misstep that could aggravate the problem. Hence the title of this blog post. I had to remind myself that phrase during the whole run that it almost became like a mantra. Other than that, Cyndi and I were chatting as usual until we were halfway up 6^th Street hill and that’s when the conversation was limited to a minimum until the finish.

With a mile to go I urged Cyndi to unleash her finishing kick which she did. Although I tried to keep up with her, I couldn’t do it even though I was giving it all I had. We ended up with an overall pace of 9:11 for eight miles after starting the first mile with 9:45, at 6 miles we were down to 9:18, and the last 2 miles were covered at 8:52 pace. When Cyndi picked up the pace the last mile, I’m sure it was faster than 8:52. With the effort we expended, I lost 4 ½ pounds of fluids (wake up weight plus 1 lb. of coffee minus post run weight). Sorry for the pace statistics because I can be anal like that sometimes. I’m just happy that my ankle held up despite running that distance the fastest I’ve ever done in recent memory.

Next week, we bump up the distance to 10 miles because Cyndi is training for the Orange County Half Marathon.

Here is my dilemma: in order for me to give my training partner a decent pace, I have to do speedwork in mid-week to increase my aerobic capacity. But by doing that, I risk worsening my already bad right ankle. Based on my history, whenever I start running well again and my pace improves, that is when I aggravate the injury because I tend to push off harder on the right foot.

So how can I solve this problem? All I can do is keep watching my step and keep my fingers crossed.

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On Ecstasy and Personal Benchmarks

Blogs from runners that I’ve read so far portray an obsession to running, which is understandable. They are mostly regular people who have their own goals: some use the sport for weight control, restarting running, just starting to run, others to continue streaks, or write about their training for the next race. There is also the brag factor: showing their personal bests for the races and distances they run. These bloggers run the gamut from triathletes, marathoners, short distance specialists, BQ aspirers, or ultrarunners.

Did I run the L.A. marathon last Sunday? No. Did I finish an Ironman Triathlon? No. Did I do the Western States 100 mile ultramarathon? No. My everyday running streak? Long gone. So what did I do that had made me feel so ecstatic in the past week? My contentment benchmark is not set so high nowadays. Just having run well last Thursday, Saturday, and Monday despite the dizziness problems has made me feel giddy. Or maybe it’s the dizziness itself that’s making me feel high. Of course my ecstasy can vanish at any moment if I aggravate my right ankle again. Here is my problem when I try to run a hard pace (or even an unintended one), my right ankle might not hurt badly while I’m running but it hurts worse a couple of hours after I stop when the endorphins wear out. As my aerobic capacity increases and I’m able to run a little bit faster, I’m also in danger of tweaking my right ankle with the PTTD that brings me back to agony. So it’s not a good trade-off because when that happens, I have to take a couple of steps backward to heal the ankle again. It feels so good to be able to run hard though. Your arms pumping, your legs churning, your lungs feel like they’re about to burst. God! What a feeling!

So here I am on Thursday with my right ankle still smarting a bit from the past weeks’ harder than usual runs. It was time to dial down the effort so it was an easy one hour run. It was such a slow run that I didn’t even hit my stride until after 30 minutes. Mission accomplished.

This is what my personal benchmark boils down to: neither a long distance runner, a racer, or a marathoner am I anymore. Nowadays, completing just an hour run gives me satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment. Pretty low goal, huh? What counts is I’m pretty happy with it and that’s all that matters.

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