Rapidly approaching 10k

Everything has gone to hell

Too much has happened since my last post. A total breakdown in my body and gadgetry has thrown me off. While my injury is gone, my fitness took a hit while I waited for the calf to heal up. Somehow, I have also misplaced the foot pod for my nikeplus system, which has put a bit of a dent into my motivation. It is hard to want to go out and run knowing it won't count.  I've been running some, but I feel a bit slower. I'm not sure that I'm slower, as I have no feedback.

After easing back into running, once I was sure my calf was holding up OK, I got one pretty good run in before I left town. I Did my 13k out and back with hills and I felt OK, but the run wasn't without it's mishap.

Dog tired

There is a long steep climb on that run. I'd finally topped the hill and was picking up some speed on the gradual downhill. I was running strong, but I was tired. On the sidewalk coming at me was a little old lady walking a bull mastiff. It was a beautiful creature, but it was the type of dog you would draw if you were a cartoonist and you needed somebody to be eaten. She had a control collar on it, but the dog weighed nearly as much as that frail old lady did, and she looked a little worried. Plus, I couldn't help but remember that on that very same steep climb a couple years ago I had been passed by a faster runner. Just after he came around me and was pulling away, a pit bull ran out of a yard and attacked him. He was bleeding, but not too bad. It was the only time I've felt lucky to be fat and slow...

But, I decided to give the dog the benefit of the doubt. Dogs are mostly good. Also I was tired and didn't feel like crossing the street. So all my attention was on the dog. I was waiting for him to snap or lunge, and even when I got past him my head was slightly turned and my perception was focused on that little sliver of peripheral vision over my shoulder. Just then I hit a little lip of raised cement on the sidewalk. I wish I had a video. My arms were windmilling around like an angry Pete Townsend trying to break the strings of his guitar... my feet were doing quick little steps trying to catch up as the trunk of my body sloped more and more toward the sidewalk in slow motion. Then everything sped up in a whirlwind of sidewalk, sky and road rash.

I feel pretty lucky about not getting hurt bad. There was a bunch of blood, but other than one hand and knee I just hand mild road rash. Those two spots were not so mild, but they are healing nicely. At least I didn't bounce my head off the ground or break anything.

Phish

Another hit to my running came with my recent whirlwind trip to see three Phish concerts in NC and GA. I had a blast, but only got out for one easy run. It was a gentle run through Charlotte, NC. I meandered through the 4th Ward neighborhood and wound up in a big cemetery. I did a couple laps winding through there, but the pace was easy and it wasn't that far. Who knows how fast or far? Damn my missing gadget.

I did wear the Vibram KSOs to three concerts, so I got a bit of a foot workout from the boogie. My goofy finger shoes got a lot of questions from some spun out hippies. The interesting thing was that I had several people walk up and say: "Are you a runner?"  I find that interesting, as I rarely see people running in them. Barefoot running is seeping into the collective consciousness. The concerts were fantastic, by the way.

Race in less than a week

I'm not sure where this leaves me for the 10k I'm signed up for next Saturday. I'll finish. I'm mostly healthy. I'm probably slower than I was a few weeks ago, but have no idea how much. I'm pretty sure I can do better than my Sun Run time of 53 minutes. Can I break 50? Guess we'll see.

My next gadget?

So the Nike+iPod foot pod isn't turning up. I'm sure it will, once I replace it or get something else. The something else I've been thinking about is the Garmin 405. A coworker recently got one and I'm fairly impressed. It gives you accurate pace and distance data. Can generate amazing maps of your run that include altitude info. You can add a heart rate monitor and a foot pod if you like and collect data about your heart rate and the turnover of your feet. With the foot pod you can still log runs on a treadmill indoors.

I'm going to have to get something quick to push my motivation back up. It is time to start looking for a Fall half marathon.

Strikes and Gutters

Amazing what can happen in a week...

A week ago today I had a fantastic run. It was one of the most enjoyable 20k runs I've ever done. I dropped in to an easy quick pace and never felt tired. It was one of those runs that makes me love running, a scenic out and back from my house past Kitsilano Beach. I was passing people effortlessly and it didn't even seem like work to hold a good pace.

Then on Tuesday, another good run. This was my out, back and to work run with hills. Not quite as good a pace, but with the hills and so soon after a fast 20k I was pretty pleased with it.

Somewhere between then and now it has all fallen appart. After this decent morning run in to work, and a bit of a deadline-driven stressful work day, we went out to see Joe Cocker and Tom Petty. Both bands were surprisingly good and we were up pretty late. But I was in good shape to handle another busy day at work on Wednesday. I think Wednesday is where things started to go off the rails. That evening Nora bumped her head. Hard. So Katie ran her to Children's hospital and I stayed home so we didn't have to wake Eliza up. But I couldn't really sleep, and Katie and Nora didn't make it back until morning. (Nora is fine, but it is good we brought her in). So I was in terrible shape Thursday, running on a two night sleep deficit with extra helpings of stress.

But having had a fantastic string of runs I thought I should get in a lunch run. It might even make me feel better, I told myself. Heck the ultra-marathoners go without sleep that long and never even stop running, so buck up! So, off I go on my 7k loop around Lost Lagoon. It wasn't even raining, all that hard. Yet. But rain it did. What started as a refreshing cool mist turned into a dump. I wound up with my shirt and shorts stuck to me like a Corona T-shirt on a girl-gone-wild. I spent the first half of the run trying to keep my pace high and shield my iPod Touch from the deluge by holding it face down, cupped under my left hand. 

That didn't work. Almost exactly half way into my run, on the other side of Lost Lagoon, my iPod turned itself up to eleven and could not be adjusted. Moisture had found its way into the volume rocker switch and shorted out the contact that turns up the volume. I paused the run and started playing with it to see if I could get it to work, but my stomach dropped as the iPod spontaneously rebooted. Losing the run data was the least of my worries. A water-soaked iPod spontaneously rebooting can't be a good sign. I tried to power down, but it rebooted itself again. 

Thinking the iPod was likely fried, I figured I'd hoof it back to work and see if I could dry it out. Unfortunately, as soon as I started to run my left calf knotted up really bad. It was all I could do to make it back to work. I had to run/walk just to make it back in. It was the worst run I've had in years, after nothing but improvements for a couple months.

So the iPod works fine once it dried out (pro tip: put wet electronics in a bowl of dry rice to draw the moisture out). I gave myself a couple days rest, and my calf has been fine. So, I figure it's time for a repeat of last Sunday. I gear up for a long easy run. It is a beautiful day and I have a fresh soundboard recording of the Phish concert they played last night. I was excited to zone out and cover some miles. But two kilometers in I felt a twinge of pain. It got progressively worse. After pausing a couple of times, it was clear that there was no sense in pushing myself, and I hopped on the SkyTrian by Science World, and then a bus up Commercial. Run over...

Bummer...

I'm thinking lack of sleep and stress caused the calf problem in the first place. I hate to call it an injury; it is just some soreness and inflammation in a muscle. But then I guess that is what an injury is, isn't it? I'm wondering if the high stress and lack of sleep could have elevated cortisol levels in my system. Or maybe I was just so tired and distracted by the rain and malfunctioning iPod that I was running with terrible form. Maybe I was just pushing too hard too soon after long mileage.

Either way it is going to keep me from running. I think I should lay off until Thursday or Friday. Guess we'll see how it goes.

As a wise man once said "Sometimes you eat the bar. And, well, sometimes he eats you."