CRASH!... This was not the bike post I had planned.

As you might have guessed from the title I had an unfortunate stopping incident with my bike today. Luckily it happened under all the right circumstances, if there is such a thing. I can't imagine where an accident on your bike would ever be welcomed or necessary, but if you have to crash I couldn't have asked for a better time or place for it to happen.

I had planned on giving an update as to how my bike riding was progressing, and how my first week of commuting worked out. However, I felt that this would make for much more interesting reading.

I had planned to tell all of you how well is it going, and how I am getting faster and smoother with each ride to and from work. How the route I chose to ride ended up being about twice as long as anticipated.  How each ride keeps getting easier and so far has not interfered with my running. I have been very pleased with my progress. Until today that is, actually today was not bad until I was about 15 seconds from finishing my ride home. I am not even sure what exactly happened, I guess it was just a perfect storm. As I was getting set to make my finish up the driveway something happened. I lost control, more specifically my body didn't react in the way I needed it to. I saw that I had misjudged my turn in and was heading for the high curb in front of the house instead of the drive. I reached for the brake but couldn't get enough pressure to the pads, next thing I hear is the thud of my face and shoulder hitting the sidewalk. Followed closely by the fun grating sound of aforementioned body parts sliding to a shuddering stop on said sidewalk.  As much as my imagination was creating bloody raw hamburger images of my face on a perpetual slide show as I gathered myself and strolled bruised ego and pissed off up my driveway with my seemingly invincible super bike, which had not a scratch on it. After throwing down the bike at the top of the driveway and walking into the house making the wonderful statement "I need first aid." I chucked my bag and got cleaned up, with the help of my wonderful wife. I went to bring in the beast bike, and finish nursing my wounds. Thanks to the endorphins running through my body and the fatigue from the run I wasn't really feeling the pain yet. I am fortunate that it wasn't any worse and that the only real injury was to my ego and pride. Check the pics below and laugh with me.

Running with "The J"... part 2

For weeks "The J" has been begging me to take him on a long run. Whenever I ask him how far he want to go on our run he always says "ummm, I think I want to go six miles." I always chuckle and say lets just get one mile down really good first. Well last Saturday I ran the Kingwood 5K and  "The J" really wanted to run it with me. To the point of tears when my wife told him he couldn't .  So for a surprise this past Saturday I decided I would take him down to the local bike trail and take him for a long training run.  It was supposed to be a 5K, but the section of trail that we would be running on was only 1.1 miles one way.  That really didn't matter to him he was just really excited to be running long.  That and to be running on the bike trail, this was something new.  After his nap we got on our running gear, grabbed a few water bottles, pack of chomps and we were off.  The whole time he was asking me all sorts of questions, like how many turns it took to get there, would we be stretching when we got there, how far it was, were there any bridges. I told him all of the answers he wanted to know plus, told him we would be running past a horse farm and beside a lake.  Once we got to the parking area I gave him a Chomp and we went through our stretching routine.  Then over the bridge to the trail and off we went down the trail. Seeing how it is partly wooded it makes for good animal sightings.  The first one that "The J" saw was a little bird perched on a broken branch. Then a small rabbit hippity hopped in to cover as we pasted. Throughout the whole run "The J" thought it necessary to call out the number of people and what type of activity they were doing, such as "Dad there are two bikers".  Besides the people, animals, and when are we going to see the lake I was also notified of each bench as we ran past. It is always an entertaining endeavor to go for a run with him. At about the 1 mile mark we slowed down to walk as we approached the turn around, as per our plan. Once turned around and starting back "The J" spotted a sign placed beside the trail and asked if he could run ahead to the sign by himself. I let him, but when he got about 3/4 the way there I saw some one heading toward the sign. I ran after him to catch up and he was slowing to a walk.  Once I caught up to him I ask why he was stopping, he stated that someone took the sign away so he stopped.  Luckily there were some posts at the side of the trail for him to run fast to, so he took off.  Once I caught up again we ran for a few more tenths the traded down to a walk as he had drank too much water during our turn around and had a side stitch. During this brief walk we spotted a turtle, and that was the best thing.  We were off running again and this time we didn't stop for the remainder of the run.  "The J" also started to get a bit fatigued and needed a distraction. At the start of the run he spotted a mile marker post with a 16 on it so I thought that it would be fun to have him count to 16 (about four times).  It worked and we blew past the marker and just as we got to the bridge "The J" caught me off guard busted in to a full sprint for the last little bit and across the bridge to the finish tired, but happy and excited to be done.  We hopped into the truck and grabbed some water and had a snack size package of pretzels before heading off back home. Our run totaled 2.1 miles and took us just over 28:00 minutes, of this we ran around 1.6 miles of it.  He never ceases to amaze me with his boundless energy and determination. Not once has he ever said that is enough, always he pushes through and finishes. 

And the Sport Doc says...

I have a bio mechanical issue with my foot which is causing the problem. Basically, my heel and forefoot don't line up the way that they should. My right foot is pronating to the inside and flattening. Instead of  pronating on the outside and springing to create forward momentum. Basically I am twisting my foot/heel to compensate for the loss of natural function in the foot. Also, weakness in my hip flexor/joint and supporting muscle groups are not helping the situation. This is most definitely not what I wanted to here, but at least I have an answer as to what is causing the problem.

Now how do I fix the problem. First solution is to get fitted for orthotics to correct the misalignment allowing my body to correct from the foot up.  The second solution is to work on strengthening the hip and supporting muscles to fix the problem from the top down.  Either way poses its own set of challenges and problems.  With the orthotic route I will not be fixing the bio-mechanical issues to where I won't need the orthotic in the future which poses issues with the types of footwear I can use. The other issue is that a good portion of the time I am not in shoes or footwear which you could wear an orthotic.  Either that or I am not being active and on my feet, I work in an office at a desk most of the day. So I don't see a whole lot of benefit for that option. Strengthening the musculature to force my body to correct the problem seems more of a benefit now and into the future.

At least he didn't tell me I couldn't run. In fact he told me to keep running, just not to do any speed work, hill work, or intervals. I am supposed to keep my mileage where it is at and just run. Don't worry about time, speed, or pace just run what feels right. I think that I can handle that. So for now that is what I have to work with, and I am going to try my best to stay with in the distances allowed. I feel confidant that what ever he has planned to help will me get to my goals, which he wrote down and took notes on. I think that it helps that he has done the same things that I want to (marathons,tri, ironman, you know the usual) with the exception of the ultra-distance races. Time will ultimately tell, but I think I am off to a good start in the right direction.

Off to see the Doc.

Well, I have finally had enough pain. Pain around my knee. Pain in my quads, hamstrings, and calf. I am tired of trying everything known just to have it repeat. It is time for someone else to try. So tomorrow I will be heading off to see a sports doc, one who is hopefully in tune to the needs of a runner. I have reason to be hopeful. When I called to get information they passed on my information to their guy who takes of people like me. After taking my info, I was told that he would be in touch with me. It wasn't more than 20 minutes and I was mid interview going over my injury cycle and activities that I partake. By the end of the call I had my appointment and confidence that I would be well taken care of. I will post an update tomorrow.

Kingwood 5K race report.

This morning I took part in the 2nd annual Kingwood 5K, which benefits our local botanical garden Kingwood Center.

The day started off great. I got out of bed around 6:00 and started getting ready, and I was out the door by 8. The race wasn't to start until 9:00, but since it was just down the street I was walking to registration. As I was getting ready to leave J said he wanted to walk down with me. So at least I had a buddy to keep me company on the walk down.

This would be the best part of the morning until the race actually started. Once we arrived at Kingwood I saw my sister who was racing with me today. She was just coming out of registration with her packet.

Now, here would be where the fun should have started, but instead I ended up with an epic fail. I went to check in for the race and pick up my race packet, and I was told that I was not registered.  What! Are you freakin' serious! I still get to race but I don't get a swag bag or one of the regular race bib numbers. So not the way I was looking to start my race prep. Not very happy about that or the lack of organization to start the race off.

I got my number pinned on and  handed off my shirt to my wife who had just arrived since she was getting H and I ready to go when we left to head to the race.  We had a little bit of time to kill so we stood around talking and I ran into my friend Jen whose son was racing today too. It was now time to start getting into position for the start. Only the starters were a little confused as to where the start actually was.  Once the start was determined, a small talk and a few instructions  later we were off.

My sister and I getting ready for the start

My plan going in was to get going with a soft pace through the first trail section, then once on the pavement of the bike trail I would turn up the speed until I reached the next trail section then sprint the final section that was on pavement again. Good theory, I just ran when the gun went off, and ran fast. Oops, I tried to slow down and hold back once we got to the grass, but it was too late my body had already committed. I should have listened to my body instead of my head saying hey "you're going to fast you're not gonna make it at this rate." One day I will learn that I can run that fast or faster the whole 5K distance. Stupid brain thinks it's sooo smart, but I have my body trained not to quit.

My finishing sprint

I wish that I could have taken some pics during the trail and bike path part but that section was not spectator friendly and I was way to focused on the argument between my brain and body that I didn't have time to do anything but focus on running. I was just cruising along as I cleared the 2 mile mark a nice gentleman let me know I was as 15:33.  I thought that this was pretty good until the lady in my phone let me know I was doing much better than that. I was on pace to meet or possibly PR this race. That is what I thought until I turned on to the last trail section. There was a sharp uphill that caught me off guard and caused me to slow down enough that I wasn't able to recover not even my sprint to the finish wasn't fast enough to make me  match my previous PR.  I did however, finish with a 24:11 time and that was good enough for 27th out 220.  I was going to run another 5 miles to round out my Saturday work out, but decided to just to save it for tomorrows long training run.

All in all the run was good if not for the lost registration and general lack of organization in timing and logging finish times.

Something I just don't do.

This is an example of something that I just don't do while out on my run.

 I never stop and take pictures while I am out on my runs. Whether it be a short fun run or a long training run, I just don't do it. I am out there to run not take pictures, but I am thinking that I may try to get a few pictures in from now on. I think that I need to relax and not let the pace counter rule my runs. I am at the point that I know what I can do on any given day, but the real question is can I justify stopping to take the pictures. I always have been a little jealous of those of you who stop and shoot a few pictures and still maintain a pace, total time, and distance that is faster than some of my best.  I often see beautiful images while I am out in the morning, but have always kept them to myself using them as motivation to keep on going or take my thoughts off of a certain struggle while out.

Today was supposed to be a long training run, but started out terrible so I thought that I might as well take some time and try something a little bit different. It was fun and I am looking forward to doing it again at some point during my marathon training over the next couple of months.  I went out for this run this morning wanting to do 15 miles, but my body hurt so bad I decided that what ever I got today would be have to be good. While I knew before I started that I should have stayed in bed this morning. I am glad that I got up and ended up trying something new, and in the process I found out that I enjoyed it.  Here is to trying new things, having a good run, and remembering that is is about the run not the time. 

With that I leave you with this final shot.

Have a great day running, playing, and relaxing!

One week till the kingwood 5K

It is just one more week until my next race, and for some reason I am feeling a little under prepared. I don't know if it is because it is partially a trail course and I haven't done much running on trails. Could it be because I have been dealing with numerous and varied injuries. It might be because I set a fairly high bar with my PR in the last race, and feel that i won't be able to match or beat it this time. I really just want to run a good race and have fun, but at the same time I really want some race bling. You know something to validate my efforts. Or could it just be my anxiety over the marathon that I am running in a little over two months, and have yet to log half that distance in a training run. What ever it may be I am sure that I will rock the course and have a great time. No matter what happens next week here is a picture of boys playing with bubbles.


- A

National Running Day

 Today is National Running Day.

What did everyone do to celebrate?

Me personally, I ran, in fact I ran twice.

J running in place

Both runs were short but served their purpose. The first one was a short .6 miler with my boy J.The second one was right after J and I got back from our run. I decided that today would a good day to start my 'how fast am I' testing. I thought that it would be a good idea to see just how fast I can run as sort of a control to base further testing on. I had planned on trying to get a 1 mile run in a top speed, but what I hadn't planned on was how the heat would affect me. I managed to get .6 miles at a pace of 6:18 average since I didn't get the whole mile. That however is a full minute faster than my fastest pace and more than 2 minutes faster than my normal pace. The whole run felt like it was in slow motion and about half way through I thought about stopping and just walking the rest of the way home.  I am not a quitter though so I finished it off, and about 3.2 seconds later I wished I had. This little run just about made me PUKE! Boy that sure did suck.  All in all it wasn't a bad day of running. Although I wish I had gotten my punk ass out of bed and ran this morning too.

My beautiful wife after her run.

On a side note, my wife has been trying to get back into a regular schedule of running to get back in shape and raise her fitness level after having our last child. (who happens to be in the picture with her) Mostly I just need an excuse to put a picture of my gorgeous wife on my blog. All in all it was a good day and I hope that we can get the whole family in on the running next year.