Which not to say that I ran zero miles.
As it happened, I ran .39 miles.
Went out for 6 last Tuesday. The Monday after Ragnar and the ITBand, I just felt like I needed another day. So that 6 was so-so, probably because it was warmer than it had been on the weekend. Maybe I was still recovering from Ragnar.
After I showered my back started bothering me. Not the whole back, just the lower right quadrant. Almost where I'd feel a kidney stone, but that would be crazy. Actually, not so
Mrs. Dave is in a facebook group that I am not. Couple of weeks ago she saw a post about a Ragnar team that had a runner drop out at the last minute and did anyone know someone who might want to go.
Ragnars have always looked fun to me, but outside of the Loopsters I don't really have any running friends. Maybe I should get out more. It's never really fit into my marathon plans, so I don't know that I'd have done one anyway. Although, being uber-susceptible to peer pressure, if someone had
Where to start with this? I went to Italy and rubbed elbows with Loopster stars, Davide and Fiona. Basically, they have always let me know if I want to come visit them in Milan, Italy, I could. I did just that 5 years ago and then I grabbed an opening in the pandemic after Italy approved arrivals for tourists and I arrived in northern Italy on July 28th to stay with them until August 6th. We hatched a plan to hike in the Dolomites for a chunk of my visit because I had been wanting to start ex
Not yet.
I'd be tempted except for a couple of things.
First is this knee. Not the left that had the meniscus repair three years ago. That would be the left side that's been giving me all sorts of trouble from the Achilles to the hip for half of this year. Nope, this is the right side that's sometimes given me problems when the left side has acted up, maybe making me over-compensate and give it extra stress. This is also the side with the old basketball injury. Normally it gets better
26 miles last week. On schedule for 28 this week.
The 4 milers are all going well. No issues with the calf, hamstring or Achilles on the left. Looks as though that little nagger is behind me for now. Being better about my stretching and doing a little leg work during those exciting work meetings a few times a week. Baby steps. The old tendinosis below the right knee hurts some, but gets better as I go along. It's more of a little sting than anything and rest does it no good, so...
Sunr
As usual the summer is racing on by with entirely inadequate time spent in the high country.
The first trip of the year went up into the shadow of Mt Evans. I'd planned to drive up and hike down to the lakes until discovering the road is now reservation-only, go to recreation.gov several weeks in advance to make a booking. Good grief. So, it's five miles and 1600ft up and in, from the bottom parking lot. This was full by 7:30am on a Saturday. Made myself a parking spot in a pullout a couple hu
I was really looking forward to last weekend. The calf was behaving reasonably well and my 3 milers were all going OK. Each one a little better than the previous one in fact. A few of the days I even forgot to stretch it beforehand and it was still OK. My plan was to go 5 on Saturday.
At this point I remind myself that 5 miles when I'm not in very good shape is likely to wipe me out for the rest of the day. The would no doubt be a nap sometime Saturday afternoon. Not a bad thing, really.
First decent run in I don't know how long. Suppose I could look back in the running log, but I'm too lazy for that. It was certainly before the Achilles and hamstring stretch this spring/early summer. (yes, I wrote "stretch" on purpose)
Might have even been last summer before the knee when whack.
In the interest of full disclosure, it was only 3 miles, and I did make a pit stop at the POP next to the softball field behind St. Colette's Catholic Church. (just short of mile 2). And, yeah
I had signed up for 2 triathlons in 2020 .... hence I am now signed up for 2 triathlons in 2021. The first one is on 8/7 and is an olympic distance - swim 1 mile, bike 22 miles and run 10k. The other one is a half Ironman - swim 1.2, bike 55, run 13.1.
My training has been ALL over the place with the one constant being CrossFit. 😅 Running has been pretty much shut down since Jim Thorpe in May due to a calf strain. I've slowly started adding in a very few miles.
Swimming has been pretty
Again.
Been several days without that little pull in the hamstring, so I'm planning another try on Monday. Suppose I could have waited until after I actually tried to run before I posted about it, but I'm a little antsy.
Other than that, not much happening here.
Latest books:
The Dark Tower (VII - last one). Stephen King. Sort of just wanted this one to be over. Hated the ending. King wrote that he added it after the first publication because everyone wanted a "real" endin
I ran the first Michigan Ragnar Trail relay at the Hanson's Recreation Area near Grayling, MI back in 2019 with a group of friends from our running group and had a great time. We signed up again for 2020 but it was canceled due to COVID and rescheduled for June 25-26, 2021.
The Ragnar trail relay is a little different from the road relay where you have 8 member teams and all teams camp out in the same place where the start and finish for all the runs are from the same location. The rela
...die in a fire-y car crash or fall from a plane at 30,000 feet without a parachute?
...lose an arm or a leg?
...go blind or deaf?
...have a strained Achilles or a strained hamstring?
After several slow weeks, trying to nurse this hamstring through its current issues no doubt related to the Achilles from earlier in the spring, I decided to call it what it is.
I'm injured.
I'd hoped that the four day weekend Mrs. Dave and I spent out of town would be enough rest, bu
I meant to write more often – I really did…Since I wrote in April I have run a couple in person races and some virtual races. I did an in person 10k that I also counted as a virtual 10k (because to me, virtual races barely count, and it isn’t as though I don’t cover that distance regularly anyway…) The in person 10k was the “Jim Schoemehl Run” to fundraise for ALS research. I also counted this for my virtual Flying Pig 10k, mainly because it was that weekend. I did the 3-way challenge, so as soo
A little background on me, I rarely post.
About 15 years ago I did 0 exercise. I was in my early 40s and weighed about 250.
Then I slowly started eating a little better and adding in light exercise.
About 12 years ago I bought a hybrid, and on the maiden voyage, likely a whopping 2 miles, I thought I was going to die.
Fast forward to about 5 years ago, I was at about 175, and running my first Mt Washington Hill run, I've done it a total of 4 times, and I use the word run, v
This is the hardest part.
Where you're running enough to know you're running. But not enough to feel good about it. Not long enough or far enough to feel the high, or even feel comfortable. Then there's that nagging hamstring or tight calf that keeps you from pushing the pace at all. You know if you could spend some time at a higher effort, then the easy will actually feel easy. But you've at least learned that lesson, so you keep it slow, constantly monitoring that left leg for signs of di
Hopefully nothing serious.
Tuesday morning this week the weather went crazy. It was 41o when I woke up at 5:30. When is it 41o in Michigan 3 weeks into June? Never, that's when. My early meeting had been cancelled, so it was a golden opportunity for a longer than usual run. Of course, since Achilles isn't 100%, longer than usual means probably 5 miles.
Even wore a long sleeved shirt.
About a mile out Sammy the left hammy began to tighten up. Slowing down helped, but not fully and
Note to self: Try not to use your basement as a woodshop. The clean up is a bear.
Garages are for parking cars.
After finishing the floor and baseboard trim, and with no other project at the top of the priority list, I decided to make a thorough job of cleaning the basement. It's a half-finished space. In the unfinished half, there's a workbench where I keep my tools, paint and assorted pieces of junk and leftovers from other projects - wood, screws, wire, pipe, nuts & bolts, cast
Tomorrow California opens up. I'm calling it VC day (Victory over Covid). It's been 15 months where our lives changed in many, many ways. But this is a running blog, so I'll just focus on that.
The biggest change was the loss of in-person racing. I still ran. Even more than normal, actually. Last year was a record high for mileage. With no vacations, no work (I quit uber driving), no going out anywhere, the highlight of my calendar was my running schedule. So I stepped up to 5 days a week a
I feel like an old man.
Obviously, there are older men than me. Obviously, there are men my age and younger who are in worse health. Perspective is so important.
Aren't comparisons supposed to be with ourselves? That's supposed to keep us from falling into the rabbit hole of self pity, since there's always someone who's better-looking, stronger, faster, whatever than we are. So what happens when your ideal comparator - yourself from before - is all of that? The maxim falls apart at a c
Short memory.
It can be a strength sometimes. Sometimes not.
I think there would be fewer families with more than one child if mothers remembered exactly how much labor hurt.
As I start to put some miles on after this last injury, I have to be very purposeful in my approach. Too many miles, even if I keep it slow, are not a good idea. Don't think I'd consider myself fragile. Not an ironman, either. I'm just an old guy who wants to run. I think I'm done trying to be fast anymore,
Pretty big, anyway.
It was 11 weeks ago tomorrow that I came up lame with my Achilles tendon hurting. I'll continue to blame the Cumulus. It was either a factory second (thus the clearance pricing from Asics?) or a lemon or maybe it was just sitting in a warehouse for too long. They were never right from the first mile. I had hoped they just needed some break in or that the change from the Rincons was more dramatic than I expected. Either way, it was the DL for who knew how long.
With
Woke up this morning, determined to be more diligent in my efforts to fix this Achilles.
Did a little more stretching while we were in Idaho for the wedding. Twice a day most days. Didn't see see much improvement, and of course getting more and more discouraged. Knowing that I'm going to need a new pair of shoes when I (hopefully) start again. Not even going to complain about starting from ground zero. Running is running, after all. But what's the point of spending $100+ on running shoes if
Wow! 2 Loopettes at the same race! We will meet one day!
My friend H has been trying to get me to race more. He's convinced that I'm way faster than I think I am.
I hemmed and hawed about signing up for this 5k because it was only 2 weeks after the marathon. After the marathon I've been having some left calf pain/tightness. I think it's just fatigue so have been trying to give it some time to heal without completely sitting myself down (*shudder*).
I ran fast on the trails with H
You know, once this Achilles finally gets better (although, truth be told, I have times nearly every day when I wonder if it ever will), my next comeback to marathoning is going to be quite the adventure.
In the meantime, still working on the house. Things are going VERY slowly. I decided that since I'm doing so much trim I better do it better than I have before, which means I needed to learn a fair amount about how to do it correctly. I've never been happy with how my previous trim work ha
If you read my last blog -- Confident -- you know I'm not a super confident runner .... or apparently person as several people have pointed out lately. I'm a work in progress, I suppose. I did however feel super confident in my training leading up to the marathon. The 1 mile PR, the amazing last 20 mile run and an 8 mile bridge run where I ran an 8:07 mile without trying (unheard of for me).
As I was driving the 6 hours down to Chesapeke, VA, I had my music cranked and was getting more ampe
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