Week Ending May 28, 2011

"Ouch, my knee hurts!" That right there was the theme for the week. I still don't know what I did to my knee, but it hurt all week. There must have been a 'pre-injury' on Saturday or Sunday. On Monday I ran up Barr Trail and my knee sort of ached as I went up. It felt like someone was clutching/pinching my knee with a tight grip. Not a big deal and nothing to be worried about... I thought. On the way down, I stepped on a boulder at a bad angle and it sent shock waves right up my leg from foot to knee to hip. After that, I was in real pain and had a long way to run downhill. I wanted to do a double that day, and decided to go for an easy run in the afternoon. The clutching/pinching feeling was there for the entire run. Tuesday I couldn't run. I couldn't even walk normally as I had a limp. My knee felt like a water balloon was surrounding the bone and under the skin. It was not swollen, but it sure felt like it. I mean I couldn't walk up or down stairs normally and had to take them one stair at a time. No pressure on the left leg. I iced it a few times and hoped for the best on Wednesday. No running Wednesday although the leg felt better. I actually tried to run that evening and for the first 5-10 seconds, I thought 'Oh yeah, this feels fine. I can go 10 miles' and I only made it about 200 yards before the pain kicked in. I couldn't believe it because I still didn't know what I did. Hitting that rock on Monday could not have caused this much pain. Peter Maksimow called me to go running on Wednesday and I told him the story. I also remember telling him I thought I would run Thursday and if I wasn't 100% by then, I would be 100% by Friday. More ice. No running on Thursday and more ice. On Friday I forced myself into a four mile run to see how it would hold up. Same pain. Not being the smartest guy in the world and not following common advice (hey, I already took three days off, right?), I decided to run again on Saturday. I ran 8 miles and had the same pain. More ice. Oh man, I hope this gets better quick because I have Mount Washington and the US Mountain Running Championships coming up. 34 miles for the week.

Week Ending May 21, 2011

This was a good week of running although it did not start out so great. I ran in the Colfax Half-marathon in Denver on Sunday and ran like crap. I just could not get the legs to turn over and kept running 5:55-6:00 miles. I finished in 1:19 and I think that is my slowest half marathon ever. I spent the next few days both pissed off and wondering what the hell is going on? I had now run two very bad races in a row. I did not think my training was going bad, so I did not know what was going on. Was there a reason? Was I hurt? not eating properly? fatigued? just getting old? Nothing seemed out of line and I have to wait to see how I run in my next race. Monday was a moderate 10 miles. On Tuesday I ran a very easy double of 4 and 4. On Wednesday I ran on Pike's Peak and got caught in a very cold rain. As I drove up, it started to rain a little/drizzle. I never know what the weather is going to be like over there so I always take gloves and a long sleeve with me. I decided to put on the long sleeve and carry to gloves. I actually enjoy running in the rain and I took off up the trail. After a bout 25 minutes, the rain came down harder and the temperature was dropping. I planned to run a workout of 10-12 x 3:00 uphill and wondered if I would make it. I didn't know how cold it was farther up hill and wondered if the rain was going to turn in to sleet or snow. So I decided it would be smart to turn around once I reached Barr Camp. I only ran about 6 more minutes before turning around because it started pouring and was getting colder every minute. I really wished I had turned around 10 minutes beforehand and was lucky to have the long sleeve and gloves. I was soaking wet and freezing as I ran downhill. I got to the trail-head in record time and stripped off everything except my shorts before getting into the car. I had the heat on and was still shivering the entire ride home. And of course, my side of town had pretty blue skies and not a cloud overhead. I'm very happy I turned around when I did and am also thankful that I'm not dumb enough to force myself up a trail in a cold rain just because I have some workout in mind. Thursday was my long day and I ran 20+ miles. Friday was another double: 10+ in the morning and an easy recovery in the afternoon. On Saturday I ran a moderate 10. Even though I had a crappy start to the week and a crappy midweek workout, I have to say it was an okay week. 86 miles for the week.