Alameda Runners – Get After It!

Now that I am back to running, I am drinking my 4 liters of water per day again.  I usually keep two or three liters of water on my desk.  I get a lot of running and cycling bottles from all of the events that I do.  The plastic running bottles do not hold up very well when they are used for a long time so I don’t use them at my desk.  After a couple of months of constant use, the plastic bottles start to leach chemicals into the water.  I don’t like the plastic taste and it makes me wonder about what I am drinking when I can taste it.

I picked up a Klean Kanteen a few weeks ago.  (Mike gave it to me) It came with the poly sports cap.  It is the cap that really sets the Kanteen apart from my other steel bottles.  One bottle has a small mouth for drinking with fine threads that cut my lip.  The other has a big mouth that causes spills on my shirt.  The cap also has an ergonomic handle that makes it easy to carry the bottle with one finger.

I like steel because I know it is easy to recycle.  I am not too sure about how much you can recycle plastic that has been leaching for a year.  Just remember, drink your water.  If your bottle starts to taste like plastic or metal, replace it.

A Klean Kanteen with cap will cost around $25 at Amazon but it is worth it if you drink your water all day long.

I hope everyone has been working on their base training in my absence.  If you are planning on running with the Alameda Runners for this marathon, we are planning on going slowly.  Our target pace is between 4 and 5 hours.  I say this because 5 days of running is a bit too much for everyone.  When you are doing a slow marathon, it is okay to skip a short run during the week.  Make sure you do your long runs and increase your distance 5-10 percent per week.

I am finally back from my injury, just in time for a 13 mile long run this Saturday.  I have been off for 2 months so this is going to be a slow run.  If anyone wants to join me, I will be starting at the Bay Farm ferry station in Alameda at 10:00 am.  It will be an out and back through crab cove at approximately 10 to 12 minutes per mile.  It depends on who joins me and how I feel this week.  When you go out for a 13 mile run make sure you bring at least two energy gels and a bottle water.

If you plan on joining me, send me an email through the contact us link above.

Election season is upon us, and it is our duty to get out and vote.  It does not matter who you vote for or why you select the candidate.  Just get out and do it.  Alameda is going to select a new mayor this year.  Alameda has had good leadership for a long time.  All is not perfect but Alameda is a beautiful place with a pretty balanced budget.  I will give you thoughts on the candidates for mayor this year.  You do not have to agree  I just hope you think about it and go vote.  The same goes for all of the readers who are eligible to vote.  Now I begin.

Frank Mataresse – He has my vote.  He drives an electric car around Alameda.  He is technically savvy and is not afraid to try things.

Doug DeHaan – I like anyone who is Doug DeHaan’s opponent.  He campaigns on negative ads and likes to point fingers.  Leaders do not pass blame.

Marie Gilmore – I like Marie, she does a good job on city council and has a good record as a person.  A city council with people like her are what make Alameda great.

Tony Daysog – He seems like a professional politician to me.  His political career gets a yawn compared to Mataresse, Gilmore and Kahn.

Kenneth Kahn – You just have to love Kenny the clown.  He is technically savvy and a clown.

These are just my thoughts.  Go to their web sites or a town hall meetings and make up your mind.  If you really like a candidate, go help them out.  All candidates for local office need help.

I am still suffering from my hip flexor injury.  To make matters worse, I am working a lot of hours and my local pool is a slimy mess.  What is an injured athlete to do?  I can bike on flat ground but I don’t have the ambition for cycling as I already missed my summer bike ride and triathlon from my injury.  Now that I am healing up, I can lift weights but I don’t want to get bulky.

What I am doing now is  a far cry from my usual 10-15 hours of exercise per week but it helps.  I have a body blade that I picked up from Fitter First.  It looks like a real gadget that I was nervous about buying.  I paid $99 for it.  The price seems to be the same no matter where you look.

I happen to like Fitter first because they have quality stuff and cool videos of all the stuff that I bought.

The body blade is a fiber glass stick with rubber weights on the ends.  You shake it back and forth to get a workout.  The thing comes with the obligatory video that I watched and then promptly ignored.  I just shake the stick and let my body find the workout.  I know it works because I am sore the next day.  The nice thing about the stick is that it is easy to put in a corner and use it while watching TV.  They have workout plans but I just use it.  A lot of the two handed positions work the whole body.  Any time you work the whole body, calories are burning.

I also do some ab work that avoids pulling on the injured muscle group.  Resting is hard but I have some big events coming up and I must be healthy to have a chance at completing them.

I finally got around to posting the CIM 2010 training plan.  I have been remiss in my training as I have been injured for the last couple of months.  Hopefully, I will see you in Sacramento this December.

The daily distances on the training plan are recommendations.  You can move the training around to fit schedule.  I do it this way because I can do most of the daily runs during lunch and my work schedule suits the plan I wrote.  It is the weekly total and Saturday long runs that are important.   They must be met.  You also need a rest day.

Here is a daily breakdown of the plan:

Monday – That is your day to take off and see what you can do to your heart rate.

Tuesday – Shorter day where you should cruise through the run

Wednesday – A good day for a slight push but not too much

Thursday – A bit of a recovery day for the week

Friday – Swim or bike, save your body for Saturday, you can even have this day off if you are tired

Saturday – Long Slow Day!  These days are long and slow!  Take it easy.  Watch your heart rate do not let it go up on the long slow day.  My max HR is 170, I do the long slow day at a heart rate of 120-130.  Speed on the long day is an injury waiting to happen.

Sunday – Rest Day.  Take it easy.  Drink water and put your feet up.

Once I am healthy again, I will pick up the Saturday long runs in Alameda.  Maybe by mid-September I will be ready to run again.

Crossing the finish line

Since I have a minor injury that stops me from running completely, I decided to volunteer for the Summer Breeze half marathon in San Leandro.  My job was to go around and take pictures.  I would pick the biggest Brazen race of the year to be the photographer.  I am typing this as some of the pictures resize.  I am resizing them in groups of 400.  I took over 4,000 pictures.

Walking around as the photographer puts things a new perspective.  I slowly progressed in my half marathon life.  I am not at the point where a summer half marathon is a short training day.  I forgot what it was like at the beginning where it is a great accomplishment to finish a 13.1 mile run.  I could see the top 2 or 3 finishers were happy.  The next 100 finisher were mostly finishing like it was no big deal.  The rest were the new guys who were ecstatic to be crossing the line.  It was a lot of fun being around the people who were doing there first event and were so happy to just be out doing it.  I had people come up asking to have their picture taken because they did their first 10K together.

The Brazen events are always fun.  They are usually hilly and hard.  This one is sneaky hard.  It is always windy at the San Leandro waterfront.  Sam does not start you out heading into the wind.  He starts you with the wind in your back.  You have a nice PR going for the first half, then you turn around and you hit a wall of wind.  I would not be surprised if people were a minute per mile slower on the way back.

This time, I had my fun as a volunteer.  It was a very good day being out with all of the excitement.  I did not look at the age group times yet.  I am afraid that they may be slower then my fast times.

It has been six weeks since I injured my hip muscle. I had to skip my triathlon Sunday. I did get to watch from my hotel room and I did get to relax while I was at it. I think taking a week off to relax might be a good thing. I would just prefer to be healthy and out running.

I went out for an easy 4 mile jog today. I was not breathing too hard when I finished but the pain came back an after I finished running. Not a severe pain but enough to cause a limp. I am thinking about doing a slow half marathon this Saturday because the course is so close, I can ride my bike to the start line. If I feel better tomorrow, I will dust off my 2:15 pace sign from the Oakland half and carry it for the San Leandro half marathon known as the summer breeze half by Brazen Racing.

I finally got lucky with an injury.  I was bound to have an easy injury eventually.  I may be able to do the triathlon Sunday.  It will be slow and painful but I will be able to compete.  I am looking forward to see how much pain I can endure for an hour.  The swim and bike should be fine.  It is that 10K run at the end that will hurt.

I don’t like to say this but I know it is true, get your injuries checked by a medical professional.  I don’t think a doctor could have done much for my injury but he could have done a lot for my peace of mind.  I went from what I thought was a pulled groin to thinking it was a fracture to proving it was a hip flexor injury.  Actually it is a specific muscle in the hip flexor group but I don’t remember which one.  Had I gotten it checked early, I could have done a lot of exercises and I did not need to mope about because of an injury.

Cross training is good.  Do not let injuries get you down.  Get it checked out and find a new way to keep moving.  By all means, keep moving!

As previously mentioned, I suffered an injury that is similar to a groin pull.  Pulled groins are no big deal: a little rest, some training program changes, and you are good to go.  I took between 4-5 weeks off from running.

Three weeks of rest with some light spinning.  My groin felt good, I was ready to go out for a run in preparation for this weeks Olympic distance triathlon.  About 3 miles into the run and I was in pain.  Not groin pain but hip pain.

I am devastated.  I hope it is just fractured and I can do the triathlon if I can endure the pain.  It is rare that life throws an easy curve ball so I anticipate damage that is going to take months of rest.  At least it does not hurt when I walk, bike or run.

I am limping today.  I have an appointment with the sports chiropractor in a few days.  I hope he can find the injury without me having to go through insurance hell.

Injuries do strange things to us mentally.  Not only do I have an injury but I am very busy at work.  A combination of things just set me back.  I can do a lot of cross training that does not involve my hip but I seem to be letting it get the better of me.  I feel as if I am dying a slow death both physically and mentally.  When I stop exercising, I stop writing about exercising.  There is nothing wrong with my brain.  What stops me from writing?

I have a marathon training plan written up for CIM in December.  I need to get it posted.  It breaks my heart to post a training plan that I can’t participate in.

Let injuries heal… an experiment by Ted.

No matter how much you want to get out and do it, you must let your injuries heal.  About a month ago, while doing yoga, I felt my groin go “pop.”  My first thought was, “This is not good.”  My second thought was, “You over did it again.”

I get so many injuries from overdoing it but I just can’t seem to help it.  Summer injuries are the worst because I have so much going on.  I had to rest.  I still have to rest.  I am going nuts.  I will continue to go nuts.

The first week after the injury, pain, ice on the groin (not pleasant), rest and walked with a limp.

Week 2, slight pain, no ice and more rest with a slight limp.

Week 3, no pain, no limp… tried to jog 40 feet and gave up.

Week 4, no pain, ¼ mile jog, 30-mile bike.  Great restraint to not go further.

Week 5, no pain, ¾ mile swim.

I am getting better.  Groin injuries are bad and rest is the only answer.  It is so hard to sit still and rest.  I don’t do any writing for Alamedarunners.  I feel like I am getting fat and out of shape.  I went to the gym to lift weights one day and caused pain from carrying the weights to the bench.  I warmed up, the pain subsided, and then I was sore the following day.  I needed more rest.

Now that I am almost back to health, it is so hard to take it easy with small swims and small bike rides.  I have a triathlon in two weeks and a half marathon in three weeks.  I have to rest.  I want to go train.  The full marathon training plan for the California International Marathon kicks off in two weeks.  I am going to put my base training to the test.  I hope I can get by.  I know I can get through the triathlon and half marathon in the next couple of weeks.  The question is, how will I do?

I have been taking it very easy for the past month.  I am going to take it easy in my training for the rest of the month.  I am going to go hard in both events.  I will let you know what happens when you have a good base, get injured then rest for 6 weeks before one of your main events.

My two big events for the year are a triathlon and a marathon.  I already know that not resting after an injury stops athletic improvement and does not really heal until I rest.  Now I am going to find out how well rest works.