Posted on Sep 06, 2009 under Training |
So I followed my longest running week with my shortest, way to go! It wasn’t that bad of a week though. And I think I had good enough reasons not to run on the other days. Friday was another one of my coworker’s last day, so a group of us had dinner with her after work, can’t really say no to that. Saturday, I was planning to go for an easy ride and run, but the night before I happened to get one of those random cramps in my right calf. According to Dummies.com, it’s called a Nocturnal Leg Cramp. It was pretty bad, but I don’t even remember fully waking up when it happened and once it was over, I think I just fell back asleep. When I tried to get up in the morning to run though, I actually forgot about the cramp and walked to the restroom and then noticed the soreness in my right calf. I didn’t want to make it worse by running on it, so I was hoping to at least bike but as I did the biking motion while on my chair, I still felt the pain, so I took it as another rest day. This was my first 2 non-running days in a while now. I’m planning on going on a bike ride on Sunday, just to get some type of workout in. Hope that turns out OK. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Sep 01, 2009 under Running Tips |
When I first started running cross country in high school, I ran very short distances at first, only 2-3 miles per day. But eventually I built up to run 5-6 miles, which is a lot of miles for someone who never even ran one mile before joining cross country. I had actually lasted the whole summer without getting a full on injury, but I do remember icing my shins everyday after practice, so I was at the beginning stages of getting shin splints. The problem that I had once I got shin splints was that I didn’t stop running! It was only my coach’s second year and although he was a really fast runner in high school and college, he did not have enough experience as a coach. The only thing he told me to do was ice everyday, but never told me to stop running.. The shin splints did eventually go away toward the end of the season, but I had endure weeks, maybe even months of shin splints that were so bad, I was limping to and from class. I remember it was so bad that I had trouble putting on pants on in the morning, standing on the leg (with the shin splints) by itself would always cause me to fall over.
There are a couple of reasons why runners will get shin splints:
-Increased mileage (over 10% increase per week)
-New shoes not fit for the current runner
-Worn out shoes without enough tread and support
-Excessive concrete running
-Bad habits..not stretching
If you do happen to get shin splints, there is the acronym, RICE:
-R:Rest – let the muscles around your shin and leg heal by resting and avoiding as much contact as possible.
-I:Ice – Ice often, but not to the point where it is pointless. Ice your shins 15 minutes at a time to help limit swelling by reducing blood flow to the shins.
-C:Compression – In addition to icing, compression also helps limit swelling of the shins. Wrap an ACE bandage around the shins, or try wearing a pair of compression socks [link].
-E:Elevation – Elevation also helps reduce swelling and by elevating your legs by resting on some pillows to help reduce blood flow to your legs.
In addition,
-Do not increase mileage too drastically
-Make sure new shoes fit properly and provide enough support
-Get rid of old shoes as they will cause more damage than anything
-Find dirt trails or grass to run on instead of concrete
-Perform shin stretches to help with recovery:
-Stand on the end of a staircase, with your heels over the steps and slowly allow your body weight to bring your heels down below the step level and hold for 20 seconds.
-Walk on your toes with your heels pointed up and inward for 10 meters, then heels pointed outward.
-Walk on your heels with your toes pointed up and inward for 10 meeters, then toes pointed outward.
Some runners will take stuff like Motrin, Aleve, Aspirin or Ibuprofen, but non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), but too much of it then it acts as a COX-2 Inhibitor and actually DELAYS bone healing. But if none of this is helping the shins, then the worst-case scenario is a stress fracture. The last resort is to see a Sports Med MD and ask for an X-Ray/MRI, which may or may not result in rest than you would want as a runner.
A final thing to consider if you are stuck without running for a couple of weeks: cross training. Swimming, running or workouts in the pool or biking are great alternatives to running. Hopefully though, you can avoid getting shin splints in the first place and these workouts will be more of a supplement to running, rather than an alternative.
Shin splints are a very common leg injury that most runners will get at one point or another in their running career. This isn’t something that deters dedicated runners from choosing this as a career. Of course, if runners take the right precautions, they can avoid such such a painful injury. The official definition of shin splints is “pain along the shinbone (tibia) – the large bone at the front of your lower leg.” (MayoClinic) I unfortunately was not able to prevent it and got shin splints right when I started running, didn’t treat or take care of the injury the right way and ended up having a less than stellar first year of running than I would have expected.
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Posted on Aug 30, 2009 under running |
This was my first 7-day running week, if I’m counting this past Sunday as the end of the week (which I am). I probably won’t be doing that from now on though according to my new half-marathon training plan. Monday’s are off days, which is a change from Sunday’s, but there are also two other days in the week that are either off, cross training or a 30-45 min easy run. It just sounds weird to me that it’s possible to train for a half marathon with only 4 days of running. I probably won’t be taking those other two days off, but just go for an easy run instead. I contacted Caleb, a fellow Twitterer & DailyMiler who initially suggested this training plan and he actually planned out how fast I should run all my workouts, from my 5K to 10K pace as well as moderate to hard tempo pace. How great is the running community? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Aug 24, 2009 under Race |
I got my race photos of the America’s Finest City 5K run from last weekend (All photos). I always tell myself (before the race) to actually look at the camera and give a decent pose. But when I’m actually running in the race, smiling and posing for a camera is the LAST thing on my mind. I really don’t care about that and am focused more on how tired I am. I really need to just lighten up and just try and give a smile one time, so I’ll have a good picture to use as a profile pic or something.. I’ll have plenty more races to try and do that. There were actually more pictures of me, but these are the ‘best’ ones. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Aug 23, 2009 under running |
I was surprised to find out that I was sore from last Sunday’s 5K race. I don’t recall getting this sore after any of my other races and I didn’t run that much faster this time. However, I didn’t have time to really stretch before this race though, so that may be the reason why I was this sore. I didn’t run on Tuesday because of some work stuff that I had and I guess because I was still sore. Maybe I should have taken Monday off instead Tuesday.
I think the visuals in Nike+ are cool, but not sure what else. DailyMile FTW!
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Posted on Aug 17, 2009 under Race |
Here are my results for the America’s Finest City 5K Run: 19:53, 1st in my age division and 13th overall (out of 1,200 runners!). Official times here. I’m a little disappointed with the time because I was hoping I would run a little faster, considering all the great workouts I have been having recently. But I am even more surprised about actually winning my age division, which I have never done before. I’m not going to ignore the fact that the main race for the AFC was the half marathon, which is probably where all the other fast runners were at. But when I was looking at last year’s times for the 5K, I thought it would have been just as competitive this year. Oh well, I’m not really going to complain about winning my race! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Aug 15, 2009 under running |
This is the week before the America’s Finest City Half Marathon and 5K, so I didn’t want to do anything too crazy to get myself tired or injured before the race. I’m only doing the 5K and am starting to feel bad just racing such a short distance. I can back myself by saying that I have only been running 3-5 mile workouts since I started running again in March and have hit 6-7 about 3 times. When I ran in high school cross country, the most we ever ran was 10-11 miles, so racing 13.1 miles just seems so impossible for me right now. But constantly reading other people’s running blogs about how many marathons and half’s they’ve ran has really motivated me to finally get one under my belt. After the AFC 5K, I will start looking for longer distance races and also register for a couple of half marathons and probably one full so that I will have no choice but to get started on a training program for those races. It’s probably going to be a really hard workout schedule with many more miles than I have ever ran before, but I know I can do it. I hope I can.. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Aug 09, 2009 under running |
I didn’t get to run on Thursday because we were having dinner with a co-worker of mine who is leaving us to go to medical school at Harvard. I don’t think there is any better reason to skip running. I was able to get in some pretty good workouts in this week if you look at the times. However, from my perspective, a lot of the runs didn’t really feel that fast. Meaning, after many of the runs this week, I would think to myself that I didn’t run that fast, but looking at the overall time and splits, it looks like I ran really well. After Saturday’s run, I have come to the conclusion that I have simply moved up a level in my training program. I am going to attribute this level up by switching to running at night. Since that switch, I have been able to get some quality runs in, at very fast times and paces. And from those workouts, my body has gotten a lot more comfortable running that fast. So now when I am running, even though I feel like it’s slower, the time and pace is significantly faster than a month or two before. So on those rare occasions that I have a really good workout, my time and pace will be that much faster. Now is probably a good time to start increasing the mileage, although the reason why I haven’t done it yet (other than the fact that I wasn’t physically capable) is the time factor. Running in the mornings was hard because I was waking up so early just to get in a short run, waking up any earlier would have been very hard for me, especially since I’m not really a morning person. Now that I’m runnning after work (which I come home fairly late), running for too long is not something that I really want to do, since I still have to shower, eat dinner, do a little more work, relax and then go to bed. I’m hoping increasing the mileage on Saturdays will be good enough, maybe throwing in a slightly longer run once or twice a week.
Nike+ graph of my pace during the Brick ride and run. Notice the sluggish start where my legs felt like 'bricks'!
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Posted on Aug 06, 2009 under Reviews |
I was contacted on behalf of Zensah (@zensah) to review a pair of Prograde Compression socks, which I gladly obliged to do. I have never had special socks specifically for running. I usually just wore regular low-cut cotton ankle socks during my runs. Because of the crazy tans that we would get while running after school, I would sometimes pull mid-ankle cut socks down to low-ankle level and fold the excess sock under my foot. Sometimes it would be pulled too low and the whole sock would ride below the heal of my foot, which was very annoying. My coach would sometimes run in dress socks because he said that they were softer and felt more comfortable. I’ve tried that a couple of times, but because they’re so smooth, my feet didn’t really have any grip on the actual shoe (unless I tied my shoelaces very tight). I never thought that running socks would make that much of a difference in performance. I know from experience that shoes do because I raced for half of a cross country season with running shoes that made my feet burn within the first mile! The next race I ran with different racing flats and I didn’t have any issues with my feet burning.
Since I have never owned compression socks before, I really didn’t have anything to compare it to. However, after reading what others think of the Zensah compression socks, I have to agree with what most of them have to say about the socks. First off, I’ll point out some of the features that the compression socks state they do:
Increase circulation
Arch support
Recovery & travel
Improve performance
Active Ingredients & Benefits
Zensah Fabric: ultra comfortable
Silver Ions: thermal regulating
Pin-Point Compression: promotes oxygen blood flow
Moisture Wicking Properties: ultra breatable
Seamless Construction: anti-chafing
Non-elastic Band: no cut-off of circulation
Actually says this on the packaging:
Warnings: May lead to ultra comfort and improved performace.
The thing I noticed when I was looking at the socks on the website was how it is thicker around the arch and footing area. When I actually got the socks, I thought that a size small would be too tight for me, but since they are compression socks, they seem to be the perfect fit. The seamless technology is cool and I never have to worry about it bothering my feet while I run. When I first ran with these socks, I did feel like there was a difference on my feet. It may have just been a psychological thing, but that very first run, I ran the fastest time I had on that route and about a week later with the same socks, I ran even faster on that route! The socks provide padded arch support, but I also notice that my feet never burn while running longer distances or in the heat (thermal regulating). I had a long run yesterday and my calves felt kind of sore so I decided to try and wear them after the run to help improve recovery. We’ll see tomorrow how much the compression socks played an effect.
When I ran back in high school, the only running gear I had were running shoes, regular socks, shorts and a t-shirt (I didn’t get a running watch until my last year of cross country that I bought for $10 at Target or Walmart). Now, I have running shoes, special compression socks,
shorts, a t-shirt, a heart rate monitor, 100-lap stopwatch, an iPod Nano & Nike+iPod Sports Kit. At this moment, my times in high school were a lot faster than they are right now. So it looks like all of that extra gear that I have now is not helping me run any faster. But I am still only about 6 months into training and at 6 months into running in high school, I was not as fast as I am now. So maybe all of this gear is helping me run faster, but I know there are more than enough runners out there that feel the need some days to just run without all this technology. I have yet to do that, but will definitely try it out one day.
I was contacted on behalf of Zensah (@zensah) to review a pair of Prograde Compression Socks, which I gladly obliged to do. I have never had special socks specifically designed for running. I usually just wore regular low-cut cotton ankle socks during my runs. Because of the crazy tan lines that we would get while running after school, I would sometimes pull mid-ankle cut socks down to low-ankle level and fold the excess sock under my foot. Sometimes it would be pulled too low and the whole sock would ride below the heal of my foot, which was very annoying. My coach would sometimes run in dress socks because he said that they were softer and felt more comfortable. I’ve tried that a couple of times, but because they’re so smooth, my feet didn’t really have any grip on the actual shoe (unless I tied my shoelaces very tight). I never thought that running socks would make that much of a difference in performance. I know from experience that shoes do because I raced for half of a cross country season with running shoes that made my feet burn within the first mile! The next race I ran with different racing flats and I didn’t have any issues with my feet burning.
Zensah Compression Socks
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Posted on Jul 30, 2009 under running |
No new running events for a while now. There is a race on Saturday that I heard about through the local newspaper, which I’m considering. If not, the next race I have signed up for is in mid-August, which feels like forever. I’m trying to start posting a recap of my runs for the past week, which can also be viewed on my account at DailyMile. There are weeks however, where nothing incredible happens during my runs. But I’m sure I will be able to think of something to say about 4-5 days worth of runs. This past week, I had some great runs. Last week was the first week I started running after work at night. I am fairly convinced that running at night makes me run a lot faster. My pace for the past two weeks have been the best ever and even the easy runs feel a lot more comfortable. Last Monday, my first day running at night, I had run my fastest on that route. This past Monday, I improved on that same route and only two days later I had run the fastest 4 miles ever! All of that happened within a two week period! I don’t know if I’ll ever get close enough to break that time for quite a while. Once I start using my Nike+ and I find new routes to run, I may consider running a lot more miles. But for now, I will enjoy this running high that I have had since yesterday.
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