TEXAS Paul - Out to Pasture - Healing

A hot humid morning in Austin, TX with temp in the low 60's at 7:00 AM and high humidity.  Met Karen F and Tam at Austin HS track and did warmup and then did 6 speed mile intervals.  Target was to hold it to 7:30 interval miles and did:  7:37; 7:21; 7:19; 7:30; 7:24; 6:45.  Then Karen and I did a cool down 3.1 mile People Bridge loop on Townlake.  Then Lynn, Karen, and I headed to Maudie's for breakfast.  A great workout and a great way to start the weekent.  

This was especially a good workout since I had taken off Thursday and Friday due to a sore throat and cold that sneaked up on me this past week.  I did major resting Thursday and Friday evenings after coming home from work to get recovery on this stupid cold/throat thing.  Other than that, everything feels really good. 

I usually don't run on Sunday unless there is a race, so I think I will try to use the Sunday blog to note other aspects of my fitness program.

1.  Resting heart rate in the mornings this past week have risen since I got the sore throat and congestion.  Resting HR is typically between 47 to 48, but this past week it has risen into the 50's and this morning it was 57.  This a sure sign that the body is in stress, so recovery is most important over the next couple of days.  Right now I'm impressed that we had such a great speed interval workout yesterday.  

2.  Polymyalgia Rheumatica muscle disorder status.  It has now officially been 2 years since I started seeing muscle aching symptoms.  The doctor said this disease normally goes away within 2 years, so I am very hopeful I can soon begin reducing my medication. 
Two weeks ago I reduced my Prednisone medication down to 7 mg a day (4 mg in the morning and 3 mg at night).  Starting tomorrow I'm reducing it down to 6 mg a day, 3 mg in the morning and 3 mg in the evening.  

3.  Core strength training.  Boy am I missing on this one.  Nothing to report. 
No situps, no crunches, no push-ups, nada. 

Sore right foot.  Yesterday I had a visit at the podiatrist where he treated my right foot for 2 plantar warts.  They do not have to cut them out any more because they have a new medicine made from bees that they can put in the plantar wart for treatment.  The treatment makes them very sore and will cause them to blister. 

The doctor said I should take a couple of days off from running, but if the pain is not too bad on Saturday that I can do my long 26 mile run.  We'll see.  Today/tonight the foot is very sore and I limp like a guy who certainly won't be running before Saturday.

At least I know that my delay is temporary and not like Benn or Kory who have been set back with the Achilles tendon issues.

Later,

Paul

A cold start about 31 degrees at 6:00 AM at Austin HS tennis courts parking lot under Mopac.  Met Karen F, Karen H, Steve, and Jason.  We headed up on the Mt. Bonnell 10 mile loop and at 35th Street, Steve and Jason turned right and returned back to the start.  Karen, Karen and I went on up to Mt. Bonnell and then back to the start, 10 miles. 

Then we started the Twnlake 10 mile loop and Karen F took the Congress Avenue loop to get back to leave for New Orleans at 10:00.  Karen H and I continued on the 10 mile Townlake loop.  When we got around the Longhorn dam and started back up the other side, as we went past the power plant and past the neighborhoods along the cinder block wall by the power plant, we got attacked by a dog that came at us from a side street.  The dog attacked just behind my feet and hit Karen's feet and she screamed.  I turned back to see what had attacked us and the dog was spinning its legs in the gravel of the trail as it turned toward us. 
 
My anger switch flipped and I made the immediate decision that I was going to grab the dog by the throat and slam it against the block wall and kill it.  As I turned toward the dog and started yelling at the top of my voice the dog became a coward and headed back up the street where it had come from.  I chased it yelling at the top of my lungs and brought neighbors out of their houses.  The dog turned into its home as the owner came out and called it into the house.  I yelled at the owner and used a few expletives telling him he better restrain his stupid dog.  By now the entire neighborhood had to be alerted about the stupid dog. 

Karen and I contunued our run and finished the 10 mile loop and then ran the Congress Avenue 5 mile loop to give us 25 miles today.  Boston is 6 weeks away.  My right foot was real sore where the podiatrist treated my two plantar warts on Tuesday.  It feels like a knot at the base of my 4th toe and it was numbed by the 25 miles of running.  Hopefully it will be okay to be back on my running program next week.  Taking a week off this week made it hard to run the 25 miles today.

Anyway, it sure felt good to get back out and running.  A beautiful day with blue skies in Texas and temps in the 50's by the time we got done.

Okay, lets add stupidity to a sore foot.  After the 25 miles this weekend and a very sore right foot due to the plantar wart treatment, this morning at work I saw a nickel on the floor in a friend's office and I bent down and picked it up and put it on his desk.  As I got up I felt a strain in my lower back. 

The rest of the day the lower back pain got worse and worse.  So after work I went to McNeil HS to at least get in some easy jogging or walking and after getting dressed I looked for my running shoes and realized that I had left them home, duh.  So I headed home and walked 3 miles with my wife to see if the lower back would loosen up.  Nope.  So then I came in and laid down on the couch with a heated vibrator and slept until 10:00 PM when I went in and had a hot shower.

At least the lower back pain is no worse than it was this afternoon at work so I'm hopeful to be feeling some better Tuesday.  Obviously I'm having those reflections that we all have at times when we say, "all I want to do is run and feel great, I don't care about speed right now".  

Goodnight. 

Walked at Brushy Creek for 40 minutes, joined the group at 6:00 for drills, walked through the drills, then walked the workout.  Pain in lower back is not as bad as yesterday but it is bad enough when I tried to jog I stopped and walked.  Using different back muscles to support the back makes different muscles stiff and sore, duh.  Next time I pick up a nickel I'm going to be more careful.

On the good news side, today was registration day for the Pikes Peak Marathon in August.  I was lucky again and got through on Active.com and got registered. 

Hopefully by Saturday I will be good enough to go do our run.  I'm not even going to complain about the plantar wart treatment as that is nothing compared to a strained lower back.  All I want to do is run healthy and feel good doing it.  Speed is a good thing, but it is way down on the priority list.

The pain in the lower back has been less and less every day this week, but I still walk funny today and don't know if I will be able to do our Saturday run tomorrow. 

I'm totally refocusing my fitness goals with an emphasis on core strengthening along with the overall running base strengthening.  Speed is totally gone secondary.  Overall health and fitness take first priority.

Finally, after 9 days without running I got to get in some running tonight at McNeil HS.  Very humid and very warm in Austin, TX tonight.  I backed off on the pace most of the night being careful not to stress the lower back.  3.5 miles warmup, then drills, then 2 miles of track work with the group.  We had about 40 people here tonight.  Then a cool down mile with Karen F.

It sure feels good to run again.

Goodness it felt good to get out and run again.  Last week at Brushy Creek all I could do was walk due to the lower back pain, but tonight I got in 4 warmup miles, then did drills, then did the workout.  I didn't push it during the workout but I did run a consistent forward push effort.  Lower back felt like 97% good to go.  No problems tonight.

What a beautiful evening in Austin, TX.  I met Karen F down at Townlake and we ran the 10 mile loop.  Loads of runners all over the place.  Just a great evening for running.  The lower back felt great.  Good to be back.

My wife and I leave for Colorado on Saturday to go see the grand children and our daughter and her husband.  Should be a great weekent. 

My wife and I just returned this morning from a trip to Colorado where we spent the weekend and Monday and Tuesday with our daughter's family.  A 900 mile drive up there on Saturday, working on fences Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.  Stayed at a local hotel and went swimming with the grandchildren twice (Monday evening, Tuesday morning). 

Then headed for home Tuesday evening and drove all night 900 miles taking turns driving and sleeping.  Got home this morning about 10:00 AM, took a nap, went to lunch, and then Lynn and PD dropped me off at Brushy Creek for my run.

It was a hot afternoon in central Texas with temps at 85 degrees that felt like 95 degrees, just real hot.  I got in 9 miles and met back up with Lynn and PD so I called it a day, hot and tired. 

We have a 26 mile run on our calendar for Saturday and then 3 weeks final training for Boston. 

Another hot evening in central Texas with temps at 83 degrees with high humidity.  Somehow these mid 80 degree temperatures sure feel like temps in the 90's.  My wife went with me over to Florence HS and I ran 6 miles while she walked.

On the way home from work today I stopped by the podiatrist office and he checked the two plantar warts that he treated a month ago, and good news they are all gone.  The feet have a clean bill of health.  I think I'm ready to do our 26 mile run on Saturday.  

Boston is only 3 weeks away so we needed a long run this weekend.

Lynn and I drove down to Austn and I met Karen F and Karen H at Austin HS tennis courts at Townlake at 5:30 AM and we ran a loop along Townlake trail down to the People Bridge and then across and up through Austin on Lamar and Shoal Creek way up past Far West then over to Balcones and then back down to Hancock and over to Shoal Creek and then back down to Townalke and Austin HS tennis courts.  Then did the Congress Avenue loop with a mile out and back built in at Congress Avenue which gave us 26.2 for the day.

Good news is that we were able to keep a good consistent pace and got in the distance.  Karen H was really feeling it throughout most of the run, but she hung in there and got it done.

Then we all went over to Maudie's for breakfast tacos and that was the finishing touch to a great start to the weekend.

Using the Sunday blog to note other aspects of my fitness program.

1.  Resting HR is typically between 47 to 48, but this past week it was typically 49 or 50.    

2.  Lower back pain from a couple of weeks ago (picking up a nickel) is pretty much all gone.  I sure need to get on with strengthening the core. 

3.  Plantar wart treatment delcared cured, from the podiatrist last Tuesday.

4.  Polymyalgia Rheumatica muscle disorder status.  It has now officially been 2 years since I started seeing muscle aching symptoms.  The doctor said this disease normally goes away within 2 years, so I am very hopeful I can soon begin reducing my medication.  
Five weeks ago I reduced my Prednisone medication down to 7 mg a day (4 mg in the morning and 3 mg at night).  Two weeks later I reduced it down to 6 mg a day, 3 mg in the morning and 3 mg in the evening.  Two weeks later I reduced it down to 5 mg a day, but after 5 days (March 21st) due to excess neck and high back muscle pain, I moved it back up to 6 mg a day. 

5.  Core strength training.  Boy am I missing on this one.  Nothing to report. 
No situps, no crunches, no push-ups, nada.  The lower back is probably to the point in healing that I can get started on the core now. 

A warm humid evening in Austin, TX with temps about 78 degrees but hot with the humidity.  After our 2.5 mile warmup we were sweating like a pig, but feeling really good.

After the warmup and the accelleration runs Donnie had us do 1.5 miles at a "uncomfortable brisk" pace.   Then we did 400M at mile goal pace (5:52 pace) and a 400M recovery jog, then another 400M mile goal pace (5:40 pace).   

Then we did some cool down mileage and called it a night.  A great workout tonight.  After doing 26.2 miles two days ago I wondered if it would hamper the speed session effort tonight, answer no problem.