I had a small glimmer of hope today regarding my running. Ok, technically I haven't run since early June (probably some sort of new injury record but I don't keep stats like DD). In the past week I've been to two doctors; a sports medicine doctor and a physiatrist regarding my side pain while running. Technically it hurts more while running but the pain has been in my side (between the top of the iliac crest to the bottom of my 12th rib) nonstop for over 2 months. So much for rest healing all aches and pains.
The physiatrist was excellent. She was very patient and described in detail the area that's been hurting. She suspects some sort of bursitis with one of the gluteus muscles (medius I think?). I got a cortizone shot in my side and will wait a week before attempting to run.
She also commented that the distance between my bottom rib and the iliac crest is very small (ie they are very close together). This could be aggravating the muscles in my side. Weak ab muscles would lead to a more hunched over running posture which would lead to my rib and iliac crest being even closer. Apparently my 12 pack abs weren't very impressive. So, work on the abs and run with a more upright 'taller' posture. Got it.
I'm far from cured but for the time being I have some hope. Now, back to the bike!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Running (not) and Biking
Quick running update: In the last 28 days I've run exactly 3 miles, and that was a failed attempt during a track workout. 18 Consecutive zero's since then (a new record no doubt).I still have pain in my left hip so I'm afraid any run will produce another setback....so I wait. So far, I've waited patiently. However, I am aware of some key running events on the not so distant horizon (primarily Reach the Beach and the Pinnacle Challenge). My patience is running thin.
On a positive note, I've been able to spend a lot of time on the bike (road and mountain). I can't wait to put all this riding to some good use. Only 5 weeks until 24 Hours of Great Glen! My guess is my cycling miles will eclipse my running miles for the year sometime later this week. I've been able to increase my bike mileage each week for the last 5 weeks, topping out at 142 miles last week. Not bad for 5 days riding!
Yesterday I decided to get some extra miles on the mountain bike since I have a 100k (62 mile) mountain bike race coming up the week after 24 HOGG. 47 miles on the mountain bike was by far my most ever.
Finally, I like to work on my own bikes and I'm not afraid to take them apart and most times I even manage to put them back together. Well, I finally met my match.
Consider this a public service announcement. Don't take a part the shifters. I have two road bikes, a 1996 Cannondale R800 and a 2006 Guru Cron Alu (tri bike). Recently my STI shifers (dual control index shifting & brakes) on my Cannondale stopped working, first the left shifter (which I fixed) and then the right shifter. I did some research online (which is hard to come by for 15 year old shifters). I carefully took it apart. Then I gave up. Wow is this thing complicated!
Thankfully I found a guy online who rebuilds these. Really? Whatever floats your boat I guess. Hopefully I'll have it back in a few days. In the meantime I ride the Guru which really wants to go fast, even when I don't.
UPDATE (7/18) - I got my Shimano STI shifter back this weekend - fixed, greased and fully assembled. Installed with 2 new cables yesterday. Works like new and worth the $30 (plus shipping).
On a positive note, I've been able to spend a lot of time on the bike (road and mountain). I can't wait to put all this riding to some good use. Only 5 weeks until 24 Hours of Great Glen! My guess is my cycling miles will eclipse my running miles for the year sometime later this week. I've been able to increase my bike mileage each week for the last 5 weeks, topping out at 142 miles last week. Not bad for 5 days riding!
Yesterday I decided to get some extra miles on the mountain bike since I have a 100k (62 mile) mountain bike race coming up the week after 24 HOGG. 47 miles on the mountain bike was by far my most ever.
Finally, I like to work on my own bikes and I'm not afraid to take them apart and most times I even manage to put them back together. Well, I finally met my match.
Consider this a public service announcement. Don't take a part the shifters. I have two road bikes, a 1996 Cannondale R800 and a 2006 Guru Cron Alu (tri bike). Recently my STI shifers (dual control index shifting & brakes) on my Cannondale stopped working, first the left shifter (which I fixed) and then the right shifter. I did some research online (which is hard to come by for 15 year old shifters). I carefully took it apart. Then I gave up. Wow is this thing complicated!
 |
| Inside a Shimano STI Shifter |
UPDATE (7/18) - I got my Shimano STI shifter back this weekend - fixed, greased and fully assembled. Installed with 2 new cables yesterday. Works like new and worth the $30 (plus shipping).
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Top 10 Reasons Not to Run Mt Washington
| 10 | The lottery is fixed. To me a lottery implies an equal chance for all. I'm not convinced. | ||||
| 9 | Running back down shouldn't be faster than driving down. | ||||
| 8 | The weather can be brutal (see horizontal rain, 50mph winds). | ||||
| 7 | One year they actually had purple shirts. Really? Sorry, not a good color for race shirts. | ||||
| 6 | Too many people are OBSESSED with this race. You know who you are. | ||||
| 5 | If you don't finish in the top 20 nobody cares. | ||||
| 4 | I don’t care about the endless stats, streaks & records. (see #5) | ||||
| 3 | $80 entry fee. Enough said. | ||||
| 2 | Walking shouldn't be as fast (or faster) than running. | ||||
| 1 | There's only one hill. |
With that being said, If you're a runner in New England, I'd still recommend you do this race....once.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Crash and Burn
After 8 days of no running I finally decided to give it a go. Looking back it was a really dumb decision (really?). For some reason I thought doing a 12 x 400 track workout at 5k pace in the pouring rain was a good way to ease back into running.
Two more decisions hopefully limited the damage - 1) I dropped back and decided to run with the cool kids in group 2 and 2) I quit after running 8 repeats. Unfortunately it was probably 8 too many. Too many left turns which didn't help my left side pain.
A major setback indeed. I can't even walk without pain and I can barely make it up stairs. I'll be changing my blog name to HAV2BIKE shortly.
Two more decisions hopefully limited the damage - 1) I dropped back and decided to run with the cool kids in group 2 and 2) I quit after running 8 repeats. Unfortunately it was probably 8 too many. Too many left turns which didn't help my left side pain.
A major setback indeed. I can't even walk without pain and I can barely make it up stairs. I'll be changing my blog name to HAV2BIKE shortly.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Zilch
Zip, zero, nada. That's how many miles I've run in the last 7 days. Surprisingly I'm ok with it (so far). I had a familiar pain during my last run (which happened to be a 5k trail race). The last time I had a similar pain I didn't run for 5-6 weeks so I decided rest was best.
My self diagnosis, by the way, was some sort of QL (quadratus lumborum) strain. Kind of like a lower back strain...but it's not. A little deeper and off to the side.
On a more positive note, I got a TON of mountain biking in over the last week. Woohoo!
My self diagnosis, by the way, was some sort of QL (quadratus lumborum) strain. Kind of like a lower back strain...but it's not. A little deeper and off to the side.
On a more positive note, I got a TON of mountain biking in over the last week. Woohoo!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Bike Talk
Last year I added a 2010 Trek ex8 full suspension mountain bike to my collection and have been loving it ever since. I consider mountain biking the 'trail running' equivalent for cycling, and for the exact same reasons. I don't care about pace or mileage and I barely consider it 'training'. It's just plain fun!
The one thing I have learned is mountain biking requires you to know and learn a lot more about bike maintenance. These bikes are ridden hard and take a beating (plus I tend to fall off on occasion). Sometimes I learn by trial and error, but mostly I learn by the internet :-)
As my collection of bike-specific tools continues to increase so does my confidence in maintaining, repairing and upgrading my own bike. Yesterday I finished upgrading my birthday present: a Deore XT crankset and Deore XT 11-34 cassette. Not only are they spanky, but with a 22t chainring up front and a 34t in the back, I can just about climb vertical walls now! The only negative (sort of) was after I installed the rear cassette I noticed a little play in the rear axle/freewheel. After trying the trial and error method the first day (and failing), I went back last night armed with knowledge from the internet and rebuilt my rear hub. Good as new! Bike shop is now open for business.
I think my next upgrade may be converting to tubeless tires.
The one thing I have learned is mountain biking requires you to know and learn a lot more about bike maintenance. These bikes are ridden hard and take a beating (plus I tend to fall off on occasion). Sometimes I learn by trial and error, but mostly I learn by the internet :-)
 |
| Deore XT Crankset |
I think my next upgrade may be converting to tubeless tires.
 | ||
| New bling |
Sunday, June 12, 2011
2011 Bow Lake Dam 15k
For the 3rd year in a row I decided to run the Bow Lake Dam 15k (results) in Stafford,NH. I think the course is turning into one of my favorite road courses - scenic and challenging. As a bonus this year the weather was just about perfect for running: 60, with a light rain throughout the race. It never rained hard enough to get your singlet or shoes wet, at least during the race. Of course it poured right after finishing, making the post race food and awards less than pleasant. Other than that, a great day.
A handful of familiar faces at the start, including a 1/2 dozen folks from the Somerville Road Runners. Their yellow singlets would come in handy during the race. My splits have been a little schizophrenic over the first 5 miles in the past so I was hoping to run a bit more steady this year early on. At the gun a very large group decided to go out pretty fast. I did not get sucked in ran my own race and patiently waited to reel them back in. At the 2 mile mark I was probably 10th o/a and by mile 4 I had probably slipped as low as 14th o/a. No worries....yet. I could see quite a few runners in front of me and most were either holding steady or slowly coming back to me. Around mile 5 I finally began passing runners for the first time all day. The stretch from mile 5 to 7 includes a brutally steep climb for nearly a mile followed by a gradual climb for another 1/2 mile. I ran this section HARD, passing another 4-5 runners on the climb. By mile 7 I was in 6th o/a, trailing a couple of SSR runners. I caught the first one around 7.5 and about a mile later caught the 2nd SSR runner. I continued to pick up the pace all the way to the finish (I did not want to get passed in the last 1/2 mile!!). After dodging a few 5k runners from an earlier race, I crossed the line 4th o/a in 59:10, a 35 second PR.
Next year I might even put this race on my calendar!
Splits from the last 3 years:
A handful of familiar faces at the start, including a 1/2 dozen folks from the Somerville Road Runners. Their yellow singlets would come in handy during the race. My splits have been a little schizophrenic over the first 5 miles in the past so I was hoping to run a bit more steady this year early on. At the gun a very large group decided to go out pretty fast. I did not get sucked in ran my own race and patiently waited to reel them back in. At the 2 mile mark I was probably 10th o/a and by mile 4 I had probably slipped as low as 14th o/a. No worries....yet. I could see quite a few runners in front of me and most were either holding steady or slowly coming back to me. Around mile 5 I finally began passing runners for the first time all day. The stretch from mile 5 to 7 includes a brutally steep climb for nearly a mile followed by a gradual climb for another 1/2 mile. I ran this section HARD, passing another 4-5 runners on the climb. By mile 7 I was in 6th o/a, trailing a couple of SSR runners. I caught the first one around 7.5 and about a mile later caught the 2nd SSR runner. I continued to pick up the pace all the way to the finish (I did not want to get passed in the last 1/2 mile!!). After dodging a few 5k runners from an earlier race, I crossed the line 4th o/a in 59:10, a 35 second PR.
Next year I might even put this race on my calendar!
Splits from the last 3 years:
| Mile | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| 1 | 6:24 | 6:19 | 6:23 |
| 2 | 6:17 | 6:11 | 6:22 |
| 3 | 6:29 | 6:27 | 6:21 |
| 4 | 6:41 | 6:36 | 6:23 |
| 5 | 6:33 | 6:24 | 6:20 |
| 6 | 7:58 | 7:31 | 7:17 |
| 7 | 6:50 | 6:36 | 6:35 |
| 8 | 6:29 | 6:07 | 5:52 |
| 9 | 6:07 | 5:49 | 5:46 |
| 0.3 | 1:53 | 1:45 | 1:51 |
| Finish | 1:01:41 | 59:45 | 59:10 |
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