Bryan LGH Race To Overcome: Adam’s Race

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Well, training for this race has been interesting. Having been sick (strep throat) and then also developing a knee injury near the end. I decided to back off from the 10k and to run the 5k instead. While I’m sad I didn’t get to run the 10k, very happy I chose to back down to the 5k. As I sit here I’m icing my knee for the 3rd time tonight and it still hurts to walk around. Hindsight tells me I shouldn’t have raced at all, but hindsight can kiss my butt! :)

As for the race, I came in at 150 our 396 people registered for the 5k. My time was 31:52 and had a pace of 10:16. Overall a great run. The weather was great, a little warm and a little windy, but nothing you can’t run in. The wind offset the heat anyhow. The course itself was an interesting one, the 5k run was a straight shot down 27th street from Lifepointe to Rokeby road, turn around and then come on back. It was quite hilly, but nothing too horrible – the majority of the hills were on the way out, so on the way back in we had more downhill and wind at our backs. That was nice! I hope to do the 10k for Adam’s Race next year.

Now that the race is over, I don’t intend to sign up for any more till I get this knee situation under control. If you have any recommendations for a Dr. that you prefer, please leave a comment! I’m open to suggestions. Hopefully I can get in to see somebody this week, so I can start solving this problem and getting the rehab in that I’m expecting I need.

That is all for now.

Tomorrow expect a post about ExtraLife!

 

Running downtime

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So, after my knee pain from the 5.5 mile run 2 Saturdays ago, running has been hit or miss for me. The Tuesday after that 5.5 mile we did hill prints, which didn’t bother my knee at all. Then the following Thursday I commuted to work, which had significant downhill running, and my knee started acting up again.

Then, today Active.com posted a blog post about running injuries “How to Prevent and Treat Common Running Injuries“. After reading through the first page of the article, it was pretty obvious to me that the problems I’m experiencing a case of “Runner’s Knee” (Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome). Further research as led me to find out that there are 3 methods to go about dealing with “Runner’s Knee”.

Method 1: Physical Therapy
There are various hip, glute and quadriceps stretches and exercises that you can do to strengthen your legs, so that they aren’t as easily influenced by the pronation of your feet. This will help to keep your knee from turning in or out, depending on how you pronate.

Method 2: Inserts/Orthotics
Getting a pair of inserts that offer better arch support so that you don’t over pronate as much, which in turn leads to your knee not turning in as much, so you don’t have that excess pain and stress on the joint. I’ll be picking up a pair of inserts first to see how this works, and only move on to custom orthotics if necessary.

Method 3: Knee Tape/Brace
Here is an example of a way to tape your knee cap so that it tracks properly when running, which can help to eliminate the pain of “Runner’s Knee”. Another route is to use a knee brace to help with the alignment of your knee cap. I’ve seen the “Cho Pat” brace recommended, but have not experienced any myself yet, but I intend to pick up a knee brace if the Inserts don’t work out as the isolated solution.

So, for me, I’m taking some time off running to heal up, then I’m going to start doing some exercises to start strengthening so that I don’t have those issues as much. I’ll also be getting new insoles for both my running and everyday shoes, just to keep my foot in the same environment all day. Then if I need to I’ll be moving on to a knee brace to see if that helps. If after all of those things I’m still not able to run pain-free, then it’s time for a trip to a doctor. That is, unless something else comes up for me to try.

Alien Frontiers

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I first heard about Alien Frontiers a few months back when the guys on TRS reviewed it. After that I’ve tried so hard to get a copy of the game. The problem is, it hasn’t had very many copies of it printed for sale. As of now only 2 runs of printings have been done and the 3rd printing is on the way and should be out in October of this year.

So for the last few months I’ve scavenged around trying to find a copy of the game that wouldn’t cost me $100 plus shipping. Then at the beginning of September the folks at Clever Mojo Games released their Kickstarter for the Alien Frontiers expansion, Alien Frontiers:Factions.

Now this wouldn’t really be a big deal for me since I haven’t even gotten to play the base game, so why would I care about the expansion? Well, if you back the expansion at the $85 level, you get a copy of the base game as well as a copy of the expansion when it comes out. So, there it is I can finally get a copy of the game for a reasonable amount and I even get the expansion to boot!

So for $85 I get a $50 game and a $35 expansion. How could I pass that up? I couldn’t so I decided to back the project at that level. Since then the project has been fully funded and then some. As of the writing of this post they are up to $41,467 out of $15,000 needed. And with each multiple of the initial amount raised, they have added in bonuses.

So, if you think you are into board games and might like Alien Frontiers by all means hop on board and back it, you are getting more for your money than you would if you bought it outright in the stores.

Time 2 Train: Week 5

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Wow, it’s already week 5 of Time 2 Train!

I’m really liking this class a lot, we do a lot of other things, and the training schedule that we have is pretty packed with good runs. Over the last 4 weeks we have increased the length of our long runs on Saturdays by half a mile each week. Last Saturday we had a 5.5 mile run, and that turned out to be a very excellent run for me, see for yourself!

And with half mile increments, that means that this Saturday I have a 6 mile run ahead of me… Wow! If you had told me 4 months ago that I would be able to run 2 miles without stopping I would have laughed right in your face. But here I am, ever week running further and further without having to stop to walk! My pace is even getting better! This is so amazing, I still have a hard time believing that I’m able to do the things that I’m doing.

Tonight we did hill repeats. There was a significant hill that was about a 30 degree incline that ran for about a quarter-mile. We had to sprint up the hill as fast as we could, then walk down and repeat for a total of 4 times up the hill. I’m still a little shaky from the run, and it’s been 2 hours. I guess that means I did it right ;)

Counting this Saturday, we have 4 more Saturdays till the race. I can’t believe it’s already that close to race time!

Stick Tuned!

Thunder Run 2011 5K Race

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Pre-Race Cheesy Grin

Pre-Race Cheesy Grin

I don’t even know where to start on this one. I trained hard for it, i did all my prep work and then the race came. I wasn’t too nervous, but just nervous enough. I met up with Sandy one of my running buddies and we planned on running together for a portion of the race, starting out around a 13 minute mile pace, before I decided to pick it up and try to finish strong. Continue reading →

Time 2 Train: Week 1

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This week was the first week of my new training class called Time 2 Train. It’s a class put on by LifePointe fitness center. I had no idea what to expect going into this class, and was quite surprised when I showed up for the first one. The first thing I noticed was that this class size is about 20-25 people. Coming from the Beginner’s Luck class which was over 400, that’s a big difference! I’m interested to see how that plays out with focused time with our instructor, Dustin.

For our first class we went around the room and introduced ourselves, then Dustin went over what to expect in the coming weeks. After about 45 min of that, we headed out to the parking lot. Once we got out there we did some warmups. It reminded me a lot of a high school P.E. class warmup. It was fun, and got me all warmed up, so I would say that was a success!

After the warmup Dustin had us run 2 laps around the LifePointe campus, telling us “…one lap is about a quarter-mile, which is about 800 meters…” I thought to myself that that didn’t add up but ignored it, because we were going to go run! So, off we went running. This run was supposed to be in a fartleck fashion. So I used the time to run hard till i wanted to stop, then tried to find a good recovery jogging pace. I managed to make my 2 laps without having to walk and paced out a 9:36


Did you notice the distance of that run? Yeah, I did too about half way in I was thinking to myself “There is no way this is a quarter mile!” When I get done and look down to see I had run a mile my suspicions were confirmed. It seems what he said was half true, he wasn’t doing funky math – he just forgot to half the meter part (or intentionally didn’t half it as a clue) of the  phrase.

I can see why he did that, being that about a quarter of the group aren’t runners at all most of them said they couldn’t ever do a mile. So he did some mental tricks to show them that they really could do it. Once everybody had finished and was standing round recovering from the run, he dropped the bomb. “…congratulations! you just did a mile…” To which a large portion of the group cheered.

That was the end of class. We all grabbed our stuff and went home… Or did we?

Sandy, Brian and myself (you’ve heard about these folks already just not by name) all decided that a mile wasn’t enough. So off we went to Holmes Lake to do a lap. Which turned out to be a really nice run. Managed to do the full lap without walking at a sold pace of 12:34

Stay tuned next week to see how Time 2 Train progresses into week 2. Also later this week I’ll be posting my description of the 5k Thunder Run that I did this past Saturday.

Training Complete! Bring on the Thunder Run

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Well, it’s Thursday and I’ve finished up my training for the week for the Thunder Run. Everything went according to plan! I had to stellar runs this week, which I will go over now.

Tuesday Morning Plan: 4 miles no running.

Well, as you can see I managed to make the 4 mile distance, which is now my longest run to date. What you can’t see by this is that I maintained that 13 minute pace along the entire run, which is now my longest duration of constant running. I didn’t stop to walk at all. This run felt great and was quite eventful. Along the trails I saw a mommy deer with two fawns.  And then there was the old man who flew past me on the trail, which wouldn’t be that big of a deal, except he had no shoes on!

I’ve heard about people doing it, but it still caught me off guard seeing somebody run by with no shoes on. Not to mention that he was practically silent. He scared the crap out of me. I was just going along at my happy little pace and all of a sudden this old dude is next to me saying “Good morning” I almost fell over. Seriously, was quite a startle.


Thursday Morning Plan: Short fast run of about 2 miles
By seeing this you can see that I made it the two miles, and that I had a much faster pace than on Tuesday. I wasn’t able to run the entire time, had to walk a couple of times, but it was worth it. This is my first run that is both at least 2 miles long and also has a single digit pace time.

So, with the fast run on Thursday breaking my pace record, and my long run on Tuesday breaking my distance and non-stop running records. I can honestly say I definitely feel ready for this Saturday’s race physically. Now I just have to make sure not to psych myself out.

Thunder Run – Race Week!

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I can’t believe it’s already race week for the Thunder Run!

I feel sort of ready? It’s hard to say really. I’m a little more nervous about this race, because it’s my first actual race. I mean, the Beginner’s Luck race was a real race, but it was closed to the public, you could only run in it if you had gone through the class. The Thunder Run, however, is not like that. It’s open to the public, and people of all skill sets are going to be there. I have no idea how many people are registered, nor do I have any idea of how many people to expect. All I do know is a few friends will be there racing as well, and I’m excited to do it!

My plan for training this week is to get a non-stop 4mile run in on Tuesday morning at a slow pace. Then on Thursday morning a short fast run, maybe a mile to a mile and a half at a much quicker pace. Just to get my body ready for Saturday morning. If you are interested in keeping up with my progress in the race and are unable to make it to the race itself, just watch my Facebook page or my Twitter to see when i start running. You can follow that link to track my progress live!

On a super happy side note, I weighed myself this morning and clocked in at 200.6 pounds. That means I’ve lost 25 pounds so far! So super exciting! Look below to see what the Wii has tracked for my weight loss over the last 4 months.

Weight as of 08/08/2011

Weight as of 08/08/2011

Weight trend over the last 4 months.
Weight trend over the last 4 months.

Zombies + 5k = Yes Please!

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So, a co-worker of mine showed me a little website the other day. What website? Well, this website: http://runforyourlives.com/

It’s a website describing a themed 5k race that had my attention immediately. It’s a 5k race where you have to survive being chased by zombies for your time to count. I want so badly to go to this event this year, but Baltimore is a bit far away for me to do, plus I have Market 2 Market volunteering to do during that weekend here.

The exciting news is that the local zombie walk group Lincoln Zombiefest has been informed about this event and they really want to get one scheduled nearby for the 2012 year. This excites me more than it really should, I’m sure. This race has been added to my bucket list. Expect more on this, when I know more.