Project Exercise

I got up at 4am to go running.  Since I am babying an injured knee, I was just going to take my run a mile at a time.  As a last ditch effort to continue my training, I dumped my stability running shoes and used my old neutral running shoes.  I found that my knee felt much better during the run.  I am now convinced that the stability shoes were the source of my knee injury.  I did not have that excrutiating pain in my left knee when I started my run.  As a matter of fact, the pain was relatively low grade… at least for the first 2/3 thirds of the run.  Today I just had to deal with the injury "as is", I wasn't making it worse with the stability shoes.  The knee held up pretty well, at least for a while.  Around mile 13, I could feel pain increase, but then again, I just put 13 miles on it.  During my last long run, my knee was screaming at this point.  I could feel my right ankle getting a bit sore and my right leg, as a whole, compensating for my bad left knee.  As it turns out, my right foot overpronates a little bit while my left foot runs neutral.  So without the stability shoes my right ankle gets a bit tweaked.  Its not too bad though.  Ok, so from mile 13 to mile 15 I am dealing with the knee, however around 15.5 miles the knee pain and my right leg (that is compensating for the bad knee), is getting bad.  I  am also bonking as I have run out of water and I need some carbs.  I know I will get to a gas station mini-mart in about a half mile.  However, at this point I have to walk.  I get to the mini-mart and buy a Power Ade.  It was refreshing, but now I am trashed.  I am now 2 miles from home.  I could call my wife or I could hobble home.  Of course, I chose to hobble home.  So I am switching between walking and running.  I was running real ugly.  My legs are shaking (my body is not producing ATP fast enough) and my left knee is trying to tell my stubborn brain to stop.  When I start to run I can only go a few hundred yards and then I have to walk again.  I am in pain.  About a half mile from home my wife calls.  She is worried about my knee and I have been gone for an abnormally long time.  I tell her that I am trying my best to stay on my feet.  She offers to pick me up and because I am an idiot I tell her "no thanks".  I only have half a mile to go to make 18 miles.  After I hang up I begin running.  I wasn't going to walk any part of this last half mile.  My family actually walks down the road to meet me.  It was great to see them.  My son is cheering me on.  That gave me a small boost.  My son runs with me for the last quarter mile.  That last 2 miles were the worst ever!

That run really trashed me.  I am icing the knee and ankle as I type this post.  As I think about the distance of the marathon, I know that I would be hard pressed to complete the 26.2 miles in my present condition.  Cardio-wise, I have the wind.  No problem there.  However, my knee injury is my limiting factor.  I truthfully don't think my knee could handle the extra 8 miles.  I may have to take the marathon off my bucket list.  

I see the sports medicine doctor on Tuesday.  I will see what she says.

Yesterday's run was a defining momemt for me.  My knee caused me to go down twice.  I was extremely angry with the situation.   I have been training hard for the marathon and I did not want to throw it away.  Not only was the marathon slipping away, but future triathlons were also on the line. 

Last night, my wife and I were looking up sports medicine physicians and ortho specialists to call in the morning.  That was really depressing.  I did not want to hear the doctor say, "don't run… rest the knee".  I mean, if someone goes to see a doctor and says, "my knee hurts", of course the physician will say rest the knee.

Anyway, I was tossing and turning all night trying to figure out what to do.  Around 4am, I had an idea.  Sometime ago I switched to stability running shoes at the advice of a salesperson that said I was overpronating.  Overtime, my knee had gotten worse.  It did help the ankle pain though.  I got the bright idea to use my old "neutral" running shoes.  It was a last ditch effort.  To me it was worth a try.

So I put on the shoes and went for a slow run.  The pain in the knee was not as extreme as it was yesterday.  I kept going and, while I could feel some pain, it wasn't enough to stop me.  Better yet, it didn't take me down.  Just as a precaution, I walked at the 2 mile mark for about .25 mile and then resumed running.   I was able to go 4 miles.  I could have gone farther, but I did not want to push it.

I am convinced that the stabilizing running shoe was the main cause of the knee problem.  I am going to proceed cautiously.  The knee is still damaged so I have to watch it.  

I got an appt for the sports med doctor, but the soonest I can see her is Nov 3.  So in the meantime I will take things one day at a time.

I took a recovery week from running and also cancelled my long run in hopes of healing my left knee.  So today I decided to start running again.  I was apprehensive because my knee did not feel like it got any better.  However, I wanted test it out.  Why you ask?  Well, those of you who follow my blog already know, but for those who are new to Project Exercise… I am not wired like others.  I am just driven to the point of failure.  I want to know that I have given it all.  Ok, maybe it is not the smart approach, but that how I do things.  As they say… "it is what it is. 

So anyway, instead of running the treadmill to get out of the heat, I decided to run outside because I hate the "dreadmill".  It was hot though.  When I started running at 10 am it was already 87 degrees and humid.  Not good, but it was nice to watch scenery go by.  As I began to run, my left knee was screaming.  The pain was bad.  Well, I have this 2 mile rule… if it still hurts after two miles I'll stop (yeah, right).  A lot of time, things loosen up and stabilize after 2 miles.  When I hit the two mile mark, my knee was still hurting, but you know, its like the pain just becomes part of the run… almost acceptable, so I decide to forge on.  Hey, I already said I am not wired right!

On my inbound leg, while running through Ala Moana Beach Park, I feel a sharp pain and my knee buckles.  I actually do down.  It happened so fast that I couldn't catch myself… I just go down.  Luckily, I land partly on smooth cement and partly on the grass.  I get up to see if I can walk.  I am able to walk so I walk for about about a quarter mile.  I start running again and in about a half mile, it happens again.  I feel myself getting really angry because I have put a lot of effort to train for the marathon and I don't want to throw it all away.  I walk for the next mile.  I start running again and I am able to make it the rest of the way to the gym to shower up.  Can you imagine if I fell on the treadmill at the gym?!?!

When I get back to the office, my boss, who really is a nice guy, starts asking me how the running is going and how my knee is holding up.  I snapped at him and told him I didn't want to talk about it.  You know, he didn't deserve that so later in the day I told him what happened this morning.  

I have a doctor's appt scheduled for November 6th, but I think I need to see a sports medicine doctor or an orthopedic specialist.  I am coming to the realization that I need to have my knee examined.  I am really tempted to run on it again.  The marathon is about 6 weeks out.  I would like to think that I can do some training and at least run/walk the distance.  I don't know… I don't like to think I got beat.  The reality is, however, that my knee hurts like hell.  It hurts right now as I type this post.  I am icing.  I bought a knee brace this evening and it helps while I walk.  Since my run this morning, I have a noticeable limp (I hate being gimpy).  Lateral and twisting movements are excrutiating.  I commute on a motorcyle everyday and it hurts to mount and dismount the bike because I have to put my left foot down and swing my right leg over the seat to get on and off.  The twisting motion on my knee kills me.

Ok, enough of that.  Its like I'm whining now.  HTFU (as a Christain, I don't really want to translate that for you – triathletes know what that means).

I would be lying if I was to tell you that I wasn't a bit worried about my knee today.  So as I was walking to the gym from my office, I was trying to psych myself up.  I got on the treadmil and the knee absolutely hurt.  So I push… 1 mile goes by, 2 miles, 3 miles and I finally stop at 4.  I wanted 5.  I felt like I gave up on myself.  However, the pain hit my threshold.  I don't like admitting that because my M.O. is to get past the pain. 

After the treadmill, I did a chest workout. 

I have to figure out what to do.  I have some options.  I could do non-impact during the week and just do my long runs.  I will, however, lose my base.  There is a half marathon coming up in November.  I could do that and call it a day.  I could also give the knee a rest and try to pick up the training next week.  I hate all those options.  Being hard-headed and stubborn, I am inclined to take the worst option which is to try another run.  I know the smart thing to do would be to rest the knee.  However, nobody has ever accused me of being smart! 

The thing is… if I can hang in there for another month, I will hit my taper weeks.  

I guess you will have to read my future posts to find out what I decide because, at this point, I have not made a firm decision.  

My long run has been on my mind all week.  My knee hasn't been doing so well and I was curious to see if this weekend's long run was going to take me down.  While my knee was hurting this morning as I prepared to run, I was sure it would feel ok as I walked it out to warm it up.  Well, at least that has been how I have been dealing with it up to this point.  When I started running, the knee wasn't cooperating.  I was running with a limp to deal with the pain.  Now I was a bit worried.  This was not only tough on my bad knee, but it was going to put extra stress on my good leg (the one with the bad ankle).  I decided to give it 2 miles.  If it was still hurting I would have to stop. 

At the 2 mile mark, however, the knee warmed up and felt better.  As long as I ran straight ahead without lateral and twisting movements my knee would hold out.  The down side is I had to run much slower.  My breathing was doing well.

I was supposed to go on a route where I would come across water fountains to hydrate.  However, I kept heading towards the town of Hawaii Kai.  I knew at some point the water I was carrying on my hydration belt would run out.  At 10 miles I was empty.  It was ok, though, because in about a mile I would come up on a 7-Eleven.  I carry a few bucks in my hydration belt so I bought a Power Ade.  That was real refreshing.  I could feel my body accepting the hydration, carbs and electrolytes.  It was just in time because my legs were getting fatigued.  I pushed forward. 

Today is trash pickup day so everyone had their trash cans on the sidewalk.  I had to weave through the recepticles during most of the run.  That wasn't helping my knee or my bad ankle.  I would often have to run off the curb and onto the street to avoid the trash cans.  At mile 13 this was taking its toll on my fatigued legs and, more importantly, my bad knee and tweaked ankle.  This marathon training really amplifies injuries.  Just before mile 14 I ran off a non-ADA curb to cross a street and the movement really hammered my knee.  To compensate I landed badly on my bum right ankle.  What the… am I in some kind of comedy movie now!  I really trashed my knee and ankle on that move.  I walked it out for about a quarter mile.  I started running again and then my right calf started to spasm.  It was pretty violent (but amusing).  I could see my calf muscle twitching like a big dog.  I would walk a few steps then start running and it would start up again.  I reached down and massaged it a bit.  That helped.  I wondered if the cramping and spasms was due to oncoming dehydration.  I ran to a gas station mini-mart and bought a bottle of water.  I hammered that down.  Again, it helped give me a small, but needed boost.  Everything below my waist was hurting.  Moving my legs was a monumental effort.  The sun was up and well established since mile 8 and it was getting hot.  I had 2 more miles to go.  I forced myself to run those last two miles.  It wasn't pretty.  Stepping up and down curbs at street crossings were now very painful.  When I got within spitting distance of my house I still neede to go another .25 miles (what the…?).  So I took a detour to get the extra distance.  That was a killer quarter mile.  My Garmin 310XT registered 16 miles as I hit my driveway.  

I am beat.  My calves are still twitching (yes, now they are both twitching).  It is kind of fun watching them twitch as I enjoy the USC vs ND game. My hamstrings are sore as hell!  My quads hate me! I am icing my knee and ankle.  All of this begs the question… what the heck am I thinking!!!

I got all caught up in watching shows that I had stored on my DVR last night so I did not post my training yesterday.  So I will post both training days now.  Yesterday I did 4 miles after work in the late afternoon.  It was overcast and it drizzled intermittently so even though it was hot, it wasn't too bad.  The 4 miles went well.  Earlier in the day I went to the gym and worked out chest, shoulders and triceps.

Today I did 5 miles on the treadmill.  5 miles is pretty much my limit on that machine.  It would be tough to fight off the boredom after that.  The good news is the run went pretty well.  I started a new audio book today, "Pursuit of Honor" by Vince Flynn.  Flynn is my favorite author and this is his latest book, just released to book stores yesterday.  I was able to download it prior to release.  Listening to my audio book took the edge off the treadmill boredom.

Ok, so my left knee is still sore.  The funny thing is that it doesn't feel so bad when I run.  It hurts when I get up from sitting and also if I put lateral or twisting movements on the knee.  When I run I don't limp.  However, when I get up from sitting and begin walking, it hurts enough to limp for a while.  It is certainly a strange injury.  I am sure it is an "overuse" injury.  The only time it really hurts when I run is if I have to leap off a curb and I land a bit sideways.  Oh well, I am going to continue running.  I know I should see doctor, but I really don't want to hear any bad news.  I talked to my buddy about it and he said, "if it was anyone else he would tell them to see a doctor".  He further said that since is was me he said, "I won't give you the same recommendation since you won't take the doctor's advice so why waste everyone's time".  Boy, he really knows me!

So I am icing the knee right now.  I will continue running.  I'm a stubborn old guy.  If the knee breaks, so be it.  It will take that to drop me out of marathon training.  I mean, if a doctor recommends resting the knee, at this point I would have to give up marathon training anyway.  So I would prefer to go down in flames.

I had the day off today.  After taking care of some errands I headed out for my run.  I started my run just before lunch time so it was already pretty hot outside.  Maybe around 85.  I did not mind the heat too much, though.  While I could feel the heat, it did not seem to bother me as much as I thought it would.  I just took a small hand carry bottle of water with me.  The run was pretty plain vanilla. 

My left knee felt ok on the run, however, later in the day, I started getting some minor pain.  As a consequence I am icing.  I often wonder if I have stress fractures.  I should have a doctor look at it, but I am afraid to find out. 

I am listening to another audio book during my runs.  This time I am listening to "Rules of Vengence" by Christopher Reich.  It is a sequel to "Rules of Deception" which I finished last week.  Its turning out to be another good book.  I have about less than 4 hours left.  I just bought Vince Flynn's new book, "Pursuit of Honor".  That is next on my list.

Ok, so about an hour ago did biceps and triceps.  Nothing mind blowing.  All basic lifts using my Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells.  You folks know the drill… a bunch of curling movements for the biceps and kickbacks, skull crushers and bench dips for the triceps.

Oh, btw, I think I will be getting a Nobel Peace Prize.  I mean, I haven't done anything about Afganistan, I can't help our economy and I can't get them to hold the Olympics in Honolulu!

Hey Steve, I had to steal your "Run and Guns" phrase.

I woke a bit later to start my run.  A very good friend of mine from the island of Molokai stopped by for dinner last night.  I don't get to see him often so I really enjoyed his company.  We come from opposite sides of the politcal coin so we have great discussions.  Btw, for the record, he had to agree with me that the current administration is not delivering!  Too much "all show and no go"!  Alright, enough for the politics.  

So, as I said I started my run a bit late today and I knew that I would have to run in the heat a bit.  I normally like to start my run during the dark early mornig hours.  Today the morning sun was well established when I headed out.  That is really ok, though, because a good portion of the marathon will be in the heat of the day and I may as well get used to it.  Unlike the most of the mainland U.S., it is in the 80's in December (the marathon is on Dec 13th).  About an hour before I finished my run it was approaching the mid-80s.  It was nearly 90 today. 

It took quite a while for my breathing to stablize today.  It wasn't until I was well past 2 miles that I was able to get it under control.  So once I got my breathing under control, my mind shifted to my tired legs.  At 3 miles I actually felt like stopping.  I kept telling myself… "just one more mile".  Once I hit Diamond Head, about 7.5 miles into my run, I was committed so I kept going.  I ran up the front side of Diamond Head.  It was a beautiful morning and I had a great view of the ocean.  The surfers were out in force.  I used to surf quite a bit in my younger days.  Just watching those folks out there is kind of like an alcoholic taking a little drink.  It actually gave me the urge to get out there with them.  However, that was short lived because after I past the lookout, the reality of the run swiftly re-occupied my mind.  Before I started out on my run, my main concern was my left knee which gave me problems on my last long run.  It was solid today.  However, my legs were just tired.  I had to reach pretty deep to keep running.  When I got to the bottom of Diamond Head and into Kapiolani Park, I knew there was no turning back.  So continued past the park and down the Ala Wai canal.  My legs were really fatigued.  I still had the back side of Diamond Head to ascend.  I kept well hydrated on this run, but the heat was starting to affect me.  I pushed up Diamond Head.  Once I got to the top I knew that I was home free.  As with all my long runs I was happy to get home.  My Garmin reported 15 miles.

I did a few errands today and my legs are sore.  This is common after my log runs.  They should be fine tomorrow.  Just as a precaution I am icing my left knee and my right ankle.

I had a pretty straight forward training day.  Did a 6 mile run in the morning followed by some biceps and triceps on the SelectTech dumbbells.  When I got to work I felt like a I needed little more pump in the arms so I worked with the bands that I keep at my desk.

The knee held up fairly well.  I do feel a little tweaking if I put side motion on my knee, however, if I am keeping a straight stride I am fine.  I feel that I am good to go for the long run on Saturday.  It will be a real test for me.  If my knee takes a beating again, I will have to decide how to proceed.  I have a plan "B", however, I would really like to go all the way and do a full marathon to check it off my bucket list.

Thanks for stopping by!

I took my left knee out for a spin today on a 4 mile treadmill run.  It held up very well.  I was able to do negative splits.  Steve's (boxcarvibe) suggestion really helped… RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate)!  Jeff, thanks for encouraging me to rest and take it easy.  You have gotten to know me well.  Without the encouragement I would just blast through the pain and just make it worse.  I took extra days to rest up the knee and it paid off.  While at the gym I also did a quick back and biceps workout.

When I got back from the gym, I immediately put an ice pack on my knee.  It didn't hurt, but I figured I would go ahead and be a little pro-active with it.  I want to do a run tomorrow and I also have to prepare for my long run on Saturday.  I am shooting for another 15 miler for my long run so I want to make sure my knee is ready to go.  I am sure that it will take a pounding again.  However, I will have an ice pack ready when I finish the run.  

Anyway, it is comforting to know that I can train again.