Monday, August 8, 2011

Black and Blue

Update time: had the third session of Graston today at Bone and Joint. Yes, I started Graston again. First round didn't take. This time I have already felt and seen the difference. Before I get into all that, I have lots of mixed feelings about running right now. Funny how the best summer I've had in years is the summer I have been injured and unable to train with intensity or race competitively. Amanda and I put the 5 bedroom house up for sale and moved to Lake Monroe! At the pool everyday working on the tan, lunch being delivered poolside, drinks served, followed by my daily run in 100 plus heat index! Love it. As usual it has gotten more tolerable, hot but still average 7:00-7:15 minutes on easy days and 6 minutes with a few 5:30's thrown in on days I'm testing out the achilles. Maybe I should feel okay about that considering the heat BUT the foot still hurts so it has not done much to lift my spirits. But the summer has been very nice, house will hopefully sell soon. Today was day one back at school and I survived, although it is much easier when students aren't there yet. Meanwhile, I started Graston at Bone and Joint. First session did some stretching, ultrasound, Graston and Cortisone patch to end on a good note. Also started anti-inflammatory. Not big on meds but this seems worth a try. At this point I could be convinced to take lots of meds if I thought it would help. Went home after session 1 and was so sore and black and blue I could not touch my calves!!!! The bruise was still fresh for session 2 which as you can imagine was not pleasant. I survived, lots of sweating and groaning but Jeff was very nice and always asked how I was doing or if I needed a break. Session 3 today. Still sore and got a new bruise to replace the one that was just vanishing. I am doing lots of stretching and icing. Got a new set of stretches to do today to work on my hip. I've got so many now to do each day, I may have to quit my job juts to have time to do them all. By the way, got orthotics that I should be getting used to but got to be honest I'm not excited about using them. I thought I would try them to see if my achlllees and heel would feel better. More to come on that later I guess.
I've done a few road races this year. Felt good during ONE back in April. The rest have been more like tempo runs by default. In September lots of good races so I am hoping to be ready soon to start doing some speedwork and the much-needed "long" run on the weekend. All my runs are 5-6 miles right now and I am not going to progress with that kind of mileage. Once I am not injured I have some new goals:
5k-16:35-40
10k-34:45
Half marathon-1:16:30

A bit ambitious at this point but I have no doubt that I can achieve this when I get well. My over 45PR's are already: 5k-16:48, 8k-27:21 and Half-1:19:54. My only 10k's have either been hilly or when I doubled races last year. Would really like to focus on longer races, really like 15k, 10 mile and Half distances. My dream is to get fit, train right and be competitive in masters races. Speaking of....I want to go back to Sarasota in March and win the masters division again(2010) and PR at that distance while doing it.This is a good dream.