Re-learning running in my late 30s.

Note:  I am excited! Yesterday I had the second most page views ever for my blog!  The only time I topped it was back in march - when I let people know I had a blog, and everyone checked it out - simply from curiosity on what I would write!  Now I just have to figure out how to get more commenters!  Thank you for reading!

So, I have started reading a wide assortment of blogs online.  From "Caution: Redhead Running" (the adventures of a currently injured runner, but her past stories of running are quite good) to "The Running Laminator" - a Dr. that explains some of the medical aspects to running, yet still does stupid things like running two marathons in one weekend (to be fair he pushes himself and documents things quite well - very good reading.) and just started reading "Silly Girl Running" tonight.  The problem I am finding, is most blogging runners seem to be younger, in their twenties.  Unfortunately, I have not had the privilege of retaining my age of the last decade of life, immortality has escaped me.  I and am now in the latter half of my mid thirties.  It makes a difference.

I am finding that I don't recover as well as I did in my lower twenties, and nor does my body forgive me as quickly for deciding to go out and do something stupid.  This is slowly coming home for me - and I am trying to do less stupid things.  This has been a partial success thus far, as I seem to be substituting one stupid thing for another. (ie: only running a mile to give my calf a chance to recover, but stupidly doing it fast and barefoot.)  I seem to have some issues with the "common sense" department when it comes to figuring out what is acceptable and what is not the brightest of ideas.  This is becoming a bigger problem as more time goes by, as the "penalty" for being wrong - it hurts more, and a causes more down time.

[caption id="attachment_394" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="I think this guy passed me in my last 5k.."][/caption]

I am hoping to trip across a treasure trove of mid to late 30 runners, trying to relearn how to run.  I have found some, but it seems to primarily be barefoot runners.  Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against that, but it is not going to be my primary focus.  I have also found blogs for runners in their 50s, but their obstacles are different from those that I have been encountering thus far. Anyone have any good sources of running blogs of mid to late 30's runners and the issues we face as we discover we aren't as young as we used to be?

oh.. And if they happened to discuss recovering from injuries and running a marathon 5 months later - that would be bonus..

 

Happy Feet! or "I love my Vibrams!"

[caption id="attachment_388" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Bryce Ran from the green dot, up through Rec. Park and back - The Blue Dot is where we stopped and stretched."][/caption]

So, Last night's run was a nice mile run with my son.  I am very proud of him - he can do 1 mile (in 2 legs of .5 miles each with a side stretch in the middle) in 13:42!  We enjoyed ourselves, did a full stretch at his 1/2 mile side-stretch.  It was a nice distance for a warm-up, and great preparation to help avoid more muscle strains!  We then headed back home, and he headed in while I kept going.

I picked up the speed a bit for my solo run and ran another two miles.  It felt sooooooo good.  My feet were happy as could be, and the whole run was a blast.   I ran faster than the previous day, and enjoyed it so much more!  I have a little bit of soreness on my right foot, where the muscles haven't been

being used for the last 3 weeks.  My physical therapist showed me a way to use the a can that you roll back and forth with your foot to massage the bottom of the foot.  Its an exercise they use to treat planar fascitis, but seems to work well to massage the arch of the foot as well. Its one of the exercises I have been doing in physical therapy to help strengthen my other foot/calf muscles.  You just put the can/ball under the foot like in the picture to the left - and roll it forward and back.  Luckily, its not a very complex exercise, so I can manage it!

 I am going to go back out in my Asics soon - as I don't thinkit is fair to judge them based on my first run after being off for 3 weeks.

Decisions on Vibram Five Fingers - The Cure for all that ails you? or a plan for injury?

 So, I went for a run last night in my Asics, after only using my Vibram Five Fingers (VFFs) as my primary running shoe for a while.  I found the run in general less enjoyable, especially the shoes. It seems that I really enjoy the range of motion granted by the VFFs, as well as the added ground feel that comes with the thinner soles.  In my reading however, I have found that there may be one major issue with using VFFs as my only running shoe.

[caption id="attachment_376" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Keith Olbermann's Foot on the David Letterman show."][/caption]

It seems they may cause stress fractures.   Keith Olbermann appeared on the David Letterman shoe wearing a "boot" due to a stress fracture in the VFFs.  There is an ongoing discussion on a podiatry forum I found online.  In regards to stress fractures and VFFs, the podiatrists were not the least bit surprised that people were reporting injuries from running in the VFFs.  Though to be fair on this one, they sounded as bad as the "church of the barefoot runner" folk do when talking about it.  They are hostile, non-helpful to people who might have inquiries about them - and just plain mean at times.  They actually search the internet (like my google search earlier) looking for people reporting foot breaks in VFFs, and then they mock them. So I take them with a grain of salt, just as I do the "VFFs/barefoot running will cure all your problems!"  Plus, add in the fact that if VFFs really do cure alot of foot problems - it will seriously cut in to a Podiatrists' bottom-line.

First five mile run, post calf-strain

[caption id="attachment_371" align="alignright" width="220" caption="Look! A Healthy Non-Complaining Calf!"][/caption]

So I headed out on a slow run to see how my calf held up.  I decided to run in my Asics rather than the VFFs, with a goal of stressing my calf out as little as possible.  I did run with a forefoot/midfoot strike rather than a heel strike. The good news?  The calf held up just fine - no complaints from it at all!  I did stretch after a half mile warm up, as well as half way through the run.  It didn't feel bad, but thought it was a good preventative measure.  I also stretched that good, health calf when I got home.

The run itself?  Honestly, it wasn't all that enjoyable.  It seems my cardio abilities have faded in the last three weeks, though I know that will return quickly.  I also started off behind a cigar smoking man walking down the side-walk - its amazing how long THAT smell stays with you!  Took me half a block to figure out what the smell was!

Anyway, back to my whining.  So the run wasn't as enjoyable as many of them have been.  I ran in my Asics, and the feeling of my foot hitting the ground simply isn't as enjoyable.  I know that those in the "church of the barefoot runner" (read that name on a Podiatry Forum) refer to shoes as "foot-coffins" and I really felt that way today.  To quote "Barefoot Kenbob" - it was like singing with earplugs in.   I suspect I was also dehydrated, didnt' sleep well, etc.. etc...  Lots of things came together to make this a really not-fun run.  I even walked at several portions of the last two miles, figuring better to hurt myself when I wasn't "feeling-it."  I am hoping that anyone that knows me passed me while I was running, not walking.

Still despite not feeling like the best run in the world, I am still glad I went.  I knew starting back into running after 3 weeks off (well, 2 weeks, plus 1 running day, and a week before that) wasn't going to be easy on the lungs and legs - but I really expected more "fun."  Think I will pull the Vibrams on for tomorrows run. Its simply more fun.

Learning more about barefoot running or Blisters are far better than pulled muscles!

So, its friday - always a good day for countless reasons!  Today, despite my graphic pictures posted yesterday, I am able to walk pain-free.  The quick recovery from blisters sure beats the weeks of recovery required for a calf strain!  After managing to do some pretty good damage to my feet this week, I wanted to figure out how I could do to prevent recurrance of the same pain.  My wife had a very simple solution - stop running.  This was followed up with other helpful suggestions of "stop running barefoot" and "don't be such an idiot."  I decided to keep looking elsewhere for ideas.

One of the things I had looked for in the past

Barefoot Running - Day 2!

Last night was looking to be a pretty busy night, and to be honest - if I had been physically up to running the distances I SHOULD be running, I wouldn't have even tried to work it in.  I was going to a Binghamton Mets baseball game that was sponsored by my wife's workplace (we were handing out free bags.)  I knew I wasn't up to 5 miles or so, but I decided I had plenty of time for a quick mile.  I had really enjoyed the mile I ran barefoot with my son the previous day, so I thought another barefoot mile would be perfect! (as a side note - this also had the added bonus of my VFF Bikila's not being all sweaty and gross, letting me wear those to the game.)

Running Again!

[caption id="attachment_349" align="alignleft" width="174" caption="Its not often you get to use a picture of a hurt calf multiple times..."][/caption]

So, I have not been allowed to run, due to my strained calf muscle - my physical therapist thought it would be wise to actually let it heal.  The only running one time in three weeks (which ended with my calf muscle being unhappy again).  Well, it hasn't "hurt" in over a week, although it has still felt tight.  So yesterday I asked my physical therapist if I could go and run - he told me I should wait until my doctor gave me the o.k. 

Well, since I wasn't seeing a doctor (he just gave me a reference to they physical therapist) - I figure it must mean I was good to go!  So I figured I would head out for a small run of a 1/2 mile to a full mile - which of course means that I was going to do a mile.  So I picked up my son after PT, we got hair cuts (less weight to carry around you know!) and then headed out for a run!  The only question ahead of time - was how I was going to limit myself to one

[caption id="attachment_348" align="alignright" width="300" caption="well.. it wasn't raining when my son and I went. and we weren't on a track. And we ran slower than this guy probably did. But other than that it was JUST like that!"][/caption]

mile and stay there (you runners that read this understand.)   Well, my son and I went out and ran it barefoot!  I figured it was a good way to work on my form, as well as making sure I didn't over-do it.

It felt great.