Running with Gout

Seems like forever since I had a post, reading the title too reminds me of how far behind I have fallen.
That was nine miles, my longest distance and a proud day. The next week I ran ten miles and it was much more difficult. I found that I felt I had to walk more than I had done for the 9 mile.

That was the last day I was able to run anything decent. I went on holiday, started a new job, and re-injured each calf one at a time and my gout flared up earlier this week. I am starting to doubt that the calf injury is some long term injury from the wagon incident.

So I started slow and short. 1 mile runs. day after day. that was going good, then that is when the gout struck. Gout is not some horrible disfigured disease, it is basically a crystal that forms in between the joints, usually the big toe joint. The crystal is ridged and digs into the joint, the joint usually swells up and the skin on the top of the foot becomes very sensitive to the touch. Even just the slightest touch (a bit more then a feather) makes a person want to scream. Putting foot-ware on can be impossible during a bad flare up.

They say the crystal is formed by too much uric acid in the blood stream and the way this comes about for me personally is that I get dehydrated and don't fully remedy it before bedtime. overnight the crystal forms and you wake up with a whammy of a sore foot. Sometimes I can feel it coming on, sometime during the day I will feel like my toe want to have the knuckle cracked in it, not sure if you know what I mean but it will feels stiff and the urge to crack it is persistent throughout the day. I am not normally a knuckle cracker so this gets my attention. This time I was not able to flush it out. When I get a flare up or I am able to detect one coming on, I will drink excessive amounts of water all day and right up until bed time. Slowly the crystal will dissolved away. It is important that you get the crystal to dissolve or disappear else it might do permanent damage to the joint.

So this time the flare up was light enough that I went for a run, it felt good, but taking the shoe off was painful. I drank extra water and took the rest of the day off.

Floppy footed running is the only way I can run with out pain in my calfs and even that is not always working.

nine miles out

My longest distance to date. it was long and hard. I was tired and had to walk the big hill. But I finished my first 9 mile run ever, and no too bad of time. So roughly 1/3 of a marathon run in 1 hour 45 minutes, If I can keep that pace I am looking at 5 hour 30- 45 minute race in October. Not the race I was hoping for, but this is my first marathon, and that leaves a lot or room for improvement.

Intervals (GPS Interval)
	Type	Distance	Time	Total Time	Pace	Avg HR	Max HR	Notes
1	Interval	1 mi	11:46.40	11:46.40	11:47	134	147	Hill
2	Interval	1 mi	10:53.26	22:39.66	10:54	141	145	little hill
3	Interval	1 mi	10:26.72	33:06.38	10:27	148	160	flat and fast
4	Interval	1 mi	11:41.11	44:47.49	11:42	151	158	snack
5	Interval	1 mi	10:52.97	55:40.46	10:53	156	167	mostly flat
6	Interval	1 mi	13:00.06	1:08:40.52	13:01	152	165	walked the big hill
7	Interval	1 mi	12:18.26	1:20:58.78	12:19	150	158	could feel the end of the run nearing
8	Interval	1 mi	12:42.83	1:33:41.61	12:43	151	160	so hot, black tar in the hot sun.
9	Interval	1 mi	11:02.41	1:44:44.02	11:03	160	167	shade and a minor miscalculation
10	Interval	0.05 mi	0:55.65	1:45:39.67	18:33	163	167

#10 was walkoff cool down.

Grandma's Marathon

I had to work today, so no running in Grandma's Marathon this year. Perhaps next year.
At least one of my friends ran today. She had it on her bucket list. Makes me wonder what else is on her bucket list...
I do not really have a bucket list. If I were I would add go to watch Notre Dame football game at the home stadium. See the pyramids.
what do you have on your bucket list?

.... until next post,

saving my calf muscle by floppy foot running

my last run stats

Distance:   6 Miles

Time:          1:07:00

Pace:          11:09

Notes: Calf a bit stiff, focus on floppy foot, rather than speed.

Garmin to Nike conversion

I found a nice conversion for Nike Plus from my Garmin. So now I do not need to mark the miles with both.

http://www.awsmithson.com/tcx2nikeplus/

.... until next post,

saving my calf muscle by floppy foot running

Floppy Foot Running

Its all the craze. ok, so when I injured my calf, I rested. I injured it again. I rested longer. I injured it again.
I have now developed a method of running slower with floppy feet to not use my calf muscles, when I remember.

sometimes it is sore, but most of the time I can do it.

.... until next post,

saving my calf muscle by floppy foot running

Falling Off The Wagon.

I will now explain how I hurt my calf and about the last time I fell of the wagon.

Back a few years ago, the entire family went out to Nelson's farm. The Nelson family are long time friends, who like to drink, and I liked to drink at one time. So when I was out at the farm, we drank, and then for some strange reason we took a wagon ride?? You know the kind, the hay  wagon. we were on the back of the wagon, and on the way to the destination, Rick jumped off and started to run along side, then jumped back on. Now I had grown up with Rick, John and Greg. I thought my self the most athletic of the bunch. Not because I was a jock, as so much that they were not. but I actually played football, Basketball, track & field, Swimming, Softball, throughout high school and beyond. The list of sports for the three of them combine was maybe just that big.

So anyhow, I was ready to give it a try, on the return from our destination. I however did not take into consideration a few minor details.

1. I had been drinking
2. I had no idea how fast we were traveling
3. When Rick jumped off and ran along side the wagon. we were about to stop. 
4. I was drinking
5. we were traveling fast
6. I had too many drinks

I jumped and managed to make three to five steps, at which point I recall thinking "NOOOOOO!!!!!".

I tucked my shoulder and went head over heals, however I am sure my heals were well over my head. I rolled and tumbled into the ditch. People were screaming, and yelling for Greg to stop the tractor.

It was at this point I figured it might be a good idea to play it off that I had lost my balance and fell off. After all I was embarrassed and full of weeds. But that left my mind as soon as I stepped with my right leg and lifted my left leg....Pain shot right up my calf something fierce.

And that is how I first injured my calf muscle.

.... until next post,

floppy foot runner

Training

Great run on Saturday a few  weeks back, five miles with no pain. The run was all on the treadmill and my goal was to run for one hour. Speed did not matter. I figure that if I am going to finish the TC Marathon, it is going to take time, the mileage is known, but the hours of running is the unknown for me.

I have been listening to the Marathon Training Academy podcast and ready Hal Higdon's book "Marathon: The Ultimate Training and Racing Guide."

I enjoy the book and both the podcast and the book both keep reminding me not to over train, and not to worry about time, just finish.

I am constantly struggling with wanting to run more, and run farther. It is really good to keep reading this book and listening to Angie and Trevor. She keeps me in check, he keeps me laughing.

.... until next post,

Idle Runner

Firm Reminder

The day I write this, I ran my long run on Sunday and it was miserable, So today was just suppose to be a short run to keep building my base, but... it was too nice out, and the run was going so well.

I ended up running 6.5 miles. that was suppose to be 2-3 miles. I know I got carried away, and I do not want to risk injury. BUT IT WAS SO NICE OUT. we do not have many days of nearly 60 degrees in March. It was way too nice to just stop. And I really needed a pick me up since my long run was sluggish and distastful in my mind.

After it posted to Facebook, I instantly got a like from my cousin/sister and a bit of a warning from an experienced runner whom I look up to. He said that I should be careful not to increase my mileage base too fast. The cardio would exceed the abilities of my muscles and more importantly the impact on my joints.
Now being that I still consider myself as in recovery from my last calf injury, I knew I was pushing it. But I am glad that he is there, and apparently keeping closer track then I had imagined. I am glad he spoke up. as I get caught up with thinking about where I think I should be at, and not at where I need to be at.

So I am taking two days off, just to be safe. instead of my one.

.... until next post,

Idle Runner

Running out my injury

I signed up to run the Twin Cities Marathon.

And following this post will be my travels from a "no one" who ran no further than one mile at a time to crossing the finish line on October 7 Th 2012.

So weird run today, I am still nursing an injured calf. (That is a story all it self). So after I came home from work, I found that I had time for 5k. So I took a run around the block. (yes I am lucky that one lap around the block, my block, is exactly 5k).  But anyhow, the reason for the run is to try and keep my base up, to the pathetic measly level it is at. But my plan is to run slower, as that does not hurt too much.

Before my injury I was just breaking the 10 minute mile. since my injury I had been targeting 12 minute miles with the occasional 11:30 perhaps 11 minute mile. That had been going good. However on Sunday I ran four miles and halfway through my stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, so very stupid calf started to give me some pain. I walked about 1/4 mile or so, then figured out a running method to get me back home.

So back on today. I ran 5k, focus on running slow. But I never checked my pace, just ran and "Danced" along. Sometimes my Nike+ does not match my stride length exactly so I will track my run before I run so that there is absolutely no question about how far I ran. This time I decided to run the extra that was needed to complete the 5k according to the Nike+. When I was done I had 10:21 pace for the entire 5k, WHAT!! I thought I was running slow. How did I ever run that fast when trying to run slow.... and with no pain.

I guess it won't be long and I will be running sub 10 with no pain.

Right now I am just hoping that I can run through, no walking, the "Get Lucky" 7K when I run with my cousin/sister. She should help keep my pace where it needs to be so that I can be ready for the TC Marathon.

.... until next post,

Idle Runner

Why I started this journey

Yesterday I was able to convince my son to agree to sign up to run the marathon also. So I signed up officially and he has agreed to run it with me.

Now this is probably not that big of deal to some of you. Perhaps you are a not a runner and thinking a marathon is so far from your mind that you have it unfathomable.

Well here is my background and a little bit about why I want to run a marathon.

Start at the beginning. I ran track in high school, I was a sprinter. I would guess that Mr. Harris (the track coach in my high school years) would not even know my name. I was the slowest sprinter on the team. A few of my friends were on the distance team. The "brothers" on  at least one occasion asked me to join the distance team, or something like that. I think that I was trying to find my event.  Anyhow, I recall telling them, there is now way I will ever run two miles. The 400 felt like early death to me. So why in the world would I want to run any further. Eventually I found my niche on the track team. Either I could continue being the slowest sprinter, or I could start to be the weakest disc and shot-put thrower. I chose the later because I could then run the weight-man relay as my third event. It was nice to feel needed, and I had no problems with it, as I was still not that fast.

My running career ended after my junior year. Never missed it, never thought I would come back to it.... until next post!

Marathon Chronicles

I signed up to run the Twin Cities Marathon.

And following this post will be my travels from a “no one” who ran no further than one mile at a time to crossing the finish line on October 7 Th 2012.

I am a 45 year old man, happily married for 23 plus years. We have three children, D is 18 and a freshman in college. E is a sophomore in high school. J is a 3rd grader in elementary school.

I have lost between 40-45 pounds since September 2010 by changing the way I eat only. Thank you to Weight Watchers for that. However I am still over weight…