Elite Jogging For Dummies

Easy miles with Heather in Moab, on the scenic by-way paralleling the Colorado river, going toward Potash.  We stopped and looked at the petroglyphs, which are endlessly fascinating.  Heather drank all of her water and got kind of dehydrated so I ran back to the car and came back to pick her up.  I can't blame her for being cautious; she is six months pregnant. 

Well, at least I'm running.  I'm certainly not fully healed, but I felt good enough to get in some training miles. I no longer have any pain when I'm just walking around, but running is still not entirely comfortable.  Things felt better in the last couple of miles.  I have a long post for my Saturday entry in the works that I'll post tonight. That should provide an update on my recent disappearance from the face of the blog.

I felt good enough to try a little speed session so I showed up for the workout with the Black Sheep. We met at Sugarhouse park, warmed up for one loop. Then we did 1 minute on/1 minute off for another loop. My little pelvis issue was nagging at me, but it seemed the more I ran the better it felt. We moved over to the Highland track after the second loop. We ran 6 x 800, with the goal to pick up the pace a bit in the second lap. I ran these with Josh Steffen, who is coming off an awesome run at the Canyonlands Half Marathon (1:16:40, finishing 8th overall). Times were modest but consistent: 2:52/2:52/2:50/2:50/2:49/2:48. Then one mile to cool down.

I found that concentrating on my form and keeping my pelvis tilted forward and my alignment centered seemed to help a lot; "like a needle wrapped in cotton," as the ChiRunning advice goes.

This afternoon I have an appt. with a chiro.

It was raining steadily when I woke up, so I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill. In addition to not getting soaked, I thought running on the treadmill might help me to keep a closer eye on my form so I can work out the SI issues.  Of course it stopped raining by the time I started running and I could have enjoyed a perfectly nice run outside, but I stayed on the treadmill anyway.  Miles were gradually descending; starting at 7:30 pace, finishing at 6:30 pace; the middle five were huddled in the 6:45 range. 

The SI pain is certainly still present, but I am less afraid of running on it since I have a better idea of what is going on.  I went to the chiro last night (Dr. Wimmer) and he took xrays. I have another appt today to look at the pictures and figure out what precisely needs to be done.  He spent quite a bit of time talking with me about my running and how the pain occurs. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do.
 

Easy run through Holladay with the Radda crew.  The SI was much improved today.  I still had some discomfort in the beginning, but it seemed to subside more quickly than in the last couple of days.  A chiropractic success story?  Hard to say yet.  I have another adjustment tomorrow. 

Cucina Loop with Sam.  We call it the Cucina loop because the standard meeting spot is at  the Cucina, a cafe/deli on 2nd Ave.  We still call it that even though we sometimes start at my house, as we did today.  We start with a zigzag up through the Avenues to 11th Ave, west to B street, and then down to the bottom of City Creek, where we climb east above the canyon on the Shoreline trail, then just follow the Shoreline trail over to Dry Creek, down that canyon, and then zig zag back home through Federal Heights.  We started at about 5:50 so it was dark for much of the run on the trail.  I need to upgrade my headlamp, which is lightweight but a little wimpy (Petzl Tikka w/ one LED bulb).  I did fall once, but it was when it was already light so I can't really blame anyone but myself for that.

 
The SI held up pretty well.  I am noticing a pattern; discomfort for a couple of miles at the start and then it kind of fades into the background as I become more warmed up.

The trails should be a muddy mess at this time of year, but it was quite dry, no mud to speak of.  Last year at about this time, there was a legitimate "creek" running down Dry Creek, this year . . . it's just dry.  All things considered, this was a great run. 

We were up in Sun Valley, Idaho for the weekend.  Since the plan was to ski, a long run wasn't in the cards.  Nevertheless, I did a loop with some spiciness; though not quite a tempo run.  I ran from the Sun Valley Lodge, up and over Dollar Mountain, through the Elkhorn section and down Elkhorn canyon, back to S.R. 75, back into town, and back to Sun Valley road. 

It was a nice day and nice temperature.  I didn't feel great though; I had plenty of SI discomfort to think about. Frustrating.  It certainly takes some of the fun out of the run. It also didn't do really well skiing.  On the groomers it was fine, in the bumps (which I didn't ski much) it was worse. I really did try to avoid them.  But I can't complain too much. We had a great time and I kept my SI concerns to myself.