Pretty good time for my first real half marathon.  We headed down to Pueblo early Saturday morning.  I got there about a half hour later than I wanted to but still had plenty of time to get checked in and run a few hundred yards.  I took my place in the back of the pack and we were off a little after 9am.  The temps were pretty cold when we got started, but the sky was clear and the sun warmed things up.  We ran two laps around City Park before heading out to the Arkansas River trail.  I really had to focus on keeping a slow pace those first couple laps.  I ran those first two in around 10:15-10:20 without much effort.

Once we got out to the river, we found ourselves on a concrete bike path which I wasn’t terribly thrilled about.  Luckily there was some single track off the the side that I ran on.  We neared a little nature center and restaurant on the river where an aid station was set up.  I grabbed a couple swallows of Gatorade and pulled a Gu out.  After the aid station it was a pretty flat run up next to a little bluff.  It opened up into the “canyon” and followed the river almost all the way to the dam.  About 5 or 6 miles into the race, I started thinking how easy the race had been so far.  I wasn’t exactly setting any speed records, but I felt I had maintained a comfortable pace and ran a smart race.  I quickly told myself not to get too carried away with those thoughts; I was sure it wouldn’t be that easy for the entire distance.

As we neared the dam, more and more return runners were coming towards me.  I thought I was getting close to the turnaround, but it was still a ways off.  Once I hit the final outbound aid station, I started feeling a little sluggish and noticed a twinge in my left achilles.  It started to get difficult to maintain a solid pace.  I would feel myself slow way down and then have to talk myself into picking it up until a certain landmark or spot on the course.  This cycle repeated for the next couple miles.  When I approached 10 miles in, the head games started.  I really wanted to walk for a bit, but at the same time, I knew that it would be that much harder to start running again if I did.  I pushed on through mile 10.  I kept looking for short stretches where I would tell myself I could take a quick walk break only to keep running through them.  This pattern repeated itself until I got to the bottom of the hill leading back into City Park with about .2 miles remaining.

Like most hills, it didn’t seem bad going down, but it was brutal looking back up.  I took a few strides on the way up and my calves quickly knotted up.  Even walking I could feel my hamstrings started to lock up as I made my way up the hill.  Once I got to the top, I managed to find a real slow run and jogged it in until the final turn for home.

I was pretty sore immediately after the race.  I grabbed some Gatorade and then laid on the ground for a few minutes and had my wife stretch my legs.  That did wonders to at least make me mobile, but it didn’t take long for the outside edge of my right foot to start hurting so much that I was convinced I broke it.  Between the achilles on my left leg and the right foot, I hobbled around for a couple days but both of those issues seem to have taken care of themselves.  Looking forward to running this weekend between snowboarding and studying for finals.

Planning on running the PPRR Rescue Run on New Years Day, the PPRR Winter Series (long?), and then start focusing on full marathon training for Colfax I think. (yes, I’m crazy!)

Ok, so I’ve technically done a half (Pikes Peak Ascent) but that’s never been much of a run for me.  I signed up for the Rock Canyon Half Marathon in Pueblo on December 6th.  Yeah, that’s this Saturday.  My longest run to date has been 10 miles so I hope I’m ready to extend that to 13.1 on Saturday.  I’m going to get one more easy run in at JQRC tomorrow night and then take the rest of the week off.  Weather is shaping up to be absolutely killer for running on Saturday with highs in the mid 50s and not much in the way of wind.

Followed Bucky around Section 16 last Friday and I could tell that I hadn’t been focusing on hills much lately but after the brutal first climb, the downhill was a nice treat.

So sometimes life gets in the way of blog posting, but fortunately, not in the way of actually running.  After the miserable performance at the Ascent (hey, I showed up and started and actually made a 15ish mile roundtrip), I took a little time off from running to relax.  I said just a little.  Within a couple weeks, I was back on the incline and getting in short runs around the neighborhood and Palmer Park.

I toyed with the idea of running the PPRR Pony Express 15 miler but just didn’t feel I was quite ready to run/hike that.  I’ve continued to battle the same shin issues that plagued me last spring on and off but not anywhere near as severe.  I think I’ve finally built up a base over a sustained period of time that the soft tissue on the posterior of my shins has gotten used to the abuse.

In October, the PPRR Fall Series kicked off and I ran the first two of those races.  I missed the next two for weekend trips, but felt pretty good about the way those races went.  Later in the month, Josh talked me into showing up for Jack Quinn’s Running Club on Tuesday nights and I’ve been running down there every week since.

About the same time, the mention of the Rock Canyon Half Marathon in Pueblo came up and I started training for that as well.  With about two more weekends left to train for that, I’ve got a couple of decent long runs planned to hopefully get me ready for the half on Dec 6.

After the first of the year, I’m pretty stoked about running the Rescue Run on New Year’s Day and then the PPRR Winter Series.  With the Incline Club starting up workouts pretty quick too, I’ll probably be joining those crazies for some cold weather Sunday runs as well.

PS - hi bucky.

Haven’t posted much here lately.  Been real busy with life outside of running but I have managed to get some training in for the peak.  Nerves are starting to kick up and I’m ready to run on Saturday.  Looks like the weather could get interesting.  Talking about inches of snow for Friday night and into Saturday.  Hopefully I’ll be able to put a post up here after the weekend detailing smashing of goals and such.

After my last post, the shin pain returned a couple days later and I was forced to back down to longer walking intervals and less running.  Shortly thereafter, it was time to go get married.  It was almost three weeks without running when Josh and I headed up Barr Trail to No Name Creek on Saturday.  We were heading up Ruxton a few minutes after 6am but still found nowhere to park.  The Incline must still be gaining in popularity.  We decided to just head back to Memorial Park and start there knowing we could park there.

Made it to No Name in 1:31 from the park.  Not great but that doesn’t put me too far off pace to get under 5 hours for the full ascent.  Made it back down to the cog in around 30 minutes and we ended up walking to rest of the way to the park.  My legs, hips, back, shoulders, and even abs were totally trashed yesterday.  Feel a little better today but glad that I was able to make it up that far at a decent pace.  We caught a break with the cool weather on Saturday but I don’t think we will be as lucky as we get into July.  I’m gonna try to get at least 4 more trips up on the bottom half and then spend one day on the summit before tapering.  I think I can gain more on the bottom half than I can on the top.

Gonna try again this weekend to go to Bob’s Rd or the 7.5 to go sign.   Hope I can get enough quality time in on the mountain to improve over last year.

Still working through Pfitzinger rehab and going to PT twice a week but I’m starting to get some decent time on my feet and it feels damn good.  I did 2 min walk/8 min run x3 last week and just got back from 10 run/2 walk/10 run/2 walk/10 run a bit ago.  Looks like I got in just before the t-storms rolling in.  No leg pain to speak of and I generally felt pretty excited to be out running the whole time.  Hope to get a half hour nonstop in next weekend.

It’s been about 10 days since the doc said I don’t have a stress fracture.  I finally got a run in on Sunday.  10 minute walk, 5 minute run, 5 walk, 5 run.  I walked to and from the little dirt track around the drainage field a few blocks from the house before starting the prescribed walk/run interval.  I ended up with some ankle pain in the left leg but I wrote that off as a side effect of wearing the boot for a week and a half and having all the little muscles in my ankle, foot, and lower leg immobilized for such a long time.  The pain lingered for a couple days but hasn’t come back since.

I went to my first physical therapy session on Tuesday.  A lot of notes taken about things she saw and a couple of stretches recommended to strengthen totally unrelated areas.  She thinks the left leg got sore after compensating for weaknesses in my right leg.  Sounds plausible.

I spent about 45 minutes on the elliptical on Tuesday evening before going to study for finals.   Upped the intensity a little bit to get the HR up some more.  I went in for another PT session yesterday afternoon.  Got a nice massage on the calf and left leg.  She then taped my leg.  When she told me she was going to tape the leg to offer some support where the calf muscle attaches to the tibia, I imagined the lower leg being wrapped tightly.  However, she took a long strip of sports tape, ran it from just below my knee all the way down towards my shin right on top of the tibia.  Towards the ankle, she cut the strip in half and then wrapped it around under my foot.  The only thing I can feel is how bad it’s going rip out leg hairs when I go to pull it off.

Went for another run last night.  5 walk, 5 run for 30 minutes.  Didn’t have any issues with the leg. Things feel pretty good today, too.  Planning on getting some quality time on the elliptical or the bike this afternoon and then another run on Sunday.  Looking at the rest of the plan, I should be running for an hour by the end of June.  After that I’ll spend a few weekends going to Barr Trail and back and then a couple weeks of training on the summit.

Got in to see the sports medicine doc yesterday and after a quick eval and discussion of my symptoms, he told me I likely didn’t have a stress fracture.  He took a couple x-rays stating that a stress fracture that has been around as long as I’ve had pain in the shin would show up on film by now.  They came back negative.  He prescribed some physical therapy for shin splints and recommended I be custom fit for some orthotics to correct the poor alignment issues as a result of my severely flat feet.  I’m going to start running again tomorrow evening using the Pfitzinger rehab plan for stress fractures (just in case) and take it real slow getting back up to speed.  Hopefully the combination of PT strengthening the muscles/tendons on the medial tibia, added support from the orthotics, and a slow and sustained ramp-up of miles will keep me injury free and I can get back to Pikes Peak training soon.

Still walking around in this stupid boot and doing very little in the way of working out.  I’m going to put in a marathon session on the elliptical this afternoon.  I’ve got an appointment with a specialist tomorrow to figure out when I can get back to running.

Spent all weekend in Phoenix, sat by the pool, drank a lot and spent time with Michelle, her  brother, and her parents.  In a bit of a fog for a Monday.

So I’ve been running for a couple months on a stress fracture.  Can’t remember how long exactly it’s been since I started feeling the pain but I wrote it off as shin splints for the longest time.  After it didn’t get better following a two week break, I broke down and went to the doc.  Bone scan showed a fracture in my left tibia.  Gonna be in a boot for a couple weeks and then evaluated by a sports doc to get me back into training while not hurting myself again.   The doctor said I may still be able to start running again and get plenty of quality training in before the Ascent.