Rhode Island State Police "Foot Pursuit" 5K

This is the first race recap I have done since I created my blog – remember I been injured

First I would like to congratulate Tom5k for winning the prestigious race – great job Tom and he didn’t complain about any injuries. In addition, big shout out/nice job to Mike C who the day before ran 20 miles and injured his toe while doing a trail race – he completed the 5k and cool down. Can’t forget Matthew who had a PR as well and I actually had a conversation with him on the warm up in the trails – it’s amazing what he says when his dad is not around (dad stop for a pit stop).

Showed up about an hour and 10 minutes early as this is a big participate race (over 800) and parking can be difficult. The weather was great, sunny with temps in the 50’s with little wind. Great to hook up with the gang again (Gazelle, Tom5k, Muddy, Matthew, John H, Mike C and Jana from Jana Walker Sports Photography LLC). Went for a 1 mile warm up on some trails (Canochet Farm) just across from race start where we ran into some birds Muddy was – very excited about and couldn’t wait to tell John H – turn out to be glossy Ibis – ok, whatever.  Got back to the start line in plenty of time where the jockeying for position began. Since I was only running for about a week from coming back from surgery I decided I would start about 15 feet back from the front – I was pushing Matthew to get up front as he wanted to go for a PR. The shotgun went off and the mayhem began. Instinct kicks in and I started to pass people until the first turn, I realized I’m in no condition to race hard so I found a comfortable pace and settled in. We came to a 4 way intersection where a state trooper is holding up traffic. I make the right hand turn and get into the left lane of traffic with rest of race when I hear the trooper say – you can go. I figured he let a car go on through which means I will have a car to my RIGHT when all of sudden I SEE a gray eco friendly Toyota Prius on my LEFT side INCHES away from me and then the passage side mirror hits my left hand. I panicked, I just got back for surgery and I get hit - really, I was speechless or in shock when I took my hand and slammed the mirror back into the car. A few runners behind me began yelling out a few F-bombs at the driver. I looked into the car, it was an old guy with a handicap parking thing hanging from his rear view mirror – I almost became handicap. Was this the work of my wife – hmmm? I settle back into my pace and felt better when those other runners that did the F-bombing came up on me asking if I was ok. We just past mile 2 and we are about to turn left along the ocean when I caught up with some teenagers. I started to yell out pace and distance to them when one of them says, I feel like I’m going to puke. Ok, I’m not handing around for that, started to pick up the pace. I make the last turn into the finish and starting sprinted – haven’t done that in awhile. I finished strong with no pain in my knee. My time was 21:09 – I was very satisfied seeing I just starting running again 8 days ago. This race has one of the best post race gatherings around, hung out for a few and I happen to see old high school friend. Walk up to see who won what when the announcer announces the team award – NRA – What; is this the work of Turtles? We (WTAC) took 1 (Tom), 3 (Muddy) and 6 (Jeff). Then he announces GYM team award – which WTAC took.  Not sure why were in the GYM category

Summary – good to be back and see everyone

Pictures below are from Jana Walker Sports Photography LLC

I survived

Mike C trying to figure out which toes hurts - and we are all waiting

GYM team

Weekly Log 21-Apr to 27-Apr, 2013

Never mind the physical pain of the injury, the psychic pain of not being able to run can sometimes be even worse. Force yourself to tough it out. It’s very important to come back slowly from an injury, and you shouldn’t rush the process. Cut way back on running – or eliminate it entirely – until you recover from the injury. This is what the doctors/physical therapist and advice from on-line reading tells you. Really, what do they know?

Your body, unfortunately, is a fickle creature. Like marriage (just kidding Julie, little sarcasm). After all the time and energy and miles you have invested to get it into shape, your body will thank you by forgetting it all at the earliest opportunity. It’s a difficult truth; you lose fitness quickly when you stop all training. You can, however, take up to a week off without losing any ground. Three or four days of rest can even improve your performance (Jonny, you getting this). But after a week, you will quickly start to lose your edge – a lot faster than it took you to build it up.

After a long layoff, even with some core work, I was bound to lose at least some fitness and gain a few pounds. Then I had to convince my ego that I shouldn’t immediately try to run as I did before my injury – this all started with and email on Friday about a Saturday morning “fat guy from Wal-Mart” run. I was so excited to go out with the group again – than I notice they were going to do 6 miles. I only had run 2 miles from when I got green light to run which was that Friday. How can I do 6, what if I can’t keep up, what if I reinjure the knee, I know Muddy the drama or how did you put it – pussy. My eyes were bigger than my belly as the saying goes. After rethinking this I decided I would run 4 miles from my house instead at my pace. I ended up running at a 7:45 pace with hills – not bad. Everything felt great, had little trouble breathing and I even got a little cramp. The coolest part of the run was when I was on North Anguilla road when 10 Harley-Davidson bikers passed me head on all giving me the thumbs up sign – how cool. Like they know the psychic pain of not being able to run that I went through. Sunday, I decided I would rest this day and see if anything hurt. I ended up doing much needed yard work all pain free – except for the occasional WE need to do this and WE need to do that comment from my better half. Still haven’t been able to meet this WE guy. Monday, I ran 4 miles from work in the early morning – what the hell happened to spring – it was little chilly. Funny how you get out of the routine, forgot my space watch, gloves and WTAC hat. I force myself to tough it out with the chilly 33 degree temperature – I hate winter. I hope this will be the last time I say that for awhile.

Tuesday - 4 Miles, another cold morning with head wind
Wednesday – 0 – decided rest the legs this day as I have been told to take it slow on recovery. Little do they know, only for this week ;) 

Thursday – 4 miles in the parking garage at work as it started to rain early in the AM. You had to be up early to notice that it did rain – sleepy heads. Felt great running today

Friday – 4.5 - after a late night with fellow WTAC board members Muddy & Mike C going over applications for scholarships and drinking, this light weight had trouble getting up at 4:20 to go running. Stop at DD to get a coffee to wake me up - had a very enjoyable run with the full moon out this morning. This was the longest run since I went out on surgery. First 2 miles go great – 7:30 ish than around just after mile 2 I start to feel fatigue 8:30 ish – man, I have to work on the base. Found out that Muddy & Mike C like to drink (a lot) nasty beers that taste like tree park and wood chips.

Update/Recovery

After still having pain in the knee and not believing my primary care physician on the ageing comment (shut-up Muddy), I decided to go see an orthopedic doctor at South County Orthopedics. They treat URI athletes, plus I don’t trust the doctors in Westerly these days – they are too old and not up with the times. I was referred to see Dr. Coppes. Very popular guy as I had to wait a week to see him. They day had come for the appointment – I was hoping for a cortisone shot. After telling him how much I run in a week and how miserable I was not being able to run he asked were the pain was –  he then put his thumb right on the pain (on the inner meniscus) and pushed in. WOW the pain, OMG I wanted to hit him back it hurt SO MUCH. Than the words I did not want to hear – looks like a torn meniscus, let’s schedule a MRI. By the way when I left the doctor’s office I was limping because of what he did. After going for the MRI, I had to go for consultation with Dr. Coppes who said – yup, torn meniscus, so we need to schedule surgery. I commented - what are you doing this afternoon or tomorrow. This is how fast I wanted to have the surgery. We schedule for the following week. So the day had arrived for surgery at South County Hospital. I was prep for surgery and then the anesthesiologist (thanks for spell check) asked me which one I wanted – summary, do I want to watch the surgery or be put out. I mentioned whatever way is best for coming out of surgery, another words, fastest way to get out of the hospital. I awoke in recovery with my wife holding pictures of my meniscus. What the hell do I want pictures of my meniscus or is this some plot that my wife is up too – I happened to have 2 tears on my meniscus, one for an old injury I can’t recall – the MRI did not catch that one. Left the hospital on crutches, never been on crutches before so my wife had a good laugh. Asked to ice it for 2 days keep it elevated and use the crutches for a week until he can evaluate me. Bandage came off and Dr. C said everything looks good. Looks like you can do 1 physical therapy session and I will see you in three weeks and more than likely you can go back RUNNING. Summary, green light to run on 19- April and winter is over with finally. Might sign up for Foot Pursuit on the 28^th and run with Mike C

Weekly Log 24-Feb to 2-Mar

Monday: 6

The usually route

Tuesday: 6.4

Incorporated a little speed work in today’s run – UCONN Avery point has a loop that I use. MapMyRun.com has it as 400m – so I did (4) 400’s. Sorry no times to report, my story so each lap was faster than the other. Unfortunately I have not mastered the Garmin programming of this feature. So back to space watch school.   

Wednesday: 6

Parking garage – that’s right, parking garage. I’m not a fan of the treadmill, so I use the PG at work when it rains. This is a 5 story PG so I go up to the 4^th level, turn left and around and around and around like a NASCAR driver I go. I run solely on time because the space watch does not get a signal. According to MapMyRun.com, the top level of the garage is 300m for one lap. Remember, Chariho grad so I can’t count how many times I go around – trust me it is dizzying. I do go down and back up after a few laps, I even will do some speed work to break up the monotony.

Weekly Log 17-Feb to 23-Feb

Friday: 6.24

I woke up feeling lousy this morning so I just went to work. Grab my workout bag just in case I had time later in the day. Low and behold I found sometime to run – around lunch time (aka Jonny). I decided to turn right instead left like every morning – wrong dissension – ran “against the wind” good song from Bob Seger. We OLDER, AGEING runners will know this tune. Running at noon I happen to see 5 runners, all running with the wind. I was overly dressed as I’m usually running in the cold dark mornings. It was 39 degrees instead of 20 something, plus it was sunny. Springtime around the corner ?????

 

Thursday: 4

The dreaded treadmill – woke up little late, plus the cold wind, plus I hate winter = whipped out for controlled environment

Wednesday: 6

Tuesday: 6
My typical route in Groton, CT with a little black ice. Starting to pick up the pace (low 7’s) as the knee getting better, sucking cold air while running is something I have to get use to – ONLY 4 more weeks until spring, YES

I bet it will be the same thing for tomorrow – like the movie Groundhog Day

 

Monday: 6
My typical route in Groton, CT

Weekly Log 10-Feb to 16-Feb

Tuesday: 5

Cool 37 degrees, ran my usual streets in Groton.  I have been running these streets now for over 8 years, in every kind of climate – today was very difficult because of the black ice (I’m part of that 4:45 club that runs very early).  I had to walk around every corner, run in the middle of the streets; I tried all kinds of ways to run this route, black ice everywhere.  I finished with running 5 miles in 8 minute pace – wasn’t happy with that, so I will make the excuse of the black ice – man, I hate winter.

Get this – after finishing the run, showering and all that other stuff, I was WALKING to were my building is for work (1/2 mile away) according to Strava, yes I did measure it (big campus) plus I park in the parking garage (anther story) when I slipped on BLACK ICE.  I did not fall but I must have look like Kramer.  I bet whoever was driving by they must have had a good laugh. I hate winter

 

Monday: 5

Last week I began running on a routine bases - running on the treadmill at work playing around with speed and incline averaging 3.5 miles a day, seeing how the knee was going to hold up. My story is that I did not want to get halfway into a run and then walk back to work in the cold dark February morning, but the truth is I hate winter.

The knee has been progressively improving, especially this past weekend with little to no pain at all. So this morning I ventured outside running the streets of Groton, CT. The streets were slushy, and it was hard to find pavement to run on but I made the best of it and plowed through this run. Everything felt good, just little uneasiness with breathing cold outside air again.

Weekly Log 3-Feb to 9-Feb

Friday: I hate winter
Calvin is the best when building snowman

Thursday: 3.5 treadmill

Wednesday: 3.5 treadmill

Tuesday: 3.5 treadmill

Monday: 3

Back to the routine – wake up EARLY run outside in the cold dark streets of Groton, CT (I hate winter) - Nahhhhhhh.  Funny how I got use to sleeping in – entire 1/2 hr more (whew) while I was injured. So this morning I decided I would run on the treadmill in a controlled environment watching the recap of the Super Bowl along with that traffic girl on channel 8.

Side note - for us ageing or mature runners – a fellow runner and colleague mentioned to me about a pain relief and healing therapeutic cream called Topricin http://www.topricin.com . So this past weekend thought I would pick some up. A local Westerly store carries it (Allen’s Heath Foods) next to Subway. Little expensive - $25 but I want to run without pain so I thought I would give it a try. This is the third day using this cream on my knee and I’m already feeling improvement. I suggest Googleing it – I know some of you young wipersnappers are against using any pain relief – pill or cream, but the younger generation is naïve, they dress funny and they like to run trails. For those who don’t get it – this is sarcasm.

Sunday: 4

Went from house for a quick 4 before my boy indoor LAX game. Mid-morning, little chilly – but who cares, I’m running. Kept looking at space watch to see what pace I was going – pleased considering I haven’t run in weeks. As I started UP the hill on Elmridge road I notice another runner was just about at the top of the hill. So since I did not race with rest of team members I decided the hunt was on. I pushed the last 1/3 of the hill (steepest part) and was closing the gap – had a little pain in the knee – who cares – hunt is on. As I got to the top I was sucking in air, not use to running in cold weather (I hate winter) but I gained grown. At this time I notice that the turn was coming up where I had to make my way back home. Everything was feeling ok, and it felt good being out there in the middle of a hunt. Still need to work on speed work. I ending up catching up with this other runner (sorry Jeff, I did not have a WTAC application) then made my right turn. The runner was my neighbor so I will put a WTAC application in his mailbox along with a recipe for turtle soup. Conclusion – After coming back from injury it felt good to run at a descent pace.