20 Weeks to Disney

It's been too long since an update so I wanted to leave you all one after tonight's workout at the gym. Sorry so low key-it's late and all are sleeping!

With 20 weeks to Disney, I am cautiously working my way back to healthy running. I talk about how my calf strain occurred and the opinions I've gotten from my physcial therapist regarding it's reoccurence. I hope to get back to running this week. It's been 8 days since I've run already.

I also talk about my reading of the Christopher McDougall's "Born to Run." It's a fascinating book with a potentially far reaching message about biomechanics, how runners evolved and the "evils of shoe companies."

I end with a thought about making choices in our lives and acknowledging that sometimes our choices are portrayed to others as excuses or stories. Something to the think about.

Last Night's workout

It was hard to finish last night's workout but I got through it by thinking of it in three one-hour chunks. I had to fight negative thoughts about being up so late, knowing I'd have to be up this morning to take care of my son, take him to school, participate in a 10a conference call and then put in a day at the office. Thankfully, I should wrap up at 5:30pm today.

A couple of things about the workout-longest time EVER on an elliptical. It takes me roughly twice as long to complete the mileage on a Cybex arc trainer as compared to running. The plan called for 9 miles and I completed that.

That's enough of the negative crap. Here's some of the things which were positive and kept my mind busy while I "ellipted" all over myself last night:

The Red Sox and Rays kept me company for as long as they could until Evan Longoria smacked a 13th inning Home Run into left field at the Trop. He also hit a HR in the 8th to tie the score at two. That irked me a little but it was good theatre. Sox are now 1.5 games behind the Yankees in the Eastern Division and 4 games up on the Rangers in the race for the AL Wildcard spot.

I listened to LOTS of podcasts. RunDiggerRun showed me the Ladybird Johnson monument in Washington, D.C. and I got to hear about his first 16 miler.

I re-listened to the Runners Roundtable with Lyle McDonald about nutrition and proper fueling for runnings. Big takeaway and one that has been reinforced by other trainer friends of mine recently: "you can OUT EAT any training easily." So if you're thinking because you are running, you don't need to watch what you eat, you are mistaken. You have to pay MORE attention to your nutrition, if anything, to ensure proper recovery.

Podrunner-It was too fast, but mind numbing white noise.

The Today Show-note to self: If you find yourself in a room choosing between severing a limb with a rusty spoon, or listening to Meredith Viera, give serious consideration to the amputation. I always thought that job should have gone to Campbell Brown.

Team Point Two playlist-Big ups to Nicole for creating this list of songs that motivates me and my TP2 teammates.

Fuel on the run consisted of three 16 oz waters with Camelbak Elixir tablets, half a G2, and two Chocolate Hammer Gels. Felt right.

Rest day today. I'm ready for it.

Control-Alt-Delete

Due to my lingering calf strain, I've made a decision to postpone my fall marathon to January 2010.

I discussed with my wife and John Ellis via email yesterday and it seemed to me to be the best decision I could make given the conditions I'm dealing with right now.

A poor spring base left me vulnerable to injury and the best thing I can do now is re-build that base through slow runs, cross training and possibly some PT. I will seek out medical advice this week.

My commitment to Team Point Two and to Make-A-Wish is NO less than it was two days ago. I'm still very much involved in both-in fact, this gives me a chance to get healthier and perform optimally, as well as potentially to raise more funds for the CT Chapter of Make-A-Wish.

To proceed, however, with the Marine Corp Marathon at this point, given the current state of my body, would be an exercise in suffering needlessly for a goal less than what we started out to do-improve on our previous marathons.

So, we're moving ahead. Marine Corps-we'll meet again. Mickey Mouse...I'm coming to your playhouse.

Okay-here's the deal. The calf is not going away. I ran a slow 7 today and on mile 4 it began to tug and tighten. By mile 5, it had knotted up pretty good, enough for me to slow it down about 30-40 seconds slower. If you haven't seen the video I posted previously, of the strain location, it's at the top left side (inside) of my right calf. I recently switched to a neutral shoe post-injury thinking it might help this. I've had a couple of runs in them and I have to say it's not responding like I hoped. My New Balance 758s are super comfortable by the way-nice lacking system, lightweight and feel great. I've let John Ellis, Team Point Two's Marathon advisor know what's going on and we're making some adjustments in my plan. 12 weeks to go to Marine Corps Marathon. 4:15 is NOT going to happen at this rate. I need to be healthy. Why isn't this calf feeling better? I have't done meaningful miles in two weeks! More to come tomorrow. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 186 ft Location: Marion, CT Elev. Gain: -3 ft Date: 08/02/09 Up/Downhill: [+433/-436] Time: 11:34 AM Difficulty: 2.7 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 7.20 miles Goal: 11' 00 min/mi pace for 7 miles Time: 1:19:28 Speed: 5.4 mph Attained: 101% Pace: 11' 02 /mi Calories: 969 Notes calf issues. ouch. right calf. recurring. been a couple of weeks now.   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 15 -0' 47 5.8 +0.4 +13 ft 2 10' 05 -0' 57 6.0 +0.5 -40 ft 3 10' 42 -0' 20 5.6 +0.2 -13 ft 4 10' 52 -0' 10 5.5 +0.1 -23 ft 5 11' 19 +0' 17 5.3 -0.1 +7 ft 6 12' 10 +1' 08 4.9 -0.5 +75 ft 7 11' 39 +0' 37 5.2 -0.3 -17 ft end 11' 40 +0' 38 5.1 -0.3 -7 ft Versus average of 11' 02 min/mile

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