For the last half of this year, I’ve been on a quest to improve my running form. Yes, it was sparked by reading “Born to Run”. And yes, I went out and bought a pair of Vibrams. Actually ran in the things 3-4 times, but didn’t get too caught up in the hype.

I’ve never been totally able to buy into the barefoot running trend. I think there’s a lot of positive things about it, but a bit too much pseudoscience and blind devotion to the practice by a lot of its followers for my taste. I compare it to the human eye. I believe as much as we were born to run, we were born to see. Like the foot, the eye is an amazing organ, seemingly engineered to perfection for its given task. But that doesn’t mean that anyone who wears glasses should throw them away. Nor does it imply that years of eyeglass wearing is responsible for people having poor eyesight. Or that learning how to look at things “correctly” is going to magically restore everyone’s eyesight to 20/20. On the other hand, though, it doesn’t mean that because a lot of people do need to wear glasses, everyone should go around wearing high powered prescription bifocals 24/7 either.

Getting back to running, I think it’s obvious that barefoot, ultra-minimal running is not for everyone. But in the race to win and keep market share by releasing new and improved models every year, I do think that shoe makers have piled on the padding and cushioning and space age materials far beyond what most people really need, invoking every bit as much of pseudoscience in the opposite direction.

Somewhere in between the barefoot fanatics and the over-the-top marketing of shoe manufacturers, I believe there is a decent middle ground. Which brings us to …

Form

Read about barefoot/minimal running for more than a page and you’re guaranteed to hear about heel/midfoot/forefoot striking. The idea is that many people overextend our leading leg when running, crashing down on our heels. We can only get away with this because of our over-cushioned shoes absorbing the impact. Or at least absorbing enough to that it doesn’t instantly cause our heels to explode in pain. But that impact still jolts upward through the ankles, shins, knees, and hips, causing more long term problems.

This makes sense to me. And in my few runs in my Vibrams it was obvious that I was adjusting my stride to avoid slamming down directly on my heels. Having only run on my own, never having a coach or any kind of instruction on how to run, I had no doubt that my running form could most certainly use improvement. And this “natural” running form seemed like the direction in which to go.

This summer, I read two books:

Natural Running, by Danny Abshire

and

Chi Running, by Danny Dreyer

I recommend reading them both. In terms of the basic form guidelines, both boil down to very similar principles, including a forefoot/midfoot strike, slight forward lean, landing under your center of gravity, and increased cadence. Natural Running seems to use up a few too many chapters going over case studies and running biology, trying to convince you that the technique is solid. Chi Running comes across on the far end of new-age/spiritual, to the point where I had to force myself to read on a couple of times. But if that doesn’t bother you too much, or you can mentally gloss over it, you’ll find a ton of down to earth, practical advice on how to improve your running form, probably more so than in Natural Running.

I didn’t realize when I got the book, that Danny Abshire is one of the founders of Newton Running, makers of Newton running shoes. Thus the book is to some degree a sales pitch for the shoes, but not as bad as you might expect. At any rate, as a sales pitch, it worked for me. So this past July, I went out and bought a pair of Newtons. Newton shoes have a low heel and these four lugs across the mid foot. This makes it all but impossible for you to really heel strike.

Newtons

Throughout the summer, I wore the Newtons and put into practice what I’d been reading about natural running form. By the end of August, my heel striking ways were in my past. My arches were also pretty damn sore.

The thing about changing your form is you start using different muscles in different ways, and putting stress on different parts that aren’t used to such stress. The solution is to take it slow, but even so you run the risk of overdoing some specific part. For me it was the arches, particularly in the right foot.

And Not Newtons

At the end of August, I switched back to my Asics GT-2160′s. I was happy to see that even without the Newtons, I was no longer heel striking. After a few weeks, my form still seemed pretty good, and the arch pain had subsided. Around the same time, I bought a pair of New Balance Minimus. These are a very minimal shoe. Very light, little cushioning, only a 4 mm drop from heel to toe. I started running a couple of short runs a week with them. My plan was to slowly transition over to something more minimal like that.

In October, I ran my second half marathon, in 1:49, my dream time. The next day, my arches flared up again. Though I continued to run only in the Asics, the arch pain continued for several weeks, but is finally subsiding again.

Googling this led me to believe that it was either plantar fasciitis (inflammation of the tissue on the bottom of the foot that connects the heel to the toes) or just pain due to my flat feet. PF usually winds up in heel pain though, which I was not getting, so I’m thinking it is just overstressing my weak arches with the new form.

New Shoes

This week, my latest Asics built up towards the 350 mile mark. Time for a new pair. Since I’ve been running, almost all of my shoes have been in the Asics GT line – a few each of GT-2140, 2150, and 2160s. I was looking into the 2170s, but really felt I should be trying something else. In addition to flat feet, I have large, wide feet. Probably related conditions. I’ve been most comfortable in 12.5 in width 4E. Try to find that in stock in any store (you won’t). So I’d order the Asics on line, knowing that they worked pretty well for me. But I don’t want to just get Asics for the rest of my life. So somehow had to bite the bullet and try something new.

I went to the Brooks Running site and tried their shoe finder. There are two routes you can go with it. One, to put in what you are currently wearing, and they’ll suggest something similar. This route suggested the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12. OK. The other route asks for your height, weight, how much you run, how fast, various foot mechanics, etc. This wound up suggesting the same shoe. Brilliant! For all I know, it always suggests that same shoe for everyone no matter what they put in, but it all seemed to make sense to me. Went out the the store today and tried on a pair. Did something new and went up a half size to 13, and down a width to 2E. They felt great. I bought them. Got home and took them for a four mile run. They felt amazing. Fastest run I’ve done since my half marathon. I’m happy with them.

Future

I would still like to move into a more minimal shoe like the Minimus. I did take them on a 4 miler earlier this week and they felt good. I’m going to work them slowly back into my routine with a short run once a week. If I could get to the point in the next year or so where I was wearing something like that full time, I’d be happy. But we’ll take it one week at a time.

Results

Oh, and it’s always nice to see concrete proof of your efforts. When I’m running now, it definitely feels like I have a nice fore/mid foot strike going on. I don’t feel any heel impact. But maybe I’m just fooling myself, right? so today I picked up my outgoing Asics and looked at the bottoms. With all my past shoes, the heels were destroyed. Like someone had gone nuts on them with a sanding belt. This time, none of that. The most wear is right there in the mid foot, just where I thought it should be. The heels are almost like new. Bingo!

Wow, what a day! For background, I ran my first half marathon back in May 2010 – Boston’s Run to Remember. I was shooting for sub-2:00, but with the heat and humidity that day, I struggled to get a 2:13. I signed up for the Baystate Half last year, but on race day I had such a bad cough that running was out of the question. My next half was to be the Half at the Hamptons in NH early this year. An internal infection benched me for that one. So this was my fourth sign up, fourth run through of all or most of a 12 week training program, but only the second half I actually started.

I trained well for this. No injuries, no illnesses. Lots of hard runs, hill work, various repeats, tempo runs and decent long runs, including two 13-milers. I felt ready. My goal was … well, there are always three goals, right? My bare minimum goal was sub-2:00. The goal I felt pretty good about making was sub-1:55. And the goal that I felt was maybe possible if all factors lined up just exactly right was sub-1:50.

First half of the half: Things went really well. My plan was to do the first 10 miles at around 8:30-8:23 and then if I had anything left, give it hell for the last 5k. (8:23 is what it would take to go sub-1:50.) But I found myself doing 8:20 or under for the first 3-4 miles. And I felt great. Didn’t feel like I was really pushing it at all. Actually, really had to hold myself back to keep it that slow. Started getting slightly winded in mile 6, but not bad. Made it through the first loop feeling really good.

Kept going pretty well through mile 7. In mile 8 though, I noticed that rather than running comfortably at 8:20ish, I was having to push it to stay under 8:30. But I pushed it and kept it under for the next couple of 2-3 miles. I wasn’t dying, but just starting to struggle a bit.

As I approached the 10 mile mark, I started psyching myself up for the push on the final 5k. But I started pushing a bit too early, probably closer to 9.5. I was up in the low 8:00′s. When I hit mile 10 I was at just over 1:25. This left me just under 25 minutes to meet 1:50. I could do this. Miles 11 and 12 I was doing mostly sub-7:50. But that took just about all I had. I hit mile 12 pretty wasted, and still had 1.1 to go. And about 9 minutes to do it in.

The last mile I just had nothing. I was hanging on at around 8:10 for most of it. Couldn’t get a surge going. I was counting down the minutes and it was so tight. I couldn’t slow down, I couldn’t speed up.

The last half mile takes a bunch of turns and goes down various side streets and back alleys. Thus it’s impossible to judge how close to the finish you are. Every time I’d turn a corner I’d see another corner a few more blocks up, and another minute was gone off the clock. I finally caught sight of the finish line, showing 1:49:30 something. And passed under at 1:49:54. That was gun time. Chip time was 1:49:12.

I was so blown away to have made this goal. I didn’t really think I had that in me. Still getting used to the reality. That’s about a 24 minute PR. Whew!

A couple of other things to note on the course. There was quite a bit of debris on the road – dead branches from recent storms, etc. In the first 2-3 miles I heard two people go down within 20 feet behind me. Then at around mile 4.5 I tripped over a branch myself. I managed to stop myself from falling, but pulled my left hamstring. I’ve had a couple of injuries there before, so it had me worried. But after a few minutes it felt ok, until those last three miles, where it started hurting a bit again. Hopefully it’s nothing serious. Oddly, I saw the exact same stick on the second loop, and only narrowly avoided it the second time!

A major highlight of the course for me was around mile 4, there were a bunch of kids in costumes with a giant sign that read “Runners are Wicked Pissah!” If you don’t know what that means, it’s because you didn’t grow up in New England in the 70′s. I did, so it made my day, twice! You can google it.

Again, an awesome day. I’m still exhausted, but very happy.

Stats:

Gun Time: 1:49:54
Chip Time: 1:49:12
Rank: 434/1586
Age Group: 82/387

Made it through the first week of training. 27.7 miles overall. Pushing it in terms of the old 10% rule since my high a couple weeks before was just under 23, but two of those runs I did with my 8 year old daughter, Kristine, which made 6 of those miles far slower than I’d ever go by myself. That’s gotta count for something.

I’m doing the advanced program from Hal Higdon this time out. I’ve done the intermediate plan 3 times now and was looking for some more variety. This plan has it. For instance, in the past week, I did three 3-milers, a 6x hill repeat workout, a 40 minute tempo run, and a 90 minute long run. Next week I’ll be doing two 3-milers, 7×400 meter repeats, a 45 minute tempo run, a 3 mile race pace run, and another 90 minute long run. Keeps things interesting. I’ll probably do another one of those 3 milers with Kris again.

Today’s long run was what Hal calls a 3/1 run. This means you do 3 parts as a regular long slow run, and the final 1/4 of the time you do at race pace. So I did 7 miles that hovered around 9:30, give or take 20 seconds, and banged out the last 3 well under 9:00. The last one was 8:20, which I can’t complain about. The course I did is one of my favorite 10 mile course. I head west on Washington Street down to Wellesley Square (about 3 miles), then bear right, going north of the college, then cut south at Pond Road.  Pond Road is a one mile, hilly, narrow street, heavily wooded on both sides. No sidewalks, but it sees very little traffic. Today, in fact, the only traffic I saw on it was other runners and bikers. You pass by Lake Waban briefly, giving you a view of Wellesley College, and at the end there is a farm with cows on the right and horses on the left. Then I bang a left back to the square, and then straight back home. A good chunk of this runs along the Boston Marathon course, which is always inspiring.

In other news, I got me a new pair of shoes this weekend. I’ve been running with my Newton Sir Isaacs for the last few weeks, and really getting used to them. My form has really improved and I know that I’m running lighter, faster, and more efficiently than ever before. I’m not saying the Newtons get all the credit for this. They help you achieve good form, but I’ve been studying and practicing and putting a lot of attention and focus on running form over the last few weeks. But I feel like the Newtons are just a stepping stone for me on my path to something a bit simpler. I’ve been eyeing the New Balance Minimus line for a few weeks now. I finally made it over to the local New Balance store yesterday and picked me up a pair.

As much as I was itching to wear these today, I wasn’t going to dive into a new shoe on a ten miler. So I have these babies to look forward tomorrow morning on my easy 3 miler. Yes, I’ve become a running shoe geek.

My third 5K of the summer. Cranking these things out!

With this one came a couple of new PRs.

5K PR of 23:10. This is 26 seconds faster than I did at Schofield on June 5. Yay me! My secondary goal was to beat 23:00. Didn’t quite make that, but that’s actually goal for 2011, so I still have some time. Happy to come so close this early in the year.

My Garmin also says I did 7:03 in mile 2, which is an unofficial mile PR. I’ll take it.

Miranda and Kris also ran this race and both got PRs as well. Kris did 29:55, breaking 30 for the first time, and this was Miranda’s first time running a 5K race (she walked one a few weeks ago), so her time of 38:43 was also a PR.

The race was in Franklin, MA, which is quite a hike from our house, so we were up and out early. We’ve been in the middle of a heat wave with 99 degrees F for a couple of days. Originally the heat was supposed to break today and be in the low 80′s, but that changed back to yet another 99 F day.

When we got to the site, the sky looked pretty ominous.

Those clouds don't look good.

As we waited for things to get going, lightning started flashing and thunder booming. Before long, the drops started. Then, about 25 minutes before the starting time, the skies opened up. Everyone huddled under the various tents set up, and under the eaves of the school building. The storm passed right over us, with some of the lightning sounding pretty close. Having hundreds of people in an open field under tents in a lightning storm did not sound like a good idea.

But a few minutes before race time, things magically cleared up. People cheered and walked out from under the safety of the tents and headed to the starting line. The start was delayed a few minutes. Then, as the starter was giving directions, BAM, the skies opened up again! This was going to be a wet one! And it was. It completely downpoured the entire way. The street was filled with puddles. But hey, it was better than 99 degrees and muggy!

After the first minute or so, as I was running comfortably, I did a pace check and saw I was going something like 6:43. Danger! Too fast! Slow down! I wanted to do 7:20, which should put me under 23:00. I slowed down enough to put my lap pace back down to 7:20 by about the .5 mile mark. But then there was a hill for a good chunk of the rest of mile one. That slowed me down to about 7:23 for the first mile. Still enough to just barely squeak under 23:00 though.

Not sure what happened in mile two. I tried to keep it at 7:20 or a bit lower, but somehow would up doing 7:03 for that mile. There were some nice downhills there. I must have really sped up on them.

Mile three became, once again, the hold on mile. 7:20 wasn’t happening on this one, but I figured I’d bought some time in mile two. As we were nearing the end, I stopped looking at the watch all together. Just tried to give it all I had. I passed a woman, and then she passed me. Then I caught up to her again and we ran in step for a while. I knew there was a right turn coming up that would put us in sight of the finish line. We had a brief conversation about where that damn turn was. Street after street came into view and people kept going straight. Finally, people were turning. I reached deep and gave a final surge and pulled away from my brief acquaintance. As I ran toward the final clock, I saw that 22:59 was going to be just out of my reach. I heard the woman behind me, thinking she was going to make a final play to pass me. But when I quickly turned my head back, she was urging me forward, “Go! Go!” I sprinted across the finish line at 23:10. I owe 2-3 seconds to her.

Before the race and the rain

So, results were:

Official time: 23:10. 7:28 pace.
Place: #48 out of 353.
Age Group: #9 out of 28 males 40-49.

I’m pretty happy with all that.

Shortly after the three of us were finished, the rain stopped again and the sun came out and stayed out. The race is a cancer charity race and seemed like it had a small budget. No chip timing, etc. But after the race, they opened up the school and gave us a sit down catered lunch of sandwiches, macaroni salad, chips, and water in the cafeteria. That was a really nice touch.

Next up is not until the end of August, the Tavern to Tavern 5K in Cambridge. I’ll be running alongside Kris in that one, as I don’t think letting her run through the streets of Central, Harvard, and Porter Squares by herself is a great idea.

On the left is a picture Kris took of me last week, sporting my new Running Geek tshirt I got from the New Balance store. Current weight is stably below 190 now.

On the right is a picture of me from 3 and a half years ago. After searching through every picture I could find of myself, I felt this one showed me at my worst. Coincidentally, that that photo was taken on January 1, 2008. This happens to be the very peak of my recorded weight, at 234 pounds. Not really coincidentally, I guess. I really was at my worst.

I expect that I will hit 184 pounds some time in the next week or so. This will mark 50 pounds lost from the peak. Not all of that is due to running, but probably around 80% of it is. I’d lost a whole bunch of weight in ’08 after that photo was taken, but by the time I started running in August ’09, I was back up to mid-220′s.

So 40 pounds over almost two years isn’t exactly miraculously fast, but I’m very happy with it for two reasons:

1. It’s been steady and stable. I”ve had my plateaus and even some slight periods of gaining a few pounds when I was sidelined with injuries or illness, but overall, the graph shows a nice, steady progression downward for the last 22 months.

2. Most of that time, I was not particularly focused on losing weight per se. I’ve been eating healthier in general and less junk, but only in the last couple of months have I really been thinking seriously about what I eat.

Truth is, I started running so I could lose weight better, but at some point I switched over to losing weight so I could run better.

This one has been on the calendar for a while. But then I injured myself 5 weeks ago. I had to bail out on running another 5K two weeks after the injury. A week later (two weeks ago) I had no idea whether or not I’d be able to run this race.

Then I started physical therapy. I think I was already probably starting to healing up, but the exercise and stretching routine definitely helped speed that along. After a week I felt immensely better. I was confident that I’d be able to run today, but that I’d be hanging with the back of the pack, or at best the late-mid pack.

Went back for a second helping of PT. Got some more advanced exercises. The last couple of runs I did were pain free. So I knew I’d actually be able to run for sure, and even put in a respectable effort.

So, got up this morning, bright and early, drove the 20 or so miles to Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, MA. It’s a beautiful course, one lap around the lake. Absolutely awesome sunny weather, but early before the heat. Went over to the registration tables. Miranda and Kris were also going to do the race as walkers. Turns out though, that neither one of us actually registered any of us. OK, no problem, we have 45 minutes before the start, I’ll run back to the car and get my wallet. Literally run, as the parking lot was a good ways from the tables. Got back and realized, it’s cash only. No, I don’t have $75 on me. Is there an ATM around? Nowhere close. So off I run (again, literally) to find an ATM. Found one, probably a third of a mile away. Mission accomplished. I run back. At least I’m all warmed up now, right?

25 minutes to start. But I have to wait in line for the porta-potties (10 minutes) and walk to the start line (another 5-10). But got there with a few minutes to spare and stretch.

And we’re off. I refuse to look at my Garmin for the first few minutes, just trying to settle into a comfortable pace. I finally look down and see I’m doing around 7:30. What the…? I feel totally comfortable, like I’m dong 9:00 or maybe 8:30 tops. The whole first mile was like that – me looking down at my watch and shaking my head in disbelief. Garmin says I covered the first mile in 7:29.

Right after the first mile, there was a water station. Grabbed a cup, took two or three sips and dumped the rest on my head. It was early, so not super hot out, but I was sweating already. I must have swallowed some air, because within a minute or two, my stomach was hurting. That went on for a good chunk of mile 2. Then I burped and felt 100%. Mile 2 wasn’t quite so magical. I was still cruising along at the same general pace, but it was starting to take some effort to maintain it. Still, I finished that one a second faster at 7:28.

And then there was mile 3. Here’s where I felt the effects of running a grand total of less than 30 miles in the last 5 weeks. My cardio was shot. Now I was seeing 7:40-something on the Garmin. I started talking to myself. Repeating my sheep man mantra. I imagine I got some strange looks from fellow racers. But screw’em. I had a few rallies here, but couldn’t hold them. I was still passing people, but just as many were passing me. I’m pretty sure I was playing back and forth with a few people, but I couldn’t differentiate any more. Garmin says 7:39 for the last mile.

There was no 3 mile marker and I didn’t know the course at all, so I was just trying to hold on indefinitely. Then we turned a corner and down the end of this street, maybe 0.2 miles, was a bunch of orange cones and clapping people. Was it a mirage? No, there was a clock, too! It was the finish line! Some guy had passed me a few seconds before this epiphany. I know that the sprint I put on was not imaginary, because I left him in the dust.

Total time: 23:44. Not a PR. But only missed it by 9 seconds! I’m pretty amazed I did that well, considering I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to run at all just 2 weeks ago. As for the injury: what injury? Two weeks ago I was limping when I walked. Today, not a twinge out of it, even 8 hours later. Incredible.

Placement was #32 out of 106 in the M4049 age group, and 133 out of 948 overall. Very respectable, in my humble opinion.

We might do another 5K as a family in a couple of weeks. In the mean time, I’m going to work on building up my mileage and my cardio. I feel confident that with a couple of weeks of good runs back under my belt and a flat course, I could PR, and (won’t say this too loudly) maybe even break 23:00. That’s one of my goals for 2011. Would be awesome to achieve it in July.

Well, the time has come. The time to seriously start looking at my first marathon.

I’ve toyed with the idea here and there, even entered the NYC lottery (a safe bet I wasn’t going to get chosen), but now I’ve actually named a race and entered my training program into my calendar.

So yeah, I’ve been running for almost two years and only now deciding to do this for real. I’ve been putting it off. But I don’t mean putting it off like putting off doing your taxes putting it off. More like putting off losing your virginity until marriage kind of putting it off. Not that I’m advocating either way on that particular issue. Just taking the concept that there is going to be a time for that, and it’s going to be special and I have no need to rush into it.

Actually, last year I said to myself that when I do a sub-two-hour half marathon, then I’d start thinking about a marathon. My first half marathon was 2:15. Since then, I’ve bailed out on the two half marathons that I’ve signed up for – both interestingly due to non-injury related health problems. So, having not achieved the prerequisite, I just never thought seriously about a marathon, as planned.

Well, in a few weeks, I’ll start training for my next half, and whatever-willing, I will actually make it to the starting line in shape to run it this time. If I make it that far, I’m at least 90% sure that I can do it in under two hours. The 2:15 I did was last May at Boston’s Run to Remember. I got zonked by the heat and humidity and ended up walking huge chunks of it. I was already in trouble by mile 5, so it got pretty ugly later on. I know I’m in much better shape than I was back then. In May 2010, I’d been running for 9 months. This October, I’ll have been running for over two years. And although I didn’t run those two halfs in between, I did train for them. My cardio is in way better shape. And, chances are it won’t be 80 degrees F with high humidity. Not to mention the fact that I’ll be coming out of a summer season of training, rather than a winter one, so even if it is a bit warm, I’ll be a bit more acclimatized. To make a long story short, I’m pretty sure I’m going to nail this sub-2.

Assuming I do, but probably even if I don’t, I will enjoy all of 7 days off, which will include my 47th birthday. And on October 24, I will start an 18 week training program for the Hyannis Marathon.

I know what you’re thinking: “February 26, on Cape Cod, running past beaches. Brilliant.” But hey, I won’t have a heat problem, right? Actually, what scares me more than the cold is the psychological issue of the course being a double 13.1 mile loop. And that the majority of runners are there for the half. I get to see them run to the finish line where their families and friends are cheering them and where warmth and food and beverages and chairs await. And I will have to say to myself, “OK, let’s do that again,” with a greatly reduced field of runners.

I started wondering if I might be able to lap any really slow runners. But as I thought about it, I realized that it’s doubtful anybody would be running that slow. Then I started realizing that the front runners might lap ME! For some reason, the physics of this were confusing me, but I’m pretty sure that if I do the first lap in less than 2:30, I should be safe. Last year’s winning time was 2:35. I’d like to think I can do it in under 4:00. McMillan claims I can do it in 3:50. Hmmm… that calculator is very kind. It also says I can do a half in 1:49. So we’ll see how accurate it really is in a few months.

Anyway, just putting this plan down in pixels for all the world (or at least the 3-4 people who read this blog) to see.

This month was like a shot out of a gun!

Fired point blank into a brick wall.

Started with the Schofield 5K on the 5th. Nice 5K PR and decent age group finish. Even a mile PR in the first mile.

And a nice injury to go with that. I finish up the month with a grand total of 20.6 miles in 8 runs. Yuck! Compare that to May, which was 95.5 miles in 21 runs. An injury will do that to you, I guess.

But I’m on the mend. Getting regular runs in, and have a nice stretching/strengthening routine that’s doing wonders for me. Hoping to recover some mileage next month. June 25 I start my official half marathon training. August should kick butt. So let’s just forget June ever happened. Except for the 5th.

I ran three miles! Without stopping! Without limping home!

Whatever’s going on back there – pulled glute, piriformis, ??? – it’s finally, after three long weeks, showing some improvement. Brought the family out to Callahan State Park in Framingham yesterday for a 2.6 mile hike in the woods. I felt great afterwards. And finally felt actually optimistic about running for the first time in a while.

I had scheduled an appointment with a sports physical therapist for this morning, but he called yesterday and I had to reschedule for Tuesday. So I took a chance, got up early and went out for a run this morning. I can’t say my glutes were completely comfortable, but they really weren’t that bad. The last couple times I tried to go out, I knew by around the half mile point that it wasn’t going to work and headed back in a run/walk/limp. Today I never hit that point. Made it to 1.5 miles, turned around and ran back! Wooohooo!

This was one of the most enjoyable runs I’ve ever had. Every step I just felt so grateful to be able to be out there doing a real run. A beautiful summer sunny morning didn’t hurt my mood either.

I think I’ll be conservative and take tomorrow off, see the therapist and see what he says. Try to get back for another easy one on Wednesday. I’ve signed up for the Bay State Half Marathon in Lowell in October. I’ll need to start the training for that at the end of July. Starting to feel good that I can make that goal. I’m going to try the Hal Higdon advanced half marathon plan this time. So I need to be back in shape by the time I start that. I’ll be doing 6 days a week running, up from 5, which I think I’m ready for. It’s also got some hill work and some different length intervals – the intermediate plan just does 400 meter intervals. Also, the long runs are specified in time rather than distance – up to 2 hours I think. I like it.

With the heat and some stretching, I’ve been feeling better. Two days ago, I felt up to a test run. Made it about 0.6 miles before the pain really kicked in. At 0.7 I was done. Tried a couple more times to get something going on, but it wasn’t good. Walked / limped home, which is becoming a theme for me.

But, I did get an appointment with a local sports therapy office. Going in early Monday morning. In the meantime, in the spirit of self-diagnosis, I’ve been reading up and have concluded that I may actually be suffering from a piriformis problem rather than a pulled glute. I’ve been keeping up the heat and for the last couple days been doing some stretches designed for the piriformis. And I really do feel some pretty good improvement. I might go out for another test run over the weekend, short and slow and see how things feel. But mostly just waiting till Monday to see if I can get some positive outlook going on.