Is it an injury or just some overuse strain?

Sunday I decided to blow off my run because of Martin Luther King. His amazing life gave us many things including a day off. So I decided to give my legs one more day of rest and put in a long run on Monday.

Friday night's power lifting session put a lot more stress on my body than I could have imagined and my hip flexor muscles were still somewhat sore- more on this in a bit.

Instead, I decided to do a chest workout. It was a good workout, not much to write about though.

Monday morning, I got up to run at 7 and there was something missing, the sound of wind. Was I going to get a windless morning of running? Sure looked like it.

I took off and headed east towards Hunters Ridge with the intent of breaking up the 2 mile climb to the power line trail into segments. It worked well, except, as I climbed up the hill the wind started to turn from a slight breeze to what one would call a wind, at least I was calling it that as I cursed it.

About 4 miles into this run, I was starting to notice that my right hip flexor wasn't acting right. It hurt a bit, but that pain was being overridden by the blisters in both of my arches. Think about it, when you tickle someones feet, you tickle the arches because that is the most sensitive part of your foot. Now imagine having blisters there and having them be rubbed by a hard orthodic insert over and over and over and over. I can not wait until the callous builds up enough so that I don't have to deal with this anymore.

6 miles into this run is a very steep hill and I can usually run the entire thing, but on this run, I had to stop down and fast walk it. This hill is so steep that my heart rat stayed at 184 bpm while walking.

I noticed at this point that things weren't good with that hip flexor and it was effecting my endurance. However, I am in the middle of now where and so I have no choice but to run the rest of the run home. One thing that is helping is that it is a beautiful day. When I get to the top of the trail you can see all the entire valley and it was breathtaking. It was totally clear, which usually happens when it is windy outside. Oh yeah, the wind, as I climbed up towards the base of the foothills into the mouth of the canyon, the wind was blowing pretty hard. Not howling like last weekend, but certainly annoying and adding to the effort that I was having to put out on this run.

So, I get home after about 10.5 miles. I held a good pace but last night the pain started to really flare up in my right hip flexor. This morning I woke up in real pain. So now the question, is this an injury or not? I am going to rest it tonight, ice it down, and see if I can get it to go away. Let's hope.

150 Run and managed boredom

Today's Stats: (6.02 mi/ 57min 32 sec/ 9:34/mile/ Avg HR 149 bpm/ Max HR 170)

I have had two awesome coaches in my triathlon/ running career ( no, really I don't get paid to do it, but I can't think of a better word). Coach Tony Troccoli at Coachtony.com and Willie Stewart, aka One-Armed Willie, an Olympic Silver Medalist Cross Country Skier. A big Thank You goes out here to both of them. They both taught me a ton and I totally appreciate their willingness to do so.

Both Willie and Tony have taught me that I don't need to go out and run 100% effort on all my runs. This goes totally contrary to my personality that doesn't leave room for less than an all out effort. But, they've both taught me that training smart means some workouts should be less intense.

Here's the reasoning. Running is a violent sport on your joints, muscles, and connective tissue. So, when you are putting in base miles that toughen those joints and connective tissues up, it doesn't matter how hard your effort is, only that you log the miles. In fact running slower means more steps, which means more foot strikes, which actually strengthens those parts more.

But, it is boring. I mean really boring, like waiting for an airplane that's on a 3 hour delay in a super quiet airport boring.

So today, I set off on a 6 mile run with a goal of maintaining a 150 bpm heart rate. That means I get to run a 9:30/ mile pace. The reality is this workout should probably be done at 135 bpm, but I can't run that slow when people are around. My ego gets in the way cause I feel like they are saying "man that guy looks like he should be able to run faster than that". So I'll do the 135 workout late at night.

To show that my fitness is improving, I should be able to run a faster per mile pace at 150 bpm later in the season.

I've even had buddies do 150 races on bikes where they race up a long mountain road, GMR to those who would know the road, without letting their heart rate go over 150. Whoever gets to the top first is truly the fittest. I've tried to do 150 foot races with friends, but our egos always get in the way and it just turns into a speed race, totally disregarding heart rate after about a mile.

Tomorrow I've got a 14 mile run in the hills. Should be awesome. We are having spring like weather here in January in California and it is gorgeous outside.

Yahoo! The Weekend's Here

It's always good day when I drag myself out of bed to workout in the morning. Yvette has been shaming me all week by getting up and going to the gym at 5:30 while I beat the snooze bar on my alarm clock to death for the 1 hour that it will allow me to do so. In my defense, someone needs to snuggle up to the kids when they come to our be at 6 am and I just didn't want them to miss that fun.But, this morning I was able to get up and jump on my bike for a 45 minute session on the trainer. This morning, I made decision that I need to download another video from Train Right, because I can do the dialogue in the one I have word-for-word.Here's what the weekend has in store. A 8 mile run on Saturday morning and a 10-12 mile run on Sunday.I just signed up for a 15k called the XTERRA Black Mountain Trail Run . I have no idea what the course looks like, but it sounds like a great time. It takes place on March 22nd and I signed Yvette up too. My Muay Thai instructor, Master Kim, is going to run it with us as well. It's his first trail race. We are hoping to sucker a whole bunch of people into this with us, aided by the fact that there is a 5k race too. I'll keep you posted.

Maybe it's my fault, or maybe you're just making excuses

This video is as much for me as it is for those of you reading this blog. It is a reminder that success comes from hard work.

At some point running becomes mental....

...then it becomes physical again.. then mental again... then mental over physical... then physical over mental.... then tears.... then, well you get the point.

So, I am still going back and forth on whether to do that 30k in Calico next Sunday. So I decided last night that I'd go for a 12 mile hill run this morning to see where I am at physically.

When the alarm rang this morning at 6 am the winds outside were howling. For those of you that don't live in the Southern California area, there are these winds called Santa Anas that blow every fall and winter. They are incredibly dry and can blow up to 80 mph. Fortunately, this morning they were only a steady 10 mph with gust up to 40 mph ( my guess).

So when I got up, my 4 year old son, Diego, decided he wanted to run with me. I tried to talk him out of it because it was really windy outside. But he went to his room and changed into his "running clothes" so how could I say no. After all, one of my dreams for life is to be able to go on long runs with my boys when they are older, so we can talk and I can teach them life lessons. Long runs are great for talking with friends, how much better will they be with my boys? So, I had to say yes. He got dresses and we ran a slow, for me, but his little feet were moving fast, 1 mile run. He did great. Congratulations Diego on your first "endurance run".

So, once he was back home, now it was time for me to take off on my own. The first part of my run is a 2 mile sustained uphill run right up Etiwanda to the water tower and the trail that runs under the power lines in the foothills. It is a tough part of the run normally, mentally challenging you to not to stop to walk, especially in the top 1/3rd when it gets even steeper. Today, God wanted to strengthen me even more and convinced me once again that he has a sense of humor by having the wind blow directly into my face on that part of the run. Wow! That adds a new twist. 15-40 mph gusts into your face that almost blow you backwards and you've got to keep running up this hill! It felt like I had resistance bands on me and someone was holding me back the entire first 2 miles of the run.

One thing I've learned and use it if you feel it helps you is:

"When the pain comes, smile and chuckle a bit, for some reason it helps".

That is my mantra when I hit suffer points in my training

When I got to the top, I only had to add a 8 mile out and back on an up and down trail. Awesome. The one thing that I did have to look forward to was the last 2 miles which would be extremely downhill and with the wind at my back, but between here and there, a lot of interesting conversations took place in my head.

Here are my totals for this run - 12.3 miles, +1859' of climbing, average heart rate 162 bpm, max heart rate 186 bpm- I can't give you my time or average pace because I forgot to reset my watch after yesterday's bike trainer workout, so my time is all off.

Another note: I have terrible, with a capital T, cramping issues on longer runs. Recently, I have learned that Mona Vie can knock out cramps almost immediately after drinking it. I've used it during jiu jitsu practice but never on runs. So today I took one of the gel packs along just in case

I cramped to see if my stomach could handle it while on a run. I didn't have any issues on the run, but as soon as I stopped my calves started twinging. I downed a gel pack real quick and minutes later the cramps were gone. That part is a success. I still have to see if I can handle it in my stomach "at speed". I'll let you know when I am able to try it again.

Well, it's off to breakfast and play with the kids.

Oh, and to make matters worse in my Calico decision making process. Today's run proved to me that I am in shape to do it......

Gusty Santa Ana Winds Picture

Success and a glimpse into my warped decision making process

Thanks to the promise I made in this blog, I did get out of bed this morning and logged in 36 minutes on my bike trainer. I know I was supposed to put in an hour, but I laid in my bed for an extra 20 minutes trying to talk myself out of getting up. Seriously, the only reason that I did get up was that I didn't want to have to write a failure post in this blog.
Stephen Covey, in his book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People says that checking things off of your to-do list gives you a small endorphin rush each time that you do it. That leads you to want to check off more things. I can tell you that checking this one off my list was definitely accompanied by a smile and a feeling of accomplishment.
I did 36 minutes of a Chris Carmichael training video (http://www.trainright.com/) that actually lasts an hour. I had to cut it short in order to get to work on time. It is a great workout and always leaves a puddle of sweat under the bike.
Now, on another subject, my brain.
Yesterday, I got a comment on my blog on Facebook from one of my craziest friends, Suzy Degazon . She's an ultra athlete that has completes some of the most insane races on the planet, example: Ultraman, which is a 3x distance Ironman, here are the distances and yes they are staggering 7.2 miles swim, 336 mile bike, and a 78.6 mile run. She is amazing and also an example as to why you should be careful as to who you associate with.
Her comment was, "what are your ultra plans for 2009?"
Now, I had set a goal of completing a 50k this year, but I hadn't really considered getting serious about it until later in the spring. Suzy changed that. She called me out and made me announce my goal to someone other than my inner voice. So here it is. I am now in training to go back and slay the course that beat me in December of 2007, the Northface Endurance Championship race in San Francisco in December. It is a 50k race ( 31 miles) with about 7,000' of climbing in the run. It has some of the most beautiful scenery, and here's the kicker, there's a 50 mile option. So, don't be surprise if in my postings you start to hear me try to rationalize that I can finish that distance.
But here's a look into what goes on inside my head that disturbs even me. The next part of Suzy's reply was that she was doing the Calico50k next weekend as a training run. My response should have been something like "awesome, you go girl". Instead, I immediately start thinking, "I could do that and that would be fun". Then the rational part of my brain says, "You haven't run over 8 miles in the last few months and your still blistering on your instep from breaking in the orthodics that your physical therapist has you in after the last knee injury". Then the little devil on my shoulder says "yeah, but you didn't blister last run, you can do this. Go ahead check the site, see if there's a 30k (18 miles). You can run that in your sleep". The smart angel on the other shoulder says " Stop it, we're talking 18 miles of trail running, with elevation changes, and oh, by the way, we're not sure if the knee is going to hold up". "It hasn't hurt you lately, the doctor fixed it". "It's $80 and going to be super cold at 7 am in the high desert". "Cold is great for running, and you could walk 18 miles you wuss, do it".
See, that is what goes on in my head. You may be asking, are you going to do it? And as of last night I would have said no because I had talked myself out of it, but then I was telling my thoughtless wife about this whole thing and she acted like I should do it. Urgghhh....
Stay tuned, I am still not sure where this is headed. Perhaps some long runs this weekend with some time to think and suffer will help this play out.

I am a lazy bum

When I tell people that I get up early to run before work, they frequently give me some story about how they can't do that because they are not a morning person, or something like, I just can't get out of bed in the morning to work out. Well, I've got news for you, I don't like getting out of warm sheets, next to my favorite person in the world, to go out into the elements and run either. In fact, it is a HUGE battle to do so. Especially when I haven't been really consistent in my morning workouts. And this morning I lost the battle. I was even more upset when I rolled over and discovered that Yvette had won her battle and was off on a run with her friends. So now I feel like an even bigger failure.
The good news is I have been through this before and know some tricks to win this battle. I also know that after a few workouts, back-to-back, it becomes a whole lot easier.
Accountability is a big trick- it is actually how Yvette won this morning.
I won't stand someone up that I am supposed to meet and will force myself out of bed. Yvette had friends meeting her this morning.
Since I don't have any current training partners- I will find some really quickly- this blog is going to have to serve as my accountability partner. I will commit that tomorrow morning I am going to get up and train for an hour before work. I'll do it because I don't want to repeat the title of this post tomorrow. Hint: if I don't post tomorrow it means I didn't workout either. See how you are helping me out.
I'll either run for an hour or ride my bike on the trainer in the garage for an hour if Yvette has left with her friends to run because we can't leave the kids home alone.

My first Muy Thai posting

So, about 2 years ago when we were pregnant with Cruz, I decided to stop training for triathlons for a couple of years. Triathlon is an amazingly selfish sport and very time intensive. I tried my best to do most of my workouts before the kids were awake, but the addition of a third child led me to make the decision to forgo 5+ hour bike workouts in favor of not being served divorce papers- not that we've ever been even close, but I just thought it would be a good idea to do so while the kids were small.
I kept jogging, which eventually turned into, thanks to some strange thing in my head, ultra running and 4+ hour run workouts. Brilliant! The good part about ultra running is that I could do it really early in the morning or late at night after the kids had gone to bed. That was all well and good and probably could have been done without too much family dis-harmony ( is that even a word?)
So how does Muy Thai figure into this? Simple, when my daughter was born, I remembered how I was as a boy with girls and decided that she would be able to beat up any boy who she needed to. I knew that she would be involved with some sort of Martial Art. So a few years ago we started shopping studios and landed at a place we now call home a few nights a week called Performance Martial Arts http://performancemac.com/ run by an amazing couple Master Daniel Kim and his wife Jane Kim ( both black belts). Isabella started there 3 years ago and Diego first started on the mat at 2 years old. They've advanced well in class and really love it.
Master Kim would come out on some runs with me in October - December of 2007 and he let me know that he was going to be starting a Muy Thai Kickboxing class for the parents at the studio. He invited me to try it. Part of his reasoning was that I had been abusing him on runs and I think he wanted to return some of the pain I had been delivering. Needless to say, I said yes. And even with my significant endurance background ( I had run over 700 miles getting ready for the Ultra run that I ran in December) I found myself hammered in every class. And so begins the love affair. I have this strange affinity towards suffering, and this class provided it. It also allowed me to share a sport that the kids were involved in and hopefully set an example in work ethic and commitment for them. Oh, and did I mention that I lost 10 pounds and 2 inches on my waist within the first 60 days. And it's not like I was out of shape.
I haven't posted much about this even though I've been training now for over 14 months in both Muy Thai and Jiu Jitsu because I really think that a lot of people find Martial Arts strange, but since it has become a significant part of my training I thought I'd post some of the happenings that take place while training.
In my next post, I'll talk about the new studio that we moved into and my buddy James' first time rolling Jiu Jitsu with me last night. Hint.... He is REALLY sore this morning.

Holiday run and one fast girl

OK, so I got in a few good runs over the holidays. I will be posting them on MyMotionBased on my Facebook account as soon as I figure out how to use that application. Mostly some 5-8 mile runs without anything noteworthy having taken place, EXCEPT, and of course there's an except, my Saturday run.
Saturday I left the house with the intention of a short 3 mile run then hit the weights and work on my arms so that I can one day stretch out the sleeves on a t-shirt. I took a route that I have never run but I was fairly certain I'd end up at around 3 miles. I took off at a 7:30 pace and stayed there until I turned left on Day Creek and headed down. I lifted the pace to sub 6 and was holding a pretty steady 5:50 for about 3/4 of a mile. When I turned left onto Highland the road turns up just a bit. I dropped into the 7's again but it feels so slow when you are running in the 5's that I probably, no definitely, pushed harder than I was capable in order to finish strong. So, I decided to walk down my heart rate to 150 since it had been pinned at 196 for a while. I know, I just wussed out and gave in to that wimpy voice in my head. To make matters worse, about a minute after I began walking, a young lady in velvet running pants passed by me. Have I mentioned lately how much I wished that I could not be some competitive ?
I walk a few more steps, glance at my hrm and it reads 158. I say, "No Chris, you were walking down to 150" a few more steps, glance again and it says 155, I rationalize that 155 is in the 150's and set out to catch Velvet girl.
Crap, she's moving kinda quick. A glance at my wrist says I am back at 7:30 pace and she's not reeling in so quickly. So I lift into the 6's somewhere and pass her by with a quick flip of the hand to say hello.
Certainly she was running so fast thinking that I was chasing her with the intention of harm.
Bear in mind, I have headphones on so I have know way, short of looking back, if she is following me. So, imagine my shock when 1/2 mile later I turn up Etiwanda and she is right behind me.
Now it's on. I know that I only have about 1/4 of a mile to go uphill before I can turn right onto my street and cool down, so it's back to 196+ heart rate-land that I go. Certainly this girl can't keep up going uphill. She's on the west side of the street and I am on the east. And she won't go away.
As I turn onto my street, now praying that she doesn't chase me and cause me harm as I don't know if I can outrun her, I tip a hat to her and immediately drop to a jog to catch my breath. Wow! That was one really fast chick!

Thanks Velvet pants girl.