I haven’t posted much about running lately because I’ve been injured. It started when I was going all out on the track and over did it to the point that I sprained my knee. It didn’t hurt at all during the workout, but a few days later I couldn’t run and the healing process was slow. Today is the first day that I can say that I ran without pain in my knee and it’s been about 6 weeks.

Altra Instinct 4.0

My running shoes have been the brand Altra for about 3 years. They were wide in front and I didn’t have a problem with blisters which was a recurring problem throughout my life. Altra solved all that. That is until I bought the Instinct 4 and ran the Tex Mex 5k this year. The shoes causes these huge blood blisters on my feet that put me out a week or two because they squeezed my feet together too much. It could have been that my time was so fast that there was so much heat on the shoes…you be the judge. I tried to go back to the Instinct 2.5 or the Torrin 2.0 which I had previously, but was only matched with a pair that wasn’t an exact match from the internet. I can’t explain how this happened but the other Torrin pair I tried was too tight in front and caused my toes to jam against the front and thus creating a blood blister under my toe nail.

All that behind me, I decided to go with a Sam recommendation and try the Hoka brand. In my life I’ve ran with Nike, Asics, Saucony, Brookes, and Mizuno and never found one that I thought was worth sticking to, so I’m open to any new shoe. The Clifton 4’s were $130 and seemed like they offered a lot of protection over a light, speed shoe. I’m not trying to win any races so that’s fine for me.

I took them to the treadmill today, with brand new Feetures socks, and completed 40 minutes of the Rolling Hills workout at 8.2 and 8.3 (7:15 minute miles). The shoes were burning up at various times, but never to the point where I was feeling it blister into soft skin. I’m especially pleased as shoes tend to loosen up a little bit as they get broken in. I’ll obviously have a better review after I put more miles on them, but all in all, I was happy with the result and would say that if you are looking for a new shoe to try, the money is the money.

If you’ve got this far and watched the Sixers game, what on Earth was Jerryd Bayless doing not getting a shot off on their last possession?

Pain is temporary, Pride is forever. This was the cheesy cross country quote that Mr. Ames used for our XC team in the late 90’s. He tried to sell this motto hard and no one cared.

I was on the treadmill yesterday, after a needed day off (I ran 4 days in a row which is pushing it for me), and set the workout for the Mountain Peaks at 8.6 mph. Mountain Peaks is the hardest programmed course that the treadmill has. It starts at 0.0 incline and reaches 9.0 with various levels in between going on for 1-2 minutes at a time. My goal is usually 40 minutes and 8.6 is 6:58 miles. I’ve completed this workout at 8.5…and failed at 8.6. My running log if anyone was interested.

I felt really good yesterday and had to stop at the 2nd minute of the final 7.0 incline. I completed 35 of the minutes of the 40 minute workout, I was spent. It’s not often where I feel good and have to force myself to stop. Usually I can power my way through but I’ve reached my physical max and pushing past will mean I have to seriously dig deep.

Just…wow.

The thing with running is that even Ian McGrath was good at it. Anyone can be if they try hard enough. To some people it’s easy, and other’s have to work. At 33, I’m not looking to win races but just to push myself physically. The next step past 8.6 on Mountain Peaks will be 8.7 and that will be extremely challenging. I’ve reached my limit and I’m not sure I want to push through or I’ll suffer a torn Achilles.

Pres take on the video because he does it so much better than me.

I wish I had a video of the facial expression I made when that crab lady came storming down the finish line at the 40 second mark. At first I thought that’s just how she ran. Just chewing up terrain like a motherfucker. Like get out of the way tired bitch because Crab Running Lady is coming the fuck through. Turns out she was in the process of dying as well. I’ve never seen that before. Is that how it works with running? Before you totally collapse you turn into some sort of superhuman crab running machine for a couple minutes? I mean she would have finished with no problem if the other chick didn’t trip her. She had that crab running style on lockdown

After finally working my way of running 8+ miles at a solid pace, I hurt myself.

View from the Camden side of Philly.

I had been leading up to longer runs for about 2 weeks straight and then on a run I tried to max out a half mile about 6 miles into a workout.  I ran a 2:33 but I could tell that my lower Achilles felt off.  I slow jogged home and by that night I knew I was going to need some time off.

I didn’t run for the next week and now I’m sitting here two weeks later trying to get back to where I was.  I’m not quite there but getting close.  My theory is that after 1 week of taking off from running, you lose 2 weeks of training (I’m sure I picked this up from somewhere but we’ll just call it my theory).   I notice that I feel slower, fatter, and my endurance is noticeably worse as I breath heavier running slower.  So it goes.

They look like this.

I ended up purchasing a new pair of shoes called the Altra Torin 2.0.  I went out for a run today over the Ben Franklin bridge and decided to time trial myself across. If the bridge is 1.5 miles long, I ran it today in 8:08 which was about 5.23 pace.  It’s obviously not an exact time but I’m getting back to where I was.

It sucks having to come back from injury because you always start weaker and slower.  It’s a slow trudge back but always worth it in the end.