Celebrating 4K

I am running 4 km every alternate evening now. Since last week. My earlier attempt to hit 4k had met with a failure as I started feeling pain in the knee. I guess it was a case of bursitis. This time I progressed rather cautiously. From 3 to 3.3 first for two weeks. After that 3.6. From there it was 100 meters more every day. Finally hit the 4K last Sunday or so I guess.

After that my average pace suffered a little. But then I did some speedwork on one particular day. Mostly eccentric bursts of speed. The next day saw a marked improvement. The day after was even better. I am going to do these eccentric speed works once a week. It has its own benefits for sure.

I had promised myself a hairband after running 4K successfully for a few days. Today I got my swoosh hairband for Rs 490. It's a grey one with the swoosh in light green. It is meant to protect my eyes where sweat comes in rather easily. 

I will celebrate my 5K with a good book on running. Perhaps Jack Daniels's. 

I had originally planned to remain in 4 for the month of December and then go for 5K. Now I feel tempted to go ahead and do it the way I did the 3 to 4 transition. But I want to first run my best pace. Then only will I push my limits further up. 

Post-run Nutrition

The headline sounds rather technical and straight out of a running magazine. It indeed is. I read up on the subject and they said eat some protein and carbs after a run. It will help rebuild the muscle and aid in the recovery process.

Last week I ate a simple, large banana. The pain around my knee was completely gone the next day. The next day we made a banana milk shake. I don't feel like I have ever run in the last two years. My legs feel strong. No niggles anywhere whatsoever. 

Is it the "post-run nutrition" magic? Might well be. Because though I am running strong and uninterrupted for the last four months or so, I have never felt so pain free in my legs during this period. 

Right now I am pushing up from 3 km to 4 km per run and am at 3.8 km at this moment. Once I take it to 5 km, I intend to start running 5 days a week. Let me see, what I have in store for me in future. 

 

Going Great Guns

Haven't blogged in a while. Was more busy with running than writing. I can't remember when I had such a long injury free running streak. Make hay while the sun shines. 

• Started running 3.3 km from last Sunday (today is a Saturday) 
• Hope to push it up to 3.6 km from next week
• Clocked my best mile this morning @ 10:07 min. The previous best was 10:42 seconds or something like that. 
• On Friday I ran the 3.3 km at an average bpm of 160. That was also my fastest 3K so far, at sub 20 minute.
• This morning my average bpm was 156 but average pace was very marginally slower than Friday's. I guess a couple of seconds or so. 
• Possibly bpm remain better in the mornings

Best 1K & The Best Hamstring Stretch Ever

• Today I ran my best 1 km so far. In 5.34 seconds. 
• Walked the rest of the way home at a gingerly pace. 
• Pain under the knee is still there. Just a hint of it. But it is there.
• Realised during the past few days that the pain has nothing to do with the knee but to do with the hamstring becoming tight.
• Pain vanishes when I do hamstring and calf stretches.
• Discovered two very effective stretches for the hamstring.
• One is from VKS Iyengar. Utthita Parsvattanasana. Here is an online link
• Good old halasana also helps a lot. 
• But this is certainly the best hamstring stretch ever.
• Benefitted tremendously from that youtube video. While, the asanas are good and gives you a lot of immediate relief and also when you are doing it, the video sort of produces a more long lasting effect. 
• What I have is perhaps a knee bursitis. I hope it does not escalate into anything bigger. 
• Looking forward to the rest during the puja vacation week when I am going to Chhattisgarh.

3K With A Little Knee Pain

Morning

• Felt no pain in the morning after waking up
• Blood sugar is 93 at fasting
• Pain behind knee grows a little after around half an hour. But it is negligible
• Pain is more at work. But not really painful. 
• Pain goes away if I stretch even a little. 
• I would say it is the same as it was on Sunday before I ran for 3 km

Evening

• Did some stretches at home including a yoga posture from Iyengar where you try to touch the nose against your knee while standing with the legs shoulder width apart and hands held behind your back. Completely removed the pain in my knee. 
• Walked 1 km to the lake 
• Did some dynamic stretches. Knee pain had come back during the walk but went off with the stretches
• The pain came back as I started the run. Stayed for about 300 meters or so. Went off after that.
• Ran with a little fear. Am I getting a little paranoid about injury?

Comments On The Run

• Felt very hot and sultry tonight. Temp, according to Garmin, was 30 degrees. Humidity of 70 per cent
• Ran at average bpm of 156 and the highest bpm was 163. Average pace was 7.34 minutes per kilometer. 
• This is not my best performance but certainly good given the pain
• The pain went off after the post-run stretches at home. Let me see if it comes back tomorrow.

Discovered A Blister

• Discovered a small 25 paisa coin sized blister under the toe on the ball of the right foot after shower. The skin peels off. There is virtually no fluid underneath. No pain. 
• Did not realise when this happened.
• Had landed consciously on the forefoot and ball. 
• Shoe got a little lose after pre-run stretches. The right foot shoe is in any case a tad loose.
• Will have to observe how this pans out.

The First Post

I have been running consistently for the last couple of months. Started in the first week of August with a casual 15 minute run in the evening in the Lake. I felt rather refreshed.  After a day's rest I ran again and this time for 20 minutes. I was rather impressed by the distance I covered. Somehow got hooked ever since. It's been two months now and injury free I daresay. 

I thought I would keep a journal of my progress and created this blog. Of course I am saving all the run related data that I collect with my Garmin Forerunner 15. But after a few months of consistent running that might be too much of an overload of information. Here I can keep a more subjective diary that will give a more qualitative descriptions of how my body feels. What I observed etc. 

Let me first write down the experience so far in a nutshell. When I start the journal I think I will make it a more bullet point kind of thing so that there is ease of finding out the information. 

I am hoping that not only will this journal keep me motivated, some other people in a similar situation as me would also benefit some day in future. 

One remarkable thing about my running this time is that I have been injury free so far. And I am running rather well for my age and particularly in comparison to my earlier experiences. Every time I tried to run in the past eight years - that's when I quit smoking and tried to manage my diabetes more seriously - I came down heavily with injuries. I have had shin splints, knee injuries of different kind from IT band syndrome to ACL and everything that can happen to the knees. I have had plantar fascitis. I have had achilles heel. You name it and I have some experience in it.

That's why I am pleasantly surprised that I am relatively injury free this time despite running 3 km every other evening. 

What Went Right This Time? 

I have often wondered this. Because I am the most surprised that since the beginning of August I have run more than 50 km or so without any serious injury !!! I have reasoned that I think I did quite a few things right this time. 

a. I am running in the evenings. My body behaves much better in the evening than in the early morning. I feel more energetic and perhaps the muscles are warmer then. I have read that this is quite the case with a lot of other people too. 

b. I run every alternate evening. I am not making the mistake of running every evening. I have paid the price heavily in the past. I am now a staunch believer that after a certain age your body needs a lot of time to heal and recover. That's why I have decided not to push myself too much. Eventually I will go for a 5 days a week regime but that will happen after a long time. 

c. I had exercised a lot before running. My core is much stronger now. I was doing these exercises for quite some time now, particularly the push ups and sit ups etc. I think they prepared me for the run. 

d. I am taking my minor injuries more seriously this time. I have realised that the body gives out pain signals and those signals must be taken seriously if you are past your youth. If there is even a small niggle I take an evening off. Rather than run on Monday and Wednesday I would run Monday and Thursday. 

Last week I felt a small niggle around the interior of my right knee. That was on Tuesday. I ran a fast 1 km with that. In fact that was my fastest 1km at around 5.30 min. But I did not run for five days after that. Because while the pain did not escalate after the run, it didn't go away either. 

I finally ran for 3 kms with a very slight pain on Sunday last, that is yesterday. After the run the pain was gone but it came back in the morning again (not right after waking up though). It is a strange kind of pain this time. It goes away if I stretch the calves or glute or quads. But then it comes back again after some time. I did some sarbangasan this evening and it is gone as of now. If it comes back tomorrow and it is still there in the evening then I am taking the evening off. 

It is my belief that the pain is because of a tight calf and hamstring muscle. My masseur had given me a deep tissue massage on Saturday and it was totally gone. I could run a 3 km in 22+ minutes. Let me see how it behaves tomorrow.