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Tag: Garmin 220

The Shoes Are Telling Me The Story

May 22, 2016

I have been having issues lately with some nagging injuries in my hip and knee. I finally decided to abandon a newer pair of shoes that I just started using on April 1 and went into a pair that is two models older.

I run in Nike LunarGlides. The pair that I noticed problems with was their model 5 (pink shoes on the left). I brought them to my chiropractor along with my new pair (the model 3) and he agreed with me that the model 5 could very well be a culprit for my recent issues.

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At first glace of them, he saw he toe box bending upwards and commented on how wide the toe box was.  That was also the first thing I noticed when i compared the model 3 to the model 5.  I often switch between the model 3 and the model 5, favoring the model 3 because of the construction of the shoe.  As I think back now, I ran the Marine Corp Marathon wearing the model 5 shoe and I had a very hard time with that race because of issues with my IT band acting up.  During the Dopey challenge in January, I alternated shoes.  I’ll have to see if I can determine which model I wore for the marathon for that race.

But it goes to show that just because you buy the same brand and model of shoe, each make is different.  I like the support that the model 3 offers.  They have a harder side support and an extra hole to allow you to use marathon lacing to keep your heel from sliding up the back of the shoe.  The model 5 does not offer that.  The model 5 also seemed to allow my foot to move around more in the shoe.  As soon as I went out for my first run in the new model 3 shoes, I felt a big difference.  First I felt it in my right calf muscle.  But that was gone after the first mile.  I feel much better support now in the shoes.

But after talking with my chiropractor he mentioned getting re-fitted for running shoes.  When I started running in Nike LunarGlides it was because I was fitted at a running store back in 2012.  Since then I haven’t run in any other brand of shoe.  Dr. Pat mentioned that we change over time and it’s good to go to a different store and make the investment to purchase a pair from them after being fitted again to see what they recommend and to try out a different shoe to see how it feels.

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It’s interesting to see how beat up the pink shoes look and I have only worn them for just about a month.  I know that in the past when I wore a model 3 versus other models, I had better support with those shoes.  I’ll have to look back in my notes now to see if when I was having injury issues, if I can relate it to the model I was running in.  With my Garmin 220 you can keep track of your gear that you wear during your run.  I started doing that now so I can keep track of the mileage as well as any issues I might encounter.

Injury Update – Making A New Plan

April 30, 2016

It’s been a while since I blogged and there are several reasons for that.  One good reason was because I was on vacation with my family to Disney for Spring break and also to run the runDisney Star Wars Dark Side Challenge.  I’ll have more on the race specifics in a future post.  I have also been recovering from my recent bout with patellar tendonitis.  I had been very good about resting it, icing it and doing various PT exercises to strengthen it.  I did not run at all prior to the race; but wasn’t too concerned about conditioning for the race. I was able to walk around the parks at Disney with the family just fine and had my knee taped by my friend Merle while at the expo for the race.

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That was great support for me while I visited the parks the two days prior to the actual races.  I also took the advice of my chiropractor and purchased a knee strap for support to use when I run.

knee strapOnce it was time to run the races, I felt good about the 10K.  My plan was to run my intervals and see what happens.  If things weren’t better, then I was going to walk the half the next day if necessary.  I was running with Diana and Mandy and they were supportive of my needs.  I ran the 10K with a few issues; but what I noticed with this race was that instead of doing my intervals, I kept running through them.  I didn’t want to stop every 30 seconds.  Part of the reason for that was because it was crowded and the second part was because I was feeling so good.  I hadn’t run in three weeks and my legs felt fresh to run almost a mile without stopping for a walk break.

It’s when i stopped for the intervals that I was starting to feel the twinges.  I also noticed it when I ran downhill.  So I was very careful.  All in all, I was very happy with my recovery and knew that I would be ok for the half marathon.  I felt good the entire day after the race (despite the fatigue from being awake since 2:30 a.m.) and went to the Magic Kingdom with my family and met up with Diana and Mandy for pictures of us together for Dapper Day.

The next morning was the half marathon and I was going to take the same approach for that race.  My legs were a little bit sore from running continuously but my knee felt ok.  However, I had quickly gotten sick with some type of respiratory issue.  I don’t know if it was allergies, or not having my oil diffuser with my in our hotel room; but I lost my voice and my lungs were very heavy.  Once the race started I did ok for the first section and my knee survived it very well also; but by mile 6 I was deteriorating.  I was very tired, I had trouble with my breathing and my throat and chest was burning from the illness I was fighting off.

I was not happy with my race results, and I am still processing this race mentally; but that will be left for a future blog post.

What I plan to do now that I am back home again and was able to go on a few runs with no knee issue is to put together my plan for the year going forward.  I am signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon.  I thought about my successes in the past and what I did to be successful with my races.  The answer is to have a plan.  So I went to my favorite website, www.jeffgalloway.com and printed out his marathon training plan and penciled in the dates from the Marine Corps Marathon date back.  So now I have a plan.  When I was successful with my races, it was because I used that plan religiously.  I want to get back to that.

I am also exploring Heart Rate Training.  I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Another Mother Runner and Dimity and Sarah were talking about Heart Rate Training, which Dimity has been doing a lot of because she is training for an ultra.  They talked about Heart Rate training having benefits of better aerobic training, reduction in the risk of injury and an increase in your speed.  They offer a heart rate training plan which I am going to join and give it a fair shot in addition to my Jeff Galloway training plan.

That’s where things are as of now, I’ll dig deeper into my race recaps, training plans and Disney vacation recap as soon as I can.  Stay tuned!

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