I was scheduled to run 13 miles yesterday. The day before I did an hour of aikido class. Then I cam home and ran 8 miles at pace (10:16). Then I road my mountain bike 11 hilly windy miles. I felt fine. Except it was really cold and wet on the bike ride. But yesterday when I started run on the treadmill, within a minute, I started to get a pain on side of knee (outside of left knee). When I stopped running, the pain would go away. I got back on the treadmill, and tried different speeds from quick walking speed to fast running speed, and I would get the pain in my knee. I got less than a mile of running in.
When I wasn’t running on the treadmill, my knee felt fine. No knee pain walking. I even went to karate class night, and had no problems. I took some ibuprofen hoping to eliminate any inflamation that I might have in there. I decided to skip my 13 mile run for the day. I have aikido class tonight. And my next scheduled run isn’t until Tuesday. I will try running tomorrow night and see how the knee does. Hopefully there will be no knee pain. The run is supposed to be an easy 5 miles.
And Then The Vulture Eats You by John L. Parker Jr.
SUMMARY: Great collection of ultramarathon stories!
This book it out of print, and not easy to find. But I checked Amazon, and there was a copy listed. Yet everytime I tried to order it, it said no more copies were availble. Then a copy showed up for $2. I ordered that, only to have it cancelled. I finally managed to find a copy of the book for $20. I was more than happy to pay the $20 to get it. This is a great price compared to the $70 copies I have found.
Anyway, I was looking forward to reading the book after seeing how highly recommended it was. The book contained stories by some big names in running: James E. Shapiro, Don Kardong, Kenny Moore, Hal Higdon, Ed Ayres, Tom Hart, Mark Will-Weber, and John L. Parker Jr.
The ultramarathons aren’t all your tradition 100 mile runs either. It starts off with a 6 day race (144 hours) story by James Shapiro. The next story is by Don Kardong about the Le Grizz 50 miler. This is followed by Kenny Moore describing The Great Hawaiian Footrace and 18 days of running 313 miles. Then comes Hal Higdon describing a run across Indiana. Ed Ayres dscribes his failed attempt at the Western States 100. Tom Hart describes his running 37 miles just to see if he could do it. Mark Will-Weber writes about a five stage race in England named Tour Of Tameside. John L. Parker Jr, closes out the book with a story about a race called The Ultimate Runner which consists of running a 10k, 400 meters, 100 meters, 1 mile, then a marathon.
All of the stories were good. I am sure I will be coming back and re-reading this book often.
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I got up this morning and was hoping to get a bike ride in, but it was pouring down rain. Maybe it would stop later.
I headed off to Aikido class. One of my joys in life is when one of my ukes gets out of breath and has to take a break. Especially an Aikido black belt. I love running Aikido black belts and brown belts into the floor! *evil grin* (I am only a 3rd kyu blue belt in Aikido…3rd dan black belt in karate though *wink*) A nice 1 hour warm up.
I shopped through a few thrift stores to see if they had any decent bikes. Nah. Junk! Huffy, Murry, & Free Spirit. And that was the GOOD stuff!
Anyway, I got home and ran my scheduled 8 miles at an average 10:16 pace. And the sun came out (at least briefly). So I decided to take my bike out.
I considered mounting the bike rack on my car, going down and taking a relatively flat easy ride along the canal (Erie). But opted to take the hilly ride directly from my house. I rode the 5.5 miles to the BK my wife works at. Ate a whopper jr w/ cheese, and a got a large diet coke. Then it started to rain again! *suck!* So then I rode the 5.5 miles home into a cold rainy head wind. At least the rain stopped about halfway home. I just got home, and am typing this. Now I am going to go climb into a hot bath and warm up!
Breaking Through the Wall: A Marathoner’s Story by Dolores E. Cross
SUMMARY: Disappointing! Very little about running! Mostly about her life as a black woman, and minority issues. Wasted my time!
I got this book at the library. Thankfully I didn’t buy it! I took the time to scan it and convert it to an audio book. I started listening to it. At the beginning of each chapter she starts with a small bit about running. In fact the chapters are even named stuff like “Mile 1″, “Mile 2″, etc. I listened and listened. I was halfway through the book and wanted RUNNING! I went back and skimmed the book, and found that running seemed to start at chapter 23. This is two-thirds of the way through the book. So I started listening at chapter (Mile) 23, and she talked about training for and running her first marathon. Then the book went back to minority issues! I finally got fed up, ejected the CD from my car stereo, and chucked it along the rest of the Cd’s into the back seat. The author wasted my time! If you are going to name a book “Breaking Through the Wall: A Marathoner’s Story” and have a photo of a runner cross a finish line…have the book be something about RUNNING!!!!!
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I had bookmarked a page on the local newspaper’s website with a listing of races for 2006. I just glanced at it and saw a race listed called The “Any Old Tom, Rick and Barry Can Do It” Fat Ass 50K. The description read “no fees, no t-shirts, no aid, Mendon Ponds Park, Dec 31st, 7AM”.
I am running the Las Vegas Marathon on December 10th. That will be chilly in the morning, but will likey warm up. I will hopefully be recovered by December 31st. I know this Fat Ass 50k will be cold as crap. But it could be fun. Then I could at least say I have run an ultra marathon. Maybe I will do it.