My March issue of Runner’s World came in the mail yesterday. And as I will flipping through it this morning, on page 22, at the bottom of the Contributors section is Don Kardong. Don Kardong wrote a couple of my favorite running books: Thirty Phone Booths To Boston and Hills, Hawgs And Ho Chi Minh. I have read these books multiple times. In the blurb on the contributer’s page it mentioned that he ran The Las Vegas marathon last December in 3:48:40. And I thought, hey, I was there too! It was the second time I ran it, and I ran a 3:36:30. Wow, I beat Don Kardong by 12 minutes! *shock* Besides being a writer, Don also ran in the 1976 Montreal Olympics finishing 4th with a time of 2:11:16. Of course in 1976 I was like 13 years old. Yeah, Don is 14 years older than me. I can only hope to be running that fast when I am 58. I will never be a world class runner like Kardong, but I have to take what I get. LOL!
So Don, if you read this, somewhere up ahead of you was a fan of yours. I was hard to miss. I was dressed as Elvis. Okay, there 208 people dressed as Elvis, but I was the one 12 minutes ahead of you. Maybe I will get to actually meet you one of these days. That would be cool!
I bought the Proform J6si treadmill back in July 2006 for $250. I used it! A lot! I estimate I ran between 1500 and 2000 miles on it in the year and a half that I was using it. I trained for 4 marathons, 3 half marathons, and one ultramarathon on it. I broke the frame, and had it rewelded and reinforced.
But I was starting to run into it’s limits. It’s max speed was only 10 miles per hour. And my fastest intervals are now faster than that (1/4 miles at 5:48 pace).
The belt was getting pretty worn. Especially after the recent incident where the threads from the belt got wrapped around the roller. I am wondering if lubing the belt would have helped prolong it’s life (my new treadmill forces me to lube the belt every 150 miles)? The belt will probably still work for walking for a while. Maybe even for running. But will need to be replaced soon.
Anyway, I took pictures of the treadmill, and listed it on eBay with a starting bid of $25. It would nice to get some of my purchase price back. If guess I used it for 17 months. It only cost me $14.70/month. I expect my new treadmill to last a lot longer. It is heavier duty. I also got the 4-year extended warranty on it.
We’ll see I guess.
Following my Saturday long run, I had this knotted crampy feeling in in my inner thigh muscle on my right leg. The calf was also tight. It felt fine during the run, but only hurt afterward.
I did spinning on Sunday, but that didn’t help at all. I will often loosen up the sore muscles. Karate class Sunday night seemed to loosed it up for a while, but later it seemed to hurta little worse.
Last night I had aikido class. Aikido class will also often loosen my sore muscles. At the beginning of class it was sore, but at the end of class it felt much better. I was hoping it would start hurting later like after karate class.
Last night I was scheduled to run intervals. I was a little leery about how my leg would react. I decided to start and just see how it went. My right calf was still tight, but the thigh felt better. It was still a little sore. I ran 1 mile warmup at 10:00 pace. I would have liked to have run 2 miles, but I was stilll worried about the leg. Also, I got a late start due to running a couple errands after aikido class. The calf seemed to relax some during the warmup. The came the intervals. I was scheduled to run 2 sets of 6 x 400m (quarter mile) intervals at 5:48 minute/mile pace. I ran the first one, and the leg felt okay. I started plugging away at them. Soon I was finished. No problems with the leg. I ran my 1 mile cooldown (10:00 pace).
Today my leg feels much better. It is stil a little sore if I rub it. Like a deep bruise. The calf is still a little sore too. But it seems relaxed as well. It like I had a prolonged cramp or something. But I am sure it will get better now.
I have small pulse meter made by Tanita that I used to carry with me to work. It was small and fit in my pocket. It was finicky and often wouldn’t work in low light or some other situations. But overall it was okay. I used it to get my resting heart rate. But then one day my wife washed my pants without removing it from the pocket. She opened it up to let it dry. Later when it was dry, I put it back together. It seemed like it would try to work. I would get a display. But as soon as I pressed a button, the display would sort of fade, or get all wacky displaying partial digits. I replaced the battery, but it got no better. I even took it apart to clean it out. I think it is dead.
I went to Amazon.com and searched for pulse meters. The cheapest one I found was actually integrated into a pedometer. It is the Oregon Scientific PE826 pedometer. It was cheaper than the Tanita unit. I didn’t really need another pedometer. I already have a pretty good one that I got for free at work. But if this new one has a pulse meter, that is cool. The pedometer use is just a bonus.
It will be nice to find my resting heart rate again. I had measured it as low as 41. For some reason, I am guessing it is not going to be as low these days. I am training harder, and more often. Maybe borderline over-training.
I didn’t have any problems during my run yesterday. But later on I had a pain in my inner thigh on my right leg. It doesn’t feel pulled, or strained. But it kind of feels like a knot. I feel it when I try to lift my knee up towards my chest. Also the right calf is kind of tight. It’s interesting as I rarely have problems with my right (dominant) leg. I usually experience an pains in my left leg.
I did 45 minutes of spinning on my bike today. It was a recovery type of spin program. It didn’t hurt to do it at all. I was hoping it would loosen up my leg. Well my leg doesn’t seem any better. But it doesn’t seem any worse either. I took a hot bath, which helped a little bit.
Then I had karate class. I decided to take it slightly easy. I would feel out the different motions required for kicking and be carefull with any that hurt. But for the most part I was okay. Once I got warmed up, the leg didn’t slow me down much.
But later on after the class, my leg was bothering me a little bit more than before.
I am scheduled to do quarter-mile intervals monday night (2 sets of 6 @ 5:48 minute/mile pace).
ADDED 1/14
I woke up this morning, and the leg is still bothering me some. But it does feel better. I took some ibuprofen. I have an aikido class tonight and will have to see how that goes. Then I am schedule for my intervals. I will play that by ear. I have a 1-2 mile warmup before hand. I will probably try them and see how my leg feels while running.