Ran a 5K today

Congratulations!

I'm by no means an expert, but I'll put in my two cents worth on the shin pain.

First, in my experience if and when you get shin splints, you'll know it. A bit of minor pain in the shin area and actual shin splints are worlds apart. YMMV.

Second, if the mid-foot strike is eliminating the shin pain (which might also just be indicative of your muscles getting used to the load), be sure the shoe store doesn't put you in a shoe that forces you back to heel striking. Anything with an extremely padded heel is going to make a mid-foot strike difficult. I've heard that "motion control" shoes may be a problem too, but to be honest I'm not sure what those even are.

I'll join this Runkeeper gang. I've always been afraid of carrying my phone while running(I've killed so many ipods...) But I recently got a 305, so I'm in. Sending invites to prior posters in the thread. I'm at
http://runkeeper.com/user/taer/profile

Is there a central RunKeeper "GWJ Street Team" that we join, a lá Steam groups, or is it just a matter of inviting people to be "team mates" with you?

However it works, I'd like to participate: http://runkeeper.com/user/mytchll/profile

Teneman wrote:

Second, if the mid-foot strike is eliminating the shin pain (which might also just be indicative of your muscles getting used to the load), be sure the shoe store doesn't put you in a shoe that forces you back to heel striking. Anything with an extremely padded heel is going to make a mid-foot strike difficult. I've heard that "motion control" shoes may be a problem too, but to be honest I'm not sure what those even are.

Motion control has to do with whether you pronate or supinate, though there's another word I can't recall for the latter. Basically if you roll along the inside or outside of your foot when you roll from heel to toe instead of moving directly you are pronating or supinating. It's not as big an issue with mid-foot or toe strikes. Shoes designed to correct pronation control the motion of the transition from heel to toe, which is where the 'motion control' comes in. There's a proper form for heel striking, and some shoes force you into it. Obviously shoes designed to make you heel strike correctly are going to make it difficult to not heel strike.

Before I switched to a mid foot strike, I had near constant issues with shin splints. I was seeing the doc nearly every other month for a profile, they'd gotten so bad. The root cause of this for me at least was the heel strike, as the tendons that run along the bottom of my foot were letting my foot slam down too hard instead of the ideal smooth roll through you'd like for a heel strike running gait. This put a lot of stress on the muscles along the front of my shins, causing them to tighten up, which stresses the shins themselves, which causes a great deal of pain. After moving to a mid foot strike, I was able to keep running with manageable pain, and since switching to VFFs a couple months ago, it hasn't been an issue at all. This probably won't help everyone, but it's certainly done me a world of good.

Mytch wrote:

Is there a central RunKeeper "GWJ Street Team" that we join, a lá Steam groups, or is it just a matter of inviting people to be "team mates" with you?

However it works, I'd like to participate: http://runkeeper.com/user/mytchll/profile

There's currently no central team, and I don't think RunKeeper has a function like that. What we've been doing is just going through and each of us inviting everyone in the thread before us. I've gone ahead and sent you an invite to get you started.

I may make another thread later today (on my way to work now) that just keeps track of everyone's RunKeeper profile names to make it easier for anyone who wants to join up.

Got the invite from you, Coldforged, and one other whose screen name I don't recognize (but who I assume is a GWJer because this is the only place I've put out the call)...thanks, fellas!

This should be fun, though my runs over the next couple of weeks will be almost the same route, over and over again. Looking forward to checking out you guys' activities, though!

Mytch wrote:

This should be fun, though my runs over the next couple of weeks will be almost the same route, over and over again. Looking forward to checking out you guys' activities, though!

That's one of the things I love about Runkeeper. I spent a half hour on the desktop plotting out runs around my house. I now have a 0.5 mile, two 1 mile, a 1.5 mile, a 2 mile and a 3 mile route, with minimal overlap between them. Given those distances, I can easily combine different legs to make runs of anywhere from a half mile up to six miles without having to repeat the same route day in and day out if I don't want to.

I've gone ahead and made a separate thread to keep track of everyone's RunKeeper profile. It's not as easy as a central group ala Steam, but it should make it easier for newcomers to join up and find our profiles.

I kicked up my distance last week, running a full 5K on Wednesday and Friday, and then nearly a 10K on Saturday.

Now my knees are starting to hurt again. I'm not sure if I just overdid it, or if my old knee problems are flaring up again. I believe I'm mid-foot striking fairly consistently, but I can't be certain. I took Sunday and today off hoping to give the knees a chance to settle down.

Keeping my fingers crossed that it's a temporary overuse issue and not a full on return of my runner's knee. I've really been enjoying running again and would hate to have to curtail it.

Highly recommend controlling the enthusiasm and increase weekly mileage by no more than 10% per week. Regardless of your technique, if you tackle a distance your body isn't prepared to handle, you're going to do damage, both to your body and to your longer term progress. I can understand the frustration of seeing an open road and not being able to run on it, since I've felt exactly that myself; but you gotta stick to the plan. Increasing distance drastically and doing damage gets you less running time on the whole.

The Camp Patriot Fun Run is next Monday, I don't know if I'll be really ready for it. Went out yesterday with the intention of getting an actual 3 miles in, but stopped after 2.75. Both the dogs and I were pretty well overheated and my legs just weren't happy with me. I'm taking today off, then trying to get runs in tomorrow and maybe thursday, then maybe no runs till Monday so my legs are fresh.

Originally I was hoping to finish in under 30 minutes, but just getting through it without any walk breaks will do at this point. Hopefully I can be better prepared for the Warrior Dash next month.

On the up side, I removed the gel inserts from my shoes and my heel pain is healing nicely. It's good to be able to run without the heel pain again.

LarryC wrote:

Highly recommend controlling the enthusiasm and increase weekly mileage by no more than 10% per week.

Thanks for the advice Larry. My records show last week was a 37% increase in mileage from the prior week, which was a 59% increase from the week before that, which was a 34% increase from the week before that. So I definitely blew that guideline, and it looks like I'm paying for it now.

Perhaps its time to plan the runs out a bit rather than just hitting the road and running whatever feels good. I'm enjoying running again too much to screw it up by overdoing it.

1 week from today is my first organized 5k run. Normally I run MWF and Wednesday is by a long shot my best day of the week to run. So last week I changed it up and did MWSat. So now I'll run today and hopefully, being the middle run of my week, it'll be my best run day. This past Saturday I ran 2 miles and had to walk for a couple minutes, then ran the rest of the 5k. So I'm a bit nervous about tonight. If I do well then I should be in a good position. If not, then it's touch and go.

The plan is to run a 5k today and a 5k on Wednesday, then on Saturday for the final run before the race I'll probably just do 2-2.5 miles depending on how I feel.

My goals for the race are:
1) Finish without walking a single step
2) Do not finish last

Since there'll be people walking the 5k, I'm pretty assured of #2. I've lost 40-50 lbs since I started running (112 lbs total so far) and if I don't meet goal #1 I'm gonna be devastated.

Bugger.

2 weeks to my first triathlon, and I've done something nasty to my ankle while helping a friend move over the weekend.

Been icing, resting (read: playing 360), elevating and compressing, and it's certainly a lot better, but damn if it's not making me nervous. I'm at least walking around unassisted today, and the swelling is mostly down, so the omens are good that it'll be fine in time for the race, but still...

Teneman:

I definitely feel you. When I started up again a year ago, it felt so good that I ramped up to 10k at a time in no time flat. I killed my feet something awful and had to lay off for weeks. We're not spring chickens anymore, sad to say, so we need to watch our distances. My friend's out with the same problem you got - knees. Same thing. Ran 10k with hardly any ramp up. I used to think those fancy-shmancy Gaimans were just cool toys for the posers. Whelp, I'm definitely eating my words now.

Good luck Cheeba!

Jonman, hopefully the ankle gets back in shape in time for the triathlon, give it lots of rest between now and then.

LarryC wrote:

We're not spring chickens anymore, sad to say, so we need to watch our distances.

You've got that right Larry. It's amazing how easy that is to forget, right up until something you used to be able to do without a second thought lays you up for a week.

On Sunday, I did the Warrior Dash with a friend, which turned out to be a 3 mile slog through ankle deep mud. I wore my running shoes because I was expecting to do some actual running, which turned out to be wrong. Of course, when I got those shoes a month ago, I knew I'd be wearing them to this thing, so they weren't expensive, and I figured that after a month, I'd have a good idea of whether or not I'd be keeping up on the running.

I've decided I will be keeping up on it, and my plan was to reward myself for finishing the Ct5k program with a good pair of shoes. Unfortunately, what I forgot to consider with the sacrificial shoes is how long they're taking to dry. Two days later, they're still very soggy, which means no running. I don't have a fan or anything to really dry them with, so maybe tomorrow I'll leave them on the porch in the sun and see if that helps. If they haven't dried by Friday, I think I'll be making an earlier than anticipated trip to the running store to get fitted with good shoes.

Damn, I suck at thinking ahead sometimes. At least I've got a pair of trashed shoes for the rest of my mud races this year.

Cool Chaz! Grats on the Warrior Dash. I'm planning on doing it in September, how was it?

Jonman wrote:

2 weeks to my first triathlon, and I've done something nasty to my ankle while helping a friend move over the weekend.

Been icing, resting (read: playing 360), elevating and compressing, and it's certainly a lot better, but damn if it's not making me nervous. I'm at least walking around unassisted today, and the swelling is mostly down, so the omens are good that it'll be fine in time for the race, but still...

Hey, me too! Not a sprained ankle mind you, but (less than) two weeks til my first triathlon. Sunday july 10th I'll be doing a sprinttriathlon: 500m swim - 20k - 5k run. I'm quite confident about the bike and the run (I've been running for 7 years now), but the swim still frightens me. I'm quite sure I'll make it though, but I might be dead last when I get out of the water.
Ran a 5k race a few weeks ago and finished in 19:51, which isn't that far from my PR, so my fitness is allright.

About your ankle; it's no fun getting injured, especially if it would mean not participating; but you are actually kinda lucky it happened 2 weeks before the race! You'll be forced to "taper" and could be very well stand at the starting line well rested and fit. And two weeks is long enough for that ankle to heel and too short to gain effect of training in those last 14 days anyway*...

*: A general rule of thumb is that it takes 3 weeks to gain any effect from training. This only applies to your cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems, you can most definately improve your form/technique (and thereby perform better) in less than 3 weeks.

Teneman wrote:

Cool Chaz! Grats on the Warrior Dash. I'm planning on doing it in September, how was it?

Tons of fun, but there were heavy rains in the days leading up to it, so literally the entire course was composed of at least ankle deep mud. It was so bad that they had to remove or modify several of the obstacles. At least half of the racers wound up walking virtually the entire course.

But I'm already signed up to do the Spartan Sprint in late August, and there are two other similar events I may do as well. They're pretty addicting.

Chaz wrote:

Unfortunately, what I forgot to consider with the sacrificial shoes is how long they're taking to dry. Two days later, they're still very soggy, which means no running. I don't have a fan or anything to really dry them with, so maybe tomorrow I'll leave them on the porch in the sun and see if that helps. If they haven't dried by Friday, I think I'll be making an earlier than anticipated trip to the running store to get fitted with good shoes.

Damn, I suck at thinking ahead sometimes. At least I've got a pair of trashed shoes for the rest of my mud races this year.

Might be stating the obvious here, but stuff your soggy shoes with newspaper, and change out the newspaper every 6-12 hours. It'll draw a lot of the moisture out and they'll dry a lot quicker.

estorino wrote:

About your ankle; it's no fun getting injured, especially if it would mean not participating; but you are actually kinda lucky it happened 2 weeks before the race! You'll be forced to "taper" and could be very well stand at the starting line well rested and fit. And two weeks is long enough for that ankle to heel and too short to gain effect of training in those last 14 days anyway*...

*: A general rule of thumb is that it takes 3 weeks to gain any effect from training. This only applies to your cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems, you can most definately improve your form/technique (and thereby perform better) in less than 3 weeks.

It's true, but the flip side is that my training plan took account of tapering. The biggest impact is really going to be on my confidence - I'm worrying about it healing, and will likely be worrying that I'll re-injure it on race day itself.

The good news is that when I was scheduling my races, I made sure to enter 2, so that if by some chance I did end up missing one, there'd be another one. So worst comes to the worst, I miss this tri, and go hell for leather in the second one 3 weeks after.

Jonman wrote:

Might be stating the obvious here, but stuff your soggy shoes with newspaper, and change out the newspaper every 6-12 hours. It'll draw a lot of the moisture out and they'll dry a lot quicker.

Not obvious at all, that hadn't even occurred to me. I'll do that when I get home.

cheeba wrote:

...and if I don't meet goal #1 I'm gonna be devastated.

No worries...adrenaline will take care of you.

I ran my first 5K--a "fun run," just like yours will be--and was kicking myself at the end because I still had plenty of gas left in the tank; I definitely could have pushed a lot harder.

Of course, my "long run" at that point was around eight or nine miles, so I wasn't worried at all about being able to finish, but I drastically underestimated the dynamic duo of my endurance + adrenaline. The half-marathon I ran four months after that, though, was a different story. At the time I ran it, I'd only run 13 miles once, and was pretty tuckered out at the end--I was worried, since that distance was still new territory.

It was the same situation as the 5K, though...the adrenaline, the new route, the people I met along the way...all of this conspired to make it a much easier run than I'd anticipated. I was even chit-chatting with a fellow from Houston as I crossed the finish line (which they say you're supposed to be able to do if your pacing yourself correctly anyway).

One of the coolest things about running in organized events like that is the encouragement from everybody. People see you plodding along and offer support and cheer as they run past.

Chaz wrote:
Jonman wrote:

Might be stating the obvious here, but stuff your soggy shoes with newspaper, and change out the newspaper every 6-12 hours. It'll draw a lot of the moisture out and they'll dry a lot quicker.

Not obvious at all, that hadn't even occurred to me. I'll do that when I get home.

Yeah, open them up entirely and pull the footbed if possible too. I used to regularly get my bike shoes soaked from hike-a-bike creek crossings and this would dry them quickly. Of course these were made for that but I'd expect your running shoes to not have a lot of padding either.

Had my best run ever just now. Figured I would push myself a bit since it was my last real run before my 4th of July 5k and I have 2 days off before I run again (I figure on Saturday I'll do like 2 miles or something easy). Finished about 1m20s faster than my best, and I had to stop and tie my shoe. The best part was that I had my dog off leash the entire way for the first time. She did great. Had to yell at her I think 3 times to not go look at something else interesting, but she mostly stayed out of trouble. She actually tired herself out a little too early and then stayed about 20 yards directly behind me the last mile. Poor sprinting frisbee-catching labrador retriever can't hang with her 256lb master, heh, heh.

Took on an 8k the other day. Was feeling off to start. It was really hot. I totally gassed out at k7 and ended up walking home late for dinner.

In "Born to Run," Caballo advises us to run Easy, Smooth, Light, and Fast, and to work on our running in that order. First, make it Easy, then make it Smooth and Easy. Once you're running Easy, Smooth, and Light, the Fast part takes care of itself.

Had a casual conversation with a sports doctor at the running store, and he's fairly convinced that my patellofemoral dysfunction (runner's knee) is in fact back. Apparently just taking 20 years off from running won't make the underlying condition go away. He's also of the opinion that mid-foot running may help, but isn't likely to cure the situation by itself.

So now I either need to: 1) find a sports medicine place to develop a rehab plan to correct the dysfunction or 2) buy a good bike.

That, or I can just rest and ice for another week, ignore the advice and get back to running albeit in a bit more leisurely manner. I'm sure ignoring it will make it go away, right?