injury

September training recap

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

Being injured really sucks. I’ve been unhappy with the progress, and had a follow-up with my orthopedic doctor last week, and he had me get an MRI. Now, I just have to wait for the results.

Honestly, I would love to run 50+ miles a month, but I just can’t right now. One of the few good things right now is that my knee does seem to be getting better. I don’t know if it’s the physical therapy, the exercises and stretching program, or the time off from running last month.

In July, I ran absolutely 0 miles, and in August, only 16. In September, that number will be about 35. I’ve done 32 so far, and I have a 5k training run planned for tomorrow morning. I should probably just be happy that I was able to put in as many miles as I did this month. My average distance has also gone up from 2.3 miles last month to 4 miles this month. Of course, running a 1/2 marathon does sort of skew things.

Despite being injured, I did run two races this month.  The Disneyland 1/2 (which I should have skipped because my knee) and the Color Me Rad 5k. The concept of the Color Me Rad runs are interesting, but I don’t know if I would run more than one of these types of runs per year. It’s a fun run where you are bombarded with colored corn starch. It’s loosely based on the Hindu Festival of Colors, which is also known as Holi.

What are your thoughts on fun runs? Like? Dislike?

Here’s a picture of me and Kimmy getting blasted by pink color!

orthotics and training for the turkey trot

/ Brienna / 2 Comments

I went in last week for an orthotics casting. What this means is that they apply cast-like material to your feet to make a mold, and turn this into very custom insoles.

Hopefully these will help with my injures. We’ll see in 3-5 weeks when they’re ready.

Now that the Disneyland 1/2 marathon is over, I’m hoping that I can start (and complete) a training plan for the Turkey Trot. I’m running the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot 5k, bright and early Thanksgiving morning. This is now a family tradition, and I will be joined by my husband (who hates to run, but has no choice on Thanksgiving), my mom, my step-dad, and one of my besties.

My training plan includes three runs per week. One “race pace” run, that is designed to practice running at the pace I want to run the race. I’m starting with 600m intervals and working up to 1000m. My second run each week is a speed workout. Most of these are sprint intervals with one or two tempo intervals in the mix. The last run for each week is an easy run. Conspicuously absent is a weekly long run.

Given my injuries, I made a decision to focus on speed and take a break from long runs for a while. The 5k mark is right about where I start feeling pain while running, and I think staying under that will be good.

thoughts on injury prevention for runners

/ Brienna / 3 Comments

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about health and fitness/exercise along with injury prevention. I’ve been injured recently and several of my friends have had torn ligaments, knee issues, stress fractures and shin splints.

I started running about 4 years ago, and last year really increased my mileage. Up until recently, I was injury free. And yet a year ago, I was told by a massage therapist to consider another sport. (Some people just don’t get it, do they?) He felt that the high impact of running was bad given my ankle injury from 2008 (three screws in my left talus bone). With his apparent general dislike of running and his suggestion to “use the elliptical machine instead,” it was easy to ignore his advice and to stop seeing him.

Well, turns out pretty much all the muscles in my legs are super tight and my hips are weak. The tightness is from a lack of stretching and the impact of running. The weak hips are a common problem and require special attention and some strength training exercises.

Since my knee injury in April, which turns out to be ITBS, I have been going to PT and doing research on injury prevention for running. ITBS is commonly caused by a tight IT band due to weak hips. The tightness all over in my legs probably exacerbates the problem.

I used to rock climb regularly, and I’ve been trying to do yoga at least once a week, but I have never been consistent with any sort of core, strength or stretching routines. This seems to be all the areas that need attention, if I am serious about injury prevention.

A few weeks ago, I posted some of what was recommended through PT. I have been trying my best to do those things daily, but it’s tough (I’ve been traveling; first a vacation, then a 10 day business trip to Munich/Romania). In addition to those exercises and stretches, I’m also trying to follow this ITBS rehab routine that I found on strengthrunning.com. And on top of that, I want to start running again 3x/week, yoga 1x/week, and I’m doing a 30 day plank challenge. Oh, and I want to start a regular core exercise program 3x/week and stretching before/after running.

Maybe I’ll even find time to sleep. And just because I love photos, here’s a shot of the shorts I bought on my vacation. Perfect for my new core / strength / stretching routine!

maui shorts

QOTD: Have you been injured? What did you do for rehab? Anything special to prevent future injuries?

still injured…

/ Brienna / 1 Comment

I went hiking about 10 days ago with some friends, and had a blast! We hiked about 6 miles, uphill for the first half, and had a great view from the top.

Boccardo trail

The only problem with this hike was the downhill part really hurt my knee. So much so, that I was pretty much unable to walk the remainder of the day.

The good news is this motivated me to finally make an appointment for physical therapy. Ortho gave me a recommendation about 5 weeks ago, but since I was going on three separate trips in July, I thought I’d wait until August to get started.

I’ve only had two appointments so far, but I have tried my best to do the stretches (side-lying quad stretch, supine hamstring stretch, and supine glute stretch: 3x of each for 30 seconds, 2x day minimum) and exercises (hip extension, adduction, abduction, and flexion with resistance: 3 sets of 5 each plus 1-2 sets of 10 wall squats) as prescribed.  Today we added more to the list:  calf stretches, step-ups, and normal squats.  Pretty soon it will feel like I do nothing but stretches and exercises all day long!

So far, I haven’t noticed much improvement, but I also haven’t noticed any further incidences of severe pain. My therapist did say it felt less tight today than it did last week, which is good. She also used a technique called “instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization.”  Let’s just say that it was not fun.

I was in Maui last week on vacation, and I went snorkeling, sailing, swimming, snorkeling some more and attempted to surf. I really wanted to go for a run on the beach, but I’ve been told to take a break from running (boo). Hopefully I’ll be able to start back up again this weekend or next week. I’m leaving for Romania on business tomorrow, and I will be spending the weekend in Munich. I may see if I can do some swimming or a light treadmill run at the hotel this weekend.

It was only on the way home, after sitting in the plane for 5 hours that my knee started hurting.  And actually, the WRONG knee started hurting. I’m not sure if this is a good sign or a very, very, very bad sign.

This knee injury is really putting a wrench in the PR I was hoping to have at the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon in 38 days. I am way behind in my training plan, so I guess this means I’ll just have to pick another 1/2 marathon to run next year for my PR. 🙂  Maybe I’ll try Big Sur or go back to Santa Cruz.