Running on water

Got up and ran a loop with Moby this morning.  It was 3 degrees...brrrrr.......  ran 5 minutes out onto the lake.  It is frozen as far out as we could see.  We hopped around on the ice mounds for a while with Moby looking into all the caves.  Knee hurt but it was good to get out.  Not every day you get to run on water.   Should have taken my camera. 




Inna said there was a lot of booming and banging there this morning.  She couldn't tell if it was shooting or fireworks.  Police are noticeably absent in the streets.  A friend flew into Kiev yesterday and passport control was basically non-existent.  I hope they sort all this out.  My guess is Putin's thugs will incite enough criminal activity that he'll need to send in troops to "Save and Stabilize" the country.  Surplus wealth going to a crooked politician or going to an authoritarian controlling state...I'm worried that all the revolution has accomplished is to cut out the middle man.

family gathering

I have quite a family related mission this weekend.  My presence has been requested.  Possibly an olive branch...more than likely an aid request.  Let's hope white doves, peace, and all that shit.  Mostly I hope I don't get put in jail or lose any teeth.

Wizzerwack just misses US team again

I'm always so proud to see the young athletes I trained with and coached doing so well.  To see Mark Wieczorek nearly reaching the highest levels of running and Joe Dombroski doing the same in cycling is a real treat.

This weekend Mark was yet again so very close to getting a ticket to the World Championships.



Men 800 Meter Run
===================================================================
Winner from each heat plus next 2 best times advance to final
       World: W 1:42.67  3/9/1997    Wilson Kipketer, DEN                     
    American: A 1:45.00  3/8/1992    Johnny Gray, Santa Monica TC             
        Meet: M 1:46.60  3/2/2002    Derrick Peterson, adidas                 
    Name                    Year Team                   Prelims  H#
===================================================================
Preliminaries
  1 Robby Andrews                adidas                 1:48.12Q  1
  2 Mark Wieczorek               Brooks                 1:48.28Q  2
  3 Erik Sowinski                Nike                   1:48.32Q  4
  4 Nick Symmonds                Brooks                 1:48.79Q  3
  5 Tyler Mulder                 Nike/Oregon TC E       1:48.34q  2
  6 Michael Rutt                 NJNY TC                1:48.44q  2
  7 James Gilreath               Adidas Tm Green        1:48.72   1
  8 Nick Guarino                 Syracuse Charger       1:48.99   3
  9 Casimir Loxsom               Brooks                 1:49.05   1
10 Brian Gagnon                 NJNY TC                1:49.88   3
11 Owen Dawson                  Unattached             1:49.92   1
12 Tetlo Emmen                  Unattached             1:49.94   1
13 Richard Jones                Unattached             1:50.06   2
14 Harun Abda                   Oregon TC El           1:50.25   2
15 Mark Husted                  Unattached             1:50.48   4
16 Jacob Waterman               Wright Dist Proj       1:50.61   3
17 Grant Grosvenor Jr           Montana St.            1:51.19   3
18 Chris Bilbrew                Adidas Tm Green        1:51.92   4
19 Nicholas Thornton            Unattached             1:54.11   4
20 Josh Guarino                 Syracuse Charger       1:57.59   4

Men 800 Meter Run
================================================================
Winner from each heat plus next 2 best times advance to final
       World: W 1:42.67  3/9/1997    Wilson Kipketer, DEN                     
    American: A 1:45.00  3/8/1992    Johnny Gray, Santa Monica TC             
        Meet: M 1:46.60  3/2/2002    Derrick Peterson, adidas                 
    Name                    Year Team                    Finals
================================================================
Finals
  1 Erik Sowinski                Nike                   1:47.86 
  2 Robby Andrews                adidas                 1:48.44 
  3 Nick Symmonds                Brooks                 1:48.48 
  4 Tyler Mulder                 Nike/Oregon TC E       1:48.68 
  5 Mark Wieczorek               Brooks                 1:49.03 
  6 Michael Rutt                 NJNY TC                1:49.14

Stimuli

Well I've given up again.  I did all the rehab to fix my upper hamstring tendonopathy which was caused by the bulged disc in my back.  Then as soon as I started trying to run again...within 4 minutes my knee would start hurting so bad that I had to walk.  After 2 weeks of fighting that and starting over again with the patellar tendonitis exercises I have had enough.  I quit!

I did a 2 hour bicycle ride the other day with no knee pain.  I needed to get out and do something.  Now that I've decided I'll just bike for a while we're stuck in a horrible cold snap here in the Northeast with tons of snow.  So instead...I read.

Here are a few interesting articles I've been reading about stimulation.  In this first article the author tells the story, using a comic, of how we have caused our sources of stimuli to evolve, without our biological ability to evolve our instincts or willpower to match them. 

"Tinbergen succeeded in isolating the traits that triggered certain instincts, and then made an interesting discovery. The instincts had no bounds. Instead of stopping at a 'sweet spot', the instinctive response would still be produced by unrealistic stimuli. Once the researchers isolated the instincts' trigger, they could create greatly exaggerated dummies which the animals would choose instead of a realistic alternative. Songbird parents would prefer to feed fake baby birds with mouths wider and redder than their real chicks, and the hatchlings themselves would ignore their own parents to beg fake beaks with more dramatic markings."

http://www.sparringmind.com/supernormal-stimuli/

The second is very much the same but talks about video games being the stimuli.  It was written in 2007 after a gamer played World of Warcraft for 57 hours straight and died.  He had strong willpower to overcome all the other instinctual urges to eat, sleep, etc.  But could not overcome the artificial stimuli created by the video game.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/h3/superstimuli_and_the_collapse_of_western/

Anyways,  I'm going to wait a week or two and then start completely over with a new set of doctors.  New set of MRI's.  I refuse to give up on running.  But for now I need a break.  I'm going to go ride my bicycle.  If it turns out biking is all I can do I'll be fine with that.  But I swear I still have a good marathon in me....and I know I could win a 50miler..... and, and, and.....

Bah Humbug

I keep getting stronger and doing my exercises...but it seems on injury leads to another.  Patellar tendonitis has been healed and given way to upper hamstring tendonopathy.  It seems the physical therapy has that nearly licked.  I ask about running again and here's what I get.....

 

Week 1	Walk 5min / jog 1min, build to 5 sets on alternating days(ex. 2x5min/1min, off, 3x5min/1min, off, etc.)
Week 2	If no pain, walk 5min / jog 5min, build to 5 sets on alternating days
Week 3	If no pain, advance to 20min jog, no more than 5 days per week
Week 4	If no pain, advance to 20min run at normal training pace, no more than 5 days per week
Weeks 5-8	If no pain, gradually increase running speed, volume, and acceleration as tolerated

 
BAH!!!!!  this is one tough comeback!!

The Girl in the Closet

I came across this story this morning. (The Girl in the Closet)  I couldn't stop reading it.  Such a sad, sickening, horrible case.  Although the treatment was a million ways worse than my personal experiences, I found this line to be quite similar.

"Psychologically speaking, what happened to Lauren is called “scapegoating.” Parents single out one child to blame for all the family’s troubles and enlist others in the taunting and physical abuse."

Everyday?

Really good progress on the running front.  I worked too darn much in Ohio so I didn't get to run for almost a week.  But I continued my rehab exercises and stretches.  I ran my 4 mile route yesterday again with no pain.  I went a weeee bit too fast and ran it in 26:12.  Certainly too fast.  I'll discipline myself to get back onto the Hadd plan and running at 128-132 HR.

The good news is that today I passed all my flexibility and strength tests to begin running everyday.  I'll run 2 days on and 1 day off for now.  Then hopefully in 2 weeks I can be running 6 days a week.  Still keeping my runs to 30 minutes.  Then once I can handle running everyday I can slowly build up my miles.

Tom had told me once long ago that once I found the right stretch or just the right exercise my problem would go away pretty quickly.  What the doctor explained to me is that my tendon had been so injured that it was near tearing.  So in defense it torqued down my quad and hip flexors.  So no stretching would help release it until my tendon healed.  The Platelet Replacement Therapy and Prolotherapy did that.  So now it's on to fixing the problem that created my imbalance in the first place.

The doctor thinks that 6 years of riding 350+ mile weeks on the bike, plus sitting at work, gave me a pretty clear case of "Anterior Pelvic Tilt"  He said usually people get it from sitting too much.  But mine was worse because I actually used those muscles in their shortened state while cycling. So it made them short and very, very strong.  So it was going to take some serious work to strengthen my glutes/upper hamstrings and release those hip flexors. 

Well....I've been doing the serious work.  Tom was right.  Once I healed the tendons I was able to find that exact stretch that does it for me.  In 2 weeks after doing that every 2 hours for 12 minutes (that's a TON of stretching).  I'm seeing great improvement.

Here's my miracle stretch.  Before I stretching a little different way and it was hurting another tendon.  Once I inserted this one into my routine instead everything improved dramatically.




A song for you all.