December 9, 2012

Getting There...Getting There

Back to normal running, that is. Not quite there yet, though.

Week of Dec. 3 ~ 9
It was about 10C/50F every day.
Total for week: 60km.

Monday
14K - 2000 x 7  w/ 200m (2') walks in between.
From 11:30 down to 10:34. Knee felt ok except for occasional twinges.

Tuesday
Gym workout with 10' x 2 on the elliptical machine.

Wednesday
12K. Track workout - 1000 x 6 x 2 (25' rest)
First 6 easy at 5:38 to 4:56, next 6 with the group at around 4:45.
Knee was ok, so that was an encouraging workout. But I was tired.
Note: it would be better to do this as two workouts - early afternoon and then evening on the track.

Thursday
Rest

Friday
AM: Gym workout with 10' x 2 on the elliptical.
PM: 8K. 1k, 2k x 3, 1k. Average 5:30 pace.

Saturday
12K. 2000 x 6 (200m walks). First 11:33, then about 10:30.
Had some twinges on the 5th one, so tried to glide more, and actually, slightly more heel striking reduces the discomfort.

Sunday
14K. 2000 x 7 (200m walks). 11:39 down to 10:47.
Knee geting slightly sore at the end.

Well, I shouldn't be running three days in a row. I'm going to switch to 2 days on, 1 day off. Actually, I was planning to do this anyway, once I got back to normal running. With all days being either hard (intervals/tempo) or long. I came up with 6 different variations of 2 on, 1 off, 1 on, 2 off, etc. etc., but for now I'll just go with 2 on, 1 off. But not all hard days. In fact, no hard days yet.
I like to try new training programs, it keeps things interesting. And I generally do it twice a year.
I recommend it - shake your program up once in a while!

Oh, and the low carb, high fat diet is going well. Feeling good. Not losing much weight yet, but I'm not in a ketosis state yet, and also, I'm not THAT fat. When I start running more, I think I will lose the excess I have (about 2kg).


December 5, 2012

A 5K Run!

Still taking my recovery step by step, the knee seems to be ok so far (despite occasional twinges).

Week of Nov. 26 ~ Dec. 2
Monday
Rest

Tuesday
Gym workout with 36mins. on elliptical (12' x 3).

Wednesday
11.2K. Track workout. 1.2k wu
1000 x 4 in 5:38/24/25/09 (1' walk in between). A long rest, then:
1000 x 3, 2000, 1000 in 4:44/53/55/10:18/5:22 (1', 2' after 2000).
The knee was ok!

Thursday
10K - 1000 x 10 (1' - 100m walk)
5:48/25/21/16/15/13/01/04/11/08
Knee ok, but getting just a bit sore at the end. Still, a good two days.
As I was running the 5:01 pace, I was thinking, Gee, I am actually doing a WORKOUT.

Friday
Gym workout with 30mins. on elliptical (10' x 3).

Saturday
2k wu and 5K at the Run For The Cure around the Imperial Palace.
This is a fun event for a good cause and several Namban and American School people were running it, so I decided to go and do an "easy" 5K. Ran _all the way_ in 25:17. Wow, really blazing along! And my knee did not hurt.
Former ASIJ star Sara Wilhelm won the 10K in 40:49 and Nambanner Mary Eckstein was 3rd. Current ASIJ stars Tanya Riordan and Mina McClure were 1st and 2nd in the 5K. They all got lots of prizes!

Sunday
Rest

November 25, 2012

Running Without Pain

What a pleasant experience! I'd almost forgotten how it felt.

Week of Nov 19 ~ 25

Monday
8k — 500 x 2, 1000 x 6, 500 x 2 (100m walks in between)
Average 5:25/k. Slight soreness at time, but knee was basically ok.

Tuesday
Weights, abs and 20 mins elliptical (10' x 2). Knee was feeling a little sore after the second 10', so stopped.

Wednesday
8.4k. Track workout - 1600, 1200, 1000 x 2, 800, 400
All at about 5:00/k - good!
No pain at all in knee - good!

Thrsday
Rest

Friday
10k - 4k to and from Makuhari (from father in law's) and another 2k watching the Chiba International Ekiden. Lots of fun, even though it was raining. Kenya 1st, Japan 2nd, USA 3rd. Great 10k runs by Jake Riley (2nd in leg in 28:46) and Galen Rupp (1st in leg in 28:20). I talked to Galen a little before his leg and watched him and also the 4th leg runners (Emma Kertesz of the US also ran really well - a name to remember).
I did also cheer for the Canadians and the Australians (by name)!
For the complete race report see japanrunningnews.blogspot.jp (with my comment on the bottom)

Saturday
8k - 1000 x 8 (100m walks)
5:47/39/32/34/38/33/23/10. No pain.
Great Thanksgiving dinner at the Griffen's, where the guests included Jake Riley and his coach, Keith Hanson (of the Brooks Hanson Team). Real interesting to talk to them.

Sunday
10k - 1000 x 10 (100m walks)
6:10/5:30/17/23/18/18/10/11/16/00. No pain.
Still taking it easy - don't want to push too much.
Planned to go to the gym today and run tomorrow, but forecast is rain all day tmrw, so will rest then. Fortunately, the knee was fine, even with 3 days of running.

First week of ketogenic diet, although I still ate too much carbs and protein, esp. on Saturday!
Still, I lost .5kg. I'm liking this diet, and think it will be good for me. Went to Costco and bought lots of nuts, cheese and sausage. Now that's a good diet!
I hope after one more week I will be back to normal (but not high mileage) training, ready to start my buildup for Boston.

November 18, 2012

Some Running; New Diet

Week of Nov. 11 ~ 18

Ran 6k Monday (500m run, 100m walk x 12) and went to the gym on Tuesday.

Ran 1200 x 3, 800 x 2, 400 x 1 on Wednesday night, all at 5:30/km pace.

Went to the gym on Thursday and did 30 mins. on the elliptical machine (10' x 3). Plus abs and weights. I like the elliptical, although like a treadmill, it gets boring. Namban member Fabrizio told me it was good for sore knees because there is no pounding, so I gave it a try. I will keep doing this a few times a week, probably even after my knee is all healed.

Friday: 10' x 3 on elliptical, wts and abs.

Saturday: 8k with 500m x 4, 1000m x 6, all at 5:30 pace. Knee was ok.

Sunday: 10' x 3 on elliptical, wts and abs.

And now, as Monty Python said, for something completely different. My new diet, recommended by another Namban member, the brilliant (and fast) Frenchman Harrisson Uk, who likes experimenting with training and nutrition even more than I do.

The first reference article (down on the bottom) is a good introduction.


Bob's Ketogenic Diet (not 100% ketogenic)

A ketogenic (from ketosis), low carb diet is NOT a high protein diet. 
It's a high fat diet, with a moderate protein and a very low 
carbohydrate intake. When you reduce the amount of 
carbohydrate and increase the fat and protein in your diet, it has 
the effect of switching your body into fat burning mode. 
Instead of using the easily exhausted sugar from carbohydrates for 
fuel, your body burns stored fat for energy (goes into ketosis state), 
and it's this fat burning process which greatly improves health 
and well-being.

Main points of the ketogenic diet are:
1. Sugar in all its forms is toxic. This includes fruits and fruit juices.
Eliminate it 100%.
2. Starches are bad: bread, rice, pasta, noodles, potatoes, crackers.
3. Carbohydrates (including vegetables) are to be avoided as much as possible — ideally zero, but small portions of rice (brown rice better), 
pasta, vegetables (better with creamy or oily sauce) can be eaten.
4. Protein is ok, but not too much.
5. Fat is your friend.
6. Good foods: FISH, meat, nuts, avocados, cheese, all dairy, 
olives (& olive oil. Also coconut oil and palm oil. 
Note that other types of oil are not good, they have omega-6 fats).

Breakfast (6:00 or 9:00)
Toast with butter and ham or sausage or bacon
Glass of whole milk
Cup of tea with cream or whole milk
(I need the toast because I can't eat just ham, etc. and it gives me 
something to put the butter on. Eggs would be good but I don't like eggs.)
(Previously: Summer - veggie shake with orange juice, spinach 
or komatsuba, carrot, banana, protein powder. 
Winter - dish of oatmeal with low-fat milk, banana, raisins and sugar)

Lunch (12:00)
Half a block of tofu, often with half a can of tunafish
Soy-based dressing (Japanese style, regular oil)
A few pieces of cheese
A few olives
(Previously: 1/3 block tofu with non-fat dressing, bread or crackers with peanut butter)
Note: I don't like natural peanut butter, but love Skippy. 
Reason: Skippy has sugar in it. Bye bye Skippy.

Snack (4:00)
Handful of nuts, coffee with cream or whole milk, no sugar

Dinner (6:00)
No change (whatever my wife makes, usually fish or meat with rice or 
pasta and vegetables). No bread. Sometimes a glass or two of wine.
Coffee with cream or whole milk, no sugar. No dessert.
(Previously: coffee with low-fat milk and sugar. Used to also eat 
a few cookies or dark chocolate, but gave that up in June)

Snack (11:00)
Mixed nuts and cheese
(Previously: sweetened yoghurt with muesli and raisins. 
Also a banana or crackers with peanut butter)

References:
http://www.mh.co.za/nutrition/healthy-eating-tips/the-tim-noakes-diet
http://eatingacademy.com/my-personal-nutrition-journey
http://eatingacademy.com/nutrition/what-i-actually-eat
(the above one is great - when you get down to what he eats, you will be amused and shocked, and, if you're a vegetarian, appalled)
http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com

November 12, 2012

Encouraging Signs

Had a nice 11 days with my daughter and son-in-law, who were visiting from Bangkok. We went to Kyoto (lots of shrines and temples) and Nikko (one huge shrine and an old Edo village, which was fun), as well as sightseeing in Tokyo. Did a LOT of walking and a lot of eating too.

And a bit of running. Did some 3 and 4k runs the previous week, then 6k on the 7th and 4,8,6k on the weekend and today (Monday).
The 6k included 600 x 4 and 1000 x 4, at about 5:30/km. Only slight soreness in the knee.
The 8k and 6k today I did as kind of a test, the 8k being 500 x 4 and 1000 x 6, and the 6k being 500 x 12. All with 100m walk in between each run, and all the runs at 5:30 - 5:50/km. Again, only slight soreness, which did not get worse. In fact, at the end today, the knee didn't hurt at all.

If the knee had hurt, or had hurt significantly worse today than yesterday, I would have gone back to the orthopedist, but now I think I can get away without doing so.

Anyway, it was encouraging, although I'm sure if I tried to run faster or longer, it would start to hurt.

Interestingly, I found that if instead of a normal "barefoot" type stride (short strides, fast cadence...you know what I mean), if I kind of glide along, not raising the knees high, it puts less stress on the knee. I'm going to keep running like this. You can't go fast that way, but that's just as well.

I'll try to increase distance gradually, sticking to the run/walk regimen for a while, and hopefully, one month from now I will be back to normal training. I'd better be!

October 29, 2012

Ran a Bit...Quads Sore

My quads are sore today (Monday) from all the running I've been doing. 1km on Friday, 2km on Saturday, and 2km yesterday! I may have to do some longer runs before Boston.

Anyway, I can run, although the knee feels like it would hurt if I tried to go further/faster.

It hurts a bit at first, then if I walk for a few hundred meters and run again, it doesn't hurt. So I guess that's a good sign.
We'll see how this week goes.

I did go to the orthopedist, who took an x-ray that looked ok (knee bones not rubbing together). Couldn't have an MRI as the whole day was full. He said as long as it is not swollen and is feeling better, I should try to run a bit and if it hurts, come back for an MRI. So that's what I'm doing.

October 22, 2012

Knee Improving

My knee is improving - no pain when walking, almost none when going up/down stairs. It does hurt if I twist it, though. The plan was to wait until there was no pain, then wait another week, then test it.
So I'm think of trying to jog a little bit next Sunday.

In addition, a friend told me about a very good orthopedist - Japanese doctor, but he speaks English (not absolutely necessary, but helpful), who can do an MRI right in his office and give you the results on the spot. This is great, as going to a Japanese hospital for an MRI is a very lengthly hassle requiring two visits.
So I plan to go see him tomorrow, even though there has been definite improvement.

If you (or at least, I) pinch the front of the kneecap with thumb and forefinger, both fingers rest in depressions. Where my right front thumb is, the depression is much less. In other words, it is swollen. However, after 5 weeks of not running, I don't think "swollen" is the correct term. There may be something there that shouldn't be there, and possibly should be removed. That's what I want his opinion on.
This would seem to be where the meniscus is, so it may be a meniscus problem. I'm quite sure I didn't tear the meniscus, however, because the problem was caused by only slight running, not enough to cause a tear, I'm sure. Anyway, I will get his opinion.

Hopefully, I will be running next week.