NCHM Challenge - No Run # 7

When I left my house this morning I had full intentions of running today, but after sitting at my desk for several hours, my hip has become sore, so I'm going to give it a break.

Shouldn't be a problem tomorrow.

NCHM Challenge - No Run # 6

Well my hip is a bit sore today, so not to push it, I'm taking today off from running. Unfortunately, unless I take several weeks off from running, this issue will not go away. This means that I'm going to have to deal with the pain after my runs if I'm going to get through this challenge. Because of this, I'm going to limit my running to 4 days a week (was 5) and see if that helps. That means, no more Wednesday runs, which are either Hills or Speed for the next couple of weeks. That is OK, as I don't expect to set any speed records, and the course I'm running doesn't have any big hills to conquer. It just sucks because everything was going great up until this injury started.

NCHM Challenge - No Run # 5

Well I also missed yesterday's 16k run. I had a very late night Saturday and a very early morning yesterday that put me in a daze most of the day. Then in the afternoon, my oldest daughter had a birthday party to go to that threw off my afternoon. By the time I was done supper, I was also very tired, so I didn't have the energy to go for a run. That now makes 4 missed runs in a row, but that is where it ends. My hip feels 98%, so tomorrow it's back on track. Hopefully these missed days don't throw off my times/endurance too much.

NCHM Challenge - No Run # 4

So I decided to not run today and give my hip 1 more day of rest. At the moment, it feels about 80% fine, but I have to get back into running before I lose all the progress I've made to this point. Tomorrow is a 16k run, and my plan is to do it. We will see tomorrow.

NCHM Challenge - No Run # 3

My right hip feels much better today, but since tomorrow is already a scheduled day off, I figured I'd take today off as well and give it some extra rest. At the moment I'm thinking I will run Saturday, but that may change the closer it gets to run time. Right now my opinion is that rest is best.

NCHM Challenge - No Run # 2

Well it was bound to happen. I've missed my 2nd run of this training. Today I'm feeling a little sick, but mostly my right hip is very sore. It's so sore that I'm thinking that I will be taking tomorrow's run off, and probably Saturday's to give it a few days rest.

NCHM Challenge - Run # 44

Despite being tired and a little sore in the right hip, I made it out today.

Here are my numbers

		My results	Comments
Type of Run	Tempo	steady	OK
Distance	4 Km	4 Km	total: 224.63 km
Pace	6:36	6:08	great
Average HR	148-159	159	great
Max HR	180	222	high
Calories Burned		481	total: 27943

Being that I was feeling tired, I decided to do a faster warm-up but not as fast during my Tempo section. Overall, my pace was better than most other Tempo runs, with my Tempo section being 6:04/km for 2.8k. My hip was bugging me (and has been for a week now) for the first half and I may need to take some time off to give it a break. We'll see how it feels tomorrow.

NCHM Challenge - Run # 34

Even though the weather is not nice today (cold and raining), I still made it out for my Tempo run.

Here are my numbers

		My results	Comments
Type of Run	Tempo	non-stop	great
Distance	4 Km	4 Km	total: 160.4 km
Pace	6:36	6:12	great
Average HR	148-159	160	ok
Max HR	180	191	high
Calories Burned		482	total: 20136

Same run as last week except this time I made it through without too much difficulty. Did 2.75km at a 5:59/km pace. Very happy, but now my right hamstring is feeling a little tight. I've stretched it a few times now and hopefully it will feel better before tomorrow.

HHM Challenge - Run #34

Made it out today and I have to say, it was the worse run I've had during this training. It was suppose to be a 6km HR Zone 3 run, but it did not end up that way. At about 8 minutes I had to walk because I couldn't get my HR below the max number, and then at 15 minutes I had to walk because both my ankles were in pain. I then tried to continue but the pain wouldn't go away, so I cut my run short.

Here are my numbers

		My results	Comments
Type of Run	HR Zone 3	no set pattern	see above
Distance	6 Km	3.3 Km	total: 169.6km
Pace	7:19	7:49	see above
Average HR	127-145	139	fine
Max HR	181	152	a little high
Calories Burned		407	total: 20308

I'm hoping to run tomorrow for a bit to make up for this horrible run.

Injury timeout

We interrupt this blog to report an injury.

Well I did it again. I pinched a nerve in my lower back last Friday and have been unable to do much ever since. The funny thing is that I did it reaching for the laundry soap! It has been several years since the last time I did it, and believe me, it is not a fun thing to go through. Especially since the only remedy is rest. No meds, heat or cold is going to help. All you have to do is rest as much as possible so that you don't aggravate it anymore. Unfortunately, with 3 kids and a dog, rest is not an option. And to make matters worse, my wife pulled something in her shoulder and she's not as functional as she would like. Ahh the joys of getting older.

So since I'm suppose to be resting, I'm going to have to hold off on the running for a few more days. Just when I was starting to get back into a rhythm.

All's well

With my thumb that is. Had an appointment with a Plastic surgeon yesterday and he feels that my thumb is healing fine and the I won't need to repair the partially torn tendon. That is some good news as I was dreading the fact that they might have to re-open my thumb. At the moment, all bandages and stitches are off, but it still looks nasty. Oh well, at least it works, albeit not 100% yet.

Vacation, Renos and Stitches

Well I'm back to work after being off for 12 days (including weekends) and what an interesting week+ it was. The plan was to paint 4 rooms and fix up our 2nd bathroom (new floor, window frame and light fixtures). Well everything was going well until I thought it would be great to slice the top part of my thumb. After spending 5 hours in Emergency I left with 5 stitches and a partially torn tendon. That kinda put a halt to the renos for a few days. The wife managed to finish the floor in the bathroom and she did a wonderful job, then we hired someone to finish the window frame and I finished all the painting once everybody else was done.

So even though there was a setback, all work was completed before coming back to work. Now I get to rest a bit.

On a side note, I did weigh myself the other day and only gained 1 lbs during the month, which had over 2 weeks of holidays and not juicing everyday. Overall I'm still down 6 lbs since I started juicing, so that is good. I didn't get the chance to check out my blood pressure or waist size, but I will at some point this month.