Trail Runs... Who Knew?

   Not sure if I've mentioned this already, but the 5K trail run I did last weekend in Uxbridge kicked my butt. I had heard through testimonials from previous years that it was a very challenging course but I really was ill-prepared to run it effectively.
   Part of this is that trail runs are a new concept to me--I've been an asphalt/sidewalk runner since I started last August (mixed with a lot of ice, snow and slush). I'd also been unable to approximate the type of trail conditions I thought I might encounter. Back in the late winter I'd found a trail through nearby Warbler Woods which seemed as though it would be great once the weather got nicer. As you are aware, however, the weather never got nicer!
   

The past few days have been nice and today was gorgeous, so I decided to investigate the Warbler Woods trail again, under better conditions.
   I had originally mapped a 5K course using gmap-pedometer.com but when I tried walking the course a few months ago I came out of the woods in the wrong spot. I've driven past the other end of the woods several times and have seen where I needed to come out so today I reversed the route I took the first time, just to be sure I walked the correct way, mileage-wise.

Beginning of the trail.

   From my house, you walk slightly over a K and a half before you even get to the woods so this is a nice little warm-up. The trail begins as a nice little paved walkway which skirts some backyards for a few hundred meters. At this point, there is a fairly dramatic rise and I thought to myself that it would be nice to be running in the opposite direction when that time comes!


The rise begins!

   Eventually, the trail gets away from being paved and heads off into the woods.
   The trail is pretty clearly marked and quite easy to follow. Only the odd section was muddy at all, which quite surprised me after all the wet weather we've had.


Quite the birdhouse in a pretty affluent 'hood!

   This early in the spring there was still very little foliage and you could only imagine how scenic it will be in full bloom.


If you go left...

...the pavement ends and you go around the fence

   There were a lot of ups and downs and twisty little spots and I thought to myself that it would give Uxbridge a run for its money. I also wished I'd been running it for a few months myself, before last weekend. I'm thinking I need to make this a regular part of my run week.
   I was only walking today as I'm still trying to heal up from the p-fash (anybody getting tired of hearing about this?) and I'm just not quite ready to go all out. I desperately wanted to go all out a couple of times today and had to restrain  myself. I guess that means I must be feeling better


Gotta remember to go left here!

  

At this point, I figure I'm about a week away from light running and, after that, we'll see.
   In the meantime, trail running has started to intrigue me. I've had a bit of a taste the past couple of weekends as to what this would be like and I've enjoyed it. Trail-running shoes in the future! Hmmm....Father's Day is coming up.....
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!   





Uxbridge 5K Done!

Sherri and Doralyn in the chute for the 5K walk.

   Yesterday, I completed the Uxbridge Half Marathon 5K Trail Run division. I had been training for this reasonably intensively for the last three or four months, although the last month has been not easy due to the p-fash.
   Doralyn did the 5K Trail Walk, along with Sherri, her brother's girlfriend.

Sherri and Doralyn, pre-race.

   Saturday, we drove through a couple of blizzards to get to Uxbridge but yesterday, though it was still pretty cold, it was also bright and sunny with not a lot of wind.
   The run was held at Wooden Sticks Golf Course in Uxbridge and was partially run through the adjacent Countryside Preserve Trail System.
   Before the runs began, there was an emotional moment when a moment's silence was observed for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. As well, both the American and Canadian national anthems were sung. It was quite difficult to not choke up during this.


Me, happy that race day has finally arrived!

   Not too long after Doralyn and Sherri set off on their walk, I headed off on the 5K run.
   It was much more difficult than I anticipated!
   I had heard that it was quite a challenging run and I had been trying to spend more time training on hills here in London. Not good enough! My "hills" were simply the hilliest paved streets I could find in my neighbourhood. The "hills" in Uxbridge involved mud, tree branches, frozen ruts, roots and inclines that occasionally felt like they were going straight up. On top of all that, the route also needed to be shared with another couple of hundred runners, in sometimes narrow confines.
   In spite of all this, I (and we) had a marvelous time. The organizers, headed up by Katharine Granger, ran a very well-organized event, the post-run brunch was awesome and the awards ceremony came off in timely fashion. I personally enjoyed a bit of a surprise myself when my name was called as the bronze medal winner in the men's 60+ division. There turned out to be a bit of an asterisk around this, however, as we discovered that I had actually come in fifth out of six runners upon checking the website when we got home. Still some investigating to do there!


James' kids, Ben and Shakira, joined us near the finish line.

   As a group, we have decided to return and run the race again next year. Doralyn's brother, James, has just taken up running, along with Sherri, and has said that he'd be keen to enter next year as well. Many thanks to him this year for getting us to the race and back, without having to worry about parking!

Our tees and bling!

   So, currently, there is not a race on the horizon to train for. This is probably a good thing, as it will enable me to simply rest up and let the p-fash heal, hopefully permanently. With the addition of orthotics, a revised pre- and post-run stretching routine and a better idea of when I might be overdoing it, perhaps the p-fash can be held at bay.
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!
  

Gonna Give It A Go

   At some point this week, I need to get out and run 5K. I need to do this because I need to know if I can run 5K, at this point.
   The last time I ran this distance was way back on Feb. 25, pretty close to two months ago. It was at this time that I came down with the p-fash and, hence, started scaling back the runs. Lately, the runs have almost stopped altogether, for a variety of reasons.
   The principal reason why I need to know whether I can or not is that I have a 5K trail run coming up in a week. Doralyn and I are entered in the Uxbridge Half Marathon (in the 5K run/walk division--she's walking and I'm running). Prior to the p-fash, the training was coming along quite well, I was running a hillier route and the times were slowly dropping. The the p-fash reared its ugly head, I cut way back and now I have no real idea where I am in turns of stamina or speed.
   Originally, my aim was to place really well in my age division. This doesn't seem too likely anymore. I have no fear whatsoever about finishing the race but it would be kind of nice to have an idea whether or not it will be during daylight hours or not! At this point, what I would really like to be able to do is complete the race without needing to stop and walk.
   My plan for today is to go out and run about as slow as I possibly can and see if I can run the whole 5K. Then, my plan will be to see if I can walk when I crawl out of bed tomorrow morning! This would give about a whole week to recover so that I can do it all over again on race day next weekend. If nothing else, it will give me a realistic set of expectations with which to work.
   In the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!

The GAiT-way Explained And The News Is So-So...

   This afternoon I made my way back to SoleScience at the Fowler Kennedy clinic so that I could sit down with Dr. Colin Dombroski and discuss the results of my 3D GAiT assessment.
   Fortunately, Colin loaded the results of the assessment on to a memory stick so that I could sit down at home and more slowly go over all the info and what it meant.

   In his office, though, he was able to explain to me that out of the three main areas of my lower body which work together to make me run--the knees, ankles and hips--the most problematic one of them was the hips.


Dr. Colin Dombroski

   This didn't take me entirely by surprise--prior to the onset of plantar fasciitis, if you'd asked me what the most dysfunctional area of my body was I would have said my hips. There have been times in my past when, in the morning, my one hip would not actually propel me across the room anymore. My wife begged me to go see her chiropractor but, being a man, I waffled mightily.
   Eventually, though, the pain became so intense that I finally acquiesced. I have never been so glad that I did. Several adjustments later and I was right as rain. Occasionally I go back when I feel it's necessary. Lately, I've been feeling it's about time so it was really not totally surprising to find that the GAiT assessment indicated the hips as a problem area.


Low numbers are bad...

   Colin went ahead and gave me a set of exercises to do to strengthen my hips, this by way of e-mail so that it can be accessed quickly. In about six weeks, I'll return for another follow-up and see if the exercises, in conjunction with the orthotics, have made a difference, both with the p-fash and the mechanics.
   On another interesting note, when Colin first met me he took a look at the wear pattern on the Asics I'd been running in and said he'd never really seen one quite like it. Because of this, he actually offered to waive the assessment fee, if I turned them over to him! Which I did!


The offending wear pattern

   Well, off to do some exercising...
   

The GAiT-way

   Today, I underwent my much-anticipated 3D GAiT assessment at SoleScience in the Fowler Kennedy clinic at Western University.
   The assessment was carried out by Lyndsey Carey, a Masters student and assistant to Dr. Colin Dombroski, head of SoleScience. The GAiT assessment is part and parcel of the treatment plan, involving orthotics, which my plantar fasciitis has made necessary.
   The GAiT assessment arrived at Western via the University of Calgary, and it was developed by Dr. Reed Ferber, after many years of research. As its name implies, the program's infra-red cameras and its attendant software provide a 3D look at an athlete's gait and are more able to pick out his or her risk factors for lower body injuries. It can also predict which part of the lower body might be more prone to an injury than another. This allows an athlete to direct the proper resources toward strengthening that particular area of the body.

Me, trying to look like I'm running...

   The assessment begins with having reflectors attached to strategic areas of the athlete's body. At left, I am on the treadmill with all the reflectors attached to the back of my knees, calves, waist, ankles and shoes. The trio of cameras behind me, on the right, pick up the reflectors as I walk and then run and transfer the data from them into the computer. The software takes over from there.


The camera setup.

   What you end up with is a plethora of bio-mechanical information demonstrating pronation and supination as well as "movement patterns in all 3 dimensions (flex/extension, abd/adduction, and rotations) for the ankle, knee, hip and pelvis". And, hopefully, when I sit down with Colin this week to discuss the results of the assessment, the previous sentence will take on some kind of meaning for me!
   All in all, it was a fascinating experience and I can hardly wait to see what it all tells me. 


Lyndsey, compiling my data.

The screen, little bits of me all over the place!

   It also afforded me my first opportunity to be on a working treadmill. You may find this hard to believe, but in all my sixty years I've managed to totally avoid the thing. Much of my time was spent just trying to maintain my balance and not fall off. Once used to it, though, the running stride became much more natural and less strained. Hopefully, this produced better results.

Lyndsey in her workplace.

   Tomorrow, I return to sit down with Colin and discuss both the results and how the orthotics seem to be working. I've quite quickly recovered from my run the other day, both the heel and shin have come around nicely. I find this encouraging and hope it's a trend!
   Many thanks to Lyndsey (who is now bemused with the possibility of being famous) for graciously consenting to stay past closing time so that my work schedule could be accomodated and we could get this assessment completed before my appointment tomorrow. Also, many thanks to Dr. Colin Dombroski for allowing me to document the whole procedure. It was fun!
  

   

Run. Stop. Run. Repeat.

   Yesterday I really wanted to avoid another one of those days when I only got out there for a long walk. Due to the p-fash, it had been about two weeks since I actually ran in anger and I decided to give this another go.

   I started off walking my normal 5K route with the hills. I walked pretty strenuously as a warm-up. When I got to the 1K mark I started to run. Co-incidentally, this is the part of the route where the hills kick in so whether this was a good idea or not, I'm not sure. I managed to make it through this not too badly and then I stopped running at the end of 2K, walking the rest of the way in.
   Back home I stretched and iced again and, all in all, felt pretty good.
   Later on that afternoon, however, I was out running errands and the heel was hurting like hell. Not only was it hurting but there was also this strange new strained sensation down the right side of the front of my shin. It felt somewhat like a light sprain. Walking on my heel alleviated the shin but aggravated the heel. Walking on my forefoot alleviated the heel but aggravated the shin. Not a good situation to be in.
   As per usual, I tried to analyze the source of this new pain. None of the likely suspects raised their heads but the wildcard in all of this was the new orthotics. Yesterday was the first time I'd actually run in them and it seemed likely that the subtle change they presented might have been the most likely cause of this new painful sensation. By the end of the day the pain had lessened somewhat and once again I found myself waiting til morning. It was hard, though, not to be just a little discouraged last night.
   Today---slightly better news. There was very little unmanageable pain in either the heel or the shin. As far as the shin goes, the new exercises Dr. Dombroski has me doing might also have partly affected it. He has me doing a range of motion exercise which involves carving out the letters of the alphabet with my toes and forefoot. This helps stretch the plantar fascia. It also serves to provide a bit of a workout to several other tendons, ligaments and muscles down there which normally might not have received this. It has occurred to me that the shin discomfort might have had something to do with my whole foot being asked to do things it wouldn't normally be asked to do.
   Tomorrow I go in for my rescheduled GAiT assessment at SoleScience. I got a bit of a taste of what this was all about last week and I anticipate a pretty interesting blog post about it. Later this week, I've got follow-up with Dr. Dombroski wherein we'll discuss both the GAiT assessment and, basically, how the new orthotics are working out.
   It was nice to be out running again yesterday, even if it was only a kilometer. With the warmer weather (finally!) there are runners out there everywhere and I sure want to be joining them on a regular basis as soon as possible!

My Little Chickensh**t Walk (And A Couple Of Other Only Mildly Interesting Things)

   I had hoped that by today I would have a blog post ready describing the 3D GAiT assessment I was scheduled to have yesterday at SoleScience here in London. Unfortunately the appointment needed to be re-scheduled to next week, so THAT post will have to wait a little longer.
   Today, I had been thinking that I would go out for my first run in two weeks. I'd been following (fairly closely) the at-home regimen Dr. Dombroski had recommended for treating the p-fash which has been my close companion for over a month now. The heel was feeling great and as I was walking around today it felt perfectly normal. Dr. Dombroski had even suggested giving running a try as I now had my new orthotics. Evrything pointed to giving it a shot--- and then I chickened out.
   The heel felt great, the new shoes felt wonderful, I wanted to run--but I still chickened out.
   I'm not totally sure why I did this. More than anything, I think it might have been the fact that, because the heel was SO good, I didn't want to risk taking a backward step. I felt that the psychological impact of going from no pain back to pain might have been more than I was prepared to handle at the moment.

Part of the route. Looks flat. It ain't.

   I opted instead for a 5K walk, following the hilly route I'd been running to prepare myself for the Uxbridge 5K trail run in two weeks. I chose to walk it as fast as I possibly could, so that the heel would get a decent workout without as much fear of reinjuring it. I even Garmin'd it. My virtual running partner was "on" and was set to a running pace. Very quickly my virtual partner outdistanced me and disappeared from the screen (I had visions of him on my front porch, waiting for me to show up...) but this didn't bother me. I completed the walk in about forty-five minutes and enjoyed the mild sweat it caused. I re-stretched, massaged and iced and will see how things are in the morning. If I'm still feeling good, I will repeat the same thing but will add perhaps a kilometer of running to the mix and see how that goes. Assuming it goes okay, I will very gradually increase the running.
   Now for the Only Mildly Interesting stuff.


My plantar fasciitis killers.

   I now have orthotics. So far, they feel great and I really hope they help prevent further p-fash episodes. Fingers crossed there. In the process of removing sock liners from various pairs of shoes the past few days in order to slide in the orthotics, I discovered something quite interesting. Well, it was interesting to me, a fairly new runner, it may actually be old hat to other, more seasoned runners. When I removed the sock liner from the left shoe of my new Air Pegasus+29's, I discovered a funny little foam tab. My wife then got curious and removed the foam tab. This left a plastic hole, or well.
   I couldn't for the life of me figure out what this hole was for and why only in the left shoe.



Above, plugged. Below, unplugged.

   Quickly I went to Google and discovered what it was. This is the built-in spot for your Nike Sensor. The Sensor is a wireless transmitter which will send running data (times, laps, pace, calories burned, etc.) directly to your iPod nano, iPod touch, Nike+ SportBand or iPhone, so that you can view it, as you are running.

Nike Sensor
 

   Okay, this was pretty cool! Not sure if I'll ever get the Sensor but it was still good to know.
   At this point, it's several hours since my strenuous little chickens**t walk and the heel is a little more tender than it was before. I'm not too worried about this, I'll find out in the morning if there's been a major setback at all. My new mantra has become time will tell and heal as well! Cheers!