Medical Monday And I Win A Prize!

   Today was yet another Medical Monday in my life.
   It started more or less first thing with a visit to my physiotherapist, Alison, at CBI. She foam-rolled me, stretched my right quad til I thought it would pop off, and then spent some time massaging the part of my knee that connects with my IT (iliotibial) band. There seemed to be a little swelling there and she thought it might have been from the foam-rolling she's been doing on the IT band the past few weeks. After all this, a new exercise to do, an ultrasound treatment and then a session with the TENS machine.
   At the end of all this, the knee felt great! As a matter of fact, the knee feels better now than it has in months, pretty well since I originally injured it last April (seems so long ago now). She suggested that I try running on it for a short bit and so that became my plan for later on.
   Part of Medical Monday this week included a trip to the blood donor clinic later on in  the afternoon. It was a beautiful sunny day and I thought if I was headed to that end of town then I would stop in at the MEC store, drop off some used batteries from work, and see if there was anything I could spend a $15 gift card on. 

My newest pair of Injinjis!

   Now, I happened to have that $15 gift card as the result of being one of the winners of a draw which was sponsored by the Thames Valley Trail Association. The TVTA said it was going to take the names of all the people who completed the End-To-End trail hike in 2017 and put them in a draw for both an End-To-End badge and an MEC gift card. I had sort of forgotten about the draw but then, a couple of weeks ago, what shows up in my mail but a badge and a gift card! Awesome! I walked around the store a bit and then found a pair of Injinji socks that cost about $18. Perfect!
   From the MEC store, it was on to the blood donor clinic. Ran into a bit of a snag there. About a week ago I had a punch biopsy done on a lesion on the side of my face (hopefully this will not lead into a whole bunch of other Medical Monday posts) and I still had not received the results of this. Because I had not received the results, they would not let me make a donation. Bummer. They did, however, still let me partake of cookies and a Coke. Yay. 
   From there, back on home, where I made spaghetti sauce for dinner. It occurred to me that seeing as how I had not donated blood, this meant I could go and work out before dinner. I took Alison's advice and did a little bit of treadmill running, with no pain. I even did the leg machines, which I had put on hold weeks ago, with no pain! 
   Kinda hard to describe how good this felt! I have always enjoyed the way my body heals itself but after awhile, when you're MY age, you start to wonder if maybe some of your body parts have outlasted the warranty. I was worried about this with my knee but after today I am much encouraged!
   
   P.S. Injinji should hire me as an ambassador. Both Alison and the MEC cashier asked me about them today. I wear them to physio and gave them a glowing recommendation to Alison and then basically repeated myself at the MEC store. They are awesomesocks!!
   

My Downtown 5K Race Recap

   As had been my plan, I went for a 5K training run this morning.
   I normally run a variety of routes in my neighbourhood but this time I decided to mix things up and head downtown. I also normally run by myself but this time I'd arranged to get together with a few other people. There were about 250 of them and we all wore paper thingies with numbers on them. 

Me, while I was still looking
forward to what was about to transpire!

   Yep I ran a race.
   This morning I ran in the second installment of the London Honda Road Race series---the Downtown 5K. Most of the races in this series have a 10K component but not this one. This meant a larger field than normal as a lot of the people who might otherwise have opted for the 10K did not have that option. Lots of race energy going on!
   It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining, the snow was all gone and the temps ended up being in the low teens. Pretty well perfect for running.
   I started the morning off with a toasted PB and banana sandwich, a cup of coffee with honey and a fistful of ENERGYbits. I've used ENERGYbits about four times at this point and the jury is still out, unfortunately.
   

ENERGYbits---ten down, twenty to go.

It was a beautiful drive downtown to Victoria Park and I passed by scores of people out running, there was just this kind of vibe going on today. About a third of the way there, I realized I'd forgotten my Garmin. Unfortunately, I'd timed things out to the last minute more or less and had no time to go back and get it. This kind of screwed up my "strategy" for the race, which had been to 10 to 1 run/walk ratio. I know, seems kinda

My Injinji socks--great for running!

extreme for a 5K race but lately, in training, it's been doing the trick. The last thing I wanted to do was to be checking my phone for time or, God forbid, set a timer so I just decided that I would give myself walk breaks at something close to the 2K and 4K intervals.

The Boer War monument in Victoria
Park. Pretty impressive, actually.

   I got there in enough time to pick up my bib and still be able to stretch. While I was stretching, this young lady walked up to me and introduced herself as a Western (the local university) journalism student. She'd been there interviewing racers as part of a project and asked if I had the time to answer a few questions.. Didn't have a problem with this so she started asking me questions about how regularly I raced and what motivates me to run, those kinds of things. A very pleasant young lady.
   Then, unfortunately, the race started.

The crowd at the starting line.
I'm ALREADY behind...

   About half a kilometer in, I knew this was not going to be a fun race. I felt tired, fat and slow. I had no real plan for the race and it showed. I basically ran til I felt tired and then walked til I didn't. People were passing me left and right and suddenly I had the real fear that I might finish last. My emergency "strategy" had gone right out the window. I found myself thinking I must be an idiot for signing up for the series of races if this was what I was going to have to go through every time.
   Realistically of course, I was fully aware of why I was having difficulties. Because of the winter, the training opportunities were way down and when you couple that with all the over-indulging of the holiday season and it being my birthday this past month then it was kind of a recipe for disaster. I just need to train and eat like I should and everything'll be fine!
   Later on, they posted the chip times and I came in 243 out of 254 and dead last in my age group. The good news was I didn't need to stick around to see if I won anything!

Some of the post-race aftermath.

   Oh, there was one bright moment. With about forty yards to go, a young lady tried to "chick" me. Now, I have no idea whether she even knew or cared what "chicking" someone meant and for all I know she was just running  her race and trying to get a better time. I have, however, been passed by a young person in the last few yards of a race before and I vowed back then that I wouldn't let that happen again so as the young lady passed me I turned on the jets, beating her by a second. It was actually kind of funny because when the race announcer realized what was happening, he got all excited and declared, "That's right, it's not a run, it's a race!"
   Although, for me, like I said, it was just a run... 
     

Longest Run Ever!: Part Two

   True to my training plan, I ran 12 kilometers today, my longest run ever! This was one more kilometer than I ran last Saturday and my plan is to add 1K to my long runs every weekend. So far, so good.
   Similarly to last week, I set out from my house and headed east to Springbank Park. From there, I just followed the path along the river until I got to Guy Lombardo bridge. Here is where I clocked out at 6K so I turned around and headed back the same way I came.
   It was an overcast day and only just barely above freezing when I set out. Fortunately it warmed up another couple of degrees by the time I was mid-run and, with a couple of layers on, the running was just right. All the snow and slush from last week had disappeared as well so that was kind of a bonus.
    I've been noticing over the last two or three long runs that, round about 7K in, my right foot starts to become numb. At this point, it sort of feels like I'm running on a wad of something underneath the balls of my feet. It's kind of disconcerting, to say the least. The first time it happened, the feeling never went away and I actually needed to stop running. The last couple of times, it's happened but to a lesser degree and I at least was able to finish. I'm thinking I'll just continue to monitor and if nothing changes then I'll get myself checked out. Today wasn't too bad.
   What was bad today was this occasional searing pain in my right ankle after my run---there have been three or four occasions when I put a quick lateral movement on it and I thought it was gonna snap right off! My calves are also feeling it so there might need to be some TLC this evening for me and my sore body parts...

Made the mistake of putting my hand right INSIDE the ENERGYbits bag!

   I've been popping ENERGYbits the last few long runs. I still haven't been able to decide how much of a real difference they make---I haven't found myself hitting the "wall" if I use them but, at the same time, there always seem to be other variables going on that might account for that. What I can say, though, is that I have a hell of a time getting them all down in one sitting! For the uninitiated, ENERGYbits are small tablets of pure spirulina algae and are meant to more or less replace many of the other energy enhancers runners are prone to trying. The base dose of ENERGYbits for an athletic endeavour is thirty tablets. I make a big production of downing the two small pills I normally take in the mornings so you can imagine what goes on when I try to swallow thirty of them! On top of the sheer amount of them, they taste like...well....algae. Kind of like licking the insides of your fish tank, I imagine. So, at the same time I'm grappling with the amount of them I am also coming to grips with the smell/taste of them. I swallow them in batches of ten and the third batch is kind of iffy, kind of hard to suppress the gag reflex, if you know what I mean. Having said all this, though, I feel I must re-iterate that I've never bonked after taking them. I remember taking Buckley's cough syrup once and it was one of the worst things I've ever tasted but, damn, it worked! So maybe ENERGYbits fall into the same category...

Ten little spots for ten little toes,,,

   What I can un-reservedly recommend, however, are Injinji socks! My wife, Doralyn, picked me up a couple of pairs right after I started running, mainly because of their funky look. I initially had some reservations but was quite willing to give them a try and I loved them! They have a very cushioning feel to them, each toe safely tucked away in its own little envelope, and the overall feel is amazing! A little hard to find in London but eventually did find some at the local MEC store.
   Hopefully, next week I'll be able to tack on another kilometer as I attempt to work my way a little closer to maybe something like a half marathon distance (in case I need a goal or something...) barring having done any real damage to my right foot. Time will tell and, in the meantime, happy and healthy running to you all!

Holy Hanna-Barbera, what happened to my run glove?!