knee pain :: Jim's Run

My Final Long Run…25 Miles

Posted by Jim on April 9, 2012

I’ve not written a blog in the past week because there has been so much going on lately. I start a new job tonight (night shift), my wife is home from work for the last couple weeks with a foot problem, taxes are coming due and life is completely chaotic right now. But I’m still getting in my training runs.

One Tuesday I ran a speed workout of 6.9 miles. I ran 5 minute intervals at about half-marathon speed with 3.5 minutes of jogging and 1.5 minutes of walking between each interval. I felt like it was a good workout. I’m trying to avoid injuries this close to the marathon, so I thought this workout was just the right thing. Overall, I finished the 6.9 miles in about 78 minutes. It was a warm day, about 84 degrees.

The next day, Wednesday, I ran another 6.5 miles at an easy pace. This run, like yesterday’s, was on the asphalt roads in the Chattanooga Battlefield Park. As I’ve shared before, I really enjoy running in the park because of the scenery, the shade and the minimal amount of motor vehicle traffic. This run, although a tad shorter than yesterday’s, was six minutes longer. The weather today was a beautiful 74 degrees.

After taking a couple days off because of other priorities, I went back to the park for another run on Saturday. This run was 5.3 miles at a moderate, but comfortable pace of just under 12:00 a mile. I am hoping to run at about this pace for the marathon on April 28th.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my final long run for the marathon. I will run some moderately long runs of 8-12 miles on each Saturday between now and the marathon, but this was the last 20+ mile run before the marathon.

I went to the Ridgeland High School track to do my run. I’m trying to follow the doctor’s advice about running on more forgiving surfaces, especially for my long runs. The school’s track is surfaced with recycled tires (like most school tracks these days).

My original plan was to run 22-23 miles, but as I was running I realize that that would mean completing 88-92 laps around the track. And if I was going to run that far, why not just make it an even 100! So I did. I had filled several bottles of water and grabbed a couple Clif Bars and gel packets for the run. I believe I drank nearly 100 ounces of water, 30 ounces of Gatorade (the original yellow, of course), and ate 840 calories during the run. I also took Ibuprofen during the run to help with the knee pain.

I fell much less knee pain than usual during this long run. I’m not sure what helped the most, the pain killers or running on a softer surface. Regardless, I was thrilled to finish with maybe half the pain that I felt after my last long run. I even skipped icing the knees when I got home. I did develop a sore toe/toe nail on my right foot from this long run. Hopefully it doesn’t develop into anything that interferes with my running.

The 25 mile run took me five and a half hours. I timed each split with my watch/heart monitor and was excited to see that I ran a negative split (a faster second half) by six minutes. I felt so good after the 22nd mile that I ran the last three miles in 12:40, 10:44 and 9:25 respectively. The average for the first 22 miles was 13:35 a mile. I was particularly pleased with the sub 10 minute final mile.

[PhotoCredit: Lincolnian]

Categories Milestones, Training
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A Visit to the Knee Doctor

Posted by Jim on April 2, 2012

Yesterday I did my “off week” long run of 12 miles in the Chickamauga Battlefield park. The run was nearly two hours and fifty minutes and, as usual, I had knee pain for the last hour of my run. I didn’t take anything, so the pain was a bit worse than usual. Last week my wife set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to take a look at my knees, and the visit was this morning.

I arrived at the doctor’s office about 20 minutes early knowing that I would need to complete the medical history paperwork for my first visit. As I sat waiting for my name to be called, I continued to worry that the doctor would simply reply to my “It only hurts when I run” with a simple “quit running”. But when I finally saw the doctor and shared my problem, he had a little better advice.

I felt kinda silly because the pain isn’t something that lasts long or occurs outside of long hikes or runs. And the medical exam didn’t reveal any pain or knee problems for the doctor. But he seemed to understand the issue and recommended the following: 1) continue taking the walking breaks during my long runs as that seems to be helping, 2) don’t do my long runs on the Tennessee Riverwalk or other concrete surfaces (instead run on a local school track), 3) do stretches before and after all of my runs to stretch my Iliotibial band.

I’ve never been much for stretching, so that will take some getting used to. But the doctor seemed to think that the stretches would do the most to alleviate my problem. So stretching it is.

[PhotoCredit:Maigh]

Categories Training
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Longest Run Ever!

Posted by Jim on March 26, 2012

Yesterday I completed my longest run ever…22 miles. Now, it wasn’t fast. And I finished in pain, but I did finish.

I completed my run in just under five hours on the Tennessee Riverwalk in Chattanooga. I enjoyed most of the run as it was a beautiful day of about 76 degrees. And, if you’ve read any of my other posts, you know how much I enjoy the scenery on the Riverwalk.

The only real challenge was the knee pain that became much worse for the last four miles. As usual, I started feeling the pain after a couple hours of running. I swallowed three Ibuprofen and things seemed okay for more than an hour. I took walk breaks for two minutes after every ten minutes of running. But after my walk break at the 18 mile marker, I found it quite painful to start running again. So I decided not to take any more walk breaks as the pain of starting to run again was too much.

I have only completed one other run of over 20 miles in my lifetime. That was about 10 years ago. But this run was more than a mile longer than that run years ago.

I feel ready for the marathon on April 28th. I will do a 10-12 mile run this next weekend and one more 20+ run the weekend following. After that I will start my taper for the marathon.

[PhotoCredit: WallyGobetz]

Categories Trail Runs and Hikes
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My 250th Training Mile

Posted by Jim on February 26, 2012

That 251.8 miles, to be exact. That’s how far I’ve run since starting my training on October 10th of last year. That’s 15.1 miles a week, even with the lengthy break I took due to illness. Total running time, 54 hours and 57 minutes.

I just got back from my longest run to date while training for the Country Music Marathon taking place on April 28th in Nashville, Tennessee. I ran the full length of the Tennessee Riverwalk in Chattanooga and then back to my truck by the Chickamauga Dam. That’s 15 miles total. It was the perfect weather, a little cool (54 degrees) and sunny.

I started a little fast, about 2 minutes faster than my final average of 13:20 per mile. My knees felt fine for the first seven miles, but started to hurt a bit after that. The only time the pain really bothered me was about the 11 mile mark, but I just focused on the book I was listening to and kept on running. Soon I didn’t really notice the pain. The final couple of miles were a very slow jog, but I was thrilled to have finished this long run without too much trouble. I feel good about finishing the marathon.

I want to remind anyone reading my blog that my goal to finish a marathon is only one of the reasons I am running; the other is to raise money for St Jude Hospital in Memphis. St Jude is the only pediatric cancer research hospital in the nation where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance. And their research continues to improve the chances of these children to live a healthy, cancer free life. I hope that you will help me in supporting St Jude by making whatever donation you can afford. Just visit http://bit.ly/jimsrun to sponsor my run and support St Jude Hospital.

(Photo Credit: fdtate)

Categories St Jude, Training
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10 Kilometer Racing in the Morning

Posted by Jim on December 16, 2011

I ran a couple times this week and didn’t take time to post. Family time is my priority during the holiday. But tomorrow I have my first ever trail race so I thought I should update you on what’s happening.

On Wednesday I ran four miles on the Back Country Trail in Cloudland Canyon State Park. It was a faster run than I expected at just under 48 minutes. Yesterday I did a short three mile run on the asphalt track and again my pace was faster than normal. Since I run with a heart monitor to keep from over or under training, the increased speed is definitely a good sign.

My only concern going into this race is the pain at the back of my right knee. I think I did something to it while playing table tennis with my sons. It hurt a little on Tuesday night and was painful during both runs after that. Even today while doing some shopping there was pain. It doesn’t seem to be slowing me down, but I’m concerned that it could become a bigger issue in tomorrow’s 6.2 mile race. I’ve got the leg elevated with a heat pad right now, so let’s hope it is only a minor nuisance tomorrow.

I’ve never run a race on dirt trails before other than one cross country race during high school. Even then it was a fairly level and easy course through open fields. Tomorrow’s race on Lookout mountain has some more challenging aspects. Also, it rained most of today, so there will be some mud and water to navigate. Nonetheless, it should be a lot of fun. I will update you on the result tomorrow or Sunday.

Categories Races, Trail Runs and Hikes, Training
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Training Run: November 8, 2011

Posted by Jim on November 8, 2011

Today was a long run, so I filled a couple water bottles and headed up to Cloudland Canyon State Park on Lookout Mountain to run my 8.5 miles. I started near the Interpretive Center and ran out the road on the West Rim. It was an out and back run with a variety of hills and flats that I finished in just under 2 hours. To stay within my long run heart rate zone, I had to stop running on a few of the steeper hills. This is the hilliest course I have ran yet.

My knees were a bit tight, but not quite sore after 5+ miles. I think the walk breaks help (still running 8 mins., then walking 2), but I’m expecting to have some knee pain on runs over 10 miles. That’s really not so bad considering that 10 years ago I was feeling knee pain on any run over 6 miles. Oh well, we will see.

The run was beautiful. Leaves are changing and falling everywhere. The wildlife was out as I saw several squirrels, a chipmunk, what I am pretty sure was a raccoon, and several deer. This wasn’t a trail run, but the road was quiet with very little traffic. I love the park and will probably do a lot more runs here before my marathon.

By the way, I want to mention that the amazing photo that I used for this post was taken by MoultrieCreek on June 20, 2008 at the park. Her photo (in even more amazing clarity) is on her flickr.com site. Thank you MoultrieCreek for sharing this photo through Creative Commons licensing.

Photo Credit: MoultrieCreek