Andy Roberts - Still Running and now not a Facebook virgin

Yep you heard it here folks I am now on Facebook.  I have always known about Facebook but never took the time to make a page.  I had no idea that everybody I know is on Facebook and that is where they spend their free time.

It looks like a fun thing to do.  I have already gotten to talk to some childhood friends that I have not seen in a looong time.

 

Yesterday I did had the good and bad fortune to run a 20 miler.  Good fortune because this has not been possible in at least a year and finally after going to physical therapy things are moving forward and feeling good.  The bad fortune was that I was supposed to run with a group on Sunday but found out last minute that I was going out of town and had to either skip the run or go it alone.  20 mile runs are hard mentally and physically.  Doing them alone is just brutal.  When you get tired you have no one to push you through to gut out the finish.  I made it through with a good time and did the run exactly as planned which was like this

 

Run 5 miles

Stop at store for gatorade 3 minute stop

Run 5 miles

Take a 3 minute walk break 

Run 3.5 miles

Stop at store for Gatorade and energybar 5 minutes

Run 3 miles

Walk 3 minutes

Run 3.5 miles

 

The run was pretty uneventful. Very a-typical for me it was all paved. I ran about 8:05 pace most of the time I checked it.  I was wearing a garmin to check the mileage.  The total time out was 2:55  counting walks and stops which was good and I made the U-turn at 1:25 so my split was pretty even too which is probably the most important thing to look at for the whole day.  It was hot yesterday 70 degrees when I started and closer to 80 when I finished.  I carried a bottle while I ran and drank 3 full bottles of Gatorade on the run. 

 

I got a pair of Pegasus to run in about 2 weeks ago and have been having good luck with them I am a long time Asics 21x0 runner I think my first pair was 2080 and I am now in 2130's but I felt like I had to change something up to see if my body would feel a little better.  The Pegasus with sof-sole inserts seem to be working well.

 

Look for me on face book if you are ever on there but I admit I am hard to find. There are tons of Andy Roberts on there  

End of the Year - Wasssup

Last I checked in it was late October and I had just done a 1/2 marathon. Since then I have run the 15k Thanksgiving Turkey Trot in 1:03 something which was pleasing since it was a grand prix race. I skipped the final grand prix race of the year which was the next week because my knee was bothering me and it just did not make sense to go run all week on it and then race 10 miles so I took a break.

I ended up working the numbers game well enough to win my age group for the Grand Prix which was a big goal all year and I was happy to accomplish it. It was tough to find a way to win in a category with a bunch of people who are much faster than me. It basically boiled down to making it to as many races as possible

I went to a physical therapist to see what was up with my knee and see if he could figure anything out about my calf that has been bothering me all year. He gave me some execises to do and did a good job of explaining what was going on. Pretty quickly my knee felt better and surprisingly the pain that I always have had in my patellar tendon seems to be feeling much better too. The doctor had predicted that what was wrong with my knee that has always felt like patellar tendonitis would go away with the exercises and that it had probably not every been tendonitis rather just an alignment problem in the knee that needed the strength exercises he showed me. The calf was a little trickier but the exercises make sense and I have been pretty good about sticking with them. I was told to keep running but to keep wearing the wrap on my calf that I have been wearing all year. The problem is that I have not really had pain in my calf when I wear the wrap on it so I can not tell if the exercises are working. I have not wanted to run without the wrap and have a setback so I have worn it continually.

Today however I took off on a group run that was 16 miles long and what do you know. A mile into it I look down and realize that I have forgotten my calf wrap. I decided to just go with it and see if my calf was alright. I am very very happy to report that my calf felt fine all the way through the run. Realize that this is the first time in 11 months that I have run with no compression wrap on my calf without having a problem. I sure hope I am on the right track. I will keep with the exercises and running with the wrap a while longer but the end of calf hell is in sight.

Today's run was another good thing. 15.5 - 16 miles in 1:52 I kept missing the mile markers but I know we did a good number of miles at 7:18 and then a bunch in the 7:00- 7:05 range. I ended up slowing up some the last 3 miles but I was happy with the run I don't know the exact distance of the run but it must be less than 16 miles because I would have had a 7:00 average if it was 16 miles and I know I was not that fast. One way or another it was a good day

Merry Christmas