AVR Week In Review - 1/29/12 - A Veteran Runnah

This was a very quiet week, without a lot going on. I finally got the post updated/edited after the move to WordPress.com and can focus more on the writing, than back-end management now.

I do know that I am starting to get tired of winter and having to run bundled up, by the end of February, it will definitely be time to start really moving towards spring. Yes we still have to get through this month, but December and January are now behind us and there is a small light at the end of the tunnel .

Running This Week

RunLog Week of 2/5/12

Three things Running this week

Ran over 30.0 miles this week!
Ran on the snowmobile trail
Found that I am not as fast as I thought

This is the first week I have been over 30 miles since September 2006. I decided to go ahead and run 30 miles this week yesterday morning, I would have ended up with around 28 miles if I had kept to my original schedule. Overall I feel very good and have tried to be careful about hard/easy and long/shorter on alternating days. I ran two 5+ milers in a row (Friday & Saturday) and still felt good. Making progress, but I do have to keep reining myself in

On Wednesday I ran the local snowmobile trail for one of the toughest runs, if not the toughest run since I returned to running. No it was not the fastest, but just damned hard and worth every step that I did to do it.

Unfortunately, as a result of using the GPS programs on my old iPhone, I found out that most of my courses were short and that I wasn’t running nearly as fast as I thought. GPS may not always be accurate, but at least if the course is short it isn’t inflating how I am doing. I would prefer to think that I am a little slower and have to work harder, than think I am getting there and really am not. Back to the drawing board and time to work a little harder.

Racing Schedule

I started a Google Calendar – Running In Maine 2012 with a lot of the dates of races in Maine during 2012, I am not done yet, but I have made it public and if I have missed one, please let me know, so I can add it.

Long Term Goal

My long-term goal will be to run the 2013 Marine Corps Marathon and get through 2012 without any significant down time or injuries (running related or others).

I finished the 1983 Marathon and to run/finish Marine Corps again 30 years later would be very cool. So this is one of the major goals that I have in mind for my running and it would be even more fantastic if I could qualify for Boston that same day. Therefore, I am doing a 2 year work-up to the Marathon distance, just to see if my knee will hold up.

This week in a word: Stability

Weight

I have bounced between 164-167 all week – 164 is the lowest I have been since 2001 – so I am continuing to make slow, but steady progress on losing weight.

Injuries

Everything is feeling pretty good. The knee is not bothering too much and my lower back is better. As I have increased my mileage, my usual Right Hip Flexor discomfort still bothers a little. I have to start doing more self-massage, exercises and preventative maintenance.

I have noticed a definite difference since I started wearing the knee and calf sleeves from Tommie Copper, see my initial review. I strained my left calf pretty good on the Snowmobile trail run (slipping on a small hillock) and usually would have had to take a couple of days off to let it get better.

I wore the calf sleeves all day and then to bed and woke up and could have run if I had needed to on Thursday (scheduled day off) and when I ran Friday it didn’t bother me. So I was pretty impressed by that. I also notice that my calves are not nearly as sore as they usually are when I increase my mileage and my knees are feeling pretty good. The Tommie Coppers might be part of the solution that I have looked for?

Tommie Copper provided me with free knee and calf sleeves to try in exchange for a review on my blog, but this will not influence the review of the product, the opinions expressed are my own.

Shoes

I am almost up to 280 miles on my Saucony Peregrines and the hole in the left heel is getting larger. This means I have been in active research and am now going into search mode for a new pair of running shoes. I am really hoping that the Peregrines can make it to March, but the bigger the hole in the heel gets in my left shoe, the more concerned I am about getting blisters there. My Brooks Ravenna are not an everyday winter running shoe and none of the other shoes that I have are in good enough shape to run daily in. So I might have to risk some repair work on the Peregrine’s heel to see if I can get them to last a little longer.

Blog Posts

Below are my posts from last week:

Top 10

Here are my top ten posts for the past week based on pageviews:

My Favorite post from last week

Stay Connected to Running – Even When Injured where I discuss that even when injured runners, still have a lot to offer to their running community and how they need to stay connected, even though they may not be actively running due to their injury.

The reality is that

It was a lot nicer being able to work on some reviews, research for what my next pair of shoes might be and just relax a bit after last week’s hectic efforts to get “A Veteran Runnah” moved over to WordPress.com.

Reviewing products is something that I enjoy doing and put a lot of thought and effort into my wear tests. If you do have a product you want reviewed, please contact me using the Contact via Email Widget in the Sidebar or on Twitter @VetRunnah and we can discuss whether I am a fit to review your product or not.