I'm Back

Wow, I am quite embarrassed to have neglected writing anything in this blog after such a brief start. The simple truth is that two things have kept me from running at all for these past months. First, an amazing thing: Courtney and I both welcomed the addition of a new family member, our daughter Caroline Leigh. Needless to say, it has been more enjoyable to stay home and be with my family than out running. Second, I have had a very annoying case of posterior tibialis tendonitis. This injury involves the tendon on the inside foot/ankle and is very slow to heal. I have barely had any improvement on it, even after taking more than a month off from running.

Fortunately in these past couple weeks, Courtney and I purchased jogging stroller and my ankle is doing a little better. I have been cranking out some killer mileage running with Courtney and Caroline: about 10 or so miles . . . per week. It’s not the 60 mpw I was hitting before my injury and daughter came here, but it is way better than zero. Actually yesterday I managed to run 3 miles with a group at work over lunch, and 5 miles with my second sole friends in Lyndhurst.

I was really worried about losing all of my conditioning while I was out of running commission for the month or so, and the lack of running and this fear got me a little bummed (luckily having a beautiful newborn daughter took care of most if not all of that). But to my surprise I have managed to retain a pretty decent amount of aerobic capacity and strength. One night this week I went out for a 2.5 mile run by myself in my neighborhood wearing water shoes (more on that later). I was not trying to push the pace during the run so I was surprised to find that I had run at 6:30/mile avg when I finished.

Concerning my mention of water shoes: I have been loosely following the minimalist shoe movement and didn’t want to spend a great deal of money to the concept. Online (I can’t remember the original source) I found someone who advocated running in water shoes since they are as minimal as footwear comes. After a few short 1-2.5 mile runs in them I am a bit sore, but it’s a lot of fun and I think I will continue to mix them into my training.

Since I have been out of running commission, and subsequently not been able to run to and from work, I have made more use of my Hercules 3 speed, and now I have approximately 375 miles racked up on it! I credit this bit of cycling, some elliptical (yuk, but necessary) and most importantly my new efforts in swimming (thank you so much for teaching me Scott) to maintaining my conditioning in my stint off of running. I have always been a bit of a terrible swimmer, and I am by no means good, not even close, but my friend Scott and his main squeeze Melissa have been really helping me to learn to swim correctly. This has made my form a lot better and created some enthusiasm for the sport for me!

So, let’s cross our fingers and hope I can remain injury free minimal for the foreseeable future! Tonight Courtney and I will be joggin’ around the block with the little one! So glad to be able to say that!