The week of April 23-29: "Hold the reigns"

Sunday, I have softball practice (church league) but had missed a couple practices beause of my injury. I practice hard at anything I do (physically) so it's difficult for me to remember to take it easy on the field. I play right center (or rover) because I can cover a lot of ground. Luckily, and sadly, only 4 of us showed up to practice; the coach, his son, the "other" Tony, and me. It worked out for me because we mostly worked in the infield. My legs were saved and I have a sore arm to show for my work. I can deal with that.

In an attempt to loosely track my weekly mileage, I have to estimate the miles on the elliptical trainer. I'm not sure how the machine calculates it but it seems to work out to 10 minute miles. So I'll use that conversion to keep track of my miles.

Training for this week:

Sunday: 2 hours of softball practice
Monday: 75 minutes elliptical trainer HR: 130-140 Miles: 7.5
Tuesday: 75 minutes elliptical trainer HR: 135-145 (listened to Michael Jackson) Miles: 7.5
Wednesday: 7 miles road (7:45 pace) - injury hurt
Thursday: 60 minutes elliptical trainer HR: 130-145 Miles: 6
Friday: 6 miles road (8 min pace) - felt good
Saturday: x Lake Youngs Loops (19 miles) - felt extremely good
Total Weekly: 53

Injury status:

I went to the Dr Monday to get a second "opinion." Really, I just wanted to know what weakness was causing the problems that I'm having and to look for corrective action. What I found out is that I'm a weak butt ... or rather I have a weak butt. Here is what she wrote on the "ass"essment:

1. Pelvic obliquity (I think this means my hips are uneven when I walk)
2. Rectusformis tightness - right side
3. Periformus tightness - right side
4. Not contracting gluteus medius - both sides
5. Hip flexor weakness.

The Dr said that my "non contracting gluteus medius" on my left side is what is likely causing the compensation soreness on my right side. I have PT scheduled to work that issue out. In the mean time, I can run small miles and can do as much as I want on the machines. I will still continue to run longer trail runs (Tiger & Lake Youngs) as the pain is minimal and I want to keep as much base as possible without hurting myself further (this is key).

Another "new" issue. I've been running for over 31 years (not new) and have never (that's right NEVER), even tried to run with music. As I tell others, music is always playing in my head anyway. It generally changes based on the pace I am running. Sometimes I get a song stuck in an endless loop. Anyway, I had mentioned to Glenn last summer (he's my sometimes running partner, coach, CCC 100 pacer, and good friend), that I thought wearing an iPod would help me in a 100 mile race. I'm slow to move on technology issues (one wouldn't guess that I am a computer programmer by profession), and I FINALLY went out and bought an iPod Nano. I've been wearing it while using the elliptical trainer and was planning to try it out on my Lake Youngs run this weekend. However, I met up with a group and there was no reason to wear it. I did end up trying it on the 6 miler on Friday. It freaked me out - kept thinking I was hearing things; like someone was behind me, or a dog was coming up on me. My senses are heightened anyway when running and now I was listening more ... my eyes were bopping all over the place looking for cars, animals, and mysterious people.