University City Memorial Day Run

A scant few hours after my last race I slammed my knee into a wall trying to step over a baby gate. You wouldn’t think this would knock me out of commission for several months, but you’d be wrong. All winter I struggled with running and particularly cycling. It took forever just to be able to do any training, let alone the type of training necessary to begin racing again. It’s a shame, because last fall I probably had the best fitness of my adult life.

Over the past couple months I’ve been gradually increasing my training, both running and cycling. For the most part now I can run and bike without much (if any) knee pain, though my knee is generally still a little sore after workouts. Last week when I was in Urbana I ran the Second Wind fun run at Meadowbrook park. Without any fast training I ran three miles in 18:41 with a friend, with some serious negative splits. On a lark I decided this meant I could probably start racing again any day now, just in time for the Memorial Day 5K run in our new hometown of University City.

I ran much better than I expected, finishing in 18:25 (5:55/mile pace), only 30 seconds slower than the Danville Memorial Day 5K last year. This was good enough for 8th place out of 850 finishers, and 1st in my age group. I felt no knee pain. I dealt with the 80˚F morning heat and blazing sun as well as I could have hoped. I dealt with the couple of hills as well as I could have hoped. I think with a few more miles in my legs this spring I wouldn’t have slowed down so much during the 3rd mile, but I’m still pleased.

April 2011

Photo of the Day

April 2011


Running

I had a minor setback involving a few weeks off from running after a foolish 14-miler with a lot of pain in the last two miles. Now I’m back at it and running pain free again.

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 13.54 Mile 3 4.51333 Mile
February 33.47 Mile 7 4.78143 Mile
March 71.64 Mile 10 7.164 Mile
April 31.12 Mile 6 5.18667 Mile
Total 149.77 Mile 26 5.76038 Mile

Running 2011 4


Cycling

After nearly two months off the bike I can now ride again without knee pain. I ride Will to daycare a few times per week and we sometimes ride the tandem (Big Red) to the playground on the weekends.

Bike Distance # Rides Avg per Ride
Bianchi 11.4 Mile 3 3.8 Mile
Big Red 10.6 Mile 2 5.3 Mile
Thundercougarfalconbird 9.75 Mile 1 9.75 Mile
Total 31.75 Mile 6 5.29167 Mile

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 35.32 Mile 4 8.83 Mile
February 0 0 0
March 3 Mile 1 3. Mile
April 31.75 Mile 6 5.29167 Mile
Total 70.07 Mile 11 6.37 Mile

Cycling 2011 4


Walking

We still walk either to or from daycare almost everyday.

Strut

Month Distance # Workouts Avg per Workout
January 56.9 Mile 16 3.55625 Mile
February 47.6 Mile 14 3.4 Mile
March 83.4 Mile 24 3.475 Mile
April 84.3 Mile 26 3.24231 Mile
Total 272.2 Mile 80 3.4025 Mile

Walking 2011 4