Shoe issues?

Of course Murphy lives and I don't mean the park, right after I post about a nice series of runs and a feeling all was going well I have a couple of runs that have me wondering. Now I am about 90% convinced it's just shoe issues but that other 10% has me a bit nervous as I am now under 50 days until Surf the Murph.

Anyway, about my shoes, when I ran in Whitewater I kind of damaged a couple of toes on the downhills while I was wearing my Salomon's. Of course these are the shoes I was planning on wearing at Murphy, which last time I checked has some downhills similar to Whitewater. Great, now what? No problem, I can wear my Vasque Velocity VST's, wrong, my guess is that they won't make it to Murphy as the heels are bubbling up which looks like a precursor to the heels coming unglued and they only have 190 miles on them.

So I decided to pull out a couple of pairs of shoes that I had put aside. The first pair were my Vasque Mercury's, I had retired them after 350 miles as I was having some issues. Maybe it wasn't the shoes, so I decided to give them another try and I wore them on Thursday. The day was a disaster, I had to walk more often than I should on a 7 miler and my legs felt pretty toasted during and after, was it the shoes, not sure, should I try them in a 50, absolutely not.

Today, I pulled out my North Face Rucky Chucks which I had decided back in July were the shoes that were aggravating my left foot and my right achilles issues. I ran 4 miles in the morning as my daughter ran with her XC team. Not bad, decent pace, maybe these would work after all. Then I ran 10 miles with my wife later in the morning, excuse me she ran, I hobbled, I walked, I ran a bit, I power walked and I was darn tempted to crawl. Why? Well my left foot felt torqued almost from the start which led to my lower hamstring really feeling like it was going to cramp or tear. Add that to another issue that developed as the run continued, my right achilles was getting tender and I was starting to put 2 and 2 together. Did I mention it was a bit humid today and somewhat hot, that could have been my issue or the 2 runs in a day but nope I am convinced it's the shoes. Maybe I was right back in July, do I want to wear these at Murphy, No.

So tomorrow, I am heading to Murphy and I am wearing my Salomon's, I may try some Vaseline on the toes and see how it goes. I know I am going to go slow tomorrow as I want to get in 20 miles and my hamstring still seems a bit torqued tonght, so I will be going slow, repeat once more, go slow, walk breaks are ok, do the distance, get the time in. Think positive.

If tomorrow does go bad, I may just start freaking a bit about Murphy. Who am I kidding, I am already having those thoughts enter my head. What was I thinking, I just talked to someone about the 50 and I mentioned what I am sure will be going through my mind at Surf the Murph. One loop done, I could have run the 25k and I would be done. Of course I signed up for the 50 miler so I will continue on. Two loops done, I could have run the 50k again and I would be done. But no, I had to do the 50 miler, what an idiot, what was I thinking, oh yeah, I wanted to run the 50 as I wasn't sure I could and on I will go. As I finish the 3rd loop what will I be thinking, never again.

So let's hope tomorrow goes well as I really don't want to start freaking out about the 50 for at least 2 or 3 more weeks and I just need to remember that I am doing it to see if I can. Time doesn't matter, finishing does.

Oh, yeah one last thing that I do need to mention -- Go Bears, beat the Packers.

As to those that like the purple, good luck, I think you will need it before your season ends as the NFC North champ will be either Chicago (my pick) or the Packers.

Whitewater State Park

Sometimes, I have to remind myself why I love trail running, this weekend was not one of those occasions as I got to experience the joy and fun of trail running. I made wrong turns, enjoyed hills that were too steep to run and hills that scared me to run down, ran on rocks and roots, and up and down stairs, took in scenic views, slipped and slid, got a few strange looks, even had someone call me superman, I just had a blast.

First, I need to back up a bit. My family decided to return to Whitewater State Park in south eastern Minnesota. The weather was perfect, mid 70's during the day and lower 50's overnight and no rain whatsoever. We had stayed there back in 2001 on the exact same campsite (#75) and it was at Whitewater that my eyes were open to what trail running was all about. Before that I had run in Lebanon Hills and Nerstrand, both are very runnable with a mixture of service roads and single track with a couple of hills thrown in. But Whitewater had hills that hurt to run, be it up or down and it had some turns that made me a bit nervous as a misstep could have meant a nasty fall. It was like I was moving up to the real deal.

Whitewater state park is named for the river (more of a creek) that runs through the park, it looks fairly tame and I gather it has some nice trout fishing based on all of the folks I saw fishing it.
Although, I viewed it back in 2001 as a nice little creek check out this video from the floods of 2007 where this area of Minnesota received 15 inches of rain and this little creek completely flooded the valley and 7 people lost their lives. The damage to the park was devastating and the park was closed for a long time, the video is about 15 minutes long but it has a lot of information concerning the flood and the park in general, so give it a look.

I was able to run both on Saturday and Sunday, I am not exactly sure of my mileage as my Garmin and I had some issues but I ran for about 2 1/2 hours on Saturday and for 4 hours on Sunday. If you ever get a chance stay at Whitewater do so, plan to run the trails as it's the best way to see the park. The DNR lists 10 miles of hiking trails and that is probably about right but they are a very enjoyable 10 miles. On Sunday I decided to take our camera and capture a few pictures, hopefully you can get a sense of the park from them.

This is the trail leading up from the campground
More of the trail
A nice runnable sectionAnother uphill
And just a bit more.
Nice views from a variety of spots along the trailStairs, they have lots of stairs
I ended up going up and down this set twice or was it three times as I couldn't figure out where the trail had gone. So much for my sense of direction and reading trail maps.

The infamous bluff, back in 2001 when my family saw this section, it was nearing the end of a short cut that I took them on from Coyote Point back to the campground. It took a long time, I think I told them it was a mile or so, as it turns out it is a couple of miles and I am pretty sure I took a wrong turn back then to add just a bit more to my already miscalculated distance. I remember thinking it took us about an hour, they might say more like two.

On Sunday, a bald eagle flew right by our campsite along the river, it caught my attention as it's wing span was huge. It ended up stopping in this tree and was scouting out the river, probably looking for lunch. One last thing, as I was making my way over from Inspiration Point to Chimney Rock (about halfway through my 4 hour run) I passed a handful of folks who were headed to Inspiration Point(I went by a group of young adults, a young family and a young couple - notice how everyone seemed young to me, this happens when you get old). There are two ways to get to Inspiration Point, you can take the trail from the valley below up to Chimney Rock and then continue on to Inspiration Point or climb up the approximately 300 steps and just a bit of trail from the Trout Trail (one young camper told me she had counted 291 steps and then she said or was it 296, I just know there were more than a few).

After I reached my turn around time, I was heading back from Chimney rock to the stairs as I neared Inspiration point, the young couple who I had previously passed stepped off the trail, I said you didn't need to do that but thanked them and the young women said it's always good to let Superman pass, needless to say my weekend was made. I must've actually been running along the trail when they saw me, just think if they had seen any fast trail runners what they would have thought.

So it ended up being a great weekend even though I got a good dose of reality as to my conditioning as I ran and walked (ok, the right phrase would be struggled) my way through the park. Regardless of my running reality, it was fun.

Some good runs.......

Awhile back I had to take a step back with the hope that it would allow me to go forward and it might be working. You see after Chippewa I was a bit banged up and still I proceeded to hobble through May, into June, wobbled through a marathon and made it to July where I tried Afton. It was that day that I had to make a decision, continue and finish the 50k with an ever increasing probability of additional injuries or drop at 25k and take the time off my body was telling me it needed. I actually did the smart thing and dropped and then I cut back for a few days but I did not stop running completely, I just slowed it down a bit, reducing my mileage and I gave myself a little more time between runs.

Having just ended August with the highest mileage for a month this year and the most since last April which tied my high mileage month going back to 1997, I am actually gaining some hope. I have been eating better and with the increased running I am starting to see the weight move down and if I can keep from doing anything stupid I just may get to Surf the Murph with a decent shot for a successful day. I have been following the advice that Helen and others gave by trying to run longer on back to back longer days on the weekend. The weekend before Labor Day, I ran 14 on Saturday and then 17 on Sunday, the weekend before that I did 14 and 16, so some decent progress in getting my mileage up.

As to issues, all I have had thus far is some occasional knee pain and foot/ankle pain, the knee pain led me to take an extra day off to rest this past week and that will be my plan going forward, listen to my body and give it rest as needed.

Last Wednesday, I ran 4 miles before work in Hyland without any increase in knee pain during or after on the run so that was good news . On Thursday, I ran with Wayne in Lebanon Hills and we made it over to the western section, again no significant knee pain, yes. I do like running that section but coming over from Jensen lake takes some of the fun of it away as you have to pop out of the park and run through a neighborhood. Afterward my ankle was sore so I must've torqued it somehow, I don't think it will be an issue but I will need to keep an eye on it too. So I took Friday off (yet another example of playing it smart) and then I ran in Whitewater State Park on Saturday and Sunday with no issues (post to follow), followed by Lebanon Hills today.

Right now, I am hoping, no make that planning on setting my all time high for mileage in a month. I guess I never said but I got in 145 miles in August and if I stick to my plan, I should be over 200 in September. I know for some my monthly mileage would be done in a week but for me it will be real neat if I can hold together and do it.

Like Hannibal used to say on the "A-team", I love it when a plan comes together. All I have to do is keep it together for a couple of more months and then simply run my first 50, doesn't sound too hard at least on paper.

A forgotten post.

I was going through my drafts and I found this post from early July and thought some might still enjoy it.

This summer we had an unusual visitor to our kitchen window, a yellow finch (identified by our nephew who knows a lot about birds or at least a lot more than I do). The interesting thing is this bird kept coming back for about 2 weeks.
The reason he kept coming back is (at least we think) he was looking for his buddy's.

Who had some designs beyond playing.

My wife and I joked that we think he recognized the screen and window offered him protection. He would usually not fly onto the window sill unless the cats were present. He almost seemed to taunt them, we can definitely confirm that he did cause some frustration.

We hope he comes back next summer (and our cats hope we open a window, so he can come in and play :-).