another rest week

Activities/Actions:

• Stationary rowing for 10 minutes each day (~2,000 meters)
• Stretched and strength training

Note and reflections:
The knee injury has healed early of the week but I still continued on another "no run" week. Even though this week schedule was pretty busy, I still spared about hour (or 20 minutes) to exercise in the gym. For example, I woke up at 3:30 to work on my presentation scheduled at 10A on Friday morning. Luckily, I finished the slides at 9 and took a half hour for gym before the presentation. It was a good wakeup exercise. :D

After her bike was assembled, Meng-shin started to bike to lab. On the first day of the ride, she got a small accident but it was OK. We biked home together for almost every night.

Azhong did not show up this week. He ran once last week from his training office to campus.

I canceled the tentative schedule of 2009 Taipei Freeway Marathon (臺北國道馬拉松) for the Half on 2009/03/15 because of the lack of training, the injury and miss the deadline for registration. Need to find another race and call the gang up to join. Azhong is the one who will join the coming race!

2009 Taipei Freeway Marathon (臺北國道馬拉松) not to be my coming race!

Continue reading the rest...

a resting week

Activities/Actions & Note/reflections:
Well, the week of slow runs did not heal the pain [วิ่งไม่หยุด: a week of slow runs], I decided to take a rest and do therapy. For the whole week I did some strength training and 10-minute stationary rowing. On Tuesday Meng-Shin brought me a polyfoam bag for my cold therapy [วิ่งไม่หยุด: Frozen pea bag - cold therapy for Runner's knee], but it has to be returned on Friday. I felt much better on Thursday, so I decided to start a slow run on Saturday (or a long bike ride) if the weather is nice.

After a used shoes test, my right and left feet is not"excessive pronated." The test was performed by placing NB 476 (my most used running shoes) on a table, with its toes pointing away from me. After squatted down to eye level, I found that the shoes does not tilt inwards. In addition, after examined its outer sole, extreme wear and tear along the balls of my right foot was not observed, but the wear and tear at the ball of both feet was not "extreme." Thus, I believe that I am NOT "excessive pronated." The wet foot test also confirmed that I have neutral feet.

(tests followed http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-pronation.htm)


A light-green Nalgene bottle: I got this bottle more than a year ago, but I just started to used it this week. :D

Photos:

A light green Nalgene bottle born in USA, adopted in USA, residing in Taiwan and speaking three languages.

Continue reading the rest...

Frozen pea bag - cold therapy for Runner's knee

Although the pain on the inner side of the right knee (actually, the medial side of the right leg) has bothered me from time to time, I still on my bike to almost everywhere. I did research over the web and found that cold therapy is a common treatment of the pain around knee. The pain I am experiencing is located around the end of femur around the end of possibly vastus medialis (a component of Quadricep femoris) or satoris. Well, I am just guessing. According to this Q&A "My Knee Aches" at RunnerWorld.com, it seems that I may experiencing Patello-femoral Pain Syndrome, a.k.a. Runner's knee or Jumper's knee (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runner%27s_knee). Causes of this syndrome include "a tight iliotibial band, neuromas, bursitis, overuse, malalignment, core instability, to name but a few." However, I think that in my case iliotibial band is less likely to be involved in. I probably need to focus on Quadricep femoris muscles. However, the pain area is very close to the medial ligament. Maybe my medial collateral ligament is sprained.

Also, it is possible that the pain is one of the collective symtons of "Shin Splints" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shin_splints or http://www.watfxc.com/TF/TF%20Education/shin_splints.htm. The pain is around the medial side of the right leg and a bit lower than the knee cap. Running down hill or excessive pronation can cause this. I did run down hill in Taroko Marathon, but how about "excessive pronation?" http://www.selfsource.com/footflex/shin.html. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-pronation.htm

According to www.runnerplanet.come, applying cold to the injured area 5 times a day for about 15 minutes a time is a recommendation for almost similar injuries. Cold reduces flow of fluid resulted from tearing and thus reduces inflammatory at the area. Two simplest ways to apply the cold are 1) Ice bags and 2) Ice massage. The skin during the cold application will go through 4 stages of sensations from first Cold to Burning to Aching and Numbness. It is suggested to stop this therapy once the skin feels numb, which is at around 15 minutes of application (http://jointhealing.com/pages/productpages/cryotherapy.html). Then, I need to go to get a frozen vegie bag from supermarket (a frozen pea bag will do) or a polyfoam transportation ice bag from the wet lab.

Continue reading the rest...

a week of slow runs

Activities/Actions:
Wed: 2.5 miles along River with Meng-Shin; Stretched
Thur: Rest; stair-step & stretch
Friday: Rest; stair-step 100m

Note and reflections:
Since the right knee has been feeling a bit pain (it might stem from Taroko Race), I decided to reduce the run or run at a slow pace. This Wednesday evening, Meng-Shin joined me for a slow run along the river. The first 1.5 miles, Meng-Shin and I finished at around 18 minutes in front of TaiChi Statue. She left to gym, while I continued on the usual 1-mile route and finished within 8 minutes. I followed to gym doing some stretches. For Thursday and Friday, I did not run but did stairstepping and stretches.

The right knee still feels the pain. I could feel some pain during the morning and night commuting bike between the apartment and the office. However, the pain is not bad. I will need to do some researches on this pain and take a rest.

Continue reading the rest...

HuShih Park Revisited

Activities/Actions:

• Ran up HuShih Park with Meng-Shin
  
• Fell down on the right wrist (but it was OK)
• Strength training and stretch
  

Stat & Course condition:

Date: 02/10/2009
Start Time: 17:24:00
End Time: 17:54:00
Time Taken: 00:29:28
Route: Hushi Park Revisited
Total Distance: 1.71 mi.
Burned: 144 (kcal)
Pace: 17:13 (avg)
Speed: 3.48 (mi/hr) (avg)
(first route downloaded from Garmin Forerunner)

How I felt:
(the 5-point scale)
Physically 4
Mentally 5
About my nutrition 3
About my sleep 4


How hard did I work? 5
(the 10-point scale)

Note and reflections:
I retraced my previous run on HuShih Park [After Marathon: Recovery Week 1] and used GPS device to record the distance. However, this is the first run for Meng-Shin and she was surprised on the hilly climb. Nonetheless, she was sportive and finished the run and continued on our jogging back to Tai Chi Statue. The temperature and weather were very fine for the run as the sun was moving down behind the ridge. I fell down on my right wrist because of a slippery slope near the temple on the way down from the mountain, but the wrist was fine. I went to Gym after the run to do some stretch and strength training. So, Meng-Shin did a good run this evening about two miles.

The route climbs up ~8-10% after the first kilometer and before the 1.3 kilometer. After that, it descends down ~17% for 0.3 kilometer. The GPS map from Garmin is relatively OK and accurate to certain extant when downloaded to maps.google.

I started to feel pain near the inner side of the right knee since Monday, so I decided to run slowly for this week and to spend most of the time in the Gym more.

Continue reading the rest...