No major gains this week. I ran once for 6 miles. I did the Get in Gear loop on a snow evening after work. I figured the River Road trails would be clearer than anything else. I was pretty wrong. They were a mess. A friend aptly described them as like running on sand. It was about 28 degrees with frizzle (freezing drizzle). I finished in under an hour and was glad to be done. My foot hurt quite a bit afterwards due to the weird footing/terrain.
In general though it feels like the iontopherisis is working! So that is a very good sign. It is a slow gradual process and I’m feeling slow gains on overall pain. I’ve already had 5 treatments and you stop seeing benefits after 8. I feel like my hips and ankles are getting stronger (two major areas of weakness that can impact plantar fascitis).
I started co-teaching a leadership class for 6th graders this week and it is going pretty well. One of the students said, “this hour seems to go by so fast!” I’ll take it. We are currently getting more snow so I may have to run indoors, yuck. We also went to the City of Lakes Loppet and Art Shanty Project.
Today marks the beginning of registration for the Twin Cities Marathon on October 3. This is the earliest registration has opened and they are expecting it to sell out quickly.
“In the past, we’ve opened registration in late April,” said Achman [Twin Cities In Motion executive director Virginia Brophy Achman]. “The earlier registration date will give marathoners from around the world the opportunity to include the Most Beautiful Urban Marathon In America® in annual travel plans,” said Achman. The marathon takes place Sunday, October 3, 2010 and typically fills its spring-time registration within a month. Registration is online only at mtcmarathon.org and is capped at 11,000 on a first-come, first served basis.
I won’t be running it this year. Given that I’ve been injured for almost a year and basically took 3 months off running this winter, it doesn’t seem wise to endure the long training cylce for a marathon. I wish everyone luck and I’ll probably do the TC 10 Mile if I can get an entry. I plan to focus on shorter distances this season.
Where did January go? 31 days into 2010 and it is just starting to feel normal to write 2010.
It was great that I was finally able to start running again. I ran for a total of 17.8 miles this past month, a far cry from previous year’s (86 in 2009), but much better than all of the 0’s from previous months! I still have plantar fasciitis and will soon be celebrating the one-year anniversary of its onset (2/24). I’m confident in the weeks ahead that it will disappear!
I’ve set a few random goals for the year
Run Around All Named Bodies of Water in Minneapolis
Check off Lake Calhoun. I didn’t have a camera and I’ll be running there more this year so stay tuned for more information about it.
Read the Entire Bible in a Year
I’m following a plan that only makes you read 25 days out of the month, which is pretty nice and I succeeded in accomplishing that this month. This includes the entire Book of Genesis.
Read a Book a Month
I’m cutting it close, but will finish Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, which I got as a Christmas present.
Blog Regularly
I didn’t make this goal. I skipped at least one post here and haven’t been consistent on my personal blog. Though I am succeeding on my Project 365 (taking and posting 1 picture a day).
Other things of note… I’ll start co-teaching a leadership class for 6th graders today!! It should be fun and we are using a curriculum developed by the school district called Peace Lead. It should be a great experience.
We continue to piddle around our house and get lots of little things done. I finished painting the bathrooms over Christmas break and we got some new couches this month which had some extra comfort to the living room!
I am glad to have a few runs under my belt and not feeling too much worse for wear. I ran a whole 9.7 miles this week!!
That’s three run each around 3 miles. The conditions have been kind of crappy but I’m not going to complain. My foot actually feels pretty good. I had my first Iontophoresis appointment this week and that helped tremendously. Simply stated it is electrically putting steroids into my heel.
I only had a 3 day work week due to the MLK holiday and a record keeping day for teachers (my position doesn’t require me to work those days). So I ran at Pike Island on Monday on the snowy/icy winter hiking trail. It didn’t feel bad but I was a little sore the next day. I also ran on the West River Rd from 36th Street down to the Wabun Picnic Area and looped back. Still fairly icy. For both runs I wore my YakTrax.
I was planning to go skiing on Sunday, but the rain from Friday and Saturday didn’t leave a lot of good snow so instead went for a 3 mile run from my house. It wasn’t too bad, but some of the sidewalks were solid sheets of ice. It was actually in the 30’s for this run, so I won’t complain.
Stretching and doing my physical therapy workouts have been helping me feel good. I’m excited and cautiously optimistic about the treatments and my running. It is slowly creeping up on my Plantaverissary.
The MDRA Annual Party is a great time to reconnect with friends you haven’t seen since the marathon! It is also a great place to win gift certificates, race entries, and other running related stuff. Not to mention the free pizza and ice cream! All in all a great event, especially since I won $20 to Marathon Sports, and some friends gave me their race entries to some local 5k’s. Here is a slideshow from the day taken by Wayne Kryduba.
State of the Club address by President, Kirk Walztoni:
Volunteer of the Year Award this year went to Rob Lundquist. Rob is an all around great guy who continues to provide invaluable service to MDRA and the running community.
MN Elite Athlete Development Program. From Twin Cities in Motion (pdf):
MEADP is a collaboration of Grandma’s Marathon, Twin Cities Marathon, Inc., Austin-Jarrow Sports and the Minnesota Distance Running Association, and is designed to assist elite Minnesota distance runners who have completed their academic running careers in reaching their full athletic potential. In 2009, MEADP will provide
grants, in amounts up to $2,000 per recipient, to promising Minnesota elite distance runners, to
assist them in reaching their full athletic potential.
Masters road racing star and long-time MDRA officer Gloria Jansen will be presented with the Lanin Award for Distinguished Service. The award is MDRA’s most prestigious honor, given for years of service and contribution to the sport.
The award is named for the founder of MDRA, Pat Lanin.
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