Monday, January 25, 2010

Random Update: Vikings, Injury, Running Time, and Race Registration

First things first. The Vikes lost. Yes, there were a lot of fumbles by the Vikes, however, that is the Saints strength. Admittedly, they say that they do not have the best offense or defense so they rely on turnovers. With that said, the Vikes out played them and proved they are the better team. Sometimes it just comes down to timing--like when the mistakes happen. The most experience guy in the whole stadium was Favre. Really, his only mistake was the interception he thru with a few of seconds left. Had he ran for 5-10 yards and either slid, then called a time out
-or- he went 5-10 yards then ran out of bounds, we may have been able to kick a field goal and win it. Oh well. How many teams made it that far this year? Four. Vikes are easily and clearly the best team in the NFC, probably in the whole NFL this year. It comes down to who has more points on the board, not who's the best.

Next topic... I went to physical therapy on Friday to address my continuing hip issue. Basically, I have soreness that prevents me from doing longer activities because the tendons that attach the muscles to my right iliac crest pull and cause pain. There's nothing unique about my issue. The PT guy said that the docs think that some of the muscles in the hip, glutes, legs, and core, have just been overused and maybe need to be strengthened so when they are call on, or recruited by other tiring muscles, they need to be able to handle it. The PT guy says that and "You're not 18 anymore. I think you tweeked it [hip] when you decided to go mountain biking and threw your bike up on your shoulder and ran up some hills." Please recall that I went CX riding for the first time in 3 years last October, didn't warmup much, and just went all crazy like. So, like most PT strength training for your legs and core I was given a handful of exercises that are no more than yoga stances and holds, along with some exer-band movement to strengthen areas that weights don't usually get to. I am not discounting PT or yoga--I am actually crediting it. How often to you hear about someone getting injured in yoga? Exactly. How often do you hear of an athlete that does yoga getting hurt. Exactly. Also, they didn't say to stop any activities--not even running. They did say take it easy, don't to too hard and pay attention--if it hurts, be smart and back off.

With that said, I am confident that with a little work and patience I'll be back to normal in a couple months. I'm going to keep on schedule with the weights/strength work, cycling, and swimming. With the running, I am at about 30 minutes at a pretty slow pace (or about 3.5 miles) before I feel something coming on. So, that is my long run right now. I am going to increase the long run by about 10% weekly. If that works with no set backs, I should be in the neighborhood of 75 miutes after 10 weeks or so. At a steady pace--not super easy, but not race pace--that would get me about 10 miles or so (7.5 min pace). Hopefully, I will be able to do the Fetzer 20k in April and/or the MedCity Half in late May.

Currently, the only race I am registered for is TRINONA (Olympic distance).

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