Northwest Road Trip and good news.

Friday July 19:
Have not posted anything in awhile so here is an update of the last couple months. I have been trying to get my injuries taken care of and to be healthy. At some point i have though that staying off my feet would be better off for me to recover. Ad so i did, i stayed off my feet and then in other occasions i have felt that i needed to be more active in my recovery and so i tried to do something about it. At this point i feel a lot better. what worked for me i'm not sure.

I also just got back from an awesome road trip with Karla that extended to 6 states. We started the trip at Boise Idaho then proceeded to the Tetons in Wyoming. After the Tetons we went to Yellowstone and Helena, Reding and Glacier in Montana. After Montana we drove to Seattle Washington and down south towards California. We stopped in Salem Oregon to visit my uncle and then made a quick stop at Ashland to see Roghe Valley Runner's. It was in time for lunch you know! Before we knew it we were back home, sweet foggy, cold summertime in San Francisco. Good to be back is something i will like to say and mean it.

I went out yesterday for a short workout at CCSF track and did a bit of a workout. Not too intense, just enough to feel good and short from being a training workout. I walked up and down the bleachers twice from one end to the other and felt ok. I also ran one mile on a 14 min/mile pace, 15 minutes, and i had minimal to no discomfort at all. That is great news. N ow the hardest part, not getting ahead off myself and start doing too much and re-injure myself. I must be vigilant about that.

Saturday July 20:

After the good news of yesterday i wanted to see if i could do a bit more and not aggravate my ankle. I woke up a bit early and it turned out to be Saturday morning, the possibility to make it for boot camp and spinning was there and so i decided to give it a try.

I started with 30 minute biking session before the classes and i felt ok, not too off the game. Boot camp came along and noticed a new instructor, young asian gentleman who was great. With a very simple workout routine he was able to push us to the limit, i noticed the machine, Veronica, not enjoying it at all. Long story short, we got our buts kicked.
John got in for spinning and immediately felt like he had a different game plan for summer sessions. He seems to be a bit more aggressive than usual. He pushed us super hard, i did not think that i was so out of shape like i felt. Considering i have been doing sporadic workouts here and there. Maybe is because i've been tired and a bit stressed about job interview situation and stuff like that.

Monday April 15: Rode to the gym and ran 3*6 min/mile sprints on treadmill for 2 min each. Had a tough leg workout, great work.

Tuesday April 16: Started off with 3*6 min/mile sprints on the treadmill for 3 min each and had a hard time working out today because i was drained of energy. Regardless i had a decent leg workout with tough workouts like leg presses.

Wednesday 17: Off

Thursday April 18: Off

Friday April 19: Rode to the gym and 15 minute bike warmup at the gym. Full Tony workout for legs. 

Saturday April 20: Rode to the gym and 15 minute bike warmup at the gym. Upper body workout.

Sunday April 21: Rode to the gym and back home. 20 minute warm-up on the bike and a full session of the stretching routine i just put together.

Week totals:

Running: ( 2 sprint sessions on the treadmill )
Biking: (To gym and back  3.7 miles (4)   ( Gym warmup 15 & 20 minutes ( 3 )  )   
Gym session: 4.7 workout sessions
Spinning: 0
Boot camp: 0

Back to boot camp and spinning

Have been back at VM for about 2 weeks now but have not had the patience to write my weekly routine for posting at the end of the week. I will start this week. Great to be back working out, i have definitely missed being active. My first day after boot camp and spin was amazing because i had so much energy throughout the day. It was like my cells were injected with oxygen and were fired up about it. And that is just what happened to my body in my very minimal understanding of the human body.
Have felt that boot camp is just a little too much on the ankle injury so i will sit boot camp for a bit and just do spinning. I will complement the time with gym work. My legs feel very strong and they look strong as well. I cant believe how defined my legs have become from the past year or so. It is amazing.

Emmanuel's torture tools of preference.

Have been keeping myself off my feet as much as i can for the last month or so to reduce the pounding on the knees. I say a month because this last month is when i started to do rehab stuff not too strictly but  several times a month. I started to do some training at the gym but like i said, keeping the impact on the joints to almost zero. I am not yet ready to do any running training and limited gym training more on a structural basis where i do it no matter what but i feel like i'm getting there. Maybe in a month i will be on a better position to do that but in the mean time i don't want to pressure myself onto doing so. What i have been doing more and i hope i will keep tabs on is eating enough and smart. I feel like in the past i did not eat enough to sustain my daily physical activity and it transformed into injury after injury. I eat a lot but i try to eat healthy stuff so i won't get a big belly. I don't want to have a belly to work on loosing once my legs are ready to run. Another thing i have been working on for the last week almost on a daily basis is on getting rid of the knots on my lower legs specially around the shin area. The perennial muscle and around those small muscles. That area is so tight that it hurts like a mudafaca. My torture tool of preference is a softball and an empty wine bottle. Next week i will continue to work on that area and i will start working on the quads and gluts. That is the plan for the next week and the couple days a week i do of gym training.

Liberty

After my last race 7 weeks ago i promised myself that i would not run another race until i felt 100% healed from every injury i've suffered in the past. Today, i find myself sitting on the couch plotting the perfect excuse to break that promise and get out there. Maybe 3,4 or 6 months later when i'm completely healed i will look back and ask myself why/how in the world did i run all these races with these injuries. I could only imagine the freedom a physically healthy individual might feel. Run when you want, where you want, for as long as you want and as fast and hard as you want. I hope to have this liberty sometime.

It has been a week past a month since i last posted my TNF50 report. Vacation in Mexico was good with a lot of time to relax and eat all of the things i usually refuse to eat during training season. I did little fitness training there but i did a bit of stretching.

Back in San Francisco now with a busy schedule in school and have not yet got used to my new schedule to further program a Fitness training schedule. Within the next few weeks i will start my training with one goal in mind, TO GET 100% FROM ALL INJURIES. I will not race until i feel everything is cured.

13 days after TNF 50M

Have not written anything post TNF 50M 13 days ago.

How did i do at TNF 50?

What happened?

What did i learn from it?

These are obvious questions that came to mind right after the race was over for me and so i decided to not write anything until i felt it all sink in and was able to digest all of what happened. 

 I didn't finish the race, on mile 12 i was already exhausted and thinking it was going to be a long, wet, and one with a lot of mind games. Like it happens in ultramarathons, you feel crappy most of the time and then there comes a tipping point and you start feeling better. I ran from 12 miles to 28 miles and never found that tipping point and at that point i decided to call it a day. 

My legs, although not injured, started feeling little pinches on the usual knee injury points and also soreness on other points which was evidence of not putting in the miles in preparation to the race. At that point i felt at peace with what i had done up to that point in the race and what i had learned from, not only the race itself, but the preparation i did or did not do for it. At that point i didn't want to risk getting re-injured and having to start over on the healing progress i had made up to that point in the gym and decided to DNF. 

I ran 28 miles at an estimated 8:30 min/mile pace in the conditions of the coarse and got a pretty good understanding of what it is to run TNF 50M. One of the fastest most exciting 50M races in the country which attracts the best of the best both nationally and internationally. 

I started the race behind a "platoon" of about 50 runners all running down the road towards Bunker Road heading to Bob cat trail. Right at Bob Cat the 50 runners somewhat dispersed and became 2 main groups and a bunch of scattered runners. The first group were the fastest runners, the Salomon dudes/girls and the Hal Koerner's etc... And the second group were also fast people but who decided to take it easier at this point and go faster later. Behind them were a bunch of runners scattered running their own race not really worried about staying with a specific group. I was here with these runners running my own race paying close attention at how the race started, what the pace of the fast guys&girls and just learning from these people. At mile 2.5 i already had lost visual with the first 2 groups and i was on my own, running in complete darkness with the fog and rain pouring on my face struggling to see 3 feet in front of me with my head lamp. Anyone who has driven their car on a heavy rain day can relate how difficult it is to see a few feet in front of you. At that point Oswaldo Lopez, who i had first met in person minutes before in the trucks while we waited for start of the race, caught up to me and passed me with a steady pace. It was unusual to see him using a normal flash light and not using a head lamp like EVERYONE else. 

The first 5 mile loop was difficult because it was there that it was raining the hardest. That and the fog made it difficult to see and the snapping back and forth of my headlamp made me freak out at some points where i was in complete darkness as i struggled to put it back on my head. 

From the 5 mile aid station to Tennessee Valley it was business as usual, already sunk in the idea that i was going to run in this rain the entire day made it easier to keep going. I had a good pace at this point and was starting to have my first energy gel and felt great. When i got to Tennessee Valley aid station i was surprised to see so many spectators there, considering the circumstances of the weather. 

From Tennessee Valley to Muir Beach i was still in a pretty good pace and felt ok. Nothing out of the ordinary happened at this point. 

On the turnaround from Muir Beach to Tennessee Valley however i started to feel like i was out of fuel. Weird because at that point i had eaten about 3 to 4 energy gels, started snacking on a protein bar, salt intake was business as usual and not to mention the water and the typical banana dipped in salt on the aid stations. I couldn't figure out what was going on. On the first uphill at Muir Beach i felt like i had nothing in me, i struggled to maintain a slow steady jog on that hill. At some points i had to stop but i made sure if i was hiking, i was going to do it as fast as i could to not fall to behind on my pace. From there to TV i struggled to keep going but put in a good fight and hardly stopped at all.

From Tennessee Valley to Fort Barry was a struggle, it was a constant battle of mind games. I wanted to stop but i didn't want to so i just kept going on a slower pace. When i left TV aid station i was passed by a girl with the most impressive physique i have ever seen. Her back and shoulders were probably a work of envy of the dude from Twilight. Crazy! At this point the idea of DNF was at the back of my mind. I got to Fort Barry with a great effort considering my energy level. I changed shirt, socks, shoes, positive attitude and set off to do the 5 mile loop once again. Two miles into this section and i knew i was done. Half a mile later i had to hike that down hill for a few minutes because i was sore, shivering cold and without a drop of energy. From then on the final 1.5 to 2 miles i slowly jogged, stopped, hiked and did what i could to survive and get to Fort Barry.

What went wrong was a couple things not just one.
1) Did not put in the miles at training. 2 months ago i was injured and ran the Headlands 50M and managed to run 46 miles before i made the decision to DNF. From then on i did a lot of gym work to get my knees healthy and i obviously tried to stay off my knees by avoiding running. I thought that maybe the cardio i did at Boot Camp and Spin was going to be enough to get me through 50M. I also ran 2 15 mile runs 10 days before the race that i thought would get me through. IT DIDN'T! That is a learning lesson i will never forget.
2) Nutrition before the race. I think i didn't eat enough food days before the race. I should have eaten like there was no tomorrow but instead i tried to eat super healthy food that obviously doesn't have nearly the same amount of calories than a burger or a bowl of pasta etc... Sweet potatoes and other vegetables are not enough even to cover the amount of calories i burn training let alone pack extra calories for the race.

At the end of my race i learned so much that i wasn't entirely devastated by my DNF. To see for myself how fast people go at the start line is priceless. Now i know why they do that. I also know that they don't keep that pace for the entire race, they slow down a bit later when their away from the chaotic crowded start line. I learned what kind of pace the fast guys do and i was able to see these amazing runners working their magic. I was able to run one of the fastest races in the country against the best of the sport and i think i did not do too bad. If i finished, it would have been a good result and that keeps me satisfied.
Now i know what i need to do to compete and move to a different level. I want to be able to compete with people and i cannot do that if i'm constantly worried about when my knee is going to blow up. Or not being able to push myself because if i do, my knees are not going to like it. As of the end of the race i made the decision not to race until i'm 100% healthy of any injuries. I will work hard at the gym and do a bit of running but i will focus on getting every injury eradicated and gone.