My long run this morning went well. I hit the Sam Merrill Trail at 6am and power walked to Echo Mountain. I started running from there over to the Mt. Lowe railway and on up to Mt. Wilson. I took the Toll Rd down a mile and a half then turned around and headed back to the summit via the single track (15 miles, 3:20); then ran down - total time 5:20 for 27 miles. Slow, but fast enough.
I took it intentionally slow and kept my stride short to go easy on the bruised knee. This seems to have worked, the knee felt OK through the run. I stopped periodically to do bent knee quad stretches. This was effective in reducing knee discomfort, lasting about 5 miles, then I'd stop and stretch again.
The focus on not over-striding also seems to have benefitted my tender piriformis. As I think about it, over-striding probably also contributed to my fall two weeks ago: If you catch a toe while over-striding, its difficult to recover, but with a short stride its no big deal.
It was a beautiful morning with clouds flowing over the summit, but I forgot my camera so no pictures.
Pete Sercel's ultrarunning training blog --my experience with running injury prevention and recovery, and training for the Angeles Crest 100.
Good to hear, Pete. Sounds like your knee is coming around much better than you even hoped it might. I think the overstriding (a by-product of being a fast road runner, I suspect) contributed to the way you got hurt in Idlehour, as well. All the best in your build up to SD!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark- I agree completely with your comment over over-striding having been a contributing factor to my 2014 fall at Idlehour. This is a lesson, it seems, that I keep having to re-learn. Last year I got a small metronome to wear to do cadence work...time to break it out again!
ReplyDelete