Three Days in a Row

Monday, Memorial Day, May 26:

The Brian Kraft Memorial 5k is a well-regarded USATF race with a rich history. Today, as in most years, 5k records were broken. See results on raceberryjam.com, with women here and men here. It’s almost a who’s who of Minnesota running, with the fastest runner finishing in 14:47.

My splits: 7:40, 8:19, 9:47 (1.1 mi), total 25:46, pace 8:19. I did not do well, finishing a minute slower than yesterday and ninth of 14 in the official listing of men 60-69. I’m not fond of 10-year age groups, but would have finished fourth of four in 65-69 if they had used 5-year age groups. Maybe ninth of 14 sounds better! We have some very fine runners in my age group, of which I was not one today; the next-slower runner, Jared, age 65, finished in 21:38, more than four minutes ahead. My friend Jim, 63, led the 60-69 group with 19:07. Marvelous.

Lots of excuses for me though. I ran a 5k yesterday and five miles the day before, which is plenty for me. Perhaps more important, I took my dexamethasone last night, so today was “dex day,” and dex interferes with “glucose transport,” which means that my muscles were somewhat less inclined than usual to take up glucose from my blood. However, I slowed in the last mile because I was out of breath, not out of leg power, so maybe oxygen was the problem and not glycogen. Anyway I don’t like racing on dex day.

NO PAINS AT ALL! Whooee! Maybe the ITB program (see May 25, below) is working? Perhaps I’ll test that theory tomorrow with a longer run. Meanwhile I’m keeping that knee warm at all times and stretching both sides.

Sunday, May 25:

Charities Challenge hosts a series of nice 5k races on the trails around Lake Como throughout the outdoor-running season. Today’s race was ”Challenge Hearts and Minds," to celebrate people who are challenging their heart disease or mental health issues by running and other exercise. Everyone welcome, of course, even those of us who have neither of those diseases. Nice little races with a lot of support and encouragement for everyone. Maybe 100 runners, with finish times ranging from 16 minutes to over an hour.

Having run five miles the day before, with some knee problems, I had decided to take this one easy. You know how that goes - how can anyone run slow in a race? I can’t. So I started a little slowly but gained speed throughout. Friend Rick was ahead, and I tried to keep up, but eventually fell a couple of minutes behind anyway.

As an experiment, I wore a foam rubber knee support/warmer/cover on my left knee, the one with ITB problems. A half mile into the race I was regretting this choice, as the ITB started to hurt. I had thoughts about stopping and waiting for my sweeties to catch up, then to run with them at an easier pace. But another half mile later the pain was gone. Huh. So my current treatment for ITB is threefold:

• Keep the knee warm at all times. When I’m not wearing long pants I wear a homemade knee warmer made of old sox with the toes cut out, even in bed;
• Now I’m wearing my rubber warmer on that knee whenever I’m running; and
• Probably most important, I’m assiduously doing my ITB stretches three or four times per day.

We’ll see if that ITB program works.

Splits: 8:11, 8:03, 7:51, 0:45, total 24:50, overall pace 8:01. I’m not unhappy with this time, and I think I could have done just a little better if I had tried from the beginning of the race, but certainly not more than a minute.

Saturday, May 24:

The St Croix Valley Runners regular 5-mile Saturday-morning run, enjoyable as always because of the people. I mostly ran with Roy, but fell back when the left knee started to hurt, because of ITB issues I think. Nertz. Anyway I made the five miles in 45:18 for a pace of 9:04 even with the poor last mile. No pain after the run, and as before I can’t find the pain by palpating the place where it seemed to hurt. Maybe it’s ITB, and the doctor thinks so, but maybe it's not.



Today's exotic-fruit breakfast, after the Brian Kraft 5k. Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, blueberries, organic strawberries, freeze-dried rambutan, dried dragon fruit, dried lychees, organic pomegranate juice, organic nonfat milk. The exotic fruits are all from Trader Joe's. Rambutan chews a little like corn curls but tastes sweet and fruity as if it contained two or three different fruits mixed together. Dried lychees are chewy with a pleasant, somewhat familiar fruity flavor. Dried dragon fruit has a marvelous chewy texture and a nice flavor.


Recent lunch: Organic chard with dried cranberries, macadamia nuts, organic apple, organic chicken breast, organic pomegranate juice.


Dinner: Turkey-breast curry, organic strawberries, organic green beans, very nice porter.