Recovery Running

Saturday, Oct 8, 2011:

The St Croix Valley Runners celebrated marathons today. Many of the crew that assembled to run this morning had finished the Twin Cities Marathon last Sunday, and we three had finished the Maine Marathon or half marathon. Lots to talk about. Plus I wore my new Team Continuum shirt - more to talk about.

I didn’t want to run three days in a row - that would be taunting the sports hernia, daring it to reappear. But the limiting pain in the last two marathons has actually been in the adductors or the hip flexors - I don’t know which - but not the abdomen. So today we three walked FAST, as fast as I could, which requires the other two to run a little to keep up. I hope those long strides are good for the hip flexors. We went about 2.7 miles in 40:45, for a walking pace of 15:06. I felt good.

After that, two hours of lawn mowing / leaf mulching. There were a LOT of leaves already, and the oaks haven’t started to contribute yet. We have mostly oaks.

Friday, Oct 7:

This was another 3.7-mile run/walk on the grass trails in the park. It’s so beautiful right now that it’s hard to stay away, and when I get there it’s hard not to run! So I did. I also took the camcorder along and recorded some of the fall color. The sun was on and off, mostly off, but popped out for a few seconds just as I reached one of the most beautiful stretches of the trail. I have the video.

Time 50:30, pace about 13:39. I stopped several times to take pictures, so that’s a good enough time. Again no pains except the knee with PFS.

Thursday, Oct 6:

Running feels so good! This was a short recovery run on the grass trails in the park. What a treat. I ran on the flat and the uphills, walking on the downhills. I didn’t feel pain anywhere except in the right knee with PFS, and that wasn’t bad at all. I don’t know if this is the best way to get past the sports hernia, but it sure feels good to run. 3.7 miles in 48 minutes, about 13 min/mile. I thought I was going faster, actually, and perhaps I was - I used the cell phone for timing.


Normal breakfast, mostly organic. The black-looking berries are actually frozen organic blueberries. We recently switched to LED bulbs in the kitchen, which looks fine to the eye, but the camera doesn't do justice to the colors now: