A Blog by any other name

For the 3 or 4 people out there who have read my blog so far, you will note that I decided to change the name of the blog. The reason is that I don't want this to really be just about running. I want it to be about my journey toward being more fit. I thought of calling it "Getting Fit in my Fifties", but honestly (and I may be giving myself too much credit here) I like to think I was already pretty fit. At least for a guy in his fifties. What this is really about for me is getting more fit. Getting fitter. So, I landed on "Fitter in My Fifties Blog". That name will last five years at any rate.

That said, I don't intend to change the focus of this blog. The main method I am using and intend to continue using in my quest toward a fitter me is running. Both using running as a way of getting fitter as well as (more importantly for me, I think) using running races as a motivator.

OK, so the thing I have been dealing with this week is a soreness in my back that seems to have started when I started a yoga class. It started out as a general soreness but has evolved into a soreness in a specific area of my lower right back. It bothers me more when I'm doing things like walking up stairs. Now, I don't mind the pain, but just with less than 4 weeks to my next half marathon (the Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon), the last thing I want to do is injure myself. And on top of that I have a long (12-13 mile) run planned for this weekend. My intention had been to run the hilly course near my house, but I was growing afraid that the hills would make my back worse. Also, as I mentioned, the pain in my back had changed and become more focused on one spot - leading me to think it had gone from "general soreness" to a specific, albeit very mild, injury.

My week was pretty typical. I did Yoga on Sunday followed by weights, a short 30-minute trot on my treadmill followed by stretching on Monday, and core work and weights on Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesday I went to another yoga class at my gym (which is at my office), followed by 45 minutes on the treadmill. That was a workout! Friday I hadn't planned to do anything but I changed my mind and did a 30 minute walk on my treadmill.

On the weight front I was unchanged.

I also saw my chiropractor this week (who is also a runner) and he basically told me that I've been doing plenty of running on hills, so I should give my back a rest and do my run on a flat surface. So, I decided to go to a very long walking/running/biking trail about 20 minutes from my house. I set out on Saturday and drove to the trail. As I mentioned earlier, my back pain had become more focused. As I started the run I could really feel it. About 2 miles in I was really wondering if I was going to be able to continue. But as I kept going the pain went away and by about mile 3 I couldn't feel it at all, so I pressed on.

I decided I wanted to do 13 miles - actually, 13.1, the distance of a half marathon. And I also set a goal of a 14 minute mile average. This would get me at 13.1 at about 3:03:30 (OK, 3:03:24 to be exact). As a point of reference I did the Walt Disney World Half Marathon in 3:27 - but that was a very crowded course with a lot of distractions. One bit of advice I've gotten that makes sense is to try to never be too far away from your car. So, I ran in one direction on the trail from the car for about 3 1/2 miles, turned around and ran back to the car and went in the other direction about 3 miles and back.

So here are the overall stats from the run, as shown on my iRunner ap:

As you can see I didn't quite meet my goal but I was close. Here are my splits:

The longer time at mile 7 was due to my stopping at my car for a few minutes. As you can see the first 2 miles were a bit slower due to my back  pain. But then I was able to kick it in. Interesting, when I looked at the elevations I also discovered that those first 3 1/2 miles were much more uphill than I thought:

A final note - sort of a product critique. When I was running shorter distances I bought a water bottle for runs. Instead of having a cap that you needed to open and close it has a sort of nipple that is supposed to be spill proof unless you suck on if. Well, it never worked very well and always spilled water. On this run a swear it spilled more than I drank. I also have a water belt with two bottles, but I lost one of the bottles and I haven't had a chance to get a replacement yet. I ordered replacement bottles so I decided to throw the other one away. It's useless. if you ever see one of these don't get it.

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