I've Been Contemplating...

So it's been awhile since I posted and there is no other reason than the fact that I have been contemplating. Thoughtfully, with continued attention about me. About my sore knees and my gut. I have been looking at it with continued attention about how I am not happy with where I am, but yet I am also looking at how I have not tried to change anything.

Sometimes, I am a lot of talk, and I stand on past accomplishments.

The main question I get weekly is what race am I training for now? And lately, my answer has been, I'm not. The "want to" is there, but the body is having a tough time getting going. It may be the extra 20lbs I have gained that is causing the knees to hurt and crack when I get up, but it's not fun.

So I am not making out a 2017 race schedule except for one race. A sprint triathlon in May. If I will get in shape for that and if I feel right, then I still have the "want to" to go long one more time and maybe I can find a late season race, but it will depend on the May race. I have come to realize that the older I get, the faster I used to be.

 

So I have 7 months to train for a sprint triathlon! I want to look good as a 45 year old male, so I will be doing a picture of me now and then another one in May, and I promise I will post!

 

P.S. Check me out on Snapchat: ironman1553

Sometimes I Get Freaky With My Foam Roller...

Oh foam roller, you wonderful painful piece of foam I could not live without!  Oh how I love, yet hate you all at the same time.

Needless to say, the foam roller is turning out to be one of my most important pieces of running gear I own. This was not always the case. I mean, I have always used the foam roller, but I didn't really usseeee it, if ya know what I mean.

In the past, my time with the foam roller was short and sweet, mainly because it hurt like the dickens. This should have been a sign to me that I needed to spend more time rollin. But honestly, I was never quite sure how I should have been using it. Or how long should I be using it???

About 2 weeks ago, I was talking to a buddy that is a super fast sub 3 hour marathoner (something I will never see) and we were talking about how my knees were starting to bother me. The inside part of my knee is what was bothering me. So we talked about this and he mentioned that it was probably my IT band that was causing the pain! He explained to me how the IT band could be affecting my knees. He went on to say how spends up to 2 hours on the foam roller. He will search and search until he finds that sweet spot and then just work it out.

I have never been on my roller for 2 hours!!!

So I went home and did about 20 minutes.  Close enough right?

I rolled very slow and methodical and it hurt, but I could actually feel my IT band releasing after a few solid minutes on it. So I did the same thing the next night and the night after that. 3 straight nights I spent on the floor with my roller. And guess what?

My knees are feeling much better. So I am sold on it and I have been doing it just about every other night and I am loving it ( I really hate it, but you know what I mean) It's a lot like running, you may hate the mile you are on, but you love the end result. So if you do not have a foam roller, get one!

I Love Me Some New Shoes!

Yes, I got new shoes this week. They actually were delivered to the house while I was in Atlanta. For the past three years, I have been running in Brooks Glycerins. I currently have 4 pairs of them, but they have all hit their mileage mark with me, and it was time for new shoes. I could tell. there are a couple of ways I can tell when I need new shoes.

1. My feet hurt after running. Simple right? Well sometimes I just figure that my feet should be tired and sore after a long run, but then when you have a new pair of kicks on, the feet feel great.

2. My knees hurt. I have been having some issues with my right knee. Almost to the point of wanting to see a doctor about it, but after getting in my new kicks, the knee pain is slowly disappearing.

3. Mileage- I am on of those guys that tracks the mile of each run and on the shoes, so I know when my shoes hit about 300 miles, then I need new shoes.

So after reviewing these three factors and placing a check by each one, I order some new Brooks running shoes. I ordered the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14 shoes.

So far I nothing bad to say about these shoes. They are a more supportive shoe, even more than the Glycerin I think. They feel great and my feet feel a ton better after a run. I do not think you can ever discount the importance of a good shoe when running!

What's your brand of shoe? and how many of them do you have?

P.S. My wife and I just registered for the Elvis Presley 5K here in Memphis! I am all shook up about this and can't wit for that race report to be filled with Elvisisms!!!