A Mid-Winter's Update

Well folks, its been about two months since my last post, so I thought maybe, just maybe, it might be time for an update. For those of you who need a refresher, when last we left our swashbuckling hero (me), I had just run a mediocre race at the Grand Finale cross-country race, and was slowly making a comeback. Since then, I guess not much has changed. After a brief tease the last day of November, December decided to take a holiday until, well, after the holidays, so the running in December went fairly well. However, it has finally arrived. I can't really call it a super bad winter, but I'm not liking it. Especially because, despite a new ordinance stating the East Lansing residents must scoop their sidewalks, the sidewalks have delightfully remained quite white. Normal traffic then crushes this snow into ice, which is then covered by more snow, making the Michigan walkways a treacherous landscape, booby-trapped with hidden ice and uneven footing. The slipping and the sliding has played its toll on me, giving me a bum groin that brings back memories of my Junior year of college, when I had given myself a sports hernia. Although the pain is definitely not as bad as it was then, it is similarly persistent, giving birth to doubt in the back of my mind... In addition to this, the combination of short days, occasionally late evenings in the lab, and minor (a cold) sickness, running has been anything but consistent.
Alas, with the inconsistencies in my training, it is hard to stay motivated. I'm hanging in there, but I can't wait until the end of January (and, really February), when the sun will finally be putting in full days of work instead of pulling this winter part-time-crap that he is famous for, and the freeze leaves us to the brisk chill of Spring...
No races are planned for the immediate future, although I am signed up for the Martian Meteor 10k in the middle of April, and will likely be running a St. Pat's Day race. Until then, I am hoping to finally get healthy, and begin logging in the miles.
Until next time, blaze on friends!

Playmakers' Grand Finale

'Twas the Sat' before Thanksgiving, and all through the trails, runners were racing, being tough as nails...

Hola! And welcome back to yet another edition of Blaze! Finally, after about six weeks or so of not racing, I have returned to action. Today was the Playmakers' Grand Finale race, a cross-country race put on by our club team as a last harrah before club nats in December. We also use this race as a final measuring stick for picking who will be on the team that runs at club nats, so it acts as a sort of selection race as well. Not to give away the ending, but I was not in the mix for the "varsity" club nats team. However, considering how my training this fall has went, I don't think that it was necessarily a bad race either. I ran a 26:40 or so. Not bad, considering that I ran slower at the Autumn Classic, my last outing. But not really an improvement either. At least I'm not regressing.
For the most part, the rest of the team ran great. Our top guys ran PRs (Jake finally breaking the 25 min barrier), or at least ran close to them. So overall, it was a good showing.
This will probably mark the end of my cross-country season for the year, as I don't see myself paying my own was to Seattle to run club Nats. So what's next for me? Well, I'm tempted to run a Turkey Trot back in Nebraska on Thanksgiving, but I haven't made a decision yet. Then, I'll probably start prepping for an indoor season once again, and possibly run a 3k or mile indoors in December before Christmas break. Really, this last race has shown me a few weaknesses that I need to start working on. I really don't feel strong right now, and especially not on hills, so I think that may be a focus area for a while.
One last thing before I sign off: I am growing more and more convinced that my cat is 100 % pure awesomeness in feline form. That is all. Blaze on!

A horrible, awful, no good, bad day

Some days, its just better not to get out of bed. Saturday was one of those days. Unfortunately, this is not what I did. I started off the day feeling pretty stiff, probably from the workout the night before (hills at Mt. Hope Cemetery). Instead of taking it slow and letting my body loosen up, I went for a run almost immediately. So that was probably my first mistake. To be fair, I was going into work, and because of the MSU vs. Minnesota game, I would have to pay for parking if I drove, so I was multitasking: commuting to work while getting my run in. Well about half-way into work, I decided, "You know, the left side of my body hasn't been injured in a while. I think maybe I'll roll my ankle and that should help balance out my injury woes." So yes, I rolled my ankle. And it hurt. A lot. And here's where I made my second bad decision. I sat down for a while, trying to decide what to do: go in and get some work done, or do the smart thing, and go home, put some ice on my ankle, and just go into work later. Of course, I chose the not-so-smart option. Which meant that I had to run another 37 minutes total on my ankle instead of 12. And it was indeed on my trip back from work that I realized what a stupid decision it was.

All-in-all, my ankle decided to swell so that it was a good 25-50 % larger than it normally is. Oh, and the colors! My ankle is not a beautiful shade of what can only be described as "black-purblue."

I wish that I could say that that was my bad day. I rolled my ankle, and it turned blue, swelling to the size of a grapefruit. But, unfortunately for me, I did not just call it a day and go back to bed. No, I decided that I needed to go back into work to finish some things. And the Western blot that I was developing (the reason I even needed to run in to work at all) decided that it didn't actually need to have any protein on the membrane. So that was a waste.

And the day continued. When I got home, I was shocked to see that the Concordia men had taken third at the GPAC meet... behind Dordt! What does this mean? Well, it meant that the men would probably be staying home from the national meet, a first in years (sure enough, they didn't qualify). Since Colin probably will be reading this: my heart goes out to you guys. Go get um on the track! I should also mention that the woman had a good meet, taking second behind Nebraska Wesleyan, and just edging out Morningside. So congrats to the women, who will be headed to Portland in a couple weeks.

Needless to say, at this point, I really didn't even care about the Nebraska game.

Really, Saturday wasn't all bad. There was a new addition to my life. A short-haired black beauty (cat) named Lylah has decided to take up residence in my apartment (okay, I did most of the deciding), so that's actually been pretty good. I also pulled together an EB abstract (which was due today... nothing like waiting for the last minute, right?). And I'm actually able to run on my ankle, although there won't be any runs that require me to use uneven footing or sharp left turns in a while. I guess if this is as horrible as my days get, I'll definitely take them (every now and then). Blaze on!

October workout #1

I thought that I'd share with everyone that I officially have done my first workout since September! I can't say that it was anything earth-shattering, but still newsworthy. It consisted of a 16 minute warm-up, followed by 10 x 3 minutes hard, with one minute of light jogging in between reps... or at least this is how it was intended to be. The last few intervals were, uh... altered by a force of nature more powerful than I. Regardless of this, I managed to put in a total of 30 minutes of hard effort. I even cut some of my earlier rests short (although nature's call lengthened some of the later rests). All-in-all, I'm happy with the effort.
Other things of note: my ankle is actually starting to feel better and more stable. Whether I circumvented a serious injury by taking a couple of weeks off, I can never know for sure, but hopefully this indicates that I'm actually starting to learn from some past mistakes.
I think I may have found a new favorite pair of shoes, although I can't actually tell you what they are yet, because I am wear testing them...  :) Lets just say that they're not your typical name brand running shoes. However, I do think that they could be improved on.
Until next time, blaze on!

Little News

The last few days here up in Michigan have really felt Nebraskaish. Meaning: its been windy. One of the hardest things for me to do is find the motivation to get out there on the bike when its windy. Definitely the thing I miss the least about Nebraska... :)
Welcome back, (and welcome anew, to all you newcomers)! There's really not much for me to update. I had a real good week of training, slowly building up my running miles, while putting in some solid hours in on the bike. Then the weekend hit and, with it, cooler, more blistery weather. I've still been slowly working back into my running, putting in what I consider less than solid, but at least consistently building upward, mileage. Biking, on the other hand, has been put back on the back burner, at least until things get less busy at work. Scientifically speaking, life has really picked up, with what feels like a million things to do in the lab. Its good to be busy, don't get me wrong, but I do wish the workload was a little more consistent versus the sudden increase in duties that I've picked up lately. Its also nice having experiments work for a change... but that's a tail for another day.
Well, I guess that's really all I've got for now. Hopefully soon I'll be able to start telling you about workouts and the such, but until then, blaze on! :)

Phoenix Rising

"The phoenix hope, can wing her way through the desert skies, and still defying fortune's spite; revive from ashes and rise." ~ Miguel de Cervantes, The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts & Strange Stories (2008) by Varla Ventura

Hello followers, wayward travelers, and those who have otherwise stumbled upon the online journal of the adventures of me, Kyle Johnson. I have finally returned after a long hiatus from the online world (deciding instead to pursue this thing called "life") to give you all an update on my life.

First off, my life these last few months, which, due to my online AWOLiness, you have not been privy to, has been anything but smooth. This summer, I honestly felt awful. Running in the heat has never been good for me, and when you add in the fact that I have been recovering from anemia, and just overall, not feeling great, was a huge ordeal for me. But, as it always does, summer has come and gone, and fall is finally hear. Actually, surprising to me, I have actually put in some decent performances, running three 8k races in under 27 minutes, which, even not that long ago, was a major accomplishment for me. That being said, I am nowhere near where I want to be (isn't that the theme for pretty much every runner, except maybe olympic champions/world record holders?).

After briefly making a return to the world of okay running, I have decided to take a hiatus. Well, actually, my foot decided for me. While not too serious, my right ankle has felt just kind of off the last month. While I could easily run through it, I decided to back off, taking two weeks completely off from running and just biking. Tomorrow is actually the end of the two weeks, so I'm planning on a three mile run to see how it feels. In the mean time, I have been biking, which is hopefully maintaining my fitness.

So it appears that, once again, I am on the comeback. So I would like to invite you to follow along, as I, like the legendary phoenix, will reemerge from the fire (of anemia, heartburn, and injury), brush off the ashes of what now lay behind me, so that I can once again take wing and blaze again!

Cheers!

 

You know what the hardest part about blogging is? Coming up with the first sentence. Alright, now that that's out of the way, here's an update:
Things have been steadily improving. I still haven't figured out what was/is causing my anemic problems, but thanks to gratuitous red meat consumption, and vitamin B12/folate supplementation (at least, that's what I'm attributing it to), I have steadily been feeling better. It probably doesn't hurt that the last couple days have been fairly mild as far as the temperature is concerned. So, yeah, running is going better. Last week, I put in almost 75 miles, and  did a single, spontaneous workout (I was feeling good on the run, for the first time in a long time). This run consisted of me starting out somewhere in the mid to low six minutes (probably around 6:20, I don't remember off hand) for the first couple of miles, then dropping down to low sixes for the middle. For the last 3.5 miles, I did 5:52 pace for two miles, then finished running at 5:15 pace. So overall, I was pumped to finally have a good run, where I managed to average 6:03 for almost 11 miles.
Though I put in a good run, I can't say that it has all been clear sailing. On multiple occasions, I've had my achilles flare up on me. It hasn't been anything serious, and has gone away without me doing much besides icing and taking a little Aleve. Also, the day before the spontaneous workout, I just kind of struggled through an easy run. In spite of these minor obstacles, I feel that I'm making progress, and I believe I am way ahead of where I was at this time last year.
Other things: I officially am living on my own for the next couple of weeks. Scott Schmick, my roommate for the past 13.5 months, has officially moved on to bigger and better things, as he starts his job with 3M today. So good luck to you Scott. It's been a fun past year.
Well, I feel like that's a good enough update for now. Until next time...