For Whom the Dogs Bark

May 08, 2024

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Location:

Cypress,TX,

Member Since:

Oct 10, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

5K: 24:22 (March 2010); 22:33 (October 2010); 20:47 (May 2011); 21:05 (May 2012); 21:33 (September 2012); 21:23 (November, 2013); 22:31 (September 2014)

5M: 39:22 (November, 2012); 35:54 (November, 2013); 36:03 (March, 2015)

10K: 44:08 (November, 2010); 49:20 (July, 2013); 44:07 (April, 2015)

12K: 56:03 (December, 2013); 58:58 (December, 2014)

10M: 1:11:58 (October, 2012); 1:15:24 (October, 2014)

Half Marathon: 1:53:xx (London's Run 2010); 2:05:21 (Cowtown 2010); 1:37:04 (Gusher 2011); 1:42:19 (Huntsville 2011); 1:33:47 (Baytown Jailbreak 2012); 1:33:50 (The Woodlands 2012); 1:42:52 (Texas 2015); 1:49:17 (Jailbreak 2015); 1:38:34 (The Woodlands 2015)

25K: 2:01:47 (Fifth Third River Bank, May 2014)

Marathon: 5:51:35 (Texas Marathon 2009); 6:21:36 (Ogden 2009); 4:58:29 (St. George 2009); 4:13:45 (Texas Marathon 2010); 4:04:12 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2010); 5:11:14 (Hartford ING, 2010); 3:41:43 (Richmond SunTrust, 2010); 3:39:27 (Texas Marathon 2011); 3:41:46 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2011); 3:30:35 (St. George 2011); 3:41:51 (Richmond 2012); 3:49:15 (Texas 2013); 3:46:59 (Paavo Nurmi, 2013); 3:34:04 (St. George 2013); 3:49:51 (Texas 2014); 3:31:59 (Richmond 2014); 3:28:34 (Boston 2015)

Short-Term Running Goals:

3:20, 1:30, 0:20

Long-Term Running Goals:

I'm 60, there is no long term.

Personal:

I live, work and run in Houston, Texas. I have run 17 marathons, some good ones and some others. I prefer straight, flat, cold, sea-level marathons, still waiting for my first one. I feel like there are more PRs out there. When I have them, I am told it is time to dial it back, run for healthy reasons. I'm sure that's right, and I'm sure it won't happen.

My wife and I are from the mountains of the west. We have five kids, three granddaughters and three grandsons. The kids and grandkids are native Texans but we are not -- you have to be born here.

As for my blog title: I run most of my miles before sunrise, sometimes hours before. On the back road of my neighborhood two hours before daylight, I can depend on a pack of mutts behind the boundary fence lighting up when they hear my footsteps. I have wondered what they wanted; but according to Hemingway I needn't ask.

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Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00

Mon, Feb 04, 2013

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00

Went to the chiro this morning but nothing much to show for it. I just have a weak lower back that I never bothered to strengthen, so when I bent over for two hours a Christmastime to put some equipment together I injured it. Sitting all day every day at work means that it never has a chance to heal. Until Saturday I could still run on it, in fact I ran a marathon on it. It would actually feel better when I ran than when I sat or stood. But in the two full weeks plus very slow ramp-up following the marathon it only got worse. I ran OK on Friday after taking the whole week off, then went out with Wade on Saturday morning and it seized up at just under a mile and a half. I knew I was done, so I stopped and walked home.

I am going to try one more thing. I noticed that I am at considerably elevated pain levels when I start to carry something heavy, such as a briefcase. But if I "walk" through it and concentrate on relaxing my back muscles I can keep going and the pain subsides. In the past, coming off of back injuries, that is the way it was in the beginning when I would try to run; I could actually run through an initial wall of discomfort and still get an almost normal workout in, though I could never run fast of course.

But barring a miracle in that respect, I'm skipping Boston -- again. I still refuse to go there just to run it, though that might be a mistake. Since I have no qualifier at this point for 2014, this might be my last chance to run it.

If that doesn't work, I will probably go see an ortho, I have a friend who is a very good one. But I am not going to get back surgery just so I can run, have heard very few good reports about back surgery.

Bottom line, I will try to post and read your posts, but I won't be a good blogger for a while. I sincerely hope all of your training is going well.

Comments

From I Just Run on Tue, Feb 05, 2013 at 08:41:16 from 67.79.11.242

Sorry to hear the news Flat. Do you think some intense physical therapy focused just on stregthening you back might help? I really hope you get this figured out, and soon!

From SlowJoe on Tue, Feb 05, 2013 at 15:41:44 from 155.219.241.10

Ahhh, sorry to hear that. Hoping for the best.

From derhammer on Wed, Feb 06, 2013 at 10:23:08 from 64.245.52.2

Flat, definitely bad news.

I still recommend Airrosti whole heartedly. I know I have mentioned them in the past, but so many of my running buddies and I have had great success with them. So if I sound like a broken record then I apologize. They have gotten me through 2 marathons. I would give it a shot.

http://www.airrosti.com/

All the best, and heal up soon.

David

From JG on Thu, Feb 07, 2013 at 12:16:28 from 174.49.78.66

Flat, I am very sorry to hear this. I hope you will not throw the towel in on Boston just yet ... You just ran 2 marathons in a 7 week period, so I would guess you have not lost too much fitness yet. With another week or two of rest, you still have 7-8 weeks to tune up for a good race at Boston. You don't have to run 250-300 miles per month to have a successful Boston ... In fact I have never run that kind of mileage.

Hoping the pain subsides soon & you can start easing back into some consistent running.

From JG on Thu, Feb 07, 2013 at 12:28:10 from 174.49.78.66

Btw, I ran Boston 45 minutes slower than my BQ 6 months earlier (mostly due to heat, but training was also interrupted by a knee injury), but I still had a blast and would not trade the weekend experience for anything. I will keep going back until I break 3 hours there, which definitely will not happen this year, but I will still gain valuable experience to get me one step closer to achieving that goal. :)

From Stephen on Thu, Feb 07, 2013 at 20:33:29 from 71.195.220.45

Well, at least you know what's going on. So sorry about it all and to think that your injury was caused by Christmas rather than running is the alarming part. I always thought Christmas was a safe sport.

From Burt on Thu, Feb 07, 2013 at 22:57:13 from 72.223.80.89

Wishing you the best.

From flatlander on Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 08:11:46 from 198.207.244.102

JG, undoubtedly that would help, once I can withstand it.

Thanks Joe, everybody goes through something like this, I'm not special.

DH, actually I went to them last summer. The guys here were OK, but I ended up switching to a different chiro who got me through the last one.

JG, see today's blog, there are certainly a lot of people I talked to who feel the same way about Boston. Amazingly enough, I haven't ruled it out yet.

Stephen, Christmas is definitely a wallet-killer, but never equated it with back injury before. On the other hand, I'm not signing up for any EQ moving projects.

Burt, thanks, how are you doing? I'm going to have to catch up on your blog.

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