Gimme dat medal!!!

That's all I want tomorrow.... I know, kinda stupid... but that is the main reason why I signed up for this race. Last year around this time, I did the May Classic 5k and finished in 22:59, which is still my PR for a 5k. I was elated with my time, but remembered thinking to myself after the race that I would like to take another 2 minutes off of my PR (personal record) by time I do this race again next year. Well, after a full year of training for marathons (not 5Ks!!) I feel as though that is an attainable goal for me... the only thing is that it is going to have to happen tomorrow, instead of next week, as I won't be doing the May Classic 5k this year. I will be running the 1 mile fun run with my daughter... so this Draft Day Dash race gives a finishers medal to the top 100 men that finish. Looking at last year's results, it seems as though to be in the top 100, you have to finish in the low 21's to achieve that... and ironically, that is what I would need to reach my goal of shaving off 2 minutes from my PR. Actually, I need a 20:59, and that is what I am going for. I need to average 6:45/mile to get that, and I have never come close to doing that in any of my hard training runs, so it seems quite daunting honestly. But so did doing 22:59 last year. So if all goes well tomorrow, I will get my medal and a PR improvment.
Since the intervals on Monday, I took off Tuesday and ran Wednesday am and Thursday pm.
Wednesday was a great run... I had no goals, or time to be out there. I just wanted to be out there. I enjoyed my run so much, I decided to make it longer than what I initially set out to do, and kinda got carried away, because I came back home a little late, and was pressed for time to get to work. But luckily, it all worked out and I got to the office with some time to spare before my 1st patient.


Last night was supposed to be a tempo run for me, but I didn't want to run so hard with the 5k being tomorrow, so I decided to run at a slower pace, but again, since I was already home, (and got the ok from wifey to go run) I decided to run a little longer than what I initially intended. That is the nice thing about when you aren't really training for anything in particular. You don't have to follow any program to a "T". If I want to run longer, I can... if not... I go home. But this week has just been one of those weeks where everything is just feeling good and you just realize how good running can feel on your body.
Here is my Ivy Lake/Suncoast Run from last night.

Let's see what happens tomorrow....

Long Run and Intervals.... Back 2 Back

This was a pretty big couple of days for me, because I can't say that my body is very used to running consecutive days. Over the last month or so, I have started to run 4-5 days per week, instead of my usual 3 days/week program. I am not running as hard as I used to, but I am definitely logging more miles... which honestly I am enjoying as much or even more. But Sunday and Monday was the most pounding that I have put on my body in consecutive days...ever!!!
Sunday morning, I met up with Chris and went out for a Suncoast Long Run. Lately, I have been running by myself, so it is always nice to have some company out there and talk about whatever comes to our mind...usually work stuff, but it could be anything.... so the good news is that I was able to keep my heart rate extremely low (for me that is... ) throughout the whole run. I was able to average 151 bpm, and we averaged a 9:20/mile pace for 12 miles. I guess the good news is that I used to be about 15 bpm higher about 3 months ago, running the same pace. So, I know that I am making significant improvements in my fitness. I promised one of my clients that I would run with her Monday, so I knew that I had to recover quick on Sunday, and be ready for a tough run Monday morning. So Monday, I left my house at 5:15 am and drove down to Davis Island, to go run with a client of mine. It actually was a very good run.... we did 8 mile intervals. It was her first time doing intervals, but she is an extremely strong runner, faster than I am... so I was actually happy that it was a workout that she wasn't too used to doing, because she would've blown me out of the water.... and left me stranded on Davis Island somewhere. Luckily, I was able to hang with her throughout the intervals...so I got through everything unblemished... Thank God!!!


My body feels pretty good now, and I have taken off today from all working out.... Tomorrow, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do, either a tempo run or an 8 mile easy run. I just know that I will do one tomorrow, and one on Thursday, rest Friday and race the Draft Day Dash on Saturday morning.
So as for this 5k I am doing on Saturday....the main goal is to get a medal...the top 100 male finishers get a medal, and it is a very cool medal... I want this thing sooooo bad!!!!! I looked at the results from last year, and it looks like I would need to finish in under 21:00 to get a medal. I think that's pushing it for me, but I will do my best to get that medal. My kids love when I finish a race and come home with a medal. They think that I have won the race....no sense in bursting their bubble, so I just agree.... in their eyes, I'm an elite runner... ha ha!!! Ahh... nothing like your kids making you feel like a million bucks!!!

My stats....

I was just loading my workout that I did earlier today on my computer, and I was able to look at some interesting stats about my running since I got the Garmin Forerunner 305 watch in November. It showed me the totals of all of my running since I initially loaded my 1st workout on this watch.... so here are some of my stats.....

From November 1st - April 15th

Miles run: 564

Calories burned: 78,297

Total Time that I have run: 82.34 hours

It seems as though that is a lot when you think about it.... but I know some folks on Runners World Forum that have put in over 1100 miles in 2008 alone.... freakish!!! Its kinda crazy to think that I have put in over 2 full work weeks of running since then. Well, IMO it has been over 80 hours of good times (except for about 2 hours at Disney, where I was like...what the heck is going on?)
So as for this week.... good week of running for me.... I was able to do close to 8 miles on Tuesday (with 3 miles of intervals) I was able to do those fast miles in around 6:45 per mile avg. The last mile was extremely tough because I was going into the wind, and I felt like I couldn't move.... I think I did it in around 6:55. Felt like 15:55. So here it is...


This morning, I ran a Ivy Lake Tempo Run, but it was my longest mileage I have ever done for a tempo. I only ran 4 of the miles hard, but I ran 5 miles for warming up and cooling down, for a total of 9 miles. At the end of my 4th hard mile, I felt like something was irritating the arch of my foot... It actually felt like a pebble or something was in my shoe..... or I was developing arch pain. Anyways, once the last mile was completed, I stopped and took off my shoe and wiggled around my foot and shaked whatever might have been in my shoe out. Once I put the shoe back on, I didn't feel anything anymore. So, after 2 more miles of easy running, I was at my house....stretching and cooling down. This time, I worked my way into the hard tempo miles and didn't push it nearly as much as what I did last week, and I felt so much better. My body felt great after the run, and continues to feel good now. Tomorrow, I am scheduled to run around 8 miles, then I will take off Saturday. Sunday, I will probably run around 12 miles before church....maybe at a new place just to change it up a bit...who knows???

To run or not to run???

Today I had a really good run of a little over 8 miles.... I was planning on doing 10miles, but I woke up a little late, and I had a meeting to be at by 8:30 in the South Tampa clinic, so I had to cut it short. It was probably my best run in the last 2 months. Not that I ran really fast or anything like that, but I tend to look at my heart rate as a sign of improvement with my fitness, and I was able to keep my heart rate under 160 beats per minute throughout the run. Even better, I was able to keep my pace at an average of 9:00/mile, which I have never been able to do. It was just perfect pace, and I'm not sure if it was because the weather was a little cooler than usual, but anyway you look at it, I'll take it. I'm so happy about the run. So here it is....
Ivy Lake Easy Run

Even more important than today was on Thursday. Because I worked for Mike at the South Tampa clinic on Monday, he gave me off Thursday, so I was able to take my family to Busch Gardens. We had a great time, and got to see so many cool things there... I haven't been to Busch Gardens in like 3 years or so, so alot of things were fairly new to me. I had never been on Sheikra, so I was able to conquer it for the 1st time. Unfortunately, Kerry and I weren't able to go on it together because one of us had to stay back with the kids, so I didn't enjoy being in the line by myself and not having her to talk with. But the ride was great!!! Short, but intense....


I guess the most ironic thing about our time in Busch Gardens was that we spent about 80% of our time in the kiddie area. It's funny how when your life changes with having kids, how certain things that you never used to pay attention to are now a consistent part of your life. I have been to Busch Gardens at least 8 times over the last 12 years, and I never even noticed they had a kiddie section. Now, it's the main reason for me to go.... interesting, huh? I would have it no other way though, and I had more fun watching them have fun, than going on Sheikra... kids are such a blessing!!!!






Kerry and Adryana enjoying a ride together.....









Adryana and Arjay stopping to pose for a pic.....










The kids racing on the track in the car....








So after a long day at the park, we worked our way home and we were tired and exhausted... Unfortunately the kids took a little nap in the car, so they were revitalized once they got home. I told myself that I would go for a run at some point after I got home, but I kept on putting it off. Finally after 8 pm, we got the kids to bed, and I had to make a decision.... should I run? I wasn't really tired, but I just felt lazy.... I didn't have anything else really to do, I just felt like I had to make a choice of whether to sit down with a bag of Doritos and watch the Rays game, or go out for my scheduled tempo run.... This was one of the few times that I didn't really want to run....so I had to make a decision... I almost felt like I had the angel and the devil on both sides of my head, pulling me to do one or the other. Well after about 5 minutes of contemplating, I decided...
"Let me do my Ivy Lake Tempo"
So I guess the perfect ending to the story is to tell you that my run went fantastic and that all my hopes and dreams came to pass....well the run was difficult, I ran too fast, and I felt like garbage when I finished. I got home at 9:15 pm, took a shower and stretched a bit, and got in the bed. But you know what???? I think a few months from now, that run might have been my turning point with taking myself to another level with my fitness and training for my running. If I didn't run, it probably wouldn't have changed a thing with my fitness, no one run will really have that much of an impact on my overall fitness. I didn't lose any weight or get stronger abs... or anything like that.... but what I did get was a little bit more discipline. If I start to get into the habit of missing one run here, another one there.... then my fitness and overall potential of doing extremely well with my races will collectively suffer, and I don't want to be full of excuses. Sometimes, it's about doing stuff whether you want to do it or not. The closest analogy that I can think of for me is reading my bible at night sometimes. Most nights, I want to read my bible and find out more about the word of God. But sometimes, I'm tired, just want to get to my bed and that doesn't seem as important. But if every time I didn't "feel" like reading the word, I didn't... then it would become more routine to just "tank it" on a routine basis....the totality of that could affect me on a whole, because I try to rely on the word of God to guide me throughout my everyday life. So basically what I'm trying to say is that I think we all have things that are good for us that we usually like to do, but sometimes don't want to do... and I think that is normal, but if it's good for you, do it...don't sell yourself short. Hopefully, when I feel like that again.... I will go back to this blog to remember what I felt like.... Have a great weekend!!!!

Two very good websites...

Since this blog is called running and rehab, I want to give you all two very cool websites (one related to running and the other related to rehab) that I ran into this weekend. I can't take one ounce of credit for finding these sites. Both of these sites were brought to my attention from a current and former patient of mine. So, here they are:

This website is perfect for those of us that suffer from RSI (Repetitive Strain Injuries). Most of my neck and back patients suffer from ligament based injuries that lead to bulging/herniated discs in the spine region. Most of these injuries arise from improper posture and prolonged sitting. Most of us are at a computer for a good part of the day, and one of the biggest ways we can combat RSI is to take frequent rest breaks. The website shown above downloads software into your computer station at work that basically reminds you to take breaks every ..... minutes. You tell the software how often and how long you need your breaks to stretch and get up from the prolonged sitting posture that you assume throughout the day. No more excuses for forgetting to get out of your chair......

The second website deals more with running. Here it is
This site allows you to map a run anywhere you want...whether it is around your neighborhood, or at work.... doesn't matter...wherever google maps, you can map it. It will tell you the actual distance, elevation, etc... It will also allow you to find runs that other people have mapped in your area. So you can try new routes that you are not used to doing. This is extremely important, because you want to always try to break up the monotony of running the same route all the time. That's why I like the Garmin watch so much. It gives me the freedom to run wherever I want, and I know exactly how far I am going. Speaking of Garmin, on the website, if you find a route that you would like to try, you are able to download into your Garmin watch....Garmin has a compass feature that directs you on running the route accurately.... how cool is that????? I tried it today and it works... can't wait to actually do the route my patient sent to me.... hopefully sometime this week.
Well, hope you get to look around these sites, and hopefully, you find one of them, if not both, beneficial to you in some way.

It's time to ramp up....

Luckily for me, I was able to get in a good run this morning, before the rain started. I started out at about 6:30 am, and ran from my house to the Suncoast Trail, which took me about 2.5 miles and ran about 5 miles north on the Suncoast Trail. I turned around, headed back home, and the run was a little over 14 miles.

This has been my longest run since the Ft. Lauderdale Marathon, and my body felt pretty good overall. My knees were a little achy during the run, but like all long runs, you feel something and then it goes away, then you feel something else, and that goes away... and the process continues throughout most of the run. It is so interesting that it was around this time last year that I was conquering my 1st 10 miler, 12 miler, 14 mile run, and it was so daunting and almost frightful every time I went out.... just not knowing whether or not I would survive the runs. And it seemed as though every time Chris and I ran together when we did one of these long runs, something bad happened to one of us. It was just so hard to complete these runs. Now, the 14 miler felt like a walk in the park.... how times have changed.... I mean don't get me wrong, you are fatigued at the end, but last year, if I would do a 10-14 mile run, I would crawl into the shower and then curl up in my bed for like 2-3 hours after the run, and I would limp all day... I remember going to church and people would ask, "are you ok?"....seriously... just brutal.... As I am writing this blog, I have very little to no soreness in any part of my body.....and I say these things not to brag in any way...it's just that I think it is always important to look back on where you were and how far you have come, so you can focus on the positive improvements that you have made. A lot of times I have to do that with patients. They might come to the office and be in agonizing pain, and then like 3 weeks later they have a couple twinges here and there, and get down on themselves that there is still discomfort at times. I have to remind them of where they started, and it helps them to realize that even though the goal has yet to be achieved, they are getting closer and closer.... There is hope for all of us.

Ok, so enough of that... now it's time to ramp it up with my running. I have been around the 30 mile/week mark for the last few weeks and my body feels pretty good. I will now do two hard workouts (or quality workouts) every week for the next month. That means workouts where I will work mostly on my speed. These workouts take a lot out of you, and they never get easy. But I think I'm ready to get back into it full speed ahead...no pun intended. Once I do this for about 4-6 weeks, I will take it easy for 1-2 weeks, and that should take me to the beginning of my 18 week training schedule for the Chicago marathon. My main focus, as always, is to stay injury-free...second objective is to get fast!!!!! So let's see what happens.

Perks of the job....

A few hours ago, I went on cnn.com and started to browse the website, like I usually do daily and saw a poll question... re: Do you like your job? I was able to pick from the following:
1. Hate it
2. Don't really care for it... but it's a paycheck
3. I'm living my dream

I would say for me it is usually #3, but I think we all have days that 1 or 2 sometimes pop up for various reasons. For me, my primary job of treating people with different orthopedic ailments never gets old, and it is always so cool, when you can get someone to feel better and get back to the things that they love to do. People are usually so appreciative of that. On Thursday, I worked at our South Tampa clinic and got to run 8 miles on Bayshore Run before I started my day, saw a lot of my former patients, and got to work with my co-workers who are good friends of mine....we always trip out when I work down there.... fun times....
Last night, I was able to run with a former patient of mine and help with her running form as she has been recovering from a nagging injury. It's nice when you have the same passion as someone else, and you are able to help them with your training. On Wednesday, I saw a new patient that came in for a few ailments that developed while running. Before I could even say anything to him about my running, he said to me, "Even though my MD told me that I should come to this facility, I wasn't completely convinced until I went on your website and saw your blog... I then knew that you had the same passion about this as I do" I felt as though he realized that I could relate to him, and I just thought that was great!!!


The days that I hate my job, is when I don't have the ability to treat someone the way I want to because of insurance. Some people come in our doors and have some serious ailments, and you know from experience that they can get better, but it will take time. Unfortunately most insurance companies don't care, and the patient might have insurance benefits (we shouldn't even call it benefits anymore) that allow them to come for 2 or 3 weeks, even though the MD and myself feel as though they need to come for therapy for a few months. So, sometimes we are slaves to the insurance industry, and they try to take away your expertise and force you to treat patients the way they want to pay you... it's just so frustrating....ugh!!!! The health care industry is so unstable because at any time, an insurance company can drop your reimbursement by as much as they want, and there is virtually nothing you can do about it.
If you really think about it, how crazy is this concept???
If I owned a pizza shop, and the price of cheese and meat and bread went up by 50%, what would I do? You got it.... raise my prices for the pizza.... but in health care, we continue to get paid less every year for doing the same treatment on patients... but patients have to pay more for their insurance...so obviously 2 of the 3 people in this equation aren't happy (the health care provider and the patient), but the insurance industry is laughing all the way to the bank. It is extremely frustrating to even talk about it, but when a frustrating situation comes up for a patient that needs care, I feel like I hate what I do....at sometimes I wish we didn't have insurance, and that people would just save the money that they use to pay their premiums to insurance companies in health savings account. When they got hurt, they would pay health care providers from that stash of money... when they aren't hurt, keep the money in the stash... I think it would give people more incentive to try to live healthier lifestyles... but that's just my opinion...whatever....
For me #2 answer doesn't come into play. It's either I love it or hate it... it has never just been a paycheck for me.... I'm dealing with people here!!!!
All in all, I realize we all got problems at our respective work places... whether its my issue, or having jobs shipped overseas, or greedy corporations trying to lowball their employees... it just stinks sometimes... but it's all good... I'll just continue to have fun and keep running!!!!!