Gear Review: Running Movies

Seeing as I watch a lot of movies while on the trainer, I've been doing much more watching movies about running than actual running lately. Additionally, since I doubt none of you care too much to hear about my bike trainer adventures, I figured I'd throw some reviews of movies I've been watching for motivation lately.

Stress Eating and Bike Trainers

Ugh, stress eating. I hate it. It's all I've been doing lately. From 7pm on, all I do is stuff my face. It's usually cereal, but there's no more cereal left in my house, so today it was pretzels and cashews. I don't even like cashews very much (almonds > cashews), but I ate an entire container anyway. Started feeling sick, but that didn't stop me. So now I'm sitting here sipping tea and trying to keep everything down, because the only thing I can think of that would be less pleasant than stress eating itself would be puking pretzels and cashews onto my keyboard. Wonderful. I feel fat and soft and gross. In actuality, I've probably gained half a pound, if that (just a guess, since it's been a few since I've weighed myself), and no one is ever going to notice besides me. I just hate looking at myself in the mirror right now, and I especially hate the way I look in cycling shorts. I'd also love to know when my internal clock got messed up. Not that it was ever great, but it wasn't "Go to bed at 2am, wake up at noon, and end up screwed when you have to wake up to go to work" before.

Fail.

A couple days ago, I was on a run and my tendon sort of blew up. Total fail run. So I got an MRI, and the results came back with the following findings:
1) Partial tear of the distal posterior tibialis tendon. There is associated tenosynovitis.
2) Joint effusions at the ankle and in the subtalar joint.
3) Small area of signal abnormality in the posterior lateral dome of the talus which may be due to contusion or early osteochondritis dissecans.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Is there anything better than the feeling of new shoes? Well, I suppose a new PR beats new shoes hands down, but besides that. After trying on several pairs of shoes this evening (thanks National Running Center), I ended up with a pair of Brooks Defyances. Hopefully I'll have better luck with them. I'm a bit disappointed with their aesthetics though.

Attack of the Munchies

You know you're running again when your appetite goes haywire. Or at least I do. Last night, my body felt the need to wake me up at 2:00am and demand food. I hope it didn't expect a gourmet meal, because it got cereal. That's about as much effort as I'm willing to put in at 2:00 in the morning anyway, especially when I have to wake up for work in the morning. Usually my body saves late night surprises like that for 100 mile weeks. I'll probably be just above 40 this week, so I don't know what its problem is. The obvious answer would be that I didn't eat enough during the day, but I ramped up how much food I'm eating now that I'm running again, and it's not really like I cut back much (or at all, really) when I stopped running. Plus I had an emotional eating Kashi version of Frosted Mini Wheats feast yesterday evening, so it wasn't like I went to bed hungry (I swear I do eat foods other than cereal...and if we're going to get technical, it was more a bored eating feast more than true emotional eating). Probably just a side effect of the gradual mileage increase (again, emphasis on gradual).

I read a lot of running blogs, and IANandJULIA.com has a really good post on how it feels to come back to running after time off. I tried to describe the awkward relearning how to run once before, but Julia does it a lot more eloquently than I did. Luckily I've gotten past that stage now and for the most part, feel like a runner again.

Back on the Road

So I've gradually begun running again. Emphasis on gradually. I ran a 21 mile week two weeks ago, and last week was all of 35. I'm still not 100%, so about twice a week, I've been going to Active Performance Chiropractic for active release therapy on my posterior tibial tendon and my hip flexor. Quite a few people have had really good experiences with Active Performance Chiropractic, and I've seen some improvement since starting therapy, so hopefully I'll be good to go sooner rather than later. I also like going to a doctor who runs, since I feel it gives them a certain background and perspective that a non-athlete may not have, which is yet another reason I decided to contact Dr. Laura. I've also started doing PT exercises and drills for the random little muscles in my lower legs that don't necessarily get as much exercise as they need with straight running. Not something I usually do, since normally, I'm all about running and that's it, but I figure it can't hurt, and with any luck, it'll help. I must be doomed to not be healthy though, because I recently added a sprained wrist from BMX biking to my injury list. My left arm is definitely weaker right now, and isn't pulling its weight as far as pumping and driving, but you don't actually run with your arms, so I guess it could be worse. Looking forward to being able to lift again, hopefully before my shoulders atrophy to nothingness.

Barefoot Running...or Not

Earlier today, I was talking to a friend who was having trouble deciding which shoes to wear for a race (incidentally, the same one who asked me about racing flats), and the conversation turned to minimalist shoes (as it often does with her). My friend is one of the lucky few with nearly perfect biomechanics, who can get away with next to no cushioning or stability features built into her shoes. Well, she recently purchased a pair of Nike Jana Star Waffle spikeless flats, which she claimed were giving her Achilles tendinitis. There are a million different possible causes for Achilles tendinitis, which I won't list here since a simple Google search can uncover them if you're interested, but the interesting part about my friend's case is she claims that wearing "normal" shoes has caused this problem before, and wearing Vibram FiveFingers clears it up. Normally I'd think of going the opposite way, from a shoe with a heel to a low heeled shoe, causing Achilles problems, since high heeled shoes can cause Achilles shortening and calf muscle tightness over time. I'm sure there are other forces at work, but I'm not about to try to guess on my blog.