Weekly Log 21-Apr to 27-Apr-2014: Recovery Week #1

It's a new week!  My surgery and various ailments are in the rear-view mirror
now, and I'm marching on towards recovery.  Every day is getting better and better.

Monday:  0

Tuesday:  Walk 1.5.
Met with the surgeon today for my follow-up.  He cleared me for returning to light activities immediately with a 4-week post-surgery window of ramping up to full activities, which would mean by mid-May I should be ready for speedwork, followed by a return to racing!  He suggested I start out with a brisk walk first, then the next day trying 5 minutes of light jogging at a time, and gradually ramp up, saying I'll know it if I'm pushing too hard and should back down.

So that's what I did.  Short drive from SC Hospital to Black Point, parked the car, and went for what I felt was a brisk walk, but in reality was a pace somewhere around 17 minutes/mile.  Felt great to be out there on the trails along the ocean.

Wednesday:  Run/walk 2
Surgery + 7 days:  first day with no bandages and first day completely off meds!  Tried my first 5-minute slow jog.  Local roads, at about a 11 minute pace.  Felt odd and uncomfortable, but no pain either.  Continued with a 5-minute walk, and then repeated twice.

Thursday:  Walk 3
Met up at Camp Watchaug with two YMCA employees that are putting on Back Road Ramble on June 1st.  I give them kudos for looking for a runner's perspective, and they've asked me to be on the race committee.  We walked and wheel-measured the existing course, and it came up long on both GPS and wheel measurement, so we'll be looking for a change.  They are interested in a start closer to the waterfront as well, so that will necessitate some course changes in itself, but should also mitigate the current bottleneck at the start as well as having a consistent place for registration, start, finish, and awards.  If we can reduce some tarmac in the process as well, that would be great, but let's see.  Ultimately the course will be YMCA decision, but I told them I'd get back to them with some proposals and they seem genuinely interested.

Friday:  Run 5!!
Longest and fastest run post-surgery.  Sub-10 minute miles!  I bet the likes of Garvin, Galoob, and Pelletier are shaking in their boots hoping I don't enter the same races as them.  :)  Rambled about the Burlingame campground.  Kept me eye out for possible trails for June 1st, but unfortunately so many of them go through campsites, which the Y won't have the luxury of doing as people starting to camp there already.  In truth, I did stop numerous times on my 5-mile run, but it is still quite a bit of progress for me.

Saturday:  Run 5
WMS Track coach asked if I could lead some of the distance kids on a long run.  I felt I was ready, so I met up at their practice at WHS, and he assigned seven runners to me, two girls and five boys ranging from 6th to 8th grade, including Matthew.  Ran downhill to Wilcox Park, crossed the bridge over to Pawcatuck Park, and meandered over to Stillman Ave for the return to RI.  The kids thought it was cool that we ran to another state; I just hope I didn't break any school rules.  The pace was an easy 9-minute pace, as we had varied abilities and I needed to keep the kids together.  For a couple of them, this would be their longest run ever.

Returning to RI and crossing into quiet streets in the North End, I threw in 5 x (2 telephone poles hard, 2 easy), and told the kids they could separate here and we'd all get back together on the easy jog portions.  The three 8th graders (Matthew and the two girls) were always way up front on the hard portions.  I tried to catch Matthew on a couple of them, but just as the doc told me, I would feel it when I was pushing too hard and trying to near sprint was not agreeing with my surgery area, so I backed off.  Besides, Matthew was very happy to have beaten me!  I was pleased to hear a couple of them say they were glad they were taking a break from constantly running on the track.

Finishing the long run, I had 35 minutes to spare before picking Matthew up, so I went to the Y to try a few swim laps.  The pool was closed.  I'm sure FiveK is skeptical here, but I really did try!  Went to the sauna instead.

Sunday:  Run 5
The run:  Drove to Narragansett with a Critchlery-mobile on my tail.  He looked surprised when I pulled off on a side street 1/2 mile before start, but I was trying to avoid the logjam parking at race start.  Ran for the first time post-surgery at sub-9!  Was running part of the Blessing in reverse, when I saw a sign for "Crooked Brook Historical Trail".  Sounds like a good time for a course deviation!  The trail turned out to be only 1/2 mile, but was an interesting change.  Ran next on Ocean Road and up towards the race start, where I caught up with a couple of NRA runners.

Mile 1.4:  Timed my run to finish just as I heard the shotgun start.  A few minutes later I see the police motorcycle, with Chris in 2nd place and FiveK in 4th.  Seth isn't far behind in a pack of three runners, followed by Mike B all smiles as he comes over to slap hands.  Steve and Crutch round out the WTAC runners.  Time to run to the next station.

Went to the race with my own printed route map of viewing stations,
and datapoints of upper and lower range of projected arrival times at each point.
I didn't see other spectators bringing datapoints; you're probably wondering
why can't this geek just go to a race and watch at the start like everyone else?

Mile 2.4:  Not knowing Chris was running had thrown off my planned datapoints, and I arrived on Ocean Road just in time to see him coming but not quick enough to snap a pic with Jana's camera that she had kindly setup in advance so all I had to do was "press here, dummy".  Next up, FiveK was in 3rd.  He must have passed Keven O'Neill since I last saw him.  Seth was still in 8th, but being closely hounded by the same two runners.  Mike B was looking good in 18th, and Crutch had passed Steve by this point.

Weekly totals:
Walk 6 miles
Run 16 miles

Week highlights:

• Returning to running!  
• Seeing my pace drop sub-30, sub-20, and sub-10.
• Westerly taxpayers voted to add 433 acres of undeveloped land (with some existing trails) to 800+ abutting acres in Woody Hill.
• Preparing and submitting two alternative routes for Back Road Ramble.  Both add more singletrack and less asphalt, but it's up to YMCA what they want to do.
• Watching my WTAC brethen tear it up at RI State Police Foot Pursuit 5K.