4,650' Uphill Tempo Walk

1:13:24 - 3mph at 24% grade.
Ran for 1 minute every 9 minutes, hip felt pretty good. Zero pain when walking, a slight stiffness near the end of some of the 1 minute runs. Kept speed and incline the same for entire session. Walking cadence was 116 while running was 158.
I'm well aware that this time and vertical mean nothing relative to racing/running at inclines between 10-15% grades. For example, my fastest time up The Incline, a 40% average grade, is 26 minutes and a double in 60 minutes. Take the double and see that I have done 4,000' in one hour. Now take a solid 11% grade on the ascent portion of the BTMR that gains 3,630' in 6.3 miles and see that a 56:00 ascent for MC is a great day. After 56 minutes today I climbed 3,548'. Need I say more? A little... A 75 minute ascent at BTMR would be a solid time for me and at that pace it would still take me 82 minutes and 40 seconds to cover 4,000'. Anyway, yep, I was running alot of numbers through my head on this tempo hike this morning. The one thing that I can't argue is the time on my feet at a solid effort. Felt good and will keep this up to hold onto some fitness while the hip heals.

Uphill Tempo Walk

1 hour, 2.9 miles, 24% grade, 3,675' of climb, average HR 146, max HR 161.

This was what I really needed and it felt great. Hip does well at this grade.

New Goal

I have a new goal race in mind on a course I have unfinished business on, Mt. Washington. Not being able to do MMC is not a big deal for me; the whole thing started out as a way to build a good base - something I hadn't had in about 4-5 years. I accomplished the base so I'm happy with that and can look ahead at some races I REALLY want to do.
I ran Mt. Washington in 2005, I loved it and trained hard for it, but didn't train properly for an 80 minute run. I trained and raced as though I was doing the ascent portion of the Imogene Pass Run, about 2 hours for me. When I finished MT. W in 2005 I felt like I could have run another 30 minutes up that road, I just hadn't drained my tank or given it my all. Once my hip is ready I'll use some guidence again to accomplish this goal for Mt. W. I still need to get in through the lottery, but I have family Pinkham Notch so we'll plan a trip anyway. If I don't get in I'm going to run the trail up to the top in the morning at race effort and watch the race from finish line.

MRI Negative!!

Great news. No stress fracture, no bursitis, no nothin', hip appears to be in perfect condition according to MRI technology. So what's, then, causing this pain on impact? I have a follow up with the PT on Tuesday; perhaps he'll bring some light to this. In the meantime, I'm going to do some steep, DOWNHILL intervals; just kidding! I'll do some hiking this weekend and perhaps try some OTC dog medicine for hip diplasia.

MRI Today

Funny story. I woke up this morning half laughing from a dream I had last night about my MRI. I was sitting at a table with 2 other people reviewing the results of my MRI, Bob, trainer on the Biggest Loser and Lucho, my coach. Bob sat there arms crossed, tight lipped just nodding his head while Lucho gave me his personal diagnosis. This is what he said. "Rick, you have a strained Riviara muscle in your hip." I just kept looking at the paper to be sure I was hearing that right and making sure the letters were R-I-V-I-A-R-A. Yea, like the oldsmobile or the nice vacation spot.
Anyway, I pestered the technician pretty hard for her thoughts on what she saw, but she wouldn't crack. I've got my fingers crossed for a strained Riveria muscle and I should know this evening or tomorrow morning.

Dropped from MMC

Couldn't take it any longer and wanted to see what my hip would feel like, so I went out on the Las Vegas strip at 6 this morning and ran around a big block for about 25 minutes very easy. Hip didn't feel well, but not as bad as it has. The degree of pain leveled off to bearable and I just went nice and easy for probably a little less that 3 miles. Got back to the hotel and really had the urge to get my HR up a little so I thought I'd give the stairs a try. Ran 35 floors, 16 steps per floor, in 5 minutes. This felt really good and had ZERO pain in my hip, most likely due to very low impact. I think I'll do the stairs 3-4 times tomorrow taking the elevator down.
I have an MRI on Wed. so hopefully I'll know soon what this is and the recovery can start. The PT and I are both leaning to stress fracture, but we'll see. I have officially taken myself out of MMC. Not too bummed about it, just want to get this hip thing under control.

Family Trail Run

Maureen and I had a great day on the trail with the kids. They even got ahead of us a little, hybirnated like bears, then jumped out and scared us!

24% Grade

In an attempt to reduce impact on my hip I've decided to tweek my treadmill a little and do some steep grade walking. At about 3mph this will get my HR right up there where I need it with very little impact on any part of my body. This mill, prior to today, maxed out at 12mph and 12% grade. Now it maxes out at 24% grade! Looking forward to my first climb on it. To put it in a little perspective, 24% at 3mph would cover 7,815' in 2:03. Hmmmm...

I'm pretty sure my hip is an impact injury. I ran on it Tuesday very easy and had the same pain. Cycling, stretching, no pain. I'm committing to a full week of no impact (except walking) to see if there's improvement. In the meantime, I'll be getting my ass kicked on the bike; indoor trainer. I really haven't done anything on the bike in 6 months and those muscles are weak compared to my heart. HR in the low 130's and my legs are nearly burning. I have a tempo ride today that may Tourmalegs off, Bob Roll's term.

On the Bike today

Felt great on the bike. Legs feel good after yesterday, almost fresh, but hip is pretty sore just walking. Suprisingly, no pain on the bike.

First Ultra - First DNF

Ha Ha! No where near as serious as Paula in Athens, but what I do remember is seeing Paula in Flagstaff on an OCT. Sunday morning that same year on the track w/ her coach/husband. I just got off the track after doing some mile reps. A person, who I now know was her coach/husband, was watching me, but really just waiting for Paula to arrive. I was leaving just as Paula was coming on. I talked with her for a minute and she said she was "just here doing a bit of training." Riley was just a few months old and the 3 of us sat in the car and watched Paula do some speed work while her coach paced her on his bike. "C'mon Paula" he'd yell. She stayed about 6" from his back wheel and hammered out a session like I've never seen. I wrote it all down, times and distances. I think I can still find the piece of paper, a receipt in the glove compartment that I wrote it on. Paula won NYC in beautiful fashion the next month. That's how I'm staying positive about this DNF. I won't win jack-crap at MMC, but I will run hard and I will run strong!
I have some hip issues to deal with, but I've got a great coach that knows how to deal with this.

01JAN10

5 miles - 41:00 +/-725'.

Felt much better today; most of the achiness is gone but still a little tightness.

Same run as I did yesterday and Monday, but just turned around a little earlier.

With what felt like a similar effort as what I put forth yesterday and Monday I was running about 30-40 seconds/mile faster on the up portion; Good sign.

I did make a Rookie Mistake for my first Ultra, though. I forgot all about today being New Years Day; went to a couple running stores looking for gels, but thry were all closed. The grocery stores didn't offer anything but the typical Cliff bars and stuff so I picked up some gummy bear type candy. Also got some good ideas from Lucho on some homemade honey based stuff.

Weather for tomorrow at the Tsali 50k is temps in the upper teens at the 9 am start and about 30 at 2 in the afternoon, calling for "Abundant Sunshine" so as long as there's some sun exposure on the course it shouldn't feel too cold.