Sticking to it...

Another week of very solid training! Nothing exciting again, other than the fact that I have been able to continue pressing the miles with almost ZERO discomfort to the outside of my right knee. The weather has begun to drop, with lows in the mid 60s at night and highs maxing out in the mid 80s.

I'm heading out to Turks & Caicos this week for a week trip and plan on running a 50K on Tuesday morning. I feel that my body is up for it, so we'll just see what happens!

Another Episode of Ultra Running #Waz200 is now up. Check out the latest product I review: Goat Head Sole Spikes

Running with Waz: Episode 2

See ya on the road!

Back in the game

So after 5 weeks of consistent training, I raced today for the first time since April (Francis Marion Dirt Dash 1/2 Marathon - 1:49:26). That was 6 months of nothing more than 2 or 3 miles at a time, maybe once or twice a week. Over the last month I have already logged 350+ miles and have been feeling very strong again.

My training plan over the next 10 months puts me with over 4200 miles of training and racing as I lead into my next goal of racing and going after the course record at the Viaduct Ultra Marathon (Current record 73:48 200 miles)

Between now and next July I am going to begin recording highlights of my training and racing with a video blog of the journey.  

Enjoy! See you on the trail!

So negative... yet positive!

Kinvara 3

     My training plan of late has had nothing but mileage for each day. No other goals, no labels such "tempo" or "Zone 3"... nothing but miles. When I headed out tonight, the rain began to fall slightly, and the air was pretty cool. Just to get to the end of my driveway is a perfect half mile. As I turned onto Hwy 462 (kinda like the highway from Pet Cemetery) the roads were clear and for the first time ever I did not have to run on the shoulder. A quick first mile got me off the the main roads in a very comfortable 8:06 and then I was free!

     

The back roads around my house are simply that, BACK ROADS! When people drive past me, as I run practically naked with my long hair bobbing behind my headlamp, the looks are of utter confusion as to "way is that boy always runnin'..." But outside the strange looks, the road are fairly empty and everyone is always considerate (or afraid) as they pass.

     

Mile two came quickly, just pass Cherry Hill Cemetery, in 8:06. Now to a long time competitive runner, seeing a negative split simply becomes a challenge! The game was on! Over the course of the next few miles I continued to press out faster and faster splits, in a game of "how long can I hold on". My weekly log called for 7 miles this evening, so at the 3.5 mile point I turned around and headed back home.

     

The rain continued to fall, heavier now, and the miles were clicking away...7:47... 7:32... 7:13. Now I know that my no means did I set any records on the roads tonights, but once again a run of redemption and validation reconfirmed my return to running. Next week it may be time to add some labels to my workouts. See you on the trail!

7 Miles: Cherry Hill Road  8:06, 8:01, 7:57, 7:47, 7:32, 7:13, 8:24 (cool down)

Like a runner...

Sunrise on my way to
get Dry Needling

     Over the past year I have not logged in many miles and the miles that I do have in were mostly done with an amazing amount of pain and discomfort. I raced twice this year: 1. Delirium Ultra 24 Hour Endurance Race: a disappointing 92 mile finish missing out on a kick-ass Belt Buckle after pulling off the trail for 4 hours because of the cold! 2. The Palmetto 200 Relay race which ended with me becoming the van driver while my team picked up my slack from not being able to run past the mid-way point of the race.

     After the 200, I began seeking out treatment for my injured knee. My treatment began with Active Release Therapy and then I switched over to a more aggressive Dry Needling technique. The basis of Dry Needling is easy to explain: insert a wire filament into your flesh to activate the muscles trigger points to aid in breaking up scar tissue from over use AKA: Ultra Running. There is NOTHING fun about it, it is extremely painful and takes a few days to get back on your feet again after each treatment. IT HURTS... A LOT!!! 

The sun sets in my backyard

     After my third treatment (and not being able to barely walk for 3 days) I noticed on my first "long run" of 3 miles that I had zero discomfort in my knee any longer. I continued to go through my daily stretching routine (something that I have NEVER done as a runner) and realized that I was ready to begin pressing my distance further and further. Over this same time period I began having to travel some with work again. Sleeping in hotels is something that I have never been able to do so I replaced some of those early hours with longer and longer runs. After 5 straight days, I was running strong and was able to keep pressing the miles. I had my first real "return to running" this past Saturday when I met up with my good buddy Paul for some miles on the trails on Pickney Island. This would be my first group run since February of this year. IT FELT GOOD! So good that I decided to stretch it out like the old days and I felt something for the first time... Something that I missed.

Satisfaction

     I felt the Earth passing under my feet as my feet lightly made contact with the ground over and over again. I felt my heart and lungs expand and could feel the power flow through my body. I felt the cool marsh air against my sweaty flesh, cooling my core as I pressed harder and harder. I felt like a runner. A runner that could just go out and do what he enjoys, what he loves, what he's good at! Run when and where I wanted to. How far or how long I wanted to. At that point I was a runner again! The photos in this post are from a few of my runs over the last two week and one of me after my run on Pickney... that's the look of a happy runner. See you on the trail!!!

Soft Tissue Damage and Active Release Technique

Towards the end of March, I was out for an easy mid-afternoon run when I felt something “tweak” on the outside of my right knee. Not thinking much about it I continued running. Within a half mile I could barely put any pressure on my leg and I ended up walking back home.

After a quick Google search I smacked on an ice-pack and kept it elevated for a few days with a steady flow of Motrin. After the third day I decided to run again. My typical easy 9 miler turned into a very short and very painful 1 mile limp. This wasn’t good! I now had less than 3 weeks until my next race, a 200 mile relay meant for 12 runners that I would be taking on with only 3 other Ultra runners. A few more days passed before sending out the “hey guys, do you want to replace me?” warning flag. I was met with 3 solid, “naw man, let’s do this!”.

My knee held up well for the first 15 miles, thanks to being heavily taped with KT Tape. The pain level increased from a “3” to a very sharp “9” on my next short 2.7 mile leg. I had just completed a marathon and was in the most pain I had ever felt from running. Now this was NOT good!

After returning home I took a week off before going out and trying to run a mile. Big mistake! Now not only did my knee hurt while I ran, but my calf, IT Band, Knee, EVERYTHING hurt all the time. I went back to my good friend Google looking for answers. After finding nothing but words like “scope”, “surgery” , and “running retirement” I switched over to Twitter. My cousin Jason, is the Co-Founder of “Competitive Edge Performance” in Tampa Florida and quickly responded with three words I have not heard before “soft tissue damage” and highly recommended that I look into the Active Release Technique or (ART) to begin the recovery process. Once again, back to the Google!

I found that Active Release Technique treats soft tissue Injuries, relieves pain, and restores normal tissue function. ART is a new and extremely effective approach to treating soft tissue injuries and the resulting pain. It is a patented method of treatment developed by Dr. Michael Leahy and is utilized by more than 3500 certified providers, including medical doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, and athletic trainers worldwide. The technique is very popular with professional athletes and teams (NFL, NHL, NBA, etc.) and is used regularly by amateur and professional athletes alike, not only to help with rapid injury recovery, but also for improving their athletic performance. In recent years this method of treatment has begun to gain recognition among the general public as well, as more certified practitioners utilizing ART have entered the healthcare arena. (source: http://www.activerelease.com/)

I quickly began treatment with Dr Titus out of Savannah, GA and felt the effect of the therapy after the first day. So what does the treatment consist of? It is a series of massage techniques that focuses on the muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves in the affected areas to combat the overused muscles.

Typically soft tissue damage will occur in over-used muscles in one of three ways:

1.        Pulls, tears or collisions
2.     Micro Trauma (small tears)
3.     Hypoxia (not getting enough oxygen)

Each of these can cause the injured area to develop scar tissue in the affected area. Once the scar tissue binds up, it ties down tissues that should normally move freely. As the scar tissue continues to build up, muscles become shorter and weaker, additional tension on tendons causes tendonitis, and nerves can become trapped. ART directly focuses on these key areas to return the runner back to the road.

The personal response that I have had after two treatments has been significant enough to have me post about my treatment and has turned my outlook around to the point that I am mentally in the Fall race planning mentality now. I highly recommend looking into Active Release Technique to any and all Ultra Runners that that are experiencing an over use injury. Just get on the Google and look it up in your area!

See you on the trail…

Links:

http://www.activerelease.com/
http://www.gocompetitiveedge.com/
http://www.lowcountryultras.com/

Running Full Circle

It occurred to me tonight that my FIRST memory of running was in the second grade, as we were "forced" to participate in the Presidential Fitness Challenge. A quick loop around the baseball fields at Westside Elementary set the ground work for the next 30 years of my life and began a true love for running.

This past weekend, Jake also had to participate in his first Presidential Fitness Challenge... slaughtering the required time and other events, only to come back and ask to run the course again!!! We never know what the future holds for our children, but we always hope for the best and if he continues to run and be active, I know that he'll continue to make great life decisions and live a much richer life!

I personally pull energy from my kids as I run. Talking to them and asking them to "push daddy along" or just continue to chant "Come on guys, we've got this" during some of my darkest moments and it always pulls me out! Having them "with" me while I run is the single best piece of motivation I could ever have.

Hopefully they will draw inspiration or motivation to push themselves harder from my crazy running habits or even follow suit. I can't think of anything greater than one day being able to head out on a long run with Jake or Izzy and just talk away the miles.

I wonder if 30 years from now, Jake will be watching his son or daughter come around the final turn in first place and have his heart fill with pride and over flow with love. Hope he'll tell me all about it the next time we get together for a long run.

What have I been up to?

It's been a few months since my last post and quite honestly, the only thing I have written about lately are my race reports. So, what have I been up to? It would be best to rewind to a year ago and get caught up!

In Feb of 2011, my wife and I opened a local running speciality shop in Bluffton and poured our heart and soul into getting it off the ground. Mean while, I was also starting another company (my real job) Revenue Strategy Solutions, a remote Revenue Management company for Hotels. Both companies took off extremely well in 2011 and could not have been happier! Fast forward to the end of 2011. Holly and I made a decision and choose to sell the Running store as we were spending way too much time away from the kids and my running had taken a serious back burner due to being in the shop every weekend!

Within a month of solid training, I had taken off another huge chunk of time out of my 50K personal best and was THRILLED with where my training was headed. Holly and I decided to take another huge step at the beginning of December and moved to Ridgeland, SC. We didn't "just move" we found our DREAM HOME! A log cabin that sits in the middle of 800 acres on a private lake with plenty of room to start our own VERY large garden, citrus tree etc. We moved in on Dec 31, 2011 and have never been happier!

We had to make a tough decision about what we were going to do with the kids school, now that we were 35 minutes away - one way. We opted to put them in a local private school beginning next year, Thomas Haywood Academy (Go Rebels!) Izzy tested into 5 year old Kindergarten (she just turned 4) and Jake will be in the second grade. Both kids love the school and we are looking forward to a summer full of "camps" at THA including Art, Science, Sports and Cheer leading. Izzy is wrapping up her last "season" of ballet and is looking forward to playing soccer in the Fall. Jake is kicking ass and taking names on the baseball field right now!

Life is pretty good on the Waz front!

Back to running... So, last summer I launched "Lowcountry Ultras" when we put on our Cremator Ultra 50 Miler and it has boomed in the last year. We, through out the next few paragraphs will refer to several GREAT friends, with out them I would not be able to do what I love on the running front! My "crew" with-in Lowcountry Ultras is made up of my wife Holly, my two best buds Paul and Gary, and two completely random but awesomely amazing 3rd party acquaintances turned into excellent friends, Kayla and Joe. Again, without these guys Lowcountry Ultras would not exist!.

Our second race, the Delirium Ultra 24 Hour Endurance race took place this February on what turned into the coldest night of the year. With temps dropping down well below 24 degrees with an 11 degree windchill factor! Holly, Paul, Gary and I ran this race while Kayla and Joe held the race together as "Race Director" and "Joe". Joe is the man to get anything, fix anything or get in touch with anyone! The race itself sold out in less than 30 days and was full of awesome race swag, beanies, hoodies, kickin' medals and a lot of great people!

The day we wrapped up the Delirium I went straight to work on the second annual Cremator. We moved the race to Beaufort this year after having issues with the course on Hilton Head and Bluffton. We now have a straight out and back 25 mile loop that the runners will do two times. Gary will be the head-dog in charge for this pony show, and Paul will act as my Crew Chief.

In addition to the Delirium, we are also picking up another local event, the Bad Marsh 50k Night Ultra. This was a part of East Coast Ultras races, but Becky decided not to have the event this year as she and her husband get ready for their first baby. We did not want to see the race die off, so we picked it up and added it into our series. It's on an awesome 4.5 mile looped course and is on the same course as my current 50K PR. I'll be the RD for this race!

Personally, I'm getting ready to run the Palmetto 200 this weekend from Columbia, SC to Charleston, SC. It's a 200 mile relay that is meant to be run my 12 people. I am doing it as any "Ultra" with only 3 other runners, Marie, David and Ed. We should have a pretty good chance of winner the "Ultra" division... IF... my knee holds up.

A few weeks ago I was out for a run and I felt something... pull or pop. I could barely put any pressure on it and walked back home. I took the next few days off, icing and just trying to stay off it as much as possible. A few days later the knee began to bruise. With the race coming up, I wanted to get training if possible so I would go out for shorter runs 2, 3 miles at a time. it wasn't until this past week that I was able to run 10 miles. It's still bothering me slightly, so I need to run very smart this weekend as I continue to train up for Cremator in July. We'll see how it holds up!

Other than that, the only other racing I'm planning for this year are:

Palmetto 200 April 13-14

Cremator 50 Miler July 21

Arkansas Traveller 100 October

Mad Marsh November

2013

Harbison 50k (we plan on running an extra loop for training)

Delirium 24 Hour

See you on the road!

@timwaz