Platte River Trail

Click for a map on Traillink.com

Ever wonder where that trail next to the Sapp Brother's Truckstop in Commerce City CO went?

This is a great multi-use trail, almost 30 miles long, and is scheduled to connect to the Front Range trail system.  The picture is near my house, in Henderson CO. 

You can access this trail from Sapps, or the Tomahawk Truckstop in Brighton CO (a couple of miles west down 120th Street.)  The trail aslo goes to downtown Denver.

April Update

April ended up being a great month to push out my mileage on each run, even though my weekly miles have not gone up.  I have been hitting six and seven mile runs without pain. 
Many Runner's World articles stress that to recover or prevent injury, only increase mileage or intensity, not both.  Running while team-trucking is an opportunistic sport.  You never know when you will have a chance to run.  As it worked out this month, I happen to be sticking to the RW program.

I may start posting every run again in May, and pick my next marathon.

March Update

Back to trucking, back to our routine.  All the cruise weight-gain I had worked so hard to accumulate is falling off, my runs are more consistent, spring is springing.  I ran nine miles, ten miles, eleven miles, and nine miles.  I am still not to where I need to be in weekly mileage, but getting there.  The 40 and 50 miles weeks from my last marathon training seem to be more possible now.

A friend recommended icing my foot after runs, and I have been having the most success with keeping my my heel pain-free this month.  Ice would have been cheaper to try than the shoe inserts, night splint, NSAIs, and new running shoes, but I am glad to be having any success.

February Update

I asked Cindy if she thought she could recover from her hysterectomy as easily in the eastern caribbean as she could at home.

She thought she could.

I booked a nine-day cruise/weight-gain program for the middle of the month.  We actually kept a pretty good exercise program going, even trying yoga for the first time while on the cruise.

Two weeks over ten miles, two weeks under ten miles.

Favorite run was in St Thomas, USVI, four miles just as the sun was coming up.  Later that day we walked six miles while power-shopping.

The night splint I bought in Miami, a Strausburg Sock, helps with morning pain from the plantar fasciaitis, but does not seem to be healing the disorder.

January Update

Easing back into enough miles to start a marathon training program.  Two weeks were over ten miles, two under ten miles. 

I did crosstraining almost every day.  Cindy had a hysterectomy, and we have been home for most of the month, so I abused my heavy bag, swam at the local rec center, and did quite a bit of resistance training.

Best entry on my running log:  Sprinting, too many times, between the table and buffet.

Still encountering heel pain after a run, and in the mornings.  Shopping for a night splint to try.

Sacramento 49r

Sacramento CA has always been a great place for Cindy and I to exercise.

Many bike trails run along the Sacramento River.  The biggest truckstop, the Sacramento 49r, is only a couple of miles from the trails.
Now the city is extending the bike paths across the overpass just south of the truckstop, and is building a pedestrian bridge over I-80 near the canal just east of the truckstop.

Today I ran four miles easy, up El Centro Rd (no sidewalk, 30-inch asphalt shoulder) to eastbound San Juan Rd (wide, concrete sidewalk).  I encountered the trail-head at the canal (asphalt, wide) and thought I might be able to run down to westbound El Camino and right back to the truckstop. 
The unfinished bridge stopped me, and I backtracked to the truckstop.

Raining and 40 degrees.  Average 11:00 miles.  Minor heel pain.

Optimism

Something is just wrong with runners.

We engage in an activity most people avoid or consider punishment from their days in High-School sports.  When we encounter an overuse injury we are frustrated at trying to reach levels that we used to easily attain.  Maybe we step back for a while, but at the first signs of progress, we push it.

Maybe something is just wrong with me.

After months of pampering my left foot and getting to where three or four miles felt pain-free, I started off on a nice run in Alameda CA, just north of the Oakland airport.
The day was cold and rainy, but I was well-dressed for the weather.  My heel felt good, my legs felt good, I had the time to not hurry.  I had a great prescription for an easy five-mile tempo run at 10:15 pace.  Just trying to build miles and return to a marathon-training program.
I watched the rainclouds boil across the Bay from San Francisco.  The concrete sidewalk gave way to an asphalt trail, then a gravel path that ran along the water.  The miles went quickly and I had to keep watch on my Garmin and keep telling myself to slow down.
At 2.5 miles I saw my turn-around point glide past, thinking I would not add that many more miles by going clear around the peninsula.  On a fine, cool day a faster pace would be OK. Wouldn't it?

Back at the truck I was already starting to feel my calves and heel.  I finished with eight miles, one of them under 9:00, another at 9:30.  I gave up the next week's running to enjoy my day at the Bay, and risked a flare-up of the plantar faciitis.

I did enjoy the run, though.  Something must be wrong with me.