Thursday, July 26, 2012

New uses for KT Tape

Way before my recent half marathon trail run, my shoes began to fall apart. My customized inserts were flat, the soles were like bald tires, and the mesh lining down by the soles were tearing away from the shoe.  My step daughter ran with KT Tape (Kinesiology Therapeutic Tape) during her first marathon. She swears this really helped to prevent sore muscles.  I bought KT tape a long time ago because I used it to prevent the chafing I was  having with my sports bra.  After a lot of trial and expense I found the right sports bra for me.  I no longer needed KT tape. 
One morning before my long run, I kept thinking about the gravel road I was about to run on and how the little pebbles were going to get into my shoes. I know, why not get new shoes? The SoCal Half Marathon Trail run. It's dirty and would make a mess of my new shoes.  I promised myself I would get new shoes after that race.  As I put my socks on, I look over on the shelf in my closet and saw the KT tape.  Problem solved! For the next 10 minutes I sat there applying the KT tape inside my shoe along the sides. It worked better than I expected. The KT tape adhered, connected the mesh, and gave me some borrowed time (see above. The blue inside the mesh is the KT tape).
Funny thing about a promise, there isn't a real time frame attached to it. After the trail run,  KT shoes went to  Kansas and ran on dirt roads.  The tape held up! After my recent back sprain, I started running again with my KT shoes. Last night, as I hit 4 miles, I felt my left little toe pop out of my shoe.  My gig was up.  Time to retire this amazing loved shoes.  Such good times. You will be missed, but have been happily replaced by your new baby sister,  Saucony Powergrid Triumph 9!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Injury 2012

About four weeks ago, I suffered a severe lower back sprain. I have no idea how it happened. One morning I awoke and the pain began.
The sprain may indicate I wasn't strengthing my back muscles.
There are seventy-seven back muscles in three layers.  I believe by skipping my core workouts weaken my back muscles. After two weeks, I was able to do some yoga. Now into the fourth week,  I have almost recovered and have begun to run. Please don't skip your strength training. It's a very hard price to pay.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sunday Morning Skinny

There are a lot of people who started running to loose weight. I am one of them. I came across an article, in Running Times by Rachel Toor, talking about the issues of weight and running. Rachel Toor describes reading a biography, Seabiscuit, where carrying an extra pound or two can handicap  a 3,000 pound horse.
The article is interesting and lightly discusses how income can effect our diets. It goes on to discuss how difficult it can be to approach teenagers about weight affecting their performance.  Oddly, after my son's basketball shoot out yesterday, I heard a coach talking to his team about this subject.  The coach was asking his players to loose 5 pounds.  He stressed this would help with this agility and make them faster.
Everyone has heard you are what you eat. I know when I eat like crap, I run like crap.  Weight loss, for me, did make it easier on my knees and back.  In my home, we all eat the same foods. It isn't called dieting, it's just what is for dinner.