I am just writing to know if anyone else has dealt with baker’s cyst in their knees? I had one removed from my left knee, and now currently have another that has formed in the right knee, which I am not letting a doctor see. My left knee has felt worse since the removal. I have seen a new doctor, gotten custom orthotics for my shoes, and went to physical therapy! I will say they are not as bad as they used to be, but I tolerate pain pretty good. I just wanted to know if there are any other tips.  I recently suffered from IT Band syndrome as well and currently just keep up with my stretches for that and it seems  to be okay! I just struggle with the knee pain,but I love long distance running. Just looking for some tips on how others deal with it. Also I would love to hear how some train for speed. I know being a long distance runner that my sprint muscles are not built up. I am in a racing series and doing pretty well, but for personal goals I would like to be faster. I do a little spreed training, but not much. Just looking for some tips on knee pain as well on some of ‘ speed training methods! I would love to hear and plan on reading some of the other posts on this blog when I get done working for the week, with 12 hour shifts there doesn’t leave much time for anything else!

Hayley

I was reading a review about a CompuTrainer, which for those of you who are not in the know, it is a high tech stationary training bicycle, that can or can not be rigged to the computer.
The reasons you would want to rig it to the computer are the benefits of the software, which would allow you certain data on your training, but that is not the main thing or what got my interest up. Apparently, there is a lot of different software available, that will allow you, like a computer game to race against an opponent with the same kind of visuals as a computer game. You can be in training mode, or competition mode and chose the tracks and trails you want to ride, either imaginary or real life courses.
Its sound like such a great toy to have around, and I was wondering if there was a treadmill or elliptical with the same sort of features.
If anyone knows, I would love to be pointed in the right direction.

photo credit - via creative commons playingbarefoot

You know how in the newspaper every three days or so, unless there is a war going on somewhere, One of the main headlines will hail “New scientific study….” and then 3 days later there will be another headline about another New scientific study proving the exact opposite… but sensationalism being the name of the game, with each newspaper or television station trying to out do the competition, scientific studies are beginning to lose their charm, or at least their credibility.

(not real studies, in real scientific circles that are meant for a lot more than headlines - they obviously maintain there credibility.)

Anyway, I was reading a post, Coach Dean posted about alcohol consumption an its effects on recovery, and I was getting pretty upset by the thought that I might have to cut out my alcohol, which I do like.
(not that I didn’t know that it wasn’t the most healthy drink for anyone, let alone athletes)
Until I got to this Paragraph

These results are not terribly surprising. We have long known that alcohol is not conducive to training or recovery. Here is where the study however failed most of us. They required the subjects to consume six alcoholic drinks; one every 15 minutes in the course of an hour and a half. They stated that for the subjects in this test it was actually somewhat LESS THAN what would normally be consumed post-matches. But, they wanted to mimic a “binge” occurrence.

Now, how many people do you know, not serious athletes, and not serious athletes after a big helping of sports that will sit down within the hour and consume 6 drinks - that’s right - six vodkas, or six martini’s or 6 pints of beer - that is not a normal amount of alcohol to consume, point black.
So I feel find now. I can continue having my night cap, and even continue having a beer after a run to amplify my satisfaction, regardless of this study and if I am guessing right - you can to.
to read Coach Deans full post click here.

I know that there are all sorts of little tricks to get you through the hard part of a run (or the hard part of life, for that matter)
For example, having specific songs on your ipod, to cheer you on when you are about to break, or imagining what it will be like to have a cold beer along with the satisfaction of completing your run.
The anticipation of satisfaction usually keeps me going, once I have started, it is not enough to actually get me going though - if anyone has a motivation for that I would love to hear it.

Anyway, I never thought of using visualization as a means of getting through a run - well, obviously I did, because anticipating satisfaction and imagining myself drinking a long cool beer after a run is visualization of sorts, but not really exciting to me because it is kind of second nature by now.

The visualization I am talking about is one metioned On Run Faster - for example she says - if she is running into a head on wind - she visualizes herself as a knife, and if she wants to pick up the pace on a race, she will visualize lassoing the person in front and pulling on the rope.

I love this idea - for one thing, it is completely amusing and can take your mind of your muscles for a while.
Some I visualizations I could see coming in handy would be imaging I was a skateboarder, or bicycle rider being pulled forward effortlessly in the tailwind of a truck.
Or maybe - “I am running on rubber” for when my feet felt heavy and hard to pick up.

Photo courtesy of 09taveler creative commons license

I just ran into an interesting article about running in the snow (something we all know I don’t do ;-)) but I thought I would share it anyway, it was writen by Coach Joe and published here.
Here is a small excerpt

Snowy weather, especially in places that don’t get a lot of snow, produces driving conditions and driver behavior that are less than desirable. A car can simply spin-out or lose control without notice on snow or ice, so as a runner, you need to keep on your guard at all times. Here are a few things that can help in dealing with cars:

• Position yourself facing traffic if possible and safe to do so. In most areas, runners are legally required to run facing traffic if there are no sidewalks along the road and in the case of snowy weather, you want to be positioned to see cars coming toward you so that you can take action if they appear to be losing control.

•  Get as far from the cars as is practical. You’ll need to balance your safety with the ability to put yourself on hard-packed snow, but stay as far to the side of the road as you can.

• Pull over and stop if a car looks shaky. It’s not hard to spot a driver that it having trouble with driving in the snow. When you see a driver that looks like he or she might be nervous about your presence at the side of the road, just take a few steps off of the road into the snow, stop and wait for them to pass.