I've been getting antsy. Normally I have Wednesdays off so I can do a long run as part of my training. In the past month and a half I haven't had a Wednesday off. My schedule has been disrupted by holidays and commitments I had made to friends running races or a mixture of tapering and recovering for/from races.
I had a real nice rhythm going up until the DWD Gnaw Bone race. Now it seems like my running and training have been wonky and inconsistent. My weekly mileage has been fair. I've gotten about forty miles a week for the last month or so. I even managed to get about 57 in this past week. Yet nothing over 13 miles. This is a respectable amount but it seems like I had to beg, borrow, and steal for the time to get those miles in. Nothing easy or relaxed in them. This week I even got up at 5:30 am a couple of times to get some mileage in before work. The runs were pretty good. It was nice to know I can get an eight mile run in before work which is always a good option. Maybe not ideal, but an option. Perhaps the only solace in the week was getting 100,000' of elevation gain and getting over a thousand miles for the year already.
Some of my antsyness could be the onset of summer and the heat and humidity that comes with it. I don't know. It could be that I've been limited to running around the roads of the town I live in. I just can't wait to get a day where I can get an uncompromised long run under my belt on a trail. Earlier in the year I had a great rhythm going and hope to get that going again. Hopefully soon.
Friday, July 11, 2014
Tuesday, July 8, 2014
OPSF 5050
So a few days after my last update (the one where I mention that I don't like racing towards the end), I went and registered for a 50 mile race that's taking place in my back yard. The Owen Putnam State Forest 5050 is a trail race here in that is set to take place on November 8th. The course, which I've run on several times over the past several years, is on public land that is primarily horse trails.
I like running the out there mostly because it's a challenging run. Typically about three miles into my runs there I think "why the Hell do I come out here ?!?!?" I haven't been too successful in getting anyone out there to run with me though. I usually don't sugar coat my sales pitch about how hard the trail is compared to other local trails. It's a rugged trail with multiple water crossings, steep inclines and declines, the trails aren't marked very well, it's very rocky, typically very muddy, there are sticks and branches everywhere, and tons of horse shit mixed in the mud.
There are steep hills meant for horse riders. I guess horses would have an easier time getting up them. If they were designed for hikers or runners, they would have incorporated some switchbacks to get up (or down) them easier.
Normally I get out there in the early spring because the foliage isn't as overgrown as it gets in the early to mid summer. My last trip resulted in many scratches and my legs covered in mud and ticks. Now that I'm registered for the race out there, I will probably try to make it out there more than I typically do in the summer. Knowing I have this race in November makes the humid training runs seem worthwhile. I just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew making this my first 50 mile race.
 | |
| map of the Owen Putnam State Forest horse trails |
I like running the out there mostly because it's a challenging run. Typically about three miles into my runs there I think "why the Hell do I come out here ?!?!?" I haven't been too successful in getting anyone out there to run with me though. I usually don't sugar coat my sales pitch about how hard the trail is compared to other local trails. It's a rugged trail with multiple water crossings, steep inclines and declines, the trails aren't marked very well, it's very rocky, typically very muddy, there are sticks and branches everywhere, and tons of horse shit mixed in the mud.
There are steep hills meant for horse riders. I guess horses would have an easier time getting up them. If they were designed for hikers or runners, they would have incorporated some switchbacks to get up (or down) them easier.
 | |
| my shoe the last time I ran at the OPSF |
Normally I get out there in the early spring because the foliage isn't as overgrown as it gets in the early to mid summer. My last trip resulted in many scratches and my legs covered in mud and ticks. Now that I'm registered for the race out there, I will probably try to make it out there more than I typically do in the summer. Knowing I have this race in November makes the humid training runs seem worthwhile. I just hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew making this my first 50 mile race.
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
What I've been up to.....or something.
So it's been awhile since I updated anything. In the last few months I just decided to just run consistently. I was running about forty to fifty mile weeks. I was training for a 50 mile race but I injured my foot and that was pretty much the end of that.
During my injury time I turned my attention to weight training. I started learning how Bruce Lee trained for his sport and his methods became the inspiration for my training. He had an insane training regimen with the philosophy that you should train every part of your body. Now he was a martial arts fighter so this makes total sense for that. I just want to run trail. So I decided to focus my efforts on a weight training regimen that would help me become stronger and more injury proof. Lots of core work and shoulder and leg strengthening.
I came up with the training philosophy of "Train for nothing; be prepared for anything". This was directly inspired by Bruce Lee. I don't really like to run races. I like training though. If it wasn't for being registered for the Prairie Spirit run I wouldn't have minded being injured so much. Weight training has been a good compliment to my running and a good substitution when I'm experiencing an injury.
After several weeks my foot was healed and I started running again. This was about mid March and I was advised not to run the Prairie Spirit run (by my foot doctor, wife and friends). I then set my aim on a local race called "Dances With Dirt ~ Gnaw Bone". I wanted to do the 50K or the 50 mile race there. I did an 18 mile run three weeks from the event and figured the 50K distance would be a better fit. The fifty miler would have been too much for me in hindsight.
So in that month leading up to the race I started focusing on hill training. I had to abandon any what little adherence to the Maffotone method I had in order to train the way I wanted. This switch was inspired by a Bruce Lee quote:
I see the Maffotone method as beneficial.I enjoy running hills and the Maffotone Method prevents me from doing that at my present fitness level. Basically I don't have the patience to build my aerobic motor to get to the point where I can run hills according to the Maffetone method. Another Bruce Lee quote that influenced me away from strict Maffetone
adherence is "Obey the Principles without being bound by them." So I decided to train by loosely following Maffotone's method but have fun training. And for me, running hills and charging up them as part of my training is fun.
The Gnaw Bone 50K came and went. I had fun doing it and met a lot of cool people. I went in wanting to run the course in under 6 hours and accomplished that feat. I found out what weaknesses needed to be addressed but overall was pleased with my effort. I had a good time but I still don't think I'm sold on running races. I would just rather say "On such and such date I'm going to run 50 miles" and then train to do that. I don't really need a t-shirt to commemorate the event. Or a medal that will just lay around the house or something. Or to spend a hundred dollars.
Shortly after the GB50k a friend asked if I would pace him for a 100 mile race that he wanted to run. It was about a month away and I agreed. I had never paced anyone before so I had my work cut out for me. I'm bad about my own nutrition and taking electrolytes and all that other shit while running. Now I've agreed to help someone with their own nutritional needs while running. We're fucked. This race was the Mohican 100 that took place in Ohio on June 21st and 22nd. I ended up pacing him for about 34 miles.
I didn't really train for this. I had just been consistent with my running so I was able to do the distance. (Whether or not I did a good job pacing or not is another story. I would give myself a C+) This fit into my new "train for nothing; be prepared for anything" philosophy that I started following several months ago. The 34 miles was a new distance PR by a little over an hour. I did 33 and some change at the cancelled "Eight hours of Payne" non-event event.
The last several months have gotten me out of my routine. I've had to request some weekends off, I had to taper for the Gnaw Bone and Mohican races, and holidays have thrown my routine off. I had to struggle to run consistent with my normal Wednesday "long day" run being vacant. I can't wait to get back in a good routine.
During my injury time I turned my attention to weight training. I started learning how Bruce Lee trained for his sport and his methods became the inspiration for my training. He had an insane training regimen with the philosophy that you should train every part of your body. Now he was a martial arts fighter so this makes total sense for that. I just want to run trail. So I decided to focus my efforts on a weight training regimen that would help me become stronger and more injury proof. Lots of core work and shoulder and leg strengthening.
I came up with the training philosophy of "Train for nothing; be prepared for anything". This was directly inspired by Bruce Lee. I don't really like to run races. I like training though. If it wasn't for being registered for the Prairie Spirit run I wouldn't have minded being injured so much. Weight training has been a good compliment to my running and a good substitution when I'm experiencing an injury.
After several weeks my foot was healed and I started running again. This was about mid March and I was advised not to run the Prairie Spirit run (by my foot doctor, wife and friends). I then set my aim on a local race called "Dances With Dirt ~ Gnaw Bone". I wanted to do the 50K or the 50 mile race there. I did an 18 mile run three weeks from the event and figured the 50K distance would be a better fit. The fifty miler would have been too much for me in hindsight.
So in that month leading up to the race I started focusing on hill training. I had to abandon any what little adherence to the Maffotone method I had in order to train the way I wanted. This switch was inspired by a Bruce Lee quote:
The Gnaw Bone 50K came and went. I had fun doing it and met a lot of cool people. I went in wanting to run the course in under 6 hours and accomplished that feat. I found out what weaknesses needed to be addressed but overall was pleased with my effort. I had a good time but I still don't think I'm sold on running races. I would just rather say "On such and such date I'm going to run 50 miles" and then train to do that. I don't really need a t-shirt to commemorate the event. Or a medal that will just lay around the house or something. Or to spend a hundred dollars.
Shortly after the GB50k a friend asked if I would pace him for a 100 mile race that he wanted to run. It was about a month away and I agreed. I had never paced anyone before so I had my work cut out for me. I'm bad about my own nutrition and taking electrolytes and all that other shit while running. Now I've agreed to help someone with their own nutritional needs while running. We're fucked. This race was the Mohican 100 that took place in Ohio on June 21st and 22nd. I ended up pacing him for about 34 miles.
I didn't really train for this. I had just been consistent with my running so I was able to do the distance. (Whether or not I did a good job pacing or not is another story. I would give myself a C+) This fit into my new "train for nothing; be prepared for anything" philosophy that I started following several months ago. The 34 miles was a new distance PR by a little over an hour. I did 33 and some change at the cancelled "Eight hours of Payne" non-event event.
The last several months have gotten me out of my routine. I've had to request some weekends off, I had to taper for the Gnaw Bone and Mohican races, and holidays have thrown my routine off. I had to struggle to run consistent with my normal Wednesday "long day" run being vacant. I can't wait to get back in a good routine.
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Stupid mysterious foot injury
The big race is aborted. My participation in Operation: Double Secret Bigfoot is a failure. I seem to have a possible bone bruise between my fifth metatarsal and the cuboid bone. I don't know for sure because my doctor wants to rest the foot to see if the area heals and the pain clears up. In the meantime, I have to wear a compression sleeve on my right foot. I also have to rub some prescription strength bengay ointment stuff
on my foot. It burns just a little while it's on but luckily it's bad
smell helps distract me from the burning sensation
. The inserts kind of suck. I've been wearing them a whole day. My wife, who wears inserts, says it takes some time to get used to them. "About two weeks", she said. Fun. I used to have funky feet as a kid. I had to wear corrective shoes when I was about two or three years of age. Thankfully, I don't remember ever having to wear them. I remember going to the doctor about it but since I was a kid I didn't think anything about it. It was normal. Normal for me anyway. I never thought about that time til now. I guess the inserts having me thinking back to then. I really don't remember any of it though.
It's been a week since my last run. That run felt good. I went to McCormick's creek state park and ran a little over 5 miles. I felt good the whole time with only a minor concern in my foot. I didn't think anything of it since I knew I would be hypersensitive and mindful of my foot the whole time. I ran, jumped and landed, and launched off rocks all without any pain or issue during or later that afternoon. I came home and iced my foot just to be cautious. I thought I was in the clear.
Then the next morning I woke up to the same pain again. I hobbled through my morning and was totally deflated and in a bad mood most of the day. I called and set up an appointment with a podiatrist and just waited for the appointment day.
So here I am writing this. Part of me wants to go for a run, but there is the fear of aggravating the injury before it's healed fully. But there's the fear and a plague of "what if's" that are going through my brain. What if the inserts don't work? What if I screw up the injury again like last week? What if you're just being a pussy and driving yourself crazy for no fucking reason? Things like that.
It's a relatively minor injury that happened to occur at an unfortunate time in my training. There are people in this world with a lot worse injuries and conditions than me. I'm being kind of a dipshit about this whole thing in the grand scheme of things. It's been frustrating but I've been keeping myself busy with weight training, stretching, and yoga. To keep my cardio fit I've been riding an exercise bike. I have no idea what I'm doing on the thing though. I rode 30 miles on it and then 18 the next day. My quads were tired the whole ride of the 18 miler but it was better than just sitting on my ass.
The race I've been training for isn't going to happen for me. I don't know how I feel about it. I've had plenty of time to consider the possibility of not reaching the starting line for the race in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately I have gotten used to an injury taking me out of a race in the short time I've been back running. I have a very small success rate when it comes to signing up for a race, training for it, and making it to the finish line it seems. Anymore I'm getting the pessimistic mindset that any race I pay to enter is going to be a donation and I'll get to run it if I avoid injuring myself. I don't know how healthy this is but I get a small amusement out of it.
Part of me wants to blame winter for this, but could I just have a flaw in my running footfall? There is obviously something wrong with my foot caused by how I land on it. If there wasn't a mechanics flaw, then how did the injury occur? Could it be that I've just been getting lucky so far and my increased mileage brought the problem to light? I have no idea. Could the injury just be shitty luck and a fluke? I have no idea. Could it be that all the running I did was on roads and not trails? I have no idea. Is it better that I get to rest through winters last hurrah with an injury rather than through spring? Probably. Was I ready for the race? I don't know. My last big run was the catalyst for the injury, so it's hard to tell. All of this has shaken my confidence. They say that a lot of endurance running is mental. I'm wondering if I have the mental fortitude to keep at this. This injury has me wondering if I have the physical fortitude to keep at this as well. I know this will all change when the smoke clears and I'm back to training for some race that, hopefully, won't end up being just a donation to some race director. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
thanks for reading this
 | |
| please excuse my runner's toes |
It's been a week since my last run. That run felt good. I went to McCormick's creek state park and ran a little over 5 miles. I felt good the whole time with only a minor concern in my foot. I didn't think anything of it since I knew I would be hypersensitive and mindful of my foot the whole time. I ran, jumped and landed, and launched off rocks all without any pain or issue during or later that afternoon. I came home and iced my foot just to be cautious. I thought I was in the clear.
Then the next morning I woke up to the same pain again. I hobbled through my morning and was totally deflated and in a bad mood most of the day. I called and set up an appointment with a podiatrist and just waited for the appointment day.
So here I am writing this. Part of me wants to go for a run, but there is the fear of aggravating the injury before it's healed fully. But there's the fear and a plague of "what if's" that are going through my brain. What if the inserts don't work? What if I screw up the injury again like last week? What if you're just being a pussy and driving yourself crazy for no fucking reason? Things like that.
 | |
| me driving myself batty with my "What if?" scenarios. |
It's a relatively minor injury that happened to occur at an unfortunate time in my training. There are people in this world with a lot worse injuries and conditions than me. I'm being kind of a dipshit about this whole thing in the grand scheme of things. It's been frustrating but I've been keeping myself busy with weight training, stretching, and yoga. To keep my cardio fit I've been riding an exercise bike. I have no idea what I'm doing on the thing though. I rode 30 miles on it and then 18 the next day. My quads were tired the whole ride of the 18 miler but it was better than just sitting on my ass.
The race I've been training for isn't going to happen for me. I don't know how I feel about it. I've had plenty of time to consider the possibility of not reaching the starting line for the race in the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately I have gotten used to an injury taking me out of a race in the short time I've been back running. I have a very small success rate when it comes to signing up for a race, training for it, and making it to the finish line it seems. Anymore I'm getting the pessimistic mindset that any race I pay to enter is going to be a donation and I'll get to run it if I avoid injuring myself. I don't know how healthy this is but I get a small amusement out of it.
Part of me wants to blame winter for this, but could I just have a flaw in my running footfall? There is obviously something wrong with my foot caused by how I land on it. If there wasn't a mechanics flaw, then how did the injury occur? Could it be that I've just been getting lucky so far and my increased mileage brought the problem to light? I have no idea. Could the injury just be shitty luck and a fluke? I have no idea. Could it be that all the running I did was on roads and not trails? I have no idea. Is it better that I get to rest through winters last hurrah with an injury rather than through spring? Probably. Was I ready for the race? I don't know. My last big run was the catalyst for the injury, so it's hard to tell. All of this has shaken my confidence. They say that a lot of endurance running is mental. I'm wondering if I have the mental fortitude to keep at this. This injury has me wondering if I have the physical fortitude to keep at this as well. I know this will all change when the smoke clears and I'm back to training for some race that, hopefully, won't end up being just a donation to some race director. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
thanks for reading this
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Injured and being a big obsessive baby about it.....or something
I guess I only write posts when I have an injury. I rested my foot for the last week and had no pain yesterday and when I woke this morning. I figured I would go for a little injury recovery test run, about three miles, and see what was happening.
There was a mild "pressure" in the area but I didn't think anything of it. Coming back from injury has always caused a hyper-awareness of the injured area. Today was no different. I ran some and walked some to get my heart rate stabilized. This was a near impossible feat for some reason. I decided to blame the half pot of coffee I drank before deciding to go for my run. My heart rate was way too high which made me walk to calm it down....then run when it was in a desirable level.
This continued for the first couple of miles which was fine. My foot felt good at times and concerning at others...nothing unusual. Some oddness was expected. Then just past the two and a half mile point I experienced a sharp pain in the spot. I immediately brought the run to a walk with a wave of rage mixed with frustration and disappointment. Mostly rage.
I walked for a couple of yards and then began at a light trot for home. Luckily I was just running little laps around my neighborhood just in case something like this happened.
I made it home without any more surprise pain signals and immediately iced my foot for about twenty minutes. Walking on it seems fine and there isn't any lingering pain. I may have stopped in time to prevent any set backs...who knows...
Then for the next hour or so I just took my frustrations out on lifting weights, doing core work, and body weight exercises. I even got out the Bosu balance trainer to see if one legged standing on my bad foot irritated it. (I was fine and discovered that I could use some improving on my balance.) For some reason, doing something physical to focus on seems to keep my mind from obsessing about what could be wrong with my foot. Then I decide to write a blog post and here I am obsessing about what could be wrong with my foot. Free association symptom obsession that leads everywhere from some kind of soft tissue damage to possible stress fractures.
My chiropractor did a stress fracture test with some kind of large tuning fork thing. If I had a stress fracture the tiny vibrations in the spot would have been excruciatingly painful. Luckily I passed that test. The next day I had an x-ray and that didn't show anything either. The next step, if things persist in the next week or so, is to get an MRI. Hopefully it won't come to that. Hopefully I just need some more time to heal and I can get back to it.
In the meantime, it seems like I will have to occupy myself with weight lifting, core work, and stretching to keep myself busy. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I will spend the whole time obsessing over what is wrong with my foot.
There was a mild "pressure" in the area but I didn't think anything of it. Coming back from injury has always caused a hyper-awareness of the injured area. Today was no different. I ran some and walked some to get my heart rate stabilized. This was a near impossible feat for some reason. I decided to blame the half pot of coffee I drank before deciding to go for my run. My heart rate was way too high which made me walk to calm it down....then run when it was in a desirable level.
This continued for the first couple of miles which was fine. My foot felt good at times and concerning at others...nothing unusual. Some oddness was expected. Then just past the two and a half mile point I experienced a sharp pain in the spot. I immediately brought the run to a walk with a wave of rage mixed with frustration and disappointment. Mostly rage.
I walked for a couple of yards and then began at a light trot for home. Luckily I was just running little laps around my neighborhood just in case something like this happened.
I made it home without any more surprise pain signals and immediately iced my foot for about twenty minutes. Walking on it seems fine and there isn't any lingering pain. I may have stopped in time to prevent any set backs...who knows...
Then for the next hour or so I just took my frustrations out on lifting weights, doing core work, and body weight exercises. I even got out the Bosu balance trainer to see if one legged standing on my bad foot irritated it. (I was fine and discovered that I could use some improving on my balance.) For some reason, doing something physical to focus on seems to keep my mind from obsessing about what could be wrong with my foot. Then I decide to write a blog post and here I am obsessing about what could be wrong with my foot. Free association symptom obsession that leads everywhere from some kind of soft tissue damage to possible stress fractures.
My chiropractor did a stress fracture test with some kind of large tuning fork thing. If I had a stress fracture the tiny vibrations in the spot would have been excruciatingly painful. Luckily I passed that test. The next day I had an x-ray and that didn't show anything either. The next step, if things persist in the next week or so, is to get an MRI. Hopefully it won't come to that. Hopefully I just need some more time to heal and I can get back to it.
In the meantime, it seems like I will have to occupy myself with weight lifting, core work, and stretching to keep myself busy. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I will spend the whole time obsessing over what is wrong with my foot.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Operation double secret bigfoot
So my wife and I have been "secretly" training for an ultra race. I say "secretly" because the closer we get to the race the more people seem to be finding out or figuring out that we've been training for something. I've told a handful of people (my doctor, my chiropractor, my trainer at the gym, my massage therapist, the guy who you have to give your day off requests to at work). People that needed to know. It's not a big deal that the cats getting out of the bag. I think it's getting so close that it's better for our nerves to tell people.
I originally dubbed the whole thing "Operation Double Secret Bigfoot". The reason I wanted to keep it all hush hush is because the race distance is new territory for me. I just wanted to keep the event to myself, my wife, and a close group of friends. My wife and friends have utmost confidence that I can finish the distance.
Fifty miles scares the shit out of me. Mentally I think I can handle the distance. Physically is a whole other thing. At the beginning of February I had a strange muscle dysfunction happen to a stabilizer muscle in my right shin. It was fine to run on except when going downhill. It hurt like hell. I basically rested it for four days and then it was fine. This led to a cut down week and a huge snowstorm. This combo led me to do some treadmill running for the week. I ran 18 on the machine and then did a 5 or 6 mile run in town to see if the shin muscle healed. Thankfully it did and it was then time to taper for a 50k training run.
The 50k (31 miles) training run was a mixed bag of success and one failure. I've been getting in the habit of taking electrolyte pills every six miles on long runs. I did a tour of Bloomington and hit a couple of businesses for water breaks and water refills. I stopped and stretched when I felt the need. I had a couple of Ugo bars and a couple of Epic meat bars.
At the twenty mile mark I ran into my friend Deke and that boosted my spirit and energy. Then somewhere around mile 24 my left knee started giving me problems on a stretch of snow packed sidewalk. The pain got annoying and wouldn't go away. I decided to walk to see if that would be better. Just slightly. Then when I tried to run again the pain was worse than what it was, but lessened as I kept going. It was around here that I also realized that I dropped one of my Salomon skin flasks. That fucker cost me eighteen bucks. I decided to cut the run and get back to my car. Shortening the scheduled mileage by four miles.
I went home and iced my knee. Used a foam roller and a runner's stick on it. Then took an anti-inflammatory. I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night to take my dog out. The knee was a little stiff and had a slight pain in it. When I woke in the morning it was a little tender but totally tolerable. By the end of the day it felt fine. It was forty degrees outside when I got off work and I had to really resist going for a run. I was scheduled for a rest day and common sense forced me to do it.
I also had a slight weird twinge in my right foot the next day. I was wearing my hiking boots at the time (which hurt my feet anyway) so I just kind of blamed it on them. On Saturday I went for my a small five mile run and halfway through it I had a couple of sharp pains surge through the foot. Then the next day,Sunday, I went for an eleven mile run with the intention of being mindful of the spot where the pain occurred. It was a little tender at times but the tenderness came and went but never stayed. I finished my run and was pleased that the foot pain was gone.
So I started shoveling my driveway after the run and my foot started hurting. Like Hurting !!! Halfway through the task I started to hobble and my mood soured. Damn !!! I hobbled all day. At the grocery store, at a charity dinner benefit, and in every parking lot. I took Monday and Tuesday off of running and the pain has lessened. I've been icing and taking anti-inflammatories.
So here I am typing this. I'm confident the current injury will heal in time for the race. I guess I'm worried that I'll have another injury pop up on the big race day. If it happens; it happens. It'll bug the piss out of me, but there won't be anything I can do. If it's something manageable I will just have to compensate for it. I would like to finish the race but a DNF is always a possibility.
I look forward to pushing myself to a new distance personal record. I know that I won't emerge unscathed. I know I'll emerge changed, but hopefully for the better. My main goal is to finish the race and have fun doing it without destroying myself. I guess I'm at the point where pushing myself to my limit and going beyond that is fun. I like to think I'm capable of doing it....I just hope this aging body cooperates. Hopefully, I'm getting all the possible injuries out of the way so when I get to the starting line I'll be nice and shiny.
I originally dubbed the whole thing "Operation Double Secret Bigfoot". The reason I wanted to keep it all hush hush is because the race distance is new territory for me. I just wanted to keep the event to myself, my wife, and a close group of friends. My wife and friends have utmost confidence that I can finish the distance.
Fifty miles scares the shit out of me. Mentally I think I can handle the distance. Physically is a whole other thing. At the beginning of February I had a strange muscle dysfunction happen to a stabilizer muscle in my right shin. It was fine to run on except when going downhill. It hurt like hell. I basically rested it for four days and then it was fine. This led to a cut down week and a huge snowstorm. This combo led me to do some treadmill running for the week. I ran 18 on the machine and then did a 5 or 6 mile run in town to see if the shin muscle healed. Thankfully it did and it was then time to taper for a 50k training run.
The 50k (31 miles) training run was a mixed bag of success and one failure. I've been getting in the habit of taking electrolyte pills every six miles on long runs. I did a tour of Bloomington and hit a couple of businesses for water breaks and water refills. I stopped and stretched when I felt the need. I had a couple of Ugo bars and a couple of Epic meat bars.
At the twenty mile mark I ran into my friend Deke and that boosted my spirit and energy. Then somewhere around mile 24 my left knee started giving me problems on a stretch of snow packed sidewalk. The pain got annoying and wouldn't go away. I decided to walk to see if that would be better. Just slightly. Then when I tried to run again the pain was worse than what it was, but lessened as I kept going. It was around here that I also realized that I dropped one of my Salomon skin flasks. That fucker cost me eighteen bucks. I decided to cut the run and get back to my car. Shortening the scheduled mileage by four miles.
I went home and iced my knee. Used a foam roller and a runner's stick on it. Then took an anti-inflammatory. I went to bed and woke up in the middle of the night to take my dog out. The knee was a little stiff and had a slight pain in it. When I woke in the morning it was a little tender but totally tolerable. By the end of the day it felt fine. It was forty degrees outside when I got off work and I had to really resist going for a run. I was scheduled for a rest day and common sense forced me to do it.
I also had a slight weird twinge in my right foot the next day. I was wearing my hiking boots at the time (which hurt my feet anyway) so I just kind of blamed it on them. On Saturday I went for my a small five mile run and halfway through it I had a couple of sharp pains surge through the foot. Then the next day,Sunday, I went for an eleven mile run with the intention of being mindful of the spot where the pain occurred. It was a little tender at times but the tenderness came and went but never stayed. I finished my run and was pleased that the foot pain was gone.
So I started shoveling my driveway after the run and my foot started hurting. Like Hurting !!! Halfway through the task I started to hobble and my mood soured. Damn !!! I hobbled all day. At the grocery store, at a charity dinner benefit, and in every parking lot. I took Monday and Tuesday off of running and the pain has lessened. I've been icing and taking anti-inflammatories.
So here I am typing this. I'm confident the current injury will heal in time for the race. I guess I'm worried that I'll have another injury pop up on the big race day. If it happens; it happens. It'll bug the piss out of me, but there won't be anything I can do. If it's something manageable I will just have to compensate for it. I would like to finish the race but a DNF is always a possibility.
I look forward to pushing myself to a new distance personal record. I know that I won't emerge unscathed. I know I'll emerge changed, but hopefully for the better. My main goal is to finish the race and have fun doing it without destroying myself. I guess I'm at the point where pushing myself to my limit and going beyond that is fun. I like to think I'm capable of doing it....I just hope this aging body cooperates. Hopefully, I'm getting all the possible injuries out of the way so when I get to the starting line I'll be nice and shiny.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Stupid f'n two or three day injuries
Good Lord. Winter is grinding me down. I've been developing little annoying injuries that last anywhere from three days to a week. I'll heal through one with minimal training schedule skipping days only to pick up another the following week. So far I've been lucky the niggles have developed just prior to a cut down week. It was no biggie to skip a run in order to healing, rest, catch up on house work, and dog hang out time.
I can't decide if all these little injuries are a result of all this cold weather running or not. I just got over a weird stabilization muscle issue in my right shin only to develop a pain in my right knee on my last long run (which bullshittingly cut it short). The knee thing went away only for me to realize there is a knot in the muscle of the same leg's calf. I've been trying to figure out if the injury is from running or working out at the gym. My wife thinks trying to figure it out is stupid and/or crazy. I guess I'm just a mixture of those two things then.
Typically I don't have much going on in my head so that gives me time to analyze my activities. This causes me to overthink these things a lot. I don't know if this is normal or not. It's just what I do. I guess when I was younger these injuries were instant and their causes were immediately known. Overuse injuries and tired body parts aren't a new thing, but when you add an aging body to the mix....I don't know.
Anyway, I'll just keep on keeping on.
I can't decide if all these little injuries are a result of all this cold weather running or not. I just got over a weird stabilization muscle issue in my right shin only to develop a pain in my right knee on my last long run (which bullshittingly cut it short). The knee thing went away only for me to realize there is a knot in the muscle of the same leg's calf. I've been trying to figure out if the injury is from running or working out at the gym. My wife thinks trying to figure it out is stupid and/or crazy. I guess I'm just a mixture of those two things then.
Typically I don't have much going on in my head so that gives me time to analyze my activities. This causes me to overthink these things a lot. I don't know if this is normal or not. It's just what I do. I guess when I was younger these injuries were instant and their causes were immediately known. Overuse injuries and tired body parts aren't a new thing, but when you add an aging body to the mix....I don't know.
Anyway, I'll just keep on keeping on.
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