It finally happened this week. After 13 years of running, I feel like I may have had my first serious injury. It happened on my Friday run, just a twinge of pain in my left knee toward the end of a 9-miler. I didn't think much of it for a few hours until it started to ache a bit more. At that point, I poked and prodded a bit, and found that the pain was in one very small place on my knee. Thinking it was something minimal, I did what every runner does - I ignored it.
It didn't get better. Friday night, I felt pain every time my knee was pressed flat against the mattress, and on Saturday, that really small spot had grown into a line across the left side of my knee. I began to worry more, about my long run on Sunday, and also about the marathon I am to run in two weeks. I made the mistake of telling my wife, who then alternated between "Don't stress too much; it could be nothing" and "Boy, this marathon could be a complete blowout for you". Ah, the love of a good woman *sigh*.
Sunday, I was filled with trepidation - My long run was to be 13 miles, and I woke to a sore knee again. Would I be able to finish the run? Would I do more damage to it, and actually worsen the situation? Would I wind up walking 6 miles back to my car if I followed my planned run on a flat out-and-back course? At least the last one I could control, and I changed my route to allow me no more than a 2-mile distance between me and my car in case there was real trouble.
I can say that I didn't feel any pain as I started to run....at least no pain for the first 300 yards. After that, the (clearly injured) muscle in my knee announced it's presence, and stuck with me for the entire run. It was a pleasant running partner, keeping me aware of it without yelling at me; just a friendly challenge to my normal Sunday stupor. I normally listen to a few podcasts during my runs; today, they only got half my attention.
I found that running on level ground was OK, running uphills was good, and running steeper downhills was ... unpleasant. They're normally my best friends, but I guess even best friends have a falling out once in a while. After a few miles, where the pain got no worse, I decided to stick it out, and use this as a chance to develop my mental toughness.
So much for that. By mile 8.5, I knew 13 was out of the question. My mantra had gone from "Believe and Succeed" to "Rest, Ice, Compression Elevation", to which I added "medication". Just past mile 9, I was within sight of my car, but turned left instead to finish a 10 miler. By know, the pain was more pronounced, and I had the start of what would become a limp later in the day. The good news: once I stopped running, the pain receded. The bad news: it came back not long after, more than a little miffed at me for having roused it from slumber. I wished it back to sleep, but as yet, it's still crying like a baby (and so am I).
It's early yet, so I'm going to try to stay optimistic. I will rest and take my runs more easily this week (I am tapering after all), and do the RICE techniques that I need to (but don't want to). I have two weeks to get healed, and no expectations or targets about this race - if it takes me 5 hours, that's fine by me. If I have to bail at the 1/2 marathon turnoff, then this just wasn't my race. I'm not going to drive myself into the ground for one race that I KNOW will not be a PR. I'm in this for the long haul, and if DNFing saves my legs for the rest of this running year, that's what I will have to do. Let's hope it never comes to that.
For those of you following Tim's training - he's joined a running club, and is now running a few times per week. He's also got big brother Ian running, who's already seen some pretty significant improvement. I'm not pushing either boy into running, but Tim seems to like it with or without me.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Training Update - April 15th
Today was a tough day, but really, it caps off a tough couple of weeks, both physically and mentally. Today, though, was my last long run before the NJ marathon which kicks off in three weeks. 22 miles on really flat ground to train for the terrain. After my performance, I know that I'll finish the marathon in a decent time, but more likely 4:35 than 4:20. Hey, that's okay - I am undertrained for this race, and have been so since taking a new job at my company.
On the other side of fitness, I've started doing P90X, the overall fitness and buff-building program. I've only done a few sessions, and those only at half-seriousness, as I would prefer to wait until marathon training is done before engaging in something that promises to make me sore every day. I did do a session of Plyometrics, and was still sore four days later.
One neat thing is that one of my sons, Tim, is actually doing the P90X workouts with me. Yes, he's doing very light or no weights, and he sits out the exercises he doesn't want to do. And yes, he's going to get bored and stop very quickly, but for the moment, I have his attention, and we've found another thing we like to do together. He is also a runner, like Mom and me, and has a very curious and inventive mind (hence my expectation of his boredom). I have more adult conversations with him than with many of the real adults in my life.
So, three weeks to go, wrap up this marathon, do 90 days of a new exercise to help drop that 15 pounds I need to drop (from 198 to 183 if you're keeping track), and then I'll start training for something seriously stupid, like the Chowda Challenge.
A quick shout out to Chris Russell of the RunRunLive Podcast for using Tim's submission in this weeks episode. Chris is running the Boston Marathon this Monday, after a long absence due to injury. He DNF'd at his first race but plans to do an Ironman Triathlon later this year. Me? I think he's nuts, but he's my kind of nuts.
On the other side of fitness, I've started doing P90X, the overall fitness and buff-building program. I've only done a few sessions, and those only at half-seriousness, as I would prefer to wait until marathon training is done before engaging in something that promises to make me sore every day. I did do a session of Plyometrics, and was still sore four days later.
One neat thing is that one of my sons, Tim, is actually doing the P90X workouts with me. Yes, he's doing very light or no weights, and he sits out the exercises he doesn't want to do. And yes, he's going to get bored and stop very quickly, but for the moment, I have his attention, and we've found another thing we like to do together. He is also a runner, like Mom and me, and has a very curious and inventive mind (hence my expectation of his boredom). I have more adult conversations with him than with many of the real adults in my life.
So, three weeks to go, wrap up this marathon, do 90 days of a new exercise to help drop that 15 pounds I need to drop (from 198 to 183 if you're keeping track), and then I'll start training for something seriously stupid, like the Chowda Challenge.
A quick shout out to Chris Russell of the RunRunLive Podcast for using Tim's submission in this weeks episode. Chris is running the Boston Marathon this Monday, after a long absence due to injury. He DNF'd at his first race but plans to do an Ironman Triathlon later this year. Me? I think he's nuts, but he's my kind of nuts.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Well, so much for being more consistent with blogging. The first three months of 2012 have been really really busy. Work has been hectic at times, and I've been trying to exercise more, run a Cub Scout Pack and Den, and keep my sanity. It hasn't been easy, and frankly, sleep has been more elusive than I would prefer. Conditions are changing, though, and the weather is warming up, so 2nd quarter looks brighter.
Today was the Danbury 1/2 marathon, my second race of the year, and the one that puts my racing plans back on track. I've decided to cut down to 2 marathons this year, but I may take my crazy to a new level, and run the Cape Cod Chowder Challenge, in which I run a 1/2 marathon on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday. It's not until October, so I have time to make that decision.
Today's race was a good one, and I finished in 1:58:48, about 4 minutes longer than last year, but about 7 minutes faster than my (admittedly light) goal for this race. My training for my first marathon this year (May 6 - New Jersey Marathon) has been really poor, with very light mid-week runs. My long runs have been okay, but my pace has been slower than last year, so I don't think there will be a PR at the marathon distance this year.
On other fronts, my weight is down about 6 pounds of the 10 I'm trying to lose. I'm about to start the P90X program to see if a change in routine will be enough to spark a faster weight loss and help me develop more strength and endurance. We'll see how that goes.
I'll also have more soon on other topics, including Scouting, politics, the state of the race for the presidency, and some thoughts on the macroeconomic conditions of the US and the world. I'm now setting a goal of blogging at least once per week, so I'll have to talk about more than running.
Today was the Danbury 1/2 marathon, my second race of the year, and the one that puts my racing plans back on track. I've decided to cut down to 2 marathons this year, but I may take my crazy to a new level, and run the Cape Cod Chowder Challenge, in which I run a 1/2 marathon on Saturday, and a full marathon on Sunday. It's not until October, so I have time to make that decision.
Today's race was a good one, and I finished in 1:58:48, about 4 minutes longer than last year, but about 7 minutes faster than my (admittedly light) goal for this race. My training for my first marathon this year (May 6 - New Jersey Marathon) has been really poor, with very light mid-week runs. My long runs have been okay, but my pace has been slower than last year, so I don't think there will be a PR at the marathon distance this year.
On other fronts, my weight is down about 6 pounds of the 10 I'm trying to lose. I'm about to start the P90X program to see if a change in routine will be enough to spark a faster weight loss and help me develop more strength and endurance. We'll see how that goes.
I'll also have more soon on other topics, including Scouting, politics, the state of the race for the presidency, and some thoughts on the macroeconomic conditions of the US and the world. I'm now setting a goal of blogging at least once per week, so I'll have to talk about more than running.
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