Eyes on the Prize

The season opener for Chicago racing was yesterday... the ol' Shamrock Shuffle.

My expectations weren't overly high for one of my favorite races this year, given that I've hardly done any speed work lately. My main goal was just to run something of a steady, fast tempo... and not kill myself.

Weather was chilly - mid 30's. No ridiculous caked slush to deal with, like last year. With the exception of a nasty NE headwind, which effected the second half of the run, conditions were good for the race.

I wound up going 28:05 (unofficial because of elite start)... Splits were 5:30, 5:36, 5:42, 5:38, 5:38. Mike was a huge help, as he got me going. We ran the first 3.5 miles together. The only complaint I have is that I lead a train of scum suckers into some brutal wind during the latter part of the race. It seemed like nobody wanted to man up, and then a handful of them passed me in the last quarter mile. Roosevelt was a pisser this time around. It felt like I was crawling up that thing with the wind. Oh well.


Aside from the Shamrock though, I had a great 20 miler on the lakefront on Friday night. I ran about 17 of it at around 6:40ish pace. 6:30s with the wind at my back... and mid-6:40s with the headwind.

Hitting that pace for a long run, and then going a steady Shamrock tempo 36 hours later makes me feel a lot better about my running lately.

As of now, no shin splints. No massive knots in my calves. No pains in my foot. A little soreness from the Shamrock... otherwise, all systems go.

Eyes on the prize.

5 weeks 'til touchdown in Londontown.

Feel more like a turtle than a rabbit

I feel like I've been in a rut for the last couple of weeks. I'm finally starting to get some miles... In the 60's, but I've been plain old lethargic when it comes to adding speed.

Easy and maintenance miles are no problem. Long runs feel good the whole way. Even progression runs have gone well. Track speed sucks.

A couple of tempo runs in the last few weeks have gone alright, considering they're my first attempts. Last week I had 5 miles that started at about a 6min pace, and got down to 5:49... OK, but easily 10 seconds slower per mile than they should be.

I've also done two speed workouts in the last two weeks. Both were 6x 800's. Both were disappointing. I was hitting 79-83 second laps. Very inconsistent... with the expectation that I was consistently running the second lap slower than the first. Not good. Last night was especially lame. I was hoping to see week-over-week improvement but got nothing. I even pulled the plug and cut it short (6 instead of 8 reps). A morale loser.

I know I can't expect myself to all of a sudden start running at the pace I was back in the fall... but I'm discouraged by the fact that I've had to ramp up a little more slowly than I anticipated.

Shamrock Shuffle is on Sunday. Typically this is one of my favorite races. Last year, I had an excellent run in horrible conditions. I'm expecting a pretty lame showing this year. I'm not training hard enough to even consider tapering into it (not that there's even much to taper). I'll run through. 20 tomorrow night just to spite the fucker. Then treat the race as a tempo workout.

This week's miles are little light, as I took a long weekend to ski in Colorado. Next week will be a jump up in miles. I'll hold that for 3-4 weeks, then take it easy for a week into London.

Who would've thought a hangover would help my running?

Sarah's birthday party + viele Stiegl Bieren + coupla Jameson shots = OOUCH!!

Saturday morning I was a waste case. It hurt. No way was I able to pull myself together to run my long run. I was probably so dehydrated that I would've bonked badly, or too brain dead that I would've tripped or done something ridiculously stupid.

Anyway, so as an attempt to nurse the hangover, I loaded up on some Aleve throughout the day and got some rest. Strangely, I think all the Aleve actually flushed some of the inflammation out of my shins, and the day off probably also helped.

The result... I ran the 18 today and felt great! No significant pains, and felt strong the whole way. Shins were good. I've jumped up in my long runs pretty quick here, and they're actually feeling good.

This week is now front loaded with a long run. I should be able to pull together 70+ miles, and top it off with a 20 miler run on the hills in Barrington. It'll definitely be a "get involved" kinda week. Not sure what kind of speed I'll do yet, but I'm FINALLY starting to pull together some decent runs.

Back in the 50s

Way back when, I used to put in some decent mileage.

It seems like ages ago, but that's finally starting to come back now.

I've run 6 of the last 7 days for a total of 54 miles. I've also had 2 good runs so far this week, both of which included 4 miles of progression, hit down into the mid 5:50's.

The nice thing is that none of this was overly taxing, and my cardio is starting to feel more "normal". After taking a series of days off last week to help with my shin splints, I'm feeling much better this week.

Thanks to lots of lower leg strengthening, Sarah and her magical massage work, and some acupuncture... my shin splits have eased up. Far from 100% gone, but manageable at this point.

Also, earlier this week I had my final visit with Dr Baker. X-ray's confirmed that any remaining calcium deposits (aka repair work) around the fracture have fully cleared up. I officially have a clean bill of health for my stress fracture. I haven't had any foot pain in well over week... no aching or soreness whatsoever. All in, that ordeal was 17 weeks long. A nasty and costly learning experience.

Shin Splints

I've reached an impasse.

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that I need to get this shin splint issue resolved ASAP before I run another mile. If I don't, then I'm going to blow a lot more than the London Marathon.

My shin splints are technically Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome.
Essentially, I took a break from running. My lower leg experienced some atrophy as a result of das fucking boot and my stress fracture. As I started rolling my mileage back up, the muscles running along the inside and back of my shin bone have basically been nagging that bone from over use / being over stretched.

My pain is technically just behind the medial portion of the tibia. From my understanding, it is the flexor digitorum and the soleus muscles pulling on that medial tibia. Some how, one way or another - it is the changing of angle of my foot before and/or after impact that gradually has stressed the inside of my shin.

This has happened to me a number of times in the past after coming back from breaks... It usually takes 3 or 4 weeks for the pain to first appear. The good news is that since I've been through this enough times, I know how to rehab it quickly. I can be rolling again in a few days.

The solution:
- Rest + ice + anti-infamitories.
- Doing like 50 different exercises constantly throughout the day to get it to chill out and come back to reality... main ones are: Walking on my heels; Raising my feet while standing and keeping my heels on the ground; Lifting my arches with my flexor digitorum (basically pulling the arches up, using the muscle on the medial side of my shin); Rotating my foot round and round a kazillion times in both directions.
- Lots of Massage! Sarah's been massaging it pretty aggressively in the past week. This is key, as the knots need to get flushed out.
- Acupuncture. I have a session tonight. This will hopefully help flush out some of those knots. E-stim would probably be very helpful. Not sure if the acupuncturist will want to do that though.

The last few days off have not been for nothing. I am seeing improvement here. This impasse will soon be passed, and I should be running by the end of the week.

Just a taste...

10 miles with 8 at 6:30's.

Definitely my best run since coming back and a nice confidence booster.

I just had to bite the bullet with my shin, stretch it out, and roll. Once I got into the groove, I didn't want to let up and my calf finally chilled out.

That taste of going just a little faster for a slightly longer run was soooo nice! It's been too long since I've had that feeling. Call it a runner's high or whatever... but it was nice to get it once again.

The fact that I didn't have a heart attack during the run made it all that much better.

Trials of Miles

Ran 15 yesterday. That's the longest run I've had since the marathon in October. It definitely wasn't easy.

My shins have been hurting me for the last several days, it was like 20-25 degrees, wind was incredibly annoying... and to top it off, I was a bit hung over.

I'd really like to say that this was one of those "growing" runs... where I'm stronger for having finished it than before... and now that it's out of the way, I feel much better. But no, it hurt too much. It was just a reminder of of out of shape I am.

3 weeks of mid-30's running... nothing all that special, but the foot is coming along nicely. No pains there, but as I said my shins are pretty banged up. Sarah's worked on them a few times and it really seems to be helping... but I'm still having to stop a couple times during a run to stretch my calves and quickly massage them.

I still feel like garbage running though. Up to 10 miles feels fine. Anything over 10-12 feel too much work. I still have yet to do a speed workout... I need a few more weeks of building before I'm willing to push it.

My simple goal for this next week will be to get beyond that.

10-1/2 Weeks

I've been successfully running for the last two and a half weeks. I was reluctant to want to post too soon, as I didn't want to claim victory right away. I still won't know if this whole thing is a done deal for another few weeks... but so far, so good. Total downtime from my stress fracture was about 10-1/2 weeks.

I started back with my first run on a treadmill, on Jan 8th. A whopping 2 miles.... and at that, it was run a quarter, walk a minute, run a half, walk a minute, run 1-1/2 miles. The second run a couple days later was 4 miles, and also included some walking in there too. No troubles from either run. That was a big green light: After a week of being 100% pain free, I was able to successfully run pain free. The doctor confirmed a couple days later that I was able to start rolling back up.

Since then, I've only occasionally experienced a slight dull aching. But typically that shakes out either during a run or with some ice and/or heat post-run. I'm still using the ultra-sound on a daily basis... Hey, if it actually makes feel better, then why stop?

I put in over 30 miles last week. Not much compared to my previous mileage, but a minor victory. The only pain I had was in my pride and motivation... I'm VERY out of shape compared to a few months ago; and it's difficult to want to get out the door during the cold winter. OK, so that statement comes with a grain of salt too: Sure, I can run now. And 5-7 miles really doesn't phase me... but again, light years away from where I was back at Halloween. My 10 mile run last week was a reality check: It's going to be a long battle to get back to where I was.

The London Marathon is 12 weeks away. I need to get my shit in gear. Up until now, I've been very careful about coming back and not pushing it too much. I'm guessing it takes me another 3 weeks to get up to 50+ miles/week. No speed in there. After my final check up with the doctor, and assuming no troubles at that point... then I should be able to roll 6 or 7 weeks of solid training before London.

Ultimately, I have to look at this as a stepping stone for my summer season, but I still have a chance of running a good marathon in April.

Greenshoots

I just ran about 100ft to get the bus... Absolutely no pain. That's the first time in over 2 months that I've moved faster than a snail's pace without even the slightest amount of pain.

Soon, very soon...

Ground Hog Day in December

Today is Winter Solstice: The darkest day of the year.

I had my latest visit to the doctor today, and x-rays and a conservative return to running suggests another three weeks on the sidelines. I saw my shadow, and hibernation continues. - I say "conservative" because my main goals at this point is to avoid re-injury, and avoid pain when I return to running.

This is extremely frustrating, being that the standard 8 weeks of recovery would've had me running at the end of this week. Instead, I'm afraid that about 10-11 weeks will be more appropriate, in spite of some rather aggressive treatment.

I have no doubt that the week following my initial break was probably the main cause for this extended recovery time. In that week, I went untreated between when I received the MRI and my follow up appointment to see the doctor. Hence, I most likely compounded the injury as the fracture went unstabilized for 6 very important days.

At this point, my foot still doesn't feel a hundred percent yet so I can understand not being allowed to run. But I'll say that it is feeling better with each day that passes. I've had a couple instances over the last few days where I've jogged very briefly and haven't had much or any pain.

I abandoned the boot a couple weeks ago, at an effort to save my aching hips and knees. I'm still using the bone stimulator once or twice daily. I'm still loading up on calcium supplements (I'll probably keep with this longer-term). I'm still icing and/or applying heat - though not every day. I'll be going a few weeks without acupuncture due to the holidays, but I have been getting treatment at least once a week.

The fat negative: I've had very minimal physical exercise in the last 8 weeks. I've gone from being in the best shape of my life to feeling completely, 100% out of shape. This break has me gaining about 10 pounds from marathon morning, in October. I've been eating and drinking like a pig, and it shows. I feel disgusting; I feel like that damn movie "Super Size Me".

I keep saying that I'm going to start swimming or biking - but it's too cold to bike now, and swimming... eh, just doesn't appeal to me at the moment. Maybe tomorrow? (I've had that attitude for the last few weeks)... I've lost my motivation. That needs to change ASAP.

The London Marathon is 5 months away. I'll basically have to start training from scratch in mid-January. One month to ramp up, and accounting for cut back weeks and taper – that leaves me with only 2 months of training. It's not going to be easy and it's not going to be pretty. Thoughts of PR'ing at that race may be all but a pipe-dream at this point.