6 days from Patriots Day

I'm just adding it up now… and really, in spite of my hip difficulties in the past couple weeks, I'm only missing about 22 miles from my schedule. Most of which was from the Friday / Saturday that I initially had my mini blow-up... or basically, only 2 maybe 3 runs were skipped from my schedule. Bottom line there: I’m trying to reassure myself that it's really not that bad of a situation. I have 6 more days before the marathon.

Reason I say that is because I'm annoyed that I'm not getting more quality in my taper right now, but I'm at least able to run. Slower stuff hasn't been bothering me at all. Otherwise, I’m pretty much a nervous wreck and I’m reaching for whatever I can to keep a sane mine. My ultimate fear is that I’m going to be 2 miles, 10 mile, 15 or 24 miles deep in Boston… and all of a sudden not be able to bare another step.

Last night (Monday), I went about 9 miles w/ Kmac, including some strides. The pace was a comfortable 710's, going down to about 640's. I felt good the whole way.

Saturday was my last moderately long run before the marathon. 14 miles. It actually went pretty well… a similar pace to last night’s. Saturday's run was a pleasant surprise and somewhat reassuring considering Friday's workout turned into another mess.

So much for "Good Friday": I was starting to feel better through the week, so I took a shot at one last tempo. The goal was for 5 miles of tempo inside of an 8 mi run.
The Tempo started off into some nasty wind (guessing 20mph steady). First mile was about 6:10. Second mile and a half got down to about 5:50. So far so good. I felt strong and comfortable. After the turn, with the wind at the back, Jason and I rolled. We hit a 5:30 mile. Then out of nowhere in the next 1/2 mile, my hip started to tighten up again. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Some very sage advice from the kid: "If it's hurting, we should stop right now."
It was smart. I wasn't gaining anything from going further. My endurance and turnover were still there, but I was hitting a breaking point again. There was no sense in blowing it up this time around.

I was able to walk for about a mile, and try to relax some of the muscles and attachments around the actual hip socket, and then lightly jog the bit home. Not a total loss, but definitely not a confidence booster.

As far as the physical therapy… I'm still not totally sold on my ASTYM treatment. I think it seems to be breaking up some of the scar tissue, but it's not loosening things up the way I'd like to see it. I had my 3rd treatment yesterday, another today, and once more before the marathon. I’ve also been doing a fair amount of exercise to strengthen and stabilize my gluts.

I also think I'm in desperate need of a massage. Anyone know of a good therapist?

The clock is ticking. 6 days to go. Mentally, I feel like a nervous wreck. It’ll be a miracle if I can get through this thing.

The waiting game

My running obsession has slowly taking over the rest of my life. Especially when its around a race and a marathon.

I'm completely unproductive at work right now. All I can do is think about running. I'm search for stuff online, calculating spreadsheets, thinking about my training and what went right or wrong... I'm obsessing splits and paces, previous race results, other people's results, trying to predict where I might place in this year's standings, workouts, what I should be doing between now and the gun, the Boston Marathon course itself and every bump and pimple on it,.... I'm shopping for gear online, checking the weather multiple times a day, the historical averages for the weather.... thinking about what I'm going to pack 11 days from now.... I mean this is really getting out of hand!

Here I sit at the helm of a speeding freight train at work... ridiculous volatility in the market, my portfolio P&L is fluctuating $50,000 +/- during the day, and instead of trading up a storm, ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT IT RUNNING!!

Disgusting.

Here's a video of a car driving the Boston Marathon course. I've played it 5 times already, and I know that's just the start of it...




I have another Astym treatment tonight with Julie. I actually had to get a prescription for this. I'm basically willing to do whatever I need to get this thing feeling better.
Things seem to really have loosened up in the past couple days. I was able to do a solid 10 mile run last night, with a progression towards marathon pace for about 2 miles before cooling down. I'm very hopeful that last week's mishap was a fluke, and I've managed this mini-crisis accordingly (and will continue to do so).

Today is off from running. I roll again tomorrow with one final push through early next week... Then becomes an increasingly annoying and anxious waiting game for the starting gun, and then actually crossing the finish line. I'm going to become absolutely infatuated with every minute detail of April 20th, 2009... and everything that could/should/would/and will happen between now and then.....

Prevention Mode: a possible marathon breaking injury

Let me start off with this: the quote from my last posting was "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".... well that's a bunch of BS. Don't believe it. Apparently, doing a 20 mile progression run a few days after an 8K is not wise.

OK, everyone can say it now... I'm an idiot! You told me so. But at the time, I was able to rationalize what I was doing: A) I wasn't sore after the 8K and I tapered a ton the previous week for the Shamrock. B) The first part of that 20 was feeling good (and to clarify, I was even feeling good after too). C) I WAS listening to my body and just rolled with it. D) The weather turned to HELL on Earth, but it wasn't killing me. SO, IF A+B+C+D, THEN it should be alright to finish the run strongly. The old saying "Listen to your body". Well my was speaking loudly and saying, "Giddy up".

Apparently, that still wasn't not smart logic. Doing a hard 20 a few days after an 8K is still not wise. It took its toll on my nagging hip.

On Wednesday night, I did 5 easy, but I was definitely pretty sore during that run, especially my hip. It just didn't seem to want to loosen up at all. Thursday was off. Friday's goal was for an easier 8-10 miles, then 15 on Saturday. Half way into Friday night's run turned into a mess though. My hip was just wouldn't loosen up. I stopped to stretch for a couple minutes. Then started running again. Half mile later, the pain became unbearable.... everything tightened up so much that I literally couldn't take one more step. Running any further was out of the question. I knew it was over. The question was "how much over?"

I hobbled from the lakefront path over to Irving Park, grabbed a cab and went home. Walking was even difficult at this point. I was cold, in a relative good deal of pain, and extremely disappointed with myself. It was really a very depressing experience. I had no idea how much damage I actually did to myself. The tachometer has been riding on the redline for a while now, and I finally blew past it and the engine shut down.

After getting I home, took a long hot bath (heat seems to feel better on the hip than ice), stretched, got on the foam roller for like a 1/2 hour, iced, and slugged down 800mg of Motrin.

Saturday, I felt a little better. Not a ton, but enough to want to attempt a little rehab. I did some very basic leg exercise and core stuff at the gym, then spent the rest of the day taking it easy. Sunday, I felt a little better. I took it completely off from physical activity.

Monday, I felt a little better. I emailed teammate, Jill Lohmann (aka the life saver) first thing in the morning, and was able to see her later in the day. We basically came to the conclusion that its a soft tissue injury (very good thing - as opposed to the hip socket), and that there has been a chunk of scar tissue around the the ilium and the "iliac crest", where some major connective tissues have become irritated. This is where the TFL, Glutes, ITB, abs, lat, blah blah blah... all come together. Basically a clusterfuck. Per Jill's recommendation, I ran very easy on Monday night from the store, and then she checked me out again afterwords. Things went much better than Friday, albeit I was mildly sore.

Tuesday, I went in to see a colleague of Jill's to have a technique called ASTYM done. Its purpose was to try to loosen things up, and especially break up the chunks of scar tissue to promote faster healing. It was kind of a funky "scraping" of the skin/muscles/tendons using plastic tool. Nothing painful - but like trying to flush the effected area out.
My initial impression is that it may have broken up some of that tissue. I ran later at night, and it seemed to be a little better than Monday's...... this is very good! I'm seeing progress. I have another ASTYM treatment on Thursday evening.

SO - I've come very close to what might be a marathon breaking injury. I'm trying to manage it as much as possible and be as careful as possible. If the hip seizes up like last Friday, then I'm in trouble. Since then, the pain has subsided. I have 13 days to go before Boston, so of course I'm a bit paranoid. Welcome to a marathoner's taper!

At this point, the hay's in the barn. I know I'm in great shape. For now, my most important goal is to get to the starting line healthy. If I keep things in check, I should still have a blow out race. It'll require a less aggressive taper, which isn't ideal, but it'll do. I'll worry about my pace expectations next week.

Just when you think Old Man Winter's done...

You go out for a run, and he kicks you in nuts!

I got home from work yesterday and had to deal with another nightmare: I needed to run my final 20 miler, and essentially cap off my Boston training.

It was absolutely pouring outside, 20mph steady winds coming from the south, and about 45 degrees (though it felt much colder in the rain).

As you could imagine, I was dreading stepping outside for this. 20, UGH! I nearly bailed a few times. I knew I would better off if I just got outside the door, but I kept dragging my feet. I hate that feeling. I knew it would be rewarding once I finished the run, or even just got a mile into the run... but those first steps are sometimes the most difficult steps a runner ever takes.

By some miracle, the rain let up just a little bit when I was about to leave. I went out south 10 miles in to the wind, and came back north with it. I averaged 7's on the way out... +/- 5 to 10 seconds for a few. After 5 miles in, the sun actually started shining. In spite of the wind, it was somewhat pleasant.

I turned at 10, and it was game on. I don't think I changed my pace very much, but I certainly rolled it with a little help from the wind. 6:40... then 6:32... a few of 6:30's... then a few 6:25's.

....then all of a sudden as I was passing by McCormick Place and going towards downtown, I saw one of the wildest skies... Like straight out of a movie, a massive black cloud quickly swallows the tops of all the skyscrapers. To its east, total sunshine and a blue sky. To its west is a blood red sky. Very ominous, to say the least!

Unfortunately the black cloud, which was now above me, was literally full of shit! The winds picked up, and were coming at me from every direction. With in a minute, it started to literally dump buckets of water on me. A few minutes later, ping ping ping ping!! I'm getting nailed by sleet and then HAIL! Hail sucks. It stings!! I don't like it. Then it starts to thunder and lightening.... All of this goes on for a few more minutes, and then things die down as the black cloud rolls out onto the lake. Absolutely crazy.

Looking back at it, I can't believe I didn't run for shelter. All I did was run harder though. I wanted to finish the fucker. I wanted my taper. As I was going along side Lake Shore Drive, I even got slammed a couple times by cars hitting puddles. "Fuck you, I'm not quitting!!!"

I rolled on. 6:20, 6:15, 6:15, 6:10... then cooled down the last mile and a half.

My last 20 miler, about 2hr 16min... 6:48 average. Solid considering I had the Shamrock a couple days earlier. I couldn't be happier to have it done. My reward is that I get to start my taper (I'll still be 70+ this week though, since I'm already 40 deep).

It sucks that I can't get out of the terrible weather! Its really dragging on and depressing. Old Man Winter won't quit. I just want a nice calm, 60 degree day... maybe even a couple of them. Is that asking for so much??

.....What doesn't kill me makes me stronger.....