Patriot's Day in One Week.

Well I made it through the weekend. That was a key test. And if I was able to get through that, then I still get the go-ahead for Boston.

I ran 9 miles on Friday, 20 on Saturday, and 6 more on Sunday. That made for a 67 mile week, and I haven't taken a day off in a week and a half.

Importantly, I made it through this stretch without any problems and I'm not feeling overly beat up. Actually, my abs/groin/hip flexors are all much better with each run, and I continue to gain fitness. I'm still a little cautious, but in general I feel OK.

The 20 miler wasn't easy. It's to be expected anytime that distance is crossed for the first time in a training season, but this one was definitely a little more difficult than other 20's in the past. We kept a reasonable pace of around 7:00 for most of it. Some miles a little faster, some a little slower. One thing that probably hurt the later miles was not getting any hydration in the first 7 or 8 miles. It was a little on the warm side. Braulio had to drag me through the last couple miles... though we still kept the pace.

Obviously, I'm still lacking some endurance and strength. That's what I get for training for a marathon in three weeks after taking over 3 months off! Well it's still not easy to digest. I do fear this thing. Newton Hills suck regardless, but it's gonna super-suck this time around!

Boston will be a different kind of race this year. It's easy to see in the running community, with my teammates, and from some of the marketing / hype that the event is receiving. To run this thing will truly be special. 

Just yesterday, 60 Minutes had a piece on this year's marathon and Shalane Flanagan. It was a nice boost for my motivation, and a good reminder of why I'm choosing to put myself through the pain on such pathetic training. She expressed much of the feelings that many of us had last year. (Here was my own 2013 race recap).

So regardless of whether I'm fit enough to roll a 2:38 or merely gut out a 3:10, I will run Boston in one week from today.

Keep Calm, And Run On

This advertisement is at the LaSalle/VanBuren El station near my office. I just noticed yesterday. I can't help but get a little excited when I see it.

I'm trying to keep cool about Boston. I know I'm not in tip top shape right now, but I am getting stronger every day, and my adductors/abs/hip flexors don't feel like total shit while running anymore. Not 100%, but very runable.

10 miles tonight with Braulio. It was a pleasant surprise that I was able to hold a nice 7:00 pace and conversation... and last all 10 without being very phased. On the heels of that one, I need to be careful and not go too hard or get too excited. Just keep on keep'n on.

I can't believe it... Boston is still a go.

A couple weeks back, I laid out an IF/THEN plan suggesting that if everything works out alright, then I might be able to still run the Boston Marathon... albeit merely as a fun run.

This is all somewhat ridiculous, since it has me training for a marathon in less than 4 weeks. It's not even really training either... it's more just getting my legs underneath me and then running a marathon.

The plan seems to be working for now. I'm not 100% healed yet, but I'm feeling less pain with each of my runs and slowly getting a little conditioning back. Most notably, I had a couple of moderately paced runs last week, a 15 miler on Saturday, and my first "tempo" since early November. The tempo was 4 miles at an average of about 6:00 pace. I eased into it and hung on to the pace.

All this being the case, I feel good enough to push the mileage just a little more this week. I'll shoot for the mid-50s. Saturday will become my next key run: 20 miles. After that, I'll have one final week to pull myself together. There will be no taper.

This isn't the ideal situation, but I really do want to do Boston. After all that happened last year with the bombing, I think it'll be an interesting, exciting, and very symbolic experience.... and what the hell, maybe it'll even be more symbolic for me since I'm coming from nothing and still being able to produce something. Plus I have a whole bunch of friends running it. So hence, you can see how I've convinced myself that to choke this thing out. Ugh.

I'm either an idiot or just very talented. Regardless, this fucker ain't gonna run itself.

Back to work

I've been running garbage miles for the last handful of weeks, and seen Dr Hancock for about 3 weeks now. He's done graston, ART, and recommended a series of self-PT exercises.

All of this added up, and I'm gradually feeling less like complete crap. I'm not 100% yet, but there has definitely been improvement. If I actually take Motrin, I do feel 100%. Obviously, I don't want to survive that way.

I had a really great test this past weekend, where I skied for three days at Mont Tremblant. After only a few runs, I realized I didn't hold back on the skiing. Lots of moguls, trough runs, and a ton of core work. The key is that I survived; I'm feeling probably even a little better than before the weekend.

OK, so now what? The Boston Marathon is in about a month from now. I am over weight (~150ish lbs). I still feel out of shape. But for some reason, I still don't want to say no. The question has entered my mind with a bunch of "IF/THEN" scenarios.

• IF I can bump my running up towards 40 miles this week and not feel like total crap,
• THEN I will try to bump my miles up towards 50 miles next week.
  
• IF I can survive the bump to 50 next week,
• THEN I will try to run into the 50s the following week.
  
• IF I survive running into the 50's after those two weeks,
• THEN I will try to run into the 50's a third.
  
• IF all of this happens and I keep a relatively strict diet for the month,
• THEN I'm sure I'll shave at least 5 lbs of excess garbage weight.
  
• IF I can feel good after that... or no worse than I feel at the moment,
• THEN I will jog the Boston Marathon and have a blast doing at least part of it.
  
• ELSEIF any of this doesn't come together,
• THEN I just continue with maintenance miles and completely forget the above plan.

It wouldn't be fast and it might hurt a little, but it could be possible for me to run Boston. And I actually think I might be able to run a 3:10. The likely hood of this happening though is still slim and I fully accept that. Regardless, it's time to get back into control of my life. The holiday's are over.

Osteitis Pubis, and knowing is half the battle!

Forget taking time off. I'm running. And I actually feel a little better doing light mileage than doing nothing at all. I think the inactivity was needed to try to heal at first, but at this point it's no longer helping the healing process. I'm also doing strengthening with each run.

Mind you, I haven't been doing a ton of miles. It's only 3 weeks. Week 1: 8mi, Week 2: 15mi, Week 3: 22mi. I think I'll keep it mid-20s for a little while, just to see how things go. I'm still horribly out of shape, but at least the runs are now less painful than initially.

On the flip side, I'm now on to my 3rd doctor. At the suggestion of a couple teammates, I'm seeing Dr. Darren Hancock. He's at Chicago Sports and Chiro. Basically, he's a chiropractor, acupuncturist, PT, sports med doctor, jack of all trades. He comes highly recommended, works with a lot of high end athletes including pros and via the USOTC.

I also have a little better understanding of my injury. It may not necessarily be sports hernia aka Athletic Pubalgia. It appears to be more along the lines of Osteitis Pubis, which is an extreme inflammation of the pubic symphysis and bone. A basic description can be found here or here.

My right adductor has been the cause of all this, and it remains balled up or somewhat strained. Hancock is doing Graston. Like the dry needling, it is targeting adductor and the inguinal ligament. Ideally, if those can chill out then the symphysis can calm down. Anti-inflammatories help a lot. I haven't received any injections (yet). I'll give it a week before I start banging on that door.

All in all, it still feels like someone kicked me right in my pubic bone (not my junk... in the joint itself). But at least I know what that means now.... and as a wise man once said, "Knowing is half the battle."

First run of the year!

I ran today... and it is was a complete bust.

It was my first run in about 2 months and aside from being completely out of shape... I'll say that it felt pretty much no different than back in mid-December, which felt no different than back in mid-November... which felt no different than the couple days after the NYC marathon in early-November.

No matter how many times I might've thought I was seeing some improvement, or hoped for some progress over the last couple months... I have to honestly say, it's probably been a waste of time, money, and my youth. (I say youth because I have this horrible feeling that I will never be able to get back into top condition again, as I was just a mere 4 months ago... and I fear that my running days are altogether over).

Anyway, my sports-hernia rehab conclusion is this: I have spent thousands on physical therapy and massage work over the last couple months, and I've taken almost 4 months of downtime. It has not had an ounce of effect on my ability to run. The only noticeable changes in my body are that I now weigh more than I ever have in my life, and I am now more out of shape than I have been in the last 10 years.

I pulled the plug and made a doctor's appointment for next week. Between now and then, I'm making a full on effort to run and engage my core. Obviously I'm not going to go overboard, but I need to see how my body can respond to physical activity. My body is clearly not responding well to rest. How it responds to a knife and implant, I have no clue.

Sports Hernia or not... Needles or Knives.

Quick update here...

I had my doctor's appointment, MRI and brief follow up. The MRI showed an "irritated pelvis". Something tells me that's actually a proper medical term, but it maybe the kind way of saying that I might-could-possibly-not have a Sports Hernia. I have all the symptoms though, including some material inflammation around the attachments and bone, but no breaks and no major tears.

In other words, I have to completely rest and if I'm not better by mid-February, then I'll likely go under the knife to get treated as sports hernia. I'd have some nasty, non biodegradable mesh shoved into me to help reinforce the soft tissues that attach to the pelvis. There is no guarantee that it fixes the problem and it likely comes with side effects down the road. Fantastic! Well clearly I'm going to avoid this if at all possible.

In the mean time, in order to fix my Sports Hernia AKA so-called Irritated Pelvis, I'm into my third week of seeing a PT twice a week. The treatment has been dry needling. It's a rather intense form of acupuncture. It is one needle at a time for about 15 seconds each. Maybe a total of 10-15 needles through out my adductors, abs, hip flexors, and glute. While the needles are in, they're stimulated (ie, jabbed, stabbed, flicked, tweaked, electrified, whatever) in order to get the targeted muscles "reset". Actually this process is fucking excruciating, but a few needles are far better than a knife! The hope is this forced resetting leads the muscles to chill out and allow for this irritation to calm down.

I've also been getting a deep tissue massage every week or two. Otherwise, complete physical shut down has been ordered. I can't do anything right now. Over loading the core muscles would likely impede the healing process. And unfortunately, that makes sense as you're almost always using your core muscles. I need to limit that load. This is probably the most frustrating of all, because I'm dying to at least do something in order to not fall completely apart.... my endurance is gone, my muscles are withering away, and I've gained about 10-12 lbs since the Chicago Marathon.

It's a long, slow, and mentally agonizing process. I'm supposed to be fit and training for the Boston Marathon at the moment, and instead I'm on the brink of pulling that plug. My only glimmer of hope is that as of today, for the first time in over two months, I officially recognized that I'm feeling just a little better than I was just a few days ago. I haven't seen that up until today.

They say it's always darkest before dawn. I just maybe have passed that darkest moment. Only time will tell.

2634 or 3146? Doesn't matter, still busted.

In 2013, I hit 2,634 miles.

That was a PR in terms of total miles in any given calendar year. However, I only ran about 10 months in 2013. I've hardly gone a step since the NYC marathon in early November, which was now two months ago.

If I look back to the stretch between training from Philly '12 through Chicago '13, I peaked out at 3,146 miles in a 12 month period. I had a span of nearly 6 months where on any given day my trailing 12 month mileage was over 2,900. Now that was running!

Of course, look where I am now. Got me all banged up. All because some tiny muscle balled itself up and never let go. My problem started in my adductor and has spread like a cancer to my hip flexor and lower abdomen. Obviously training on it didn't help, and my final marathon only made it that much worse. I found my limit and exceeded it. It's probably somewhere between the numbers 2,900 and 3,146.

I'm not trying to be a drama queen and chalk my career up just yet. Don't worry. But whatever is going on with me is not pleasant. As it stands now, this is gonna my biggest break from running in over 10 years. Each passing day is like a new fat-boy PR. At least when I had my stress fracture, I knew what was wrong and how long it would take to heal. This is totally different. Whether it is sports hernia or some soft tissue tear... Two months later and any small workout or run I attempt puts me back to square one. My own self PT has not helped. It just won't heal.

Anyway, I drew a line on January 1st, and am now going to see a doctor and PT. I have a Dr appointment tomorrow with some guy that I'm sure wants to cut me for a lot of money. I've already been screened by a PT... he's given me some comfort that it might not be all that bad. He's my hope. I've also had some massages, which have offered some temporary relief.

SO, 2014 here we are! My primo condition is pretty much gone. Yet I am signed up for the Boston and Berlin Marathons. Boston is most likely a DNS at this point... a miracle would be needed to make that happen. Hopefully I'll find out in the next week if miracles are possible.

NYC Marathon - The Stories!!

The NYC Marathon wasn't what I had hoped for months before, but it wound up to be a really fun race and experience.

It really was pretty amazing story that involved being honest, cheating the system, the military, lots of cops, a police chief saying "Get outta here!" in a thick NY accent, several miracles, our own private coach bus w/ bathrooms and TV's, gospel music, and a negative split fun run that had me road killing everyone in sight for miles upon miles.

Let's see here, a few things before the race:

We learned that in order to get a bib at the ever so important NYC Marathon, that all you need to do is show a confirm. That's it. Fuck security, fuck the countless checkpoints just to enter the expo, forget begging and pleeding with the director, forget it all.

This was Justin Jackson picking up Jason Kedzuch's bib. The resounding theme at the marathon expo was not only "Everything has changed since 911." ...but also "Everything has changed since Boston." Security was too the gills. (I hope everyone felt safe!) Now only if they could actually do something about the countless holes in the system. We were horribly hassled for trying to be honest and telling them we were picking up a friend's bib. Regardless of how low his number was or bringing countless forms of identification and proof, they wouldn't have anything to do with it. Apparently you could be the president and still need to show up in person to get your bib. Very VERY strict. In the end, all we wound up doing was going to the bin and grabbing Kedzuch's bib with no questions asked. The underlings didn't even care!! Just showed the emailed confirm on JJ's phone and that was it. Hilarious and tragic at the same time. Talking about a waste of resources. The lesson: screw being honest, and cheat the system.

OK, I also have this fixation with getting sleep before a marathon. Everyone should know this by now. Aaand occasionally, I like go in style. Enter the "Towne Car to Staten Island" trick that I learned from Myra Rasmussen long ago. It's very similar to "Spending the night in Hopkinton" trick before Boston that I graciously got from Dan McDowell. (I wish I could claim with these fool proof tricks as my own, but I can't). You get hours of extra sleep, reduce hassles of public transport, and boom. No problem right? I've done the Towne Car each of the last few times for NYC and without any issues. (Note to self and the short story: that theme of "Everything's changed since Boston" is apparently true. Perhaps using the public transit would be better next time).

I'll say that trying to take a Towne Car to the start was initially a good idea. The bad idea was getting a driver that didn't know his elbow from his asshole, and he's the driver in NYC that doesn't speed and doesn't know where the fuck he's going. Ultimately, the bridge closed on us because he couldn't fucking drive. Not totally my fault, but I'll take the blame. My bad. Needless to say some guys got a little stressed out about that.

Being a resourceful, calm person that I am, I started checking options off the list. The next easiest thing was to dump out of the car and then attempt to walk over the bridge. Years ago, this was fine. But of course... "Everything has changed since Boston." And every single cop in NYC reminded us of this. Jesus. Fine, we get it. So we walked... and we walked. Trying to find different ways onto the bridge. Dan Stanton even attempted to climb a fence at a military base to get to the bridge. The heavily armed guards chasing him were not amused. And we walked some more. And then a WSJ reported started walking with us. We told him that we were sub-elite runners and he started interviewing us. He tried hitching along with us to the start.

After a couple miles (which are not ideal before having to run 26.2 miles, but ok), we got to the base of the bridge/expressway where there were hundreds of cops and a sea of busses carrying runners over to the start. We pleaded, begged, cried, and bled our hearts out with cops to halt one of the countless buses going 5 mph at the on ramp of the bridge. Eventually a captain came over and recognized that (shocker) we weren't actually terrorists, but merely runners trying to participate in the marathon. The cops weren't happy, but finally after playing our "Sub-elite Towne Car with a WSJ reporter escort" story to them, the captain caved. ...And the bus that he stopped for us? Well it was completely empty. We wound up with our own private coach with all the amenities on it. Gospel music included, praising us! Unfuckingbelievable.

So a tiny bit of a snafu trying to get us to the starting lined... but it happened. Just like in Boston. We made it there. Safe and sound. With plenty of time to spare. And an extra 90 minutes of sleep to boot! Ya bish!!

OK, on to the fun run that almost didn't happen because we couldn't cross the stupid bridge because everything's changed since Boston.....

-----------------------

Race morning temps were chilly but eventually warmed up to the 40's. A slightly nasty wind was coming out of the NW, which meant a headwind for 20 miles. Typical for every NYC race that I've done... Why make it easy?

Amazingly, I was pretty calm and cool going into the start... even after the snafu of getting there. Probably because I had low expectations from the onset. In fact, because I didn't know how I would feel with my hip flexors/adductors, I wasn't even sure if I'd finish the thing.... I drowned myself in ibuprofen prior to the race to hopefully reduce this risk.

The basic plan was to hang with training partners, Justin Jackson and Evan Rosendahl for as long as possible. We were to target a 1:26-27 split, then to chop away towards a 2:50 goal if guys felt good. Ironically, Evan wound up missing the A-Corral cut off because he was site seeing (classic). And Justin and myself, which nearly missed the race all together, were perched in front of the A block. We stuck with one another for as long as possible.

At the gun JJ and I took it nice and easy, crawling up the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and getting passed by countless fat old ladies and guys. It was quite comical. We then put in several miles at a 6:40ish pace. We weeded our way through the crowds of runners that went out way too fast. (I still have no idea how all those people wound up in front of us!? We literally had thousands upon thousands of them!!) Justin helped to keep the reigns on me through that stretch. By mile 10, I was chomping at the bit to pick it up. I felt good. The ibuprofen had done its magic. If I was going to try for that 1:26/2:50 target, I needed to pull away.

At that point, I started passing everyone in sight. The crowds of runners became thinner as time went on... but wow, were there a lot of people back there! I guess that's what it's like to shoot for a 2:55 race? It's been a long time since I've seen that. Just taking it from 6:40ish down to 6:20-6:25 had me passing people like they were standing still. No doubt too that I pissed off a bunch as I jumped from pack to pack. It was windy though and I couldn't do it without a little shelter.

I continued that strategy of pack hopping and cutting them down until the 17th mile. Then I picked it up up 1st Ave. That's a great stretch of this race, and possibly one of the best straights in any marathon. Monster of crowds all the way pushing into the streets. I still felt solid, and it was basically like crawling compared to my normal MGP. I dropped some 6:15s. That was about as fast as I was willing to go, and about what I needed to get towards 2:50. After a couple miles and by the end of 1st Ave, I didn't have many more packs jump to.

At about 20 miles, I realized that sub 2:50 would be out of the question. I had a good stretch, but I needed another gear for sub 2:50 and I just didn't have it. Too much fitness had passed since Chicago. I still maintained 6:20-30s into Central Park. At that point, I broke slightly in on the hills, and it became a mere battle to just finish. My adductor and hip flexors were on fire. Those hills hurt a lot. More than they should've. I began to feel the pains I had in Chicago, but more so. I just hung in there. The last couple miles were about 6:35-40. It wasn't a travesty, but by the time I hit Central Park South and my final mile... I was begging for the finish like never before.

After I crossed the line, holy shit my legs hurt! I could hardly raise my knees to move forward. I was officially trashed. The mile walk to the gear pick up might've been the most painful mile of the day/week/month/year. Wow.

NYC wasn't what I originally wanted, though it was still a fun race. I adjusted my goals and made it work. It's hard to say if I enjoyed the experience there more than some of my other marathons. It was different. It wasn't as competitive so the glory wasn't there, but definitely had great stories! 2:52:18 and a nice negative split "tempo run". By some miracle I still placed 344th. Guessing that was due to the nasty head winds. Maybe I would've broke 2:50 without them? Doesn't matter.

In the days and weeks that followed, it became very apparent that I am now officially injured. I'm still not sure what it is... whether a torn adductor/groin muscle? Torn hip flexor? Something in my abs? Heaven forbid sports hernia.

For now, I'm chalking up running altogether and letting things heal. I've tested it a few times with some easy runs and to no avail. I'll give myself until the end of the year before I sort out what to do next and actually seek medical attention. Technically, I'm signed up for both Boston and Berlin in 2014 - but I need to get back to where I can run again before thinking about them.

Split recap:

K     Time       Diff      Pace

5-     0:21:32   21:32   6:56

10-   0:42:02   20:30   6:36

15-   1:02:34   20:32   6:37

20-   1:22:30   19:56   6:25

25-   1:42:54   20:24   6:34

30-   2:02:50   19:56   6:25

35-   2:22:53   20:03   6:27

40-   2:43:10   20:17   6:32

2.2-  2:52:18   09:08   6:37

1st Half-   1:26:54   6:38

2nd Half-  1:25:24   6:31

Overall-    2:52:18   6:34

344th Overall

Getting Injured

In between the Chicago Marathon and NYC marathon, I was forced to reassess my NYC goals. I initially wanted to actually run a course PR there - but not necessarily go all out. I wanted to lay up a mid/high-2:40's. This shouldn't have been too difficult given my fitness level. All I needed to do was maintain a base over the 3 weeks and heal from Chicago.

Unfortunately, I didn't heal. The following weeks from Chicago, my adductor/groin injury started to become increasingly a problem. I gutted out one final CARA 5K race, which under better circumstances could've been my 5K PR. After that race, I never recovered.

~~Incidentally, I ran 16:39 at that Halloween Hustle 5K. Good for 2nd place in my AG, and that sealed my 2nd place overall in the 35-39 AG for the entire 2013 CARA Circuit. I'm actually quite proud of that accomplishment, given that the 1st place runner is probably one of the fastest guys in my age group for the entire country! I wound up 8th in the overall circuit standings.~~

Anyway, my adductor/groin started to weigh on runs over 10 miles. It then started to weigh on each and every run. The only thing that calmed it down was soaking myself in anti-inflammatories. I kept cutting my mileage more and took as many days off as possible.

This all forced me to redefine my NYC goal and I decided to make it merely a "fun run". I was expecting worse, but I was still fit enough to go roughly 2:50 if I ran it conservatively.