Boston Marathon Week 10 of 18: "altitude training" + should I run a birthday 10K?

Hello from snowy Park City, UT where our ski group is having our yearly (er...sort of) ski trip! This is the first year I've been able to go since 2013, so I'm pretty excited to get some skiing in.

I'm also trying to get a few solid runs in. It's probably no surprise that this has not turned into the victorious beast-mode Boston Marathon training cycle I'd hoped for, which is disappointing, but there are silver linings here & there. I'd been a little worried about how I was going to work in a 50+ mile week over the ski trip, but with my hip just recovering, it's nice to not have the pressure of trying to hit that much mileage, and when the slopes and hot tub are calling, it's that much easier to hold myself back from pushing too far.

For example, this weekend was supposed to be my first 20 miler of this cycle, but given that my longest run since all this hip drama started has been 8 miles, I wasn't holding out a whole lot of hope that that would happen. If I felt fine and had no pain in my hip, I was totally open to going for the whole thing, but I also didn't want to do anything stupid.

I'd mapped myself out a nice little 10 mile out-and-back with a loop at the end, and as it worked out, I started feeling just a bit of an ache right as I hit about eight miles. I wasn't worried about finishing the run back to the house, but I didn't try to go any further. As you all know, it's hard, because as distance runners our core competency is putting up with discomfort and pushing through, and part of me was definitely yelling, "JUST A COUPLE MORE MILES OUT AND BACK, YOU CAN DO IT!" And I just kept having to remind myself, "Well yes, obviously, I COULD do it. But let's maybe quit while the pain is 1-2 out of 10 & not eff up the possibility of running for the rest of the trip. Also hot tub is waiting."

We'll be in Utah until Wednesday, then it's back home for a few days before heading to Southern California for work. Friday (2/23) will be my 37th birthday, & I'm toying with the idea of running the Victory 10K the next day in Richmond. Before all the hip drama I felt like I was in pretty darn good shape, plus I'll be coming off of a week at altitude*. (I don't know if it really makes a difference, but I ran my second fastest ever half after a week in Breckenridge, CA on a hot day feeling like I didn't even try that hard, so true or not, I now feel like a pre-race week at altitude is good juju.)

*But also, can we talk about how altitude sucks? You're constantly dehydrated even if you're chugging water, you feel hungover the first few mornings even if you weren't drinking, and you can't do any workouts (or rather, there's no *point* in doing workouts) until you fully acclimate which apparently takes like 2-4 weeks. Damn my pansy-ass sea level system.

Partly, I want to race because I was super excited about Kaiser, and since that didn't work out, I feel like I am owed at least one good hard effort before Boston. The only reason not to would be whether I should be pushing my hip that hard, so that's the main thing I'll have to pay attention to and see what happens.

And, let's be honest, the other thing holding me back is remembering just how much it hurts to run an honest 10K. I wasn't in great shape for Victory 10K last year, but I ran it hard under the circumstances, and I still can't shake that feeling of getting to the halfway point and thinking "Sweet Jesus I don't think I have three more miles of this in me." Because, real talk, if you get to the halfway point of a 10K and you don't feel like you want to die, you're leaving something on the table.

~*~*~ Boston Marathon: Week 10 of 18 ~*~*~
Grand Total: 23 miles

* 21.45 easy
* 1.55 speed

Monday 2/12: Karate. This was the day of my PT appointment. (If you missed that post & are into pictures of nasty PT-inflicted bruises, that one's for you.) If it hadn't been for that appointment I probably would have tried to get in a few easy miles, but I was super thankful to get the PT appointment that soon.

Tuesday 2/13: 2.75 warm up, 2 x (3 x 300m / 100m jog) / 300m jog, 2.7 = 7 total.

My hip felt 100% fine (other than the bruising), and since the PT had given me the clear to run as long as it was pain-free, I decided to attempt this workout and see how it went. The intervals were short and few, and it's easier to tap out of an interval at the track than anywhere else. I jogged 2.75 easy miles there for a warm up, did my drills, then took off on the first interval. The target time was 1:10 per 300m, but all I was thinking was "Let me not worry about the pace and just coast through these and see how the hip feels at a higher cadence," and lo and behold, I finished it 1:04, so, cool???

Not 100% out of the woods yet, but I can't tell you how excited I was to finish the whole workout plus the 2.7 miles back home with no pain in my hip. Pretty encouraging!

Wednesday 2/14: Karate + hip exercises

Thursday 2/15: 6 easy.

This was a long travel day for us so I had to get up early to get it done. It was 8-10 on the plan but I just was not getting up any earlier.

Friday 2/16: Ski!

Don and I arrived a couple of days before the rest our ski trip group, so we used the extra time to get in a day at Snowbird just outside of Salt Lake City. Pretty good day of skiing and no hip pain! Though towards the end of the day some douche bag did smash a metal lift bar down onto my knee (repeatedly, because he didn't get why it wouldn't come all the way down), leaving me with a nicely swollen and bruised right knee. :-/

Gorgeous day at Snowbird!

Saturday 2/17: 10 easy + hip exercises. Not the 20 that was on the schedule, but THAT IS OKAY.

Sunday 2/18: Ski!

I'm only a kind of-sort of-okay skiier, so it usually takes me a day or so of skiing nice friendly blues to remember how to do it & get up the nerve to get onto some black runs. This was my last black run on Sunday at Canyons in Park City.

Working up the nerve to hurl myself down the mountain in a blizzard.

I'm hoping to get at least one more run in this week in Park City. My hip still gets sore after longer runs but it also seems to go back to normal a day or two later, so if I have to only train every other day for the rest of the cycle, that'll be okay as long as I can get the long runs in. Right now, being able to complete the distance in terms of my hip is my biggest concern. If I have to run Boston a lot slower than I'd hoped and just finish, I am 100% okay doing that, but it means that at some point very soon I'm going to have to be able to do some for-real long runs.

But in the mean time...more skiing. ;)

====

Boston Marathon Week 1 of 18: On your mark, Get set...

Boston Marathon Week 2 of 18: speed, snow, & vertical

Boston Marathon Week 3 of 18: Foiled By Weather & Travel

Boston Marathon Week 4 of 18: There's "hills" and then there's HILLLZZ

Boston Marathon Week 5 of 18: Not the greatest of weeks...

Boston Marathon Week 6 of 18: Winter Running: Take 2

Boston Marathon Week 9 of 18: Grumpy Hip is Grumpy

Race Report: SF Track & Field Club Pride Meet

Photo credit: SF Track & Field Club

TL;DR - I was having a GREAT race until pretty much right at mile 2 when something in my calf felt like it just popped and I nearly fell over due to the ice pick-like stab of pain that went screaming through my gastrocnemius. It was an instant race ender, which is super disappointing, but there's also some pretty amazing silver lining.

THE LONGER VERSION:

I'd been excited about this race for a couple of months now. I've wanted to dip my toe back into the world of track racing for a while now, but the timing has never worked out -- I've either always been injured, recovering, traveling, or aiming for some other big race that conflicted with the Bay Area track meets I knew about. This was finally the year!

Your Call: Ridiculous Running Tech, or MOST Ridiculous Running Tech?

First, I can't not share the little bit of happy news I got in email today. As you may recall, my body decided that a week after I whipped out my credit card and clicked "Register" for CIM was a GREAT time to completely implode.

On the one hand, that $100 or whatever it was was gone anyway, whether I ran the race or not, so it's not like it was going to break the bank. On the other hand, it was maybe particularly painful considering that I just DNS'd a similarly priced marathon in August, and if it hadn't been for that, I probably wouldn't have signed up for CIM to begin with. On the other other hand, anybody who's been running road races for any amount of time just knows that 99% of the time, that's the risk you take when you sign up for a race. It happens to most of us sooner or later and what can you do but hope your hard-earned dollars will at least help put on a good event for someone else, so recently that's the attitude I've been trying to take while weeping quietly on the elliptical.

Then this morning I opened my email & saw this:

Which took me to this:

My first thought was, "What has happened to this poor man, and why is no one helping him? Or is he just that torn up at not being able to run CIM?"

My second thought, though, was, "OMG there's a chance the entire universe doesn't completely hate me!"

I believe this is the first year CIM has offered a deferral, and I only know of a handful of other mid-to-high-profile marathons that do (NVM, for example). Now, granted, you only recoup about half the cost, but in my opinion that's how it should be. Most races exist on such tiny margins that if deferral is free and too many runners do it, they could find themselves in financial trouble the next year. Also, people who can afford it already sign up for races "just in case" all the time, potentially taking a spot away from someone else who would have been committed to running, so making it free would let people "squat" like this on spots in desirable races with no consequences at all.

What I don't know is if CIM is planning to put those deferral spots back on the legit market, or just carry on business as usual, knowing some number of fewer spots will be available in 2016 due to 2015 deferrals. You could argue that one downside to a deferral policy, even one that charges a fee, is that it makes squatting on spots/registering "on spec" more attractive in that, if you use the deferral, you're only out the extra fee and not the full cost of the entry. However, if the race puts those deferral spots back out there (at full price or even a higher "super-late" entry price), they're doing something that might ultimately make people less likely to squat in the long term (particularly people who aren't concerned with the price).

The other option, I think, is making bibs transferable for a fee. I know some races do this, but then again I can also see it potentially jacking up prices since most races do all their budgeting & pricing knowing that a certain percent of runners won't actually show up.

I hope that if we see more races offering deferrals, people won't abuse it. I am categorically opposed to people with money to burn saying, "Eh, what the heck, I'll just save my spot for this race eight months from now just in case I decide I want to run it," but in a situation where you really do want to run a race but are a little on the fence about registering because there is some small chance you won't be able to (and you won't know for sure before it's likely to sell out), knowing you can defer and not be out the entire cost of the race makes it a little more palatable financially.

ANYWAY, I promised you some ridiculousness. Check it out:

(Be sure to click through for the OMG ridiculous video)

That's right; Lumo totally wants to get in your pants.

So here's the deal.

Remember that swollen, tender spot on my left tibia I mentioned a few weeks ago?

Remember how I cut my 16 mile long run short because it was sort of reaching yellow-flag levels of uncomfortable, but then it was fine the rest of the week, and it was fine through my 22 mile long run?

So, the day after that run (8/3), it felt a little tender, but no worse than when I've had shin splints flare up in the past around peak mileage weeks. I was walking fine & went to karate that night as usual. After running a few kata, though, it started to feel more and more uncomfortable, so I sat out the last 15 minutes or so.

The next day (8/4) I had a big track workout, but since I was traveling in the evening I couldn't go to SF Track Club as usual at Kezar. I could have done it during the day before heading to the airport, but the leg still didn't feel quite right, so I decided I'd give it a few more hours of rest & then maybe do it on the treadmill once I got to my hotel. Except, then my flight was delayed so I didn't get to my hotel until 10pm, and since I had a 6:00 am wake up call & hadn't eaten in like seven hours, I definitely did not get on a treadmill. Which I figured was probably for the best; my leg would get an extra day of rest & then I could do the workout on Wednesday.

Well. Wednesday evening (8/5) I got on the treadmill, and less than one minute into the warm-up got a big giant NOPE from my left tibia. It hurt. A lot. In a way that was uncomfortably familiar.

So I thought I'd give it a few more days & see how it felt. The spot on my tibia was kind of diffuse and not particularly painful to touch (it felt more like a large bruise), so I wasn't too worried about it yet.

Well, it didn't get better, even with complete rest. Instead, over the course of my work trip that week, it gradually got worse until even walking on it was quite painful and once or twice I legitimately thought about seeing if I could find some drugstore crutches somewhere just so I didn't make it worse. This is when I started to actually worry.

Also, why am I always alone in a hotel room when things like this happen?

From that point on, there was no question of trying to run on it. After a few days of resting it at home (~8/9ish), it started to feel much better, though by "much better," I mean "could technically walk on it, if I had to, with only a little pain."

Just based on how it felt at this point and how the pain presented (significantly better in the morning, worse by the end of the day), I was pretty sure I had a stress reaction & if I had tried to run on it, I probably could have turned it into a full-on stress fracture pretty easily. Because of where it is & how it feels with bearing weight in different ways, I'm 99% sure it's a result of trying to fix the issue with my left arch, & for all intents & purposes a part of my leg that has gotten away for a long time without doing much was suddenly thrown right into the middle of marathon training. It had been feeling better for a while so I'd gradually weaned myself off of taping up my foot; now I'm not sure that was such a hot idea. (Then again, it's also probably not the sole factor here, either.)

Now, with a stress reaction in a low-risk area (ie, low-risk for complications/nonunion, which tibia is), it is possible to recover with 2-3 weeks off running and then be able to run again, so at that point that's the medical factoid I was clinging to. (Nevermind, of course, that those 2-3 weeks are supposed to be followed by a "sensible return-to-running plan," not a goal marathon. I figured I'd burn that bridge when I came to it.)

I emailed with Coaches Tom & Ashley to let them know what was up, because my concern was that if I hadn't run at all in the 3 weeks prior to the race that it wouldn't even be worth starting, even if my leg was 100% better. They reminded me, though, just how little effect anything you do in those last three weeks has on race day compared to everything that came before, and if I was able to cross train some, it wasn't likely to affect my performance much. At that point (8/10) the plan was to get some cross training in & then see how things felt the following weekend.

And it definitely did improve pretty dramatically. I got some elliptical in instead of running, & by the end of last week (8/14) I was walking completely normally with no pain. I even jogged a few steps up & down the hall, which felt fine. I've been continuing to do my arch exercises, and there is a little pain in the bone with those in the same spot, but it doesn't linger, which is something.

So, we re-evaluated this weekend in terms of the options, which were pretty much 1) start & see how it feels, 2) drop to the half, or 3) don't run. Well, there's no space in the half at this point, so option 2) is out (also 8/1 was the deadline for switching anyway). After some back and forth, the recommendation from Tom & Ashley was to let this one go, get 100% healthy, & run CIM in December instead. The bottom line is that I want an A+ race, and even if I were able to start and even finish, that's looking pretty unlikely.

Obviously, I'm disappointed. Not utterly crushed the way I might have been if this had been a sudden thing (it's funny how two weeks of fretting lets you ease into the possibility), but still pretty bummed that this will be the second time in a row I've paid for this race, driven up to collect swag for it, & gone home without crossing the line.

But...I'm handling it. Okay, I *might* have needed a day to mope around in my pajamas & drink wine, but there's been no gnashing of teeth or rending of garments or throwing of crockery. No ugly-crying.

Part of the process has been making a list of reasons in my head (and, apparently, on the internet) of why not starting is for the best, even though it sucks massive donkey balls:

• Sometimes I don't make good decisions. Yes, it's possible I could start the marathon, and everything could be fine. But it's also possible I could get to mile 22, realize things are Not Good, but be too amped up/dehydrated/emotionally unstable to do the rational thing and quit. (This is why I quit SRM at mile 14 last year. I could have gone farther but the hip was just getting worse, and I knew the closer I got to the finish, the harder it would be to quit.)
• I want to go all-out at my next marathon. Even if my leg were feeling much better, it's still unlikely that I'd be able to give my absolute best effort on Sunday. I'd be thinking about the leg and paying attention to whether it hurts and how much and how bad I should let it get before I quit instead of focusing on my race. For a while I was kind of thinking, "Eh, if it feels okay, I could just aim to finish," except no. I have zero interest right now in running a marathon "just to finish." I would rather wait until I'm ready to kill it.
• It leaves me well positioned for CIM. The rest of "I'll just try to finish" was "and then run CIM." When you think it through, though, the math doesn't really work out. Even if I were to run SRM comfortably AND my leg felt perfect, that's still ~4-6 weeks to recover & be ready to train again, leaving only ~8-10 weeks before CIM. Which means it's pretty unlikely I'd be in top shape. The way things stand now, I have some solid training under my belt, and if I can get my leg taken care of (and cross train in the mean time), I'll be in a good spot to roll that training over to a new cycle & build on it.
• CIM is a better race for that anyway. Don't get me wrong, Santa Rosa is a great marathon on a good course and it's very well run. But it's pretty much accepted out here that if you want the best possible shot at an awesome marathon, given the choice, you run the net downhill race with six turns in December, not the one with 30+ turns in wine country in August.

So here's my loose plan:

• Keep chillin' on the elliptical this week.
• Keep up the arch strength stuff.
• Once I've been 100% pain free for 5-7 days, embark on said "sensible return-to-running" plan & follow the guidelines re: whether or not the pain stays gone.
• Spend 9/2-9/9 in Portland living the good life. (Did I mention this?? SO EXCITED.)
• Stop slacking on strength work & get back in a routine with A.T., focusing particularly on the arch issue because BAAAAH.
• Pick up the serious training again by mid-to-late September (provided all is well with the foot/leg bone).
• Maybe run a half in there somewhere if I'm feeling it.

So....yeah. Boo. Sucks. However, I am trying to make the best of it. I have two friends running, & since I've already got the weekend free & the hotel room & there's a lot of pretty awesome wine to be enjoyed (especially by someone who is not running a marathon Sunday morning), it seems only logical to drown my sorrows in Pinot Noir go enjoy what there is to be enjoyed.

SRM WEEK 12 of 20: Reset / Reboot

After my dubious experience in Sunnyvale on Sunday, I needed to wash that race right outta my hair!

Yes, the entire experience was disappointing (note: under the circumstances, I am NOT disappointed in myself), but there are some bright spots.

First, starting soon after the end of the race, I had this suspicion that even though the race was physically uncomfortable and I finished hard and am not sure I could have run it much faster, it was not really going to physically count as a truly hard effort. At every stage post-race (30 seconds after, 5 minutes after, 2 hours after, 10 hours after), I just felt way better than I should have. I felt great Monday morning & even got up early for a solid strength workout (not something I'm usually up to the morning after a real race). Nothing felt the least bit off Monday or Tuesday. Which is all great because, woo-hoo, feeling normal again after one day instead of three!

Second, I had Monday through Wednesday as scheduled rest days, but Sunday was so unsatisfying that by Tuesday afternoon I *really* wanted to get out for a nice, easy, cleansing run. I didn't go to the track (that seemed like pushing it), but because I suspected the race hadn't been near as hard on my body as I'd expected, I decided to go out for a few easy miles for however long was comfortable, maybe three and maybe eight.

I don't know if it was the overall low mileage last week or what, but this easy run felt better than any easy run in several weeks. Four miles out I still felt great but forced myself to exhibit some restraint & turn around anyway. Plus, the weather was perfect--warm and balmy in the Mission; cool in the Panhandle; slightly breezy but comfortable in the Park. There is nothing like a good run to get a bad one out of your system!

Third, though I would much rather have had a solid race, not having had one means that I can run actual mileage this week, including a long run on Sunday. I was totally ready to sacrifice some mileage to taper & recovery in order to get an all-out race in, but since that didn't work out, at least I'll get some extra training time in.

This coming week, I think I will probably stick to the plan to not do any workouts, but will go back to pretty much normal mileage; just all at an easy pace.

~*~*~SRM WEEK 12 OF 20~*~*~

Grand Total: 24 miles

* 7.8 easy
* 6.2 speed
* 10 race

Monday: Rest, but not by choice

Work, work, work.

Tuesday: Rest, but again...not by choice

We had dinner reservations at a new fancy pants spot in SF, so I'd planned to do leave work a little early so as to get my track workout in beforehand. Alas, work stuff came up & I barely managed to leave just in time to make it to dinner.

(On the other hand, if you're in the Bay Area & feel like dropping a chunk of change on a cool prix fixe, check out Californios. Really cool food with a Mexican twist. Also DO THE WINE PAIRING.)

Wednesday: 2 warm up, 2 x 1K @ 10K pace, 4 x 1K @ 5K pace, 2 x 1K @ 10K pace, 1.8 cool down Karate

I figured that since I didn't get the track workout done Tuesday, I'd skip karate & do it Wednesday. Alas, things came up & I had to be in class.

Thursday: 7 easy 2 warm up, 2 x 1K @ 10K pace, 4 x 1K @ 5K pace, 2 x 1K @ 10K pace, 1.8 cool down = 10 total

I really did not want to do this workout this late in the week, but it was a big one & I didn't want to skip it. So, I went ahead with it & just hoped the fact that this ends up being a really low mileage week will kinda-sorta make up for it.

Those middle four intervals? BITCHES. It was hot & I hadn't eaten particularly well that day or the day before, so let's blame it on that.




This is the face of a woman who has done three
10+ mile track workouts in as many weeks. BOO. YA.

Friday: Rest

I don't like resting on Friday. Friday is for running. Thankfully I had a good college friend in town that I hadn't seen in over ten years! Also it was our other friend's 30th birthday, so we had to take her out to celebrate proper-like. Sorry no pics because we were too busy, like, living our actual lives.

Saturday: 2 easy

Just an easy shake-out run.

Sunday: 2 warm-up + 10 race

(You already know how this turned out.)

Onwards & upwards!!!

Lessons From The Gym

A stock photo is the only place anyone ever smiles on a cardio machine.

Greetings from Gym Land!

I'm not a native here, but lately it kind of feels like it. I'm getting used to the sweaty-human-cleaning-fluid aroma, and I've been racking up the cardio machine miles like nobody's business. Which reminds me of a brilliant idea I came up with on the spin bike the other day (because what else are you doing while you're on the spin bike?): cardio machines should totally give you rewards points for your miles. I feel certain I could have earned at least a decent set of steak knives by now.

It hasn't been all moaning & whining (though there has been a goodly amount). While I wouldn't have chosen to get my weekly mileage for the last two months by parking myself on the spin bike / elliptical once or twice a day, I can't deny that I have learned some important lessons from my time as a gym rat.

1. I am capable of running in the morning. For the most part, this is not something I have done just to get the miles in since there stopped being someone telling me I had to run in the morning. (Races don't count as the abject misery of morning running is overshadowed by excitement/adrenaline. Planned runs with friends are also a totally different thing.) Over the years I have had short-lived flirtations with morning runs, which have tended to peter out once I've done enough of them to remember why I don't do them.

But, it turns out that maybe I just don't like running outside in the morning, at least by myself. Outside there is cold and wind and darkness and other unpleasantness that, all else being equal, I'd rather just avoid. Sure, the treadmill has its own unique brand of suckage and one does have to adjust to that special parfum d'sweat et Windex, but for some reason I can bear that much more easily than I can the thought of running outside by myself before 6 am. (You can keep your pine-scented single track & fancy pants foothill sunrise. Judge me if you will. I can take it.)

Meh.

2. I can handle doubles. At least mentally & emotionally, & let's be real, what you can handle mentally & emotionally is *at least* as relevant in terms of endurance training as what you can handle physically. Lately "doubles" for me have meant 45 minutes of elliptical before work & 45 minutes of spin bike after work or vice versa, which is obviously physically easier on the body than two running workouts because of the lack of impact, but finding that it's something I've been able to make time for & work out logistically & tolerate well mentally makes me optimistic about eventually working up to running doubles if/when I need/want to.

3. Bitches be chatty in the locker room. OMG. What is it about a bunch of women naked in close quarters that inspires them to interrogate strangers? TOO EARLY. I'm not here to make friends. Especially not naked ones. If you really want to know how my day is going, you must put pants on first. Corollary: Never start a casual conversation with a pantsless stranger. I think Emily Post said that.

Basically, yes.

4. Doing cardio you don't enjoy is a special kind of hell. Oh, those poor, poor souls who haven't yet found a physically demanding activity they love but dutifully slog through the minutes anyway for the sake of their health. Oh, my heart aches for you, because I have been that person lately. I've tolerated the elliptical & spin bike fairly well, but only because I know that it's temporary, & putting up with it now will make it much easier to eventually go back to doing what I love. Do you have any idea how many games I've made up for counting backward from 45 or 60 minutes? How many mental tricks I've developed for keeping my goddamn feet glued to the goddamn pedals when my brain is absolutely liquifying with boredom? How much my already exceptional math skills have improved from staring at the minutes & miles display & desperately counting significant progress any way I can? Minutes left, miles left, percentage done or left, fraction done or left, miles per hour, minutes per mile, you name it; I don't even have to try to consciously calculate them anymore. It's just automatic.

Cardio machine queens & kings, I feel for you. I beg you, try a sport. Any sport. Your life will be so much richer. Also, I'm pretty sure those LED numbers are sucking your soul away. (Unless that's just your thing? Which I guess is technically possible?)

5. Shorts are out. I think I mentioned this already. Ladies wear tights at the gym, apparently. I hope no one is offended by my leg hair because #thingsthatarenotchanging.

6. Routine is everything. Oh man. It's so true, all those things people say about making & breaking habits. You just have to do it, over and over and over, and eventually you just lose the power not to do it. One day last week when my alarm went off, I thought to myself, "Bed is warm. Maybe I'll just stay here." And no sooner had I had the thought than I suddenly found myself kind of repulsed by it. Not go fight the cardio demons? Of course I was going to go fight the cardio demons! It's just what I do now; I don't even think about it.

***IN REAL ACTUAL RUNNING NEWS***, I ran three-minute intervals yesterday for the first time -- 5 x 3:00 w/ 2:00 walk breaks for a total of 2.25 miles. It was super easy, felt great, and I was able to keep good form for the entire run. Ohhhh I could have stayed on that treadmill forever. Not really.

Diagnoses, Deferments, & My Future As A Radioactive Superhero

So last Wednesday I got in to see a sports medicine doctor (not my regular one, but a good one that I trust) as well as an orthopedic. After talking with me about everything that had happened, examining my left calf, & considering different things that I could do and not do, they both agreed that it sounded an awful lot like a fibular stress fracture. As my PT pointed out, I've likely strained a bunch of surrounding muscles as well, but the main symptom that seems to indicate a bone issue is the crazy sensitivity of the outside of my leg to pressure, right along / behind where the fibula runs. (As in, if I lean against the couch too suddenly or try to cross my left leg over my right, it's like 6/10 pain.) They did say that it's more common to have pain lower down close to the ankle or higher up close to the knee where there is less muscle padding, whereas mine is worst right in the middle, but occasionally it presents this way too, depending on where the fracture is.

Of course the treatment is the same no matter what the problem is: stay off of it, avoid impact, and DEFINITELY don't run on it until the pain (both with impact and pressure) is 100% g-o-n-e GONE. That said, the doctor was pretty clear that he wanted a definitive diagnosis for my medical history and also to give me an idea of how far out I am from 100% complete & utter lack of pain, so he scheduled a bone scan this coming Wednesday. This means I get to get shot up with radioactive goop, chill for 3 hours, & then get stuck under a special camera. I am told I will continue to be radioactive for ~3 days after. By then, I fully expect that my super powers will have emerged.

I'm expecting it will probably be a lot like this. Note the glistening adornment of radioactive isotopes.

So, while that's not exactly great news, there are a few up sides. First, even since that appointment, my leg is feeling much, much better. I can walk on it totally fine, it's only slightly tender to the touch, and (shhh don't tell anyone) the short little jogs I've done across the street to make a red light or down the hall at home have been completely pain-free, so if the bone scan shows no bone injury, I can probably start running again soon (albeit in very, very small quantities).

Second, the benefit of having the worst of it happen over Christmas & not getting to a doctor for weeks is that at this point I've already got four weeks of zero miles under my belt (& will have nearly five by the time I get the results of the bone scan), and the healing time for a fibular stress fracture is typically only 4-8 weeks. Somehow facing just a few more weeks, worst case, of no running at this point seems a lot more psychologically manageable than two months would have sounded the day I started limping on it.

Third, I had the foresight (by which I mean dumb luck) to register for one of the only marathons out there that will potentially defer your entry. I requested a deferral last week and the race director granted it, so I'm only out the administrative fees for that rather than the entire $125 reg fee. So that's pretty sweet.

In the mean time, I am allowed to bike, swim, strength train, & elliptical (basically anything that's low-impact & doesn't hurt), so people with tips / encouragement around that, do not worry that your advice came too late. I have been putting it to good use. :)

This was not a stellar training week as it was book-ended by two bouts of cold-and-sinus-general-unpleasantness, but since I'm not officially training for anything right now, I didn't feel too badly about it. I got some good cardio in on the elliptical & bike & also some strength sessions, and have also been using the extra time / brain space to continue working on my nutrition.

Grand Total: 31.3 miles

* 16.2 easy (bike)
* 2.6 speed (bike)
* 5 tempo (bike)
* 7.5 elliptical

Monday & Tuesday:

Sick as a dog; mostly lay on the couch / drink tea.

Wednesday:

a.m. strength work / p.m. 3.25 warm up, 3 x (.33 @ all-out / .15 easy), .5 easy, 3 x (.33 @ all-out / .15 easy), .5 easy = 7.5 bike; 3.5 easy elliptical.

I'd intended to do another easy half hour on the bike after the intervals, but about 5 minutes in I was having some weird pain in my right knee / quad & instead decided to see if my leg could handle the elliptical. It didn't hurt, so I did the last 25 easy minutes on it. I think I'm getting better at figuring out how to make the elliptical mimic running. Back in June / July I REALLY hated it because it felt *nothing* like running.

Thursday:

4 easy elliptical; 6.75 easy bike. Clearly I'm in better shape than I was in July when I was coming back from the hip injury; 30 easy-but-not-too-easy minutes on the bike used to only get me 6.2 miles, so that's reassuring.

Friday:

a.m. strength work / p.m. 3.2 warm up, 4 x (1.95 @ LT effort / .33 easy), 2 cool down = 14. (This is my bike equivalent of LT intervals.)

Saturday/Sunday:

I took Saturday as an intentional rest day & had planned to check out Koret Pool at USF courtesy of Kimra on Sunday, but then the nasty sinus stuff reared its ugly head again & I once again spent a lot of the day on the couch hydrating like a champ.

Sports Basement Danger, Insurance Money, & the Dreaded Sports Beans

If you are a Bay Area athlete of just about any stripe, you know what I'm talking about.

They're all, "Oh, hey, we're having this cool event with food & wine & some awesome speaker & a bunch of free stuff, it's totally free, you should come by! Also here's a bunch of coupons & everyone who comes gets a sweet discount off THE ENTIRE STORE."

Or, "Oh, hey, this group is meeting up for a run with food & free samples, it's totally free, you should come! Also anything you buy is xx% off."

Or, "Oh, hey, we're hosting packet pickup for that race you're running, it's right by your house & totally free, you should come! Also please walk by all our cool stuff on the way up to the floor where it is, AND enjoy a discount on ALL OF IT."

Run Like A Mother reading / meet-up in April 2013 @ Sports Basement Presidio.
OMG, I got so much free stuff there. And wine. Lots & lots of wine.

(Source)

This happens All. The. Time. And do you *ever* walk out with *just* a full belly / tired legs / mental satisfaction / your race packet? No; of course you don't. You're no fool.

SB Bryant Street in San Francisco hosted packet pickup for the Berkeley Half, and since there is no race day pickup, I obviously had no choice but to go and walk past all the stuff and see the sweet discount. And we all know where walking past discounted stuff leads.

Friends, I give you: The Bounty.

$126 & change, post discount. BAM.

Normally, after having my running bag stolen a couple of weeks back & paying $600 to get my car keys replaced & $200 for a new phone, I would feel bad about spending money on a bunch of stuff I don't technically need to live. But the truth is that most of that $126 went to replace things that were in the bag that I do actually kind of need and that are being covered by insurance. (It turns out that if you make a claim on your renter's insurance for stolen goods, they don't just write you a check for whatever you say was stolen. You actually have to replace the items yourself, then send them the receipts along with a description of what stolen item it's replacing, and they determine how much of it to reimburse you for based on the value of the stolen thing.)

And actually, if you're going to get your stuff stolen & you have to replace it anyway, there are in fact a few bright points, particularly if you weren't all that fond of some of the stuff that got stolen.

For example, I bought a light dri-fit UnderArmour zipper jacket about a year ago for wearing as a kind of warm-up top and also for days when I feared I might need long sleeves but didn't want to fully commit. I agonized over three different options & finally went with the UnderArmour one ($70, $60ish with a Sports Authority coupon I had). It was fine but over the weeks & months I discovered several things about it that kind of bugged me, like the way the sleeves were hard to get on and off over a Garmin, the fact that the pockets didn't have zippers (I sometimes safety pinned them closed, which sucked), and how if I zipped it halfway up the whole top would pop comically open to display my entire chest.

SB did not have much in the way of dri-fit zipper jackets (which was weird, I thought; it seems like the season for it), but I did find one, on the "Last Chance" rack, in my size, for $55 (or $49.50 with the 10% race discount), which I immediately snatched up. Not only does it have zipper pockets, stretchy sleeves, and manages to look totally casual & non-pervy when only half zipped, but it also has a hood & those little thumb hole cuffs for keeping the sleeves in place over gloves. Apparently it's by Alo Yoga (this one, I think) & retails for $80, so insurance company, I hope you appreciate the sweet deal I just got you.

Post-Berkeley Half, 11/24. Note the demur half-zipped chest-area fit.

I also really needed to replace my sunglasses, as commuting during sunrise/sunset was getting pretty sketchy. I liked that the stolen ones came with snap-in-snap-out lenses of different tints, a rubber nose piece, and little vents at the top to keep them from fogging up, but after a few weeks of wearing them I realized that they just didn't fit quite right & I always felt like they were about to slide off my face. As luck would have it, SB had ONE pair that fit me (I have a freakishly tiny head), & although they didn't have the fancy vents, they had everything else, AND they were half the price of my previous pair. I also got an extra discount on those since the only pair they had left was the display pair. SCORE.

I am still trying out new socks. Several different people mentioned Balega so I figured it was a good time to grab some.

Did I mention all my gels were in the stolen bag? Like $40 worth. (RUDE.) On the other hand (#runnerdalert), I've recently been reading some research on how mid-race carbs work better when they're combined with a bit of protein (I've been meaning to write about this), & most of the ones in the stolen bag didn't include any. The only brands I know of that do are Accel Gel & 2nd Surge, & while I've used Accel Gels several times, I've been curious to give 2nd Surge a try.

The only downside? They make only two flavors, chocolate & double espresso. BOOOOO. I am absolutely a fruity gel girl, & it showed during Berkeley Half. I had one of the two right before the race & one about an hour in, & both flavors made me feel sick. I may be an Accel girl from here on out.

Finally, the Sports Beans. Ohhhhh, Sports Beans. You are the bane of soooo many of my races. Though I guess I also kind of owe you; when I hear someone near me carrying them, the maraca-like tattoo spurs me to run harder, because I'm so desperate to get away from the rattling.

My experiments with solid carbs during races have all failed due to clumsiness / lack of coordination (let's face it, I can barely rip open a gel without getting it all over me), so my only reason for purchasing Sports Beans is because there is something about the sweet-salty-fruity-tangy flavor that I just love. I could eat these all the time; just not while running.

It turns out the "Sports Beans Advantage" is causing
your competitors to go insane from the noise.

(Oh, & the BodyGlide. I haven't used BodyGlide since M2BM, but suddenly I find that I'm running far enough again that the lack of it is a problem. As soon as I went looking for it, I realized that it was in the stolen bag. The only thing more hilarious than asking for my insurance company to reimburse me for BodyGlide is asking them to reimburse me for Hoo Ha Ride Glide, which, btw, is *totally* happening.)

I hope all your Thanksgivings were delicious & happy!! We just got back from Texas, where it was super cold, & then 80 degrees, & now about to be super cold again. While we were there we managed to get through a bunch of vacation pictures from Hawaii, so I'll try to post a few of those here & there in the not-too-distant future.

Learn From My Mistakes. PLEASE.

"The difference between school & real life is that in school, you get the lesson first and then the test, and in real life, you get the test first, and then the lesson." ~Someone I can't remember right now

Oy. I'm not ashamed to admit that in the last few days, it's been incredibly challenging to bring my own weather to the picnic. Not because of my running--now that I'm done being sick & out of town & absurdly overbooked & all that, the running has been going reasonably well. But running is tangentially related to the suckiness I'm about to describe, and it's kind of all I can think about right now, so there you go.

I've been doing my track workouts at Kezar Stadium more or less once a week for the last four years or so. When I first started going I'd bring only my keys, inhaler, water bottle, & flats out to the track, tuck them inconspicuously behind a bench, & leave everything else locked in my car. After a while that seemed silly since the benches are right out in the open in broad daylight, & the only other people around were other runners. So I started just leaving them out on the bench. (Because really, who's going to steal any of that stuff?)

Then I started sometimes wanting other stuff, like different clothing options depending on the weather, sunscreen for reapplying on hot days, extra Nuun tablets, etc. So I started carrying it all around in a bag, & whenever I head to the track or a race, I just grab the whole thing because I know everything I could possibly need will be in it. After a while having a different bag for every athletic pursuit (running, karate, gym, pool, CrossFit, whatever) got annoying so I started keeping everything together in one bag, & I would take that bag to the track, & leave it on the bench.

Then I started taking my phone down to the track, because hey, something might happen, or I might want to snap a picture, or whatever. Part of me kind of thought this might not have been the greatest idea, but I was always sure to tuck it deep in my bag, & hey, it's been *years* & no one has ever bothered my stuff.

Until this past Tuesday night. Thankfully I've been in the habit of putting most of the extra stuff I take to races into another, smaller bag which I can throw into the big one but don't routinely keep there, & I haven't been keeping much else in the bigger bag besides some of my karate stuff. But I did have my phone in it, along with my only set of car keys, house keys, & work keys.

You can probably guess where all this is going.

According to my Garmin, I started my first interval at 5:02pm, which would have been right after I changed from my regular shoes into flats. After four ninety-second 400m's & four ninety-second recovery jogs (so a grand total of ~12 minutes), I jogged back to the benches to change back into my other shoes, and my bag was gone.

What ensued at that point was a half hour of hysterical panic in which I jogged every inch of the track & stadium asking people if they'd seen my bag or anyone near it, searching trash cans in case it had been dumped, & verifying that whoever had taken it hadn't fished my keys out & used the electronic fob to locate/pillage/steal my car (which was parked right by the stadium gate, & had my purse & wallet in the trunk). After that I gave up & jogged to the police station (thankfully there is one right at the stadium), made a police report, tried to call Don, & promptly fell apart right there in the precinct.

(Pro tip: If you're ever going to lose the only set of keys you have while your car is parked somewhere that becomes illegal in four hours, try not to do it two days after your significant other's car has spontaneously broken down.)

Ultimately, I called AAA, who was able to tow it to their storage lot & then to the dealership in the morning where I could get two (count 'em, TWO) new sets of keys made, which only cost me $100 for the overnight storage & $500 for the keys. (*Vomit*. Pro tip #2: Keep track of your car keys. No luxury anything for me until 2014.)

I've also never gotten the theft protection or extra insurance on my phone & also never done the (FREE) Android thing where you can set up your phone to be GPS tracked and/or remote locked and/or wiped, so the best we could do was disconnect & blacklist it (no one can use it, even with a new SIM card). I am still 1.5 years from an upgrade, but because I've been a customer for so long AT&T said that they could give me an upgrade now. (I don't understand why, but certainly appreciate it.) So on the bright side, a new phone similar to what I had will only cost me $200 instead of ~$500. Which is something.

That's really everything I *have* to replace right now.

When all this was happening, it was interesting to note the thoughts running through my head. Obviously there were things like "I can't believe this is happening" and "How stupid can I be" and "There are so many ways this could've been prevented." At the same time, though, were a bunch of other thoughts, like "No one is hurt or dead" and "Almost everything is replaceable" and "My car is still here & intact" and "At least I was smart enough not to put my effing *wallet* in the bag too." As awful as it was when it was happening, I still found myself extremely cognizant of how much worse a terrible night can be. To be honest I often find myself rolling my eyes when people talk about having gratitude in the face of bad situations, but completely unexpectedly, I found that I did. I literally sat there on the curb while my brain scrolled through a giant list of everything that I did still have & how much worse it could have been & all the things that hadn't happened tonight.

I wasn't trying to feel grateful & thankful for all that; I just did. This, I think, is the payoff of consciously practicing bringing your own weather to the picnic. It doesn't mean I didn't still feel horrible & kind of hated myself for making such an expensive, easily preventable mistake, but I think it did keep me from wallowing in self-pity & -disgust for days on end & feeling like it was the complete and total end of the world. Today, my brain is doing this bizarre thing where it keeps ambushing me with positive (????) things about having my bag stolen. I'll just be doing whatever, & out of nowhere it's like, "You know you only bought that bag eleven years ago because it was cheap & you were poor. You always thought it was kind of tacky-looking." (Which, okay, there is some truth to that, although after 11 years with an inanimate object--it's spanned 99% of my karate career--you do start to develop a weird attachment.)

God, they were hideous. Still, I'll kind of miss them...

Or, "As much as you liked those Mizunos, they were really old, and you know they were ugly as sin." (Which...true.)

Or, "Now you don't have to deal with all those random, outdated keys that had collected on your key chain! Cross THAT off the ol' to-do list!"

Or, "Sure, those were $100 sunglasses, but they never really fit right, & you were only keeping them because you felt bad about the price."

Or, "You always hated that crappy phone case. Somebody else's problem now!"

Once we'd dealt with the immediate aftermath of the situation, Don & I kind of melted into the couch & didn't move for a while, except to drink more, & started listing all the super important things we know we reeeeaaallly ought to take care of but have put off for long enough that we've convinced ourselves that it's not that big a deal.

"We should put together an earthquake kit."

"We should write our wills."

"We should get LastPass set up." (Okay, fine, that was just me....Seriously, I've had the tab open in my browser window for months. I finally got CrashPlan set up a few months ago, so at least I've got that going for me.)

"We should make copies of all our important documents & stash them somewhere."

"We should, like, *find* all our important documents." (Fine, that was just me too.)

Suddenly I find myself a lot more highly motivated to do all that stuff.

Dealing with getting the car re-keyed today was an even bigger headache than I thought it would be, & over the course of the day I had some pretty low moments. In the spirit of bringing your own weather, I thought I'd share this quote from Caitlin Moran's "My Posthumous Advice for My Daughter," which was mostly what got me through it:

"Life divides into AMAZING ENJOYABLE TIMES and APPALLING EXPERIENCES THAT WILL MAKE FUTURE AMAZING ANECDOTES. However awful, you can get through any experience if you imagine yourself, in the future, telling your friends about it as they scream, with increasing disbelief, ‘NO! NO!’ Even when Jesus was on the cross, I bet He was thinking, ‘When I rise in three days, the disciples aren’t going to believe this when I tell them about it.’"

It made me laugh every time I thought I was about to completely fall apart again.

Hope your week's going better than mine. :P

Tiny Rays of Hope?

This picture is here because REASONS. If you have a problem with it, then we cannot be friends.

Today I was supposed to get x-rays & see my sports medicine (read: running problem) doctor & find out whether he thought I had a stress fracture or not. I arrived a half hour before my appointment as instructed for said x-rays, only to be told that apparently the insurance company doesn't think my PT has "standing" to order x-rays (RUDE), and they would prefer that I see my running doctor first & find out if he thinks x-rays are really necessary. (Sidenote: Don't x-rays cost, like, 7¢ each these days? Because I totally would've just given them a quarter or whatever.)

So. I go in to see my doctor, very nearly trembling on account of he might ask me to do the things that give me the horrific, nauseating, eye-bleeding pain (bearing weight on my right leg with my knee bent, going up or down a step on my right leg, etc.) in order to show how bad it was. We talked for a few minutes about everything that had happened since I'd seen him in March, & then he got me up on the table for some examining.

At first he did a lot of the same things my PTs had done--passively moving my hip through extreme ranges of motion, tensing & flexing it & different ways, & "loading" it (ie, applying force) in different directions, none of which caused me any pain.

"This is VERY good," he assured me.

Then he had me do some things standing up--first just standing straight with my weight equally balanced on both legs, then standing on my right leg with my knee locked (which I can do with no pain), then squatting two-legged as far down as I could with my weight equally on both legs, which I could do basically all the way to the floor with no pain.

"Okay, how about a single-leg squat."

"AIN'T GO' HAPPEN."

"Give us a little hop?"

"NOPE."

I tried holding on to the side of the table, standing on my right leg, & very, very gingerly putting just the tiniest bit of weight on it to make the point, which is that it makes me feel like my leg is about to snap completely off right before I throw up. He had me walk normally up & down the hallway without the crutch, then walk sideways both directions, which, again, I could do as long as I locked my right knee & otherwise it is pain city.

"You really are moving quite well," he assured me.

Finally he had me lock my knees, stand on my toes, then on my heels, then stand on my toes & crash hard down onto my heels, none of which was the least bit painful.

"I don't see any evidence that this is a stress fracture," he said finally. "We loaded the joint pretty seriously in every direction & had you put it pretty well through its paces. If you had a stress fracture in your hip, I don't think you would've been able to do half the things I had you do." The standing on the toes with knees locked, then landing hard on the heels is particularly telling, he said, because if it were the bones in the femur / pelvis, locking the knees would not protect them from the force of that impact.

Me: "Soooooooo okay what's wrong with me then???"

If I understand & summarize him correctly, what he thinks is that the right side of my body was already massively fubar'd, which caused a TFL / sartorius / adductor strain that I didn't let completely heal before I ran a marathon on it, which greatly traumatized that entire complex of muscles & tendons (and maybe tore some things as well). In an effort to protect themselves while the tissue tries to heal, they have tightened up even further (which leads to the spasm-ing, the REALLY bad pain I feel, when I trip or try to go up/down stairs/etc.) Essentially, I have given my right hip/glute/adductor area PTSD.

Me: "But is there ANY chance it could be a stress fracture? Like a really bizarre, freakish one?"

Dr: "Yes, there is a nonzero possibility in the same way there is a nonzero possibility that dragons will quantum tunnel into this room. But no, I do not see anything that supports that diagnosis. Like, nothing."

Me: "But what if it is?"

Dr: "Then we are not messing around with x-rays & I will order an MRI right now if you want. But I don't see any reason to do that."

Me: "So what do we do now?"

Dr: "You take it easy for three weeks, try to CAREFULLY wean yourself off of the crutch, & avoid things that hurt. Whatever doesn't hurt is fine. If it's still this bad in three weeks then we MRI it. But honestly, I think it's just really, really angry with you right now & doesn't trust you not to hurt it again, hence the tightening / spasm-ing."

Which, in the immediate aftermath, had kind of a funny effect. Although I'm a little gun-shy from all the times I've tripped or stumbled or stepped wrong, I stopped using the crutch as soon as I left UCSF & just tried to walk really slowly & carefully. And, funnily enough, I think it did start to relax a little, & some of the little warning pains that I've gotten used to feeling when I step a certain way did disappear.

This makes me wonder if indeed there might be a little bit of a psychosomatic element to this. I wonder if the worst of the pain causes a feedback loop where my body is afraid of the pain => the muscles tense up & spasm when I step wrong => my body becomes even MORE gun-shy => muscles tense up to protect themselves => etc etc. So I'm working on trying to consciously undo as much of that as possible, if indeed it is the case.

Functionally, what you do in response to the worst case (stress fracture) & the best case (white-hot hip/glute über hate) is really the same. But the tiny ray of hope I'm taking from this visit is that perhaps it will only be another two weeks or so until I'm able to run again, rather than the six-to-eight range I'd probably get for a stress fracture. So I'm trying to focus on that.

And...I'm also doing my best not to weep too much over SFM 2nd Half, which I've been looking forward to for months. :-/