Endgame?

Well, this might be it. During an interval run last night I took a bad step on a downhill, and there was a shooting pain in my knee. I couldn't run. Bending my knee was difficult, but I was able to limp the two miles home, and the acute pain dulled.

This morning, while sitting in a work training, I moved my knee in some way it didn't like, and my knee locked up with a shooting pain that made me feel like I was going to throw up. Which would have been bad, because there was no way I could have run out of the room.

Anyway, I didn't vomit, but I did treat myself gingerly the rest of the day and make an appointment for physical therapy as soon as I could. I'm going next Wednesday. I won't run until then (okay.... maybe I will attempt a light jog, listening to my body).

In the meantime I am trying to reconcile myself to the idea that I might not be able to run this marathon. I am unused to failing at things I put my mind and effort to, so this is extremely displeasing. I am thinking that with rest there is a hope I'll still be able to, and if not I might be able to switch to the half-marathon, because I am fairly confident I'll be able to run that distance with some healing.

On the plus side, I did about 11 miles on Saturday and it was a great, relatively pain-free run. I didn't run with my group, but instead went out at my own pace on my own route later in the afternoon. It was a beautiful day. Here is a picture.

The Long Run

After feeling some despondence the past couple of week that I can actually run this marathon, today's run has me feeling much more optimistic.

I did 17 miles today, and I had told myself if I made it through 17, I would feel like I could make it through the whole 26--even though that's 9 miles shy of the ultimate goal.

This is the loneliest race I've trained for. The long runs are long, and you're on your own. But more than that, what I've realized is that for this training, I can't think about anyone else. What my body can do running this far, and what someone else's body can do are incomparable, so worrying about anyone else is irrelevant. I have had to throw out my expectations of how my body works, and what it can do. The marathon is a different beast, and you get into strange and-- for me-- uncharted waters when you push past that halfway point.

Haruki Murakami wrote in his memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: "In long distance running, the only opponent you have to beat is yourself, the way you used to be."

That's more true for this distance than any other, I think.

As for the run today, it was long and grueling, but Seattle in Spring is a delight, and at various points cherry blossoms showered down from the trees and carpeted that paths.



I started out strong, with my knees aching some on the uphill, but I ordered myself not to think of anything below my waist, and instead to focus on my core, and my music, and the rest of my body. That trick worked well. I kept a solid 10 minute pace for the first 7 miles, and the dropped to 11:00 through mile 11. By the time I hit mile 13-15, my pace dropped to closer to a 14:00 pace--but I was also going uphill the whole time. I finished at a faster pace, but not too much.

I did four things over the past few days that helped with this run:

1) Worked on my core and stretched a lot
2) Had a good, large, carb-heavy meal the night before
3) Iced my knees last night
4) Took aspirin this morning before I ran

One thing I hadn't really thought about too much is the amount of calories I'm burning. My run-tracker estimates I burned over 2400 calories on this run. Of course I'm going to be burning a lot, but it hadn't really occurred to me just how much. I'm already a pretty indifferent eater, so I'm realizing I need to start paying more attention to making sure I'm getting enough calories.

Fortunately, sugar is apparently just fine for long runs, so I'm mostly planning to make up those extra calories with desert.

The Bees Knees

Did I miss posting for the entire month of April? Oops. I have been running, I just haven't been getting the chance to post. However, the race is in exactly one month so I'm going to try to get back on this.

I've been running regularly with my running group, and the long runs have been getting, well... long.

Unfortunately, my knees are not keeping up with me. I have never had knee problems before, but about three weeks ago I noticed a tweak in my right knee. It felt small, but it started nagging and started really bothering me when the runs increased over 13 miles. Two weeks ago, I had to bail at 14 miles of a 16 mile run and call for a ride home.

Last week, I did 14 miles. My knees ached but I could run through it. It was a terrible run, though--I just felt slow. And tired. Towards the end, I literally felt like crying. Were it not for my utter aversion to crying in public, I probably would have. For a few minutes I let my breathing sort of shudder like I was about to, and that released some adrenaline which made me feel better, but I would have felt best just bawling. I'm not much of a crier except under fairly intense stress, but I was feeling really frustrated with how much my knees hurt and were slowing me down.

Last night we had an interval runs and running hard up hills was killing me. When I slowed it to a jog it felt a lot better, so I'm going to take the 17 miles this weekend pretty slowly.

I did go to the doctor for my knees, but I have been less than religious about my stretching. However, I think I need strengthening exercises as well, so I asked for a referral to a physical therapist. I hate being injured, but I love PT.

In the meantime, I am going to do my stretches, work on my core--and take Tyelenol before my runs to help with inflammation.

I heart 10ks

The last two weeks have been insane. Work has been stressful and busy, and I had two miss two group runs due to work and school obligations. I ran solo to make up for them, but that's not as fun.

However, this last Saturday I missed the group long run for a much more enjoyable reason: a race. I haven't run a race since I ran the half of the Seattle Marathon in November, and I haven't run a 10k since August, so I was pretty stoked for the Can Do 5k/10k.

A little history. I started seriously road running (and by that I mean training for races) in January 2010. Previously, I had mostly worked out at the gym, because I was convinced that road running would send my back into spasms because it had happened before. But for some reason I decided to give it another go, and I ran my first 5k in mid-February.

The 2010 Can Do 10k, in March, was the first 10k I ever ran. It was probably one of the most exhilarating physical experiences I've had in my life. It had been barely three months since I had set this goal to run a 5k, and then I set this goal to run a 10k, and I did. Not only did I do it, but I placed 6th out of 115 with a time of 49:07. At that point, 6.2 miles still seemed like a long way, and I had run it way faster than I could have imagined I was capable of when I started training just a few months prior.

So I signed up again, because it had been such a good experience last year, and it's a small race, and a cheap race, and they have good t-shirts. This year, I had some frustrations. I actually missed the starting gun of the race because I was in line for the bathroom, so I got off about 45 seconds late. Fortunately chip timing renders your start time moot, and the late start spurred me to run the first mile in 7:00 flat. By the third mile, my field position was probably about the same as it would have been had I started on time.

The course this year was a little bit odd, with a lot of twisting and turning through business park parking lots (although they got rid of the dog leg right at the end of the race, thankfully. It's such a tease to see the finish line, then have to run past it and double back). At mile 5, the insole of my shoe slipped and started irritating my foot. I tried to run through it, but it was affecting my stride so I had to stop and fix it, losing probably 15 seconds. Then, as I crossed the finish line, they only had the clock up for the 5k race, so I had to rely on my watch for my time. Not a big deal, but it's fun to see your time as you cross the finish line.

In the end, I placed 5th out of 97, with a time of 48:10, almost a minute faster than last year despite shoe issues. Also, this year my name will stay up on the results website, because the leaderboards list the top 5 finishers. Because in the end, vanity is a huge motivator for me.

It's For Reals On

My marathon training program has officially started. We did a short run last Wednesday, which was a breeze. I felt energized and ready to run more. I wasn't able to make the long run on Saturday due to a class (nor am I able to make the training Wednesday due to parent/teacher conferences... life gets in the way of everything), but I went out on my own for about 9 miles on Sunday. It was pretty tough going: I hovered around a 9:00 min/mile pace and felt sluggish, though an energy gel around mile 7 helped. There was a good deal of elevation change as well, which I can tell partly because the computer tells me so, but mostly because my calves are killing me today. But that's kind of nice; it means I'm actually getting stronger, rather than just plateauing.

I have not done a pilates work out again. This is not ideal, but my schedule this week is so hectic that I doubt I'll be able to fit one in. I am, however, looking forward to going skiing as my cross-training activity this Sunday, weather permitting.

Back to Basics

I am making a quick post to publicly make the commitment to do pilates once a week throughout this training. I tweaked my hip on my run on Tuesday (it was cold and pouring and I didn't really warm up), so I went back to basics with that pilates DVD I've had for a million years. I went through the fundamentals and really took my time with the beginner exercises. My core is noticeably weak, and that contributes hugely to my back problems, which I don't want to be dealing with as I increase my mileage.

The good news is that my back feels fantastic today.

In other news, my marathon training with Fleet Feet starts on Wednesday, and I'm looking forward to that.

Yelling Ouch at the Sky

Well I've never run in hail before. That was painful. On my face. But also beautiful. See, here's a picture:



I did a loop around Lake Union, a little shy of 6.5 miles. Nothing too earth-shaking, but I actually dressed right for the weather, so the run wasn't unpleasant despite the stinging hail.

But seriously, Nicholas, it's time to get down to business here. I am resolved to run at least two times a week, and really I need to go three times. I signed up for a marathon training program through Fleet Feet, a local running store I have a fondness for. I've been attending their group runs off and on since this summer and I figured they'd be a big help with structure and motivation. The program starts March 9 with sessions on Wednesday and Saturdays, which makes it a little hard for me to squeeze in a 3rd run, since Mondays are terrible and any other day has me going twice in a row, which is fine but not ideal. We'll see how the program shakes out. I'm going to need to tweak it a little bit, anyway, since it's timed for the Rock and Roll Marathon, which is 3 weeks after the North Olympic Discovery that we're running.

I put together a training calendar based on a 3x weekly schedule. I can't use that exactly, but I'm going to try to post it soon to give you an idea what it looks like.