Running Chick

I wrote this on Saturday afternoon, but it took forever for my PT video to upload so I wasn't able to post it until today. So, pretend it's Saturday when you're reading because I'm too lazy to go back & fix it. ktnxbye.

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I was sitting on the couch last night watching The Good Wife (seriously good show, go watch) and popped open my laptop to check Instagram and discovered a lengthy discussion about getting the Team /var/run people together for a Saturday morning run. Nine miles is what Amy suggested.

My leg was feeling pretty good, thanks to a week of The Stick (quads, calves, hamstrings, hips – 3 min. sets each):

The tennis ball (I'd go as long as I could stand it).

And more of the above but replaced with this little torture device (loaned to me by Amy, whose friendship I started to question right after the first use. OUCH.)

And an awful lot of trying to replicate this treatment, which my PT allowed me to take a video of when I saw her a couple of days before the marathon.

I was planning on running on Saturday, but only 5 miles. Anything over that wasn’t even on my radar. But, everybody else was on board and it sounded like a lot of fun, so leg be dammed, I jumped on board, too.

It was in the low 30s when I got up in the morning.  It’s been a while since I’ve run in those temps, so I spent a while scratching my head over which cold-weather gear to go with, and then more time trying to locate it all. Josh was in better shape, since a lot of his cold weather biking gear doubles as his cold weather running gear. Anyway, all gear finally located, we headed out for our 10am meetup at the Suomi Restaurant.

Josh and I arrived first, G and Amy a couple of minutes later. Shortly after that, we were off. Our route took us on a loop through Houghton & Hancock. It was mostly flat, but we did hit a few hills heading up to Daniell Heights and M-203 and some gravel on Navy Street.

I was concerned about the hills and the gravel (extra stress on the tendons), but I never felt more than the occasional twinge. It was awesome, and such a relief. I was starting to really worry that this thing wasn't going to go away for a long time, probably thanks to reading all the worst-case scenarios on the intertubes of people being laid up for six month or longer due to their tendonitis. p.s. it's probably not a good idea to research your injury on the internet.

You know what else is awesome? Chatting with somebody the entire way and completely forgetting to look at your watch every minute. I'm sure the guys were rolling their eyes at some of the things we were gabbing about, but hey, run with girls, talk about girl stuff.

Here's a thing from Garmin that shows our route.

We headed over to the 5th & Elm coffee shop for warm drinks & lunch, before everybody took off to take care of their Saturday errands.

I think we decided that we're going to try to do a group run a couple of times each month, hopefully that works out because this really was the most fun I've had on a Saturday run in a really long time.

Also, here's a fun, yet crazy fact: at no point did I ever really consider those nine miles to be a long run, so I never even took fluid or nutrition. Nine miles not a long run? No fluids or nutrition? What has marathon training done to me?

I haven't been doing much (any, really) running since the marathon.  I spent the first week limping around the office and taking the elevator to the coffee shop one floor up. I sort of felt guilty about that, but then I decided to say screw it. I just ran a marathon, I earned that 3 second elevator ride.

My legs felt fine by the end of the week, and I was just dealing with some moderate, residual tendonitis pain that left me with a minor limp and a slight aversion to the stairs.  I  assumed this would take another week to disappear, so I wasn't too concerned.  It didn't. So I gave it another week.  I'd decided to take two full weeks off after the marathon for recovery & to help Josh finish up some house-related projects, so I was pretty okay with not running during this period.  The runningchunk.com 5k (RC5K) was that following weekend, and I wanted to be able to participate, so I had a lot invested in getting back on the road the third week.

Didn't happen.  There was just too much achiness going on and I just didn't think it was a good idea to get out, even if it was for a very short run. I had a very lengthy internal debate about what to do about the RC5K. Run/walk? Walk? Run? DNS? There was a big group running it this year, we had 18 signed. The first year there were three of us, the second five, so it really hit the big-time this year.

The morning of the race, I woke up to the same old ache in my leg and I knew I wasn't going to have a great run, so that made me grumpy. I almost bailed, but figured I'd never hear the end of it from Josh and my team /var/run teammates and basically everybody at work, so I downed probably more Advil than I should have, threw on some running clothes and Josh and I headed out to mark the course.  I jogged around a bit just to test things out, and it hurt, but I was there, in running clothes and people were starting to show up, so I decided to run and see how long I could hold on.

I somehow ended up in front with the fast ladies from work. I think that was probably because I knew the course and nobody could understand Josh's directions which contained informative gems such as "..go this way..", "..then that way.." "..don't fall in the ravine..", "..sewage lagoon.." and a lot of hand waving.  I hung with the ladies for maybe just under a mile (I remember seeing .90 on my watch and thinking I should probably stop soon), and then peeled off and watched them zoom away.  I walked for a little bit, until the two dudes carrying 30 lb sandbags in rucksacks caught up with me. I ran with them for a while, then dropped back to run with the wife of one of the rucksack dudes who was carrying a 15 lb sandbag in her rucksack.  She was all GAME FACE ON though, so we didn't stick together for long.  At the half-way point, conveniently just before the big climb, I seriously contemplated taking the shortcut to the finish line (the bar) to mark down people's finishing times, but G and the two rucksack dudes were just ahead of me and I decided to try and finish ahead of them.

My leg felt rather decent once I got on the pavement for the campground loop, so I was able to pass the guys and widen the gap a bit.  Woo, racing!  I finished in 33:02, which was slower than my two previous attempts. Oh well. We had a really fun after-party/awards ceremony at the Lakes Lounge/American Legion where I drank one gross Old Style because that was the rule.  Go check out Amy & Josh's recaps, and for pictures and videos.

Josh had to make a minor repair to my car so after lunch, we headed down to my dad's shop to use the lift. I decided to tag along for a visit & to take Zoe for a walk, since she'd been cooped up in her crate all day on a Saturday. I needed to replace the log book in our geocache hidden at the Oskar Cemetery, so we headed down there, taking the bush trails instead of the road.  It was really pleasant back in the woods, with all the colors & smells of fall. Pretty quiet at the cemetery, too.

Unfortunately, walking on the uneven ground of the trail really aggravated my leg, so I ended up slowly limping back home (much to Zoe's annoyance) and downing Advil for the rest of the weekend.

Finally, I decided that it was time to take matters into my own hands, since it really wasn't getting any better leaving it alone. So, for the past several days, I've been really attacking it with my foam roller, tennis ball & massage stick.  I took a video of the manipulations that my PT did when I saw her a couple of days before the marathon, so I've also been doing that.  All these things are quite painful, but I'm starting to see some progress.  My leg doesn't feel quite as stiff as it did last week, and the area which was really tender is getting smaller every day, so that's good news.

Hopefully a few more days of this will do the trick and, assuming I can get to the point where hopping up & down on it doesn't hurt, I'll be able to go for a short run over the weekend.  I really want to run one more race before the end of the year, so my fingers and toes are crossed that this works.

I had x-ray #2 on my foot the other week.

The pain was slowly returning the more I ran, and I was again worried about a stress fracture. Just like last time, the x-ray came back negative.  So, I got a one-way ticket to physical therapy.  After much poking, prodding and consulting, my PT had a hunch that a subluxated cuboid bone was the culprit.  After a couple of sessions where she manipulated it back into place, I’m now back in tip-top running form.  She did warn that it could shift again, so on my last session Josh came along and my PT showed him how to maneuver it back.  Aren’t I a big, fancy runner now to have my own personal PT.  Don’t be jealous.

Speaking of Josh, two weeks into our half marathon training program, he slipped in the parking lot at work and tore some muscles in his thigh & knee.  He’s been hobbling around for a week while his leg heals, but it’s been pretty slow going.  His knee swelled up like a watermelon then turned various shades of red and purple, and he still has tenderness when he bends it.  I’ve been continuing on with the program on my own and hopefully he’ll be back on track soon.

Speaking of running, check me out in my new high-visibility gear.

Ever since this happened, I’ve been paranoid about not being visible enough to traffic. Seriously paranoid. So I went out and bought the most obnoxious jacket and hat I could find. People would have to be blind not to see me now.  At least that’s my hope.

The students are in full-on statue building mode getting ready for Winter Carnival.  This log cabin was looking pretty good on two weeks ago, I’ll have to run though campus and see what it looks like this week.

Back to running. I’m currently on week 4 of my program. My long run last weekend was 5 miles, this week is a cut back week, and then starts the big climb into March.  My longest run for this program will be 14 miles and I’m already worried about it, especially since I just found out that I’m scheduled to be at a conference in Indianapolis that weekend. I’d better start doing some schedule flopping around or face doing all those miles on the treadmill. No Thank You.

In other news, Scout & Pippen have been training for the Olympics by practicing their synchronized eating.