Taking My Time

"If you ask me today what I truly love, I can easily tell you I love God, my family, my friends, fireworks displays, a good red wine, staying up late with a mystery novel, a sweaty run, painting abstract art, indulging my organizational compulsions, laughing until no sound comes out and taking my time." Kristin Armstrong in Glamor 2006

Every since I read this quote in April 2006, coincidentally the year of my first Boston, I have always loved it. While I don't paint abstract art, and prefer the classics, chick lit, and non-fiction to mysteries I think Kristin and I would click (as I sit her with a glass of red wine after a long sweaty run this morning). I love reading her blog on runner's world each week. Her ability to put life into big picture perspective is refreshing.

Taking my time is a lesson I have to take to heart if I am going to survive this marathon season. Because the muscles around my knee remain a bit sore and my right ankle is tight and intermittently painful, my run this morning was my first since last Saturday. The DFMC schedule called for 18-20. I had hoped to make the 18 or even 16 but as soon as I started running I knew that was not in the cards as I was nearly limping with my ankle. Thankfully by the first waterstop at mile 3, Marcy declared she was going to do a 14 mile run:walk with a 4:1 interval and asked if I wanted to join. While I've certainly run:walk before, I've never done so with any structure so this was a first. I think without implementing this strategy today, I would not have made it 14 miles so I'm grateful to Marcy for coming up with the idea and inviting me along for the run. While the run-walk method did certainly slow us down, about 11 min miles instead of our usual 10 min miles, we had a decent workout. The uphills were almost always on the run portions of the intervals with the walk part on the flats or downhills. When we did run, I think we did so a little faster for at least half the intervals than we would otherwise have run. And the biggest bonus of all, my legs are nowhere near as sore now as they are after typical long runs.

Running allows me to take my time, not just on days when I run a bit slower like today. It is easy to get caught up in the daily grind, and the time commitment of training for a marathon certainly adds to that grind. Yet, while on a long run I can take my time to appreciate the people and experiences that are most important in my life. I can take time to grieve the loss of my brother while pounding the pavement and breathing hard. I can learn from those who have faced similar losses by taking the time to listen to their experiences in losing a close loved one and how they have coped. The bad moments,those when the grief overwhelms you "come when they come" a teammate shared, they know no calendar. The days you think will be bad like birthdays, anniversaries, or other special events can sometimes pass without serious sorrow, and then on a random Saturday you can find yourself bursting into tears as you meet with a florist to pick out flowers for your wedding as I did yesterday.

Following the group run, I came home showered and went to visit my nieces. I was treated to Mackenzie's rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance which immediately segued into her signing Grand Old Flag, complete with hand signals, marching, and big smiles. Taking my time is a nice change of pace.

Crankles

Physical therapy has been beneficial in treating my knees, but sadly my ankles are now starting to go . . .especially the right one. They've been cracking here and there in an annoying but not debilitating way for the last week or so. At the start of last weeks Crossroads run, both were a little creakier than usual and after a few strides, the right one gave out. I thought it had something to do with the uneven sidewalk and the bit of ice on the roads and my general clumsiness since after I warmed up both felt OK for the 6.4 mile trip out to Cleveland Circle and back. However, Friday I awoke to a right stiff ankle that I nicknamed my "crankle" (far better to have crankles than cankles). I limped a bit throughout the day but by evening it seemed OK again. When I got up for Saturdays long run it was little stiff but no limping. Despite the lack of limp I decided not to make the trek to Lexington and do my long run from home later in the day where I could always call Dave to come get me if there were any major twangs. Thankfully I didn't need a ride, but unfortunately I turned around after only 3.15 of my 7.5 mile out and back and hit only 6.3 instead of the 15 miles planned.

Without a long run in for the weekend, I tackled the Arc Trainer for 2 hrs on Sunday. That is a wretched machine when you have to be on it for that long. For 15 miles I should have put in 2-1/2 hours but I couldn't bear it. I entertained myself watching the Olympics. . but biathlon certainly isn't the most riveting TV.

Yesterday I seemed to be a bit better and I thought perhaps I might make speedwork tonight. I emailed my RSVP this morning to get on the security checklist as I seemed pain free walking around the office. However, a few hops at on the offending crankle at the end of the day made me realize running tonight was not the brightest idea and I decided to go home. Otherwise I would be warming up with the team now getting ready for 8-10 hellish 800 meter repeats. As nasty as that workout sounds I wish I was able to do it.

Hopefully with this rest and some more ice, I'll be back in action for this weekend's 18-20 miler and then back in action at the oval next week.

Thanks to this week's donors: S&F Concrete, The Crowell Family, and Paul Elson. Fundraising total now at $4,061. On the plus side of having crankles, I was able to stuff more envelopes with fundraising letters yesterday, so I hope the donation pace will pick back up in the coming weeks with my running pace.

Tiny Ovals

It's been a frustrating couple of days and I'm looking forward to running in small circles tonight during speedwork. I'm sure when my quads are burning tomorrow I'll think differently about the experience.

Thankfully, I can lift my arms this morning after Vic's pull up / push-up torture last night. I'm sure the smaller degree of soreness is not due to my new found strength but rather the super-sized sissy box for the push ups (the small and medium sized sissy boxes were not sissy enough for this girl). I also had no weight on my back during the push-ups. In contrast, my classmates had 15% of their body weight on their back and no-sissy box . . poor bastards! I also was taught a super sissy pull-up modification. I thought I was doing OK with the regular pull-up using the straps but apparently not so. My arms are still a little sore today, so clearly the sissy modifications still allowed me to get a good workout in which after all is what I paid for so I can't complain. . .and being able to get dressed pain free is an added bonus this week :-)

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

If there is a one word summary of what I've learned about running a marathon this training season it is the need for respect. Respect for the distance and respect for your body. So it follows that this year, I maybe over did it a bit in training thus far and have found myself with several aches and pains that now need dedicated focus and attention. Nothing I think can't be overcome, just a new challenge to tackle head on.

There were no posts about the past two weeks crossroads runs, or a long run last weekend because I didn't run them. My knees flared up after the 16 miler and I decided it was time to take action. I saw a sports ortho a week and a half ago . . .no structural damage, just referral to Physical therapy for evaluation and treatment. The PT discovered my left Achilles is curved more than my right and perphaps this is why I'm having more problems with my left leg. Both of my knees seem to be suffering from strain on the pes anserine area which is at the inside of the knee. Pes anserine means "duck's foot" because the three muscles (sartorius, gracilis, and semitendinosus) look like a ducks foot when the cross the inside of the knee and insert at the top of the shin bone. While this medical gargon is all well and good, I think it is just extra reinforcement that I'm a little daffy. Which, to those of you who know me well, is not news. Both the ortho and the PT said I'm OK to continue training, with continued PT and some at home exercises.

With all of the R-E-S-P-E-C-T I could muster singing like Aretha I took action, I signed up for a weekly strength and conditioning class. I know muscle weakness is the primary reason for my my running aches and pains, so I'll be toughening up with a group that includes that DFMC teammates Brenda, Jeff, and Noah for the next 6 weeks. Our leader is Brenda and Noah's coach Vic Brown. Since the DFMC teammates in the class are injury free this season, I hope I'm onto something! The class started a few weeks back so I jumped in as they were progressing some of their strength training (push ups with extra weight on your back . . .and the first time pull-ups were introduced). Needless to say the workout beat me up pretty bad . . .I think it was Friday before I was able to change the clothes on my upper body without pain or limited range of motion.

Tuesday night, while my legs were still recovering from Monday night strength, I attended the first speed workout at Tufts. I showed up after my first PT appointment and I was styling with Kinesio taped knees which look like gigantic band aids (Shifter commented at yesterday's group run that he'd thought I'd skinned both my knees when I told him the tape was for PT). 12-16 400m repeats with 200 m recovery laps at 10K pace were on the agenda. I think I did all of my repeats at closer to 5K or even 1 mile pace, but I was able to run them all in a consistent range of 1:55 - 2:02. If my pace was a 1 mile pace, the pace calculators project me at a 4:28 marathon. If it was a pace I could maintain over 5K, those speed splits would translate to a 4:00 marathon. I'd be in heaven with either of those! The real test will be at the end of the month at the Hyannis Half Marathon. I'd like to be able to run that in 2hrs flat or less. With the pace calculator, that translates to a 4:15 marathon . . .right in the middle of those predictors. I have run a 13.1 training run at 2:10 so I think this is doable.

My knees held up well during the workout and all day Wednesday. I started to get sore on Thursday after I removed the Kinesio tape so I took a second week off from Crossroads. Had some ultra sound, ice massage, and more Kinesio tape at PT on Friday morning and my pain was again managed for the Saturday group run. I only ran 12, achilles and calves were really tight. I think my worst long run to date, even worse because I started to get the visual aura that preceeds a migraine during the last two miles. But, we can't have great workouts every week, so I'm glad to work the bugs out on training runs versus race day.

On the fundraising front, $100 more in the bank from Optimum Building Systems for a grand total of $3,750. Hoping to have $1,250 more in the back by the next team meeting . . .my 2008 5K gloves have seen better days and I'd love to earn a new pair :-)