A Passion for Running

I’m being proactive and have an appointment with ex-Edmonton Oiler Dr. Randy Gregg – a doctor specializing in sports related injuries.

But that appointment is next Wednesday so, to try and learn something while I wait, I decided to pester the doctor that sits beside me at work (he’s officially retired from practice). The other day when I approached him, he thought my injury might be a stress fracture. But now he thinks it is more than likely some very severe tendonitis and, get this, he also thinks it may even be a mild case of …gout. Strange as that diagnosis may be, I have many of the symptoms of gout and I have read that runners have been known (albeit rarely) to get gout as an extreme reaction to dehydration and the stresses of going long or hard. Strange huh?

Whatever I have, it still hurts like a S.O.B. and will prevent me from running for …however long it prevents me from running.

Anyway, the Doc says I need to up my dosages of anti-inflamatories and seems to think I may not have to stop running entirely. He says that if it’s tendonitis or gout, I will likely be able to resume running in a few days but that I will probably have to slowly increase my mileage to previous levels.

All this is speculation until at least next Wednesday when I see Dr. Gregg. Still, there is some hope in this latest bit of information.

Thanks to those of you who commented on my post yesterday about my injury. I appreciate your support.

Some of you suggested or inquired whether my injury might have been caused by the Pose Method, my minimalist shoes or out of a need for greater support in the form of orthodics. In addition, I’m sure many of you might be wondering if the high mileage caused my injury. Here are my reactions to these thoughts:

1. The Pose Method is not to blame. The Pose Method is what allows me to run as lightly as I do and, not to brag too much, but I’m pretty damn light on my feet.
2. The shoes are not to blame and I don’t believe in orthodics (for myself, anyway). My approach (which has not wavered) is to strengthen my body instead of depending on supportive shoes or orthodics. Even given my foot’s current state of affairs, my opinion is that the approach is working – my feet are immensely stronger than in the past.
3. Do I think the volume I’ve been running caused the injury? The short answer is “yes”. However, I’d like to qualify that statement if that’s alright with you. Not many people on this planet could just jump into the mileage I’ve been running. No matter how lightly you run, you can’t one day just say to yourself, “I’m going to run 70 miles this week” and then do it without getting hurt. The plan I’ve been following was a very gradual one that took several months and got me to 65/70 MPW in the last month or so. That said, all those miles have been on snow covered paths and sidewalks. It’s been only the past two weeks since the snow has melted away so, essentially, on pavement I went from 0 MPW to 70 miles in less than ten days. My body simply wasn’t ready to go from 0 to 70 on that harder surface. I probably should have recognized the danger but I didn’t.

That’s my thinking on the matter but you are of course free to formulate your own opinion!

It’s more than a bit ironic that, at a moment in time where I find myself in the best shape of my life, I also find myself …injured.

I do believe I’ve acquired a stress fracture in my right foot. To be precise, in the area around my right foot’s first metatarsal.

I first noticed a bit of pain there on Sunday. It got worse during yesterday’s long run and it was rather painful when I woke up this morning.

This ain’t no little niggley – it’s a full blown injury less than two months from my first scheduled marathon but, oddly, I am not depressed or even overly upset about the setback. In fact, I am fairly relaxed and calm about it.

“Yes”, I understand that I won’t be running for probably two weeks at minimum. And “yes”, I also understand that the race I’ve worked so hard to get to may be in jeopardy but …BUT, I still feel an inner peace and confidence I’ve never had in my running prior to this winter. The question is, what is the source of this peace and confidence?

The first thing that comes to mind is that all my eggs are not in one basket – I never viewed May 20th as my only opportunity to race.

Second, I’m calm because I’ve had almost three years since my last injury to learn how to be calm and I know that “this too shall pass”.

Third, I’ve got Andrew in my corner. I’m constantly amazed at how the coach takes these things in stride. This injury is certainly “bad news” to him but certainly not insurmountable bad news. In fact, my hope was lifted even higher this morning after reading his assessment that the rest I am now forced to take brings with it some serious upside. And he speaks from experience having had this injury a few times himself.

Fourth, I didn’t get injured making a “stupid mistake” (my current motto is “not to make any stupid mistakes”) so I can live with myself. This injury is a result of not foreseeing the adaptation my body would need to re-acquaint itself with running on bare pavement (versus snow covered pavement). In hindsight, I would have liked to reduce my mileage a bit. However, lacking the experience I now have, I was unable to see the situation coming. So be it – I’ll know better next spring.

Fifth, this’ll heal.

Sixth, I still believe in what I’m doing. I believe in the Pose Method and I believe in the Lydiard mileage I’ve been building up to because – injury aside – I’ve never been as strong as I am now. One injury does not make or break a runner.

Seventh, as Andrew has reminded me, the training I’ve done is not wasted. I’d have to be off running a long time to lose the level of base fitness I now have.

So, here I am coming off one of the best 20 milers of my life, more fit than I’ve ever been, 16 pounds lighter, ready, confident and smiling about whatever will come next.

After all, what have I really lost? A bit of time? A bit of time to accomplish a long-term goal? BAH!

And what have I gained? Fitness, a sense of purpose and of being able to accomplish things I did not think possible before. Oh, and one more lesson added to the many others life has offered up. That’s what.

This is life!

After last Monday’s meltdown I was nervous about today’s 20 miler. I’m pretty sure last Monday sucked because it was my first long run since October that was on snow-free pavement. You wouldn’t think there would be that much of a difference but I could sense a very big one as I passed over the last hundred feet of snow covered path on my route home today. Snow – even hard packed snow is much softer than pavement, and I went from long runs where most of my route was snow covered, to long runs where pretty much all the the route was clear in only about 10 days. In other words, I started my first 20 miler with virtually no experience running on pavement this season and the added stress kicked the hell out of me.

I ended up taking two days off running following that long run. I don’t think I’ve taken two days off in a row since November but I sure did need it last week.

After that, I gingerly made my way back onto the fresh pavement with a strong focus on lightness and high cadence. It seemed to pay off since yesterday’s run felt good and today’s long run went well. Details:

Time: 3:04:30
Distance: 19.94 miles
Pace: 9:15 min/mile

I ran this run a bit slower than I wanted to (9:00 minute/mile or better). However, given I needed it to be a confidence builder, I’m fine with the pace. Andrew’s instructions were to run the second half faster than the first and I was successful with those instructions running the first half (I think) at about 9:30 min/mile and the second half at about 9:00 min/mile

Have I mentioned I also ate better today than I did last week?

The slower pace, week of adaptation to pavement and better fueling all paid off since I didn’t feel really fatigued until 2:50 in the run. Good stuff.

Next week with two weeks under my belt I’ll do the long run a bit faster. Plus, I’m anticipating some further stresses for the run courtesy the Coach who has said, “Come race day, we won’t be doing anything we haven’t done in training”.

For phase two of my training, Andrew’s got me doing two new things. On Sundays, I’m doing a 9ish mile run that includes a three mile warmup, three mile tempo and three mile cool down (the warmup and cooldown sections of this run will eventually be run at marathon pace). On Wednesdays and Fridays I do hills.

Here are the results from yesterday’s run:

Time: 74:30
Distance: 9.54
Pace: 7:48 minutes per mile

I’m really happy with this effort firstly because I am certain I ran the tempo section in under 7:30 pace feeling extremely relaxed. Secondly, because it was a tough run into a lot of wind.

In other news, today’s my second 20 miler (in the last three years) and I’m hoping I don’t have quite the train wreck I had last week. Wish me luck!

I’ve had a bit of an up and down week since Monday’s 20 miler (the depletion really did a number on me) but I’m almost back to normal now and looking forward to starting the hill phase.

I’m very appreciative to have Andrew guiding me on this journey. He’s always full of level-headed, rational, supportive, balanced advice and information.

In other words, he’s been a great coach!

Hi Juls. Here is something soothing to listen to and something to look at. Take care of yourself Juls and just ask if you need anything because I know people would be happy to help.

(click on the pic to enlarge it)

Have you ever had a run that you felt defined you as a runner? A run where your felt back was made or broken?

I had such a run today.

Coach’s instructions were to take it slow and enjoy myself. Slow and easy certainly was how I started today’s run. In fact, I’d characterize it as being squarely in my recovery zone. Breathing was easy, the legs moved effortlessly and everything felt beautiful …until the two hour point.

At two hours, things started to feel heavy and very quickly went downhill from there. Breathing was still excellent but the legs just got heavier and heavier and heavier. And I still had an hour to go!

It was a replay of last week’s long run only this time, I’d started out much slower. I was stymied for an answer. The best I’ve been able to come up with so far is that either:

1. I was feeling the effects from Saturday’s speedy “easy” run, or
2. I was wrong about having adapted to running on 100% pavement (as I mentioned in today’s previous post)

Whatever the case, the run was horrible. I had been running slowly for two hours and had not been rewarded in the least by the “Running Gods” for doing so. ARGH!

What could I do? “BATTLE IT OUT!” came the answer. And then I remembered something I read Thomas does when he’s feeling crappy – he pushes the pace faster. So, I tried it thinking “Well, I am pretty sure it can’t make me feel any worse”.

The gamble paid off. Running faster (I’d say by about 30 seconds a mile) helped. I did not really feel better but at least I felt like my legs were in some sort of groove.

The pain, and the mental game that goes along with it continued for the rest of the run. By the time I was at 2:45, I was comparing the pain to mile 21 of a marathon. Yes, it was that bad.

And then the defining moment. I was listening to my inner voice crying about the pain when, suddenly, something snapped. Something good snapped. And in that snappy little moment, I remembered a phrase and made up a few of my own. Here’s a sampling of my inner dialog at about mile 18:

We train for this.
We train for this!
We TRAIN for THIS!
*#$%*%(%)#!!!!!!
I’m a mile eatin’ monster.
*#$%*%(%)#!!!!!!
I’m a mile eatin’ MONSTER!
I’M A MILE EATIN’ MONSTER!!!

And that was that. I got so mad at the pain I’d been carrying around that I stubbornly yelled out loud at it. I swore a blue streak into the Canadian cold that would have frightened a Polar bear into the water.

And then I did the hardest thing I do on my long runs – I passed by my house knowing I still had 15 minutes of running to do. And then you know what I did? I promised myself to go beyond the three hour mark by at least a minute just to kick that pain squarely in the ass and show it who the boss was.

I won. And, no matter how hard they are, the rest of these will be a mental cake walk.

Time: 3 hours + TWO minutes
Distance: 20.1 miles (yeah, you better believe I’m happy about going past twenty miles)
Pace: 9:03 minutes per mile
Average Heart Rate: I have no idea (although I’m guessing about 158)

This winter has been brutal. There’s just been so much cold and snow – the latter being the much bigger challenge. It’s only been during the last couple of weeks that winter has begun releasing its grip. But, even in these past fourteen or so days, running has been difficult because of all the slush and ice I’ve had to contend with. Last week I wrenched my neck trying not to fall on some ice, and this Saturday I got a very nasty raspberry on my knee when I actually did fall. Ouch.

And it seems I am not done whining because, as the snow and ice have given way to clear pavement, I’ve been surprised that even running on “good footing” has presented me with a bit of a challenge. It seems that pavement is harder than snow and ice (aside: the colder it gets, the harder the pavement and soles of your shoes get).

You may snicker but going from 70 miles a week on snow to 70 miles a week on pavement was not a 5-second transition – it took me most of last week to adapt. The solution: To intensify my focus on a quick foot-pull and high stride rate.

The Good News: I’m back to feeling light on my feet with no aches, pains or signs of pronounced fatigue.

The Better News: Even though it’s hanging on as long as it can, winter is about to lose the battle I’ve been waging against it.

The Best News: Winter didn’t kill me – in fact, slogging through all that snow has made me stronger.

I’m ready for hills.

One hour nice and slow (really slow) today. Feeling great. Coach said to run the long run tomorrow slowly. I’m looking forward to that.