Archive for December, 2011

Last I posted, I’d had a wild couple of days thanks to the MRT Holiday Mileage Challenge – 39 miles for Saturday and Sunday.  Not the brightest move, fresh off the heels of injury, but I was being super-diligent about self-massage and foam rolling, etc.

My original intention for this week’s portion of the Challenge was to alternate 15 and 12 per day with 20mi on Sunday: 101mi for the week.  A lot, but by doing most of it in doubles (and slow as I needed to go to remain tweakless), I was confident I’d hold up fine.  So much for plans.

Folks were running some super thick runs so on Monday, what started as a shorter run in the morning, I extended to 16mi and I pulled an 8-miler later that afternoon: 24 miles on Monday.  Crazy crazy.  But fun!

However, that night on the mileage thread, a drama erupted between the lead guy (who was throwing some childish ego crap around) and a couple of us irritated participants, so the next morning, my run sucked.  The entire 15mi I kept thinking about the situation and having imaginary conversations in my head with people that did not deserve to accompany me on my run.  Over 2 hours of negativity.

Add to that, after Monday’s 24mi and the likelihood of me adding a few more miles here and there out of competitive stupidity, I would probably have ended up near 120mi for the week.  (as recap, last 2 weeks were 50mi, 79mi…120mi? Lunacy)

So I quit.  I had company though, a couple online compatriots were also annoyed by the vibe and quit as well.

Today I’m enjoying a day off which, after averaging 19.5mi/day for the past 4 days (104 mi in the last 7 days…a distance PR for me) is a good idea.  Physically, I held up just fine, a little tightness in one of my calves yesterday but it’s gone and I have a massage at 5pm, so that’s cool, too.

Positive Takeways
Despite the drama and silliness of the past 4 days, I came away super pleased with the running part of the experience.  Not just for confirming that I am indeed 100% healthy again but also…

1. Nice to know I can manage a solid amount of miles in a short span.  Not being an Ultra person (this was in no way Ultra-like, btw, doubles and recovery being of major importance) it was cool to go beyond anything I’d done in the past.

2. I was instantly transported back to my old mileage level and then some, so 90mpw from here on in will feel like a cutback.

3. Doubles!  You know I’ve been wanting to do more doubling experimentation and this was the primo opportunity.  One of my concerns for doubling in the winter was getting out on cold early mornings, but it was fine.  The trick is to wake up, have coffee and go.  Also helps to have my running clothes laid out, too.  It’s going to be great having shorter runs along with the medium and long ones instead of all long singles.

So in the end, a few days of a halted Mileage Challenge yielded a good amount of self-discovery that I can use for the next few months.  That’s a win.

Yesterday kicked off the annual MRT Mileage Challenge (MRT = Marathon Race Training forum on RW).  The challenge lasts 10 days, from Dec. 24th to Jan 2nd. The top guys end up with around 200mi, so most of us aren’t in it to win it, but to have some fun and offset holiday gluttony.

Last year, I entered as a non-caring participant, taking 3 days off midstream thanks to a combo of foot ouchie (the precurser to ultimately operating on my shoes), a couple planned rest days and a blizzard, so my results were totally uninspiring, but I didn’t care, it was just fun to be in the game.

This year, I’m workin’ it! Not with an eye to win though, I’m not that suicidal.  But I have ramped up the mileage ahead of schedule, only because I’m 100% and also, I made a deal with myself that if anything starts to hurt, I’m out.  Thus, I’ve left my ego at the door pacewise: however slow I need to go to remain fresh through Jan. 2nd, is what I’ll do.  I’m also being religious with the foam roller and stretching, plus I have a sports massage this Wednesday.

So-oh…this weekend was kind of massive and magnificent in an “Oh yeah, that’s who I am, that’s how I run” way.  On Saturday, I ran 17mi, which I haven’t done since August.  It wasn’t planned, I left the house thinking 10-12mi, but as the miles ticked off, it became inevitable, I had no reason not to.

After the run – both last night and this morning – I was thrilled by how great I felt (surely due to the conservative pace, 8:55 avg).  So today, I was ready to roll again, getting up early enough to manage a double, though I only got 5 hours between runs since getting murdered after dark requires too much recovery time.

The first one was a slow and steady 14mi, but the one I just finished, an 8-miler, was a complete surprise.  You’d think it’d be my most tired one, but blow me down, it averaged 8:18/mi…my best easy run since the injury.

The only negative things from the weekend were:
1. Forgetting I chafe at the top edge of my sports bra (must. remember. Bodyglide)
2. Chafing in places I don’t usually chafe (that was just plain nasty)
3. Improper hydration. I haven’t had to think about that in months but both yesterday and this morning I was thirsty with 4 miles left to go, which sucked.  I actually stared at this one guy swigging from a water bottle, imagining myself asking for a drink.  The only thing holding me back was knowing my face was encrusted in spit and snot.

The “Turn This Baby Up To 11!” Week In Review
I purposely held back on mileage Thurs and Fri to allow for acting stupid for the Challenge and as you can see, I did (with no ill effects, though).  This coming week will definitely be portioned out more sensibly.
Mon: 6
Tues: 8
Wed: 11
Thurs: 8
Friday: 7
Sat: 17
Sun: AM:14, PM:8
Total: 79 mi

And with that…baby, I’m back.

I began this week with a 6-miler on Monday.  Done with rest days from here on in (unless I need one, of course) it was no surprise that following Sunday’s LR,  the infamous leg was barking a bit.

The next morning, I’m in the midst of my usual time suck and see a Facebook update from my local running store that includes a link to Phila Massage with something like “Give yourself a gift of sports massage”.

Now, I must admit, I’m 50 years old and have never had a massage – that wasn’t about sex, that is.  I’m not a Spa-type person at all, I don’t care about being made to relax or lying around with hot rocks on my back or getting dipped in mud or walking around with a white towel turban – it’s really not my thing.

And because I am a dumb-ass a lot of the time, I always assumed a sports massage was that type of luxury item: something you don’t need, makes you feel better for a day but then you’re back to your same-old self a couple days later.

But I check out the website and it hits me that sports massage is in the same bucket as ART, that it’s another form of PT.  Reading further, I see this place is located in a gym downtown (just a 20-minute walk from my apartment so no Zipcar rental or parking hassles), the rates are reasonable and it has nothing to do with doctors or referrals, I can just go. Hmmm…

So I go for my run, an 8-miler, and while it’s dramatically improved from the previous day, I can’t stop thinking about the massage place.  I know full-well I still have soft-tissue adhesions that will continue to bark intermittently until my foam roller, fingers and time eventually work them out. But how long is that gonna take?  One week, two, four? No telling.

Mid-run, I decide “Enough dickin’ around, let’s give it a try”.  The moment I get home, I fill out the online booking form.  This was at 2pm.  By 5pm, I’m on a table getting a massage.

The Massage
It was phenomenal.  The masseur, Brian, is a huggy bear of a guy, sweet as hell and really enthusiastic about his work.   He was also extremely generous with his knowledge; it was like taking a class, I absolutely loved it.  He worked on me for an hour, homed right in on the trouble spots and as a result, yesterday’s planned 9-miler turned into 11.

I’m seriously kicking myself for having eschewed massage prior to this.  Had I done it in September when I felt those first tweaks, I am certain there would never have been an injury in the first place.  Hindsight aside, I’m thrilled to have it in my back pocket now, it’s like a secret weapon for the future.

In the meantime, I booked a 30-min appt for next Wednesday.  I’m sure there’s some final adhesion gunk to work out and I’ll be happy and confident knowing the last of my cooties are gone.

Social Ineptitude
Of course, a new experience like this would not be complete without me doing something embarrassing – this time it was when I paid for the session. I hadn’t thought about tipping, thinking it was like a PT or doctor thing.  But once I got out on the street, it occurred to me that perhaps this is more akin to a hairdresser.

So after wrestling with “do I, don’t I?” for about 10 minutes, I post an emergency update on Facebook asking if I’m supposed to tip and how much.  While I impatiently waited for replies, I see a girl standing there outside (it’s a huge building btw and the gym is just one of many businesses in there) but she looks like she’s wearing fitnessy clothing, so I walk up like a lunatic and ask “Do you know if you’re supposed to tip a sports massage person?”  Without missing a beat she said, “Yeah, it’s like when you go out to eat, so like 15-20%.”  I thank her profusely, run back inside and very apologetically take care of it.  Still, I kicked myself all the way home, I hate screwing up tipping etiquette.

Despite my near-gaffe, yesterday morning Brian sends me a really nice email that includes a 3D model of the body, isolating the muscles he’d worked on, that you can pan around and zoom – really cool.  Conclusion: it was a great experience from beginning to end.

And with that, have a great holiday week, all.  I’ll pop in on Xmas day with my mileage rundown as usual.  In the meantime, enjoy the happy spirit of the season or hide in your basement till it’s over, whichever makes you happiest.  Later, loves!

Friday was the day I went from Injured to Not Injured.  It was the day I pressed Start on the Garmin and braced myself, as I have since the beginning of September, against those initial hurting steps.  But they never came – no twinge, no reminder, it was…odd.  I just ran.  And like that, I knew it was done.  The injury was over.

To give you a frame of reference, this is 4.5 weeks after 4 weeks of no running.  I was naive to assume the time off would leave me totally “fixed” – it fixed the stress reaction but the muscular mess that started 6 weeks prior to that 4-week rest was quite the tenacious beast.

A friend on the forum asked what I’d have done differently and it’s this: if I can’t identify an injury and it’s not better after 3 weeks, I’ll call a doctor or get PT.  For common running injuries, I’ll continue to self-treat as I always have, but there’s only so long you can run through a mystery and expect it to disappear. (disclaimer: 3 weeks is a loose guideline for me alone based upon my injury experiences, not a one-size-fits-all suggestion)

I needn’t explain how monumental it feels to move on.  There was an instant mental change, like a switch turned on in the midst of Friday’s run.  Instead of avoiding all thoughts of training and the future as I’ve had to do, I suddenly began plotting out the coming week, how I could add in a few strides, maybe even some short hill reps on the museum ramps.  Hope and Excitement had returned.

Lastly, there’s an insane amount of relief and release from finally, finally, not having to monitor my leg every waking minute.  No more “does it hurt more or less than before? where does it hurt exactly right now? if I do this will it do that? am I getting better or making it worse?”  I’ve been so sick of living inside that limb, you’ve no idea.

The “Look, I’m A Runner Again!” Week In Review
My paces are still behind but the gap is closing at a reasonable rate.  Mileage-wise, I’ll hit 60 next week and while that doesn’t seem like much compared to my Summer Self, I can appreciate that it’s a solid amount.

Mon: off
Tues: 6
Wed: 7
Thurs: 10
Friday: 6
Sat: 8
Sun: 13
Total: 50 mi

I’m going to hold off on listing paces for each run for a bit longer to avoid any self-inflicted pressure, but I will say my slowest run this week was 9:03, fastest was 8:23.

Star Encounters of the Facebook kind
If you’re a Facebook friend or a 3:20 forum pal, you already saw most of this play out, so you’re allowed to leave the classroom early, but you might enjoy my moment of embarrassing stupidity that I’ve included here.

On Friday after my “I’m Cured!” run, my friend Karah posts on my wall that one of my t-shirt designs, the Chafe one, is on Kara Goucher’s fan page.  This was extremely fabulous news because first off, Kara Goucher!  But also, she has 45,000 fans Liking that page, so mucho exposure.

But when I check out the page and see my design there, my smiley turns into a frowny because there’s no mention of Gifted Runner.  There is, however, a link to the FB page she “shared” it from, Run The Edge, which had posted it earlier in the day. So I added this comment below the update on both pages, “Thank you for posting this! This is my design so check out GiftedRunner.com to see it on shirts and gift items” and included a link to my site.

Now, note that at this point, because I’m not paying attention, I assume Run The Edge is one of those FB pages that post funny running pics for people to repost all over Facebook.  But continuing with the story…

15 minutes after I add my comments/links, I get a very sweet, apologetic Private Message from Adam Goucher himself, telling me he absolutely loves the design and that he’ll repost the image with proper credit and a link to my site.  Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “Hmmm, I guess he manages Kara’s FB page since he’s the one contacting me”.

In my reply, I gush back a tiny bit and include this, “I don’t blame you at all, it’s Run The Edge that should have credited me since you guys just shared their link, not knowing otherwise.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid!  Because immediately after sending it, I go back to the Run The Edge page and realize…it’s the title of Adam Goucher’s new book.  It’s his page!

So now I’m totally mortified that I’ve not only accused him of being at fault but that I blatantly didn’t recognize his book.  So before he can reply, I pop off another message saying “I’m an ass and didn’t realize you ARE Run The Edge.  Please, let me start over…” and I make some joke about it.

He’s such a cool guy, he thought it was really funny, told me I’m not an ass and that they both really like my stuff.  Whew!  And he did re-add the link as promised, which resulted in a bunch of new newsletter sign-ups which means…time to design again.  Between the run and this, it was quite an eventful Friday, all told.

So that’s it for this time.  Have a great beginning to your week, may your runs be gloriously strong, unexpectedly easy and make you feel like a hundred bucks.  Cheers!

I’ve lived here since 2002 and for the most part, I like it a lot.  It’s beautiful, old (Olde), I love my neighborhood but it also has a few annoyances particular to the locale:  Philadelphia has a city tax that eats a shitload of your money (which is why a lot of people live in NJ and commute), the liquor stores are state-run so more expensive (which is why, if you’re smart, you take stealth missions to NJ for booze) and I just found out today, I cannot get an A.R.T session for the same injury without a doctor’s prescription, regardless that I pay completely out of pocket, because I’ve surpassed the 30-day window.

Backtracking a day, yesterday’s run wasn’t awful or painful but it followed a rest day, so I naively expected to be tangibly improved.  Granted, I was tired from a long job and it was windy, but my leg was not magically done and frankly, I’m sick of noticing or thinking about it.  So when I got home, I called the ART lady to finish the thing off.  Appt made for 1pm today.  Cool.

Forward to today, I have a great run: 7 miles, a few around 8:00/mi, feeling the best I have post-injury.  In fact, had this run happened yesterday, I wouldn’t have even made an ART appt.  Still, I’m excited at the prospect because I know that with a little therapeutic mauling, it’ll be over for good.

50 minutes before the appointment, I get a call from the office asking if I’m going in for the original injury.  When I say Yes, she tells me that, due to some stupid law called Direct Access, I can’t have the session without a referral.  Nice.  The therapy place isn’t in my HMO network, and even if it was, doubtful I’d have been able to get it taken care of with less than an hour to the appt.

I’m not freaking out because today’s run was so good, but I’m pissed and disappointed – it takes a lot for me to seek help.   Also, there are very few ART or Graston people in Philly and since I have to rent a Zipcar to deal with it, I’m not going to find someone else.  Hopefully the week will continue to play out well on the heels of today.

Edit: Turns out Direct Access is actually a Federal Law and a bunch of states do this.  They make it a “feature” that they allow you to seek PT without a prescription for 30 days.  Maybe I’m pissed at Pennsylvania a little less now.  Maybe.  Back to hating the damn health system as usual.

Baby’s First Wheels!
I’m old (Olde), and it’s taken me this long to figure out that traveling with a duffel is dumb.  Every time I go anywhere, I look longingly at the other travelers with their handy little wheeled bags while I do the Quasimodo carry.  But at the same token, I always think “how do they fit anything in those?”  After Vegas though, I vowed to get a wheeled bag, no matter the sacrifice to size.

Well blow me down, I found the coolest bag.  It’s roomy, has a lot of variations on how you can pack it, is half hard-case, half duffel (expandable, at that) and lastly, it comes in different colors – easier to spot than black.  It was a little pricey but it’ll last for years, so I figure it’s worth it. First use: San Diego in April.  yay!

Blog Feed
I finally got rid of my original domain name (girl-in-motion.com) but I still have about 90 subscribers still using it in their blog feeds or blog rolls.  If you’ve noticed that the last post in your blog reader (or however you subscribe to this thing) has stopped updating, you’ll want to check that the link is girlinmotion.com (without dashes) to keep getting the latest boring, complaining, whining crap from me.

My leg took a turn for the better this week; I ran 5 consecutive days without deterioration – a major accomplishment.  It’s still not as lithe and free as the right leg, but nearly there.  Fitness is returning as well, but taking its time.

For the most part, I’m positive about the way things are going but still, I miss my Summer self.  I miss fluidity and ease.  I miss confidence.  I miss feeling like a good runner.

No doubt it’ll all come back in due time but at the moment I feel like a clunky farm animal.  Nevertheless, I’m happy to say that after 2 interminable months, it’s time to include this ole thing again…

‘Bout Fucking Time Week In Review
Mon: Vegas – off
Tues: Travel – off
Wed: 6
Thurs: 6
Friday: 9.42 (targeted 9 but got distracted and missed the turn-around)
Sat: 4
Sun: 10
Total: 35.42 mi – paces (per run) averaged 8:54 to 8:28

Note: The week prior was 40mi, but because Sunday’s Half was a big mileage jump for a single run, I played the following days conservatively.  This coming week, however, I’m back on track, so providing my leg stays happy, I’ll hit 48mi. Just wanted to explain that in case you think “35 to 48…Danger! Danger!”

The cow has everything under control.   Moo.