My Current State
Even with the exhaustion weirdness, I am loving the way things are going.  My legs have been carrying me with only a few minor and fleeting complaints, nothing lasting more than a day or two.  And while I jot down a loose mileage schedule, more often than not I’ve been getting to the turnaround mark thinking “This feels good, I’ll keep going”.  That’s why the increase has felt so comfortable, it’s been a pretty organic process.

I do, however, have this ridiculous negative mental remnant concerning the size of my runs and my resistance to doubles, that I’m doing something wrong/bad.  But my legs feel strong (haven’t been stretching or foam-rolling) so there’s no reason to think I’m going to get injured, in fact, it seems like this consistency would have the opposite effect.

I guess it’s my good-girl guilt for eschewing training methodology’s “best practices” and letting what I see in my log – a bunch of 12s and 14s – influence me.  I suppose I’ve only to look upon Ed Whitlock’s training (2-3 hours/day of .3 mile loops in a cemetery at a “plodding” pace) or Yoshihisa Hosaka’s quality-filled 20mi/day, every day, to be reminded that people do take different routes to this running thing and that being older does not equal fragile.

Last Week’s Running (featuring a body in the river)
Monday was the sludgiest of the week.  I wore my heart rate strap to see if it my heart was being affected by this weirdness and yep, it was.

Tuesday, I ran a little after 11am and at one point, saw tons of policeman on the other side of the  river.  I also passed a guy with a  long lens camera taking photos and helicopters were flying overhead.  It totally slipped my mind till later that day when my friend Steph texted me to say they’d found a body floating in the Schuylkill.  I guess I was there about an hour after she was discovered.  Here’s the story, extremely tragic circumstances.  So now in my beautiful park, I’ve seen a dead man hanging from a tree and the aftermath of pulling out a decomposed body.  That’s a rather high ratio of death within a half-mile of each other, don’t you think?

Wednesday, I thought I might manage 14mi but when I got to the 6mi mark, reconsidered and turned around.  Wasn’t feeling 100% yet and didn’t want to chance an Ugh.

Thursday was such a tired day from the get-go.  I tried to nap but couldn’t, went to a voiceover job, did errands, was truly exhausted once home so I expected my run to be on par with Monday’s trudgery.  But no!  Once I hit the road (at 4:30, unusually late for me) I got an unexpected energy infusion and ran a handy 14-miler feeling like my old self again.  Whew, finally.

Friday was a planned 10, but with rain and thunder lurking in the forecast for the next couple days I took advantage of the dry sky, extending it to 12.  I wore my HR monitor hoping to see a more normal result and was pleased to find it in the proper ballpark again.

Saturday was an easy 10, what I consider a recovery run.  Even though I don’t have any hard workouts to recover from, I’m mindful of being chill when I need to (like after 2 “feel like my old self” runs preceded by a week of feeling like shit).

Today was a salty 16-miler, 83 degrees out but I held up well.  I started quite stupidly, going out too fast the first 4 miles (8:15-7:37? idiot).  Realizing I would pay for this later, I calmed down a ton, which is good because it was frickin’ hot. I think the energy was due to the previous night’s pigout with Fran.  We had fried calamari, pasta w/pesto cream sauce, pizza, several alcoholic beverages and tons of candy when we got home (which we decided must never happen again…it was Intervention-worthy).  I didn’t eat anything all day and ran at 3pm.  I’m still full.

Monday: 9@8:43 (HRR 65% 146)
Tuesday: 12@8:32
Wednesday: 12@8:20
Thursday: 14@8:06
Friday: 12@8:11 (HRR 68% 149…more like it)
Saturday: 10@8:21
Sunday: 16@ 8:16
Total: 85 mi (avg pace 8:20)

Iron Talk
Whatever ailed me lasted a week.  I’m not sure if it was a slight iron deficiency but suspect it was due to the timing, so I’ve been eating lots of beef and taking iron twice a day (with vitamin C for absorption) plus a multi-vitamin.

The interesting annoying thing about beef, btw, is that a 4oz burger only has about 20% of the RDA…not very much!  Same with spinach; eat a whole bag and it still won’t cover your daily requirement.  So while I plan to eat beef 2-3 times a week from here on in, I’ll also keep taking one Iron cap & Vitamin C before bed because you can’t take it with caffeine or with calcium or… Pain in the ass mineral, is iron.

I should mention that from past ferritin tests (taken when I was doing less mileage), I know I’m not in danger of iron overload.  Iron is something you have to be careful taking unsupervised (you shouldn’t) because it can be toxic so don’t you kids go taking iron willy-nilly.   End of public service announcement.  Though I did enjoy writing “willy-nilly”.

I’m still on fish oil (probably forever) but stopped taking glucosamine and msm about 3 weeks ago with no fallout.  I had a short bout of knee pain from jumping over deep puddles when I should have tromped through, but it went away after a couple days.  Gotta say, the old lady is holding up pretty darn well.

Points Of Note From My 2-week Running Break

Weight: All told, I gained 3 lbs.  There were a couple nights eating out and one desserty evening featuring this monster vessel o’ icing shared with my New Friend, but for a Frosting Ho such as myself, it was worth it.

This claimed to be a cupcake

My friend Lara also gave me a few scrumptious homemade cookies, but aside from those blips I ate the same as usual.  I’m totally fine with the gain because I know it’ll come off without having to do anything but run.

Lazy ass: I was. It rocked.  The only activity I did was 3 sets of pushups on Thursday, some crunches Saturday and one walk longer than my usual 2-block trip to Whole Foods.  Other than that, I spent my hiatus basically sitting or lying down.

One of my internet running buddies, Chris, mentioned that he’d be scared to take a 2-week no-running break for fear it’d send him back to his old lazy ways…”a slippery slope”.  I would have had the same worry a couple years ago but since so much of my identity is now wrapped up in running, it would be unthinkable to do anything but resume.  I’m sure the confidence of that helped me relax into it fully.

In a way, this lazy stint was like tapering for a marathon; you have to let go and trust that it’s doing you good, so you may as well enjoy it.  Or take spin classes if you’re paranoid.  I prefer laying on a bed, comaesque.

Supplement Stoppage: About 2.5 weeks ago, I quit taking Glucosamine and MSM.  I’d been skipping days before going to California – not on purpose, just forgetting – and though I brought some with me on the trip, I never took it.

Since I’ve been inactive I don’t notice any difference.  Also, I fully expect to have a couple minor aches this week due to resuming running but it seems a good time to reevaluate the need for it.  Due to my proclivity for bursitis-type thingies rather than joint problems, I could see myself needing MSM before Glucosamine, but if I suddenly get runners knee or my ankles start feeling screwy, Glucosamine, here I come.

The Funny Story

Saturday night, I’m at my New Friend’s apartment for the very first time, checking out the bachelor pad and getting a tasty manly-made dinner out of the deal.  The next morning (yesterday) we’re having coffee in bed,  chatting lazily, and I hear the sound of a door close.  Seems really close by, like the front door to the apartment.  A second later, there’s this guy standing in the bedroom doorway (thankfully, we’re both covered in a sheet); it’s a kid in his 20s wearing a Phillies hat and a goofy smile – very personable young fella.

My New Friend (I have to give him a better name soon) is totally nonplussed and says “Hey dude, what are ya doing here?” and the two of them have a little chat about the front door being unlocked.  The kid’s in no hurry to leave so I figure it’s my guy’s relative or a friend.  Finally, the kid says goodbye and splits, while I’m giggling at the ridiculousness of the scene.

Giggles became full-on laughter when I discover that my guy had absolutely no idea who that fella was, he must of stumbled in looking for his pal in another apartment.

The funniest thing was how long it lasted.  If you or I did that, I’m sure we’d be all “Oh my god, I am so sorry!!” and zoom outta there in utter embarrassment.  This guy was just standing around, almost waiting for an invitation to crack open a beer and watch TV with us.  Hilarious.

Headband Review!
Check out this beautiful review for GIMheadbands from the Philadelphia Examiner yesterday.  Talk about coolness, it was totally out-of-the-blue unexpected.  Yay!

In the meantime, I had a speed session today, same as last week (8 x .25mi w/1mi recoveries) which was by design, since last week’s paces were all over the place and I wanted a basis for comparison.  Plus, it takes me a week or two to get used to faster running and this workout is a “no big deal” way to do that.

My splits, while not perfectly consistent, were eons better than last time:
1:37,1:35,1:39,1:35,1:37,1:38,1:38,1:38 (avg pace 6:28)

Three things helped:

1. The temperature was a lovely 60 degrees.  Interesting factoid: when it’s warm (last week was 75) my heart rate caps out low though the effort feels much harder.  Weird that, since you’d think the HR would be higher.

2. I did strides beforehand.  I know I should do this before every quality session, it gets your HR up and your body prepared for running faster. I will from now on, it really made a difference.

3. Confidence.  Last week, for all the crappy pacing and even though it was only 400s, that last fast one gave me an inkling that speed is indeed returning.  I needed that like nectar to a hummingbird.

Next two weeks I’ll do 6 x 800 w/ 90sec rec’s. and then my Half cycle begins!  Nice to be priming the pump before the heavy-duty work starts.  Though I must say, I’m pretty much doing what I’d do in a regular cycle anyway but it seems so casual and fun now, almost vacation-like.  Maybe it’s the weather.

Pill Popping
I’m not a huge pill-popper by nature, though I’ve been taking glucosamine and MSM since the IT band crap last summer.  This week I cut my glucosamine by half, so one pill instead of two.  So far, I’m not noticing anything different.  As for my MSM capsule, I’ll continue to take that daily but am open to seeing what’s what without these things.

I don’t think I mentioned that I started taking an Iron supplement a couple months ago.  I had my ferritin levels checked back in August which came out normal, but my mileage hadn’t reached the level it’s at now.  Also, I was still living with Nick at the time and ate red meat quite often.  I love red meat, so don’t think I’ve gone all veggie on you, but I’ve probably had it 3 times in the last 6 months.  I do eat a lot of fresh spinach but surprisingly, if you eat a whole bag of the stuff, it’s still only 30% of your daily requirement.  So anyway, I take an 18mg capsule daily.

Calcium is my other supplement – Viactiv chews, twice daily.  I wrote a whole blog piece two years ago on the different types of calcium and how this type (calcium carbonate) used to stop me up.  But now I eat so much more fiber and drink more liquids, I’m a great pooper.

Core Work Continued
I was doing those Runners World exercises for a couple weeks which are great, but I’ve started switching it up with one of my favorite exercise DVDs: Mari Winsor’s 20-minute Slimming Pilates.  It’s basically a fast-paced core workout that I love because she doesn’t chatter on, it goes boom boom boom, from one exercise to the next.

Group Thoughts
Today was a slow day on my running path, I only waved to about 7 people I knew.  Seriously.  I love my park because there are probably 35-40 regulars with whom I wave and exchange a couple words.  When we see each other in races or on the street, it’s a fun shot of recognition.

I was thinking about the whole “running with others” thing and while I enjoyed the outing, I’ll always be a lone runner at heart.  I’ll try to make the hill workout this Thursday because I like the idea of sharing a hard workout, but I guess I wanted to explain that while I’m out there on my own day-to-day, I’m surrounded by camaraderie every time I run.  So we’ll see how much running club action I get.  Maybe I need to work on my bar-hopping skills instead.

As recap, during this period I couldn’t go more than 2 runs to where I’d feel it.  Long runs (limited to 11 milers) always required stretching stops and because one annoyance isn’t enough, my ankle bursitis from last year reappeared as an underlying bass note for the beginning of most runs during these two months.

Because I’m a 7-day runner, I did take a few days off (5 total), but from reading of how people would take 2 weeks off and return to the road only to find they were right back where they started, I didn’t even consider taking a clump of days off, figuring I could manage the injury as it made a slow exit.

My mileage didn’t suffer too much – June was a lower month, but I was able to average 53 mpw between June and July.  I just made sure to stop and stretch if it hurt on the run, foam roll the shit out of it in the evenings and often took 3 ibuprofen after “long” runs to keep it in check for the next day’s run.

I’d like to say I did my leg exercises regularly, but I lasted about 1.5 weeks till I conveniently forgot to do them (I hated leg lifts when I was a pudgy young thing, I don’t like them any better now).  I’ve been pretty regular with stretching, but was never sure if I was overdoing it, so I tended to go from stretching too much to not enough, and always suspected I wasn’t doing it quite right.

This seemed to work ok, it had diminished greatly, but was still there like a bad cold that never leaves, culminating in a horrible 13 miler last Sunday, my longest run in months, and one requiring numerous stops, mainly because I was wearing an IT band strap that was backfiring on me and causing calf discomfort, but still, I was most certainly not “cured”.  So I took this Monday off.

Now, a few days prior, July 9th to be exact, I’d started the glucosamine/chondroitan/msm combo pills.  After taking that rest day on Monday, I ran like usual from Tuesday on, except suddenly “usual” had a whole new meaning.  There was no ankle bursitis, no IT band shadowing, absolutely no weakness in my legs at all.  At. All.  This was 6 days after taking that first pill.

You guys…I ran 15 miles today.  15 miles without one single peep, shadow, twinge or anything.  15 miles like it was a mid-long run, not the farthest I’d gone since a 16-miler on April 12th (April 12!).  I even stuck a couple faster miles (7:20s) in there ala Hudson.  Average for the whole run, 8:18.

So these pills really are a miracle, because I know for sure that while the injury was sneaking out the backdoor, it was going so very slowly that if left on its normal course, would have continued the wave of 2 days good, 1 day bad, eventually moving to 3 days good, 1 day bad, etc, and all the while with those stupid stretching stops.  Instead, I’ve had 6 days of 59.5 miles with perfect legs the entire time.

I’ve been thinking more about these magic pills and while I know that MSM is still the main hero at the moment till the glucosamine eventually kicks in, I think the glucosamine could eventually benefit ITBS too, even though it’s for  joints and not soft tissue – because glucosamine not only adds cartilage, it increases lubrication as well.  The whole reason ITBS is so painful is that it rubs against the femur, becoming inflamed.  If the joint has more lubrication, it makes sense that your IT band would slide easier against that joint. But that’s just supposition and a moot point anyway, since whatever is working  is working now!

I have suddenly gone from hiding marathon training into the farthest back corner of my brain to pure, unadulterated excitement for getting started again and seeing what this training cycle brings.  As they’d say back in my hometown of Fayetteville, Arkansas, “YEE–HAW!!”   (they’d also say “Pig Sooie, Razorbacks!!” because they’re weird like that, but I digress…)

Hope is restored, fun is restored, I am back on the road for real.

I’m not a big pill-popper to begin with and avoid it when I can.  My eating is pretty clean so I don’t take a multi-vitamin, though I do take calcium daily (ladies, you know I’ve mentioned it before, but check into your requirements and make sure you’re getting enough…anything to help avoid stress fractures is our BFF).

Last week, I mentioned that I started taking a glucosamine/ chondroitin/msm combo daily.  It’s purpose is to help your joints by increasing cartilage and adding lubrication.  I’ve been reading hundreds of accounts over the last week of people basically saying “I could never live without glucosamine again, I swear by it”.  These comments come from arthritis sufferers to heavy-lifting bodybuilders to runners.

When I started on it, I was thinking “maybe it’ll help my IT Band somehow”, though glucosamine isn’t for soft tissue.  Even so, I’d read a bunch of user reviews from people finding success with it for certain tendon issues.  Runners knee is also a common reason people take it.

The thing that got me to buy a bottle though, was watching a sports injury video from a doctor at Stanford University saying that it was worth taking since it acts as an anti-inflammatory but without the side effects.  I figured that’s got to help since tendon crap is all about inflammation.

As far as joint pain goes, I hadn’t thought about it before taking this stuff, but I do have joint tweaks, I  just don’t pay much attention to it because I figure it’s part of getting older, like sometimes my fingers hurt after opening a jar or my elbow might hurt when stuffing a pillow into a pillow case, etc.  And while I’m not a hurty girl in general (these tweaks are fleeting), it’s fun to think there’s something that might remove even these little ouchies from my life (not to mention do good stuff for running).

So on Sunday I had that IT strap episode that had my calf feeling weird, then on Tuesday, a really good 9-miler, Wednesday an 11-miler that was the first double-digit run in weeks where I was completely tweakless (no stretching stops at all) and then today, another perfect run, an 8-miler with some fartlek.  The thing I noticed on all three runs (besides a beautiful lack of IT trouble) was that my ankle bursitis, which has been hanging about these past few weeks and is always slightly noticeable at the start of a run, though not really painful, just “there”, was gone.  Nada.  Nothing.

It can’t be the glucosamine yet because that takes 4-6 weeks to kick in, but MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane, the third ingredient in my new magic pills) starts working in only a few days.   What’s it good for?  So many things, you’d be tempted to call it snake oil.

Among the items it helps are: tendonitis and bursitis (bing bing bing!), but also allergies (specifically rhinitis, which I have in abundance) as well as improving skin, nails and hair (actually speeds hair growth, of all things).  There’s even been a study on it saying it improved snoring, which sounds ridiculous, but if it helps allergies, I could see how that might carry over.

Now, quicker than you can say “Placebo”, glucosamine and MSM are commonly given to dogs, cats and horses with great success, in fact many people start using them because their doggies returned to frolicking puppydom after taking the stuff.   Since animals don’t know placebos or act from wishful thinking, that’s pretty solid proof of efficacy.

I’m not going to say “my IT band is cured!” because we know where that’s gotten me (though this is the most I’ve run in 3 consecutive days without feeling a thing since the crap began), but my ankle…I was resigned to thinking it would be a lifelong annoyance, waxing and waning whenever it felt like it.  It never occurred to me that I could take something for it that might make it actually go away.

It should be noted that the brand I’m currently using, Triple Flex from Nature Made, is not the latest version of the product because my local Rite Aid sucks, so it doesn’t contain hyaluronic acid, which all the new formulas have.  Hyaluronic acid does indeed work on soft tissue (tendons, ligaments), so I already ordered a vat of Triple Strength Advanced Osteo Bi-flex for when this bottle’s done.

I also ordered a separate bottle of MSM to see if will lessen my allergies, since it’ll take a larger dose than the glucosamine mix provides.  I’ve put Nick on glucosamine, too, since he’s battled a rotator cuff issue for years and that’s the perfect malady for this stuff.

Better living through chemicals supplements.  Why not?