Posts Tagged ‘pictures’

No fracture, whew.  The report from the radiologist won’t be available till later today or Monday, so there’s a slight possibility the diagnosis might differ, but “stress reaction” is the doctor’s determination.  EDIT: just heard back from the doc, the radiology report doesn’t even say stress reaction!  But the doc thinks I should continue as planned, so I will.

It’s a spot on the upper third of my femur that I’d already noted on the MRI yesterday, so it wasn’t a surprise (I kept it to myself since I don’t know shit and didn’t trust my observation).

On the left is my hoo-ha. Many thanks to Kristin for providing hours of hoo-ha humor.

This is a not such a bad result; since it’s only a reaction and I’ve already completed 17 days of rest, I only need to take off 2 more weeks.  I can handle this, no problem! (FYI, stress reaction is the precursor to a stress fracture, run on it long enough and it will become a full-fledged sfx.)

After my 2 weeks of rest are over, I’m to start at 25% of my mileage (working off 90mpw) and increase around 10% per week from there.  I love my doc.

The doctor btw, is totally cool with the mileage volume I was doing, never once raised an eyebrow or suggested I alter it.  Today, I asked him about my theory, if it could have started with a simple muscle strain that grew from lack of attention.  His response was “Absolutely!”  though not because of muscle pulling on bone as I envisioned (a la shin splints), but because the muscle tweak started affecting other muscles and that would have altered my gait.  So mechanical, but situational.

It’s wonderful to get that confirmation, it means I don’t have to worry about this happening again, there’s nothing inherently weak or that needs changing.  I just have to deal with it earlier – if I can’t find the problem myself, call the doctor at the start.

As for the next 2 weeks, I’m not going to join a gym.  He wants me to avoid lower body stuff anyway, so I figure I’ll do my pilates and yoga dvds just to feel like I’m doing something.  Lost fitness is not a pressing worry since I have the winter to regain it, though my friend Jackie has put the notion of the Surf City Half on February 5th in my mind, so I’m toying with that.

The other cool thing about the timing of this is that in a month, I’m going to Vegas for the Half and would have gone whether I could run or not since it’s going to be a huge gathering of beloved forum pals.  But here’s the deal, some of those crazy pals will have spent their morning doing another full marathon, then hopping on the plane to run Vegas (it’s a night marathon).

My friend Matt is one of those doubling kooks, but he’s doing the Vegas Half for his second race.  He plans on going reeeeeal slow (like 9min/mi) since he and the rest of those crazy cats will be hurting.  This works out perfectly for me: I don’t have to worry about fitness loss or pounding my legs – it’ll be a fun and funny run with someone I adore.  I imagine lots of alcohol will be involved.  Good times.

I’ll close with more thanks to everyone for following this soap opera.  You kids are great.  Later, gators.

Yesterday morning’s run was a total stinker.  I planned for 12 but was PMSy and the previous day I’d fallen flat on my face near the end of a 12-miler so both my knees and palms were scraped and tender, but what was getting me down the most was that pinchy leg niggle that was still there.  Not that it’s so painful (it isn’t, and works itself out during the run) but not being 100% when I’ve got all these races planned is a serious downer.

I ended up cutting it short at 7mi – unheard of for me – and once home, I first whined to my forum pals then did what I should have done 2 weeks ago…took ibuprofen.  I had held off on it initially because I didn’t want to bloat up before my Half but also because this niggle has been so elusive, it seemed worth monitoring “as is” to make sure it wasn’t a scary thing.  Since it’s way better and eases off as I run, I think I can now assume it is not a scary thing. So Vitamin I down the hatch.

A couple hours later, I kicked myself for not doing it sooner.   When I tried the bend-my-leg-and-stand-on-it-just-so-to-replicate-the-pinchy-pain test it felt great…not a peep.  Needless to say, this cheered me up substantially and as the day progressed, I thought “wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity for my first double?”

So at 5pm I put on some fresh running gear and went out for an easy 6mi.  It was warm, 80 degrees, but it sprinkled and the park was super pretty in that dark rainy afternoon way.  It turned out to be a swell run and my leg was just fine.  The only annoyance were the gnats: swarms of them.  When I got home, I had to disrobe in the shower so as not to fling their little black carcasses all over the bathroom via slingshot (wet sports bra).

Gnats aside, there really is something to be said for short runs, they’re so easy!  My legs will surely appreciate it as well.  I have no regrets about holding off doing it till now, btw, summer’s sweltering temps would have made afternoon runs torture, but the next couple months should be wonderful conditions and now I’m so close to the park…it’s like a Siren call.

In fact, I’m doing another double today – I did 10 already and will go for 6 later.  I’m looking forward to doing some strides in the second run since it’s such a tiny li’l thing.

The Training/Racing Conundrum
Kevin Beck finished his series on volume and it’s a good capper.  I was actually thinking of the “slave to the mileage” thing before I read the article.  I’ve been thinking about what my focus is right now and how I need to prioritize what matters but the question is…what is my priority?  My plan in doing all these races as to use them as training tools enabling me to replace speedwork and also to learn to race better, so basically, I considered it to be something on the way to something better.  But then I got to thinking “why do I train?” and the answer is…to race!

I’m in love with running anyway so the whole “training to train” phrase (generally said with a sneer) is not such a negative thing to me, after all, I just spent the best few months of my running life “just” running.  But now things are getting more interesting in potential improvement so…do I set my sights on the future or concentrate on getting the most from these next couple months?

If the former, I would keep mileage the priority with an eye for next year since I can imagine another improvement bump next Spring (providing nothing weird happens in the interim), or if the latter, I’d make these upcoming races the priority and lower my mileage to get the best outcome in those.  While I’d like to improve my Half PR in Vegas, I’m not sure how much I can milk from this period.

And looking ahead, since I can’t see myself freezing my ass off for 90mpw in the dead of Winter, I’m expecting a mileage drop to the 70s, which in turn, got me wondering if it’d be a waste to keep the volume up now, knowing I’ll just be cutting it come Winter.

All these thoughts were giving me an “oh crap, what’s the most important thing here?” anxiety attack until I unloaded on Coach Adam/A muse who instantly put me at ease.  He assured me that capillaries don’t suddenly disappear and that the miles I bank now will help me in the Spring.  He also reminded me that maintaining aerobic fitness is easier than building it in the first place.  Then he shared his ideas with how to proceed and suddenly,  peace was restored to my swamp of a brain.

The main thing, the framework, will include maintaining high mileage for several weeks but dropping radically before Vegas: “a true taper and we can try to force a peak, too”.  There’ll be some switching of tempos and faster stuff plus some hybrid workouts. He also recommended I reread Joe Rubio’s “Endless Season” approach for frequent racing – an article that, when I read it a few months ago, gave me the heebee jeebies (What? Race a lot? Terrifying!) since it’s a great stepping-off point.

So it looks like there’s a through-line already shaping up, a plan in the making.  And Jim…I didn’t get a single finger-wag.

Race On Saturday
The next time I check in will be after my 5k.  Yikes!  I’m expecting a not-that-great time but I’m expecting to have a great time.   This is a sweet little race, as mentioned before, with nice prizes.  It’s not certified though and last year it was short, but it’s been adjusted and the director said he remeasured it twice so supposedly it’s correct, but if not, I don’t care, it’s merely a rust-buster for short and fast, and goodness knows I have a lot of rust to remove.

Destiny (aka Brightroom, Inc.) took care of me this race, providing one really nice race shot.  That’s as common as a unicorn and slightly more useful, so yay.

A bonus was that they surreptitiously parked a video camera at the 5k mat, so for the first time I have a candid glimpse of what I look like racing.  It was definitely jarring, like when you hear your voice on tape for the first time.  I’m not the fluid gazelle I imagine myself to be but I’m also not horrified or embarrassed.  That’s progress!

The last cool thing is just a fun, completely useless ego massage. Within the race I got an unofficial 10-mile PR (no biggie since I’ve only raced one back in 2008) but it turns out the time I hit, 1:10:19 according to the race results, comes out to an age-grade score of 80.04%.  It’s raining National Class!   Of course, that one doesn’t count but it’s great motivation to do shorter races.

Last Couple Days
I won’t go into detail but I’ve had a mystery leg thing that started a couple weeks before the race.  At first it was in my quad then shifted to my lower leg. No pain running or sitting but I can feel it walking or when I roll over in bed, kinda like a pinched nerve right at the top of the tibialis anterior.  Because I couldn’t pinpoint or poke it, I was Googling stress fractures and thinking the worst. At the start line, I hopped up and down on it a few times just to reassure myself that it wasn’t one and thankfully, I didn’t feel a thing during the race.  It was quite a downer in those preceding days though (and still is a weird worry).

With this in mind, I took the last 2 days off from running.  This morning, I still had some pinchyness but went on an easy run anyway to test it…no problems!  8 miles and it felt fine.  So I don’t know what’s up with it but I can only assume that since running is fine (I won’t be doing anything fast this week), it’ll eventually work itself out.

Race Week In Review
Since I didn’t post this on Sunday…

Monday: 10@8:31
Tuesday: 8.25@7:47 (3xmi @6:55) w/2min rests)
Wednesday: 6@8:30
Thursday: 5@8:19 (4 strides)
Friday: Off
Saturday: 4@7:58 (4 strides)
Sunday: 14.15@(race and 1mi warmup)
Total: 47.4 mi

What’s Ahead
Here’s one thing I’m thinking: “Oh no, now what am I going to do to get faster?  I’m doomed!” because I’m a fatalistic idiot from time to time.  But this is just momentary.  Sane Flo thinks it’s time to get her race hat on and go wild.  As in, do a race almost every week for the next 4 or 6 weeks, whatever I can find locally.  I think it’d be a fun alternative to quality work and I know it’d improve my racing chops.  I did this in my Spring Of Improvement back in 2009 and that might have had something to do with said improvement (cart or horse…who knows?).

This would start in 2 weeks when there’s a sweet 5K I really like, though it was short last year and I’ve emailed the director to see if they’re remeasuring.  At first I was thinking I don’t want to race anything that requires an asterisk after it, but then I started thinking more sensibly: last year at that race I won a $70 certificate for Zipcars and a gift certificate for Whole Foods, both of whom are sponsoring again, so it’d be worth it.  And also, if I do multiple races, an asterisk race doesn’t really matter, I just won’t call it a PR.  Because any race is more than the result, it’s an unparalleled workout that I could never replicate on my own and that’s the mindset I want to have.  This will get me over Athlinks self-consciousness and the preciousness that racing rarely creates.

So that’s it for now.  Later, my loves.

Race facts:
1:32:10
4th in 50-54 AG (3rd was 1:32:08…ouch)
149 out of 9507 femmes
793 out of 16,517 OA
Age-Grade 80.91%

Training beforehand
Might as well post a graph of my mileage since that’s been my focal point for the year.  The graph begins on Feb. 7th after taking a voluntary 2-week running break due to burnout.

Weight
I had mentioned how I was going to lose weight for this race and start counting calories again.  I did for a couple weeks but when the move started, I gave up on the counting and just ate healthy as ever, there was enough stressing without being nitpicky with food.

Turns out that while I only lost a couple pounds, holding at 119-120, thanks to the physical labor of moving to the new apartment, my bodyfat percentage dropped by 1.5%!  It’s been steady like that for about 2 weeks, so while I know my fancy-ass scale can’t be accurate as far as the base percentage (I’m surely not 14.5%) I do believe it’s trustable as a comparison unto itself.  So anyway, while I wasn’t at my best racing weight, the bodyfat thing made it A-OK.

Yesterday
My sweet pal and race buddy Kat arrived in the afternoon. I’d picked up both our packets already, so all we had to do was chat and eat dinner.  I made her accompany me to an old-fashioned diner in my neighborhood that I wanted to try because they served spaghetti and meatballs and I thought that’d be a funny place to go.  We were not disappointed.  It was Early Bird Prime Time so we were the only ones there who still had pigment in our hair.  Was good, made me feel fast.

This Morning
My new apartment is amazing for Philly races -  located 2 blocks from the start, it allowed us to take our time and pee to our heart’s content…luxurious.  We ventured out at 7:30, ran into my friend Peggy who was on the way to her long run.  She wished us great races (so cool to see her), then split up while Kat looked for our friend Lynn to run with.  I did a mile warmup with strides and got into my corral.  While standing there, I see my young friend Steph, one half of the twins I’ve befriended in my racing/running travels.  She didn’t have a firm goal but we decided to run together with the understanding that neither of us were “talkers”, which worked out great.

The Race
No big details here.  First mile seemed right on, then the Garmin went insane as it always does downtown, so for a couple miles I only had the mile markers to rely on, though I hadn’t noted when we’d left in relation to them and I missed the first one entirely, so my Garmin was saying anywhere from 8:46 – 5:xx, and for the first few miles, I thought we were off goal.  Around mile 4 I realized we were dead on, so that was a relief.

I wasn’t very stuck to the Garmin for this race because it was off for a great part of it and required quite a few “catch-up” lap presses (was on Autolap), it told me that for the most part I was running 6:4x-6:5x so after adding the leftover lap press, I figured I was right under 7:00 territory.  I did think I was in line for a sub 1:32, btw, right up until I saw the finish line.

I felt solid throughout this race.  There were points where I recognized my breathing was getting louder or that funny exhale whistle was happening but I would make a point to try and relax at those times, which helped.  Because of my previous collapsing/medical adventures, I was very mindful about how much effort I was putting out and told myself in the days before this that should anything feel strange, to not try and power through but to back off and slow down, race times be damned.

At this point we were at the park, my day-to-day running ground, and as we approached it I turned to Steph and said “home”.  Once there, I had a gel at mile 5 with a half-spilled cup of water to chase it. Never wanted for more, the temps were great (57, though breezy at times with 14mph wind) so it was extremely comfortable out there.

Once we hit Falls Bridge, with about 4 miles left, I felt like it was all downhill from there.  Steph dropped back at mile 9 so I was on my own from that point. Coach Adam/A muse had told me to keep steady till mile 10, then go into L’ Assassina mode, and I had to smile at the thought – while I was able to pick off people, I didn’t have an extra gear so I just kinda kept chugging was all.

About the park: since I started running in 2007, it’s been my gym, my confidant, my shoulder to cry on and an unparalleled source of joy.  I talked to the park this morning and thanked it for taking care of me.  I told it how much I loved it and reminded it where my favorite spot is and that even though it’s been the location of some scary health moments, I know it loves me too.  I communed with that park today.  But back to L’ Assassina…

There was this one girl that I don’t like from the park, she always gives me a bitchy look, and in the last few miles, she jumped into the race to run a few friends in.  When I finally passed them I heard her tell her friends they had to speed up, which I know was totally prompted by my presence so I took pleasure in moving farther ahead and out of their vicinity.

As I closed in on the finish, my friend Kev yelled out “just 1/2 mile more, you’ve got it!” which was great.  But even with all my park adoration, that last 1/2 mile is a scary spot for me, it’s the finish of many a Philly race and where 2 of those silly race collapses have occurred, so while other people were kicking it to the finish, I repeated to myself “feet under you, feet under you, keep your feet…”  and slowed down a tad until the finish line was right there.

After
I mentioned before that I thought I had my “A” goal right until the end so it was a disappointment to find I didn’t.  But really, it’s nothing but a few seconds and since this was my first race since January and I’ve had no real idea of where I was at, I’ve got nothing to be poopy about.  I know this and anything else is just plain Ego.  The main thing is after 2 long years, I finally got a PR when I’d pretty much convinced myself I’d not see another, ever.  I’m also pleased as punch with the Age-Grade and the Age Group placing.  This is such a competitive destination Half, I thought I’d be lucky to be in the top 6, so 4th is a nice bonus.

This race also unveiled the new race me: one that is confident but at the same time, reticent about pushing it to the Nth degree, probably won’t ever again as a matter of fact, but will do what I can within a comfort level that feels safe.  Because of this, I’ll never be a great racer – I believe you do need that balls-to-the-wall ability to do it properly, but I’m ok with that.  I think I have many great races ahead, just within those parameters is all.

After After
Kat and I went out for food and bloody marys before she embarked upon her journey home (Love you Kat, thanks for being such a fun and calming influence).  I sat here for a bit, thinking about the blog post I had to write and looking forward to seeing my ex-hubby tomorrow for the first time in eight years when he stops for a visit on his way home from that 12-week sailing adventure.  But after a few minutes, I said fuck this and went to the drugstore and bought a shitload of shit to stuff in my piehole.  Doritos, Reeses Pieces and Twizzlers.  All huge size.  After being good for so long, tonight I will be bad (or have a really bad stomach ache, whatever comes first).  All that’s missing is a cigarette.

Before I close, I want to thank all my dear friends from the 3:20 thread, even the hopeful crazies who predicted a sub90 (Matt), which I knew was not ever on the table.  Your confidence in me was beautiful, albeit overly hopeful.  And that huge collection of messages from my Facebook friends filled my heart like you wouldn’t believe.  I just love all you internet and real-life pals of mine – you make it all so much fun. Thank you for being so great.

I hope to have at least one ok race picture but until then, here's me and my dinner.

Hilarious…I’m 50 friggin’ years old today.  Seriously, this is the goofiest birthday ever: a half-century old, that much closer to death, recent recipient of an AARP card…but really, there’s only one thing that matters on this day and it’s not my health.  It’s the fact that I’m now a baby in a brand new Age Group.  Yeehaw! Gonna create some 50-54 year-old carnage this year (and the next and the next).

My Age Graded scores promise to be quite fun as well.  Unless something goes terribly wrong (because wrong is never complete until it has “terribly” before it), it looks like I’ll be solidly in the 80% “National Class” bracket from here on in.  I’d already hit 79% for a couple distances but if I get my goal for this coming Half (1:31:40) I’ll have an AG of 81.35% and if I get even the slightest sub20 5K (19:59) I’ll have an AG of 83.89%!  Makes life a little more entertaining, anyway.

I don’t have a lot to say about the birthday itself, every time I think “OK this is the best time of my life”, it manages to get even better. And for a hermit like myself, to have all you blog readers, forum pals and Facebook friends always being so supportive and constantly sharing the good vibes, you really bring me joy.  Imaginary or real, I’m honored to have all you crazy cats in my life.

I guess now would be the perfect time to instill you with something wise and elder-ish, but in lieu of that, here’s my favorite 50 year-old of all time, Ms. Sally O’Malley.  She can kick, stretch and kick!

As for me, I did what any self-respecting 50-year old running freak would do…celebrated with a hard run: my usual 9x (3min on/1 off) fartlek fun.  Here’s the old lady on the way out the door (she kicked ass, btw:  8.9 mi@7:38).

Sunday’s usually my foot-long hot dog of a post but there’s not much going on in my head today, so this’ll be a shorty.

The week was great – solid workouts and my body feels strong. I made one permanent scheduling change inspired by last week’s cutback.  Monday has typically been my recovery 9-miler, the only single-digit run of the week, but I’m now extending Monday (still at recovery pace if I need it) so my speed day can be the 9-miler.  This makes it way more pleasurable since I can do a normal-sized warmup/cooldown instead of a 5-mile trudge home.

I’ve also made a half-hearted attempt at resuming supplementary exercises.  Having been incredibly bad on that score with the excuse “I’m running a shitload, screw it”, this week I started pushups again, a few crunches, some little dumbbell crap and a few lame pull-ups.  It takes hardly any time so I really have no excuse not to aside from my innate laziness.

Week in Review
I had hill sprints planned for today as a change from drills/strides but it was pouring rain and in the end, I decided to bag ‘em.  I don’t even feel guilty, it would have been extra credit anyway.

Also, as you can see, my easy paces are perking up again, this thanks to the weather which started improving on Wednesday, mostly mid-to-low 70s around 6 and 7am.  Dewpoints have still sucked for the most part, but there’s hope as summer starts making a move towards the Exit sign.

Monday: 14@8:30
Tuesday: 9@7:42 (9x 3min on\1min off)
Wednesday: 15@8:16
Thursday: 11@8:27 (drills & strides)
Friday: 12@7:35 (6.5@7:03 progressive)
Saturday: 17@8:19
Sunday: 12@8:08
Total: 90 mi

Today’s Crockpot Adventure
I’m making this little gem today (halved, because it’s a huge recipe).  Pork Chalupas – a yummy meal for a dark, rainy day.

Ice, Ice, Baby
I’ll leave you with a crazy little photo.  Remember my ex-hubby Jonny and friend Andy on their sailing trip to Greenland?  Behold their current state of affairs:  (slow going, that’s for sure)