Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Diary of a Crappy Run

Perhaps the day a tropical storm is scheduled to arrive isn't the best day for a long run.  It's pretty darn hot out here, and the humidity is awful.  I hope my two water bottles will be enough.  I probably shouldn't have waited until 9:45 to get out here; an earlier start would have been much better.  Oh well, too late to worry about that.  Since tomorrow will be worse I'd best get going.  Hrmm, the legs aren't feeling very good. But they never feel good when I start out, once I warm up they'll get a little better.  Even though I'm just getting back at training after my injury, doing a 13 miler today shouldn't be that big a deal, right?  I did 11 last week and although it wasn't a great run I survived.  Just two more miles shouldn't cause any problems.  At the river and headed inbound.  The legs should be loose by now, but they're still feeling sluggish. This could be a painful run.

Let's take the little path around Magazine Beach.  I think this is it, nope, that's just the parking lot.  How about this path?  Well, there's where I want to be over there, I'll just cut across.  OK, that wasn't worth it.  Past the BU bridge, at least there's a water fountain coming up.  Just a short break for water, and since I'm stopped I'll stretch the legs a bit.  That didn't feel better, but I'm sure it helped. On towards the Mass Ave bridge, gee it's pretty hot out here today.  The dirt path by the river feels good, too bad it doesn't go the whole way around Esplanade.  Approaching Mass Ave, if I slow down just a little I'll miss the light and get to rest for a bit.  Perfect, that means I get 90 seconds of rest and it doesn't look like I'm being a sloth. What?! The walk signal already?  OK, keep moving.  Longfellow or Museum of Science?  Suck it up, do the distance, MoS it is. Why am I getting passed by everyone? And especially by these tiny women who are running twice as fast as me?  Ah, the turn at the Museum, things should get better soon.

OK, how far is it to the water fountain in front of Community Boating?  I'm dying here, this is much hotter than I counted on and my Gatorade tastes like hot tea.  Finally! Stop the watch because this is going to be a few minutes.  Water, Gu, stretching; all needed.  I'll walk back and forth so it doesn't look like I'm about to collapse.  Why is everyone else still running?  At least one or two should be stopping for water.  Bastards.  I can at least make it to then next water fountain, get moving. I love this area and I wish I were feeling better today.  Lots and lots of people getting in their workouts before the storm.  I hate them all.

Ah, this feels a little better.  Wait, no it doesn't.  It still sucks. On the Esplanade at least, there's a small breeze from the river.  Yikes, I need another break because my legs are screaming.  I'll stop here in the shade, at least I made it past another bridge.  It's not that far to the next water fountain, get moving you lazy bum. Good, there's a dirt path here that should help.  Look, up ahead, it's a water fountain.  Why is there a line of runners waiting for water?  Finally someone else is showing the effects of the weather.  Lots of sweaty people, all fitter and faster than me, but sweat is the universal equalizer.  Gatorade and Gu are gone, but all this water will do the trick, I should be fine from here.

This stretch has always seemed too long.  Under the BU bridge and past the MIT students cleaning up the river bank, pardon me for not saying "thanks" but I don't think my voice would be audible right now.  OK, lets settle into a pace and try to reclaim this run.  Thank god the light is against me and I have to stop.  Why are things spinning?  Yikes, I'm getting dizzy!  OK that's it, cutting the run short right now.  Passing out isn't an option.  Stop the watch, I'll just stand here a bit.  I'll just lean on this light post.  I'll just sit on this support.  Drink your water you idiot!  Let's check my fancy heart rate monitory, hrmm, 135.  When it gets down to 110 I'll start again.  135.  134.  134.  135. That's not right.  Deep breaths, relax, calm down.  127. Better.  125. 120.  OK, we're headed in the right direction, finally. 119, getting closer. 115, 112, 112, 112.  That's close enough, right?

What's the shortest way home?  Cross the Charles here or take the foot bridge?  More dirt if I take the foot bridge.  Not bad, slow the pace way down. Stairs up the bridge, ooh, that doesn't feel good.  Let's walk across the bridge.  Let's walk to the stop light. I could cross as there's no traffic but I'm going to be good and wait for the walk light. Running again, to the one hill.  Ouch, a slight calf cramp, we'll walk up that sucker as well.  Home isn't that far away now, I can feel it. Nice easy pace, I must look like hell. Take it one block at a time. Try to concentrate on the sidewalk right in front of you.  Ooh, better obey the traffic light and wait for the walk sign.  Just a few tenths left, I'm not taking the usual detour to add a little distance.  This is close enough, I can see my house from here. I need to cool down, I can still feel my heart racing.  Just walk, keep walking.  God this run sucked.  What's wrong with me?  I don't see how I'm going to do a marathon in 8 weeks! 10.75 miles, at least I did 10+.  How many times did I stop?  Doesn't matter, the run is over and we're on to recovery mode.  Lord knows I need it.

Monday, August 15, 2011

The Simple Life

Running appeals to me on a number of levels.  It can be solitary or communal, depending on my mood or available running partners.  Although it is somewhat weather dependent you can run in pretty much any conditions provided you are willing to suffer a bit, and after all what is exercise but organized suffering? You can run anywhere from city streets to mountain trails to a hotel treadmill on a business trip.  It requires nothing but a pair of running shoes and some comfortable clothing; you don't have to put the bike in the car, or drive to the mountains, or find a place to store your rowing shell.

When I started running I had a pair of shoes, some shorts and cotton t-shirts, and my one piece of specialty gear - a pair of white cotton gloves for cold weather.  Packing my bag to run at lunchtime was simple and quick. I was living Thoreau's maxim - "Simplify, simplify."  I decided to get a new pair of running shoes and got fitted properly and had my gait analyzed but that just meant a new pair of shoes to replace the old ones.  The next big purchase was my Garmin GPS watch (with heart monitor) that tracks my every move and presents me with reams of information for study and analysis.  A small MP3 player was needed for the long training runs. Then I got some gels to eat while running; not really gear but something else keep track of and pack.  My exercise shorts really weren't the best for running so I got new ones, plus some running tights for the cold weather.  Since I was at the New Balance factory store I picked up a new top and a running jacket for rain and bad weather.  At this point I was often running after dark so I found a reflective vest with a matching blinking light for visibility.  My dark running jacket wasn't enough so I found a bright orange one with reflective patches.

Then I suffered my first real injury, a bout of ITB tendinitis that left me unable to run for a few weeks.  That lead to getting The Stick and a foam roller for stretching and massaging my sore and stiff muscles and tendons.  Somewhere in here I got a belt for long runs so I could carry water, some food, and my cell phone.  My collection of shirts grew until I had a weight for each possible temperature range, plus several from my races.  During my training for Boston I added monthly professional massages to work out the kinks and help stave off injury. Special trail shoes for trail running, plus a pair of Dirty Girl gaiters for the proper look.  Recently I've had a problem with my calf so I bought a special calf stretching aid that gets used several times a day.  Last weekend I bought an IKEA cabinet to store all of this gear in my guest room, although to be fair it also holds hiking, biking, and skiing clothing as well.

Two nights ago after my long run I finished stretching and was headed over to the kitchen when I stubbed my toe on the calf stretching device.  I wonder if there are protective toe socks that would have saved me from this?  My once simple activity now has lots of gear and packing and choices.  I do love the gear (I'm a gear hound, I admit it) but I sometimes want to head out wearing any old pair of shoes and a cotton t-shirt with nothing but the sun to keep track of the time.

But I'm scheduling a massage session for next week and I need to pick up a new pair of shoes.  I wonder what color the t-shirt is for the Bay State?


UPDATE - 8/22/2011
How could I forget my compression socks?!  They have been on my legs for pretty much every run in the past 3 months and I'm not sure how much they help prevent injury and recovery but they look wicked cool. At least that's what I keep telling myself.



Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Working through injury


Again.

Three weeks ago during a morning run I felt some pain in my right calf but it wasn't bad enough to make me stop.  The next morning I called off my run a short way into it and decided that it wasn't worth getting hurt right before my week long hiking vacation (NH, Baxter, Acadia) so I decided to rest for a few days. I figured it was the heat.  For the hiking I wore my compression sleeve on my calves which seemed to do the trick.  We had a bunch of great hikes including a nice long loop over the Knife Edge to Baxter and Hamlin Peaks.  We were tired at the end of the day, but my legs were OK.

Skip ahead to the Tuesday after the vacation when I went out for my first run in two weeks.  About one half mile into an easy run at my sister's house in NY I felt a familiar pain in my right calf and pulled up to a stop. I can't tell you how frustrating that was.  My plan was to go into the long run part of my marathon training right after the vacation but this was putting my race in October in jeopardy.  Even a full, quick recovery might not be enough to get the miles down in time.

So, the first thing I did (after moping) was to schedule a massage with my guy, but that wouldn't happen until the following Monday.  After I got back from NY I went for a bike ride after work to make sure that I could still exercise at all.  That ride was difficult because of the all runners I was passing and wishing I were with them.  Still, it was good to be out and active.  I ran into Jackie who was doing the regular Thursday night Charles River run and we chatted a bit and I felt a little better about my recovery plan.  On Saturday Monica and I went for a ride on the Mountain Bike Loop in the Fells which went really well.  I need a better mountain bike. :)  That will have to wait.

Monday comes and after work I have my massage with Nolan.  Boy, that hurt a lot but I think it really did a good job.  He worked on my calves for nearly 30 minutes with painful instruments of destruction and I had a bit of a hard time walking right after but I could tell it was good for me. We talked about the injury and he suggested I get something to stretch our my calves and use it many times a day. After false starts at two stores I found what I was looking for at City Sports. I'm now using it 5-10 times a day, every time I get up from my desk I try to stretch for a minute.

This morning (Wed) I went for my first real run in 3 weeks.  I stretched a bit before heading out and ran at a slow steady pace.  There was no pain, but when I got hurt there wasn't any pain until all of a sudden there was.  I crossed the Charles, taking the steps on the footbridge gingerly to avoid any unnecessary strain. At two miles I stopped and stretched again, no point being silly about this.  The final mile back to the house I could feel a little tightness so I slowed the pace (how could I go any slower?) and finished pain free.

Now it's a routine of ice, stretching, compression, and rest.  I'll try a run again on Friday, then a longer one on Sunday.  Perhaps the marathon isn't a lost cause yet.  If I can run a 12-14 miler in the next few weeks then I'll feel much better about mid-October.  Until then I'll just take it one day at a time, and try to work against my normal instincts and not overdo things.