ROCK N ROLL USA HALF MARATHON (race report):
I screwed up and didn't get to the start line on time for this race. I mainly just underestimated how big it is and didn't plan to arrive early enough for an event of this size. This was the second year that this was an RnR race. Before that it had been the National Marathon, which I did two years ago. That event was much smaller than this one, and I failed to realize how much bigger it had become. It has now become comparable to the Marine Corps Marathon in size - which is to say, huge. I arrived at 6:30am, an hour before the gun, and promptly got into a huge bathroom line. I got out of the bathroom at 7:15 and still needed to drop off my bag in the bag trucks. Since they were right next to the bathrooms, and the start line was not terribly far away, I figured that I was still fine but would have to do a shorter warm up than planned. But the bag trucks were unbelievably poorly managed. They were organized alphabetically by last name instead of by corral or bib number, and for some reason you couldn't just walk up and hand your bag to somebody. The single volunteer at my truck (and every other one too, as far as I could tell) took a while to make sure that the last name on each person's bag fell into the right alphabetical range. This caused lines to form that were even longer than those at the bathrooms. The bag trucks were school busses parked front-to-back in a long row on the side of the road, and the line for my truck began five busses down the road. I arrived at the back of this line around 7:20, when it became clear that I was going to miss the start by a long shot. It seems that very many people missed the start of their corral for this reason, but I was supposed to be in corral one at the front of the race. Instead I ended up starting with corral seven or eight (I'm not sure). So from the beginning I was surrounded by people running much slower than I wanted to run. Long story less long: I finished in 1:31:16, which is a 6:58/mile pace and at least 30 seconds per mile slower than I had hoped for. Running even that pace took a lot more energy than it normally would have because, when possible, I was weaving through crowds of people from one side of the street to the other, hopping onto and off of curbs and medians, and sometimes running on the wrong side of the road toward oncoming runners when the course doubled back onto itself (which resulted in my 5k split being recorded about a mile earlier than it should have). Sometimes none of those methods of running faster than people around me was possible and I had no choice but to slow down to their pace, so that I was frequently speeding up to much faster than 6:58 pace and slowing down again to a much slower pace. This was worse in the early miles, because the crowds around me were denser then; but I was passing people at roughly the same rate for the entire race. Even though my finishing time was five minutes slower than my PR, which itself was set in a race in which I exploded by halfway and slowed down drastically over the second half, I'm still quite tired afterwards. Part of this is also because I'm not in very good shape right now, though. It is ultimately my fault that I missed the start, but the baggage truck mess was irritating, and it was worse after the race (for half marathoners, at least). When I arrived at my truck after finishing, there were maybe a dozen people in line ahead of me who said they had been standing there for 20-30 minutes, during which time nobody had been given a bag. I don't know what the two people working at the truck (volunteers?) were doing - it seemed like they were looking for those people's bags that whole time and couldn't find them. But after I had been there for another 20-30 minutes, runners started revolting and stormed the truck. The workers kind of retreated and gave up while half a dozen runners took over searching for and distributing bags. (I think similar mutinies occurred in other trucks as well, but I was pretty wrapped up in my own). Inside the truck, bags were somewhat organized by runners' bib numbers: they were more or less in piles by 2,000 digit increments, but within those piles there was no organization, and very many bags were in the wrong piles. Because bib numbers did not correspond to last names, and only bags from people whose last names fell within a certain alphabetical range were in each truck, there really was no way to organize the bags much better than that. Why didn't they assign bags to trucks by bib number instead of by last name? This mess really made me appreciate the mass efficiency and organization of the MCM, which I've done three times without ever waiting more than a minute or two on either end of the baggage check. Today I spent around an hour at the bag truck after the race, and it seems that some others were standing around shivering in sweaty clothes for longer. It's not enough to cause me to foreswear RnR events in the future, but I won't jump at the opportunity to participate in them. I like doing big races sometimes, especially marathons, as long as I get to start up front. But in the future I'll be sure to arrive earlier, and maybe I'll start taking more of an interest in less massive events in general.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
ST. PATRICK'S DAY 8K (race report):
This was my first race in more than two months, since before injuring my hip in January. I've done the course many times, since it was my fourth time running this race and the Jingle All the Way 8k in December is on the same course as well. I don't particularly like the course, but it's a biggish downtown race that kind of signifies the beginning of Spring racing season in DC. It didn't seem right to skip it and I wanted to shake off some dust before next weekend's half marathon. I aimed to run 5:58/mi. pace, which would have given me that ever-elusive sub-30 minute clocking at this distance. For the first half of the race I felt quite strong and was right at 5:58/mi. average pace after three miles. But then, as usual, I slipped quickly into survival mode and finished in 30:13 after dragging myself the last couple miles about 20 seconds slower per mile. My hip felt fine but my stomach was moderately uncomfortable, which (together with dying after three miles) can be chalked up to under-training. The race served its purposes, though: I shook off some dust, tested out my hip and found it to be ok, got in some hard running in advance of the races to come, proved that trying to run sub-60 at the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in three weeks would be too ambitious, and even somehow got a 17-second PR.
This was my first race in more than two months, since before injuring my hip in January. I've done the course many times, since it was my fourth time running this race and the Jingle All the Way 8k in December is on the same course as well. I don't particularly like the course, but it's a biggish downtown race that kind of signifies the beginning of Spring racing season in DC. It didn't seem right to skip it and I wanted to shake off some dust before next weekend's half marathon. I aimed to run 5:58/mi. pace, which would have given me that ever-elusive sub-30 minute clocking at this distance. For the first half of the race I felt quite strong and was right at 5:58/mi. average pace after three miles. But then, as usual, I slipped quickly into survival mode and finished in 30:13 after dragging myself the last couple miles about 20 seconds slower per mile. My hip felt fine but my stomach was moderately uncomfortable, which (together with dying after three miles) can be chalked up to under-training. The race served its purposes, though: I shook off some dust, tested out my hip and found it to be ok, got in some hard running in advance of the races to come, proved that trying to run sub-60 at the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in three weeks would be too ambitious, and even somehow got a 17-second PR.
WEEKLY SUMMARY (March 3-9): 30 miles (95% easy and 5% interval paces)
Sunday: 6 miles at 7:16/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:12/mi.
Tuesday: 2.5 E, 2 x 1200m I @ 5:55/mi. pace (800m E), 2 E (7 miles total)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 5 miles at 7:18/mi.
Friday: off
Saturday: 5 miles at 7:22/mi.
I didn't run much this week, though my hip has been doing well. On Tuesday I went to the track for the first time in a couple months but took things easy. I just wanted to do a couple longish intervals a bit under 6:00/mi. pace in order to get the feel of it again without wearing myself down. It was overdetermined that I wouldn't run on Wednesday: there was a big storm and I had a migraine. The latter explains my lighter run on Thursday too, when I also switched back to morning running after running in late afternoon (when I could) for most of the past two months because my hip seemed less tight then, in part because it's warmer. On Friday I didn't manage to run in the morning and so just skipped running altogether instead of running later. I'm not naturally a morning person at all, so getting myself onto a morning schedule requires drawing firm lines like that. On Saturday I still felt kind of stunned running in the morning and also took it easy because of the 8k race the next day. That brings my average weekly mileage so far in 2013 to 41.5. That's low in part because of my hip injury, but now I'm doing well enough that a low mileage week like this one is due to plain slacking. In the back of my mind I may also have been trying to get in a little rest before picking things up when Spring races begin (today).
Sunday: 6 miles at 7:16/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:12/mi.
Tuesday: 2.5 E, 2 x 1200m I @ 5:55/mi. pace (800m E), 2 E (7 miles total)
Wednesday: off
Thursday: 5 miles at 7:18/mi.
Friday: off
Saturday: 5 miles at 7:22/mi.
I didn't run much this week, though my hip has been doing well. On Tuesday I went to the track for the first time in a couple months but took things easy. I just wanted to do a couple longish intervals a bit under 6:00/mi. pace in order to get the feel of it again without wearing myself down. It was overdetermined that I wouldn't run on Wednesday: there was a big storm and I had a migraine. The latter explains my lighter run on Thursday too, when I also switched back to morning running after running in late afternoon (when I could) for most of the past two months because my hip seemed less tight then, in part because it's warmer. On Friday I didn't manage to run in the morning and so just skipped running altogether instead of running later. I'm not naturally a morning person at all, so getting myself onto a morning schedule requires drawing firm lines like that. On Saturday I still felt kind of stunned running in the morning and also took it easy because of the 8k race the next day. That brings my average weekly mileage so far in 2013 to 41.5. That's low in part because of my hip injury, but now I'm doing well enough that a low mileage week like this one is due to plain slacking. In the back of my mind I may also have been trying to get in a little rest before picking things up when Spring races begin (today).
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Summary of the previous three weeks:
February 10-16: 49 miles (100% easy pace)
Sunday: 5 miles at 7:29/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:14/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:14/mi.
Friday: 5 miles at 7:19/mi.
Saturday: 18 miles at 7:20/mi.
February 17-23: 35 miles (89% easy and 11% tempo paces)
Sunday: off
Monday: off
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:24/mi. on a treadmill
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:15/mi.
Thursday: 2.5 E, 4 x 1 mile T @ 6:16 avg. (1 min.), 1.5 E (8 miles total)
Friday: 6 miles at 7:17/mi.
Saturday: 7 miles at 7:17/mi.
Feb. 24 - March 2: 51 miles (92% easy and 8% tempo paces)
Sunday: 16.5 miles at 7:21/mi.
Monday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7.5 miles at 7:16/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:12/mi.
Friday: 6 miles at 7:35/mi.
Saturday: 3E, 2 x 2 miles T @ 6:15/mi. (3 min.), 1E (8 miles total)
I've been very busy over the last few weeks. But now I'm on Spring break, even though it's not yet Spring and the weather is not substantially different than it was on Winter break. Over that time my hip initially seemed better, then slipped back, and now seems to be stabilizing again. By now I'm getting used to living with at least some tightness down there even on good days, which I don't expect to go away until I build up a stronger "core" in general over time. At the end of the first week, on Feb. 16, I was encouraged to make it through 18 miles at a respectable, easy pace. My hip felt strong throughout, and I began thinking about trying a faster long run the next weekend and running the marathon on March 16 after all. I took a couple days off after that run simply because I was busy, which - together with not doing my next long run until the following Sunday - resulted in that week's mileage number turning out misleadingly low. But I got in an encouraging set of tempo intervals on Thursday of that week as well, with my hip again feeling stable. The set-back was on Sunday, Feb. 24, when I attempted a 20-miler in which I hoped to pick up the pace after halfway. The main problem was that it was very windy, and the wind was coming from a direction that made me run straight into it for miles 11-13 and then again from 16-20, in addition to generally blowing me around pretty much the whole time. My hip hurt much of the way, especially during and after running into the headwind in miles 11-13, which dampened my hopes of speeding up after halfway. When I turned back into the wind after 16 miles, it was just too much for me and I ended up stopping and taking the metro home. My hip continued to ache for several days after that. It loosened up only after I took an especially easy, slow day on Friday, which enabled me to get in a solid 2 x 2 mile tempo run on Saturday. I think that last Sunday pretty much killed any chances that I had of running the marathon on March 16. It was less windy the following day, and if I had been able to wait and attempt that run on Monday then maybe it would have gone well enough for me to attempt the marathon. But as it is that was my last real chance to get in a hard long run before March 16, and I don't see the point of running my 6th marathon when I haven't been able to do any hard long runs for two months because of an injury. Realistically, I could probably do the marathon, run 7:10/mi. pace for 15 miles or so (3:07 marathon pace), and try to pick it up from there if things were going well, hoping for maybe a 3:05 at best and likely still beating my current PR of 3:12 at worst. But I respect the marathon too much to tangle with that beast when I'm not properly trained for it, and especially when my head's not really in it. I'm looking forward to a lot of other Spring races as well, and in my current state of fitness running the marathon would either risk jeopardizing those other races or essentially amount to jogging 26.2 miles at my easy pace, neither of which I'm able to get excited about. So I'm going to do the half-marathon on March 16 instead, thanks to the RnR policy that allows registered runners to decide up until race day which race they want to run. Of course, I'm not in great half-marathon shape either, but my tempo runs are starting to come along and at least I can see the half as good training for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler three weeks later. Before my hip injury I had dreamed of running Cherry Blossom under 60 minutes, but that seems very unlikely now. Maybe 62-3 seems possible now, if my hip holds together, but I'll see how the half goes before setting goals. I might do the St. Patrick's Day 8k next weekend (March 10) just to shake some dust off and test out 5:58 or so pace for 5 miles. Then in the RnR half I might start around 6:30 pace and, after some mid-race hills, try picking it up to bring the pace down into the low 6:20's, which would be a 1:23-4 finish. At least those seem like non-crazy goals. It's March now - almost Spring - and time to start thinking about running fast!
February 10-16: 49 miles (100% easy pace)
Sunday: 5 miles at 7:29/mi.
Monday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:14/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:14/mi.
Friday: 5 miles at 7:19/mi.
Saturday: 18 miles at 7:20/mi.
February 17-23: 35 miles (89% easy and 11% tempo paces)
Sunday: off
Monday: off
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:24/mi. on a treadmill
Wednesday: 7 miles at 7:15/mi.
Thursday: 2.5 E, 4 x 1 mile T @ 6:16 avg. (1 min.), 1.5 E (8 miles total)
Friday: 6 miles at 7:17/mi.
Saturday: 7 miles at 7:17/mi.
Feb. 24 - March 2: 51 miles (92% easy and 8% tempo paces)
Sunday: 16.5 miles at 7:21/mi.
Monday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 7.5 miles at 7:16/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:12/mi.
Friday: 6 miles at 7:35/mi.
Saturday: 3E, 2 x 2 miles T @ 6:15/mi. (3 min.), 1E (8 miles total)
I've been very busy over the last few weeks. But now I'm on Spring break, even though it's not yet Spring and the weather is not substantially different than it was on Winter break. Over that time my hip initially seemed better, then slipped back, and now seems to be stabilizing again. By now I'm getting used to living with at least some tightness down there even on good days, which I don't expect to go away until I build up a stronger "core" in general over time. At the end of the first week, on Feb. 16, I was encouraged to make it through 18 miles at a respectable, easy pace. My hip felt strong throughout, and I began thinking about trying a faster long run the next weekend and running the marathon on March 16 after all. I took a couple days off after that run simply because I was busy, which - together with not doing my next long run until the following Sunday - resulted in that week's mileage number turning out misleadingly low. But I got in an encouraging set of tempo intervals on Thursday of that week as well, with my hip again feeling stable. The set-back was on Sunday, Feb. 24, when I attempted a 20-miler in which I hoped to pick up the pace after halfway. The main problem was that it was very windy, and the wind was coming from a direction that made me run straight into it for miles 11-13 and then again from 16-20, in addition to generally blowing me around pretty much the whole time. My hip hurt much of the way, especially during and after running into the headwind in miles 11-13, which dampened my hopes of speeding up after halfway. When I turned back into the wind after 16 miles, it was just too much for me and I ended up stopping and taking the metro home. My hip continued to ache for several days after that. It loosened up only after I took an especially easy, slow day on Friday, which enabled me to get in a solid 2 x 2 mile tempo run on Saturday. I think that last Sunday pretty much killed any chances that I had of running the marathon on March 16. It was less windy the following day, and if I had been able to wait and attempt that run on Monday then maybe it would have gone well enough for me to attempt the marathon. But as it is that was my last real chance to get in a hard long run before March 16, and I don't see the point of running my 6th marathon when I haven't been able to do any hard long runs for two months because of an injury. Realistically, I could probably do the marathon, run 7:10/mi. pace for 15 miles or so (3:07 marathon pace), and try to pick it up from there if things were going well, hoping for maybe a 3:05 at best and likely still beating my current PR of 3:12 at worst. But I respect the marathon too much to tangle with that beast when I'm not properly trained for it, and especially when my head's not really in it. I'm looking forward to a lot of other Spring races as well, and in my current state of fitness running the marathon would either risk jeopardizing those other races or essentially amount to jogging 26.2 miles at my easy pace, neither of which I'm able to get excited about. So I'm going to do the half-marathon on March 16 instead, thanks to the RnR policy that allows registered runners to decide up until race day which race they want to run. Of course, I'm not in great half-marathon shape either, but my tempo runs are starting to come along and at least I can see the half as good training for the Cherry Blossom 10-miler three weeks later. Before my hip injury I had dreamed of running Cherry Blossom under 60 minutes, but that seems very unlikely now. Maybe 62-3 seems possible now, if my hip holds together, but I'll see how the half goes before setting goals. I might do the St. Patrick's Day 8k next weekend (March 10) just to shake some dust off and test out 5:58 or so pace for 5 miles. Then in the RnR half I might start around 6:30 pace and, after some mid-race hills, try picking it up to bring the pace down into the low 6:20's, which would be a 1:23-4 finish. At least those seem like non-crazy goals. It's March now - almost Spring - and time to start thinking about running fast!
Sunday, February 10, 2013
WEEKLY SUMMARY (February 3-9): 43 miles (95% easy and 5% tempo paces)
Sunday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.
Monday: off
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:20/mi.
Wednesday: 2.5 E, 2 x 1 mile T @ 6:17/mi. (1 min.), 1.5 E (6 miles total)
Thursday: 4 miles at 7:26/mi.
Friday: 7 miles at 7:18/mi.
Saturday: 13 miles at 7:21/mi.
Running has not been easy this week, but I think I am indeed on the road to recovery. With the help of the physical therapist whom I saw again on Thursday this week, I'm taking the long road to recovery that involves doing gradually more difficult exercises (in addition to running) to strengthen my weak and imbalanced hip muscles in hopes that whatever recovery ensues will not be short-lived. It now seems to me that the primary injury is to my right gluteus minimus and gluteus medius, with the TFL and psoas also affected. When I got acupuncture (for the first time) on Thursday, I realized that I had been unclear about exactly where the gluteus minimus is. It's one thing to look at it on an anatomy chart, to do stretches that target it, and so on. By when the PT delivered the charge to the needle that made my right gluteus minimus contract in isolation, it seemed to be at the very center of the pain and tightness that I've felt all through this injury. The more superficial gluteus medius attaches a bit higher on the iliac crest where I've had a pretty constant, dull pain since my 18-miler on 1/19. So it's clearly in a troubled state as well. But the deeper muscle seems to be the deeper problem, and the original pain that I felt several days before that 18-miler (but didn't worry much about) was lower and deeper at what I suspect may have been the lower insertion area of the gluteus minimus. So now I'm doing glute, hip abductor, and hip flexor exercises almost daily in order to bring those muscles back to life and to strengthen them all in a balanced way so that even the weakest of them (which is apparently my right gluteus minimus) can handle the running I do. I've slowed down my easy pace marginally this week in order to accomodate the extra stress of the exercises, but only slightly because the point is to get those muscles to cope by starting with very light exercises and gradually increasing the difficulty. At the same time, I'm trying to ease back into some harder runs. I did basically half of a tempo run on Wednesday and a medium-long run on Saturday that was almost twice as far as I'd run in the previous three weeks. My hip was ok during and after the mini-tempo, with only a little uncomfortable stretching in that area during the run that immediately went away when I stopped. But after Saturday's 13-miler there was some tightness and pain right where one would expect if the gluteus minimus is the main problem. I took ibuprofen and waited until this morning (Sunday) to stretch, and it seems fine. Next week I hope to continue on this trajectory. I'll still take things one day at a time, but I'm starting to think in weekly chunks again and hope to do a full 4 x 1 mile tempo run and another medium-distance run (maybe 11-12 miles this time) during this coming week while continuing daily exercises. If I run the 10k race next Sunday, then the best idea would probably be to treat it as a tempo run. The jury is still out on whether I'll be up for the marathon or half-marathon on March 16, which is only 5 weeks away. I won't run the marathon unless I can beat my current PR of 3:12, such as it is, but I'm not sold on whether I should run it even if I think I can run faster than that. At this point it doesn't really matter and wouldn't affect the sort of training runs I do, which are just aimed at nursing me back to general distance running health. By the way, when I was talking with the PT on Thursday it emerged that I had misunderstood one thing he said that I reported in my last post. The underlying lower back issues that he had in mind were effects of bad posture and nothing else. His point was that doing all these exercises and running with perfect form won't enable me to dodge injuries like this if I spend most of my waking life standing and sitting with bad posture. So trying to avoid that is the most important thing I can do.
Sunday: 6 miles at 7:20/mi.
Monday: off
Tuesday: 7 miles at 7:20/mi.
Wednesday: 2.5 E, 2 x 1 mile T @ 6:17/mi. (1 min.), 1.5 E (6 miles total)
Thursday: 4 miles at 7:26/mi.
Friday: 7 miles at 7:18/mi.
Saturday: 13 miles at 7:21/mi.
Running has not been easy this week, but I think I am indeed on the road to recovery. With the help of the physical therapist whom I saw again on Thursday this week, I'm taking the long road to recovery that involves doing gradually more difficult exercises (in addition to running) to strengthen my weak and imbalanced hip muscles in hopes that whatever recovery ensues will not be short-lived. It now seems to me that the primary injury is to my right gluteus minimus and gluteus medius, with the TFL and psoas also affected. When I got acupuncture (for the first time) on Thursday, I realized that I had been unclear about exactly where the gluteus minimus is. It's one thing to look at it on an anatomy chart, to do stretches that target it, and so on. By when the PT delivered the charge to the needle that made my right gluteus minimus contract in isolation, it seemed to be at the very center of the pain and tightness that I've felt all through this injury. The more superficial gluteus medius attaches a bit higher on the iliac crest where I've had a pretty constant, dull pain since my 18-miler on 1/19. So it's clearly in a troubled state as well. But the deeper muscle seems to be the deeper problem, and the original pain that I felt several days before that 18-miler (but didn't worry much about) was lower and deeper at what I suspect may have been the lower insertion area of the gluteus minimus. So now I'm doing glute, hip abductor, and hip flexor exercises almost daily in order to bring those muscles back to life and to strengthen them all in a balanced way so that even the weakest of them (which is apparently my right gluteus minimus) can handle the running I do. I've slowed down my easy pace marginally this week in order to accomodate the extra stress of the exercises, but only slightly because the point is to get those muscles to cope by starting with very light exercises and gradually increasing the difficulty. At the same time, I'm trying to ease back into some harder runs. I did basically half of a tempo run on Wednesday and a medium-long run on Saturday that was almost twice as far as I'd run in the previous three weeks. My hip was ok during and after the mini-tempo, with only a little uncomfortable stretching in that area during the run that immediately went away when I stopped. But after Saturday's 13-miler there was some tightness and pain right where one would expect if the gluteus minimus is the main problem. I took ibuprofen and waited until this morning (Sunday) to stretch, and it seems fine. Next week I hope to continue on this trajectory. I'll still take things one day at a time, but I'm starting to think in weekly chunks again and hope to do a full 4 x 1 mile tempo run and another medium-distance run (maybe 11-12 miles this time) during this coming week while continuing daily exercises. If I run the 10k race next Sunday, then the best idea would probably be to treat it as a tempo run. The jury is still out on whether I'll be up for the marathon or half-marathon on March 16, which is only 5 weeks away. I won't run the marathon unless I can beat my current PR of 3:12, such as it is, but I'm not sold on whether I should run it even if I think I can run faster than that. At this point it doesn't really matter and wouldn't affect the sort of training runs I do, which are just aimed at nursing me back to general distance running health. By the way, when I was talking with the PT on Thursday it emerged that I had misunderstood one thing he said that I reported in my last post. The underlying lower back issues that he had in mind were effects of bad posture and nothing else. His point was that doing all these exercises and running with perfect form won't enable me to dodge injuries like this if I spend most of my waking life standing and sitting with bad posture. So trying to avoid that is the most important thing I can do.
Monday, February 4, 2013
WEEKLY SUMMARY (Jan. 27 - Feb. 2): 40 miles (92.5% E and 7.5% M paces)
Sunday: 6 miles at 7:23/mi. on a treadmill
Monday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 6 miles at 7:21/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Friday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi. on a treadmill
Saturday: 3 E, 3 miles progressing from 7:00 to 6:30 pace, 1 E on a treadmill (7 miles total)
This week was less bad than I feared it would be, since I ran almost every day and felt by the end of the week like I was on the road to recovery. But I probably have some ways to go before I can do harder workouts again. Monday was the first day that I started to feel like I was clawing my way back to health. My hip didn't hurt when I ran, but that whole area felt weak and tight. Since that run seemed to go relatively well, and it was my fourth day running in a row, I decided to take Tuesday off in order to consolidate whatever gains I'd made and, I imagined, to feel better still on Wednesday. Instead my hip hurt more during my run on Wednesday than it had any other time since my injury. I was close to despairing, but it dawned on me that this was evidence that tightness was a large part of my problem. I hadn't activated my muscles in any way for 48 hours, and stupidly I didn't stretch before running on Wednesday. It relieved me somewhat to think that all this was caused only by tightness somewhere. But where? So many muscles were involved, but what was the root of the problem? That same day I read an article that led me to think that tightness in my psoas was the underlying problem, since apparently that can cause secondary tightness in all the other muscles where I was feeling pain. (Apparently you often don't feel psoas tightness directly because it's such a deep muscle). So I started doing psoas stretches before and after running. Perhaps coincidentally, my next three runs went ok. On both Thursday and Friday I felt looser and felt less (but still some) direct pain along my hip bone (iliac crest). On Saturday I headed to the treadmill without a plan but thinking that I might pick up the pace a bit if I felt ok again. After three miles in the 7-teens I felt fine, so I then went to 7-flat and gradually picked it up every half mile until I got to 6:30/mi. pace and three (more) miles. That's not very fast, but I did feel it a little in my hip as my form stretched out some. The next day (Sunday) I was ok, though, and ran 6 easy miles as normal. That was about the safest possible way to test whether my hip can handle running faster right now, and it was neither encouraging nor entirely discouraging. I'm going to have to keep taking baby steps forward. Today (Monday) I finally had my appointment with a physical therapist. I found a great (but expensive) running-specific PT who put me through various strength tests and videotaped me running on a treadmill. In addition to giving me tips on running form (my feet land too far in front of my body, and my arms swing unevenly) and posture (I slouch while sitting and shift my hips forward while standing, both of which put pressure on my lower back), he discovered significant strength imbalances in my hip muscles. Something has caused certain muscles in my right hip (especially my TFL) to atrophy. After finding my right side to be significantly weaker on some strength tests, the PT started probing around and said that he could feel the difference in the size and tension of certain muscles when comparing my right and left sides. "There's just nothing there," he said of my right TFL. Well, no wonder it hurts. A puny, atrophied muscle that isn't firing correctly will get tight and hurt when dragged through activities that healthy muscles can handle. So what has caused muscles in my right hip to atrophy? The search for an answer to this question was inconclusive. The PT looked for evidence of some underlying lower back problem, but it seemed to me that he must not have found the evidence he was looking for because at that point he started talking about psoas tightness, which is common in distance runners and squares with the tightness I've been feeling well above my hip just below my rib cage (where the psoas attaches to the spine). So he gave me some exercises to do to resurrect the dead muscles in my hip and asked me to come back (and pay more) for some acupuncture that might shock them back to life. I guess I'm relieved that he didn't find any major strain, but at the same time of course I'm annoyed to learn that my muscles are weak and imbalanced. When I was a kid, my dad used to wake me up - after I'd slept through the five previous attempts to wake me up - by quickly pulling all the sheets off me. (Ok, maybe he did it only a couple times, but it worked and I remembered it). I'm going to pull the sheets off those atrophied muscles in my right hip, and I'll even pay for acupuncture if that might help. Maybe this is also what I need to jolt me into regularly doing the ("core") strength exercises that I've known for a long time that I should be doing.
Sunday: 6 miles at 7:23/mi. on a treadmill
Monday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Tuesday: off
Wednesday: 6 miles at 7:21/mi.
Thursday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi.
Friday: 7 miles at 7:16/mi. on a treadmill
Saturday: 3 E, 3 miles progressing from 7:00 to 6:30 pace, 1 E on a treadmill (7 miles total)
This week was less bad than I feared it would be, since I ran almost every day and felt by the end of the week like I was on the road to recovery. But I probably have some ways to go before I can do harder workouts again. Monday was the first day that I started to feel like I was clawing my way back to health. My hip didn't hurt when I ran, but that whole area felt weak and tight. Since that run seemed to go relatively well, and it was my fourth day running in a row, I decided to take Tuesday off in order to consolidate whatever gains I'd made and, I imagined, to feel better still on Wednesday. Instead my hip hurt more during my run on Wednesday than it had any other time since my injury. I was close to despairing, but it dawned on me that this was evidence that tightness was a large part of my problem. I hadn't activated my muscles in any way for 48 hours, and stupidly I didn't stretch before running on Wednesday. It relieved me somewhat to think that all this was caused only by tightness somewhere. But where? So many muscles were involved, but what was the root of the problem? That same day I read an article that led me to think that tightness in my psoas was the underlying problem, since apparently that can cause secondary tightness in all the other muscles where I was feeling pain. (Apparently you often don't feel psoas tightness directly because it's such a deep muscle). So I started doing psoas stretches before and after running. Perhaps coincidentally, my next three runs went ok. On both Thursday and Friday I felt looser and felt less (but still some) direct pain along my hip bone (iliac crest). On Saturday I headed to the treadmill without a plan but thinking that I might pick up the pace a bit if I felt ok again. After three miles in the 7-teens I felt fine, so I then went to 7-flat and gradually picked it up every half mile until I got to 6:30/mi. pace and three (more) miles. That's not very fast, but I did feel it a little in my hip as my form stretched out some. The next day (Sunday) I was ok, though, and ran 6 easy miles as normal. That was about the safest possible way to test whether my hip can handle running faster right now, and it was neither encouraging nor entirely discouraging. I'm going to have to keep taking baby steps forward. Today (Monday) I finally had my appointment with a physical therapist. I found a great (but expensive) running-specific PT who put me through various strength tests and videotaped me running on a treadmill. In addition to giving me tips on running form (my feet land too far in front of my body, and my arms swing unevenly) and posture (I slouch while sitting and shift my hips forward while standing, both of which put pressure on my lower back), he discovered significant strength imbalances in my hip muscles. Something has caused certain muscles in my right hip (especially my TFL) to atrophy. After finding my right side to be significantly weaker on some strength tests, the PT started probing around and said that he could feel the difference in the size and tension of certain muscles when comparing my right and left sides. "There's just nothing there," he said of my right TFL. Well, no wonder it hurts. A puny, atrophied muscle that isn't firing correctly will get tight and hurt when dragged through activities that healthy muscles can handle. So what has caused muscles in my right hip to atrophy? The search for an answer to this question was inconclusive. The PT looked for evidence of some underlying lower back problem, but it seemed to me that he must not have found the evidence he was looking for because at that point he started talking about psoas tightness, which is common in distance runners and squares with the tightness I've been feeling well above my hip just below my rib cage (where the psoas attaches to the spine). So he gave me some exercises to do to resurrect the dead muscles in my hip and asked me to come back (and pay more) for some acupuncture that might shock them back to life. I guess I'm relieved that he didn't find any major strain, but at the same time of course I'm annoyed to learn that my muscles are weak and imbalanced. When I was a kid, my dad used to wake me up - after I'd slept through the five previous attempts to wake me up - by quickly pulling all the sheets off me. (Ok, maybe he did it only a couple times, but it worked and I remembered it). I'm going to pull the sheets off those atrophied muscles in my right hip, and I'll even pay for acupuncture if that might help. Maybe this is also what I need to jolt me into regularly doing the ("core") strength exercises that I've known for a long time that I should be doing.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
WEEKLY SUMMARY (January 20-26): 16 miles (100% easy)
Sunday: off
Monday: off
Tuesday: 6 miles at 7:19/mi. on a treadmill
Wednesday: off
Thursday: off
Friday: 5 miles at 7:26/mi.
Saturday: 5 miles at 7:30/mi.
I was feeling pretty confident when I wrote my previous post just after last Saturday's 18-miler. Things seemed to be going so well that I wondered what was going on. As the Stranger from California warned me several months ago: when things seem to be going really well, especially when they seem to be going too well, you might be right on the edge of falling apart. Indeed. The hip problem that nagged me last Saturday sidelined me this week, and it's too early to tell how far back it has set me. It seems to be a cluster of problems rather than a single injury, all centered around my right hip area. Hip flexors, glutes (especially medius), lower abdominal muscles (especially obliques), and maybe my upper IT band are implicated. When I first noticed a slight pain in that area around two weeks ago, it was on the outside of my hip near the top of my IT band. So maybe that's the source of the problem, or maybe not. I've had lower back problems for a long time, and hip issues are often related to back issues. But I don't know exactly what's up, and I'll try to get an appointment with a sports doctor soon. But I don't need to know exactly what's up in order to do what I've always done with injuries: rest if and only if the pain crosses the line beyond which running could make matters worse. I was clearly over that line on Sunday, the day after the 18-miler; and possibly on Monday, which I took off in any case because I just wanted the problem to go away. On Tuesday it felt better but not completely healed, so I ran on the treadmill in order to assess things while avoiding the stress of running on asphalt. My hip tightened up some as the run progressed, but it was no big deal. But afterwards and for the next couple of days it was worse. When I ran again on Friday (outside this time), it didn't feel much different while I was running than it did on the treadmill a few days earlier. Afterwards it felt worse again, but less so than before. So I hazarded running again the next day (Saturday) and felt marginally less bad afterwards. By then I was feeling pretty heavy (I've gained a few pounds this week) and out of shape from all those days off and from doing so little even on the days I did run. But my body still doesn't feel like it wants me to do any more. Today (Sunday) I skipped the half-marathon that I had registered for and went to the gym intending to cross train on the bike. But I ended up running 6 miles on the treadmill instead, stretching carefully both beforehand and afterwards. Cross training just isn't my thing. I'll do it if I have to, but I guess I haven't been driven quite that far yet. It has been a depressing week, though. Last year at this exact time I had a hamstring injury and skipped the same half-marathon that I skipped today. In fact, the race organizers were kind enough to defer my registration from last year to this year, but again I didn't show up. Maybe next year I won't sign up for any races in late January, or at least not that one. Next week I have no plan except to take things one day at a time.
Sunday: off
Monday: off
Tuesday: 6 miles at 7:19/mi. on a treadmill
Wednesday: off
Thursday: off
Friday: 5 miles at 7:26/mi.
Saturday: 5 miles at 7:30/mi.
I was feeling pretty confident when I wrote my previous post just after last Saturday's 18-miler. Things seemed to be going so well that I wondered what was going on. As the Stranger from California warned me several months ago: when things seem to be going really well, especially when they seem to be going too well, you might be right on the edge of falling apart. Indeed. The hip problem that nagged me last Saturday sidelined me this week, and it's too early to tell how far back it has set me. It seems to be a cluster of problems rather than a single injury, all centered around my right hip area. Hip flexors, glutes (especially medius), lower abdominal muscles (especially obliques), and maybe my upper IT band are implicated. When I first noticed a slight pain in that area around two weeks ago, it was on the outside of my hip near the top of my IT band. So maybe that's the source of the problem, or maybe not. I've had lower back problems for a long time, and hip issues are often related to back issues. But I don't know exactly what's up, and I'll try to get an appointment with a sports doctor soon. But I don't need to know exactly what's up in order to do what I've always done with injuries: rest if and only if the pain crosses the line beyond which running could make matters worse. I was clearly over that line on Sunday, the day after the 18-miler; and possibly on Monday, which I took off in any case because I just wanted the problem to go away. On Tuesday it felt better but not completely healed, so I ran on the treadmill in order to assess things while avoiding the stress of running on asphalt. My hip tightened up some as the run progressed, but it was no big deal. But afterwards and for the next couple of days it was worse. When I ran again on Friday (outside this time), it didn't feel much different while I was running than it did on the treadmill a few days earlier. Afterwards it felt worse again, but less so than before. So I hazarded running again the next day (Saturday) and felt marginally less bad afterwards. By then I was feeling pretty heavy (I've gained a few pounds this week) and out of shape from all those days off and from doing so little even on the days I did run. But my body still doesn't feel like it wants me to do any more. Today (Sunday) I skipped the half-marathon that I had registered for and went to the gym intending to cross train on the bike. But I ended up running 6 miles on the treadmill instead, stretching carefully both beforehand and afterwards. Cross training just isn't my thing. I'll do it if I have to, but I guess I haven't been driven quite that far yet. It has been a depressing week, though. Last year at this exact time I had a hamstring injury and skipped the same half-marathon that I skipped today. In fact, the race organizers were kind enough to defer my registration from last year to this year, but again I didn't show up. Maybe next year I won't sign up for any races in late January, or at least not that one. Next week I have no plan except to take things one day at a time.
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