Pushing Through

Long runs can take a long time. I like to think of them as journeys.

You can experience a variety of emotion, physical challenge and weather all on the same long run. 

September 7th's 18 miler was just that.

After a tune-up massage on Thursday night,  I foam rolled and crossed my fingers that my sore hip and quad would cooperate during Saturday morning's group training run.

That morning, I met Jeff and Carl, along with many others fellow marathoners-in-training, down at the Montrose site.

The weather was cooler than expected for what would be a hot day. Even still, it was humid.

The run started off ok. As we pulled into the first aid station at Diversey, I started to experience the lightheaded symptoms I had two weeks ago. I wonder where this is coming from. I've managed to train for five marathons and never have this.

I didn't want to give up 2.5 miles in to an 18 mile run, but at the same time, I didn't want to push too hard and pass out either. I decided to slow down the pace a bit and stay in the back of the group where I could trail off if needed.

I let Jeff know I wasn't feeling 100% and encouraged him to go on at the front of the group without me. He checked in with Carl, our group leader, and then came back to me. He said not to worry about it, he would run with me.

I have known Jeff since the summer of 2008 when I trained for my first marathon. With the exception of one year, he's been there with our group each year. Last year, Jeff and I ran the entire Chicago Marathon course together. Talk about stars aligning! This year, Jeff's training is going quite well. He seems stronger this year than in any other year I've known him. He could have easily continued with Carl at the front of the group, leading the way down to McCormick Place and back. Instead, he came to hang back with me. What a great friend!

We chased our group from a distance down to the turn around, then headed back north. Some miles I felt better (physically or mentally), others worse. The clouds parted to sun, back to clouds, to rain, to overcast again.

We talked about anything we could think of. Any topic could fly except to talk about running.

In the end, we finished where we started. 18 miles was complete.

A McDonald's fountain coke was purchased on the way home followed by a check mark placed next to the date where 18 miles was written.
 
The run wasn't pretty, but it was done.

[Thanks, Jeff]

SOSing the Massage Therapist

There comes a point in training where things that were once way down on the to-do list go right to the top.

Case in point last week - A desperate need for a massage. 

I'd run four miles on Tuesday morning with the same dull ache in my hip I've had for a few weeks. Weather was cool with low humidity. I felt pretty good. 

On Wednesday, I went out to run five at lunch. About two miles in, the run turned into a run/walk. Then with breaks to stretch. My right quad and IT were getting tight. 

I stretched as best as I could and rested that evening, hoping the phantom pain would disappear. 

Thursday morning the exact opposite thing happened. The muscle tightness caused me to reach for my phone and text my massage therapist at 6am. In an act of true desperation, I hoped that he had some time to fit me in that evening. 

Luckily, he did.

That evening, he checked my alignment and discovered something was off. My left hip was higher than my right and in turn, made my left leg shorter. This is not something he had ever noticed before, including when I was in to see him five weeks ago. 

After an hour of stretching and massage, I was sore but hopeful. I have to remind myself this is the hardest period of training. These things happen. But how did this happen? Did I push myself too hard in yoga? Am I sitting in a bad position at my desk? I'm searching for an answer. 

In the meantime, I've traded my desk chair in for an oversized exercise ball and rekindled my romance with the foam roller.

Dave meets the Foam Roller

Last week, the weather broke (well, at least for a few days).

While I was out running and eventually falling, Dave was out golfing. Santa brought Dave a new set of clubs that he's been itching to break in.

On Friday, we went out to dinner. As I was driving to the restaurant, he told me his side was bothering him. I asked him to be more specific. As he explained more, it sounded all too familiar. Ah ha! Dave too has an IT band.

As we exited the car, I demoed the 'cross one foot over the other and lean' IT band stretch. It didn't seem to help much. At dinner, I told Dave he was going to meet his fate that evening when we went back home. What Dave needed, my friends, was the foam roller.

He didn't seem worried. Ah yes, I remember the days before I first foam rolled. I would see people using them at the gym. I thought it was just a fad, like The Reebok Step. But then I foam rolled and damn, did it hurt.

When we returned home that evening, I pulled out the foam roller and showed Dave a few, seemingly painless, moves. Minutes later, Dave had his first encounter with the foam roller. And the foam roller won.

He rolled. He grimaced. He howled. He screamed obscenities. He took a breather. Then rolled again. "This hurts!" He told me. Yes Dave, it does. I saw sweat forming at his hairline. That's when I knew the foam roller was really getting to him.

He next night, he was at it again. Rolling. Sweating. Swearing.

Once again, the foam roller shows it's domination in my house.

The foam roller always wins.

A Newbie's Guide to Gear

Have you ever wondered how it's possible for a race as large as the Chicago Marathon to sell out in just a few days?

I know how. Peer pressure.

Though I'd hope that talking someone in to signing up for a marathon is good peer pressure (as opposed to the negative peer pressure your parents warn you about in your pre-teen years).

Peer pressure is alive and well in my workplace. Earlier this year, I convinced a co-worker to sign up for the Chicago Marathon.

As training demands more of us in the later part of July, there are questions.

The same questions I asked Mark the first time I trained for a marathon. He always had good answers, too.

Over time, my friends and I have transitioned from asking questions to answering the questions. Though we certainly don't know it all, we enjoy helping newbies out. There's an excitement to living vicariously through someone else as they train for their first.

Earlier this week I was asked "Where do you get your gear?"

Seems like a simple enough question, right? I didn't have a simple answer.

Endurance athletes can't walk into their local Wal-Mart and walk out with everything they need. (This scenario doesn't work for a variety of reasons, most importantly being that Wal-Mart only sells complete crap. I could go on, but I'll spare you.) Instead, you find yourself on a scavenger hunt for good gear, based on recommendations by other runners and online reviews.


I wrote down a hit list on a large post-it note and handed it off:

_______________

Shorts & Shirts: Nordstrom Rack, Marshalls, Nike Outlet or a speciality running store. Try a variety of moisture wicking material cuts. Determine your favorite and buy more.

Socks: Buy a variety of pairs a running store recommends. Test them out, then by a small collection of your favorite online.

Shoes: Get fitted at a REAL running store. If you love the shoes they've put you in, continue to buy them. (Don't mess with what works unless the shoe model changes or you find something better.)

Nutrition: REI.com If you're looking to buy 12+ Gus and the like, you get 20% off and free shipping to their stores. They have a wide selection to pick from which will let you test out different brands, flavors, consistencies.

Miscellaneous gear: Fuel belt or the like, Body Glide, a foam roller. Talk with friends to gather their options. Test out items and purchase at a running store or if you know it's a sure thing, buy online.

_________________

Six years of distance running gear advice fit onto a post-it. Not bad, I guess.

Damn You, piriformis!

On Good Friday, I woke up early and got my 9 mile long run out of the way.

It was my first run testing out Motorola's Motoactiv. My first test product. Thanks Motorola! I'm not going to blog too much about the device yet as I think it's only fitting I use it many times before writing a fair review. But I will say this - Out of the box, it had music loaded and was ready to go - literally. For some reason, that made me really happy.

Not the best 9 miler of my life. I dressed too warm. I was in a rush.

I got home, showered, threw my bag in the car and started driving south. Far south. Hundreds and hundreds of miles.

Around mile 100 I was feeling a bit stiff. Then it dawned on me. I didn't stretch after my run. I too often forget to do this.

I'd had a stiffness in my hip earlier in the week which I hadn't given enough thought to.

Over the weekend, it throbbed more.

Now the drive back from my southern destination was really the killer. My hip hurt when I drove. Because driving requires use of your hips? Who knew? Either way, not a good sign.

Again, not thinking, I rest on Monday and Tuesday. I reintroduce myself to the foam roller. Do some basic yoga. Then out of boredom, do back to back runs later that next week.

The hip's still not liking me. Now I'm listening.

Advil, ice, rest, try to compress, and yes, foam roller, we're hanging out during the 10 o'clock news.

Massage & Physical Therapy

Crossing the finish line of the twenty miler was good and bad.

I was pleased with being able to stick with the 10:30 pace throughout the run.

My achilles, on the other hand, was hurting.

Sh-t! How do I manage to do this to myself each year?

I headed over to the NovaCare tent where a PT took a good look it. There was a long line of people, all with similar aches from training.  She said she was happy to hear I'd been experiencing it for only a week and thought some deep tissue massages and PT would put me in good shape for race day. I appreciated her positive attitude as I was trying to stay positive myself.

Flashbacks of last year's doctor's visit just a few weeks before race day appeared in my mind as I called the doctor on Monday. If I went to the doctor's office, I was certain to hear, one way or the other, that I should give up running. Or I may have to visit an orthopedic, have an MRI, maybe an X-Ray, all before going to PT. So I took a different approach when calling the doctors office. Instead of calling and saying I had a running-related injury and wanted to see the doctor, I just asked if I could go straight to PT. The nurse wasn't sure if this was possible, but said she would check.

Ok, that went better than I thought. Now on to the next thing that will help straighten out the achilles - massage.

Who doesn't love a massage? I found a massage therapist (a former distance runner no less) who lives two blocks away and tends to run long on his sessions. Really? Yeah, really awesome.

We worked out a game plan for working on the achilles over the next week. After I left the massage therapist's house on Monday night, I already felt better.

Wednesday came and I still hadn't heard back from the doctor's office. I call the doctor's office in the morning and the answering service tells me they are not in the office yet. I call later on and I told they are at lunch...twice. Then I call again in the evening to find out they close early that day. I then call their suburban location and get a hold of another nurse who was able to tell me the doctor approved my request for PT and she'll send it over.

Thursday morning I have the script from the doctor and call PT. Their schedule is booked for the rest of the week, so I'll have to come in Tuesday. Now I start to worry. I'm basically losing a week here. I won't be doing a 12 mile long run in this condition. Then I remind myself what Kim A. has told me all too many times - as long as you have a 20 miler under your belt, the runs during the taper don't matter.

Thursday night I go back to the massage therapist where he's able to loosen up my calf muscle and I continue to stretch it out. I do a two mile light run that evening and it tender, but not painful.

Saturday I go out on a run on my own. I'm fearful I can't or shouldn't push a 12 mile run on a bumb wheel, so I go out on my own to see what I can do. I end up run/walking about six miles. I am frustrated, but I try not to let those thoughts linger. It's still bothering me, but it's bothering me less. That's good.

Tuesday I get in to the PT and she works her magic. Thursday I return. More magic.

The following Saturday I go out to run a great 8 miler, my last long run before the marathon.

I continue to stretch and go to PT, but I feel much better.

I'm good to go.

Hello, Achilles

Yay! I crossed the finish line of fort2base.

I ran a fast race. I was happy.

My left Achilles tendon on the other hand, was pretty pissed off. I had determined it was my achilles by doing what any one does when they have something wrong medically - ask the internet. The trick with asking the internet is to not ask just one source. One source may tell you not to run (and truthfully, who can follow that advice?). Too many sources will lead you to believe your injury could cause death. Two or three sources may be just right.

I'm pretty sure it happened somewhere up the climb of that large hill that I refused to walk up. Maybe the other runners had it right.

Injuries, to a certain extent, are second nature in distance running. It's not a question of 'if' but 'when.'

Post fort2base I decided to take a few days off, eat some pizza and drink some beers. Oh, and visit the foam roller. Who thought I could do a 9:35 for 11.5 miles anyway?

Around lunch time on Tuesday I was getting restless. My lower left leg was tight and my achilles was puffy. From what I had read, you can run with an achilles injury, just as long as it's not severe.  How was I going to find out if it was severe? Go out on a run. So I did just that. Sort of.

I ran for about a mile and a half, then walked. Then it got tighter. I stretched it out and tried running again. But I couldn't loosen it up. After some short, slow runs and more walking, I called it a day.

For the next few days, I would RICE (rest, ice, compress, elevate) to get me to Sunday, CARA's Ready to Run 20 Miler.

Revenge of the Foam Roller

The foam roller and I were seeing each other for awhile last summer.

Then we broke up.

I didn't miss the foam roller.

Dating a foam roller isn't all that exciting.

While you're dating, it's like, I guess the foam roller does something for me.

After you've been dating for awhile, you think you can do without the foam roller.

But he always shows you in the end.

A first date with a foam roller after you've been on a break is like asking for continuous charlie horses given at unbearable pressure.

The foam roller [almost] makes you scream and cry due to the shear amount of pain it brings to your over-exercised IT band.

Damn you, IT band.

And we thought we could live without the foam roller?

He showed us, didn't he?

Date with a Foam Roller

This is a foam roller.



To the naked eye, it is a simple piece of equipment used for stretching. The foam roller is actually a torture device. Manufacturers of foam rollers will try to convince you with their advertising that foam rolling is fun.

See exhibit A:




No one, in the history of humans using the foam roller, has ever smiled when doing so.

Why you ask? Because the foam roller elicits pain. Pain that you were not aware you had until you rolled on it. Sometimes the pain makes you sweat from places you didn't know you could and say four letter words your Mom wouldn't be happy to hear you say.

After the 13 miler Saturday, I did not foam roll. I should have when I felt good. Instead, I've been foam rolling every night this week. My IT band is sore again.

I may be able to one-up the weather, but no one will ever one-up a foam roller.