Week 5

Injured.

Angrily injured.

After feeling the buttock and hamstring pain on Sunday, I took Monday and Tuesday off, with some stretching and weight lifting instead. Monday was so bad that I could barely walk without serious limping. On Wednesday I was feeling better and thought I'd try a run with one of our track athletes who was also nursing an injury. Though the pain came and went through the run, it was a hobbling, slow run. The next morning, I attempted a run that went about the same, but more pain towards the end, and limping back home. This was definitely not normal soreness and it wasn't subsiding as I had expected it to. So I decided to bite the bullet and rest it, maintaining hot/cold alternations and lots of foam rolling.

Three more days of no running, but ellipticalling instead. I felt some tension while on the machines, but no pain, thankfully. This would be a sufficient substitute until I could resume running. Meanwhile, I researched. Relentlessly. And tossed between piriformis syndrome and a fractured sacrum, both of which could mean a long recovery. I made an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon friend who thought there could be a hip issue. I researched Active Release Technique (ART), and began trying to target the precise point of the problem. I saw a massage therapist friend on campus who gave me a brief massage and assessed my muscle tension. In the past, I was never good at healing and recovery, always trying to train through the pain. But this was different - I am older, I am recovering from childbirth, and I am considerably wiser than my twenty-something self. I was going to recover like a champ.

When I saw the orthopedic surgeon, he confirmed what I thought: the piriformis muscle. He tested my mobility for strain and pain; I was hardly feeling pain while walking, stairs, elliptical, or weight lifting, but felt horrible pain if I tried to run. Impact injury. He said I was basically doing everything I should be doing, and that I needed to be patient and continue treating it until the pain is gone. My May 4th half marathon could possibly not happen. I was more worried about affecting my September full marathon. Thankfully, he said, there didn't seem to be anything worse going on. Just a slow, painful muscle strain. I'm not as young as I used to be, and my body is not going to heal as quickly as it once did.

Friday will be an appointment with an ART specialist - maybe he will profoundly help my issue. Until then, I will continue treating it with rolling, hot/cold treatment, ibuprofin, careful movements, and as many healing foods as I can.

I have decided to cut back my projected mileage, and return to my pre-baby marathon training plan, and lessened weekly miles. This isn't the time to make a major change in my capacity as a runner; I need to focus on just returning to where I was before. Instead of peaking at 80 miles/week, I will peak around 55 miles/week. Starting with about 33 miles/week when I do return to running. This move actually feels quite good: comfortable, familiar, and I know I am capable of doing it. But slowly. Patiently. Gradually. It is frustrating not being able to launch myself into sub-elite training right off the bat, but it HAS only been 6 months since Jack was born, and I really didn't give my body what it needed to adjust into running effectively.

Lesson learned. Moving forward, carefully.

Week 4

This week was the first week that my running went as planned. I actually enjoyed the fartleks quite a bit, and found my pace ahead on the intervals. My legs felt stronger, and my "easy pace" is finally getting faster - in the 8:30/mile range. Highest mileage per week so far, at 48. All in all, a fantastic week!

Until Sunday's long run.

On Saturday, I felt a little bit of lower right back pain forming while on my easy 9 miler. This has happened in the past when my mileage starts increasing, and usually goes away. Didn't think anything of it. While chaperoning the Prom, I cut loose and danced a little bit, and felt the back pain then too. Just figured I am older than I used to be, and dancing with the teens was maybe not such a good idea. Sunday morning, I laced up the Mizunos for a long progression run, with some acceleration in the last 10 minutes. This run was going very well, and though at the turn around point I did feel a little heaviness in my legs, I held pace and felt great. But with 3 miles left to go, the lower back pain returned. And began to worsen, working its way into my glutes.

After hobbling back from the 12 miler, I could barely walk. Icing my back felt good, but the pain was worsening. It took away my breath as I put pressure on my right leg, which subsided somewhat when I used the roller, but returned shortly later. This was worse than my aches and pains of the past, yet the onset was not as sudden as a typical injury.

Therein lies the elephant in the room....slow onset injury....overuse injury....

I had most likely increased my mileage too quickly, by about 25% in one week. Wayyyyyy too much. On top of that, I have been neglecting strength training since going back to work and not having the hours in the day to get in a morning run plus an afternoon strength workout. This was a huge mistake, especially since in coming back from pregnancy, I had likely lost considerable muscle strength that had kept me healthy before. More loss than I had realized.

Now is the process of healing my back and glutes - likely a sciatic nerve problem - while adding strength training into my routine, and taking the mileage a little easier over the next few weeks.

Morale of the story: don't neglect strength training, runners! You MUST ensure that your frame is strong enough for the running stresses you are putting on it! It is so easy for us to forget the importance of this.

Week 3

Despite starting out the week with a sore throat and headache, I somehow managed to *mostly* continue my running schedule, with only slight modifications. Though on Monday's run, I felt strange tension in my shoulders and that horrible pain under my collarbone after about 30 minutes of running. Has anyone else experienced this? I think it happens when I am less in shape and my breathing is heightened. But it seemed to go away on my other runs. It was great to run with the track girls on Wednesday, in the warm sunshine and at a nice tempo pace. Then, my first fartlek on Friday! Not a terribly difficult one, and it felt good to get some speedwork in. Sunday was a very nice long run with a 10 minute progression at the end. I didn't do the last 10 minutes, but the second to last 10 minutes, so that I was on the trail and not the road during the faster pace. I think my body is adapting nicely to the change in training.

It's funny how much I don't want to lace up and run when my alarm goes off, yet how wonderful I feel for the rest of the day when I go out and get it done. It feels so good to be training again!

Week 2

It's a good feeling to finally regain some sense of strength in my legs as my base building trudges on. I always look forward to the fundamental phase of training in which fast workouts start to occur more frequently and I can feel the potential for big fitness gains in the near future. Week 2 was starting to feel that way, until I had to take two days in a row off due to my husband being out of town (I usually run in the early morning, when my husband can watch our infant son) and my being on dorm duty. It is SO frustrating to not be able to run because I have to sit around all day in case students need to sign out to go off campus. But such is the job I have and the life we chose here, though we will soon be changing that life again.

On Tuesday, I actually got to do my first double run, my normal morning run and an afternoon run with the track team. It was so refreshing and nice to get in an easy run with the girls, and on a beautiful day to boost. After being on duty Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday, I took off on an 11 mile long run, the longest since I've resumed training. The last 20 minutes were supposed to be a slightly quickened tempo pace, but I was starting to feel cramping under my collarbone, which has happened to me in the past early in training. My pace slowed a bit towards the end.

Next week is my first fartlek!

Week 1

About to be done with Week 1 of my blogging about running....which also happens to be Week 1 (out of 20) of my training for the VIA Marathon.

In terms of soreness, so far so good. I have felt very little soreness since I have been slowly getting back into training (four weeks of steady running again, since surgery and baby recovery). The typical "sedentary stiffness" has set it, a term I coined for the post-running stiffness we feel after sitting or laying down for a period of time, like first thing in the morning. Some of that, but no soreness, yet.

I haven't started quality workouts yet, but my first fartlek is next week and my first progression run is tomorrow. Will be trying the Mizunos again for the first time in a while, since my progression run will include some faster pacing at the end.

I am surprised at how slow my 'easy pace' is, compared to what it was. When I started training for the CIM in 2012, my easy pace was around 8:35/mile. Right now, 8:35 feels pretty damn fast, and my easy pace is averaging around 9:10/mile. Discouraging, to say the least. But, as Sarah Hall says, "trust the process"!

Mileage this week: 34

Welcome!

Greetings, friends and strangers. I'll be using this blog to record my personal progress as a runner, aspects of the training process, races, gear, balancing training with life, and everything in between. This is by no means an original idea, just about every runner likes to blog about themselves these days. But it serves an important purpose for me, self-reflection, which is key to improvement in athletics (and just about anything else). So I hope you get something out of it, but more than likely I will get more out of it.

Some background on me and my running history...

I grew up mostly in Washington state, Spokane area to be more specific, and was interested in running from a young age. Just about every year my family participated in the Bloomsday Race, and I frequently tried to set up little running events with my friends at school. By high school, I was focused in on running Track and Field, but didn't try Cross Country until I was a Junior and attending boarding school at The Orme School in Arizona, my mother's alma matter. Like just about everyone who goes out for Track, I thought I was a sprinter, and I was wrong. A teacher and coach at Orme convinced me to try distance running, and found that I was surprisingly good at it, even with little fitness base or training. I the n became the top runner on the Cross Country team, and dominated the open 400m in Track and Field.

College took me to St. Petersburg, Florida, where I studied marine science. Eckerd College had a maritime Search and Rescue team - one of a kind for a college - which I spent all four undergraduate years participating in. My running tapered off; I did not compete for the college team or run road races during those years. But towards the end of my senior year, I ran in a 5K - the first one since high school - and it rejuvenated my love of running.

After graduating from Eckerd in 2005, I became a science teacher in St Pete and started slowly increasing my running volume again. I decided I would run a marathon in the next few years, and also took on karate as a fitness activity. Karate gave me great balance and flexibility, but as I learned in the years thereafter, tends to be physiologically antagonistic to running. The year 2007 was busy for me, as I finished my master's degree, took additional biology coursework at USF, and got married. Nevertheless, I pursued both running and karate actively, and resumed competing in races again in fall of 2008. I also became an assistant Cross Country coach, and head Track and Field coach, at a high school I started teaching at that year. By fall of 2009, I earned my first degree black belt in Karate, and decided to focus more on my running.

The Walt Disney World Marathon in January 2010 was my first marathon. I had set my sights on qualifying for Boston - I needed to run 3:40:00 - but missed by 16 minutes, finishing in 3:56:01. Still, not too bad for my first marathon. That year, I continued to race varying distances, trying to improve my versatility as a runner. I joined the St Pete Road Runner's club and ran with a group at least twice per week - this turned out to be the most beneficial part of my training, aside from trying to keep up with the high school runners I coached. I ran a lifetime PR in the 5K that spring with a time of 19:56. At this time, I was a strict follower of Daniels Running Formula, the principles of which appealed to my scientific background and the applications of which were very effective.

In 2011, I slightly improved my marathon time at my second marathon, the Melborne Beaches Marathon on the East coast of Florida, finishing in 3:54:03 with a strained hamstring. That year proved challenging, as I was in the process of a divorce and sought out a new landscape for my teaching, coaching, and running. I took a teaching job at a boarding school in Monterey, California, where I continued to coach Cross Country and expanded my own running much farther than in the past.

That fall, I ran in the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, having barely trained for the race, finishing 3:55:55. For such a hilly course and having not properly trained, I was surprised that the race went so well, yet was tired of finishing in approximately the same times in every marathon. But I was very busy at my new school, and still didn't focus in on my training.

Spring of 2012, I ran the Big Sur Marathon after sustaining a stress fracture in my right foot, and again, hadn't properly trained. This is likely the hilliest course in the country, and I ran a slow 4:02:18. That summer, I re-married, and my husband and step-son moved in with me on the boarding school campus, and I started researching Pete Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning methods. Integrating what I liked about Daniels and what I was learning about Pfitzinger, I set my sights on the California International Marathon which ran in early December that year. This was the most challenging training I had ever done, requiring me to get up between 4:30-5:00am most days to fit in my training with an otherwise busy schedule. I ran the Big Sur Half Marathon that November, two weeks prior to my big race, and set a very much improved PR of 1:39:33. The Boston qualifying standards had changed the year before and I needed to run 5 minutes faster, finishing under 3:35:00. That December, my family and I drove up to Sacramento,which was experiencing the only torrential downpour of rain it had seen in decades. I had a strong headwind most of the race, which seemed to counteract the net downhill drop of the course. But I finally succeeded in qualifying for Boston - barely! - finishing in 3:34:56.

2013 was a very different kind of year for me, as a runner and a person. My husband and I joyfully found out that I was pregnant in early February, with a due date in mid October. I continued to run as much as I could, until around twelve weeks, when pelvic pain began to set in. I cut back my training volume and stuck to soft surfaces, trying every belly band and support structures I could, but the pain persisted. At my doctor's advice, I stopped running for the remainder of my pregnancy, instead maintaining my cardio fitness on elliptical machines and continuing to lift weights. By early September, my pregnancy weight gain was lower than normal, and ultrasound showed that my baby boy was on the small side, but otherwise healthy. I stopped working out at that point, aside from daily walking around the track. It was very difficult for me to not be running, as running was always my personal source of daily strength and mind-clearing. But pregnancy was temporary, and I knew I would be back in my running shoes soon. When Boston registration rolled around, I nervously submitted my entry, knowing that I would be racing only 6 months post-baby. But due to massive support in lieu of the bombings at the marathon last year, the entry pool was filled to capacity, and my narrowly-gained qualifying time was not enough for me to get into the race. I shrugged it off, and knew I would re-qualify and just try again next year. Our beautiful son was born on October 6th, and we couldn't be happier. I didn't quite wait the full six weeks to resume running, but did wait at least three. The return to running was easier than I thought, though I was significantly slower, even at my easy pace. I decided to register for the OC Marathon in Southern California, early May of 2014.

In January of 2014, my doctor discovered a lesion on my cervix that needed to be removed via LEEP procedure. While this wasn't a complicated or severe form of surgery - a short outpatient procedure - it would set my training back by about four weeks. At this point, given how I had been feeling running, I made the decision to run the OC half marathon instead, and consider a later marathon to BQ for Boston 2015. I recovered nicely from the LEEP, and have since resumed my training. My sights are now set on the VIA Marathon (formerly Lehigh Valley Marathon) in Allentown, PA on September 7th. My goal is to run a 3:20:00 or less....we shall see....

Meanwhile, my family and I have decided to move back to Florida this summer, so that I may stay home and raise our baby boy, and to be closer to my husband's family. I plan on taking my running to the next level, doing several twice-a-day runs - some with the jogging stroller - and focus on my writing...when the little guy is napping that is. The Florida climate will be a challenge to re-adjust to; there is no more perfect climate for running than the Central Coast of California, and I will certainly miss it.

See there? Even just writing this lengthy biography of my running history has helped me to reflect on where I have been and where I hope to go. Thanks for reading!