Bailing and Baking

There is a Frankenstorm coming, have you heard? Of course you have. My FB newsfeed is almost as sick of it as it is of the election (seriously who cares who wins at this point, just shut up about it!)

I admit when I signed up for FOTM a few months back I did see that it was a four hour drive. But hey, that was months ago and its just four hours. Totally doable!

I really was all prepared to make the trip. Run 20 miles Saturday morning, leave around 3pm, drop the dogs off at the boarders, drive to western Maryland, get a hotel, wake up ass early, run 31 something miles, drive home. And then this crappy storm happened. And even though its not really supposed to affect the race location (I'm not afraid to run in bad weather if that's what you're thinking), it would affect the ride home. And honestly the last thing I want to do after running a 50 mile weekend is sit in the car for what would likely be more than 4 hours with traffic and slow speeds.

Bad weather and running? No prob

So, sadly we are bailing on the race. It might be a different story if both of us weren't planning on running, but since we would both be physically and mentally exhausted its probably not a safe idea to traverse windy, wet roads for so many hours when neither of us are on out A-game.

I'm sad to miss my first 50k since February. I'm said to enjoy/suffer through a new-to-me course. Most of all I'm sad to finally meet Abbi and Alyssa in real life. I guess I will just have to continue incessantly stalking them on their blogs until JFK weekend.

I'm also sad that I will still be running 30 miles tomorrow, except solo and locally. I am going to have to find somewhere new to run nearby because I cannot take another 20+ miles in my neighborhood. I. Will. Lose. It.

The good thing about bailing on our trip means that until I have to deal with tomorrow morning's run, I can spend my time sinking into my couch cushions and shoving as much food as possible down my throat. I even felt inspired to bake:

Ok, maybe not bake as much as emptying-cake-mix-and-3-other-ingredients-into-a-bowl-and-stirring. Whatever, at least they look nice

The Haunted Body: Tale of a Ghostly Injury

Get ready dear readers, for a truly scary story....

It was All Hallows Eve and Tom was just putting on the last piece of reflective gear so he could head out for a short run. The big race was coming up. He had been training for four months already. He was reaching peak week: sleeping less, eating more, and running longer. It would be well worth it though, once he strode across that finish line. 20 minutes into his run he felt an old familiar twinge. The twinge turned into a dense thobbing, the dense throbbing into a sharp pain. Soon he was walking, hobbling home. Passing trick-or-treaters shouted compliments on his well done zombie runner costume. Alas, it was no costume. For Tom was being haunted. An old injury had returned!!!!



Source

I told you guys. Spooky, scary stuff. I have chills.

Seriously though, if you are a runner, getting injured is probably in your top five fears (along with maybe accidently crapping your pants mid-run or bonking in a race). Injuries suck. Plain and simple. They take a toll on your body and your mind. Suddenly you question what you might be doing wrong and how you can fix it. Today I want to talk not just about injuries in general, but old injuries.

Confession: I am being haunted...by an old injury.

Last October I started to have some pain in my left calf. I kept running on it and then ended up taking about 8 days completely off running and it went away.

Fast forward to the end of January. The pain reappeared. I kept running longer, faster, harder. I ended up having to take six full weeks off (talk about a nightmare!). I started going to PT. I crosstrained. I rested. After six weeks I ran my first mile and built my mileage slowly from the ground up again.

Fast forward to today. I'm putting in 50-70 miles per week. Most of the time they are comfortable and enjoyable. Then all of a sudden I feel throbbing or stubborn pain in my shin. I slow down. I ice, I compress, and stretch. It disappears for days. Randomly it comes back. It never appears in full force as it did six months ago, but its there, waiting, bidding its time, ready to freak me out again at the most opportune moment.

Do old injuries ever really go away?

Truth - I don't know. Shortly after I first started running, I had some knee pain and had to stop running for 3 or so days (and I thought that was bad). I switched to minimalist shoes and haven't had any knee pain since. I don't even worry about it. Its just gone. The shin thing hasn't seemed to fully go away, however, and I'm starting to doubt it ever will. It makes me think that I will deal with this for the rest of my running career.

Am I actually in pain or am I just going crazy?

Speaking for myself on this one - most definetly both. Sometimes its hard to tell whether the pain is in my mind because I'm mentally focused on that area of my body or if it actually hurts.

How can you prevent old injuries from returning?

(Just a note - I am not a doctor, so I can't really tell you what works and what doesn't. I can only share my personal experience)

This training cycle has taught me a lot about listening to my body. If there was ever a day when something wasn't feeling right I lowered my mileage or went extra slow. I've foam rolled every single night and iced every single day whether I'm in pain or not. I wear compression gear on a daily basis (you know all the super cool people are wearing Zensah sleeves under they work pants) and take a multivitamin and a calcium supplement. And I still do my PT exercises every other night that I learned seven months ago.

Running is hard work and sometimes I don't feel like taking extra time out of my day to do strength training or foam roll, but its always worth it!

So tell me, are you being haunted? Have you ever had a running injury that has really completely gone away?

JFK Training: Week 16

Wow, 16 weeks already!? Hard to believe I started this training cycle the week after my honeymoon ended in the dead heat of the summer. It seems so long ago.

Monday 10/15:

REST

Damn straight I rested post-PR marathon!

Chloe is an expert at resting - I just follow her lead

Tuesday 10/16:

6.0 mile run 4.24 mile run
15.65 mile bike

I woke up ready to run, but my calves were still feeling super tired from Saturday's marathon, so I chopped two miles off and called it a day. Better safe than sorry!

Wednesday 10/17:

6.01 mile run
15.65 mile bike

I waited until the evening to try running again. It felt much better than Tuesday morning, but the bottom of my feet were still hurting as if I had been standing for hours (instead of staring at my computer all day like a champ).

Thursday 10/18:

6.0 mile run AM
5.4 mile run PM

A slow and steady 5 am run before work and then another run during lunch around noon. Its kind of nice to run when the sun is still out on a weekday. I'm getting really sick of running in the dark!

Thursday dinner I finally made my own spaghetti squash!

Friday 10/19:

7.28 mile run

Hello humidity! Weren't we past this? Its a shame because my legs finally felt back to normal, but mentally the last thing I wanted to do was run in that skunk weather. Gross!

Saturday 10/20:

20.34 mile run

Sunday 10/21:

20 mile run - Delaware Canal 20-Miler

My back-to-back 20s - a lesson in finding mental and physical strength!

Week 16 Totals

69.27 miles running

31.3 miles biking

I admit that I was seriously considering doing a quick extra mile around the neighborhood on Sunday night to get over 70 miles for the week (because I'm OCD like that), but really, I need to learn to be happy with what I've done. Three quarters of a mile doesn't make a difference. I still feel like a badass for getting through this week, which is my highest mileage ever. Hopefully my badass performance can translate to some badass recovery skills because I've got another big week ahead!

P.S. I don't think I've ever looked more forward to tapering