2010 in Review

I ended my 2010 where I started it - Baltimore. Although it wasn't really a race (until halfway through when Mike "Zero" and I realized that there were two Santa's in front of us) - I did "participate" in the Celtic Solstice 5 miler in Baltimore today. Going to Baltimore feels sort of like seeing an ex-girlfriend these days - you feel a little awkward, you remember the good times more than the bad, and you are a little disappointed that they seem to be doing so well without you. As an extra treat - Ryan announced his award for me this year - which was the "Lebron James, Taking his talents to South Beach Award". Ryan obviously hasn't spent much time in Winchester.

My first race of 2010 wasn't really a race either - it was a modified tempo run. I got 3rd at the Al Lewis 10 miler in a snow filled Rock Creek Park - running a 58:10. In February I was posting poetically about the great Snowpocalypse of 2010. February also included a huge victory for Falls Road at the Club Challenge 10 miler in Columbia, MD. I was 4th place in an unexpected 54:08.

In March I ran a couple 5k's - the Kelly Shamrock 5k (15:42 - 4th place) and I had a lot of fun running against some college kids at the Maryland Invitational (15:36 - 5th place). In April I said hello to Winchester and ran probably my most surprising race in many years. Going into Cherry Blossom I wasn't sure what I was going to do - I had put in some good training that winter and spring - but, I was feeling a little out of things since our move two weeks earlier to Winchester. Like most of my most successful races - I went out conservatively. I felt stronger and stronger as I went - eventually running a post 30-year-old PR for me 52:47 and 29th place.

May brought my first race in Winchester - Apple Blossom 10k. Apple Blossom is an event like nothing I've ever seen before. The events are spread out over a week - Kendra and I decided to go all in - we went to the Queen's coronation (daughter of the governor), fire truck parade, Jimmy Buffet cover band concert (with brief appearance by grand marshal Val Kilmer), and the big parade. Yes - there are two parades with lots of queens and princesses. In the middle of all this madness they put on a decent 10k race. It was the end of my spring season and I was a little burnt out - I managed a 33:10 and 9th place. At the end of the month I ran a finger tingling awful 4:40 in the Runners Retreat sponsored Loudon Street Mile - my first race that I ran in a Runners Retreat singlet (which is what led to my Lebron James award).

I took off June from racing as I started to put in some serious miles in preparation for Chicago. At the beginning of July I ran another race in Winchester - the Liberty 5k - getting blown away in the first 100 meters by about 20 teenagers - but, using my wily veteran tactics to come away with 3rd place in 16:15. I also made my way to the Northern lower peninsula of Michigan for the Great Lakes Relay - my second time running this 10 person 3 day relay across the state. It was a lot of fun - kind of like camp for adults.

In August I ran the Leesburg 20k - wanting to run marathon pace - I ran the time I had hoped, but it wasn't comfortable (4th place - 1:09:12). August was crazy hot (actually June and July weren't much better). I have few regrets in running - but running the Drake Well Marathon at the end of a hot summer and high mileage was probably not smart. But on the other hand - it was a lot of fun. I ended up winning this race in Titusville, PA. Winning is always fun - but this was even more fun because the last half was out and back - so, I got to hear encouragement and give encouragement to all the other runners (less than 100 people finished). I ran about 10 minutes faster than what would have been prudent (2:45:33) and jumped in the car for the long drive home. One week later I reported in my blog that "it's a week later and I haven't been able to shake some soreness in my gluts and hamstrings." The title of my next post was "The Lost Week". I went from running 100 mile weeks to hardly being able to make it a few blocks.

By the middle of September I discovered the miracle drug of ibuprofen. It seemed to help clear things up and I ran a near pain free Philly Distance R&R half marathon. I ran it in marathon pace (1:14:46) - but, I felt pretty decent. The date I'd been eyeing for close to a year (10/10/10) was not a good one for me - but the pain was inspirational in at least one way. I ran pretty well through 15k, but as my group slowly started to leave me, my hamstring got worse, the sun started to beat down, and I felt some intestinal distress - I decided it was time to shut it down. I still finished - but over 20 minutes slower than planned (2:52). I wasn't the only one who had a tough day - many guys who trained hard throughout the summer didn't even make it to the line - it could have been worse (I guess).

November was a month of recovery - I started seeing a chiropractor which helped somewhat - but, four months after the initial injury I still feel some pain in my right glute/hamstring. In December I provided a warm body for Runners Retreat at the USATF Club Championship - running out of shape against some of the best post-collegiate runners in the country isn't a good thing to do if you're looking for an ego boost.

January starts something new - training for a triathalon. I have no idea what the heck I'm doing - but, I guess that's part of the adventure.

Period of Adjustment

My hamstring/glute has been improving - in that it hasn't stopped me from running, but it certainly hasn't completely gone away either. A few weeks ago I talked with Runner Retreat's owner Mark Stickley about my issue. He said that he had something similar several years ago and the only thing that worked was getting worked on by a chiropractor. I've never gone to a chiropractor - and it kind of made me nervous, but I trust Mark - he was a sub-29 minute 10k and 62 minute half-marathon guy. So, I took the card of the chiropractor he uses and made an appointment.
Although I wasn't sure what to think - Dr. Voll seemed to know what he was talking about. He is a runner and has a lot of experience working with runners. So - he knows that telling a runner to completely go cold turkey is pretty much not going to happen unless the runner has a broken leg or something. After doing a thorough examination he gave me a plan - which included an adjustment plan, some foot drills, and although he didn't ask me to stop running he did ask me to back off the total volume and intense workouts for a few weeks.
The day after my first adjustment on Friday I felt incredible. My hamstring/glute felt better than it had in over two months - and maybe I was imagining things, but I felt like I had more energy and even a more positive mood. Of course I ended up pushing my run a little too hard and started feeling it again after ~4 miles. This week I'll go back for a few more adjustments - they actually aren't too expensive and if they continue to show this much improvement they will be worth it.
Anybody else have experiences either positive or negative with Chiropractors?

There are no miracles in the marathon

The marathon doesn't care if your dog died or if it's your birthday. It doesn't care if you think you should be a X:XX marathoner. It doesn't care if you trained for five months only to find yourself injured or sick. It doesn't care if the weather is 20 degrees above normal. It doesn't care about your hopes or aspirations. It doesn't care if you've sacrificed beer and burgers and fries for a few less pounds.

The marathon doesn't care about the dark days - days of changing into your running clothes after work only to decide after a few painful strides that running today would make things worse rather than better; days when you give up because the heat of the summer makes your planned workout impossible; days when you know after only a few miles of a race that today will not be your day.

The marathon doesn't care except for the hundreds of thousands of people supporting you along the way; except for the well wishes from friends and family; except for the deep bonds made with the few members of your tribe who truly understand. The people who understand dodging cars, listening to unoriginal comments from adolescents, waking up way too early to beat the heat for a two hour run witnessed by nobody except for the trail and your watch.

There are no miracles in marathons unless you count the blind and lame running free. There are no miracles in marathons except for a society increasingly marked by obesity, sloth, and selfishness celebrating tens of thousands of people committing to pushing themselves to their physical limits and helping others along the way.

The marathon might not hand out miracles like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny but marathons provide an opportunity for the everyday miracles that we take for granted to be observed and recognized.

That's why even though I had a rough day yesterday, I know I'll eventually be back for more. Eventually I'll look at a calendar and plan six months of training. But for now I drink a few strong ales and rest. For now, it's over.

Runner tracking for Chicago

There are a few ways you can track runners' progress this Sunday. If you want to have the marathon send you text messages you can sign up here. I'm sure they will also have a web based tracker on the site as well. Just remember that these trackers aren't 100% timely or accurate. With 40,000 people running the system can sometimes be slow.

Week of Chicago

Although my hamstring/glute issue went the wrong direction - which led me to more time on the elliptical and stationary bike - I still should be good to go next Sunday. I'm going to start up a ibuprofen regimine again tomorrow. I expect it will work as well as it did before Philly.

Obviously this is not what I envisioned 6 months ago - I don't want to come limping into Chicago after six weeks of dealing with an injury. But Philly went pretty well - and I've kept up my cardio on the elliptical and bike, but I won't know how things are going to go until I get out there.

On the positive side - the weather should be nice and cool. I'm planning on writing a few more posts this week about Chicago and the marathon. Being injured is no excuse for being boring.

Touch & Go

Although I was able to run more this week than I have in a month, I still can feel a little tweak between my glute and hamstring. With two weeks to go I am certain that I'll be on the starting line - but it's more than a small mystery what will happen after the gun sounds.

I probably made a mistake by running a 17 miles with Kevin Shirk - the best runner in Winchester. He dropped me about 12 miles into the run - after 14 I jogged it in. Not exactly a confidence builder.

I have to rely on the fact that the miles I put in this summer and the training I've been doing the last few years will be there when I need it - say, around the 20 mile mark. The mystery of the marathon is part of the allure - I'll have a little more than I bargained for on 10/10/10.

Last Week
Monday: 45 minutes bike
Tuesday: 6.5 miles
Wednesday: 13 miles
Thursday: 7 miles
Friday: 4 miles
Saturday: 6.5 miles
Sunday: 17 miles
Total: 54 miles

This week
Monday: 7 miles
Tuesday: 4 miles
Wednesday morning: 4 miles
Wednesday evening: 12 miles 2X2mi Tempo 2 min rest
Thursday: 10.5 miles
Friday: 6.5 miles
Saturday: 14 miles 2X(3mi easy 3 mi tempo)
Sunday: 8 miles
Total: 66 miles

Thank you Andrew Dunlop, Stewart Adams, John Nicholson, Jeff Wilson, & Colin Burrows

These men created one of the great wonder drugs of the 20th century - Ibuprofen. I'm not a pill popper - but as I tested out my glute and hamstring on a run last Friday I thought I'd try taking ibuprofen afterwards. I woke up the next morning actually feeling better (why didn't I do this 2 weeks ago!). I ran again on Saturday even further - while taking ibuprofen three times during the day. I felt good enough Saturday evening to decide I should try to run my planned half-marathon on Sunday. I had run a total of 45 miles over the last 18 days - hardly anything - but I felt that my elliptical and stationary bike workouts had maintained most of my fitness.

On Sunday morning I still felt a little tight - but the sharp pain in my right glute had dulled. I figure that the inflammation must have been pushing up against a nerve. In both the massages I had since the problem first started they said that my left hamstring/glute was actually tighter than my right - most likely this means that the inflammation was entirely the problem - there wasn't any real muscle damage as I had feared.

As I was warming up, feeling the excitement of such a large race, there was a little part of me that thought - "hey, let's just see what happens out there - maybe you could still break 70 minutes!" I quickly nipped that in the bud. Today was about finding out what 2:30 marathon pace (~5:40 per mile) felt like for 13.1 miles. As the race started I stayed relaxed - I really had no idea what I was running pace wise - but I knew that I needed for it to feel pretty easy. The first mile was 5:36 - not bad. For the next several miles I yo-yoed between high 5:40's and high 5:30's. I'm not sure if this was due to my lack of running recently - or if the markers were off a bit.

I felt pretty comfortable up until around 10 miles - after that point I was able to keep the pace fine - but it was more of an effort than I should have been feeling if I were running a full marathon. I ended up finishing in 1:14:36 - probably just about what I would want to go through the half-way point at Chicago.

The plan for this week will be to get my legs back under me without doing anything too crazy. I'm planning on running 63 miles this week which is more than I've run in the last three weeks combined - but it's half of what I ran five weeks ago (how quickly things can change) - so it should be fine. I'm going to keep up the ibuprofen regimen for a few more days - although this morning I don't seem to have any problems with my right glute/hamstring. I'm pretty sore otherwise - but that should be expected since I haven't had anything close to the effort I ran yesterday in quite awhile.

Last Week
Monday - Wednesday All bike and elliptical (45 minutes - 1 hour 20 minutes)
Thursday: 3 miles mixed in with elliptical
Friday: 4 miles
Saturday: 7 miles
Sunday: 17 miles - Philadelphia Rock & Roll half-marathon 1:14:36
Total: 31 miles

This Week
Monday: 4 miles
Tuesday: 6.5 miles
Wednesday: 10.5 miles
Thursday: 7 miles
Friday: 6.5 miles
Saturday: 18 miles 2X(5 miles easy 3 miles tempo)
Sunday: 10.5 miles
Total: 63 miles