Freedom Run 8K DNS

I was supposed to run my last local race in this neck of the woods this morning, but due to a neck crick and shoulder spasm that came out of nowhere on Monday night and has lingered to cause pain and a limited range of motion I decided this morning when the time for the last evaluation came to go back to bed instead of going to run 5 miles. It was disappointing, but ultimately 5 miles is not worth the risk right now of not being able to finish my share of the packing and of not being able to carry my luggage on my trip to New York. I'm trying to console myself with thoughts like, "it probably wouldn't have been a PR effort anyway because of the heat" and "the course wasn't that interesting last year." I'll take a walk later today as that seems to help loosen it up, whereas running seems to jar my neck and cause more pain, as I discovered on the treadmill yesterday.

This incident has pretty much confirmed to me, though, that my living room couch is a death trap. We all know that sitting so much is leading to all sorts of health problems, but who gets an injury while lounging on the couch and (to add insult to injury) watching The Spirit of the Marathon?!? Seriously, I was laying on my sofa with my head propped up on my husband's leg for maybe the last hour of the film. When I sat up, I felt a tug and pain in my right shoulder and neck. Then, when I stood up, I realized the pain was getting much worse and not likely to go away in a few minutes.

I do hope it goes away soon, but my experience with back injuries makes me fear that this might be a nagging problem for a while. In the meantime, we're gearing up for a laid-back 4th. We'll probably grill something and drink a couple of beers this evening, but otherwise I'll be spending most of my day trying to avoid moving suddenly while packing up the rest of my clothes and most of my toiletries.

American readers, I wish you a safe and happy holiday today!

Injury Recovery Update and a Race Decision

This weekend I was able to do a 4 mile run.  I had more or less decided that if I could get through a 4 mile run without any pain that I would plan to go ahead and run the 10K that I am registered for next weekend. Going into the run I was cautiously optimistic.

I got up Saturday and met with my running group, which meets up with an even larger group of local runners on Saturdays. Most of them were doing 8 or 9 miles, as their last long run before the Mankato Marathon or Half-Marathon. I had decided that I would just do an out and back 4 milers. My plan was to keep it nice and easy, but I was apparently so excited that I started out a little bit too fast (around a 9 minute mile for the first mile) before I slowed it down for the other 3 miles. I chatted with a running friend on the 2 miles out and they just flew by, as we talked about work and buying running gear for cold weather. I turned back and took a couple of short walk breaks on the return just to be on the safe side with my hip. At the end of the run, my IT band felt tired but I didn't have any pain, so I decided that I'll run the 10K next Saturday and then continue another few weeks of keeping to low mileage and easy running.

The group this past Saturday

My running group got together at our coach's house for breakfast a little later that morning, and in a total blogging fail I took my point and shoot with me but forgot to take a single picture. I was too busy enjoying all the delicious food and chatting with running friends that I hadn't seen much for the past few weeks since my running schedule has been so sporadic because of my injury. It was great to hang out with them and catch up on their training and their lives.

I'm excited to be able to run the 10K this upcoming weekend. After several weeks of minimal running, I'm just really grateful to be able to be able to hit the pavement again. My conditioning has declined after 5 weeks of minimal mileage, and I want to make sure that I don't wind up sidelined again by going out too fast, so I have absolutely no time goals for this race. I just want to have fun and enjoy running it.

I spent most of the rest of my weekend hunkered down and working, so it was a treat to be able to run and hang out with running friends on Saturday morning. What did you do this weekend?  Any races, awesome brunches, or football games?

Sulky McSulkerson

I am sulking.  I spent weeks training for the Chicago Marathon, which a mere four days away, but have been sidelined for the past few weeks because of an ITB injury. I ran two friggin' 18 milers before this happened. I ran countless 4-6 milers and 12 weeks worth of long runs. I know injuries happen, and I know that I will be running again soon. I have tried to keep a positive point of view about all of this, and for the most part I have. But the disappointment I'm feeling this week is bitter.

So I sulk. I'll stop sulking soon, but I'm giving myself permission to feel shitty about this through Sunday.

September in Review

The other day I was thinking about how September had pretty much kicked my ass, when I saw that a friend had posted this image that has been floating around the internets on Facebook. It couldn't have been more timely.

This past month I've pretty much constantly felt like I'm in the middle of one of those tangles with no sense of how to get myself back on track. Then I remembered that one of my goals this month had been to cultivate my risk-taking abilities and my ability to cope with the unexpected and failure. Well, this month has given me that opportunity in spades. So even though some of these thing were not the result of intentional risks and have made me feel pretty crappy. I'm trying to keep the overall goal of developing my ability to deal with adversity in mind and be a bit more reflective and a bit less sulky.

My writing/professional goals for the month were:
- Finish writing up my plan for how I will meet my institution's criteria for the upcoming year. I finished this
- Continue note-taking and outlining a conference paper and a journal article.  I have been making progress but I still don't have a full outline or a complete first draft of either. I'll be carrying this into October.
- Make inquiries about reviewing another book for an academic journal in my field. I have sent out a couple of emails out to book review editors but have yet to hear anything back. If I haven't received a response by the end of next month, I'll make a further inquiry as I puzzle out all that's come my way in September.

Health/Fitness Goals
- Do something at least once a week to cultivate my risk-taking abilities and my ability to deal with things not going quite as planned and/or failure and rejection.  Risks included exploring chiropractic treatment for my injury, taking panda shots, and a couple of pedagogical and professional experiments that met with mixed results. I won't go into the detail. Failing is not fun and rejection stings more than I would like for it to, but I'm glad I'm pushing myself to take more chances.
- Run 130 miles in the month of September.  Of course, with my IT band issues and my decision to DNS Chicago, my mileage came no where near the mark. I only ran 44 miles in September. Instead of September being my highest mileage month of the year, it was my lowest so far of 2011.
- Continue to cross-train and do yoga 2-3 times a week.  I have been good about doing yoga at least 2 times a week - often more. I have been trying to ride my bike to and from campus whenever the weather is nice so that I feel like I'm getting at least a bit of activity.
- Maintain my food journal. I pretty much failed at maintaining my journal this month. This was not planned as a means of cultivating my ability to deal with failure.

So while I had only mixed success with my goals, I've been working plenty of hours and and will refocus my energies in the month to come.

How was your September? Was it a straight line or a knotted up squiggly?

Race Report: Women Run the Cities 10 Mile

This weekend M. and I headed to the Twin Cities for dinner, a night at the opera to see Cosi Fan Tutti, and so that I could participate in the Women Run the Cities 10 Miler. I had registered for this race several months ago and had envisioned it as a fun way to do a taper run heading into the countdown for Chicago. Regular readers know that due to the issues with my IT band, though, I won't be running the Chicago Marathon. The past week or so I've been struggling to come to terms with the fact that this 10 mile race was going to be my last of the fall and have been bouncing back and forth between acceptance and frustrated negativity. I have to admit that part of me secretly hoped that I would line up on race day and nail 10 pain-free miles and that I would be able to put Chicago back on the table. However, that was not the case.

Yesterday morning I woke up after a few hours of sleep, dressed, and downed a cup of coffee and some breakfast. M. and I headed down to Minnehaha Park, where I met up with Lisa of Lisa's Yarns and Kyria of Travel Spot. It was so nice to meet both of these awesome ladies. After a photo op, we lined up to start. A few weeks ago, Lisa and I had discussed running the first couple of miles together, but she has been smoking up the pavement lately and I am obviously not in top form. Kyria is also speedy, so we all wished each other luck and took off to run our separate races.

With Kyria and Lisa before the race

Hundreds of awesome women, ready to run

My hip felt tight from the start and had a dull ache going by mile 2. By mile 5, my hip was cramping. Knowing that I could finish the last 5 miles - having finished several long runs with similar hip pain - and knowing that this was my last race of the fall, I gutted this one out. I was mentally in the zone and, while I did do some walking and stretching to try to shake the hip out and reduce the cramping at various points, my conditioning and overall ability to run by feel are definitely positives to take away from this training season. I don't know what my splits were because my Garmin died earlier this week (RIP, old friend.), but I ran with the 10:30 pacer for a couple of miles and stayed ahead of the 11:00 min/mile pacer the entire time. My official time was 1:45:45, averaging out to a 10:34 min/mile.

With my arms raised in victory, but sadly mostly obscured by another runner

The course was beautiful - starting in Minnehaha Park, winding up to the Franklin Avenue Bridge, and coming back down the East River Parkway, before finishing back in the park. The sun was shining, the leaves were just beginning to change colors; it was cool but not too cold; and it was just an amazing experience to run 10 miles with over a thousand other women. The course had a few challenging inclines, but it felt very fast to me.  There was a beautiful view of the Minneapolis skyline from one of the bridges, and I wished that I had been able to snap a picture of it. Maybe it's because it was my first 10 mile race, maybe it was because I wasn't constantly checking my Garmin, but the miles just ticked by even with the hip pain. Probably, though, it was because the energy on the course was awesome. There weren't many spectators, but the volunteers were fantastic (no fingers in cups here!) and there was a lot of camaraderie among the participants, as a number of teams were running and many friends were running together and chatting away the miles. I would love to do this race again next year!

After the race, I felt good about my time but was hurting pretty badly. I spent a few minutes stretching and drank a bottle of water. Then, M. and I headed out to meet back up with Lisa and Kyria at Victor's 1959 Cafe for a delicious brunch. I refueled on the Cuban scramble and split a mango pancake with my husband. We chatted about running, jobs, travel, and languages. Not surprisingly, I failed to take any photos at brunch, but it was a great time. Afterwards, we headed our separate ways, and I came home to do some class prep for the week and some other work that I needed to get done.

How was your weekend? Any races? Any fantastic meals?

Decisions, Distance, and Perspective

After a couple of shorter runs this week and another trip to the chiro, I have weighed my options and decided not to toe the line at the Chicago Marathon this year. It was a hard decision to make and some tears have been involved, but, when I was feeling that dull ache in my hip at mile 1.5 of a 3 mile run with my dear friend Suzie this morning, I knew that it was the right decision for me right now.

I am still going to run a 10 mile race in the Twin Cities next weekend. I have plans to meet up with Lisa, and I'm really excited to get to meet her in person after reading her blog and exchanging comments and emails for many months. This race will also be my first women's only event, which I think will make it really special. I am going to take it easy and will run/walk it if I need to.  After that, I am going to take some time off from running and let this injury heal. Cycling, thankfully, doesn't hurt and doesn't seem to be aggravating the issue, so I will continue to bike to campus, strength train, do yoga, and try to force myself to get into the pool at my local Y for some aqua jogging and perhaps attempt to swim a lap (I am not a strong swimmer at all). There is a 10K in October that I'm registered for, and if I'm feeling healthy by then I will run it. If I don't, I won't.

In the past twelve months, I have run two 5Ks, a 10K, five half-marathons, and one full marathon. I am grateful that my body let me do all of that. I am optimistic that it will let me run plenty more in the future. That sub 5 hour marathon (and faster) is out there for me, and I will get there. It just won't be in Chicago on October 9th. The important thing is that I get this IT band issue under control so that I'm not sidelined for long.

Thanks so much to everyone who has left comments and sent emails in support as I've struggled with this injury and with coming to terms with what it meant for my fall marathon plans! I really appreciate the runners in my life, both in my local running community and out here on the internets.

The Uncertainty of Injury

Compared to many other problems in the world, a running-related injury is not so bad. It's a frustration and an inconvenience, but I am aware of my position of privilege when I complain about my IT band's decision to flare up.

Four weeks ago, I experienced a hip cramp around mile 11.5 of a planned 16 mile run. I tried to walk it out, shake it out, stretch it out. After some brief relief after each time I stopped to stretch, my right hip would cramp again. I decided to cut the run short and ended it at just over 14 miles. I took an ice bath and followed my normal long run recovery routine and ran fine during my shorter runs over the course of the week that followed. The Saturday on my 18 mile long run, my hip started cramping around mile 14 or 15. It was the same hip and I had the same issue.  I pushed through with a couple of walk breaks and completed the 18 miles. At that point I decided that switching to a pair of Brooks shoes (I had only worn them on the two long runs that I had cramps on) might be to blame and I ran only in my Saucony Kinvaras during the following week. I had ordered a new pair of Saucony Ride 4s, but they hadn't arrived yet so I ran my long run in my Kinvaras last Saturday. By mile 12 I could feel my hip tensing.  By mile 14 it was cramping and shooting pain down the outside of my right leg into my knee and ankle. Since I had run an out and back route, I tried to run 2 minutes, walk 1 minute, and walk up the hills to get back to my car. I felt some pain and tightness on Sunday through Thursday.

My running coach encouraged me to check out the services of a local chiropractor, and several members of my running group expressed shock that I had never been to one before. I made an appointment and went in this past Wednesday. The chiropractor that I saw gave me an examination and declared that my right leg was slightly shorter than my left and that my IT band was tight and inflamed in the hip and upper leg area. He gave me an adjustment, did some ART (active release technique - essentially he held me while I stretched so that the stretch was much deeper than I could get on my own), and applied some kinesio tape. He told me that I should see some improvement before long and that I should take it easy and follow my coach's advice about mileage, and I made a follow up appointment with him for this coming Wednesday.

On Friday I went for a short run.  It had been 6 days since my last run, and I kept it slow and short. I only did 2 miles. My hip did not cramp, but it felt constantly on the verge between tightness and pain.  Saturday I had 14-15 miles on my training schedule, but I could tell that was out of the question.  Yesterday I went for a brisk walk and then did some strength training and stretching at the gym. I felt a little tight before and during the walk, but I had a sort of dull ache in my hip all day after it.

This morning it feels just on the other side of that dull edge, so, rather than run, I'm going to go to the gym to spend about an hour on the exercise bike.

Right now getting to the start line in Chicago is up in the air for me. It's frustrating, but I'm trying to remain optimistic.  I figure I need to get one more solid 18-20 mile long run in sometime in the next two weeks in order to feel confident about my ability to finish the marathon.  This may mean having to sit out the 10 mile race I planned to do in just under two weeks.

For those of you who have suffered from IT band issues, how long did you find that you needed to take off from running before you could run without pain? For those of you who have experienced an injury during the last six weeks of a training cycle, were you able to run your marathon? How did you make it happen? Lots of other cardio and foam rolling?