Future?

My latest injuries have caused me to step back and say what am I doing, how did I get here, what is my new plan?

Last year, I tried to run through an injury until I crashed at Afton, I took a few weeks off to heal up, then trained slowly and carefully towards running my first 50 at Surf the Murph. I succeeded at STM but my training was designed to complete the event, not to race it. It worked but this year I wanted to race at Surf the Murph and I have failed as I will be luck to make the starting line. What went wrong? Well a few things come to mind, inadequate training, no cross training and a bit of bad luck.

So what am I going to do? Good question, normally I would map out a plan or said correctly some great intentions. I would follow it for a day or two and then work or life or my self defense sabotage system would engage and then I would go off plan. I would think I had time to get back to it and then I would sign up for a race that would force me to ramp up my training, I would get to the start line and finish but wouldn't take the time to train properly.

You want an example of this, well 2010 supplies it, I drifted all winter after STM with no plan or goal other than Chippewa, this meant I barely ran in November. In December. Chippewa gets canceled so my motivation goes as winter descended, no reason to run, right? I drift into January and then in February I sign up for McNaughton. Instant accelerated ramp of mileage. I hit the start line in just good enough shape to run the event. I suffer some dehydration, strain a calf/achilles and endure for 15+ hours but finish. I was probably lucky that I didn't do any damage by walking/running on the calf for 20+ miles.

I regroup a bit in May and run a couple of marathons with my wife, those weren't too bad, actually maybe some decent training if only I had added some cross training my summer might have turned out different. I go into FANs feeling confident but have back issues and end up only running for 10 hours ultimately being pulled for hypothermia. I go into Afton knowing that the back will become painful within 5 miles and it flares right on cue and I drop at the halfway point. I then reset myself and go and get some physical therapy, start the strengthening and cross training only to abandon it as I have to ramp my mileage for Superior. Which gets me to the start line with just enough base to think I can go 50 miles. I roll an ankle which leads to straining my calf, add in my insufficient base and I don't make the first cut-off. I thought at the time that if I had had a stronger base I would have made the cut off. That said, in looking back over the last five weeks, my calf took weeks to get to where I could walk let alone run but the ankle is still an issue so maybe I wouldn't have made it even if I had a better base and instead am lucky or was dumb to go as far as I went.

Anyway, where does this self exam leave me?

It means that I have work to do this fall/winter if 2011 is going to turn out differently otherwise I am sure I will repeat it again. So time to look inward and decide where I want to be next year and what am I going to change to get there.

Yet another medical update

Well, another Dr visit, where she confirmed what I thought but didn't really understand, I have a sprained ankle and it will be another 2 to 4 weeks before all things are back to where they should be.

The reason I didn't understand it, is because I really didn't have that much swelling and with the calf shutting me down completely, I thought I was resting but I guess the sprain was a bit more severe than I thought. She told me that the type of injury I have could normally take 4 to 6 weeks and up to 8 weeks. The fact that I ran 20+ miles on it combined with not icing for a day may have put the recovery out longer. My theory is that by continuing to run on it, it kept the swelling down, might not be true but it works for me. My theory would make more sense if the pain was gone now that it has been 4 weeks.

So my plan is still to participate at Surf the Murph (the 25k), notice I say participate as it might be a walk through the park versus a training run or a race but it will beat sitting at home wallowed in self pity lamenting my disappointing fall season. If it wasn't for winter following fall, fall would be my favorite time of the year to run. I love the cooler temps, the beauty of the fall season, snakes disappearing, the normally great trail conditions. Suffice to say, it has been hard to not be able to run.

Anyway, I will give it a few more days and do some cross training and try to run again this weekend and then go from there.

Some good news and some not so good news

The good news is my calf is getting better and I was able to get some runs in. The bad news is the ankle seems worse and my runs barely felt my description of running. I ran/walked/hobbled 3 miles on Friday, 6 yesterday and 3 today.

On Friday, the ankle was tender probably best described as a little sore and bugged me trying to run uphills as did the calf so I walked the inclines. The ankle is weird to me as it has been sore since Superior but it didn't really swell up or bruise much. It feels stiff and hurts when my foot flexes and on landing. Some more good news, I did discover another place to run, I ran along nine mile creek in Bloomington, it looks like you can get in around 5 miles on this trail but it looks like I might be to pick up the river bottoms (flooded out right now) in the future. I started along 106th street and since it's on my way home, it is an alternative for a short run.

On Saturday, I decided to go over to Lebanon Hills and I felt ok for the first couple of miles, the ankle again was tender with every step and subsequent push off causing a flinch, the calf seemed fine, after 2 miles I hit a couple hills and the calf and ankle agreed that I should walk these. The ankle seemed more bothersome, again no strength to push off and pain on each step. I tried to pick it back up over the last 2 miles and I picked up the pace but I more or less just pushed through the pain. I am starting to beat myself up a lot less than I was as I now know why I had issues with my pace at Superior. My calf and ankle just don't allow me to run.

Today, I went back to Lebanon hoping I could work through the ankle, I could not and ended up quitting after hobbling on it for 3 miles. My calf felt good though, so I am happy about that.

So, not sure what this means, but I think I will need to get the ice back out and take it day by day.

He's back

This time the title sums it up, I went for a run, two runs actually, well kind of, sort of, more on that later.

First, for those that ran the Twin Cities Marathon what an absolutely perfect day to run a marathon. I debated coming out to watch but just wasn't up for it. I hate it when I can't run and this was only the second marathon that I did not make it to the starting line and yes, the other time was due to injury as well. I wanted to run it but if I had started it, I would have DNF which maybe I should have had but I would have been miserable around all of those cheery runners knowing the pain that would await me and the likely hood of not being able to finish it.

Back to my weekend, I did however get in a couple of runs which is great news, the first one came Saturday and it marked my first run since Superior. Now I am being generous to call it a run. I wasn't sure I could run so I rode my bike to Lebanon Hills, about 5 miles or so, I figured it would be exercise at least. Then I tried to run, it didn't go so good but it wasn't a disaster. I had pain but it wasn't sharp pain more of a constant strong ache with an occasional sharp twinge. It felt like the calf was cramping and each step caused pain but it wasn't unbearable, now the thought of running 26.2 wasn't too thrilling. I actually did have thoughts that if the run went ok that I would go pick up my packet and go for TCM, that thought left me fairly quickly. I debated making this next comment but since the goal of this blog is for me to look back now and again and remember things I would forget, I felt I should even if I don't like the info but I am sure my wife will smile about it. The pain I had on this run was very close to the pain I had at Superior, so I guess it is possible I did injure it up there. Anyway, I had hoped that I could run around Jensen Lake but decided after a 1/2 mile to turn around so my first run was just a mile. My pace was slow as I had to walk all uphills and when the calf cramped/tightened up which was more often that I would have like. I then biked home so 11 miles of biking and 1 mile of kind of running. I do have to admit, even with the pain, I loved being back in Lebanon Hills.

Today, I woke up a bit sore so I figured I would take the day off. As the day unfolded, I kept looking outside thinking how much I love to run in the fall and that I should go for it, no, I told myself give yourself another day or two. A few hours later, I couldn't take it and I headed over to Lebanon Hills, I decided to wrap up the calf to maybe take some of the tension off. It was an absolutely beautiful fall day and as I ran I had a constant ache but no significant sharp pain and I thought maybe I should just push through it so I made the decision to just keep going. After a mile, I thought I would just loop around Jensen then I came to the decision left or right and I went right. After another mile, I figured I better head back as the calf was tightening up and getting a little bit more bothersome. I again walked the hills and around every 1/4 mile or so I walked. I did not bring my watch so I don't know how slow the pace was but I know it was slow. My running style was kind of a hobble as opposed to something that resembled running but I was moving and in the park.

So now the plan is to ease back into running and you know what I will enjoy each and every run.