Go figure

Last Saturday, we change time, marking the start of having darkness on the drive to work and from work.

Last Sunday, ran in Lebanon Hills, 63F, saw a snake, last one of the year?

Last Tuesday, beautiful day, 66F and sunny, didn't run, ankle and darkness were my excuse, should have run anyway, you never know when winter will descend.

Last Thursday, planned on running, 50F, didn't run because of work and the ankle :-(, or was it simply misplaced priorities?

Yesterday, ran 3 miles, 42F, ankle was still sore but I ran in shorts :-), but was it for the last time this year?

Today, 10+ inches of snow, winter blues officially begin, what else can I say but it's Minnesota.................

Marathon & Beyond - Minnesota Marathons

This months issue of Marathon and Beyond has a nice article called "The Marathons of Minnesota" and they have a link to a pdf of the article so feel free to check it out.

For those that aren't sure how many marathons we have, it appears to be 12, the article got all of the ones I am aware of, feel free to check out each of their websites:

1. Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon - Jan 9th, 2011 - Northfield, MN

- it's run indoors at St. Olaf and is limited to 85 runners

2. Zorbaz on Gull Lake Run for the Lakes - Apr 30th, 2011 - Nisswa, MN

3. Lake Wobegon Trail Marathon - May 14th, 2011 - St. Joseph, MN

4. Med-City Marathon - May 29th, 2011 - Rochester, MN

5. Stillwater Marathon - May 29th, 2011 - Stillwater, MN

6. Minneapolis Marathon - June 5th, 2011 - Minneapolis, MN

7. Grandmas Marathon - June 18th, 2011 - Duluth, MN

8. Half Voyageur Trail Marathon - July 16th, 2011 - Carlton, MN

9. Moose Mountain Marathon - Sept. 10th, 2011 - Lutsen, MN

10. Walker North Country Marathon - Sept 17th, 2011 - Walker, MN

11. Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon - Oct. 2nd, 2011 - Minneapolis, MN

12. Mankato Marathon - Oct. 22nd, 2011 - Mankato, MN

I would be remiss to not note that they didn't include our races beyond the marathon distance but that only adds another 5 or so more. Not bad for a state that is pretty much only noted for two of the marathons (Grandmas and Twin Cities). We are indeed lucky to have so many to choose from.

One thing that occurred to me is that it would be a fun goal to run all of them in a single year. The one issue I see is the conflict between Med City and Stillwater since they are on the same day. I wonder if one of the race directors would give me a late start :-). Even if you don't want to run all of them, check out the article (as it provides a good summary on each of them) and then choose a few that look good and enjoy them.

And so it goes

Ran 4 miles yesterday, can't run today, will see what tomorrow brings.............

And with that here is my quote for this year at least as it relates to my running:

All misfortune is but a stepping stone to fortune.
Henry David Thoreau

What this means is that not everything this year has gone as planned but I have learned a few things that will benefit me next year that is if I can remember those lessons and find solutions.

Eeyore and Tigger - another injury update

My title for this post is easy to explain, for most of my running life. I have approached my running with the boundless energy and excitement of Tigger (Optimist)

However for the last few months (ok, maybe for most of this year), my blog reads more like the thoughts of an Eeyore (Pessimist).


I know it is probably because of the injuries but whether I like it or not, the last few months have been a bummer so you can ignore the rest of this post or read about my latest injury update.

You see, I had a doctor appointment this morning. When my ankle didn't seem to be healing fast enough, late last weekI decided to get a second opinion, granted I waited almost to the end of the week to make sure I could still do Surf the Murph. I went to a Doctor I have gone to in the past, I should have gone to him right away but I really didn't think I had hurt myself bad enough to warrant a visit to any doctor, let alone one who I trust to treat my running injuries.

He took x-rays of the ankle and they came back clean, no fracture showed up of any sort a few pieces are floating about the ankle but nothing that he was too concerned with. He thought one of the chips might be recent but thought it still looked a few years old. He did show me a few issues I have that many other runners would have which of course I can't explain but suffice to say it was cool. Nice to have a doctor who appreciates runners.

As to the ankle, he also diagnosed it as grade 2 sprain and thought I had strained a couple of ligaments. Unlike the other doctor that I went to he was able to rotate the ankle and press on a few spots and cause me pain, fairly significant pain. I felt so much better to know it wasn't in my head. When the other doctor, poked at my ankle without causing me significant pain, I was thinking I was being a wimp. He rotated it and was happy with the stability and then pushed and poked and then he hit the hot spots, he asked me a few more questions about how I did it. He asked if I rotated to the outside or inside, I said I wasn't sure, what I remembered was it rotating in and then reacting and it rotated out. He concurred and said that I had sprained the deltoid ligament and was tender (minor sprain) at the anterior talofibular ligament. He also said 3 months is what it would take before running would be pain free, not 2 months. I did not ask him if I should be running on it (guess who asked me that when I told her about his diagnosis, yes the same person who asked me all of the other questions that I failed to ask, my wife :-). I am not sure what his answer would be so I figure I can do so with care. As to rehabbing it he said, standing on one foot, eyes open and closed, repeat, raise up on toes, repeat, repeat, repeat.

I also asked about my calf muscle and he said he thinks I tore the gastrocnemius, he wasn't so sure about the plantaris tear or rupture but based on where he was able to cause pain figured that I had injured the gastrocnemius, his comment on it was that it would haunt me unless I did a lot of achilles stretches, in case I missed his comment, he repeated achilles stretches a few more times.

So time to cut myself some slack for all the negative thoughts and instead it's time to get working on a rehab training program.