Weekly Running Update 4-9-07

Rejoice, kids! The running update is back for week two! Didn't think I could stick with something for more than one week did you? Well don't you feel foolish now? As an overview, things are going well. Heading into week three I'm happy, healthy and feeling good about my progress so far. The strange things is that I'm actually getting urges to run. On days off, I feel like something is missing. On days that I am scheduled to run, I get the itch right after I wake up and it stays with me all day. I've never had that feeling about running before. I'd liken it to first becoming aware of your own sex drive. I'm starting to understand how people become gym rats and health nuts. But don't worry, my over-soul of laziness still dominates both my sex drive and my need to run, so it'll keep things in check.


I experienced my first injures of this long journey last week, and I have to say that I handled them with the wisdom of a lion and the courage of a owl.

Injury #1:
While beginning mile 5 of my 6 mile Sunday run, I had to step off the road and onto the shoulder to avoid being flattened by a car. It wasn't that big of a deal and is something I've done many a times in the interest of self preservation. However, there was no sidewalk and my left foot happened to land on a small mound of dirt topped with a tuft of grass. My ankle rolled off the hump without much of a thought (You were thinking I twisted my ankle weren't you?). However, as my foot sloughed off, it slide inside my shoe and an instant blister developed on the arch. Getting rid of a blister in the one day I have off a week is a difficult task and one that I didn't accomplish. I just popped it yesterday running and, though I thought it might be the solution at the time, it has only made things more painful. My fucking foot feels like a red hot coal is resting up against it at all times. I have to walk on the outside of my left foot avoid shooting pains. With the day off today, I'm praying that it heals up a bit or else tomorrow's run is going to be not so pleasant.

Injury #2:
Over the past five or six years I've dislocated my left kneecap three separate times. The first time, it got knocked off playing soccer the summer after my freshman year of college. I didn't seek any medical treatment for it at the time, which now I know to be a grave mistake. A couple years later, assuming that everything was working properly again, I decided to do a 360 off a jump in one of the many snowboard parks at Killington. My body did the 360. My knee did not. This time my kneecap slide off in midair making the landing a difficult stick. By the time I got back to school, I fluid on my knee and could barely walk - I don't think snowboarding again the day after the injury was such a good idea, but it was our last day. I wanted to get my money's worth. I went and saw the gracious and talented physicians at the student medical center who gave me an exercise to do and told me to take some Advil. I didn't follow up with the exercise but I did take the Advil. Finally, last two winters ago, while playing indoor soccer, I planted my left foot and collapsed to a heap on the astroturf. That was the final straw. I made an appointment with an orthopedic surgery and, after meeting with him, opted to go through three months of physical therapy in hopes of avoiding surgery. The physical therapy worked and I have postponed going under the knife at least a few years. Hopefully I'll never need surgery, as least on that knee.

Either way, I think I worked my way into some underlying scar tissue on the inside of my kneecap last week because that area was killing me through the midweek. For a couple days I couldn't straighten my leg while sitting, making driving and number of other common activities mildly annoying. It never hurt when running though. And actually it would feel better, like normal, after about a mile. I guess thinks loosened up. I pushed though and am happy to report the pain has vanished like a fart in the wind. Now if I could just get rid of that goddamn blister.


Despite all the injury talk, there were a few notable accomplishments from last week. As you know, I survived the six mile run. I'm still most proud of that, though I'll have to break that record two Sundays from now. Smaller accomplishments would include running three miles in eighteen minutes (six minute miles) yesterday and finishing a 4.2 mile loop in under 28 minutes (a little under 7 minutes a mile, not that you couldn't figure that out). In case you're wondering, my goal pace for the marathon is eight minute miles. I'm not working on pacing right now, as I'm just trying to get into the swing of things. I'm just trying to go as fast as I can without collapsing a lung. I'll worry about pacing closer to the race date. Also, though this isn't an accomplishment, if everything goes really well with the training, I might try to step up the pace and put up a time to qualify for the Boston. Assuming, God willing, I did qualify, I would definitely head up. How cool would it be to run in the Boston marathon? I could never pass up an opportunity like that.

I'll update my miles run for last week and total later. I don't have the spreedsheat with me right now. Not to mention, I have to go get drunk at opening day! Go O's!


Sunday's Running Thought:
Unfortunately, an easy weeks Sunday run didn't produce the kind of delirium conducive to truly strange thoughts. However, I did run passed a guy in short and a jacket with a gym bag thrown casually over his shoulder. He looked like he was coming back from a hard workout on a cold easter morning. The only problem was, I had just passed the gym myself, and it was closed for easter. I couldn't figure out where the hell this guy had come from. Did he walk to gym, only to find out it was closed, turn around and walk back? Did he just prefer to carry around a gym bag during his morning walk in thirty degree weather? Where there seven heads in that duffel bag? Who knows.

One more oddity with this guy. After leaving the guy in my dust at an intersection, I heard the loud bang of a man's hand striking a stop sign. Who randomly hits a stop sign? I mean, aren't we all civilized people here that don't need to make loud street noises in the morning? I have to admit, it got me to jump a little. It was something I certainly wasn't expecting. I like to think the guy was 'roid raging because the gym was closed. I'll probably never know.