running and roadkill

I'm back in MI and ran this AM along a fairly busy road that connects a couple of towns.  And I forgot about the choice smells that are part of country roads, i.e. road kill that is beginning to get nice and ripe.  Ran by a couple that really got my attention:  one was a skunk and the other was a raccoon.  The skunk of course, smelled like skunk, and the raccoon just smelled like dead stuff that wants to make you gag.

Naturally, your first inclination is to hold your breath, but when I'm running, I'm pretty much counting on getting as much oxygen into my system as possible - and that means having to breathe at a regular rate.  I could walk instead of run, but then of course it would take me longer to get past the sucky smell - so I keep running - and try not to breathe - much.

Today the skunk came first and I could smell it before I saw it, so I was a little bit prepared and started taking short breaths and holding it for a bit before exhaling and "sipping" a little bit of air at a time.  The funny thing about skunk stink is that you can smell it without breathing - which is really aggravating. I'm dying to take a fresh breath, but I know that if I do I'm going to suck in "skunk stink" - and eventually (not too long actually - its a matter of seconds) I have to take a breath and make it a short one - and of course its not close to being enough air to satisfy my oxygen depleted lungs.  And eventually, after what seems like an eternity, I am past the skunk and the stink.... phew...

About a half mile later I came across the dead, and nicely ripe, raccoon.  He probably got hit the night before and now with the sun beating on it was becoming nice and smelly.  The problem though was that, unlike the skunk stink that I sort of eased into, I suddenly saw the raccoon, guts and all, and was overwhelmed by the ripe smell of opened gastro-intestinal fumes.  It's one of those smells that almost immediately make you gag and want to hurl. It's like hitting a wall of bad, bad pungentness, the likes of which you can't imagine was once a living creature.

And of course I had just exhaled and was taking a deep breath when I got to the raccoon - a double whammy.  And yes, I did hold my breath for as long as I could before taking as small a breath as possible to test the air.  Obviously I got through it and lived to write about it.

But this just goes along with the joys of living on the edge of the country along with all the creatures that live there.

Plantar Fasciitis and running

I've been struggling with plantar fasciitis in my left foot for months now and its really affecting my training for the Grand Rapids Marathon.  The part that is uncomfortable is the pain on the bottom of my foot, just forward of my heel, kind of in the arch of the foot.  It always hurts more in the morning as soon as I put weight on it.  And it always hurts after a run, although I never seem to feel it during a run.  But it hurts enough that I think that I should not be running as much.  In the meantime however, I need to get my long miles in.

Plantar fasciitis is an inflammation of the connective tissue between the heel and the forward part of the foot.  There is no quick fix for it.  All you can do is stretch, massage, maybe use orthotics....  One doctor friend offered to give me a cortisone shot, which I quickly declined (I have heard that it really, really hurts - a friend of mine did it and seriously thought that he'd rather have his foot amputated).

So to help myself I have been doing a lot of stretching and flexing for my foot and perhaps these things will help someone else:
- while sitting, grab my toes and towards me with my hands or a belt and really stretch out my arch.
- stand and point my toes back and so as to stretch the top of my foot (oddly enough, it makes my arch, where it hurts, feel good).
- stand on a 2x6 or a door jam or a step and do heel drops.
- while sitting, I will bend my foot in every possible direction, holing it stretched out in place for a few seconds.
- I find that walking barefoot makes it feel really good too.
- before I get out of bed in the AM I manipulate my foot for a few minutes, kind of like waking it up.  Apparently the tissue tightens up while I sleep, so stretching it out and "waking it up" makes a big difference and makes it significantly less uncomfortable when I take my first steps.  I've learned that I don't want to just jump out of bed.  I need to prep my ankle before doing so - makes it a little tough whenever one of my dogs has to go outside in the middle of the night, but oh well....

The more I do those things, the better it feels, but of course the problem is that I keep getting out of a steady routine of doing it.

I don't remember feeling any discomfort while running, but for all I know I'm adjusting for it and don't even realize it.  But I definitely feel it afterwards, not horribly, but it hurts. Sometimes, I'll even take an ibuprofen to take the edge off - but that is not a habit I want to get into - and besides, I'm not sure that it really provides much relief.

My big issue is that I don't want to permanently hurt myself by continuing to run on it, which is why I've been limiting my miles.  But at the same time, I really, really want to run that marathon.  So the answer to that is to pay more attention to my stretching...  Like they say, "just do it..."

My bigger worry is that it's not clear to me from all that I've read that I'll ever really rehab myself out of this issue!  Everything that I read says "temporary relief" - what good is that?

hot Florida running

I'm still in FL with a side trip to Vegas.  In FL it's just hot and humid.  In Vegas it's roasting oven hot.  That is a heat that just beats you down like a sledge hammer.  In FL it's the humidity that knocks you down.  I'm not sure that I'm crazy about either of them.  Fluids, and plenty of them, are mandatory.  And preferably early, very early, morning runs.

After the funeral I had to go for a run - I couldn't sit.  Even though it was 7PM, I hadn't eaten well all day, and I'd had several rums...  I had to run to release the tension.  What started out as a 3-4 miler turned into a 10 miler.  I got 5 miles out and then realized that I should probably turn around and head back.  Not only that, but the sun was close to setting.  I was actually very comfortable beating the crap out of myself (it was hot and humid) and releasing the tension of the day felt good. I did find new energy when I turned around - I guess the subconscious thought that the "end of this madness is near" kind of helps.  But I do have to admit that I was pretty bagged during that last mile.  I was done.  I did not have another mile in me.

During my cool down and stretching I could tell that I came really close to over-doing it.  My leg muscles were doing their twitchy thing and feeling weird.  But the best part is that "spent" feeling after a hard workout that just feels so good.  The odd part is that I only did 10 miles ("only"), yet it felt like 20 - mostly I am sure because of the heat/humidity and the fact that I ran in the PM without having prepped myself food-wise - and I'm sure that the rum didn't help.  It had also been a really weird day.

My left foot (plantar fasciitis) hurt like a bad bitch after I finished running and stretching. I don't remember it bugging me during the run, but after... oh yeah.....  After my shower and eating something, I could barely stand to walk. I even took 3 advil (something that I rarely do).  I was seriously worried that I had totally over done it and I would not be running again for a long time.  But in the AM it was actually more or less ok.....  go figure...  Granted I took the time when I woke up to stretch and manipulate my ankles before popping out of bed - and even then, my first steps were very ginger.  It was tender, but didn't hurt as much as I expected it to.

Discretion being the better part of valor, rather than run today, I did a 3 mile walk.  And during my walk I committed to exploring new running shoes.  Something just isn't right with my shoes and I am convinced that I just need to find the right shoe to go with my orthopedic inserts...  jeesh - there goes another $100...

But I'm not getting my long miles in - I need to be in the 16-18 mile range right now with a 20 miler coming up soon, and I'm not even close.  I'm worried about being conditioned enough to run the marathon.  ugh.

13 weeks to Grand Rapids Marathon and Plantar Fasciitis

13 weeks to go to the Grand Rapids Marathon.  And a new injury of sorts to slow me down.  I've developed plantar fasciitis on/in my left foot.  Plantar fasciitis is a fairly uncomfortable inflammation of the connective tissue on the bottom of the foot and is apparently more common than I realized.  There is no real fix for it; I'm told that not running would really help it get better faster, but that's not going to happen.  Aside from that, the fix is a lot of stretching.

But I've got 13 weeks to go, I need to amp up my miles, and once again I am behind.  I'm behind because I've been baby'ing my foot a bit.  I had a good 11 mile'r last week, and I need to get a 16'er in this week.  I'm in FL right now and it is hot and very, very humid. I did 3.5m last night and then 8m this morning (it was so humid that by the time I was done I was absolutely and totally soaking wet with sweat).  My foot is sore as hell now, but I know that it will pass. 

I'm in FL because my Dad passed - and the runs seem to be very therapeutic. I've had long conversations with myself about my dad, conversations with my dad, or sometimes just I just ran mindlessly.  The last two runs, the 3 and the 8 miler seemed to go by so fast...  At one point on one of my runs I was so engrossed in my thoughts that I missed a turn and wound up confused about where the hell I was.  Once I realized that I had missed a turn I backtracked my route and obviously made it home.

13 weeks to go... I haven't signed up for the marathon yet.  Am somewhat worried about being able to go the distance.  We'll see.  I'm not sure when I'll sign up (or not), but we'll see.  I hate not being 100% healthy.  it sucks.  But maybe that's part of the test.

Dexter Ann Arbor and the Ann Arbor Half Marathon

It is now mid-June, 3 months since I re-injured my calf.  I've gone through extensive PT, run the Dexter-AnnArbor HM, and the Ann Arbor HM portion of the AA Marathon.  Because I was unable to run the miles, I had to bail out of the AA Marathon.  As it was, I only  barely squeezed in a 12 mile training run a couple of weeks before the DexAA HM.  That barely got me ready for that event.  Then I had all of two weeks in between the DexAA HM and the AA HM - I did a short 5 miler in the week in between.  The good news is that my calf is all good and I'm very happy with that.  Plus I've learned a lot of cool and interesting techniques for stretching and exercising my legs. I've also done some biking for cross training.  Out of a bad experience I've picked up some good things, so all positive there....

On the down side, since my training has been so limited, my speed and endurance has suffered.  I barely completed the DexAA HM - I started cramping coming up the hill and pushed hard to finish. My time was so-so: 2:00:31, a full 1:38 off last year.  The AA HM was going well for me, but the humidity got to me around mile 10 and I got very hot and started cramping - so I slowed way down to take care of myself so that I could be sure to finish (I didn't want another "Milford incident").  Even so, I was bull headed enough to push hard at the end and suffered cramps started after mile 12, first in one thigh and then the other (fortunately not both at the same time).  I found that I could sort of run by grabbing the upper part of the cramping thigh with my hand and sort of hobble along.  It was very uncomfortable, and I know that I made for quite a sight, but I made it.  The good news there is that I recovered very quickly - I was seemingly just fine moments after I crossed the finish line and stopped running!  My time for the AA HM was a dismal 2:09:01.  That included a 13:35 minute mile between mile 10 and 11.... (that's 4:30 race minutes off my intended pace of 9:00 min/mile that I was not going to make up!).  Oh well.....

I had flirted, briefly, with the notion of doing the full AA marathon - I'm glad that I had the good sense to back off of it.  That would have made for an ugly day.

As an aside, I noticed in the annarbor.com article about the event a lot of not-kind comments from very unfriendly locals about the event.  I'm hoping that these people are not the majority or that they don't sway any decision to not have the event again.  While I'm not crazy about the route, I think that it is great that AA has it's own marathon and I'm hoping that it becomes a much bigger event.

I am still hoping to run the Grand Rapids Marathon in October.  I need to figure out some logistics (hotel), but I'm aiming for that as my next big event.  17 weeks to go.

Calf problems

It all started with the fact that I had to buy new running shoes. My current ones had 350 or so miles on them and were beginning to feel flat. So I did. With the help of the helpful folks at Tortoise and Hare I selected the new Nike "Lunarlon's" out of three or four others. I spend a day just walking around in them, and after a rest day did a short 3 miler. I loved them. But after the run I could feel a new tension in my calves, particularly my right calf. So I did what most people are inclined to do: I tried to stretch it out. Bad idea. Left calf ok. Right calf, I felt the pop. And I immediately panicked. I had a 10K race the next day that I was so looking forward to. And come that morning, after waking up at 5:30am to see if how felt, I ultimately had to bag it and not do the race.

That was last week... Since then I've been very carefully taking care of my calf. I took two full days off, and then slowly ramped up my routine: I did run/walks, running a quarter mile, and then walking a quarter mile. The next day I tried running just a bit further and walking less. And finally on Friday I did 5 miles without walking. After each run I would ice my calf for 20 minutes. All in all it felt great.

On Saturday (yesterday) I did a 2.5 mile walk instead of running. And today, with absolutely perfect weather, I got up early with the anticipation of doing 10-12 slow and easy miles. I even picked a fairly flat route that would not stress out my calf. It was going to be a great run. But around mile 4, my calf suddenly started twinging to the point that I had to stop. I walked for a bit, hoping that I could work out whatever was stressing it, but eventually realized that today's run was over.

I turned around and started to hobble home. About a mile into it my calf was substantially uncomfortable. The walking was not helping, and I could not find a comfortable gait or way to place my foot to releve the tension in my calf. I finally had to call AnnDee to come pick me up (that's one good argument for having a cell phone... I've been considering ditching my iPhone and using a wrist gps device. Not anymore.)

So now I'm on the couch, icing down my calf, and I'm disappointed and worried about my training.i have 12 weeks until the AA Marathon (10 weeks until the DexAA HM), and I am officially behind in my miles. If I have a micro-tear in my calf, as I did a year ago, that could side line me for several weeks. This is a problem as it will be difficult to build up the endurance for the marathon in a very short time span. (note that I said difficult, not impossible). The important part right now is to make sure that I am as healthy and as strong as possible so that I can.

As I sit here in my frustration, my plan is to take a shower, not run for a couple of days, do whatever PT I can think of or read about on my calf, and take a new look at things on Wednesday. Absolutely worst case is that I don't run the AA Marathon and train like a bastard for the Grand Rapids Marathon.

10 weeks to the DexAA HM
12 weeks to the AA Marathon
30 weeks to the Grand Rapids Marathon

nutrition really matters

This week I had a bad run day and a good run day.  And I think that it all centered around being nutritionally ready to run.  On the day prior to the bad run, I didn't fuel myself properly and I definitely did not fuel myself as I should have on the day of.  And I could really tell that I didn't have any juice.

On Wednesday I had a goal of doing 12 miles - but due to other commitments I was going to have to split it into two runs.  I also had the idea that since I was splitting up the run that I would do more than 12.  But for reasons that I can't fathom, on Tuesday I didn't eat balanced meals (carbs/proteins).  In fact, for some reason I was very protein intensive (but I did end the day with some totally awesome, over the top good, smoked ribs compliments of my neighbor!) .  Prior to my Wednesday run, I did a goo pack and took off with a goal of doing 7 miles prior to breaking for an appointment.  But despite the fact that it was a beautiful day, cool, no wind, sunny, I never found my rhythm, I was constantly struggling for juice.  At mile 2, I sucked down another goo and forced myself to finish 5 miles.  And to make matters worse, I felt totally fatigued for the rest of the day.  I never made it to the second part of the run.  This was bad because I was slightly behind in my training schedule for the AA marathon.

But the one thing I did on Wednesday was eat. In fact it occurred to me that I was eating more than usual. Small portions, and all leaning towards carb-heavy.  But I ate. I even went out and had a few beers that evening (I had taken myself off beer because I thought that it was adding pounds on me that I didn't need).

Thursday morning I had a whole wheat English muffin and after 90 minutes hit the road.  And I had a great 10+ mile run.  I did 5 miles on flat terrain, goo'ed up, and then did 5 hilly miles.  The hills were hard, but the work out felt great.  And I felt strong afterwards.  I even toyed with the idea of doing an extra 2 hill miles, but decided that sanity needed to take charge.  Let's not get ahead of myself....

Bottom line:  pre-run nutrition is so important.  And it's not just the day-of, it's also about the day-before.  And the day before that, and so on.  I'm slowly figuring it out.

This weekend is the Sham-Rock 10K
10 weeks to the DexAnnArbor HM
12 weeks to the AA Marathon