Running for the First Time (Again)

Yes, I seem to suddenly be all right. Still some hamstring tightness, but after weeks of on-again/off-again bursitis pain that suggested that something was *causing* the inflammation to flare up (and that the absence of that was allowing it to settle down), I narrowed down the potential culprits to two, both footwear: the first was heels, worn at work (not HIGH heels, I’m more of a sensible/professional shoe gal, but even a 1.5 inch heel was hurting), and the second was my new Asics Gel 1160s.

Now, you’d think that switching from the Gel 1150s to the 1160s would be fine. After all it’s just a 10 something difference. But these shoes have felt weird since the first day. Stupidly, I ignored the weird (and weird translates to “overly stable” for me – I need pronation support but these felt too rigid), thinking it was just that my old shoes had gone soft and these felt hard by comparison. But it seems clear after some test jogs that the new shoes are aggravating the hip, so they’re shelved for now, maybe gifted to the young person in the house with slightly smaller feet as backup runners.

And finally I’m back to 3 mile runs, tops, and am going to go for a total of four this week plus a stairmaster session. We’ll see how that goes, and work from there. The half marathon trip has been replaced by an anniversary birthday trip to San Francisco with the spouse, with waterfront runs. Salinas was just not appealing enough to drive to without the half. No regrets about that.

In other news, I worked the LMJS 4SR on Sunday, and it was inSANE. I’ve never seen so many people there – it must have been 250 plus. We ran out of bibs that matched chips early on and had to go to a make-shift system using old bibs and had to delay start a little, but people were generally nice about it. Race directors Susan, Sarah and Rachael were fantastic and cool-headed throughout. I couldn’t stay after registration to see how the finish went, but once again had a fun time – August’s 4SR (the Time is On Your Side run) is the day after the Giant Race, which I’m running with my oldest (to secure Tim Lincecum bobbleheads, of course), so I’ll likely work that one, too, rather than run.

My hip still hurts. I still can’t jog more than 2 miles at a time. I’m a little cranky, but not a lot. I have discovered that what pass for high heels for me (we’re not talking stilettos, here) aggravate it, so put the kibosh on those. Hills (or, in my case, the 5 story ramp to the nosebleed seats at AT&T park) aggravate it quite a bit. So today is a second day in a row off from running (will walk later) to get over that. Baby steps.

But. The new/revised/updated attempt to eat like something other than a college student is going GREAT. The scale has started to budge after weeks of holding steady, and I feel great. I even passed on the pretzels and licorice and nachos at the game last night, dining instead on a turkey burger and peanuts. Goal weight is now a mere 7 pounds away, down from 12 a few months ago. (OK, if you’re afraid of that math, that means I’ve only lost 5 pounds, but it’s something.)

I’m on schedule to volunteer at the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders monthly this weekend. Good stuff.

After a short run on the local sidewalks on Thursday (painless while running, awful after), I decided I needed to give over and become one with the gym treadmill again. So after a day off to recover from Thursday, yesterday saw me at the local Anytime Fitness, where a 2 mile walk/jog (at 12:00) on the treadmill went very well. Physically, anyway – there was no pain during or after. I was ready to scream from boredom after just 2 miles, but it beats doing nothing. I found that I hadn’t lost too much off the core fitness and upper body strength when I picked up my old routine, which was good news.

So. The new plan is to slowly up mileage on the treadmill while continuing to stretch and foam roll and ice. Also to eat less, as the drop from 25 miles a week to 3 miles a week has not been matched by a drop in caloric consumption. I’ve put myself on a fruit/vegetable and low-fat animal protein diet. Summer is an excellent season for that.

And while I’m healing up, I’m finding all kinds of fun chores to take up the weekend time normally spent running, recovering from running, and preparing complex and highly caloric meals. Today is a painting project long postponed.

I’m still not running, but I am now more in the “sanguine” realm than “cranky.” A couple of reasons:

1. I’m pretty sure that, after I said it wasn’t, this really is an IT band problem. This started feeling much more like my previous go-’rounds with ITB syndrome on Sunday, and that made me both frustrated (because I knew it would take a little longer to get well than a simple muscle strain) and happy (because I knew how to take care of it).
2. I now own a wicked cool blue foam roller and 3 new therabands. I’m all about the equipment.
3. I am hopeful that I’ll be back to light, short jogs by this weekend.
4. SVHM is allowing me to defer to 2012.
5. I have come up with Plan B.

Plan B: Let this heal, now that there’s no pressure. I’ve been feeling the need to hurry it up somehow so that I could at least jog/walk the half, but given the deferral I am happier just doing what I need to do and taking it slow. Also featured in Plan B: get some other stuff done on Sundays besides a 2 hour run and then an hour of eating and another hour of nap.

I am getting cranky. I have not run nor done anything but clamshells and leg rotations in 5 days. When I cannot run (vs. when I do not run), the idea of running takes on a mythical quality. Like it’s all sweetness and light and nothing ever goes wrong. No sweat, either.

A trip to Trader Joe’s is planned for the morning. Big day out.

Symptoms: Doc, it hurts when I walk/run/sit. Dx: muscle strain. Prognosis: You’ll live. Treatment: Stop with the walk/run/sit.

Well, it’s hard not to sit, actually. But it helps if the leg is up and the seat is firm. The couch, sadly, is out of the question unless I’m lying down. Which: Zzzzzzzz.

Really, I am told to walk a little and stretch a little. We’re past ice time, thankfully (I hate icing things). Most of the last 24 hours has been about coming to acceptance that I’ll either not run the Salinas Valley Half or I’ll run it at an embarrassing pace. I’m not in the kind of condition I need to be to run that distance after 10 days off running 2 weeks prior, and would be worried about causing further and worse injury. So I just requested a deferral to 2012, but Rob and I had already planned a nice weekend in a B&B near Pinnacles, so we’ll see. If they let me defer, maybe I’ll volunteer. The race is just about 5 minutes from the hotel.

Happily, I’m not that blue about it. Mostly I’m just glad to know I’ll be back to long runs in another couple of weeks.

I have moved past denial. I am slightly injured. The hip/butt/upper thigh stiffness thing that started Wednesday went underground for a couple of days, but was bugging me Sunday and back in a bigger way this morning. Today’s 5m tempo became a 3m recovery, and tomorrow and probably Thursday will be cross training on the elliptical.

But really, this is good news. I am gaining a healthier attitude about this stuff. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, suck or don’t suck. At the very end of the first mile of almost every run I do, I take one of three paths. All the way through the first mile this morning I was convincing myself that my leg was FINE and I was going to swing left and do the tempo, around the old dump and then back up Shoreline. I wasn’t going to *waste* a run. But at the last moment sanity prevailed, and I dropped my pace to full-on Slow and turned right for the short Broadway loop. More importantly, I let the run go, mentally. Whatever. At least I was running. At least it was a beautiful morning. At least it’s still a month until the half, plenty of time to get over a minor injury.

And it ended up being one of the most pleasant runs I’ve had in a while.

I keep hearing this theory among new runners and the people who encourage them that once you learn form and build some core strength, you can pretty much run forever. I was told with a straight face, not long ago, that once you run a 5K, you can easily run a marathon on no additional training. People sell books with this stuff.

Didn’t buy it then, and after yesterday’s run, I’m not buyin’ it now. I was worried about my recent lack of distance, with just over 4 weeks to go until half marathon day, and I was right to be. I woke up late for my planned 11 mile run, and it was already warming up. Alamedans, we’re not used to heat in general, and especially following on a winter that just ended a week ago (we hope), I knew it was going to be rough. Still, as I neared the half way mark, I felt great and thought about extending the turnaround point to 6 miles…which would have been bad.

On the way back, I was slowing some in the 8th mile, and by 9 miles it was over 80 degrees and I was completely spent. I tried working hard on form, as that often helps me extend a run that’s not going well, but even then was just not feeling it. If I *could* have run at a decent clip (and by decent, at this point, I mean sub 11:00), I would have, just to get out of the heat. But that was impossible. Most of the last mile was a walk.

Still, it was good to complete the distance, and I know next week’s long (planned 12) will be much easier for it. And I’m pleased that I held a (for me) great pace of about 9:45 with no discomfort all the way through 7 miles.

And now I’m going to go WATCH all those July 4 5K runners start the parade in 80+ temps while enjoying a nice iced latte in my lawn chair.

So. The hip ended up being OK after 24 hours. Cheers! I’m wondering if it wasn’t just a several-days-in-high-heels-at-work-itis thing. But I’m starting to think that instead of running a 5K and a medium run this weekend and having yet another low mileage week following on the previous I should really do a long run either Saturday or Sunday. It’s been two weeks since I’ve done anything over 8m, and with 4 weeks to go before the half, this is freaking me out a little.

At the same time, I would love to see what a reasonable time for a 5K is right now. I’m really curious. And fast sounds like fun.

At the other same time, this race is sort of a pain to run, because I see a lot of people I know while running it (either in the race or on the sidelines). And not only do I look like hell while racing on a hot (did I mention it will be hot, and the race time isn’t until 9:45?) day, but I feel bad for not slowing down to say hi. Sometimes I haven’t seen these folks in a long time.

And there’s something to be said for just hanging out on the Fourth and watching the parade. I miss the parade if I run the race.

OK. That tears it. New plan: 5m and gym tomorrow and 11m early (pre-heat) on Sunday. Parade and lounging on Monday. Some other 5K, after the half.

It’s time for pre-race paranoia. My goal race is just over a month away, and I’ve gone almost exactly six months without injury. So today, right on schedule and following on the bizarre foot blistering of the weekend, my right hip went south halfway through a 5 mile out and back. It’s not the usual right IT band, it’s higher. I don’t know what it is. But of course it has me in a complete tizzy, thinking I’m not going to make the Salinas Valley half. In addition to sinking several months of training into it, I’ve paid for the race and even scheduled a few days around it with Rob to celebrate our anniversary at a B and B. I’m trying to believe that this is just a temporary hiccup in the training.

I also was planning on running the Alameda July4 5K, but haven’t signed up yet and have no mental investment in it. So I may just see if playing possum works, with just a few easy short jogs over the next week.

Further tearful or joyous updates as events warrant.