I've been tapering over the past week and a half, which has meant that I've spent less time running. That, to me, should translate into having more time to keep my training blog up to date. Somehow, however, that has not been the case.
Last week was a relatively uneventful one in regards to running. After the Cherry Blossom 10 miler on Sunday, I took Monday to recuperate and then did the necessary 7 to 8 mile runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with the 5 mile recovery runs on Wednesday and Friday. Every run felt relatively okay, aside from the fact that me left foot hurt quite a bit at the start of each of them.
The issue with my left foot is different from the brief bout with plantar fascitis I suffered from a few weeks ago. Now it feels more like an old soccer injury that I never had diagnosed. It's a pretty sharp pain that my less-than-an-expert self would more than likely diagnose as some sort of stress fracture. It used to hurt pretty significantly when I would play in my cleats on the really hard dirt fields in soccer. It's not resurfaced here, but after about 10 to 15 minutes of running it seems to dissipate.
In regards to having more time to write since I'm running less, that's been compromised a bit by the fact that I seem to always fill gaps in my schedule with something else which has been neglected. Occasionally that can be more work (as it seems that there is always more) or more social activities. This week, especially towards the end, my sleep pattern was thrown off relatively significantly. I am having trouble remembering exactly what caused me to stay up later than usual on Thursday and Friday nights, but I do remember dragging through those days.
Saturday I had to travel up to Delaware to see a band play. I was pretty exhausted going into it and was extremely exhausted by the time Stefan picked me up on his way down from Philly around 11pm that night. Luckily he was familiar enough with my bed time to understand that a bit after midnight I conked out in the front seat. I slept from Baltimore to DC, around 45 minutes, and awoke just as we exited the beltway for the remaining 15 minute drive to my house.
I managed to sleep in until just before 8am on Saturday for my scheduled 13 mile run. Stefan had come down to play with a soccer team that I've played on in the past (and have suspended my involvement so I wouldn't risk injury before the Boston Marathon). Their games are just outside of DC, in Maryland, and I told Stefan that my plan was to leave the house by 9am to run there. We'd looked at directions on Google Maps and it indicated that Stefan's driving distance was just around 10 miles. I presumed that running a slightly altered route would allow me to log my intended 13 miles, and if I arrived near the destination shy of that goal, I could fill the missing distance relatively easily.
Starting out from my house, my left foot hurt, as did my right shin. The shin problem appeared the day before at a yoga class. It was slightly aggravated before going to the class, but I really noticed afterwards. I cannot pinpoint exactly what may have aggravated it. This morning, on my run, I could really feel it. It felt like a really sore muscle on the outside of my front shin muscles, on the lower third of my leg. It hurt for the majority of the run.
I ran through Rock Creek Park and up Beach Drive towards the DC/Maryland border. The sun was shining nicely at the start and the temperatures were in the low to mid 50's. I was still dressed in a hat and gloves and had multiple layers on the upper half of my body. Many others were running in t-shirts, or at most, a long sleeve t-shirt or fleece. There were times that I was warm, but when the wind blew, I was glad that I had on as much as I did. I was listening to a podcast by Steve Runner.
CJ's sister-in-law, who is in town visiting with CJ's older brother, David, and their three kids, had recommended Steve Runner's podcasts to CJ over the phone that morning. He's like a number of other podcasters who records his/her thoughts while running. I had downloaded his podcast of him running last year's Boston Marathon, hoping it may provide some insight and continue to motivate me towards next week's race.
I really enjoy listening to podcasts and think that there are plenty of other things I would love to listen to. That, of course, probably means that I will have to continue running long distances. Because, I've noticed that as my runs have shortened in distance and time, the amount of things I've been listening to has also decreased (which is unfortunate since I keep stumbling upon other things I like to listen to). I mainly listen to National Public Radio programs like "Marketplace" and "Marketplace Money", and This American Life in addition to a lot of sports and running podcasts from The Final Sprint, The Competitors Radio Show, Trails and Tribulations and Zen and the Art of Triathalon Training.
Steve Runner's fate at the 111th running of the Boston Marathon was hopefully much different than mine will be at the 112th running this year. He was shooting for a 4:10 race, whereas I am still hoping to break 3 hours. Of course, that's if I can figure out what is going on with my shin and heal it between now and then.
During yesterday's run my shin was really causing me problems. With my foot issue it seemed as if "running through" it was a perfectly acceptable solution. Sure, the next time I lace up and head out the door my foot will hurt again for the first ten to fifteen minutes, but once I've eclipsed that warm up time, I am good to go. My shin, however, might be a different story. It never loosened up, and just continued to become inflamed and feel like a large bruise or welt. And, unfortunately, instead of erring on the shorter side of the mileage to run to Stefan's soccer game, it seems as if the route I took was quite a bit longer. My non-calibrated ipod pedometer logged the run at 17 miles, which means it was actually a minimum of 15. Not exactly the taper I was looking for.
I made it to the field a bit after the game had ended. Stefan and three of the other players had stayed to say hello. It was really nice of them to do so, and it was great to see them, but I was fairly exhausted. The impact of reduced sleep over the past few nights combined with these nagging injuries left me feeling completely run down. Now is the time that I am supposed to be benefiting from extra energy since I am cutting my mileage before the big race. I'm hoping that I am able to do so. And, with the way my shin is feeling, I may be forced to completely stop running instead of just taper.
I've done a bit of internet research on my shin and it seems as if it may be a stress fracture. To me that seems too extreme. I'm hoping it's just a major shin splint and with proper icing, rest and anti-inflammatory medicines I can be healed in time for Boston.
I am able to walk on the leg, though it does hurt to do so. It's not a debilitating pain, but is surely noticeable.
My schedule for this week looks like this:
Today (Monday) - REST
Tuesday - 5 miles in the morning and 4 miles in the evening
Wednesday - 7 miles w/2 miles at marathon race pace (dress rehearsal!)
Thursday - 5 mile recovery
Friday - 5 mile recovery w/6 x 100m strides
Saturday - 4 mile recovery
Sunday - OFF
Monday - RACE DAY
I am pretty sure that even if I reduce this schedule to something that doesn't aggravate my shin, I can stomach through the pain of the run on race day to ensure that I can run the Boston Marathon. I'll keep you posted!
Last week was a relatively uneventful one in regards to running. After the Cherry Blossom 10 miler on Sunday, I took Monday to recuperate and then did the necessary 7 to 8 mile runs on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with the 5 mile recovery runs on Wednesday and Friday. Every run felt relatively okay, aside from the fact that me left foot hurt quite a bit at the start of each of them.
The issue with my left foot is different from the brief bout with plantar fascitis I suffered from a few weeks ago. Now it feels more like an old soccer injury that I never had diagnosed. It's a pretty sharp pain that my less-than-an-expert self would more than likely diagnose as some sort of stress fracture. It used to hurt pretty significantly when I would play in my cleats on the really hard dirt fields in soccer. It's not resurfaced here, but after about 10 to 15 minutes of running it seems to dissipate.
In regards to having more time to write since I'm running less, that's been compromised a bit by the fact that I seem to always fill gaps in my schedule with something else which has been neglected. Occasionally that can be more work (as it seems that there is always more) or more social activities. This week, especially towards the end, my sleep pattern was thrown off relatively significantly. I am having trouble remembering exactly what caused me to stay up later than usual on Thursday and Friday nights, but I do remember dragging through those days.
Saturday I had to travel up to Delaware to see a band play. I was pretty exhausted going into it and was extremely exhausted by the time Stefan picked me up on his way down from Philly around 11pm that night. Luckily he was familiar enough with my bed time to understand that a bit after midnight I conked out in the front seat. I slept from Baltimore to DC, around 45 minutes, and awoke just as we exited the beltway for the remaining 15 minute drive to my house.
I managed to sleep in until just before 8am on Saturday for my scheduled 13 mile run. Stefan had come down to play with a soccer team that I've played on in the past (and have suspended my involvement so I wouldn't risk injury before the Boston Marathon). Their games are just outside of DC, in Maryland, and I told Stefan that my plan was to leave the house by 9am to run there. We'd looked at directions on Google Maps and it indicated that Stefan's driving distance was just around 10 miles. I presumed that running a slightly altered route would allow me to log my intended 13 miles, and if I arrived near the destination shy of that goal, I could fill the missing distance relatively easily.
Starting out from my house, my left foot hurt, as did my right shin. The shin problem appeared the day before at a yoga class. It was slightly aggravated before going to the class, but I really noticed afterwards. I cannot pinpoint exactly what may have aggravated it. This morning, on my run, I could really feel it. It felt like a really sore muscle on the outside of my front shin muscles, on the lower third of my leg. It hurt for the majority of the run.
I ran through Rock Creek Park and up Beach Drive towards the DC/Maryland border. The sun was shining nicely at the start and the temperatures were in the low to mid 50's. I was still dressed in a hat and gloves and had multiple layers on the upper half of my body. Many others were running in t-shirts, or at most, a long sleeve t-shirt or fleece. There were times that I was warm, but when the wind blew, I was glad that I had on as much as I did. I was listening to a podcast by Steve Runner.
CJ's sister-in-law, who is in town visiting with CJ's older brother, David, and their three kids, had recommended Steve Runner's podcasts to CJ over the phone that morning. He's like a number of other podcasters who records his/her thoughts while running. I had downloaded his podcast of him running last year's Boston Marathon, hoping it may provide some insight and continue to motivate me towards next week's race.
I really enjoy listening to podcasts and think that there are plenty of other things I would love to listen to. That, of course, probably means that I will have to continue running long distances. Because, I've noticed that as my runs have shortened in distance and time, the amount of things I've been listening to has also decreased (which is unfortunate since I keep stumbling upon other things I like to listen to). I mainly listen to National Public Radio programs like "Marketplace" and "Marketplace Money", and This American Life in addition to a lot of sports and running podcasts from The Final Sprint, The Competitors Radio Show, Trails and Tribulations and Zen and the Art of Triathalon Training.
Steve Runner's fate at the 111th running of the Boston Marathon was hopefully much different than mine will be at the 112th running this year. He was shooting for a 4:10 race, whereas I am still hoping to break 3 hours. Of course, that's if I can figure out what is going on with my shin and heal it between now and then.
During yesterday's run my shin was really causing me problems. With my foot issue it seemed as if "running through" it was a perfectly acceptable solution. Sure, the next time I lace up and head out the door my foot will hurt again for the first ten to fifteen minutes, but once I've eclipsed that warm up time, I am good to go. My shin, however, might be a different story. It never loosened up, and just continued to become inflamed and feel like a large bruise or welt. And, unfortunately, instead of erring on the shorter side of the mileage to run to Stefan's soccer game, it seems as if the route I took was quite a bit longer. My non-calibrated ipod pedometer logged the run at 17 miles, which means it was actually a minimum of 15. Not exactly the taper I was looking for.
I made it to the field a bit after the game had ended. Stefan and three of the other players had stayed to say hello. It was really nice of them to do so, and it was great to see them, but I was fairly exhausted. The impact of reduced sleep over the past few nights combined with these nagging injuries left me feeling completely run down. Now is the time that I am supposed to be benefiting from extra energy since I am cutting my mileage before the big race. I'm hoping that I am able to do so. And, with the way my shin is feeling, I may be forced to completely stop running instead of just taper.
I've done a bit of internet research on my shin and it seems as if it may be a stress fracture. To me that seems too extreme. I'm hoping it's just a major shin splint and with proper icing, rest and anti-inflammatory medicines I can be healed in time for Boston.
I am able to walk on the leg, though it does hurt to do so. It's not a debilitating pain, but is surely noticeable.
My schedule for this week looks like this:
Today (Monday) - REST
Tuesday - 5 miles in the morning and 4 miles in the evening
Wednesday - 7 miles w/2 miles at marathon race pace (dress rehearsal!)
Thursday - 5 mile recovery
Friday - 5 mile recovery w/6 x 100m strides
Saturday - 4 mile recovery
Sunday - OFF
Monday - RACE DAY
I am pretty sure that even if I reduce this schedule to something that doesn't aggravate my shin, I can stomach through the pain of the run on race day to ensure that I can run the Boston Marathon. I'll keep you posted!
posted by Mike Mowery at 7:05 AM
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