Wednesday, March 30, 2016

A New Beginning?



It’s been a long time since I’ve made a post.  And I can’t say that I will be posting regularly, but I hope I do.  The reasons for not posting mostly boil down to excuses.  We all have them.  The same ones we use for not running some days: not enough free time, I’m tired, there are other things I would rather do/need to do. 
But the main reason I haven’t posted is due to injury.  For the first time in my entire running career (going back to 1997) I have had to take significant time off due to a injury I can’t figure out.  Back in 2006-07, I developed stress fractures that took me out for a couple of months and kind of derailed my running career for much longer.  But back then, I knew the problem and just didn’t go about fixing it the right way.  I was in my mid-20’s and should have bounced back from that in a couple of months and never looked back.  Instead, I let it redefine the runner I was and I’ve never been the same. 
About 2 years ago, I finally began to emerge from the shadow that had developed over my running career and began to taste success once again. I ran my 2 best marathons (winning the first, and running a big PR in Boston 7 months later).  I won a series of 5k’s broke 16 minutes for 5k several times, and actually won money racing for the first time in close to a decade.  I trained for and completed my first Ironman (I have the tattoo to prove it).  And on a personal note, I got married a week after the Ironman.  I was riding high and I had some big goals in mind for 2016.
Then the knee pain started.  It was actually on our honeymoon.  I had taken a little over a week off after the Ironman (with the exception of a 3 mile run the morning after the wedding with my new wife).  I ran 4 days in a row on the treadmill at the resort, and each day my IT band got a little tighter, and my knee hurt a little more.  I wasn’t too worried.  I’d had IT band problems before, and had always bounced back quickly.  I sat out running the last 2 days of the honeymoon and came home focusing on treatment and foam rolling (at least a little bit). 
But the pain didn’t get any better.  Actually, it got worse.  At first it was just the side of my knee.  Then it turned around to the patella.  I had never realized the IT band wraps almost completely around the patella and so that pain was alarming.  It felt like I had a bruise on my knee that wouldn’t go away.  I could barely press on the kneecap without pain.  While alarming, I still wasn’t convinced it was much more serious than a strained or tight IT band.  I mean, training for and competing in an Ironman will tear up your legs.  Maybe I just hadn’t taken enough time off.
So another 2 weeks off, a short run, and no progress.  If anything, my knee was worse.  And now it started to hurt below my knee.  I went for 1 final run, 3 miles on the state cross country course with my boys cross country team, on November 7th.  And that was the last time I’ve run.
Now here I am, almost 5 months, 7 doctors, 1 x-ray, 1 MRI, and lots of frustration later.  But my knee has started to improve.  I’ll get into more detail later on actual exercises, but over the past 3 weeks, the pain has gone from hurting to straighten my leg to almost nonexistent.  After so long with discomfort, the rapid healing has been shocking.  The pain isn’t gone.  I also have a large Baker’s cyst on the back of the knee that’s not going away anytime soon. But the main IT band symptoms are virtually nonexistent. 
And so I’ve been given the ok to run.  Not much, and if the pain comes back it’s time to shut down again and look for answers.  So today begins my long road back to competitive running.  And that’s what I plan to tell you about in my posting.  I’m going to continue to research, talk about exercises and give my progress.  So hopefully I can help, inspire, or at least entertain a few people as I try to make a comeback.  But for now, the road is long and the progress will be slow, but it’s time to pound the pavement!!


Sunday, June 21, 2015

16 Weeks to Ironman

Well, here I am.  After a fairly successful spring of racing and a few months of kind of treading water with my training, tomorrow marks the official start to my training for Ironman Louisville on October 11, 2015.  This event is significant for me for several reasons.

First off, it represents a new challenge to me and an unknown entity in the world of endurance sports.  Not since my first marathon in 2010 have I done an event that seemed so intimidating.  I think part of the reason I chose to do this is because the marathon, while still incredibly exciting to me, has become something of a standard race for me.  Sure, I've only done 4 and have a modest PR, but I've gotten to the point with marathons that I know with some training I can do it and do it reasonably well.  That's not to say I'm done marathon running.  On the contrary, there are already plans in place to run the 2016 Chicago Marathon.  However, the Ironman represents a massive challenge for me.  The excitement of competing in an event where for me finishing will be the biggest accomplishment is legitimately intriguing to me.  While I have time goals for the entire event as well as each individual portion, ultimately the goal is to finish.

That brings me to the second reason this is significant.  The event falls just 6 days before my wedding.  When I tell that to most people, the general reaction is to question my sanity or ask whether or not I think it's a good idea.  The question ultimately falls to my fiance, whose response every time is, "I think it's awesome."  That's all I need to hear.  She has been supportive of this ever since July when I first mentioned doing it, and when we set our wedding date we had no problems making it 6 days after the Ironman.  It just gives me extra incentive, since she regularly tells me she will only marry and Ironman...so I guess finishing is no longer a question.

So the direction this blog is going to take over the next 16 weeks is to recap what life is like balancing teaching (starting in August), coaching cross country, helping plan a wedding and training for an Ironman.  While I have had a tendency to slack off in marathon training, I'm too scared of not finishing the Ironman to slack off in this training.  Also, I have no excuses for the next 7 weeks or so because I am on summer break and have all the time I need to train during the week.

I've been getting advice from everyone I know, and I have what I think is a good training plan from a site called Active Training World so hopefully all will be well.  Over the past few weeks, I've been building myself up, running about 4 days  a week, and biking and swimming about twice a week.  My long run is only up to about 10 miles, my longest bike has been 40 and my longest swim 2000 meters.  I need to get up to 3800 meters swimming, 112 on the bike and 26.2 on the run.  Here's hoping I can do it.  I'll close with how I've been trying to get myself hyped to officially begin my training, with inspirational Ironman videos.


Friday, May 8, 2015

Race Report: The Boston Marathon

I know this one is a little late, but I’ve now had time to process the entire experience and really think through how amazing it was to run the Boston Marathon.  I have to admit, I did my best to downplay the significance of this race in my head for a long time.  In my mind, I was just going to Boston to visit friends and run a race.  I actually think this kept me in a good frame of mind all the way until I got onto the bus headed to Athletes’ Village.
One thing of note was the send-off I got from my school.  I kept my running to myself and a few other teachers, but word got out and a big deal was made.  As I left school Friday, I saw my name on the sign outside my school, saying "Good luck at the Boston Marathon."
The trip to Boston was uneventful, but the weekend leading up was great.  I got in runs of 3 miles (Saturday) and 2 miles (Sunday) that felt so easy that I had to hold back when I started running race pace…a good sign considering I had been absolutely worn down to the point of not running less than 2 weeks before. 

The real issue of the race was that I was in Boston for the weekend, and I had good food and beer to try.  I’m not going to go into details, but I spent a lot of Saturday in breweries, bars and restaurants…drinking equal amounts beer and water.  I went to bed that night ready to start to focus on racing the next day.

Sunday was exactly what I needed.  A good short run, a great experience at the expo, and an awesome pasta dinner at a nice Italian restaurant not far from the Old North Church (where I had to stop for a few pictures).  Since I was staying with friends, I was able to spend a relaxing evening Sunday at a house in South Boston with my fiancé and our friends.  I went to bed fully, hydrated, and not really all that nervous. 

Now, I probably need to admit to a bit of griping in the time leading up to the race.  I mean, I was out of town and I really wanted to enjoy myself, not worry about a marathon.  Then the weather reports started getting worse…wind, cold, rain.  Great, just great.  God bless Teri and her friends for putting up with me.  Even on the way to the bus (I took the closer buses to Hopkinton, not from downtown Boston), I was a bit moody and not really excited.  I posed in the parking lot when we got to the bus for a few obligatory photos, and I was on my way.  Apparently my act wasn’t convincing because Teri supposedly told her friends after I had left that it looked like I was feeling better than I let on.  I guess it was time to see.

I got to the athletes’ village at about 8:10 and hung out in the cold and rain, doing my best to stay warm until it was time to walk to the start.  In the start area, I timed my hydration and bathroom stops perfectly, getting through the restroom line with about 15 minutes to spare, at which point I walked to Corral 1, took off my warmups, and waited for the start.

The gun went off at exactly 10AM, and it only took about 20 seconds to get to the start line from my position.  I was worried the crowds would throw me off, but besides an incident at about the 5k mark when I kind of got tripped up, I didn’t have much problem navigating the course.  I followed the same plan as I did in my previous marathon, just trying to feel relaxed as long as possible.  I was worried the first 2 miles I was running too slowly, but my easy effort was right on pace. 
I did my best to just take advantage of what the course gave me.  I opened up a bit on the downhills, but didn’t increase effort at all.  So my downhill miles were faster, but not crazy fast.  The miles with uphills we a bit slower but also not too bad.  My splits were a bit varied the first 10 miles, but overall I feel like I ran the course perfectly. 

My first concern came pretty early.  My left leg hadn’t been right for some time, but had never been a serious problem while training.  Today was no different.  About 4 miles in, my hamstring felt tight and my IT band started to pull on my knee.  The IT band, especially, concerned me because I had a major fear of it flaring up so bad I wouldn’t be able to put weight on my knee.  The hamstring has been a problem in every marathon I’ve run, but I knew it probably wouldn’t be an issue until later in the race (I was 100% right on that one).  I ran the miles from 4-6 in some worry, but going through Framingham, I knew Teri, Nidhi and Julie would be waiting for me soon, so my mind soon wandered as I focused on the crowds lining the streets.


Running through all the small towns, I was amazed at how loudly the crowds cheered.  And I won’t pretend it didn’t affect me.  I got excited and really took in the cheering.  I slapped hands with kids, waved to people yelling, and hit the signs that said “Touch Here for More Power.”  I was really enjoying it.  So much so, that when I looked left and saw my 3 favorite girls in Boston, I got probably the goofiest smile on my face and waved like an idiot.  But I couldn’t help it, I was caught up in the energy of Boston!

After seeing Teri (and Julie and Nidhi) I knew it was going to be a long haul.  They told me they probably wouldn’t be able to see me again until the final mile of the race.  So I was now on my own, with a tight hamstring and an IT band threatening to derail my race.  I remember hitting 10 miles and feeling like I had been running forever…but my splits were still right on track so I didn’t worry too much.  In my mind, my goal was to get to 13 and see just how crazy were the crowds in Wellesley. 
I spent the next 2 miles just focusing on pace and keeping aware of my left leg.  But when I got close to Wellesley, I started to hear the roar and see the crowds lining the streets.  As we got closer to the college, I started to notice the guys around me started to speed up.  I would say in the ½ mile going in front of the students there, I probably got passed by more guys than I did the entire rest of the race.  All I did was laugh, read the sometimes raunchy signs, and kept on pace.  I did make it a point to slap hands with a line of about 200 students lining the course, but that got old quickly so I just kept running.

As I approached the halfway point, I was still feeling good, and hit 13.1 in 1:22:43, just barely ahead of PR pace, which was actually kind of frustrating.  Even though I was slower in Columbia (1:24:15), I had been feeling a lot better and more fit back in September.  I knew the wind was going to get worse as I got closer to Boston and the Newton hills were looming on the horizon, so I was wholly expecting a slowdown in the second half. 

In Columbia, I hit the halfway point, which was at the top of the biggest hill on the course, and for whatever reason my splits went from about 6:20-25 to about 6:00-6:05.  I didn’t feel like I was picking up the pace, but I certainly did.  I had kind of hoped the same thing would happen in Boston, but instead my 5k splits slowed a bit, to the point that my next two 5k’s were my slowest of the day (19:54 and 19:59).  However, mentally that halfway point was a major boost.  I don’t really know what happened, but for whatever reason my mood just lifted at halfway.  I always set up checkpoints in my head late in marathons.  At 13.1, it was “Get to 16”, then “Get to 18”, Then 20, and from there I didn’t really know.  But from the halfway point, the race started to fly by.

The only major memory I have from halfway to 16 was the start of the Newton hills.  I had always heard the second half of the race was hillier, but I thought Heartbreak Hill was the only real challenge.  So it was a pretty big surprise when I hit a massive downhill just after 15.  I was happy about this, and used the hill as I had every other one: I increased my pace but not my effort, keeping in control as I got passed by several people down the hill.  I could only assume that with a massive downhill there would be a large uphill, and I was right.  Looking back on the course, that uphill after 16 was more difficult than Heartbreak Hill.  I was able to power through it, and had a decent split, but it was a shock 16 miles in. 

The next few miles went by pretty quickly, with a few hills mixed in with the increasing wind.  My hamstring and IT band were still noticeable but holding up for the time being.  I got to 20 feeling decent, then started to climb.  I didn’t even realize it at the time, but I was climbing Heartbreak Hill a mile before I was expecting it.  Somehow in my head I thought it came AFTER 21 miles instead of leading up to 21 miles.  So I climbed this hill, but started to notice a serious problem in my hamstring about halfway up.

The hamstring started pulling and cramping in the same way it had at 23.5 miles (climbing a hill) in Columbia.  Right as I got to the top of the hill in Boston (I still didn’t realize it was Heartbreak Hill) my hamstring tried to clench.  I had to stop to stretch, which was definitely the worst moment for me in the entire race.  I had over 5 miles to go and my hamstring had given out.  For whatever reason, I decided to only briefly stretch.  I would say I was stopped for maybe 10 seconds before gingerly starting to run again, to the relief and some extra cheers from the incredibly loud crowd.  It was only then that I looked up and saw the signs proclaiming, “You’ve reached the top of Heartbreak Hill.”  What a huge relief this was!  I was legitimately shocked, thinking I was going to hit it a mile ahead.  Knowing where I was on the course, I now remembered the remainder of the way was a net downhill.  Over the next ½ mile I analyzed every piece of data my body was giving me to determine how much I had left.

At the Pittsburgh Marathon in 2010, I knew my race was over by 12 miles.  At Memphis in 2012, I was done by 16.  I finished both, but very slowly.  In Columbia, I was barely hanging on after 23 miles, but was able to finish with respectable splits.  Here in Boston, I was having a mental argument with myself.  I had been telling myself the entire way, “Hold back, hold back, hold back.”  I was so scared that I was going to hit a wall, and the idea of fading and having to walk/jog the final miles of the Boston marathon was frightening.  But at 21.5 miles, I could tell there was still something in the tank.  I decided to start a surge and see how long I could sustain it.  I had felt the same way a few weeks before in a 10k I ran back in Louisville, and surged the entire second half of the race.  I figured in Boston, even if I could only hang on for 2-3 miles, I would be close enough to the finish to still run a respectable time.


hamstring was able to sustain the surge, and I hit my 22nd mile in 5:53, feeling great.  At that point I was thinking ahead to 25 miles and hopefully seeing Teri again.  I hit 23 in 6:02, 24 in 6:00.  Looking back at my splits online, my 5k from 35-40k was 18:45, by far my fastest of the day.  I still felt good heading towards 25 miles, again hitting 6:00.  I had sustained this surge for much longer than expected, and I was in such a zone that after 25 miles I was more focused on finishing and I apparently missed Teri.  But she told me she saw me, and I was just looking ahead the entire time, focusing on passing runners.  I did hear my friend John, who was camped out at 25.5 handing out cannoli’s/  When I hit the Citgo and the 1 mile to go sign, the effects of the surge finally began to catch up to me, at least mentally.  I was ready to be done, but I was a mile from the finish line, dammit!  I held on as long as I could, passing up John and his cannoli’s.  Right onto Hereford Street, ½ mile to go.  Left onto Boylston…holy crap, I thought the finish line would be closer!  It didn’t matter, I was feeling great and surging towards the finish.  The crowd, even 30+ minutes after the leaders had come through, wasn’t cheering, they were roaring, and I couldn’t help but get excited.  I finally crossed the finish line and immediately raised my arms in celebration.  2:44:48, a 48-second PR!!!  I ran the last 2k in 8:01, 5:53 pace and my last 5 miles were my 5 fastest of the day.

I had finished just in time.  Almost immediately after finishing, the skies opened up and a cold downpour began to fall.  The wind suddenly picked up and blew over a few signs.  I had missed running in this by less than 2 minutes.  The first things I noticed were my stiff elbows and my left hand being absolutely numb from cold.  I could barely hold anything that was given to me, but every volunteer was so kind, asking if I was ok before helping me on to the next person.  The walk through the finish area took forever, and by the time I was out of it, I was wet and cold, with my hands full of food and drinks I didn’t really want.  I went over to the family meeting area and stood under the “D”, hoping Teri and her friends would be there soon.  I ran into another runner in the same situation (he had just broken 2:40 for the first time).  While we talked and shivered in the cold, a volunteer came over and tried to direct us inside to warm up and get a massage.  Despite our arguments, she insisted that our families/friends could wait for us, and basically dragged us inside.  Once inside, I limped down the stairs and sat on a massage table for probably 20 minutes, before finally getting up and being allowed to leave.  I walked out of the hotel and found Julie and Nidhi waiting, while Teri had apparently gone off trying to track me down.

Fortunately a minute later I heard her voice, and turned around to see her walking towards me.  Seeing how excited she was for me and just embracing her was about the best feeling of the day. 


Overall, Boston now has to rank as my favorite running experience.  Despite bad weather, insufficient preparation and a bad hamstring, I ran my fastest and most enjoyable marathon ever.  While I don’t know when and/or if I will ever run Boston again, it will always stand in my mind for all that went right on that day.

Friday, April 10, 2015

Where I've Been, Where I'm Going...

It's so easy to fall of the wagon when writing these things.  I enjoy writing, and I enjoy writing about my running so I'm going to be making a much better effort at staying on here and writing regularly.  So where did I leave off?

2014 saw a serious resurgence in my running.  It started out with a very disappointing 5k in February (17:02, if I recall, one of the few times this millennium I've failed to break 17:00.  I took most of the rest of the winter off running, and started back a bit in April.  At the same time, I bought a house,  met my future wife (currently my fiance), and marched to the end of my 3rd year of teaching. 

So what was the result in all this good in my life?  Great running.  I ran 4 races in July, August and September, and won all 4!  The first was the Oldham County Day 5k, and the win was a huge surprise for me, especially how easily my speed seemed to come back.  Second up was the St. Matthews Midsummer's Night 5k, which I won and also broke 16:00 for the first time in almost 3 years.  Next up was the Fastline 5k and a very easy win in my final tuneup for my ultimate goal for the summer: the Heart of America Marathon in Columbia, MO.  

I have to admit, I went into this marathon really suffering.  Even though I had run several great 5k's, that means nothing in the marathon.  So I went into this with low expectations.  However, my girlfriend (now fiance) was there watching me run for the first time.  To keep this short, I went out slow, ran 23 miles absolutely alone in 2nd place, took the lead just past 23 miles and won the race by 7 minutes in a huge marathon PR of 2:45:36.  That was the most rewarding win I've ever had in running.  And on top of that, it qualified me for the Boston Marathon.  A fine race recap can be found here.

So what's next for me.  Well, Boston obviously.  I'm 10 days out and feeling terrible about my training again.  I've race 3 times in 2015, a 5k, 10k and 10 Mile Race.  The 10k was a huge success, but the other two not so much.  However, all signs point to fitness close to a 2:40 marathon.  However, to be safe I've set my sights around 2:43.  My training has been similar to last summer, with some good long runs and not much else.  My body is usually good through about 2 hours of running, but beyond that I struggle, so I need to figure out how to get through that last 43 minutes.  My fiance and some of her friends will be there, as will a huge crowd of Boston Marathon supporters, so I'm hoping that will serve me well.  Right now, it's all about rest.  I'll update once more before Boston and hope to have a race recap shortly after, and post regularly beyond that.  Because after Boston, the real training starts: for the Louisville Ironman in October!!