Two Miles

I ran two miles today.  

I'd been hoping for three, and I'm not sure if it was my lungs or legs that let me down today.  My shins were ok, but two miles just seems to be all that I'm conditioned enough for at the moment.

This is frustrating to me, but I remember running the mile during my senior year of high school.  It did not go so well.  I ran an 8-minute mile, but I was completely dead.  I was a decent athlete in high school, with even a year on the (JV, I should say) basketball team, but  I couldn't run distances at all.

I remember afterward, as I sucked in precious oxygen as fast as I could, chatting with one of track (or maybe cross country) kids who was in my gym class.  He seemed utterly unfazed by the mile.  I asked him if he ran the mile in competition.  "No", he replied, "the two mile."

This distance was incomprehensible to me.

I ran two miles today.

2012: The Running Year in Review

Better late than never, right?  

My motto for 2012 was "Revenge!"  By the goals I'd outlined for myself, it was a total failure.  I deferred from both of the long races I'd signed up for (Shamrock Marathon in March and Atlantic City Half in October) and refrained from running for most of January, October, and November.  Injuries were really the name of the game in 2012.  

Because of that, I don't want to go month-by-month like I have in both of the other two year-in-review type posts I've done.  Instead, I'm going to borrow a format that my lovely wife, Chris at nevertrade.blogspot.com, used for a post.   

Best Race Experience
TowneBank Shamrock 8K -- J&A Racing does a great job with the Shamrock series of races in Virginia Beach.  I ran the marathon in 2011, and deferred and ran the 8K in 2012.  I think a lot of time it's (Whatever) MARATHON and oh, there's another race, too.  At Shamrock, 8K runners get really nice long-sleeve shirts, medals, and their own post-race beer party.  They really do a great job of giving all the runners the same fun experience (fun during the race itself may vary).  Not only does J&A put on a good event, the 8K course is scenic, flat, and fast and I ran the hell of it: 41:40, a PR by over a minute.  I was disappointed that I wasn't running the marathon, but still had a great time at this race and in Virginia Beach.  

Best Run of the Year
Hershey 10K -- this was a humid, miserable kind of day and definitely wasn't one of the more enjoyable races I've run (because of the weather and because I went way too fast out of the gate, it wasn't a bad event).  What it was was a 10K PR by over 5 minutes.  52:33.  I have no idea where this came from. If this time is to be believed, it's probably the best run I've ever had. I started too fast, up with the people that actually are REALLY fast, died,  and recovered to have a negative split that put me at the 8K mark below my PR time from Shamrock. This is a pretty huge outlier for me from any other 10K or 6 miles I've ever run, or the course was mismeasured.  Either way, I wouldn't be surprised if I never touch this PR.

2013 New Years Resolutions

Later in the week, I'll do a postmortem on 2012.  I'm not going to go month-by-month like I have the past two years, since this year contained large periods of time where there was no running, and I complain enough on this blog. Plus, this is New Year's Day, the day for making resolutions.  But before we get to this year's resolutions, let's see how I did last year:



1. 5:59 or better mile. -- Nope!  I didn't run the Harrisburg Mile because I hurt my tailbone pretty badly the previous weekend.  My personal rules are that this has to take place in a race, so that was my only chance.  I've learned that the York Road Runner's Club has timed miles before many of its races, so this year I know I have more than one shot.

2. 22:59 or better 5K -- Negative, but I did hit a new 5K PR, 23:20 at HACC Dash.  So maybe partial credit? No?

3. 4:50 marathon -- Didn't even run a marathon, much less hit 4:50

4. 10 races total  -- Got it: St. Patrick's 5K, Baltimore; Shamrock 8K; Hershey 10K; Sole of the City 10k; HACC Dash 5K; Armed Forces Day 5K; Druid Hill 10K; Spartan Race; Sasquatch Trail 5K; Jingle Bell 5K 

5. Lift weights 3x/week -- Ha.

1 for 5.  That's pretty bad.

So, for 2013:

1. Run Shamrock Half Marathon in March 2013
2. Under 6:00 mile (carried over from last year)
3. Run one marathon this year.
4. 10 races total
5. Lose 20lbs.  (I freaked out earlier in the year when I was 150. I'm 160 now. I feel best when I'm under 140.)

We'll see about this.  

Running is Stupid and No One Should Ever Do It

Today I ran 3 miles.  It felt like 26.  Not quite 26.2, maybe, but pretty bad. As I was arriving back at the house and limping up the stairs I thought to myself, "last year, or even eight months ago, this would have just been a nice little jog."  I need to make it that way again, it's no one's fault but my own that 3 miles seems like an epic struggle right now.  I've had bad luck with injuries this year, but the real problem is I just lost my motivation somewhere along the way, too.

In January and February, I did push myself to come back from the same injury that cropped up again in September, and when I did start running, I made quick progress.  I had shin trouble in September, and just kept doing a whole lot of not very much for the next two months.

And even though I started running again earlier this month, it's been hard to tear myself away from work or get my lazy butt out there in bad weather to run.  Today's 3 miles in 28ish minutes (I'm guessing, forgot my watch) was a struggle, but it was great compared to the crash & burn 5K I had last week at the local Jingle Bell 5K, where it took me 3 walk breaks to finish the race.  (I accidentally erased my race review somehow, and am not especially inclined to rewrite it.)

The last few weeks have reminded me that I really don't like running in and of itself, and the only way to make it tolerable is to get myself in better shape so that I can run normal or longer distances without being a huge wheezy mess.  It also told me that there's basically no way I'm running a marathon in March, so we can write off "Comeback 2012" as a huge failure.  I'm now signed up for the half marathon at Shamrock, which seems like it might be more realistic.  Maybe a full later in the spring or in the fall of next year, or maybe never again, but that's a decision for when I'm not quite this negative.  I'd like to do at least one more full marathon, even if it's my last, but again...I'll worry about that when four miles doesn't seem like an insurmountable challenge.

This is how lazy and unmotivated I feel, lately.  Just not this cute.

Fifteen Weeks

On September 22, I stopped running.  It had been a tough September, with lots of pain in my left ankle and shins.  Two weeks earlier, I'd had to stop a run when the pain in my left leg just became too much.  I'd come back with a decent five miles and thought nothing of it, but after running my last race, the Sasquatch 5K (my wife reviewed it at "Never Trade", but I never bothered), it just been bonk after bonk after bonk. On September 22, I went down to the rail trail, knowing that if I was going to have any shot at all at the Atlantic City Half Marathon, which I was going to run with no expectation of PR, anyway, I had to have a good run.  I labored through 5 miles, getting only that far because I had to in order to get back to my car.

I called my orthopedist, I deferred from the race, and most significantly, I just quit. In January, when I couldn't run, I did everything I could to stay in shape and I got right back out there and made some quick progress in my spring races.  This time, I gave into my depression and did I ate and drank a lot and did a lot of sofa exercises (like sitting on a sofa.)  In early November, when my doctor got my MRI results back (diagnosis is shinsplits, or something similar, since the placement on the leg isn't the classic case of shinsplits) and said I could start running again, I took that as "Wow. I need a couple weeks at the gym to get myself back in shape a little."  And I tried, but in the meantime I'd gotten heavier than I'd ever been. 

I started doing the elliptical at the gym, doing 45 minutes with different inclines to work different muscles, but we all know that's not the same.  When I joined my wife for a session with her personal trainer on Monday, which I'm signed on for for the next 10 weeks, I got the rude awakening of out-of-shape I'd let myself get.

My long-overdue Day of Reckoning had come at last, and I ran again.  Two miles on Thursday and three miles today, which felt like 10 and 20 miles, respectively, but it was good to be out there again.  I have 15 weeks to get ready for my third -- and let's face it, quite possibly last -- marathon, and from here on out I'm going give it everything I've got, even if it's probably too late.  I know if I can get myself up to 6-7 miles by the end of December, I'll be at the place in which my 2011 Shamrock plan began (I was ahead of schedule then!).  I can't let fatigue, work stress, or fear of failure stop me.  If I CAN run, I have to do it.  There's just not time to slack off.  I'll need to work harder than I've worked before at running, and I suspect that the next three months will my make IT band rehab look like a walk in the park.

There's a chance.  Probably not a good chance.  But there's a still a chance a chance for the revenge I've sought all year.  And I'm going to take it. 

Differential Diagnosis: Part 2 of ?: MRI

I went in for my MRI today.  There's not much more to say at this point, since my doctor hasn't seen the results yet, but that makes a crappy blog entry.

My MRI was scheduled for 8:00am this morning at the WellSpan Imaging Center in York.  First of all...8:00am?  I work from home, and lately it's been all I can do to be out of bed just barely in time to make coffee before starting work at 8:30.  Secondly, I'd never had an MRI before, and I was a little bit nervous.

Fortunately, the people at WellSpan Imaging could not possibly have been any nicer.  (Please note:  I do not yet know what my co-pay is on this.)  They answered all my questions, ran through a checklist to make sure I didn't have anything metal in my body (if you have a pacemaker, you can't have an MRI, for example) and then made sure I was comfortable on the machine before it started MRI-ing me.  

The MRI in question was a 2010 Hitachi Oasis, an open MRI, meaning I wasn't going into an enclosed tube like the thing they were always scanning people with on House.  

Anything that might have metal in it, including all my electronic gizmos had to be put in a locker, so I couldn't take any pictures.  However, the MRI at Wellspan looked exactly like this one (which is at the Carlisle Regional Medical Center):

Because I was only having my shin scanned, I didn't need to be all the way under the dome-like part of it (which I guess is the MRI itself), but really just my head was sticking out, and since the table was raised pretty high, I think I would have hit my nose if I were pushed in any further, making the experience a little claustrophobic.  It really wasn't too bad, though.  My only instructions were "try not to move your leg" and "don't freak out" (really it was "Press this call button if you need anything.")

Once the test begins, the main thing you'll notice is that an MRI is REALLY LOUD, with lots of banging and whirring noises indicating that its scanning.  Luckily, they'd provided me with foam earplugs and big headphones.  I'd requested a rock station, and ended up listening to the greatest hits of U2 through the whole 30-ish minute scan.  I have a friend who loathes U2, and at the beginning of each song I thought "I'm glad I'm not him."  To which I'm sure he'd reply, "I'm not the one stuck in an MRI machine at 8:00am!"

After the scan was over, the technicians lowered the platform down, and warned me that I would be dizzy for a few minutes.  They weren't kidding!  Apparently the MRI stimulates the balance center in the inner ear.  I didn't notice anything (other than how noisy the machine was and how tired I was) during the scan, but I felt a bit off-balance for about 5 minutes after the scan.

So, I learned something today. Just not anything about what's actually wrong with my leg.  Hopefully that's coming soon.

Differential Diagnosis: Part 1 of ?

I'm officially out of the AC Half Marathon with my shin/ankle/vein/whatever problems, and I went to the orthopedist on Tuesday.  

I got x-rays, which didn't show anything obviously wrong, and my doctor said I had decent leg and glute strength, which he ascertains by telling me to hold my leg in a certain position while tries to push it down.  He also used a tuning fork on my shin bones, the purpose of which seemed to be further testing for fractures.  There was only one tuning fork in the whole office, and he had to go hunting for it before doing the test.

It's probably shinsplints, but I'm getting sent for an MRI tomorrow morning.  I'll post those images on the blog, too, if I'm able to without violating HIPAA regulations or causing any expensive equipment to malfunction.

 

"It's not Lupus."