Poor Pitiful Me

The training has been going well, however at much much slower pace than the last couple of years, as I don't want injure myself again. I keep my Battlefield Plan updated with my actual training and the number of weekly miles.

The abductor strain is still giving me problems and always feels tight. My physical therapist said it is because when the tendon heals, it becomes less elastic, something about the grain or muscle fibers healing differently from the way it was. She described a fix for that, but it sounded more painful than the injury, so I will just live with it.

Last week was supposed to be a step-down week for me, and then on to a nine mile long run this week. So I decided to combine my 5 mile long run last week, and the nine miler this week so I could use Montgomery Half-Marathon as one of my training runs.

The day after I signed up I got sick, was down for two and half days and couldn't keep any food in me. By Thursday night, I was severely dehydrated and my head felt like it was going to explode. I had been to the clinic twice with no improvement, the first time the antibiotic they gave me made me feel worse. On Friday morning and I was certain I wouldn't be able to make the half-marathon. All I wanted to do was sleep. I crawled out of bed about noon on Friday and was feeling better, but very weak. I was hungry, which is a great feeling, although my head was still felt like it was in a vice. I started with chicken rice soup and worked up from there to sandwiches, chips, veggies, and Clif Bars.

By Friday evening I was better yet, but still didn't think I could do the half-marathon. I went and picked up my race packet anyway. By Saturday morning, my stomach was still not quite right, but I went ahead and headed out for the race, still not sure if I'd run. With the excitement of the crowd, fellow runners, and running buddies all around me, I was pumped and ready to go. I finished in a respectable time, although slower than past halfers, I was happy to finish. I ran for the first ten miles, took about a half mile walk break, then running for the last 2.5 miles. The route was great, the weather was good, the only hard part was a hill going up towards the State capitol at mile 11. I finishing in 1:58:18.

The bug had forced me to take a three day break from running. I felt weaker than before any previous half-marathon, I hadn't been training to complete for this long of a race yet, and I wasn't able to load up on carbs in the days before the race, so, considering the circumstances, my finish time is not so bad.

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My Return

This post marks my return to blogging and my return to running after an injury.

I'm not supposed to be running yet. I have been walking two to four miles every day since my last day of running on June 23. My injury doesn't seem to be getting better, in fact it the first couple of weeks of rest, it felt worse. I have two different diagnosis from two physical therapists, two different ways to rehab. No one is certain, so I guess the next step would be an MRI, many of my friends have suggested it. I'm not going to do that. I'm tired of wasting all this time and having no better results than self treatment.

I know this is a stubborn injury, it takes long time to heal, it might be a stress fracture, so I will just deal with it. I will return to running with a smaller stride, slower pace, and quit being so frustrated with everyone's different opinion, even the experts, who poke around but still are only guessing.

Day 1: I'm out with my Saturday Morning running buddies, I intended to only walk, but the urge to run was so great that I did one mile at a very slow 10 minute pace. It felt great. I get home, it's still early, the weather is great, so I do another slow mile. Good news, the running didn't aggravate my abductor strain, I didn't feel any soreness at all. The usual tightness and soreness are still there, but it didn't make it worse.

Day 2: I wake up and I feel better than I have in a long time. I think the easy running actually helped. I go out for my morning walk and the urge to run hits me again. Don't worry, I'm taking it real easy, small steps, slow pace. I do 12 minutes and I feel the pain starting to come back, but after resting, stretching and icing the tendon, it doesn't feel as bad as it did six weeks ago, so I count my blessings. I'm also doing all the exercises the therapists recommend, and they hurt more than the run, especially the alternating one foot bridges. No more running until Tuesday.

So we'll see how it goes, and you can track my progress here.....

Off topic: Did you hear Michael Jackson has named his next concert tour after my blog, This is it? I'm so honored. I don't care the price, I'm going, it's the least I could do for this honor. However, I'm having trouble finding the dates and locations, every time I do a search I get a bunch of tabloid articles about him dying. What some journalists will do for a little attention is perverse. Can anyone help?

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