Trust the process (and some post long run recovery advice)

So if anyone asks how marathon training is going right now, my answer is simply “it’s going”. It’s not bad, it’s not great, but it’s definitely coming along day by day.

The foot still hurts and it’s not really getting any better, BUT I have been running on it and it’s not necessarily getting any worse (I hope…). I’ve had to make some cut backs to my training to help the healing process, and initially this really stressed me out. Running Boston is a huge deal for me, and I really want to be as ready as possible. Talking to my coaches though, they do not seem stressed for me at all. As long as I listen to my body, stop when I’m in pain, and keep them in the loop on my status, they will help me to build the endurance that I need to do the 26.2 miles.

I’ve been going to PT twice a week for the past 3 weeks, and the massages, strengthening exercises, and stim treatment definitely help. I also don’t really feel any pain with the elliptical, so I’ve continued to rely on that for midweek cross-training. Here’s a rundown of my training since my last post…

Saturday 2/14- 6 mile “long” run. Full recap in the last post.

Sunday 2/15- Rest

Monday 2/16– 40 min elliptical + 60 min Body Pump class

Tuesday 2/17- Rest. I actually ended up working until around 8pm that night, so I didn’t even get home until around 9pm. Oof long day.

Wednesday 2/18- 60 min elliptical

Thursday 2/19- 50 min easy run.  This was my first midweek training run in 2 weeks. I did this on the elliptical and took it very slow. I never went over 5.7 mph. It actually felt ridiculously slow, but this was the speed where my foot didn’t hurt at all. ~4.6 miles in 50 min done.

Friday 2/20– 75 min relaxation yoga. This was hardly a workout, but it did feel realllly good.

Saturday 2/21- 14.5 mile long run.

Sunday 2/22- “recovery workout” 45 min elliptical

Yes! You heard right. I did over over 14 miles on Saturday! 16 miles was the actual prescribed run, but since I only did 6 the week before and my foot was starting to feel worse during the last mile, I stopped at 14.

We did this run outside, starting from our usual Team in Training meeting spot in Wellesley. First we ran 3 miles towards Natick (just past Wellesley College) and back, then 5 miles out into Newton along the Carriage Road next to Comm Ave.

Sidenote #1: The Carriage Road is SO COOL! I’ve heard about it on different running forums, but I never really understood what it was or where until this weekend. There is literally a tiny one lane road next to Comm Ave that is fully paved and plowed but has little to no vehicle traffic on it. There were thousands of runners out along the carriage road Monday morning, the vast majority of them wearing BAA gear. It was so exciting to be surrounded by all of these people likely training for the exact same goal that I was.

Sidenote #2: CHECK OUT THESE ICICLES! (but ignore the thumb). The icicles around Boston are intense, and terrifying, right now. Is it spring yet?

Okay back to the run. There were water stops every 2ish miles along the out and backs, so I stopped at each one to assess how my foot was doing before going on to the next one. The mile 11 water stop is when I started to notice my foot. It felt fine when I walked or stood still, but it was becoming increasing sore as I jogged along, especially on the downhills. Instead of stopping there  at mile 11 (it was the furthest water stop away from our finish line), I decided to jogback  to the mile 14 water station and take walking breaks whenever needed. I stopped to walk for a minute or so twice during the final 3 miles. On a scale of 1-10, my foot was reaching around a 5, bearable but definitely noticeable.  It never hurt enough to affect my gait, but I didn’t want to make it worse by pushing it harder.

One of our coaches, Sarad, was at the mile 14 stop and completely agreed that I should call it a day at 14. Another 2 miles would not improve my endurance all that much, and heck- I just ran over 14 miles!! My longest distance ever! And with an injury! I was definitely proud 🙂 A nice volunteer (I never caught his name) drove me back to the finish right around the same time that my coworker was finishing her full 16 (the route actually ended up being ~16.7 in total, and my run was ~14.5).

I think one of the reasons I was able to finish it run is because I did not wear my GPS watch. This wasn’t entirely on purpose, I couldn’t find my Garmin the morning of the run ( I still don’t know where it is), and I didn’t want to be late. Without the watch, I was able to focus on my form and how my body felt without getting upset about my pace. I know I was going slow, but a slow 14 miles relatively pain free is definitely better than no run at all (or a shorter, more painful one…). I think until my foot is better, I will continue to leave the Garmin at home.

We were starving and freezing after the run, so we hit up Starbucks for egg sandwiches and coffees before the drive back to Boston.

This post run meal hit the spot! When I got home I did some stretching and LOTS of “legs up a wall” to reduce any swelling in my legs/feet.

After that, I passed out for a solid 2 hour nap. Felt so good.

When I woke up, I was RAVENOUS. I immediately texted my friend Jenna asking if she wanted to get dinner because I could eat a horse. I was going to Jenna’s yoga studio a few hours later for a Twister Tournament, so we ordered some takeout while we set up the event. Steak tip salad plus all the curly fries totally hit the spot.

So, if anyone out there in the internet world is reading this because they are looking for some good post run stretching advice, PLAY TWISTER! When I first agreed to go to this Twister Tournament the night of a long run, I did not think I would actually play. I wanted to be the judge who spun the wheel and laughed when people got into awkward poses. Once the game got started though, I couldn’t resist. And it felt awesome! There were lots of forward folds and lunges and other odd stretches that really helped to loosen up my tight muscles. A few brewskis also helped.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. Twister and beer are not scientifically validated post run recovery tools. Proceed with caution.

So how’s the foot feeling after a 14.5 mile run? Answer: not awesome. Yesterday it was very tight and more sore than usual. I stretched and iced like crazy throughout the day, and the 45 min elliptical session helped to loosen some muscles up.

Today it is feeling somewhat better. I went to PT this afternoon and the massage was definitely more uncomfortable than in the past, but it did feel noticeably better afterwards.

~55 days. C’mon foot. Let’s do this.

Dealing with tendonitis

Yep, so my foot officially has tendonitis. I’ve learned a lot about my injury this past week, and I have put a great deal of energy into trying to help it heal as quickly as possible. Here’s a rundown of my foot injury to date

• Symptoms: The pain started the day after my 13 mile run two weeks ago. It felt like a bruise along the top arch of my foot. It hurts more when I lift my big toe or move my foot in weird directions side to side. It also hurts more when i first wake up in the morning or after I stand up after sitting for a while. Ice and ibuprofen seem to help. Walking barefoot or in un-supportive footwear also causes the pain to flare up.

• Diagnosis: On Wednesday (~5 days ago)I went to my physical therapist to have him take a look. After going over my symptoms and asking a bunch of questions to pinpoint the exact pain, he said that I most likely have extensor hallucis longus tendonitis. I sort of figured he would say that after all of the internet research I did last weekend, but it was still good to confirm. He said this likely happened because 1) my shoes were getting old and 2) my big toe was being used much more than usual when running on the uneven snowy terrain. Instead of using the ball of my foot to push off at each step, I was using my big toe to lift my foot more than usual which caused inflammation to the tendon. After talking through the issue, he gave a thorough “massage” of the area. I’m not really sure you can call it a massage, but he was basically moving the foot around and loosing up the joints. He then prescribed regular icing, ibuprofen, ice massage, and some strengthening moves of the bottom of the foot. Since the elliptical and the bike did not seem to hurt it, he said I should keep doing those things instead of running for the rest of the week and then try out my long run on Saturday. I made another appointment with him on Friday before the long run for additional stretching, massage, and some time on the stim machine.

• Workouts: I have spent a lot of time on the elliptical this week. I did 60 minutes on Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday. To help pass the time, I downloaded Unbroken on my kindle app, which has been great so far! On Tuesday night, I tried “pool swimming”, but it did not go so well. The pool at Boston Sports Club is only 4 feet deep and usually you are not supposed to be touching the ground during pool running. I tried it anyway, but  combination of pushing off of the ground and the resistance of the water  irritated my foot quite a bit. This was a bummer.

After a week of icing, stretching, and elliptical, my foot was feeling back to normal when I woke up on Saturday morning. Our Team in Training plan had a 14 mile run on the schedule, and I really wanted to try it out. I woke up bright and early, ate my usual pre long run breakfast (oatmeal, banana, peanut butter) and made it to Wellesley right on time. I was so excited to run that I didn’t even care that it was 3 degrees (-15 with the wind chill). The only thing I cared about was my foot feeling good.

Before the run, we had a nutritionist come in and discuss marathon fueling. It was very interesting and I even bought her book afterwards. I’ll talk more about that in another post because there was so much good info there. During the talk, I stretched out my foot, took an ibuprofen, and tried not to think too much about if my foot was hurting or not.

Right before we left on the run, our coaches delivered some news. Because the air was so cold, they deemed that it was too dangerous to do 14 full miles outside. The team would only be doing 8 outside, and if anyone wanted to do the remaining 6, they could do it on the treadmills later. The course would be 3 miles out and back in one direction and then 1 mile out and back in the other direction.  I loved this news because I was already feeling a little stressed about the distance ahead of me.

And just like that, we were off. The first 3 miles of the run actually felt really good. I could feel my foot, but it didn’t necessarily hurt. I was also running with one of the coaches and talking with him kept me distracted. He said the most important thing wasn’t to focus on my toe, but to focus on my gait. If my gait started to change due to the injury, that’s when I needed to stop. After 3 miles, the group turned around and started to head back. My foot was still feeling good until about mile 5. Around this time is when I was stuck running on a very uneven icy sidewalk. Each step was different from the previous since the ground was so rocky. Right at mile 6 is when my foot began to hurt, and I knew I needed to stop. Going the last 2 miles would have likely done a lot more harm than good.

I am very torn about how to feel after yesterday’s run. I am happy and proud that I was able to run 6 miles pain free, but I am also bummed that I had to stop at 6 on a day that I was scheduled to run 14. I know in the long run this was a good decision, but it’s hard to accept. I feel strong enough to do 14 miles, but my foot is the limiting factor. Sigh.

Today is the day after, and my foot is back to feeling how it did a few days ago. The pain is certainly there, but not necessarily worse than it has felt in the past. Hopefully with a full week of stretching/icing/strengthening/elliptical, my foot will be back to normal soon…

In other news, I have Olive back! Last week I was supposed to travel for work so my parents took her. My flight ended up getting cancelled with the snow, but they still held onto her since we couldn’t find a good time during the week to meet up and do a pup exchange. Yesterday I got her back, and it’s definitely helped to improve my mood. Here are some picture of her from the past 24 hours…

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Not doing a boston marathon countdown on this post because it’ll just stress me out. 🙂

5 Stages of Winter Grief and a Foot Injury Update

Hey there!

So Boston is  getting buried in even more snow today. SO MUCH MORE snow. TWENTY TWO more inches of snow!  Here’s a picture of the walkway to my house. Those fences are 4 feet tall!

Boston.com posted a pretty hilarious article outlining the “5 Stages of Grief” related to this winter’s snow, and it is spot on. Here is my personal timeline of the 5 stages of grief over the past 2 weeks:

• Denial– This is me constantly. Every time I hear one weather report, I immediately check 2-3 more sources to see how they compare. There’s no way the weather guys can be right so many times in a row? What happened to the days when the weather guys would warn us about fake storms just to get higher ratings?! I want more lies!
• Anger– My last post had a lot of anger, and I have probably been in this stage the most next to depression. I’m not an angry person. I don’t like wasting my energy on anger, but sometimes there is no escaping it. I’m angry when it takes me over 3 hours to get to work. I’m angry when my parking spots get stolen. I’m angry when I risk my life pulling out of my street around a huge snow bank. I’m angry when I can’t run outside. I’m angry that I got sick after running in the snow, and I’m angry that my foot has hurt since that 13 mile run in the snow. Though anger isn’t the most productive feeling, sometimes it just feels the most honest.

• Bargaining- I haven’t done a lot of bargaining, and maybe the reason for that is because I am teetering on the edge of Depression, Anger, and Acceptance. I don’t think there is anything I can do to prevent this snow, and there is nothing I can do to get away from it. Would booking an impulsive trip to Spain during a snowstorm count as bargaining? “Sure, snow all you want, I’m going somewhere warm soon anyway!”. It’s a stretch…
• Depression- Honestly, the snow is totally bumming me out. I’m even at the point of feeling claustrophobic in my own city- there’s no escaping it! It makes me sad that I’ve seen full grown men push old women on the T. I’m sad that people steal each other’s parking spots. I’m sad that I work long hours so that Olive doesn’t get to go outside as often as usual. Ugh, how many more days until spring?

• Acceptance- Nope, not here yet. Though I may be close. I’m sick of feeling negative all the time. Even with 4+ feet of snow (with more on the way), a restless dog, frozen pipes, terrible commutes, and a hurt foot…I want to start looking for the brighter side.

In my effort to find acceptance, here are some GOOD things about the snow!

• Snow Days– who doesn’t like working in their PJs! Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve had 2.5 work from home days (though 2 of those were sick days) and another tomorrow.
• Olive in the snow- is absolute adorable. She LOVES the snow, and watching her bound through it makes my heart melt.

• Crockpot Meals- Every Sunday for the past few weeks I’ve been making a warm and hearty meal in the crockpot to hold me over for lunches that week. Nothing cozier than the aromas a steamy flavorful meal filling the house on a cold snowy day. Paleomg’s chicken enchilada stew has been a recent favorite.
• Warm drinks- I love me a good latte. They make a great mid afternoon snack and are a great pick me up when feeling down.

• Vacation Planning- I’ve been known to book warm vacations when the weather is particularly crappy. Two years ago, Bill and I booked a trip to St Thomas during a snow storm. Last year, we booked a trip to San Diego during a snow storm. Where will we go this year? We’re thinking Barcelona, and flight searching has become one of our favorite free time activities. Stay tuned!

Foot Update

So it’s now been 9 days since my foot started hurting. Over the past few days, I’ve started to take my recovery very seriously. I really want this recovery to be quick and painless. Here are the measures that I’ve taken so far.

1) Do my research– Over the weekend, I did a lot of reading on what may be going on. I’ve read a lot of message boards, blogs, and PT websites about what may be going on with my foot and how to take care of it. It seems like I may be dealing with extensor tendonitis (as I mentioned in my previous post) because all of my symptoms line up perfectly with the medical sites.

2.) But not too much research- I’ve also learned that the internet is full of contradictions. Ice/Don’t Ice. Walk barefoot/wear stability shoes everywhere. Take ibuprofen/don’t take too much. Run through the pain/rest completely. Who to trust?!

3.) Consult a professional– Last Wednesday I emailed my Team in Training coaches to tell them about my foot issues. They provided some great advice not only for how to prevent and treat the issue, but also gave me advice to not let this get to my head. This is a very common injury and i can bounce back if I take it seriously early. Today, I also made an appointment with a physical therapist. I’ll be going in on Wednesday to make sure I am doing whatever I can to make this better.

4.) New Kicks! i knew that it was about time for me to get new shoes, and this pain pushed my buying decision over the edge. My TNT coach checked out my shoes on Saturday and still thinks they are a good match for me. My old pair was just worn out. I stuck with the Brooks Transcends but went with a much bolder option this time around.No one will miss me come race day!

5.) Wear running shoes everywhere. I have discovered that my foot does not hurt when i’m wearing my running shoes. It hurts when I’m barefoot. It hurts in slippers. It hurts in snow boots. I have also left the laces very loose on the right foot (the foot in pain).The pain is mostly concentrated on the top of my foot, so I’ve left the laces incredibly loose to avoid any friction.

6.) Stretch & Roll the calves- the extensor tendons extend across the foot up the front of the shin by the calf. Picture Credit:

My coach said it would be very important to not only take care of my foot but to also loosen up the calves. Calf tightness is likely the overarching cause of my foot pain, so even if they don’t feel tight, they probably are. I’ve done two types of “foam rolling” on my calf today. I did regular foam rolling AND frozen-water- bottle foam rolling. My coach suggested the frozen water bottle as it will work out the muscle knots while helping with swelling. It hurts oh so good.

7.) Active Rest- I don’t want to lose too much cardiovascular endurance while healing, so yesterday I went to the gym to do a long elliptical workout. 60 min on the elliptical + some strength training. I was careful to not do anything that cause my foot to hurt. Tomorrow I may try pool running!

8.) Stay POSITIVE. Can you sense a theme in this post? I’m trying to find the bright side in crappy things that I cannot control. It’s really hard to not feel completely stressed out with an injury halfway through marathon training. I am doing everything that I can to take care of this foot, so the final most important thing is to just smile and stay optimistic…like Olive!

69 days.

True Life: the weather report made me cry.

Warning: this post is going to contain a whole lot of bitching venting.

When it rains it pours. Well…I guess I should actually say, when it flurries, it blizzards.

This past week has been tough. Boston has has been completely hammered with snow, AND there is more on the way. We have been hit with over 40 inches since last week, a record for Boston. Even Runner’s World is acknowledging how crappy this week has been for us:

Obviously, this is not my first Boston winter, and I actually don’t mind snow in general. My blog’s name is bahston runnah..obviously, I’m okay with the elements. In fact, the variety of weather during the different seasons is one of my favorite things about this city.

But the past week has sucked. Few reasons why :

1) Where I live. My apartment and parking space are at the end of a small dead end street. Whenever it snows enough so that the streets need to be plowed, my car gets buried over and over again.On blizzard days, I end up going out to uncover my buried car 3-4 times.

Also, this is the mountain of snow that has built up at the end of my street. It is at least 10 feet tall, and I fear for my life every time I pull out into traffic.

2) Parking space wars suck. I’m a pretty passive aggressive person, and I do NOT like being confrontational. Unfortunately, that personality type does not thrive on the salty streets of Somerville. For the first winter ever, I have taken part in “spot saving”, and a few times this has already resulted in less than pleasant interactions with my neighbors.

3) Transportation in Boston is  a HOT MESS right now. I have lived in this city for almost 10 years, and I cannotremember the traffic and MBTA being so messed up by the winter weather. Tuesday night it took me 3.5 hours to get home from work. Bear in mind that I live 5 miles from my work. The drive was making me go so insane that I stopped for ice cream (for me) and dog  toys (for Olive…dog mom guilt) 2 hours in.

   

On Wednesday morning, I decided to take the train into work instead. The radio said the MBTA was bad, but there was no way it could be worse than a 3 hour drive, right? Nope. That commute was ALSO 3+ hours (6:40-9:50). Within 15 hours, I spent over 6 hours commuting. It has been like this for everyone, and you can just feel the tension in the air of the city.

4) Dog mom guilt. The snow is making me stir crazy, but it is making Olive even crazier. She is used to a relatively active lifestyle with daily trips to the dog park or long walks. Since the first storm last week, we’ve only made it to the park once. The walk there is too cold and dangerous (with the limited sidewalk space), and parking in that area of town is a nightmare. Because my commutes have been 3-4x longer than usual, she is also left home along for 4-5 hours longer a day than she’s used to. I’ve tried taking her to doggy daycare a few times, but I would go broke if I took her as often as I probably should.

5) I got sicker. After my long run in the freezing cold temps last Saturday, I developed a terrible head cold/sinus infection. The pressure in my sinuses made my head feel like it was being squeezed by a vice. On Sunday, I tried doing some gentle yoga to stretch out, but as soon as I went into downward dog,I thought that I was going to pass out my head hurt so bad. My respiratory infection from the previous week also came back so my lungs hurt every time I took a deep breath. Needless to say, I didn’t do any running Monday-Wednesday.

6) I hurt my foot. Since last Saturday, the top of my right foot has been in pain. I’m fairly certain that I tied the laces for my right shoe too tight after adding the shoe tag on for the 13 miler.

The first few days, I just figured it was a small bruise and thought nothing of it. I couldn’t run anyway (because of my sinus infection), so I just ignored it. On Wednesday, my head cold symptoms had subsided, so i headed to the gym to do a 3 mile hill workout on the treadmill. My foot still bothered me, but I still assumed it was just a bruise and finished the run. Thursday morning, the top of my foot hurt like a mother, especially when I stretched my toes upward. I did some researching on the interwebs and found out that I may have a mild case of extensor tendonitis, that can turn into a stress fracture if not cared for properly.

Since Thursday, I have been all about ice and ibuprofen. Here is a picture of my icing method at work yesterday. Ice pack in a sock, taped to my foot. Weird? Yes. Get the job done? Yes.

Aaaand here is my exciting Friday night. Just me, Olive, a bag of frozen peas, and Frank Underwood. Livin the dream.

I also skipped my Thursday and Friday workouts to completely rest. I can already tell this is helping, so hopefully if i rest a few more days, I will be better by Monday.

Even though I am going to sit out of tomorrow’s 9 mile long run with the Team, I am still going to go to practice to talk about this injury with my coaches. After exchanging a few emails today, they had some really great advice about how to prevent this in the future. Did you know that on really long runs, your feet can swell up by almost a size and a half?? i’m going to follow up with my coaches tomorrow before I buy a new pair of shoes to make sure I’m investing properly for the next few months of long runs.

Anyways, all of these things thrown together at once has just been really tough. I want to run. I want to keep building strength. Being hurt sucks, and the patience required to let my foot fully heal is torture.

Okay, debbie downer post over.

In brighter news, this was amazing. I’m really loving how much social media attention “left shark” is getting because my Super Bowl party was laughing hysterically at him the for the entire dance.

73 days.

Week 7 Long Run Review (with Team in Training!)

Week 7 was a success!

Because I was sick with a respiratory infection during the week, my Saturday long run was my only actual run this week. Even though mileage-wise that doesn’t look good, I’m really glad that I listened to my body so that I could recover.

So, I have decided to join Team in Training! With this organization, I will be raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society while training with a supportive group of runners.

Yesterday, the Boston Marathon team let me come to the weekly long run practice as a trial so that I could make my final decision with some experience.

The day started with my alarm going off at 6am..so much for sleeping on Saturdays until April! The long run practice started at 8am in Wellesley so I needed to wake up early enough to eat breakfast and digest. I had the usual winning breakfast of oatmeal, almond milk, banana, and peanut butter.

The first benefit to joining this team was obvious as soon as I stepped out of my front door. Yesterday in Boston, the temperature was 9 degrees (felt like -7), windy, and snowing. If I did not have a commitment to go run with other people, I would have jumped right back into bed! Another benefit is that my coworker is also running with the team and I am her ride to to Wellesley each week. If I don’t go, she doesn’t go!

We arrived at the Wellesley Community Center just a few minutes before 8, and there was already a good group of people warming up and stretching. The Team in Training plan is slightly different from my Hal Higdon plan, so yesterday was Half Marathon day! With Hal, I was scheduled to do 12. What’s an extra mile, right?

The volunteers and coaches did an awesome job of making Half Marathon day fun. They even had bibs available for us!

Before running, the coaches gave the group a  pep talk and also lead a short discussion on training advice. This week’s topic focused on the importance of hydration and listening to your body when it needs fuel.

And then around 8:45, we were off! I didn’t take any photos during the run because it was just too damn cold. The high only got up to around 12 degrees.

The route was a 6.5 mile out and back from Wellesley to Natick. An amazing part about Team in Training is the support they provide along the course. There were two water/fuel stations set up at miles 3 and 6, so we ended up passing them 4 times in total. The coaches would also drive back and forth to make sure everyone was doing okay. The conditions yesterday were ROUGH. Aside from the freezing temperatures, the majority of the snow from last week’s snowstorm has not been cleared. The group would be running along on a sidewalk and all of a sudden it would just stop due to a mountain of snow. We had to constantly switch between running on the snowy sidewalks and running on the side of the road. My pace was also much slower than usual since there was black ice just about everywhere. I am very proud of myself for not falling!

I ended up finishing the 13 miles in about 2:13. I was actually pretty impressed with this time considering the snowy conditions and how I had to stop for traffic at an intersection at least every mile.

Before we started the half marathon, the volunteers said that they would have a surprise for us at the end of the run. Check it out- a little finish line!

After finishing the “race”, we stretched for a little bit in the community center. My coworker started laughing at me when she noticed that the sweat in my hair and hat had turned to icicles!

Before heading home, we stopped at a Starbucks near the community center for warm drinks and treats. I went with a non-fat Chai Latte and some Justins pb cups. Just what I needed after a freezing 13.1.

I’m so excited to be training with the Team in Training group. If they can get me out of bed to run 13.1 miles icy freezing conditions on a Saturday morning, I know they will get me to finish 26.2 on April 20th.