14 days post-surgery

I am now 14 days post-surgery, and my quad is finally beginning to take on it's normal shape and size. And each day, I feel the strength returning to my leg.

Quarter-inch arthroscopy incisions laterally, above and below the kneecap. Still some swelling around the one below. Remnant markings of the patellar tendon and the word "YES" above the kneecap

Inch and three-quarter incision over the posteromedial tibial plateau. Definitely still some swelling but healing well.

First PT session

I had my first PT session with Jen this morning. I did electric stimulation of the quad, leg raises on my back and side, two quad strengthening exercises, and heel raises. I ended with ice.

Dates/milestones:
December 14th: Surgery
December 22nd: First post-op appt. with Medvecky; ditched the second crutch...mostly
December 27th: First PT session; swelling and numbness resolved...mostly
January 5th: Second PT session
February 9th: Second post-op appt. with Medvecky (green light to start strengthening the leg?!)

First post-op appointment

I had my first post-op appointment with Dr. Medvecky this morning. The place was a zoo, but I was brought right in and seen within minutes. Lucky me. Medvecky seemed pleased with the way things have progressed in only eight days; mostly that I didn't have much pain post-surgery, and that I had zero pain today. He removed the strips from the arthroscopy incisions and left those off, as they looked almost good and healed. He did, however, place some of those steristrips over the two-inch incision made over the posteromedial aspect of the knee to get to the semimembranosus tendon. Whatever. We discussed the numbness down the front of my lower leg and around my inner ankle. He said that the swelling--there is still some swelling--is probably putting pressure on a nerve and that the numbness will resolve once the swelling goes down. As a result, he'd like me to take ibuprofen. (But, I thought that you're not supposed to mix aspirin and ibuprofen?) He then did a cursory examination of the knee. I say cursory because it was done pretty quickly, but perhaps that's as thorough as he needed to be today. I have to see him back in 7 weeks.

Right after he said that I probably don't need physical therapy, he wrote me a prescription for 8 weeks of PT, 1 time per week. I can handle that. I've already made the appointment but not without hassle. I called up the clinic I've used in the past and told her that I had a script for PT. She responded that she was booking out past the new year. Fine. She put me down for January 9th and then asked about the injury. I responded that I just had surgery, and she said, "well, you didn't tell me that." Then she gave me an appointment for December 27th. Plus, I had to repeat my phone number about half a dozen times and clarify that my name isn't Brian, but Ryan. Clearly, I have little patience for this kind of stuff.

Anyway, Medvecky said that I can progress from two crutches to one, and then to full weight-bearing over the course of the next six weeks. I got a lesson on how to use one crutch. Never use it on the side of your bad peg!

7 days post-surgery

The first few days were difficult, trying to figure out what worked and what didn't, but I managed.

The nerve block wore off in my sleep the morning after surgery. Succumbing to the pain, I took a pain pill for the first time at 6/am. I took a total of four pain pills over the course of the day after surgery, and I have been off them ever since. Now, I have pain only when accidentally engaging my hamstring muscles, and for good reason.

My sleep has been interrupted due to some lower back pain from fully extending the knee; however, I slept without the knee immobilizer for the first time last night and, as a result, got considerably better sleep.

I achieved 90% flexion of the knee 2 or 3 days ahead of schedule. I'm able to bear some weight on the leg, but because of a sore shoulder from using only one crutch, I'm now using two crutches and bearing little weight on the leg.

My first post-surgery visit with the surgeon is tomorrow morning at 10:30/am. I will report more after that visit.

Chronology of Injury

MARCH 2010-FEBRUARY 2011
Consistently training for and running marathons; peak average weekly mileage: ~55

02/06/11: 2hr 24min run in Central Park; no pain
02/07/11: 47min run on treadmill; severe medial knee pain, almost causing me to abort the workout
02/08-02/19/11: Taper for the Austin Marathon; some mild to moderate medial knee pain (not only with running; e.g., even turning over in bed was painful)
02/20/11: Ran the Austin Marathon; no pain other than the usual general pain that you feel during a 3hr+ run

MARCH 2011
Tried to ramp back up after marathon, but pretty much shut down running completely by month-end due to pain

03/23/11: Saw Dr. Peter Jokl at Yale-New Haven Hospital; no imaging; diagnosed with hamstring tendinitis; treatment: reduce mileage and take anti-inflammatory (no improvement as a result of this treatment)

APRIL 2011
Tried barefoot running (some improvement)

04/06/11: Saw Dr. David Cohen at Connecticut Orthopedic Specialists for a second opinion; x-ray negative; diagnosed with hamstring tendinitis; same treatment as prescribed by Dr. Jokl (no improvement as a result of this treatment)
04/08/11: MRI
04/12/11: Follow-up with Dr. Cohen; MRI negative; same treatment (still no improvement as result of this treatment)

MAY 2011
Shut down running completely mid-month

05/20/11: Saw Dr. David Cohen again; treatment: rest; prescribed PT (no improvement as a result of rest or PT)
05/29-06/9/11: 5 PT sessions; stretching the hamstring muscles seemed to further exacerbate the injury

JUNE 2011
Still not running

06/13-07/9/11: 11 ART and SASTM sessions with Dr. Eugene Zeitler (some improvement as a result of these treatments)

JULY 2011
Resumed running mid-month

AUGUST 2011
Shut down running completely mid-month

08/10/11: Saw Dr. Matthew Boyer at Valley Sports Physicians & Orthopedic Medicine for a third opinion; diagnosed with medial joint-line tenderness (medial coronary ligament rupture and/or medial meniscus tear)
08/23/11: Follow-up with Dr. Boyer to discuss April MRI
08/31/11: Prolotherapy with Dr. Boyer; injected dextrose solution into knee joint, MCL and medial coronary ligaments

SEPTEMBER 2011
Some improvement after first round of prolotherapy

09/28/11: Prolotherapy with Dr. Boyer

OCTOBER 2011
Further improvement after second round of prolotherapy

10/21-11/04/11: 3 more chiropractic treatments with Dr. Zeitler (no improvement as a result of these treatments)
10/25/11: Prolotherapy with Dr. Boyer

NOVEMBER 2011
Improvement leveled off after third round of prolotherapy

11/14/11: Saw Dr. Michael Medvecky at Yale-New Haven Hospital for a fourth opinion; diagnosed with semimembranosus tendon avulsion; ordered MRI with arthrogram
11/22/11: MRI with arthrogram
11/28/11: Follow-up with Dr. Medvecky to discuss MRI; showed tendinopathy to 50% of semimembranosus tendon and inflammation in the bone at tendon insertion point; incidentally showed irregular medial plica; discussed surgery

DECEMBER 2012 (10th month of injury)
Surgery

12/05/11: Pre-surgery appointment with Dr. Medvecky
12/14/11: Surgery to debride semimembranosus tendon and excise medial plica

So, there you have it--ten months of nothing but injury and the resultant frustration. Every time I read through this, I'm reminded of the constant struggle and protracted effort to heal. It's further justification for the surgery that I had just five days ago. Unfortunately, rest and rehab for these kind of tendon injuries are a crapshoot, as evidenced above. But, so is surgery...I guess (we'll see). At the end of the day, regardless of the outcome, I believe that I made the right decision, and that surgery was the answer. I am going to do my best to get back to where I want to be as a runner, and I believe that, one day, I will be that runner again. I refuse to throw in the towel and give up. We're not talking about some inconsequential thing here; we're talking about something that drives me unlike anything else and makes me a better person. I know in my heart that I will always be the same person regardless of how my time is spent--running or otherwise--so one might question my assertion that running is of critical consequence to me. Here's the deal: I don't think that I would "go insane" if my body no longer permitted me to run (as runners typically say), but if that were to become the case, then I do think that I would miss out on a big part of what life has to offer us. I feel that the only way to achieve something extraordinary in my life is through running, as these kind of achievements are usually borne out of one's passion(s) (through my eyes--Jessica or my mother might say that I've already achieved something extraordinary in my life, many things in fact). I think that we all inherently yearn to achieve something extraordinary in life, because that's what motivates a life of activity rather than stagnancy, and I believe that's the very essence of life--moving forward and becoming the person that you ultimately want to be. So, it's no wonder that I take this bull by the horns. A lot, but not nearly everything, in my life rides on it.

A note that I made last month:
My gut is telling me that the injury to my right knee requires surgery. For 25 months, from December 2005 through 2007, I struggled with injury to my left foot. That injury ultimately required surgery, which corrected the problem. Now, nine months into injury to my right knee, I feel that it’s 2005 all over again. I’ve tried everything and am at my wit’s end with this injury.

Knee Surgery

I had knee surgery today at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Michael Medvecky performed the surgery.

After signing in, we took the elevator to the third floor and were brought to our room. The nurse went over some stuff, and then, to my surprise, told me that the surgeon had brought me in early for a nerve block. After discussing the nerve block with the nerve block team (yes, that's a right, a team--half a dozen doctors!), I was a bit hesitant about the procedure, as I didn't want another needle--in the groin, no less. After thinking about it, and at the recommendation of the surgeon, I decided to get it. It really wasn't that bad, granted they used a local anesthetic and I was sedated. Worse, actually, was the procedure to start an IV. The nurse first tried to start one in my hand, but my vein blew up, so she had to pull it out. Then she tried to start one further up my arm; that vein blew out, too. She gave up after two screw-ups and handed it off to a doctor, who was able to start it without a hitch. At this point, I was very upset, thinking that if they can't get this right, then what the eff are they gonna do to my knee/leg?

Once the IV was set and the block was performed, I was wheeled down the hall and into the operating room. There, they put a mask on my face, and the surgeon proceeded to shave my leg. The next thing I knew, I was in the recovery room. I scarfed down four packages of saltines with a cup of apple juice. When Jess joined me, she told me about the post-op meeting with the surgeon. She got pictures, too! The most interesting of the pictures is the before and after of the medial plica. With flexion of the knee, the pictures clearly show the plica contacting the femur (likely cause of pain). The after pictures show the removed plica, which kind of looks like a torn sponge. There are also a few pictures of the semimembranosus tendon. Unfortunately, the surgeon had to remove about 20% of the tendon that had turned a yellow color (dead tissue?). But, overall, the surgery went well, and I feel great! Now it's time to rest up and, in a few days, start my exercises.

Here's to hoping that this all heals up well, and that I'm back to running again in rather short order.

Tendon surgery

I was doing some research on tendon surgery today and came across this, which is a good description of the surgery I'll be having on the 14th:

"Surgery should include diagnostic arthroscopy to exclude any intra-articular pathology. If arthroscopy reveals no intra-articular derangement, then an incision is made directly over the direct head insertion of the semimebranosus tendon. The semimembranosus tendon is dissected free from surrounding tissue and the sheath is opened. Any areas of necrosis or degenerative tissue should be excised. Several longitudinal tenotomies are performed. In addition, the insertion site is drilled with a small Kirschner wire to promote a healing vascular response. Tendon rerouting or suturing the semimembranosus to the posterior aspect of the medial collateral ligament has also been proposed if friction between the tendon and the tibial plateau exists. In one report, the results of surgery were good in 9 of 10 patients, and allowed return to sporting activities at an average of 12 months postoperatively."

Source: Tendon injuries: basic science and clinical medicine, by Nicola Maffulli, et al.

December 14th

I am having surgery to remove the medial plica from my right knee (arthroscopically) and to repair the semimembranosus tendon (non-arthroscopically, as it's outside of the joint) on December 14th. The plica gets sucked out with a vacuum. The procedure for the tendon is a bit more complicated. In order to determine the extent of the injury to the tendon, the surgeon must pull the tendon away from the bone and then reattach it after he's done his business. Tendon injuries are usually to the inside of the tendon, so any injury is not immediately apparent until the tendon has been cut open. If there's damage to the tendon, then that part of the tendon must be removed. If it's just scar tissue, then it will be debrided. I hope it's the latter, obviously.

I can expect to be on crutches, partially weight-bearing, for 8 weeks. No splint, cast, etc. required. Only band-aids and a compression sleeve over the wounds. Showers are ok. This is all much easier than the recovery from my foot surgery. For that, I was on crutches for 12 weeks and couldn't get the wounds wet. Over 2 1/2 years later, I ran my second marathon. A long road, to say the least--hoping for an easier recovery this time around.

Surgery

I'll never forget it. It was February 7, 2011, and I was running on the treadmill at NHHR--a follow-up to a 17-mile long-run in Central Park the previous day--when I started experiencing severe pain on the inside of my right knee. I was tempted to stop, but I stubbornly pushed through the pain.

Fast forward 10 months, and I'm still dealing with the same pain. It has all but shut down my running. I've tried everything from RICE to prolotherapy, but nothing has worked. So, if all goes well with my appointments on December 5th, I'm going under the knife on December 14th. I'm not yet entirely sure what the surgeon has planned, but we'll discuss that on the 5th. All I know at this point is that there are two problems, one with the semimembranosus tendon, and one with the medial plica. Both light up quite well on the enhanced MRI.

What is most unbelievable about this injury--aside from the fact that it has sidelined me for 10 months--is that I pretty much predicted it would come to this back in February. I can remember thinking to myself on the treadmill that night that this is not good. But I just couldn't bring myself to abort the final few weeks of training and forgo running the Austin Marathon. The training went so well that I just couldn't do it, despite realizing that I was headed for trouble.

If the surgery works, which I believe it will, for I would not do it otherwise, I will have to make some major changes in my training. Those changes include, first and foremost, devising and sticking to a stretching routine. I am the world's most inflexible human being, and I believe that this has contributed to my injury. Secondly, cross-training and strength training are a must for me.

Another opinion

I saw Dr. Michael Medvecky at Yale today, because my ailing right knee seems to have stopped responding to prolotherapy. As previously reported, there had been some improvement, but I feel that it has leveled off, unfortunately. I was hoping to avoid surgery on the knee, but that seems unlikely now. The first two docs that I saw (orthopedists) told me that I have hamstring tendonitis. The third doc that I saw (osteopathist) told me that I have some stretching of my MCL and the medial coronary ligaments of the knee. The fourth doc, Medvecky, told me that I have a partial hamstring tendon avulsion--if I understood him correctly--which is the tearing away of the tendon from the bone. I'm scheduled to have a contrast MRI (big bucks) on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd, and I will follow-up with Medvecky on Monday, Nov. 28th. He said that if it is, in fact, an avulsion, he would need to surgically reattach the tendon to the bone and debride any scar tissue that has formed at the site of the injury. Fine. Do what you you gotta do.

Then, of course, there was the bit about how we can try to get you back to where you were, but there are no guarantees. I don't need a surgeon to not guarantee me anything, I just need him to repair the injury, and my body will do the rest. If there's a will, there's a way. I learned that with my foot. Before learning of the injury to my foot, I was told by a podiatrist that I would have to limit my running to 8 miles per week if I wanted to do any running at all, and then I went on to average upwards of 55 miles per week and run four marathons without even the slightest protest from my foot.

In the meantime, I'll be mostly biking with some occasional running thrown in there. Just because I'm not in excruciating pain doesn't mean there's not a serious problem. Literally, the day before my foot surgery, I ran 7 miles with very little discomfort. Eventually, things quiet down, and one begins to question whether there is, in fact, a serious problem, but once one begins to ramp up, the problem rears its ugly face once again. And that's what's happened with the knee.

Nov. 7-14

Monday, Nov. 7
Treadmill: 0.5mi; 6min (Adrenaline)
Was very tight today. Perhaps pushed it too hard yesterday. I'm not too concerned, though. Biked for 10 minutes, then tried to do 10 minutes on the treadmill, but my legs weren't having it. Did lunges and tried deadlifts. Some core but still sore.

Tuesday, Nov. 8
Wilbur Cross H.S. track: 1.5mi; 16min (Adrenaline)
Still tight. Some discomfort down the front of leg. Biked over. 6 laps around (2:40, 2:42, 2:42, 2:40, 2:40, 2:39).

Wednesday, Nov. 9
Treadmill: 0.6mi; 6min (Minimus Trail)
I think I need to deemphasize running for the time being because I'm really tight and sore. To that end, I got on my bike and rode the 16 miles to and from NHHR. It looks like I'm going to stick to the bike and strength stuff mostly for a while until I feel comfortable running. The problem is that I'm growing quite impatient and if I continue to run I know that I'm going to overdo it, if I haven't already. God, this is getting old.

Ran out of motivation to continue reporting here but have been doing a fair amount of biking. Going in for surgery on the 14th of December. 12/11/11

Oct. 31-Nov. 6

Monday, Oct. 31
Treadmill: 1.9mi; 20min (Adrenaline)
Didn't have as much discomfort in the front of knee but tight in back. Otherwise, felt good. Core afterward with JB. Worried about bite on back of left leg.

Tuesday, Nov. 1
Wooster Sq.: 2mi; 20min (Minimus Trail)
Chilly. Felt pretty good except for still worrying about rash on back of leg. Some strength afterward but back sore from yesterday's introduction of new core exercises.

Wednesday, Nov. 2
Treadmill: 1.9mi; 20min (Adrenaline)
With the exception of some slight fatigue in my legs, felt good. Oh, and a little tight. Core and stretched out.

Thursday, Nov. 3
East Rock: 36min (Minimus Trail)
Had planned on the stationary bike and a short run at the gym tonight but instead hit up East Rock with Dan. Ran to the summit and back down the same way. Dark forced us onto the park roads for the last little bit. Biked the roundtrip to the trailhead. Strength stuff at home afterward.

Friday, Nov. 4
Treadmill: 1mi; 10min (Adrenaline)
Biked for 10 minutes, then moved over to the treadmill. Felt fine. New core routine and lots of strength stuff. Stepping it up.

Saturday, Nov. 5
Treadmill: ~15min (Adrenaline)
Treadmill turned off so don't know exact distance and time. Biked for 15 minutes, then moved over to the treadmill. Felt good. Had to cut the visit short because Jess had to get to work. Sore from yesterday.

Sunday, Nov. 6
West Rock: 37min (Minimus Trail)
Lovely day with Jess and Dan at West Rock. Started at the lake and headed east; came back on white trail and then did a loop around lake. Not sure of distance because I stopped somewhere around the lake (felt fine, but didn't want to push it). Legs at gym afterward. Core still sore so passed on that.

2hr 38min running

Oct. 24-30

Monday, Oct. 24
Wooster Sq.: 1mi; 10min (Adrenaline)
I was eager to get this run underway, but it didn't feel all that great. Definitely some soreness from yesterday. Strength and core.

Tuesday, Oct. 25
AM: Third prolotherapy session with Dr. Boyer. Not as bad as the first session, but not as good as the second--somewhere in between. The concentration of the solution injected into the MCL and coronary ligaments was 12.5% for the first two sessions. We decided to bump it up to 18% today, because I had very little discomfort after the second session. This could explain why today's session wasn't as pleasant as the second.
PM: East Rock: ~2mi (Minimus Trail)
After work, I biked out to East Rock and then hiked up to the summit and down the Giant Steps Trail. GPS showed 1.1mi to the summit. Probably should have kept to the bike, as I had some soreness on the downhills. Core.

Wednesday, Oct. 26
Wooster Sq.: 1mi; 11min (Minimus Trail)
Didn't decide to do this run until the walk home from work. Two laps on the path and one on the road. The road lap is about 0.4mi. Felt fine but decided not to push behind three laps given yesterday's procedure. Knee soreness precluded any kind of strength exercises afterward. Some core at home.

Thursday, Oct. 27
AM: East Rock: 2mi; 23min (Minimus Trail)
Dark, rainy morning. Kept to the flat trails and came back on English. Slight ache on top of left foot. Tight right hip flexor. Felt fine otherwise, I guess. Knee still sore, so no strength exercises again. Not feeling too inspired after this one.
PM: Core.

Friday, Oct. 28
AM: Appointment with Dr. Zeitler.
PM: Wilbur Cross H.S. track: 2.5mi; 25min (Adrenaline)
Biked over. Felt pretty good. Did some strength exercises on the football field post-run.

Saturday, Oct. 29
Branford Trolley Trail: 1mi; 14min (Minimus Trail)
Felt ready to roll but knee was tight so decided not to push it beyond the railroad tracks. Core.

Sunday, Oct. 30
Treadmill: 1.8mi; 20min (Adrenaline)
Not too thrilled about the treadmill, but felt pretty good actually. Only some slight discomfort in the front of my knee. Probably going to keep next week's running to 20-25min per outing, as my knee protests a bit if I try to go any longer. Strength stuff post-run.

1hr 43min running

Oct. 17-23

I finally feel that I'm engaging in sufficient physical activity to call it training again, so here's my first weekly training report in a long time:

Monday, Oct. 17
Bear Canyon Trail: ~4 miles; 22 minutes of running (Minimus Trail)
This was mostly a hike, as all of my outings in the Bozeman area were while I was there for 6 days. Bear Cyn was a nice, double-track trail with a modest climb. I ran about half up and half down. My breathing was labored on the up, but I felt fine on the down, except for some minor aches in my knee. Aches are fine; pain is not. No Grizzlies :(

Tuesday, Oct. 18
Sypes Canyon Trail: ~6 miles; 3-5 minutes of running (Minimus Trail)
I mostly hiked this trail purposely. This was a pretty stout hike with 1600' of vert. The views from the top were stunning. I felt fine, except for perhaps some slight dehydration on the way down. Too much wine; not enough water.

Wednesday, Oct. 19
Wooster Sq.: 2 miles; 21 minutes (Minimus Trail)
Rainy afternoon. Some slight twinges in my knee. Different than what I'm used to, though. Not sure what it could be. Probably nothing. Some minor tightness. Right foot needs a bit more support, so I'm going to have to be careful about running too much in the Minimus Trail, even though it's a pretty sweet shoe. Strength, drills, core, and push-ups.

Thursday, Oct. 20
Wilbur Cross H.S. track: 2 miles; 21 minutes (Adrenaline)
Biked the two or so miles over to the track at Wilbur Cross H.S. and managed eight laps around, albeit painfully slow (2:39, 2:42, 2:41, 2:39, 2:37, 2:36, 2:37, 2:39). Long gone are the days when I could run a lap about a minute faster than that. For now. Strength and drills.

Friday, Oct. 21
Wilbur Cross H.S. track: 1 mile; 10 minutes (Minimus Trail)
Dr. Z. appt.; got new excercises; biked up East Rock for a round-trip grand total of about eight miles; run felt good; strength, drills, core, and push-ups

Saturday, Oct. 22
Wooster Sq.: 1 mile; 10 minutes (Minimus Trail)
Beautiful fall morning; ran at a bit faster pace; felt fine; didn't have much time to do anything else, as we had to hit the road to West Hartford

Sunday, Oct. 23
East Rock: 32 minutes (Minimus Trail)
Biked the four-mile round-trip to the East Rock trailhead at the end of Orange Street. Summited East Rock in 14 minutes flat. Running the whole time. Felt pretty good. Some minor twinges here and there. Longest run since April! Longest pain- and awkward-free run since January! I'll take it. Strength and drills at Wooster Sq. Nice day.

2hr 1min running

Bear Canyon double-track.

Endless trails back there.

View atop Sypes Canyon Trail.

Grizzly Bears

While I was away in Bozeman for a few days recently, I learned quite a bit about Grizzly Bears. My fascination with Grizzlies stems from my first trip to Grizzly country in July 2011, when I first learned of the threat of Grizzlies in the western-third of Montana, as well as two recent fatal Grizzly attacks in Yellowstone National Park--one at a campground very close to where we stayed in Cooke City in July.

For me, the main appeal to Bozeman is its close proximity to thousands of miles of hiking/running trails in the Bridgers and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. There are two-thousand miles of trails in the GYE alone. The only trouble with running in the area, however, is the threat of Grizzly encounters.

The closer you get to Yellowstone National Park, the better the threat. That is, anything south of I-90, in the GYE, which includes the Gallatin Range, is ripe for Grizzlies. North of I-90, in the Bridgers, is still safe, but it's believed that Grizzlies will eventually populate there.

Runners are cautioned not to run alone south of Big Sky and Pray in Paradise Valley. Jess and I didn't go that far south, but we definitely got deep into Gallatin when we hiked up to Emerald Lake. It would have been wise to carry bear spray, so we were told. Our wedding caterer, who bow hunts for elk and deer, now carries a sidearm, in addition to bear spray, after having been attacked by a mountain lion. I don't know that I feel the need to carry a sidearm. After all, I'll be running on the trails, not bushwhacking in camouflage.

While Grizzly encounters are rare, the threat certainly exists. Almost everyone that we met in Montana had something to say about Grizzlies, and they all emphasized that the threat is real. Most couldn't believe that we hiked without bear spray. We did a total of five hikes, three in the Gallatin Range (Bear Canyon Trail, Emerald Lake Trail, and Gallatin Riverside Trail) and two in the Bridgers (Sacajawea Peak Trail and Sypes Canyon Trail).

100 Year Old Marathoner

Holy shit!
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/10/17/141414363/video-100-year-old-man-finishes-toronto-marathon

Bozeman, here we come!

On the eve of our second trip to Bozeman this year, I feel compelled to write about my knee, because I'll be asking a lot of it in the mountains come this weekend. In many ways, my knee is worlds better than it was in July, when we were first in Bozeman hiking/running in the area. In other ways, it feels just about the same. I'm still unable to string together more than several minutes of running, which is just about equally as frustrating as not being able to run at all. Lately, I've been mixing in running with hiking/walking. It's certainly better than doing nothing, but I've been saying that for far too long now.

The good news is that I was able to run pain-free for a total of 25 minutes on Sunday. I hadn't done that since May. The key, I've learned, is to keep the leg loose. Sitting at a computer all day long doesn't help matters, but once I get up and moving, the leg loosens up and things start to feel functional again. The tightness felt after having sat for 3 straight hours is quite discouraging, but I hope that a few trips to the chiropractor will help that. And maybe a new, non-desk job, too!

A few days ago, a colleague noticed that I was limping. I always notice that I'm limping, but sometimes it's not as apparent to other times. Concerned, he asked: "Your knees are already failing you at your age?" He was half-joking, but part of me wanted to go into how my knee is perfectly fine--just not quite ready for high-volume running again.

This is one of those injuries that wasn't directly caused by running. In other words, it wasn't the act of running that caused the injury. What caused the injury (ligament laxity), we think, was an old sprained knee that didn't fully heal. When it should have been healing, I was in the midst of hard training for a breakthrough marathon. My training had gone so well up to that point that abandoning it was out of the question. Eventually, the pain went away, but full ligament strength was not restored, due to the continuous trauma of hard training

Ever since Austin in February, I've been struggling with this injury. It's been hard. I've had many a meltdown. Just ask Jess! But I'm confident that things will only continue to improve.

East Rock

The knee seems to be coming around after a second prolotherpy session with Dr. Boyer. As a result, I've been doing some running on the East Rock trails (with some mixed in hiking on the ascents). Last night, I biked the two miles to the trailhead at the very end of Orange Street, where it intersects with English/Farnam Drive, and ran the trail along Farnam Drive to where it begins to climb to the top of East Rock. I zig-zagged my way up to the top, stretched out, and floated back down.

It's nice to finally feel somewhat normal again on the trails. The fitness definitely is not there yet, but the knee is feeling good. There are quite a few more East Rock trails that I'd like to explore, so if the knee cooperates like it has been, then that's probably where you'll find me.

On another note, the Bridger and Gallatin Mountains are calling our names. T-6 days!

Prolotherapy Round 2

I had my second prolotherapy session yesterday. Jess was in attendance for this one. It wasn't nearly as bad as the first, because the doc numbed up my knee more (or because the tissue wasn't as damaged as a result of some healing?!). It wasn't nearly as long as the first, either, because he had an assistant this time. I think I can do this a third time. If there's no improvement after the third session, then we'll have to go back to the drawing board, but I'm optimistic that this is going to work. While I cannot say definitively whether my knee is any better, something's different. And it's a good different. It's hard to put my finger on it, though.

After my first session, I took three days off from exercising. I'm not sure I need to take that many days this time, as my knee isn't feeling all that bad. We'll see.

Update on progress after first prolotherapy session

I had my first prolotherapy session three weeks ago today. The first two weeks were miserable. This past week, my leg has been feeling pretty good. Yesterday, I jogged for 8 minutes with very little pain.

I will be having my second prolotherapy session on Sept. 28th. I'm hoping that it won't be as painful as the first. Even if it is, I'll have video (compliments of Jess) for entertainment value.

Tonight, I might try running the path around the neighborhood green.

Prolotherapy

I had a follow-up with Dr. Boyer yesterday. He said that my MRI from April is normal. On further exam, he said that my right knee joint is loose compared to my left knee joint. He asked me if I had ever twisted my knee. The only such event that came to mind is the time that I stepped on the inside of a leaf-covered rock with the outside of my right foot while running trails last Fall. This caused a sharp, inward twist of my knee. He thinks that this could have stretched out my MCL, causing the loose joint. He said one would definitely have pain with a loose joint.

All of this seems a bit far-fetched, but it's all I've got right now. I'm going to start prolotherapy treatment on 8/31 and see if a few sessions of that don't do the trick. We gotta tighten up that joint.

Dr. Boyer

After 3 follow-up phone calls to Dr. Boyer's office, I finally received a call back from his assistant who informed me that the doc has looked at my April MRI and is now ready to see me back. Hooray! I guess that's what it takes sometimes. My follow-up appointment is on Tuesday, 8/23 at 7:45/am in Glastonbury.

I think all this bears repeating:

I was never really convinced that it was tendinitis (the chiropractor almost had me, though). One need not look any further than this blog to figure that out. I can now think of a number of times when I might have injured my meniscus, thus I think it was a freak injury and not necessarily caused by a movement disorder. The more conservative docs will have you believe that every running injury is caused by some sort of malalignment.

I've logged thousands of miles since 2003, but never once have I had anything remotely like this wrong with either knee. (I've heard all of the counter-arguments that go something like this: Well, that's like saying that I've smoked for a million years but never had cancer.) Not even a twinge here or there to indicate that there might be a problem. I'm convinced that my injury could be related to 1) the time I twisted my knee on a rock running trails with Dan and Karolina (you may recall?) last fall or 2) the time I ran a mile through knee-deep snow (literally) last winter.

I'm kind of fed up with the guessing games that the docs are playing with me right now and would really like someone to just tell me exactly what it is wrong. I do, however, realize that's it's not an exact science. If that can't be done without scoping my knee, then I guess that's what I'll have to do. It's been too long already, and I'm not really interested in more PT (which hasn't really done squat) or even prolotherapy, especially if there's some potential tearing that's causing the pain.

Any opinions out there? What would you do in this situation?

Anyone care to share their racing plans here? I'd love to hear some happy news.

Torrington Road Race 2011

Geoff: Nice race yesterday. 32:05 has got to be a PR, no?

It's nice to see that Bill Borla is still running 6:44 miles at the age of 71. Wow.

Wish I could have been there healthy this year. Maybe next.

Wishing the rain would stop

I was hoping to do another long ride today, but the rain has killed those plans.

Yesterday, I biked into New Haven--it's about a 15-mile ride--and stopped off at the farmer's market in Wooster Square for some apples and a sunflower. The sunflower was for a colleague's 9-year old daughter, who is in the hospital recovering from an appendectomy. Unfortunately, the sunflower died in my backpack and never made it to the poor girl.

Later in the day, Jessica and I bounced around the local trails. I did a bit of running, which felt pretty good. After dinner, we walked down to the beach and reminisced about the good training we did last winter.

Tomorrow, I am hoping to hear from Dr. Boyer about my MRI. If it looks ok to him, then I think I will start prolotherapy soon. Boyer recommends 3 prolotherapy sessions, once every three weeks. Insurance doesn't pay, so I'll be looking at a $600 bill. At this point, whatever.

I can always count on good music like this to pick me up. We're looking forward to seeing these guys at Mountain Park in Holyoke, Mass. on Sept. 25th.

Did I Mention that I'm Pumped to Have Finally Learned of the Injury to my Right Leg?

4 othopedist visits (2 different doctors at 2 different clinics), 1 MRI, 5 PT visits, 11 chiropractor visits, 1 osteopath visit and thousands of $$$ later, I finally know what is causing the pain in my right knee. It's my meniscus and/or the little coronary ligaments that attach the meniscus to the leg. I'm amped.

However, I was stunned to learn that my hamstring tendons look perfect on ultrasound (no inflammation/fluid, scarring...no tendinosis!). Everyone was tellling me, hamstring, hamstring, hamstring. It's hamstring tendinitis. It's hamstring tendinosis. It takes 100 years to heal. Blah blah blah. But you can't challenge a stubborn, arrogant doctor.

All along, I have been saying that I had a gut feeling that it wasn't hamstring related (cite: Rant).

It Never Ends

I had a visit with Dr. Boyer this morning. He checked me out and then wheeled in the ultrasound machine. On ultrasound, my hamstring tendons looked perfect (i.e., no tendinosis), but I might have a medial mensicus tear and/or tearing of the coronary ligaments that attach the mensicus to the leg. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my MRI, so now I've gotta have it mailed to him. Depending on what he sees on the MRI, I have three options: 1) prolotherapy on coronary ligaments; 2) PT to strengthen up joint; or 3) get another MRI. If the therapy doesn't work and a second MRI is negative, then I'll have to get the knee scoped. But what I really hope happens is that my knee/leg contines to get better or that they'll just scope my knee and fix the tear. I don't want to do anymore therapy.

I ran for 20 consecutive minutes last night in the pouring rain. I had some very minor pain/achiness to start and then it subsided. I guess it still feels off, too. At least the cycling isn't too painful.

PRP Injection

When I see the folks at Valley, this is an option, depending on what they see on ultrasound:



I don't yet know how I feel about this particular therapy, because it hasn't been explained to me in any kind of detail, but I'd be willing to give it a shot if it doesn't break the bank and heals the tendinosis.

The six-month mark of my injury is just around the corner, and I don't know that I'm any better for any of the various therapies that I've undergone since May 25th. Perhaps I've been kidding myself through recent posts about progress (and thanks for reading and understanding the ups and downs). No doubt, I've been encouraged off and on, but overall, I feel that I'm not even close to being healed.

I've logged thousands of miles over the course of the past decade and never have I been so frustrated with my running. This is even more frustrating than when I was trying to get to the bottom of the injury to my left foot from Spring 2005 to Fall 2007. At least, then, I could run some appreciable amount. Now, I can't do much of anything. I feel like a 70-year old man. When I'm out "running" for only a few minutes at a time, it feels so foreign, like I'm learning how to do it all over again. Something's just not right.

I've been seeing Gene Zeitler, a chiropractor out of Newtown, since June 13th. He has referred me to Paul Tortland, an osteopathic physician, out of Avon. Unfortunately, he is booked until October, so I will be seeing one of his colleagues on August 10th. It's my understanding that he will use diagnostic ultrasound to get a better idea of what's going on with my leg. And it's also my understanding that he may recommend and perform Prolotherapy, which is some kind of injection to promote healing of tendons and ligaments. Zeitler has told me, though, that Prolotherapy sessions run about $800 a pop, so that's out if my medical insurance doesn't cover it.

Chiro Decides to Change Approach After Watching Me Run in Parking Lot

The chiro decided to move away from the leg/knee and focus on my right hip, which, according to him, is not firing AT ALL and likely the cause of my leg injury. He was able to conclude this by watching me run and seeing that my right knee rotates inward excessively. This is a tell-tale sign of a weak hip.

He first had me run in shoes and then barefoot in the parking lot of the office. He didn't hold anything back when analyzing my stride. His criticisms were as follows: 1) my stride length is pathetic (but that if I work on it, I could be a lot faster); 2) my stride is too tense (i.e., I need to relax); 3) my stride looks like that of a marching soldier. He talked about the importance of running drills like high knees, etc., to get the heels kicking up to the butt.

He said that I need to strengthen my right hip by doing lunges and hopping on one foot while keeping the hips aligned. The only way to know whether the hips are aligned while doing these exercises, though, is to do them sans shirt in front of a full-length mirror. I guess this means that I need to invest in a full-length mirror. He also said that, eventually, he wants me to do a lot more multi-directional excercises, like running trails, to develop the hips (that whole group of muscles). I guess my days of running on cambered pavement are just about over, with which I'm fine. It just makes the mountains of Bozeman that much more appealing.

Back in Connecticut After a Week in the Mountains of Montana (and Wyoming)

I have nothing meaningful to report other than that I'm still injured and now seemingly puttering around Stony Creek and Guilford Town Green for a pathetic 6 minutes at a time. I don't know that I'd go as far as to call this progress, but it is nice to be moving on my two feet with purpose again.

Also, we're back from Montana, where we spent a week in various locations (Missoula, Bozeman, and Cooke City). We ventured into various National Parks and Forests (the Forests are so much nicer than the Parks, in my opinion) and took 3,762 pictures (i.e., a lot but likely not that many), all of which can be seen on Facebook. It'd be well worth your time to take a peak.

Highlights of trip:

1. Being in bear country (knowing that Grizzlies are lurking out there somewhere is pretty thrilling); the folks of Cooke City (pop. 133) were rather alarmist about the Grizzlies (perhaps because of the recent Grizzly-related deaths so close to home...)

2. Bozeman

3. Several mile and vertical feet hike (pain-free) in Gallatin National Forest; iced in the creek at the top

4. Swimming the crystal clear waters from the pebble beaches of Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park

5. Beartooth Pass

6. Yellowstone National Park (not really a highlight, but feel need to mention; not at all what it's cracked up to be; touristy); lots of Buffalo, Mule Deer, Black Bears, etc.; not too exciting

Update on injury

Zeitler cleared me to start doing some running again (well, walk-running for 10 minutes at a time) after I reported to him today that over the past 4 or 5 days I've been feeling some improvement in my injury. It took 6 visits over about 3 weeks for the treatments to start bearing fruit (today was my 7th visit). I guess that's pretty good considering that it takes 8 to 16 weeks to turnover the damaged tissue and, in worst case scenarios, 8 to 16 MONTHS to return back to running from tendinosis. He also has emphasized that, in some cases, tendinosis is career-ending...especially of the high hamstring (which I don't have). However, I'm not worried that this might be the case here, though. Anyway, all of this makes me pretty happy and hopeful that I'll be back in action in relatively short order. In the meantime, I'll continue to bike, water run, etc.

-Riding the Wind-: Geoff Roes Video

-Riding the Wind-: Geoff Roes Video: "Joel Wolpert has produced another video clip on a top ultrarunner--this time Geoff Roes --that does a fantastic job of portraying the subje..."

How about this for an injury?

http://antonkrupicka.blogspot.com/2011/06/bit-of-break.html

ART

I saw a fellow by the name of Gene Zeitler yesterday. He's out of Newtown, so it's quite a hike, but I think he's the one that's going to fix my leg. When I arrived at his offices, I knew I was in the right place as it was crawling with Lance Armstrong lookalikes. The guy works on athletes. Period.

After he took a thorough history and thoroughly examined me, he said that I have tendinosis of the semimembranosus tendon, right where it attaches at the head of the tibia. He used some Active Release Techniques (ART) on me yesterday. He will incorporate more and other therapies at future visits.

Tendinosis is a condition of a tendon that didn't heal properly. This is why it's chronic and degenerative. The body thinks that the tendon is healed. My very basic understanding is that the aim of the therapies that I will be receiving is to re-injure/-damage the tendon so that it can heal properly.

Check out his site here: http://web.me.com/gzeitler/Site_2/Home.html

Rant

I'm receiving a lot of conflicting advice. The PT says to stretch the shit out of the tendinitis. Jess's PA co-worker said that stretching is the worst thing you can do for tendinitis. It did, in fact, feel quite a bit worse after stretching.

I'm reluctant to go on and on about this, but I feel that I must put my thoughts to words. As I've said before, my gut has always told me that it is not tendinitis--whether it's something more serious, I do not know. Because, in the decade that I've been running, I've had only one bout of tendinitis--caused, without question, by a more serious, underlying injury--I do not believe that I'm prone to tendinitis, unless there's something else going on in the background.

Furthermore, given that I was very well-conditioned (i.e., in the best shape of my life) and the injury presented the very next day, after a very hard, hilly effort of 17+ miles, I'm even more inclined to think that it is not tendinitis.

Before I even saw a doctor, I ruled out a knee injury (e.g., a meniscal tear), because I could bear my full weight on the injured leg and even do single-legged squats ad nauseam, without a hitch. I would think that a serious knee injury would make that type of exercise quite painful.

As I've previously reported, both doctors essentially diagnosed me with hamstring tendinitis. I say essentially because the first doctor wasn't quite sure if it was tendinitis or bursitis but was satisfied that it, whatever it was, would go away with the prescribed treatment of just "cut-back-your-activity." That treatment did not work. The second doctor did not know what to make of the injury, so he prescribed an MRI, which turned out to be normal. At my first visit, he didn't even consider tendinitis until I told him that my previous doctor diagnosed me with it. Then he jumped on the bandwagon. To me, that's piss-poor care, yet I'm still under his care. And now I'm not particularly happy with the care I'm receiving from his clinic's PTs. See note above. Talk about frustrating.

At my last PT visit, the PT told me that if it's not tendinitis, the only other thing it could be is a meniscal tear. But, what about a pulled or strained tendon or an avulsion? (IT HURTS A LOT WHEN I STRETCH THE TENDON!) It's not likely an avulsion, as such an injury would have shown up on an MRI, as I understand it. A pulled or strained tendon probably would not have shown up on an MRI, but this diagnosis was never considered by any doctor I've ever seen. I'm trying to be a good patient, and to provide all the details, but I'm not getting the feedback I expect. I have yet to see a doctor that has seemed to consider all possibilities (unlike Dr. Reach, who fixed my left foot--the most amazing case of doctoring I've ever seen). That's pretty sad, given the $200+ I'm paying/5-minute visit.

Back to the way the injury happened: it happened suddenly. It didn't happen over any period of time any longer than 24 hours. It was at it's worse the day after I went hard. It did not get progressively worse, as I think tendinitis typically does, as I continued to train. To me, that sounds like a pull or strain or tear of something. What's more, I ran a marathon without any pain. And I wasn't any worse for the wear. So, what the hell?

The problem with doctors who aren't accustomed to treating serious athletes (even though they claim to be experts in sports' injuries)--or who aren't serious athletes themselves--is that they are not able to understand what you're going through, despite your best effort to convey the problem (or so it seems). To find an empathetic doctor, who really understands, is unbelievably difficult. However, what sucks, is that, at times, we're at the mercy of doctors to help fix us. In the end, I realize, the body fixes itself. But, sometimes, we just need to be pointed in the right direction, but no one has seemed able to do that for me yet. I realize that things could be a lot worse, but I'm not asking for a miracle. I'm simply asking for a definitive diagnosis with a clearly defined plan of treatment, and I'll do all the rest. I can promise you that.

Injury Report

I've run only once in the past three weeks. I think that rest is finally helping. I wasn't so sure it was after only a week or two, but I guess the injury just needed more time. In addition to rest, I'm now doing physical therapy two times per week. I've gone twice so far, and I've got two more sessions booked. My insurance authorized only four visits. My physical therapist has got me doing a lot of stretching. Much more stretching than I was doing. She also has got me doing various strengthening exercises that target my weak muscles. Apparently, I have very weak gluteal muscles on my right side. To determine my muscle weaknesses, she had me lay on my stomach with my leg bent at 90 degrees. She then instructed me to lift my leg straight up, as far as it could go, and to hold it there as she pushed down on the bottom of my foot. Needless to say, I couldn't hold it there, and she couldn't budge my left leg. The only thing she has got me doing at home is the stretching two times per day (five 30-second sets). She told me that I should introduce light running at the end of next week.

I finally discovered some new music. Listen below for a great song (Grown Ocean) and music video by Fleet Foxes.

Physical Therapy

I saw my orthopaedist again today, after two weeks of complete rest didn't seem to improve my injury much. He re-examined me and said that I wasn't presenting with anything that would show up on an MRI but that he would look at it again just to make sure there's not something more serious going on. The problem here is that I'm not very good at sitting around doing nothing with no direction/plan to get better. I identify as a runner, so not being able to run is very difficult--even though I've somewhat filled the void with some silly hobbies, like growing truckloads of wheatgrass. Pretty soon it's going to take over the apartment. Anyway, given that I don't have anything more serious than stubborn tendonitis, I'm going to be doing physical therapy 2 to 3 times per week for 6 weeks and then follow up with the doc at the end of June. I'd do PT for a year if that's what would heal my injury. That's how badly I want to get better.

Sad news

Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru died today (yesterday?) at the age of 24. He won five of his seven marathons and broke the half-marathon world record three times. I'm going to miss watching him compete.

It's rumored that he committed suicide by jumping from the balcony of his residence after his wife found him in bed with another woman.

First run in huaraches

I finished making my huaraches today. I bit the bullet and purchased a revolving punch (leather punch) for $11 for the six holes that you need to put in the rubber for the laces, so if you decide to invest in a pair, I've got the tool you need. I tried lacing the huaraches to my feet using the traditional/toga style and the slip-on, slip-off style. I like the slip-on, slip-off style better. I ran for about 18 minutes in the huaraches, and I really like them. I like them better than VFF but not quite as much as barefoot. Sand and rocks tend to get stuck in between the rubber and the foot. And the laces irritated my foot in spots. I think I just need to adjust the lacing, though. As for the tendonitis after six days of rest, I did feel a few faint twinges and tightness, but it felt much better than it did a week ago. I know that I still have a problem because the tendon is tender to the touch. I'm going to take another week off and see where I'm at next weekend. I think I'm going to take this week by week and see how it progresses. It was nice to get out there, though, even for a few minutes. Man, injury is so frustrating.

On another note, I've got a new obsession: growing and juicing wheatgrass! I'm trying to take two ounces every morning. It takes a lot of grass to yield two ounces of juice, so I'm trying to get a good crop of it going on a consistent basis. Here's the latest batch, ready to be juiced and enjoyed!

Longest breaks from running since May 2007

145 days (1/1/08 - 5/24/08): recovery from reconstructive surgery on spring ligament

34 days (10/20/07 - 11/22/07): torn spring ligament

22 days (12/2/07 - 12/23/07): torn spring ligament

21 days (5/28/08 - 6/18/08): recovery from reconstructive surgery on spring ligament

18 days (11/28/08 - 12/15/08): recovery from surgery to remove arthroereisis

14 days (12/14/09 - 12/27/09): illness

13 days (6/16/09 - 6/28/09): illness

10 days (6/22/08 - 7/1/08): recovery from reconstructive surgery on spring ligament

10 days (7/17/09 - 7/26/09): road-trip to Seattle

5 days and counting (5/8/11 - present): hamstring tendonitis

Seeking inspiration to take time off.

Week 6 of Barefoot Running

5/2/11
Core and pushups at home.

5/3/11
2.9mi; 29min 13sec
Barefoot in Guilly. Picked it up at the end. Probably did some core at home afterward but can't remember.

5/4/11
Core and pushups at home.

5/5/11
1.9mi; 20min 52sec
Barefoot in Guilly. Feet were tender. Core?

5/6/11
Core and pushups at home.

5/7/11
2.3mi: 24min 12sec
Barefoot in Guilly. Core?

5/8/11
12.9mi
Bike with Jess as she did her long run. Core and pushups at home.

Even the barefoot running and significant reduction in volume and intensity is not allowing my injury to fully heal, so I'm going to take Monday through Friday off of next week and see how I feel for a few on Saturday. :(

Total barefoot miles: 7.1

Huaraches

I bought a huaraches kit from invisibleshoe.com for $31.55 shipped. I was going to go with the neon green laces but decided on black.

Word on the street is that...

Jess Borsotti is training for the 2011 Missoula Marathon. Are the rumors true?

As for me, I haven't been running in a pair of shoes since April 13th, and I plan to keep it that way. Here's a slow motion video of me running barefoot in Stony Creek. I come into the picture at 1:51 and again at 4:03. Clearly, not textbook form, but interesting to see in slowmo.

POSE Running in Huaraches

I thought I'd share a video of this guy really rolling in huaraches with SOLID technique.

Week 5 of Barefoot Running

4/25/11
Strength training at home.

4/26/11
Nada

4/27/11
3.1mi; 32min 11sec
AM Barefoot run in Guilford. Chip and seal burned up my feet pretty good.
5mi
PM Bike ride with Jess in Guilford. Strength training at home.

4/28/11
Nada

4/29/11
2.2mi; 22min 30sec
Took a half day. Couldn't bear to be in the office any longer on such a nice day. Barefoot run in Guilford. Planned shorter run, as my left heel was feeling sore and achy. Did at least a few more minutes with Jess afterward. Strength training at home. Harvested and juiced some wheatgrass for the first time. Yum. Hoping to make this a daily thing.

4/30/11
Nada on the exercise front. Picked up a few pots and a tray at Salvation Army for wheatgrass and barley grass. Started some more wheatgrass and barley grass. Now I need to get me a wheatgrass juicer. The centrifugal ones are not ideal for juicing wheatgrass, I've learned.

5/1/11
2.1mi; 23min 49sec
Barefoot run in Guilford. I think the warmer pavement is giving me blisters. My brother gave me a Timex heart rate monitor. My heart rate at an 11mpm pace was in the 150s. Seems high. Guess I'm out of shape. Growing tired of running only 7mpw. Stretched out on the Green afterward. Strength training at home.

To celebrate this big week of running a whopping 7.4 miles, I think I'll go out and get drunk off half priced wine at 116 Crown tonight. Sounds like a plan.

Total barefoot miles: 7.4

I no longer own a pair of running shoes

I've sold my NB Minimus Road ($39) and VFF ($54) on eBay. I now have only my bare feet. Once my injury heals--and I think it's come a long way since going unshod full-time--I'll probably buy a pair of sandals for hot days. Right now, though, I don't see a need for them. Initially, I had a bit of trouble with rocks, but I don't really feel them anymore. Even chipped pavement is now tolerable. With time, my pace has also increased. I could run a lot harder, but I hold back because of the injury. I look forward to running harder when I'm 100% healthy.

Great website:

http://www.trtreads.org/

Great video:

Week 4 of Barefoot Running

4/18/11
Strength training at home. Half-assed it, though, as there are too many distractions at home. Gotta get back to the gym.

4/19/11
Strength training at home.

4/20/11
3.1mi; 31min 27sec
Barefoot run in Guilford. Didn't feel as good as I thought I would after having taken a few days off.

4/21/11
Strength training at home.

4/22/11
2.3mi; 26 min 13sec
Barefoot run in Guilford. Incorporated some chip and seal pavement. It's good for working on form, as you don't want to be pushing off this stuff, but lifting your feet. Also, there's no over-striding, but landing right under your center of gravity. Good stuff.

4/23/11
Strength training at home. Massage at SeaStones in Guilford. Had her whale away on the hammies.

4/24/11
3.4mi; 37min 24sec
Barefoot run in Guilford. More chip and seal. Felt pretty good.

Total barefoot miles: 8.8

Chuck Engle

This guy's known for running a ton of marathons every year, but check out what he did on 4/17 and 4/18. After running London, he hopped on a plane to Boston and ran Boston almost one minute faster than London!

4/18/11; Boston Marathon; 2:46:42

4/17/11; London Marathon; 2:47:23

4/10/11; Vernonia Marathon; 2:38:58

4/2/11; Yakima River Canyon Marathon; 2:41:22

3/27/11; River City Marathon; 2:42:16

2/27/11; Cowtown Marathon; 2:50:17

New $60 barefoot shoes

http://www.zemgear.com/360.html

An historic day in Boston

Jess and I were in Boston today for the marathon.

Geoffrey Mutai set a new course record of 2:03:02 (fastest marathon EVER)!!!

More impressive, in my opinion, was Ryan Hall's 2:04:48--a new American record! He absolutely crushed his PR...and by coaching himself.

Week 3 of Barefoot Running

4/11/11
1.9 mi; 20min 14sec
Barefoot run in Guilford. Ball of left foot was sore for first few minutes but then cleared up.

4/12/11
Strength training at NHHR.

4/13/11
3mi; 33min 43sec
Out and back on Branford Trolley Trail in NB Minimus. Right up there with the most miserable runs of my life. Right leg was giving me all kind of trouble.

4/14/11
Strength training at NHHR in my TOMS.

4/15/11
2.1mi; 23 min 1sec
Barefoot run in Guilford. Best barefoot run to date. Absolutely pain-free. Amazing, given the way I felt on Wednesday. Beginning to think that I could run barefoot full-time.

4/16/11
Strength training at NHHR. Introduced some jumping rope. TOMS are perfect for this. Listed my New Balance Minimus Road and Vibram FiveFingers KSO on eBay.

4/17/11
2.7mi; 26min 42sec
Barefoot run in Guilford. Longest and fastest barefoot run to date. Everything felt great. Stretched out hammies really well on Green afterward with Thera-Band stretching strap. Decided that I'd like to do a 5k barefoot next weekend. Anyone interested?

Total barefoot miles: 6.7

Jess and I decided that we will be returning to Missoula in July for the marathon/half-marathon. Jess might do the marathon, and if the stars align, I might do the half-marathon barefoot or in sandals if it's too hot. We're then planning on going to Yellowstone. Anyone interested?

Longest barefoot run to date

I did 23 minutes and 1 second of pain free barefoot running tonight. Just over 2 miles. This comes on the heels of one of the most miserable runs of my life in the NB Minimus on Wednesday. Shoes are evil!

Here's a video of me running barefoot tonight after finishing up:

New barefoot running milestone: 20 minutes and 14 seconds on pavement in downtown Guilford. That was awesome.

Week 2 of Barefoot Running

4/4/11
PM: Strength training at NHHR.

4/5/11
PM: Barefoot run in Guilford. Roadways were wet and cold. Feet got numb in spots within only a few minutes of running. (16min 10sec).

4/6/11
AM: Saw Dr. Cohen at Connecticut Orthopaedics Specialists for a second opinion on the right leg. I've come to the conclusion that doctors have no clue and that medicine is by and large guesswork. Before Cohen even looked at me, he ordered X-rays, and until I told him that the previous doctor thought hamstring tendonitis, he wasn't even thinking that. Then he changed his mind. He suggested an MRI, since he couldn't conclude a thing on examination.
PM: Strength training at NHHR.

4/7/11
PM: Worked until about 8/pm and then did a barefoot run in Stony Creek. (10min 24sec).

4/8/11
AM: MRI on my right leg. (1hr).
PM: Threw on the VFFs for 2.6 miles in 27 minutes. Ran out-and-back on the BT trail. Stubbed a toe on the bridge. Thought I had broken it, but it seems fine now. However, the ball of my left foot was giving me trouble. It felt like I was landing on a small, flat rock right behind my second met. Did some strength training at home afterwards.

4/9/11
Started out barefoot around the Guilford Green. Only made it a few minutes before the ball of my left foot started acting up. Threw on the Minimus and ran 5 miles in 51 minutes. Only a few twinges in the leg. Encouraging? It never seizes to amaze me what a decent outing can do to change my mind. My mind had been made up, after a bunch of shitty outings, that I wouldn't be able to get my running back in time to do a long race in the fall. Now I'm thinking that everything will be OK.

4/10/11
Strength training at NHHR.

Total barefoot miles: 2.1

Of note: Last night, I made Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Chickpeas. Delicious. The recipe, among others, can be found here: http://chicvegan.com/6-delectable-spaghetti-squash-recipes/. I think that might have been my first time cooking with spaghetti squash. Fun. Also, I'm currently reading "The Last American Man" by Elizabeth Gilbert. So far, great read. Highly recommended.

tendon rescue

I got me a tube of this stuff at the Vitamin Shoppe. Hoping it helps.

https://peacefulmountain.com/store/tendon.php

Week 1 of Barefoot Running

3/28/11
PM: Out and back to Guilford Green on the bike. (13mi; 51min). Stopped to do my very first barefoot run on pavement. (5min 12sec).

3/29/11
PM: Up and down East Rock trails in NB Minimus Road with Jess. Shouldn't have done this run. Was very cranky afterward due to nagging hamstring tendonitis. (4mi; 47min). Strength training at NHHR with Jess.

3/30/11
AM: To Branford train station on the bike. (5mi; 21min).
PM: From Branford train station on the bike. (5mi; 20min). Second barefoot run on pavement in Stony Creek. (9min 30sec).

3/31/11
PM: Strength training at NHHR with Jess.

4/1/11
PM: Third barefoot run on pavement in Guilford. Wet pavement made for very cold feet. (10min 57sec).

4/2/11
Strength training at NHRR; then biked out on 146 for a bit. (7mi; 28min).

4/3/11
Dropped Jess off at the Bimblers Bash 10k(ish) trail race in Guilford and then drove over to the Green. Fourth barefoot run on pavement. Felt great. See video below. (15min 6sec).

Total barefoot miles: 3.5

My goal is to not run a single shod mile during the month of April (that's what I meant in my previous post).

April Plans

Unfortunately, the injury to my right leg is not going away (not getting worse, but not getting better, either) on less running/more cross-training, strengthening and stretching, so, for the first time since 2008 (surgery on January 2; wasn't running regularly again until July), I feel forced to take off several weeks from running.

I really want to run a fall marathon, but if I continue to run with an injury, I may not be able to. So, I figure I should take off the time now and let it heal properly. By the time it heals, I'll still have plenty of time to prepare for a marathon.

Biking doesn't seem to aggravate the leg, so I plan to do that four times per week (4 to 5 hours). My plan for the next several weeks (perhaps all of April):

Monday: Gym
Tuesday: Bike (1hr)
Wednesday: Gym
Thursday: Bike (1hr)
Friday: Gym
Saturday: Bike (1hr)
Sunday: Bike (2hrs)

I'd also like to do some hiking. Let's plan a hike!

Boulder Half

Congrats to Jess, who ran 1:44:03 at the Boulder Half on Sunday. Not bad for 5,500 feet. Congrats also to Bailey, who ran 1:50:14 in her very first half!

Running form

Some guy over at runnersworld.com critiqued my form for me. This is what he had to say:

You don't seem to be releasing yourself quickly from your landing and you seem to be pushing and extending your feet and hips as your body moves over and past your foot(lean). My recommendation would be to learning to release your balance quicker and to learn how to lift you foot appropriately. Here are several vids to help explain this concept: Posture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2tdWy3MuHg Falling Posture(also known as leaning in running): http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6573634917798930547# Proper way to pull/lift the feet: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2689856767868214443# and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHAc802EHy0

I used my iPhone GPS to map out this run, as the good majority of it was on trails. It seems to be pretty accurate, although it did cut corners in spots. I found some really nice, easy trails at Young's Pond Park. Unfortunately, though, they're pretty short, and I don't know that I could tolerate more than a few laps. It would be a good place to break in the KSOs.

Bear Mountain

Has anyone ever hiked to the top of Bear Mountain in Salisbury? Any interest in doing this on Sunday afternoon? If not, next weekend?

http://www.berkshirehiking.com/hikes/bearmt_salisbury.html

Tonight kind of sucked. I knew that I should not have run but I couldn't help myself. I did 7 laps around a 1/13 mile track at the gym in fingers. To say that it was a disaster would be an understatement. The ball of my left foot was not happy. Neither was the posterior tib. Didn't really notice the bigger concern, which is my right knee/leg/who knows, which was encouraging. I scheduled an appt with an ortho doc at Yale for tomorrow at 2:30. Mostly just for peace of mind. (I hope.) I need someone to tell me to rest.

The final push to the finish (looks like 3 seconds to me)

Shamrock results

59 Ryan Lamanna 28M M2029 Bradford CT 39:13 7:50 8/27 1236
60 Jessica Borsetti 25F F2029 Branford CT 39:16 7:51 4/27 1237
61 Dan Britton 20M M2029 Mansfield CT 39:16 7:51 9/27 930

I'm from Bradford, Jessica's last name is Borsetti, and Dan is 20. Fun run.

barefoot running

Pretty much perfect running form say the gurus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hNqES4_qa0

Insane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwbzpyterI

Hamstring tendonitis

I'm pretty sure I've got hamstring tendonitis. The pain is where the hamstring tendons connect to the top of the lower leg. It seems like a knee injury, but it's not, because I can do any and all sort of knee exercises all day long and have zero pain. Hill running, extending the leg, and leg curls cause the pain. I guess this means that I'm gonna have to take it easy for a while. I'm not going to take the 4-6 weeks off that they recommend, but I'm going to significantly cut back my running to 3-4 days per week, get on a bike, and strengthen and stretch the necessary muscles. That said, it's probably not a good idea to be racing. While these setbacks do suck, it's a good time for me to work on strength and flexibility of my legs. Who wants to go for a bike ride?

Tony Krupicka on why he runs trails

A good read (and exceptionally well-written): http://runningtimes.com/Print.aspx?articleID=22172

Barefoot trail runner in Portland, OR

Cool video: http://www.vimeo.com/21039327

Update

I tried posting an update a day or two ago but it didn't work, so I said the hell with it. Let's try again today.

My right leg is responding nicely to strength training, stretching and occasional ice. I had a very difficult first and second week back from Austin. I probably should not have run a step, but I couldn't help myself (even though I didn't really feel like running). This week--i.e., the third week back--is going well. I'm on track to run about 40 miles, which is a very good sign. I might even be ready to race on the 19th (Shamrock race in Bristol?). I'm thinking the 2 miler, but we'll see.

I did 5 minutes of barefoot running on the treadmill two nights ago. Other than the achiness in the balls of my feet, it felt great--better than the Minimus Road. The Minimus Road have a 4mm heel-to-toe drop, and it was evident having gone from running in them to running barefoot on the treadmill. I learned that Nike Free also has a 4mm drop; FiveFingers: 0mm; Green Silence: 9mm. Based strictly on drop, the FiveFingers are most like running barefoot. However, I've read that the Minimus Trail, despite the 4mm drop, are superior to the FiveFingers. Barefoot gurus seem to love them. The Minimus Trail uses Vibram rubber, and it's much more flexible and responsive than the foam used in the Minimus Road. They're slightly narrower, too.

Anyway, I'd love to get away from the Nike LunarTrainer completely. I think that if I start to incorporate some barefoot running into my schedule, I'll be able to run in even the minimalist of shoes full-time. In terms of comfort, running in less shoe wins. It always has for me, but, unfortunately, my feet are not nearly strong enough to go full-time in them. Perhaps if I was doing only 15-20 miles per week but not doing 60+. So long as I take the transition slowly, I think'll I'll be fine. Since last Saturday, I've put about 25 miles on the Minimus, and my feet feel absolutely fine. No posterior tib or PF pain.

Too much of a good thing?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/when-exercise-is-too-much-of-a-good-thing/?hp

NB Minimus Road

Jess and I picked up a pair of the New Balance Minimus Road today. They're a nice light, flat shoe. I'm happy with them. The trail version is also nice. I would have bought a pair of both, but I didn't have two hundred dollars.

March

I'm dedicating March to a complete recovery from Austin and whatever is going on with my right knee. During March, I plan to reintroduce strength training into my regular schedule of running and to build back up to where I was pre-Austin. Our tentative marathon plans for the rest of the year are the Niagra Falls International Marathon on October 23, 2011. That gives us more than 7 months to prepare. During those 7+ months, I'd like to do at least two half marathons and a bunch of 5 and 10ks. A monthly track workout would be nice, too. Anyone else want to talk about there 2011 plans?

It's March 1st and time to get back down to business. I rode the stationary bike for 15 minutes and did strength training at NHHR tonight. I've got a slight issue with my right knee/hamstring/shin. The only thing that caused pain tonight was the hamstring curl machine. Hmmm.

I made the news!!!

Congratulations to all Austin Marathon finishers!

Karolina 3:28 (PR)
Jessica: 3:33
Ryan: 3:37 (PR)
Kristyn: 3:45

8 days 11 hours and 39 minutes

The marathon starts at 7/am. If the marathon were tomorrow, it'd be 33 degrees at the start and, if finishing sometime at or before 11/am, somewhere between 46 and 52 degrees at the finish. That ain't bad.

I've begun to think about fueling during the marathon. I didn't fuel at all during my training runs. The most I took was 16 oz. of water on long-runs only. I don't think I properly fueled during Green Mountain, so I won't repeat that approach (2 or so gels over the course of the marathon). I think a gel every 5 or 6 miles will do the trick. I have no problem stomaching them, so I might as well use them, as it beats the hell out of chewing chomps/beans or swallowing salt tablets.

What else? I've finally retired my second to last pair of Lunar Trainer at 950 miles. I gave them a final run on Sunday in Central Park. They treated me well. I'm now fully transitioned into my last pair, and I'll run the marathon in them. On March 1st, I'm going to pick up a pair of NB Road Minimus. I probably won't be able to run full-time in them, but I'll start working them into my rotation (which, currently, includes only one pair of shoes). I'm excited about them.

I'm at about 27 miles for the week. I'll finish the week off with 5 tonight, 3 tomorrow, and 13 on Sunday. I'll throw in a few MP miles on Sunday, but the majority of that run will be at a low intensity. At this point, I don't plan on doing anymore tempos, but a few MP miles on Tuesday or Thursday of next week won't hurt. This training has been made up of largely aerobic conditioning and very little anaerobic threshold and VO2 max work. I felt that, during this initial training of higher volume, aerobic conditioning was sufficient. However, I was able to get in a few tempos at the very end of the training but not any intervals. This was quite different than last training, during which I did a tempo or interval session on a weekly basis. In hindsight, that was too much hard training for my fitness level at that point. Now that I've done it, training the Lydiard way--that is, spending as many months as possible building an aerobic base and THEN for a short period only sharpening on the hills, doing drills (e.g., hill-bounding), and incorporating anaerobic threshold and VO2 max workouts--makes a lot of sense. The guy was a genius, and I plan to continue to train by his methods in the future. I find Pfitz and all the rest to be smart, but their plans are convoluted. For me, volume is important, so I know that I need to run a lot (mostly easy, some hard). That's pretty simple. Being a slave to a plan is bad news, as I've found that I don't always feel fresh on my hard days. What I do then is skip the hard day entirely. I buffer my last hard run with even more easy, aerobic running, setting me up for my next hard day. This has worked quite well for me. Following the Runner's World Training: Smart Coach thing for Green Mountain was a disaster. I felt stale for the good majority of the time and even worse at the mary.

Taper

So, the 14-week build-up to Austin is in the books. Here are my weekly mileage totals:

46.9, 49.1, 54.4, 46.4, 53.4, 54.2, 57.6, 49.2, 58.9, 63.5, 33.6 (ill), 58.4, 62.5, 59.3 = 747.4

That's an average of 53.4 miles per week (would have been more like 55 if I hadn't become ill at the end of week 11), which is a few miles more than I had planned, but I handled the volume quite well.

As briefly discussed below, I had a good day at the office yesterday. Even though my legs felt a bit on the tight side for the duration of the long-run, I knew I had several more gears for the final lap in Central Park. I had planned on running the last lap at about 8:00 pace (marathon pace if all stars align), but I ran it at 7:34 pace, which is, unquestionably, well below marathon pace. The legs just wanted to go, so I let them. My average long-run pace for this training was 8:33. That's 27 seconds per mile faster than my average long-run pace for the training leading up to my fastest marathon. If I had a guess, I'll finish Austin somewhere between 3:32 and 3:38.

I'll do 48 miles this week (mostly easy, aerobic miles--might throw in some 800m repeats if I feel good on Thursday), including a 13 mile long run on Sunday. Definitely plan to dial back the intensity.

Hats off to Ian Sharman and Tony Krupicka

Ian won the Rocky Raccoon 100 in Huntsville, TX, in 12 hours and 44 minutes on Saturday. That's 7:38 pace for 100 miles!!! And a course record! Tony finished second in 13:18, which is 7:58 pace. Tony won this race in 2007 in 13:32. The course is a 20 mile loop of flat trails done 5 times.

Two weeks out from the green mountain marathon, I ran 20 miles at 8:54 pace in central park. My splits were as follows: 9:12, 9:02, 8:39, and 8:12. Compare that to today's workout two weeks out from Austin for which I did 17.5 miles at 8:17 pace in central park. I did the first lap at 8:46 pace, the second lap at 8:24 and the last at 7:34. Probably could have kept it up for another three miles today. No clue what Austin has in store for me except I hope a fast marathon.

Friday: Jogged over to the bank to withdraw a train fare to Branford and then to the train station; hopped on the train and then ran an easy six miles home. The roads were icy in spots, particularly on the hills. Almost ran into a car just to show the driver what happens when you don't look both ways before pulling out into traffic but then realized that that would probably hurt. I yelled at him instead. Ignorant drivers.

Week 14 tempo

I had planned on running indoors after work yesterday (not willing to run in cold rain), but the gym was closed. Instead, I threw on my headlamp and did six easy miles on dark, black ice-covered roads. Fun run, actually. This morning, I did 11, including a 2.5 mile warmup, 3.3 miles at 6:58 pace (hadn't run this fast since 5K back in October of last year), and a 5.2 mile cooldown. Felt pretty good. Gonna run easy next two days. Long run in Central Park on Sunday.

Slogged through an hour of easy running on the 'mill last night followed by some light strength training. Twelve hours later, Jessica and I were on the snowy/sleety roads of Branford just trying to put in an honest effort. The roadways this morning weren't terrible but they weren't great either. Gotta love Mother Nature. Really looking forward to being a bum on the couch tonight. Fingers crossed that this office will close early, which would mean more time to be a bum. It's not that I don't look forward to running on a daily basis, it's the weather. It's getting old. Without the looming marathon, I don't know that I'd be motivated to run everyday in this awful weather.

Week 13 long run and taper

Jessica and I traded the lead several times on our 20 mile long run yesterday. We ran somewhere between 810 and 820 pace through about 17.5 miles and then I began to fade. Jessica finished up at 821 pace and I finished up at 828 pace. Although it was only on par with my fastest 20 miler to date, I'm pleased with the effort. Trying to hold the pace on cheap fuel was good for me.

We're now only three weeks out from the marathon, and I think I'm going to keep the volume up this week--except that I won't do a 20 miler on Sunday (maybe 16 or 17 instead of 22 that I had planned)--and then taper. I find that the long runs keep me fresh (ironically) and strong, so I'll continue to do them.

Weather-wise, it's going to be tough to get in a lot of running this week. I'll be on the treadmill for an hour flat tonight, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. They're calling for several inches of snow beginning tomorrow morning, followed by several inches of ice and then several more inches of snow. And then they're talking about another big storm for Saturday. Jessica and I are thinking Central Park long run for Sunday.

Ryan Hall puts down God as Coach

Ryan Hall returned to old form today with a second place finish (62:20) at the USA Half Marathon Championships. In a post-race interview, he told reporters that, when checking in for the race, he put down God as his coach. This was in response to a question regarding the differences between being coached and self-coaching.

Snow

It was flurrying when we went to bed last night, and when we woke up at 6/am to run this morning, there were 15" of snow on the ground! We were snowed in! After we SHOVELED the snow off of Jessica's car, Jess did about 4 miles. I postponed my run until 10:30, as there was a delayed office opening. I drove some screws into my shoes and then hit the road for about 11.5 miles at a decent clip. I decided to come back via the BT Trail. Bad idea. Only a few people had walked the trail since the snow had fallen, so it wasn't packed down as usual. If you want a good workout, try running through knee-deep snow. Some way to finish up a medium long-run. After the run, I went to work only to find out that the office was CLOSED! I forgot to re-check my voicemail for any changes to the schedule. Now I'm home, and I'm bored.

Got up early, made banana/oatmeal pancakes, ate, and caught a few more Zs until about 11ish. Didn't start running until about noonish. Couldn't find a rhythm until about mile 9 when my hands were at their coldest and I had to ditch my water bottle. Just remembering that I still need to retrieve it. Damn it. Ran low 8s for the rest of the run. 18ish miles in 2:37. Pretty happy with that given the rough, post-illness week. Felt like shit yesterday out on the BT Trail. Not even sure those 3 miles were worth it. But I kind of loved every minute of them. 58 miles for the week. Next week, I'll do my normal weekly runs, with a hard (I hope) 10-miler on Thursday. 20 on Sunday. Would like to hit 60 again. The following week, I'll peak (65ish miles?) and then taper. I think a two week taper'll do it. The goal this time is to take it easy. Had a hard time holding back last taper and paid dearly on marathon day.

An aside: I put an ad on craigslist for two free beds. Got about a dozen calls. Maybe more. Told one woman that the beds were her's if she could meet me at 5/pm to pick them up. She couldn't guarantee transportation by then so I promised the beds to someone else. The woman wound up showing up. So did the someone else. Needless to say, the someone else wasn't too happy. He wrote me a nasty email, telling me how bad of a person I am for causing him to bundle up his kid, who was so excited to get a new bed, and drive all the way to New Haven to find out that the beds were already on their way out. Am I an asshole?

Tonight's workout

My alarm was set for 6:40/am this morning. I didn't hear it until 6:47/am, at which point I snoozed it, checked the weather, and decided to put my head back down on the pillow. The plan was to run this morning, but I'm growing tired of running in the snow/ice and cold, so now the plan is to run on the treadmill this evening for an easy hour. Afterward, I plan to put in some time strength training. Perhaps I'll even throw in some drills. I've got all night, as Jessica is away in Vermont at a conference.

I'm now hearing from a colleague that a blizzard is being forecasted for early/mid next week. This has the potential to completely screw up my training. I'm not a big fan of running long on the treadmill. Nine the other night was rough. If I'm forced to do that a couple times next week, I'll go crazy. It'd be a different story if my longer, harder runs were leisure runs and I had all day to do them, but they're not and I don't. They need to be good efforts and I have only so much time in the morning to get them done. I like the idea of putting screws in shoes for traction, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. I don't see this working very well in deep snow but maybe on packed snow and ice.

I'm now in the market for new shoes. I think that my feet are tired of the Lunar Trainers. I've got about 800 miles on my second to last pair and have been slowly transitioning to my last pair. I forgot how long it takes to break them in. I look forward to the release of the NB Minimus. In the meantime, I think that I'll ride out the last of the Lunar Trainers.

Finally, to give you an idea of where I've been, where I am, and where I'm going, I share with you my weekly mileage for the past eleven weeks in training for Austin. I note that I've logged 567.2 miles in the those eleven weeks, or 51.56 miles/week. These numbers are slightly skewed due to my missing three days of running last week, but you get the picture--it's the most running I've ever done in my life. I also note a healthy increase in mileage from week to week, with a critical recovery week every fourth week. In terms of structure, this is the way I'd like to train year-round. In terms of mileage, I'd like to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 miles/week by the end of the year. When I'm not training for marathons, I'll deemphasize the 20+ milers and LT and VO2 max running that comes at the end of a cycle. I'll spread out the mileage and perhaps do doubles a couple of times per week.

1) 46.9
2) 49.1 (4.69%)
3) 54.4 (10.79%)
4) 46.4 (-14.71%)
5) 53.4 (15.09%)
6) 54.2 (1.50%)
7) 57.6 (6.27%)
8) 49.2 (-14.58%)
9) 58.9 (19.72%)
10) 63.5 (7.81%)
11) 33.6 (-47.09%)
Avg 51.56 (-1.05%)

Austin Marathon Course Elevation Map

Elevation Map

Based on the map, the course looks hilly. The good news, though, is that the big hills are gradual climbs. The biggest hill, between miles 3 and 6, rises 200 feet, which isn't that much over the course of three miles.