In a Funk

I am in something of a funk lately. Part of it has to do with everything going on with my mom right now. It's hard to really take running too seriously when I know that my mom is in a battle for her life every second of the day. It kind of puts the running thing in perspective. Also contributing to my somewhat glum world view right now is this stupid cold that I can't seem to kick. It isn't completely debilitating or anything. It's basically a cough and stuffy head. However, it left me feeling tired out and groggy. I've been able to keep up my mileage so far this week, but the few times I've tried to drop the pace below about 6:30, I'm overcome with phlegm and go into coughing fits. Sorry for the visual. The cold is also preventing me from going to see my mom, who is in the hospital right now, so that isn't helping things either.

Despite all that, I did have a somewhat enjoyable run this morning. I got outside at about 5:30 in the morning and it was just starting to rain ever so slightly. By the time I got about a mile into the run it turned in a very light drizzle, and progressed from there. However, the whole time I was out there, there were some spectacular lightning displays going on. About 3 miles into the run, I turned off into a forest preserve and with the heavy cloud cover and the steady rain, the path was pretty much pitch black, except for the occasional flash of lightning. By the time I was done with run, the rain turned to flash flood levels and it basically turned into a survival run. I remember thinking it was about the most fun I've had running in a while. When else could a grown man be able to just splash through puddles and run around in the rain? I was experiencing a Runner's World moment, which is probably why I didn't see that branch lying on the ground in front of me until it was too late. I was sent sprawling to the ground. Luckily, I was able to flip myself around so I landed on my butt, but I skidded for a good 10 feet or so on my hands and they're in pretty sad shape right now. I was on a black gravel path at the time, and I think I still have some of that path in my hands right now. At that point it was raining so hard that I couldn't even see my hands. When I got home I was able to see the bloody mess. I knew I didn't like Runners World for a reason.

So for the week so far, I'm at 54 miles in 5 runs, which is right where I should be, but I have had 0 workouts. I guess sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and put the mileage in, and worry about speed some other time. It's easy to write that, but it's so much harder to actually believe it.

Mind Games

Yesterday I got an email from the Park Forest Scenic 10 race director saying that he was going to comp my entry into the race. I've never gotten a free entry to a race before. I guess it's a local kid discount, because there really is no way I'll wind up anywhere near the front of the pack of the race. I'm thinking if everything clicks, I could break 56 minutes for the race. That will be good for possibly top 50 or so. This race is stacked(check out the August 7th update)

I've also been coming down with a cold. I don't handle colds all that well. I hate having a stuffed up nose because I don't like sleeping on my back, but any other position and I can't breathe. It's sort of a catch 22. So last night before I went to bed, I O.D.ed on sinus medication and slept like a baby. However, this morning when I woke up, I was feeling pretty dried out. Not to be detered, I headed out for a 17 miler and, well, it wasn't much fun.

I was clammy and thirsty the whole time. I could tell after about 7 miles that this was going to be a struggle, but I have this strange theory that the best way to get over a cold(or really anything for that matter), is to just hammer it into submission. A 17 miler was a good starting point.

I was having a hard time keeping my concentration, so just to make sure I didn't drift too much, I threw in an occasional half-mile pickup where I dropped the pace down to marathon pace (6 min/mile). Not sure there was much benefit to it, but it kept me somewhat interested in the run and allowed me to finish a little faster than I normally would have, which was key for today. I just didn't want to be out there.

Prognosis Negative

That title is for you Seinfeld fan's out there.

I just got back from the doctor's office, where I had my knee examined. The doctor thought that the pain was most likely being caused by a partial tear of the ACL. When I first heard that, I got scared, but he assured me that it was pretty minor. He said if running doesn't bother it, go ahead and keep running. He also said that he had no problem with me continuing to play softball either. I should just manage any pain I feel with Ibuprofen or Aleve. All in all, I'm was pretty happy with the way things went. I will go back in sometime after labor day to have an MRI just to confirm that this really is all that there is.

So last Friday I mentioned that I wanted to try and get in a 20 miler at some point over the weekend. As the work day drew to a close, I was feeling pretty energetic, so I decided that I would just knock it out right there. I did the reverse Halsted Run, which is the point to point course from my work to my house. In total it is 23 miles. Unfortunately, I only had enough in the tank for about 19 miles. The last 4 miles turned into an absolutely brutal death march. It was raining and humid for most of the run, and running through rough neighborhoods is a lot different at 6PM on a Friday night as opposed to 6AM on a Friday morning. I think I was running a little too hard through some of those neighborhoods in the early going and paid the price later on. The whole run was probably one of the stupider things I've done lately.

I did survive the run, but was just completely wiped out from it when I got home. I had chaffing all over from the wet shorts and shoes and everything was sore. The next day things didn't really improve much, although I did manage to get out for a very easy 7 miler (After liberally applying vaseline all over). Finally on Sunday, I started getting my legs back and went for a pretty decent 10 miler to close out the week and hit 100 miles for the first time in the last 3 weeks.

I guess I am pleased with how the week went. I was able to get in 2 longruns and one uptempo workout. With the hard race effort on Sunday, I can live with only one real hard effort. Bottom line is that even a few months ago, there is no way I would have been able to log 100 miles at any pace the week after running a half-marathon. Hopefully this week, I'll continue to get back into the flow of things.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step...

OK sorry about the picture...that was a weak attempt at trying to convince myself that my problem is really nothing.

About a month and a half ago, I was playing softball and, when diving in a fruitless attempt at a fly ball, I banged my knee hard on the outfield turf. It hurt pretty bad when it happened, but I walked it off and didn't think much of it. The next day, my knee continued to hurt, but for whatever reason, running didn't seem to really affect it, so I just continued on my merry way and ignored it. I didn't play softball for a couple of weeks because of a break in the schedule and the knee seemed to improve. The pain slowly went away until I hardly noticed it at all. Then last Tuesday, I played softball again, and the next day, the knee pain was back in full force. I have continued to run on it and even set my half-marathon PR without any real ill effects from it, but it continues to hurt anytime I do anything that isn't straight ahead running or walking. The slightest turn of the knee to the side, and BAM…pain.

So today, I broke down and made an appointment at the orthopedic doctor. I haven't been to any doctor in many years, so just the fact that I made an appointment should tell you that I'm not entirely comfortable with what's going on down there. Hopefully, I'll go in there, the doctor will look at it, tell me to stop playing softball and everything will be fine. Heck, he can even tell me to stop running and I'll be happy. I won't listen to him, but I'll be happy. I'm really just concerned that there's something torn in there. My hope is that if something was torn it would be too painful to allow for any type of running, but I don't know if that's true or not. I guess I'll find out Monday.

Did 9 miles this morning at a relaxed pace. Nothing really to write home about. The plan is to get in a long run of at least 20 miles either late tonight or tomorrow morning. The kids have been waking up at insanely early hours lately, so it would be nice to knock the 20 out tonight, and then be able to get up with the kids in the morning, to allow my pregnant wife some sleeping time. With all the insanity going on lately, sleep is a pretty rare commodity in our household.

A Progression Run

I really wasn't feeling like running today. I had two straight days of softball games on Tuesday and Wednesday night on top of the double yesterday just left me feeling generally sore today. Softball, with all the fast starting and stopping, quick turns, and all out sprinting, usually wreaks havoc on my hamstrings and today was no exception. I was feeling it in my legs. However, the schedule called for 10 miles, so I was going to at least give it a go and see how I felt. I really wanted to do something at a faster than comfortable pace as well. I brought the watch, with the thought that if I didn't feel like using it, I would just keep it turned off.

After about a 3 mile warm-up, I was feeling decent and decided I would start the watch, just to see what kind of pace I was running at. My first mile came through around 6:15, and the second pretty much followed suit. From there, I was feeling good and started to work the pace down to around 6:00 flat. At the 3 mile mark, it was time to turn around and head back in the direction that I was coming. This is usually a good mental boost for me, since moving towards the finish is always better than moving away from it. From there I lowered the pace to around a 5:45 mile and finished strong with a final mile around 5:30. Overall, I did the 5 timed miles at a 5:58 pace. I'm happy with it. I was relatively comfortable the whole time and my legs held up just fine. I finished with a 2 mile cooldown for 9 miles in total.

Getting Back on Track

So yesterday I was thinking, you know, I really wish I would have pushed a little harder at the race this past weekend and not let that girl pull away from me in the last half mile. It's not that it's a girl really, I just felt like I hung with her for the previous three miles, why couldn't I keep going another half mile?



Then I saw this, which was taken around the 12 and a half mile mark and realized, well, I think I was pretty maxed out. It looks like I should have been taken out back, shot, and put out of my misery.

Did a 7 and a 10 mile run today both at a relatively easy pace, just below 7 minute miles. Everything is feeling pretty good and I'm pleased with how quickly I've recovered from Sunday. I should be able to hit 100 miles this week, which will be the first time I've hit that mark in a couple of weeks. I think it's getting close enough to race day where I can actually start counting down. Only seven weeks of training left. I hope to make them count.

Oh, My Aching Legs

Did seven extremely creaky miles yesterday. The hard half marathon effort on Sunday left me pretty sore for this run, so the goal was to basically just get the legs moving and hopefully finish the run feeling better than when I started. I'm not sure if I felt better when I was finished, but I didn't feel any worse, so I guess you could say it was mission accomplished. It seems that my legs kind of go into a numb state when they're extremely sore they were for this one. They aren't real happy with what's going on, but they're too sore to really object too much.

This morning I did 17 miles on the way into work. This actually was a surprisingly good run. My legs are still sore, but for whatever reason, it didn't really affect the run much. My pace stayed under 7 for the entire run and I was actually getting stronger as the run progressed. I can't say that it felt great, but I never got to the point where I just wanted to stop, so I guess that's a positive. Since I spent a good portion of last month whining about the weather, I will say that lately the weather has been pretty close to perfect. In the morning, we have been in the upper 60's/lower 70's with no humidity, so that definitely helped today.

As for the half-marathon, I'm still going over it all in my head. The last two years, I ran a small half-marathon by my house just before the Chicago Marathon and finished both years in the 1:17's. The guy who won it the last two years ran in the low 1:15's both years. I remember thinking last year, that there wasn't much I could do to ever really compete with him. I was just resigned to the fact that he was faster than me. That isn't true anymore. I'm really having a hard time getting my head around it actually. Hopefully, this is just beginning.

Chicago Distance Classic

First off, thanks to everyone for your well-wishes and comments over the past few days. They mean a lot to me and I truly do appreciate it. I think now that the official shock of the whole thing has worn off a little, we have all resolved to fight this thing and to just put it all in God's hands.

Today was the Chicago Distance Classic. I felt like this was the first race all year that was actually something that could show me how my new high-mileage training philosophy was working out for me. Before this, the longest race I ran in '06, excluding a low-key marathon I ran in April, was an 8K, which is kind of like buying a hybrid car and then bringing it to the dragstrip for races. I have definitely been training for the long stuff, but racing at the short stuff. Today was a true healthcheck at a distance that I should be able to feel a difference at.

As usual, I felt pretty bad before the race started. I've pretty much just learned that for whatever race, pre-race jitters make me feel sick and usually once I start whatever race I'm doing that day, I'm fine. Today was no exception.

I didn't wear a watch, so I don't have great splits, but I know that I came through the first 3 miles in 16:40 (5:33 overall pace) and was through the 8K split in 27:50 (5:35 overall pace). From there I don't really have any official splits, although I do remember thinking that at the 10 Mile mark, I had to do an 18 minute 5K on the dot to break 1:15, which was my secret goal I guess. So I guess my 10 mile split works out to 58 minutes (5:42 overall pace). So as you can see from my falling pace, I did slow down on those later miles, but I was still moving along faster than I ever have for this distance.

Just past the 10 mile mark, the 2nd place girl in the race came up behind me to pass. At this point, I was really starting to hurt and was willing to just let her go, but then she challenged me, with a "Let's go Man!" I guess the extra prodding that late in the race helped a bit, because from there we pushed each other through the final 3 miles and I broke the tape in 1:14:41 a PR by 2:26. The second girl pulled away in the last half mile and wound up beating me by about 6 seconds.

So I am happy with the effort and happy with were I'm at right now. I think that I could have possibly run a little bit of a smarter race and taken a few seconds off my time, but for the most part, I think this is a pretty accurate indication of my fitness level right now. According to the McMillan Calculator this predicts a marathon time of 2:37:30, so I'm pleased. I still have some work to do in the next 8 weeks if I want to hit my goal of a sub 2:36, but this was a good intermediate step.

My Mom

Last Tuesday, I learned that my mom was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. The past week has been filled with a lot of coping, research, and spending time with my mom. Running has obviously taken a backseat. I'm not sure when I will get back to regular blogging, but right now, it doesn't seem appropriate.

I will ask for your prayers.
Greg

A Mental Break

Sometimes when I reread through my posts from day to day, I begin to wonder if I'm bipolar. One day, I'm complaining about how tired I am, the next day I feel great. One day I feel like I'm taking on more than I can chew, the next day I'm talking about increasing my mileage up to 120 per week. I think I kind of know what my problem is. It isn't so much that my running changes from day to day. Usually if I drag myself outside for a run, I can perform pretty consistently. The problem with me is that my motivation seems to fluctuate with the day. Somedays I feel like a world-beater and other days I feel like the world is beating up on me.

Which brings me to this week. I have a streak of 8 consecutive 100 mile weeks under my belt going into this week and things do seem to be getting easier. However, this week with the crazy temps so far (it was 100 yesterday and today), I just haven't had any desire to get out there and sweat through the miles. Plus, we have a family outing to an amusement park on Thursday and Friday of this week, so running is going to be difficult then too. The original plan was to really front-load the week and then try and coast through the vacation and weekend. However, with the weather, that just ain't happening. So, it's time for the 100 mile week streak to end. Along with it, the 34 straight days of running is going to end today too (assuming I don't talk myself into a short run this evening).

I'm sad to see both streaks go, but I also want to stay focused on October 22nd. I'd much rather take the week now, when I can plan it out, as opposed to 3 or 4 weeks from now, when I'm forced into it. In the past I've always said some of the smartest decision I've made when it comes to training have involved rest days. I rarely look back and say I'm really glad I forced in that extra 10 miler. However, I can remember a few times where I really feel like I benefited from rest. In April, I had some mystery problem with my ankle. I tried for about 2 weeks to run through it. I was able to do it, but it was painful. Finally, I forced myself into a 3 day rest period and haven't had to deal with the pain since.

With a down week this week, that leaves me 11 weeks until the Chicago Marathon. Take two weeks out for the taper, and it leaves me 9 weeks of good training left. The past 12 weeks or so have been the best running I have ever done in my life. For the most part, it has also been the healthiest I have been. Aside from some minor soreness here and there, I am in pretty good shape physically. I think with the added benefit of a weeklong mental break I should be all set for the homestretch.

Now the real challenge is to find that happy medium between a too easy week and a too hard week. I've never really had much luck finding that. What I hope to do with the remainder of the week is to get in somewhere around 60-70 miles for the week with one longish run mixed in and maybe a tempo run or two. I'm thinking just doing singles everday and the absence of the second longrun will do me good. We shall see. The one thing that I definitely noticed is that my lunch didn't taste nearly as good today without no run on the agenda. It's like I always say, the best part about running is the eating afterwards.