Spring Running Thread

[rocknrollgirl]

Can you believe that I am sitting here waiting for snow on April 9th? This is crazy!
After last week's long run in the rain, we decided to get up and out early this weekend to try and beat the storm. We made it back just as the rain started coming in. It was cold this morning, I think around 26 when we started. Cold enough to freeze my hose again. We only h ad to run for an hour because it is a drop down week. One more really long run to go before race day in a few weeks.

Hope you all had a good week. Oak if you are checking in, I hope your achilles is feeling better. Stay warm and dry North East TE'ers, cuz it is coming your way!!

[Crankin]

Thankfully, we are too far north. We had our snow last week.

[rocknrollgirl]

Thankfully, we are too far north. We had our snow last week.

Just rain so far, but that nasty chilly kind. The 37 degree kind. Been hunkered down all day grading papers and puttering.

[OakLeaf]

Well.

First of all, nothing catastrophic with the injuries. I've mostly been offline because of the move back north. Always super stressful and disorienting to me, never mind just the physical energy it takes to close up a house. Slowly trying to re-engage my head and my body now that they can be in the same place together.

So things just kind of are what they are. I'm still planning to run next week, still feel like I've got a reasonably good chance of finishing without aggravating anything much, but trying to prepare emotionally for a DNF. I'm kind of okay with the idea of it (which might or might not be a sign of how depressed I've been, sigh), but actually putting it into practice and knowing if it's time to bail - that will be the challenge.

There is some silver lining though, and that's the fact that four years after my fall and decades after the cumulative injuries that set me up, I am FINALLY, really, starting to get better. I knew I was taking a risk by keeping on with all the aggressive, problem-focused bodywork at the same time I was training for a race, but I'd wasted so much time with incompetent practitioners, and I've still been in so much discomfort, that when I finally found good chiropractors in both locations, I really needed to keep going with it and d*mn the torpedoes. And it's those changes in my biomechanics that have brought me down at the moment, but I'm also at a point where I can really feel the positive side of it. Really my run on Friday was the first time I've been so aware of everything coming together, my lumbar curve, hip extension, pelvic rotation, all felt amazingly right and so different from what they've been the past 40 years.

And it's all connected, holey moley. You want an illustration of how everything in the body is connected ... that's come very clear. Turns out, when I sprained my right ankle at 12 years old, all that thoracolumbar dysfunction, that weird twist in my lower spine and pelvis, all those thick bands of adhesions in my right obliques and QL, all that stuff I've had for decades ... all of that was compensating for the weak ankle. So when I finally started getting all that stuff worked out ... the first thing I said when my ankle hurt was that it felt "sprain-y," and that was right, it's called sinus tarsi syndrome, and it's a complication of old sprains. It's unusual for it to rear its head after so much time (it's been at least ten years since the last time I sprained that ankle), but now I understand why. It's a pretty mild case, and I'm optimistic about being able to rehab it properly after race day is over one way or the other. Besides just the risk of aggravating something, my biggest issue now with the race is the fact that there are muscles that just aren't trained because they weren't working right until a couple of weeks ago. The peroneals on that side, particularly, are awfully sore for not a lot of running.

The other Achilles - THAT was my left glute not firing properly since all of a sudden it's now in a completely different relationship with everything else. My first clue was how my usual Achilles remedies involving the foot and calf weren't doing a single thing to help; my second clue was how very, very weird my left glute felt after my last session with the LMT when he really worked out the knots where it had been fighting its new alignment. I probably inadvertently aggravated that with the deep water running I was doing to spare the other ankle, sigh - DWR is good for a lot of things, but not so much the posterior chain. I've got the glute taped now (not so hard to do myself really ), paying close attention to keeping it relaxed when I'm running, did a yoga video focused on integrating the feet and hips, and it's much, much better.

I've got so much tape on me at this point I should audition for "The Mummy." Except I'm not sure if they had pink argyle in ancient Egypt.

Weather - yeah me too. Bit of a culture shock going from waiting (sometimes futilely) for the humidity to drop below 90% before I run, to waiting for the temperature to rise above freezing. I'd have got out earlier today if I'd realized that that high of 55° we were supposed to have, wasn't actually supposed to happen until 7 pm, ha. Had a few flakes of snow on my run Thursday, took yesterday off when it was really falling.

RnR, all's good with your hamstring and glute? Yay if so!

Onward.

[rocknrollgirl]

I hear you about doing all the body work while training. I had that conversation with myself many, many times over the past 10 weeks. I just figured/hoped that at some point it would all come together and I would feel stronger. If not for this race, then for the next. But I have never been this sore from cross training while I was training.

But yes, the hamstring and glute are feeling good. I have kept up with all of the exercises and have added in some stuff for the front chain, quads and VMO. we have not been cycling as much this winter and I do not want all of the glute/hamstring/ IT exercises to set up an imbalance.

It sounds like you are in the mend but the timing is just not great. It is SO hard going into any race with injury on your mind, especially a big race. I really feel for you. You will make the right decision when the time comes.

Add moving to your plate and you have a lot going on. I hate moving. The actual moving part, not the living somewhere new part.

Keep us posted on how you are doing this week. I have two friends racing at Boston also, that I will be tracking, so I will be following the race.

[rocknrollgirl]

Good Luck on Monday Oak!

Not sure if you are traveling yet, but just wanted to give a shout out.

Boston Marathon!!!!

[OakLeaf]

Thanks! For some reason the temperature in Boston is supposed to be perfect for running every day this week except Monday, when it will be pretty warm. Not so bad for running injured though, and the silver lining is that it looks like we'll have a bit of a tailwind after all. Unless they change the forecast again before then!