I did not run the race

That was a disappointment. However, I did raise close to $2,000 dollars and that contributed to the greater Team in Training total of $370,000 raised for this year's Bayshore Marathon. I was able to see a great friend of mine participate. I enjoyed cheering her on and seeing her complete her first marathon. Go Jenny!!!

The diagnosis on my hip is tendinitis. It's basically a repetitive use injury from over training. Now, I am attending physical therapy (PT). Two days a week I go through an aggressive weights program with an instructor. The other days I am expected to keep up with a stretching and strengthening regimen they have laid out for me. The man who gave me the evaluation believes part of my problem was due to not having strong enough hips to buffer me against the weight-bearing forces of running.

I am hopeful though. After all the waiting and wondering, I now have a diagnosis. I have a plan to get back to being strong. Best of all, the evaluator believes it's completely realistic for me to run the half marathon at this year's Detroit Free Press marathon.

Watch out world!

No stress fracture...but what now?

I do not have a stress fracture. The MRI confirmed that. So, good news!!
She wants to schedule me for a bone density scan of my femur but I can't get in until May 24th, which is 3 days before the Bayshore Marathon. I'll keep the appointment but I don't know what that means until then. My doctor left me a voice mail with all of this information. She said that in the meantime I could proceed with activity using pain as my guide. That's really pretty vague of a suggestion. Although I do feel better about walking. I was starting to think that each step was gonna cause more of problem. I still am terribly weary about running. This dull ache in my hip has not subsided. I think I'll plan to get in some good long walks this weekend and then go from there.
I still meet with her on Monday so I'll bring my long list of questions and hopefully obtain some better, specific suggestions on how to proceed.

rock on.

The frustration of waiting

Bear with me. As I write this post I am feeling slightly dejected. This is a result of what I found out during my appointment yesterday afternoon with the U of M Sports Medicine clinic. The doc asked me the usual litany of questions, manipulated my knee into odd angles, pressed on my hip bones and set me up for about 5 X-rays. She suspects a stress fracture possibly in the hip bones (since that's where the pain initially began) or maybe in my right femur. Apparently X-rays don't usually show this sort of thing and mine did not. Then I went in this morning for an MRI of my hip area. I will know the results of that when I meet again with the doctor next Monday afternoon.

As you may have guessed she advised me not to run. She thinks that I could feel I am getting better but if it really is a stress fracture and I do run, I could set myself up for some serious pain and a possible hip replacement. No thank you!

I am frustrated, annoyed, upset, depressed and flustered. I know it is not THAT bad. I know I have two legs. I am not paralyzed. People have setbacks. I am aware of ALL of this. However, it's incredibly frustrating to think I might not be able to run that race. I have put a lot of effort into training and fund raising. I've given up a lot of time. I've even enjoyed it. I loved thinking of myself and someone who can run 25 miles a week.

Now what? I become a couch potato like everyone else? I have no idea how people can sit on their butt at work all day and then go home and sit in front of the tv. I'm so restless.

So, I am trying not to envision the most bleak scenario just yet. Next week Monday I will know more of where I am going from here.

The helplessness of being injured---again.

The sad truth is that I cannot run right now. The pain that began in my groin or hip flexor hasn't fully abated and, in fact, it has transversed across my anterior right thigh ending in a painful, vice-like grip above the outside of my right knee. There is pain that you can run through and ice and there is pain that annoys you while you turn over in your sleep and walk up the stairs at work. Essentially, a discomfort that does not go away. This is not "normal". With enough training and patience and adherence to good form, one should be able to train for a marathon without feeling awful on a daily basis.

Sure, I can slow down, cut back on my mileage or take longer rest periods but that only alleviates the problem---it does not solve it. At this point I have not run since my 6 miles outside on Tuesday morning. It frightens the bejeezus out of me to take time off at this point in the game but I have no other choice. I met with my team mentor and some other folks last night and they all said that if I could run 9 and 10 miles (as I did the last two Saturdays) then I would be able to finish the half marathon, even with time off. They assured me that my training combined with the excitement of race day would carry me to the finish line. I have a hard time trusting in that but they are experienced runners.

Looking ahead, I have an appointment with a doctor at the University of Michigan's Sports Medicine clinic on Monday afternoon. Hopefully they can determine if my problem is a biomechanical issue or something else. I will not be running the scheduled 11 miles this Saturday morning. Hopefully I can still get to the gym and try something in the pool. The elliptical and the bike are both out as possible alternatives. I am trying to stay positive. There is no sense in assuming that I am on a path towards the most bleak diagnosis. I have come this far and I will make it to the finish line. Perhaps at a slower pace but I'll make it.

Drink water!

I clearly must have been overly confident, if I wrote in my previous post about 9 miles being a skip in the park! For Ryan Hall that could very well be true, but for little me, it was arduous. The weather on Saturday morning was, up to this point in training, absolutely gorgeous. The sky was an unwrinkled, unblemished canopy of brilliant blue. The winds were light. The promise of success was buzzing in everyone as I could tell by the huge numbers of cars in the parking lot. (Fair-weather athletes if you ask me!)

Unfortunately, I hadn't considered the correlation between higher temperatures and loss of hydration. I don't think I am a camel, but I have been able to run my distances without lots of water. Well those days of storing water as I rumble across the barren tundra are gone. My run started well enough However, with 4 miles still remaining, I downed a CarbBoom and some water (the last availability on my route) and continued on hoping for a fierce surge of energy. HA! Maybe the gel would work if my body weren't already struggling against dehydration. I felt like those tired dogs you see dragging their fat, bloated tongues against the pavement. (Hence the apt moniker, dog days of summer!) I struggled on but my earlier spritely tempo dwindled to a granny shuffle. It was disappointing. Although, it was a great and timely lesson. I only have so many long runs left on my training log and now is the time when I need to be experimenting with food, gels, water consumption, stretching and sleep to find out what combination of the elements will give me the strength that I can count on for race day.

Lesson learned: I might have to get up even earlier (groan) to more fully hydrate before my long weekend runs.

April come she will

The forecast for this weekend looks luscious. I am accepting the splendor of a clear, blue sky with alacrity. I hope the radiant sun just pours over me until I overflow with a golden hue of spring. After the ten miles of last weekend, tomorrow's nine seems like a skip in the park! Well, okay, not that easy but if I pump myself up with blithe optimism then maybe the energy in my legs will come along to match.

Could it be time to pack up the winter sweaters? Are my fleece running pants ready to retire for another season? Ah, the sweet joy of shedding layers and frolicking in the bursting blooms of spring. It's almost as if there's a hum to the earth and she's knocking at our doors beckoning for us to come out and play.

Yesterday I went to a free evaluation at the Great Lakes Institute of Manual Therapy offered by Running Fit. My hip flexor is still bothering me. It's not so debilitating that I can't run but I don't enjoy the stiffness during the day or the lack of flexibility in that leg. I had a one-on-one inspection by a physical therapist. He poked, prodded, investigated and finally concluded that some area-specific stretches would serve me best. He also suggested heat for the area (as opposed to the ice that I was using) telling me ice is usally for a sore muscle and this seems to be a ligament. It's so hard to straighten all of this out. Oh well. The weather is lovely.

Always Marry An April Girl

Praise the spells and bless the charms,
I found April in my arms.
April golden, April cloudy,
Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;
April soft in flowered languor,
April cold with sudden anger,
Ever changing, ever true --
I love April, I love you.

Ogden Nash

The surprise of kindness

When I committed to train for this half marathon with the Team in Training program, I was more apprehensive about raising the required $1,500 than I was about being able to actually run the 13 miles. Obviously, I had a right to be concerned. I signed a contract that would essentially allow TNT to make up the difference on my credit card, which I provided. I had to. It's part of the canon for how this program succeeds. Talk about lighting a fire under my bum!! I certainly didn't want to get stuck with some $500 payment simply because I hadn't worked the fund raising circuit all the way through.

My first step was to send letters to friends and relatives of my family. That gave me a comfortable starting cushion. Jason also encouraged me to send the letters to his relatives as well. I was nervous about that because I hate to seem greedy, especially to people I don't know very well. Again, I was thrilled with how they responded to my cause. It's wild for me to think that people chose to give their hard earned money to this worthy cause simply because I asked. It amazes me still. Well just yesterday I sent an email around at my work asking with help for the final $200. The outpouring of donations stunned me. I was given checks from people with whom I don't even interact. Most of them apologized for not being able to give more. I had no idea that most people would be so magnanimous in spirit. It really is a beautiful feeling to know of all the support out there. It makes me think that this year I have really done a good deed. I have made a small bit of difference for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. I feel almost spiritual about everyone's charitable sense. What a wonderful world.
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On another positive note, I had quite the amusing interaction at the gym this morning during my four mile run. I have been noticing this older fella when I'm there. He's like a friendly little gnome, waving at the ladies, grinning a smile that stretches all the way to his ears and he's running all this time at a 6.0 pace on the treadmill.
Today I saddled up next to him and when I began running, he looked over with his kind eyes and nodded a polite good morning my way. I responded with a genuine smile. I was plugged into my i-pod and he was carrying on a conversation with another member on the opposite treadmill. At some point, I think we made eye contact again and I gave him a friendly cheer with the universal thumbs up sign. (This guy is clearly out pacing me!) When his conversation buddy left, he turned to me and started asking about how far I run. He told me about running the past Dexter-Ann Arbor race. He seemed to think I had a lot of gusto when he saw me running nonstop the other day (I assume this was my 6 miles on Tuesday). I curtsey'd to his kind words but said that I was the one to be impressed with his much faster pace. He simply chuckled and kept his smile stretched out. Then he took this bemusing tone like he's about to share a sweet secret and admitted that he would have usually stopped running when his friend left but since I was chugging away his machismo got the better of him and he was determined to stay on as long as I was still running.
What a hoot this little fella was! I only had about 1/4 mile left when he disclosed this bit of information and I was glad of that. I don't think I could have handled a dramatic neck and neck race with this deceptive sprinter!! When my 4 miles was up, I slowed down to a walking pace and he decided he was done. He turned to me and said Thanks for the good run. See ya around. I responded in kind. Aw, what a blissful start to the day.