Less Than 24 Hours Until the NWM

It's less than 24 hours from the marathon.  There's really nothing I can do now to help me get any faster, just setting up everything to prepare for getting out the door and driving the 1 hour or so into SF for the race.  I'm nervous, constantly trying to get information about the race, and also helping other runners on facebook with information to try to help them with the race. 

Half Marathons are "easy" for me, as in I can pretty much be assured I will physically be able to finish.  Full marathons, though, I've only conquered that distance twice, both times over 1 year ago, before I broke my foot.  I was fitter then, and I think more naive about how hard the distance would be.  About the only times I've ever felt really really spent were when I did the full marathon.  You just never really know if something will happen to stop you during the course.

I love the feeling when I finish a race, especially sweet is when you're not sure you can do it, and you find out you can and the medal is being put around your neck.  All those lonely long runs, waking up really early, begging off a late evening out to save some sleep time for training, culminating in one day when you either fail or you do it. 

This has been the race I've wanted to do since 2007.  Four years ago I was reading about this Nike Women's Marathon like a pipe dream, wondering if I could ever be able to do a marathon at all, much less being able to keep up a 14 minute per mile pace (my half marathon PR back then was a 15:30 ish minute mile...)  Tomorrow it's going to happen.  It must happen, because it's NWM or die trying!!!

On a less serious note, here's me messing around at the expo XD

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150504755012516.475293.633277515&type=3

T Minus 10 days

My longest run since the broken foot incident is 22 miles, two weeks ago.  Last Saturday when I tried to run 24 miles, I missed a turn at Back Back and ended up running in a not so good neighborhood in Santa Ana.  Being inland, the temperatures being high (for me anyway), and morale low from being lost for about half an hour ended my run at 15.5 miles, when my boyfriend ended up picking me up at a McDonalds (I enjoyed a nice chocolate milk.) 

This is interesting since I have never had this kind of a setback on a long run before.  I don't know if I'm just out of shape since I'm still always erring on the side of safe for my foot, or if it was the cross training I did that shredded my legs and it didn't quite recover in time for the long run, but it's demoralizing a bit.  I know in reality 15.5 miles three weeks out from a marathon is excellent taper, but I wanted to do 24 just to make sure I could really do it.

It's only 10 days from race day. 

I also heard that if you get picked up by the bus you still get the finisher necklace... I don't think I could seriously wear it if I was DNF and still got it.  Some people just really really want to get the necklace, but me, I want to be healthy enough to earn it.  Just finishing Disney was a big deal for me, and I want that feeling again, finishing a marathon, coming back from the broken foot and just be able to think of myself as a whole person again instead of still broken.

22 Mile Long Run

It's three weeks out from the Nike Women's Marathon.  I'm "on schedule" with my modified training program, and my foot is holding up like a dream.  My left shoulder, however, is acting up, and hurts at really random times doing really random things.  Not necessarily a clear case of rotator cuff tear, but really the last thing I needed in training.  The doctor recommended 600 MG of ibuprofen, but I'm unsure about taking that much medication before a long run. 

I'm in the "training zone" Not super excited or super concerned about finishing.  From my longer runs, without major implosions, I should be able to finish ahead of the NWM cutoff pace, even factoring in a 30 minute delay to start.  It really is more than I could have hoped for at this point, so I'm glad.

I do miss running in my vibrams.  My IT band has needed more TLC since I'm running in full on running shoes, but I'm keeping the barefoot form as best as I can even when wearing the big clunkers... though the New Balance/Vibram cross over shoes do look sexy... I might look into getting one of those for after the NWM to train for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon :3

On the road to NWM...

I finished the Disneyland Half Marathon in once piece.  2:20:32.  Much faster than I had anticipated, but boy did I pay for it later in sore knees (both of them) and really sore quads!  It was definitely not a PR by about 10 minutes, but it was my second best time. 

I'm happiest that my foot and the prior knee pain (much worse than the overuse ache I suffered right after the race) did not get worse.  I think at one point in the race it hurt about 2 seconds, but overall I kept my form well, did not push too hard, and both parts stood up to the punishment.  On the cardiovascular front, I was quite under trained, and felt it from about mile 10.  The walk breaks really helped a lot.  My foot was a bit sore after I woke up from a nap later that afternoon, but it was kind of in a different spot and it cleared up in less than a day.

After the race, I took a couple days to recover, and four days later did a light 8 miles around my new neighborhood.  Two days after that I woke up at 4:30AM on a Saturday for a nice 15 or 16 mile run (turned out to be a 16 mile run.)  My gymboss clip broke (so I tucked it in my sports bra, which ended up killing it with humidity), the beach opened later than I thought, and it rained AND hailed on me, but my foot felt a lot better, and no pain afterwards.  I'm really starting to think I can do this marathon.  Granted, the training won't really be the same, and I won't have time to taper.  Due to my lost weeks of training, I'm literally training up to the marathon mileage as a "training run" portion of a normal marathon training program!  Next weekend will be 18-19 miles long run, the following week will be 19-21 miles long run, then 22-24 mile long run the weekend before the race...  since I bombed so badly in my first marathon, I might not be that far off my marathon PR!  Which is exciting since I'll need it to beat the 14 minute (minus losing a minute a mile from the delay in the start) pace at NWM!

Getting really excited about the race now :3

Bib from the Half Marathon!

Finisher medal :3

Testing the Waters @ Disneyland Half

So the podiatrist has released me from care, saying I'm cured.  The physical therapist said I needed more sessions for the knee but did not bother sending the notes to my podiatrist so I'm not quite sure what's going on with that. My last test run was a 10 miler last week where i did okay when I discovered that running slower longer instead of spurts of faster with longer walk breaks works better.

I worried a lot about what pace group to run... the 2 and a half hour or 3 hour... then set my heart on running alone.  No pressure, but also not holding back.

My friend from Canada is also running. She'll be much faster than me and I'm sad that I cannot run with her (her anticipated pace is a little bit faster than my original goal.) but I will be healthy for another race. She already invited me to the Canadian Death Race. With a title like that, who can say no?

Here goes nothing!

Another Setback

It's been a difficult week.  My foot swelled up from too much walking last weekend and I had to take an entire day off to elevate the foot, and yesterday (when I only did 30 minutes of cycling) the entire left leg swelled up about an extra inch.  My knee is still periodically bothering me when I exercise and I'm really afraid I did something bad to it. 

It seems like I'm actually in worse shape now than when I started treatment for the broken foot.  Not I'm not sure if I could even do the half marathon coming up in 5 weeks or the Nike Women's marathon.  I found out you can at least unofficially downgrade to the half marathon, but if something is really wrong with my knee or leg then I might be up the creek with no paddle anyway.

The only thing I can do is cycling, but even that's bothering my knee slightly.  It's hard not to be depressed or to be motivated when the foot/leg/knee keeps going downhill. :(

Heart is Pumping...

Hit the gym after work and noticed I cycle harder when I'm not as sleepy.  I will have to remember this and maybe vary my early AM sessions with PM sessions occasionally.  It was a good workout today.

I flipped through some of the facebook photos from the Nike Women's Marathon 2010 and my heart was pumping pretty hard.  I'm pumped!  I want this so bad but I also want to be able to run healthy. 

I'm transitioning to most of the day in the boot and then the rest of the day in the hiking shoe.  So far so good.  Even cycling in the hiking shoes feel better than in the running shoes.  I think I'm really going to do the race in the hiking shoes.

Should've started training by now...

I went to see the podiatrist again on Thursday.  He was surprised I was in the boot again, but I explained what happened at the street fair.  He took a new set of x-rays and says the bone looks better.  I'm somewhat encouraged.  He said he's all for me taking the boot off now and start walking on it, but I told him I wanted to keep in on for six consecutive weeks since I don't really have time to screw up with the healing again.  He said that was fine, as long as I took a couple of days off the boot before I see him again a three and a half weeks. 

The problem is that the boot has been throwing off my left knee for some reason.  I'm kind of concerned since it was a kind of knee pain I haven't had before.  My original plan was to keep it on another two and a half weeks, but I can't afford to mess up the knee, so I'm going to try transitioning into the walking boots (which the podiatrist liked as a post walker boot idea) right now and just carrying the walker boot around.  I did that yesterday afternoon and so far no pain.  I hope I haven't done something bad to my knee x_x  That is the last thing I need to be happening.

So I would have started my 16 week marathon program two Monday's ago if I were on a non-modified.  Instead I've just been hitting the gym and doing a lot of cycling.  I'm not cardioing hard enough to see significant weight loss, but I see improvements in the conditioning from my weight training.  I'm hoping this carries along to the race itself.

I'm feeling a bit better about the race.  It'll be okay if I don't finish...I'm going to do my best, but it won't be the end of the world.  Feeling less dire about it does make me feel better. 

Off to do another "long run" biking session at the gym!  Good thing no one really likes the recumbent  bikes that much that I can pretty much stay on it as long as I want :3 

Hiking Shoes

I browsed through a forum thread about recovering from foot stress fracture last night, and came across one where a runner said she wore hiking boots after taking the walking boot off to help protect her foot more.  It made a lot of sense, hiking boots have a lot stiffer soles than even running shoes, and would give greater protection for the foot as it recovered.

Then I thought, if the blasted ankle part wasn't covered, I could even run in them.

So I browsed at lunch at "running" "hiking boots" options and came across... hiking shoes.  They're built exactly like boots, except cut off before the ankles, giving my ankle the mobility it needs to run but still all the support at the bottom of the shoe.

After work, I dashed over to REI and picked up a pair of Keen "cross training" boots, the non-waterproof version of their walking boot. 

The bonus is that they're the same height profile as my walking boot, so I can wear it sometimes on the right foot until the left one comes out of the boot. :3

Keep on cycling

Since I can't run, I'm taking this opportunity to cycle on a recumbent bike to work up my cardiovascular fitness, but sitting on that bike is pretty hard, every morning, watching soundless TV at the gym. 

I looked at my training calendar and decided I would keep the boot on another 6 weeks, giving me 1 week to recover and another four and a half weeks to train for a marathon, and 10 and a half weeks to train for the Nike Women's Marathon.  I'm hoping what fitness I can scrape up will let me training for 13 minute ish pace for both races.  I can go and "half ass" a half marathon, but I'm a lot less confident about the marathon.

I motivate myself but doodling on my gym plan.  Previously I've been pretty bad about any gym related plan, since I like running outside instead. 

I can just do my best.

Hypothetically running with walker boot...

First thing in the morning today I hit the gym before work.  Workout started with a 45 minute recumbent bike session, followed by some upper body weight work with a bit of core work.  I was sleepy since I didn't sleep well.  I worked out hard.  I was mad.

I still had no idea why when I did everything right, my foot still didn't heal up the way it was supposed to heal.  I thought I took every precaution, drank milk and ate cheese, but somehow my foot feels like it's in a more dire situation than before I went to see a podiatrist.  Every ache and I was afraid I was breaking it some more.  I suppose before I was diagnosed I could talk myself into toughing it out.  I think I could have, given the opportunity to do a modified training program.  My foot would be broken some more, it would certainly get worse, but I could train on it, blissfully unaware of how bad it really was.  I could walk it off if I only did not know.

I wore the boot onto the gym floor and changed into the running shoe after sitting down at the bike.  As I cycled, I watched some mind numbing infomercial on the TV at 5am in the morning as I dreamed of running on the beach, or on the streets of Anaheim... or even on the treadmill (at least it would be running). 

I showered and went to work, seriously concerned about my ability to run the Disneyland Half Marathon (which was supposed to be my training run en route to the Nike Women's Marathon). 

At 9:30am, I decided I was doing the race, even if I had to wear the boot through the Disneyland Marathon.  I could train with it on as well.  I could get a spare boot online if need be so I can wash one and wear the other one.  Or maybe I need a different type of shoes.  I could certainly hobble at 12-13 minute pace and still comfortably finish both races in a good time.  I thought about there only being six weeks between the Disneyland Half and the Nike Women's Marathon and wondered how I would do a six week marathon plan. 

Later this evening I even tried "jogging" in place with the walker on.  I wasn't sure if the thing would last through an entire half marathon, but it looks pretty sturdy. 

The podiatrist originally sounded pretty optimistic when I told him about the races, but now with the set back, I was afraid to ask if he had an updated opinion.

The Boot is Back...

I get to wear this beauty for another 2 weeks... ugh...

False Start

Right about the time I first started running half marathons in 2007, I stumbled upon the Nike Women's Marathon page. I read all about how the valiant women (and men) who finish the entire marathon (all 26.2 MILES) are presented Tiffany's finisher necklaces by San Francisco Firemen who donned tuxedos.

Firemen. In tuxedos. Handing out Tiffany Necklaces.

WOO HOO!

At the time, I could only run half-marathons at the measly pace of 15:30ish minutes per mile... on a flat course. I would need to run twice that, by at least one and a half minutes faster each mile on rolling hills to hope to become a Nike Women's Marathon finisher.

At the time, I also tipped the scale at nearly 190 pounds, didn't actually train for the half marathon except for shopping for a cute outfit in which to run, and finished each half marathon using mostly sheer belief I could finish since I didn't drop dead at the last half marathon.

One bad relationship later, I decided to get it together and get fit. I ran, lifted, and stair climbed my way to being the fittest I'd ever been. 125 pounds, visible muscles on my arms, and calves I could be proud of! I still hadn't actually done a training program, but because I was running regularly, I was confident that I was going to destroy my PR for the half marathon in the end of Spring, 2010, at the Orange County Half Marathon! I could feel it! My PR at that point was 2:58 and change for the 13.1 miles at the weight of 169 pounds. I could beat that in my sleep now that I weighed nearly 45 pounds less! The goal was to beat my ex-boyfriend's half marathon time of 2:40 (yes, he didn't train either.)

A week before the race, on a casual run, I felt a twinge in my left knee, outside. I thought it would go away after I warm up, but every steady mile it go worse, and worse... by mile 5 I was walking, tears clouding my eyes because of the pain and anger that I managed to hurt myself one freaking week before my cathartic half marathon where I would leave my ex-boyfriend's time in the dust. Would I even be able to finish the race?
I rested the entire week, did not exercise at all except to use my arms to massage my knee into submission.

The race started okay. A coworker and friend Sandy ran the first part of the race close by with the 2:15 pace group. We wanted to finish around 2:15 and we knew it was within both of our reach, having ran a 12 miler together previously at around the right pace. Things started to go wrong for me early on. Mile one I tripped on uneven gravel and met asphalt. Luckily my sturdy Garmin watch took the brunt of the blow and kept on ticking as the runner behind me helped me up. Luck only held up until mile 3, when my knee (later I found out it was my IT band) made me slow down, stop, walk, limp around for awhile. A racer stopped his run to hand me a packet of salt, thinking I was suffering from electrolyte imbalance. My pace slowed and now I was not so sure I could even beat my old time.

Then I remembered a different coworker finished a race sideways to avoid bending her bad knee. I limped/jogged miles 4-10 already. I really had nothing to lose... so I finished the race sideways, running the last 3 miles at near the pace I wanted. I finished 2:36. Good enough...

But this race set me back an entire two months. For two months the IT band would not let me run, reminding me that I abused it at the last half marathon. I had to settle for cross training for two months, looking at the calendar nervously since the drop dead date to start training for the 2010 Long Beach Marathon was the last week of June. I took a friend's advice and purchased some new shoes to help prevent the recurrence the IT band problem.

July 2010, I started the marathon training program. Two months on I did the 2010 Disneyland Half Marathon, smashing my PR with a 2:11, a 10 minute per mile pace. I kept on the training and made it to the 2010 Long Beach Marathon, where my running "career" derailed on a chance meeting with a rock at mile 16. I was not paying attention, and stepped on a rock as we went down one of the drives through the Long Beach State University, tweaked my ankle in a strange way. It sort of hurt, but it wasn't the end of the universe. I slowed down noticeably from my 10:30 run/walk pace to closer to 11:30. I wanted to finish, and short of not even being able to crawl, I was going to finish. I finished the race, at 4:48:36 (Good enough to finish NWM!), but much like with the Orange County Half Marathon, there was a price to pay.

Since the marathon in October 2010, I could not run without pain. I rested, got better, ran, got worse, felt bad. The cycle continued. There was even a half marathon in February of 2011 where I paced my friend to her first finish, but the pain was always there. After the pain returned full force the third week of training for the 2011 Orange County Half Marathon, I finally saw a podiatrist in April. He suspected a cuboid fracture and suggested an MRI.

Meanwhile, I entered the lottery for the 2011 Nike Women's Marathon, hoping my foot wasn't really terribly injured. Last week of April I found out I won a slot in the lottery for the Nike Women's Marathon 2011. I was ecstatic! Now to see about the foot...

MRI came back in May. Diagnosis: Cuboid fracture. I'd been bloody walking around on a broken foot (but doctor, it didn't hurt that bad! How could it be broken?!) for SIX months. Solution: Walking Boot 4 weeks. I asked the doctor about the NWM in October, he told me that's plenty of time. I nervously mentioned the training would start in end of June, he said it would be fine.

So for 4 weeks I did nothing. Waiting for my foot to catch up with the rest of me and be healed already. Come on, foot! Boot came off after 4 weeks and I was getting different sensations in my foot. Still sometimes cold, and still sometimes hurts...

I went back to the doctor after 2 weeks post boot and it did not look good. He's worried I'm still getting pains, no matter how infrequent. Insisted no fitness walking for three weeks when he will check up on me. He said if things did not go well, it's back in the boot I go. As things were, my first two weeks of marathon training for the Nike Women's Marathon is already scratched. I could recumbent bike, maybe 10 minutes of elliptical machine, and water run if I bought some special padded "reef shoes".

I went to the beach where I used to run during my marathon training and sat down to stare at the ocean for awhile. Then wandered around a street fair for a bit when I realized my foot was hurting worse. I was careless, stupid, and over exerted it. Did I break it some more? What should I do?  I limped back to my car.

I went and bought some reef shoes, went home, and put my boot back on. I decided it would stay on for another two weeks. Meanwhile, I would keep exercising on the recumbent bike to keep the calf relatively fit. I would take the boot off 1 week before I saw the doctor next.

This is quite the false start to my marathon training... but I was going to make it to Nike Women's Marathon or die trying!