On The Mend

Many of you read in my race report that my knee was solid, without tightening, for the entire 13.1 miles – a great and unexpected change as my 11 mile long run 2 weeks prior still had my knee barking by Mile 6. So what happened? The passage of time with a lot of patience, faith and determination.

I now understand that there is a physiological reason why PT is typically prescribed for a minimum of 6 weeks – it takes at least that long to create lasting and noticeable change in the body IF you’re diligent about doing the work. Last week Thursday I saw my PT, Mary, for the third time following a month away while dutifully completing my exercises everyday and working on triple extensions in personal training with Aaron twice a week as well. Mary conducted another videoed gait analysis. As we watched the slow mo version of myself 6 weeks ago compared to the present, there were noticeable improvements:

1)      6 weeks ago, I had some vertical bounce (undesirable, it uses extra energy), now it’s gone

2)      6 weeks ago, my left leg did not fully extend behind me, now my leg is straight

3)      6 weeks ago, my heel strike (not a bad thing, ~80% of runners are heel strikers) was more pronounced, as evidenced by a longer stride length. Now my stride has shortened, which means I’m landing less harshly on my heel. A shorter stride is important as it places your landing feet beneath your hips, which is where they should be, rather than out in front of your body.

4)      6 weeks ago, I had a strong left heel whip, now it’s greatly reduced, though still present. A heel whip means I’m turning my foot out to the side and whipping it around before straightening it upon landing. This is happening because my hip needs to be stronger so it can drive my knee up and forward – the heel whip is my body using my foot to pull that knee up. This is the only piece of my gait that needs further work, and to that end, Mary has prescribed a new exercise.

The beauty of PT is that you create lasting changes without knowing it. That’s also the downfall of PT and why so many people don’t stick with it. Discouragement can become overwhelming when you don’t see changes as quickly as you expect, so you lose faith in the process, talk yourself into it being a waste of time, quit your PT and never get your issue fully resolved. Fortunately I have that OCD quality that does not let me give up and the work I put into getting better paid off on race day. A perfect reward.

Mary has given me the green light to start speed work and trail running again. The speed work will start after my 2-week post-race recovery period ends, but the trail running will resume this weekend – Minooka Park! I had a follow-up with Dr. Noon at Nine today (Joe says it’s plain old wrong to see her at any other time expect for Noon J) and she concurred with Mary’s assessment, was impressed with my progress and approved on-going PT for as long as Mary deems necessary.

I forget if I shared that Joe saw Dr. Noon last week and was diagnosed with IT Band Syndrome as well. He will begin his own hip-strengthening PT soon – just as his arms/shoulders are improving, his attention will now turn to the knee/hip complex. Always something to work on!

For the next 6 weeks we’ll scale back our training, maybe hitting 20 miles per week with weekend long runs of 5-8 miles. Then we’ll start to ramp up for our September 10k and our late-October Half Marathon.

New Life

In the spot where our mighty Basswood stood, a huge lumpy depression of soil remained as a sad reminder of what we'd lost. Our arborist was able to grind up the roots about 2 feet into the earth, but still, we would never be able to plant a new tree in that exact spot, as the deeper root system is there. So, what to do with that sunken dirt pile? We happened to be driving past Home Depot where a sign advertising 50% off shrubs and trees pulled us in. With no particular plan in mind we studied the tags on various flora, looking for things that could take hours of direct sunlight, until a vision developed. For $108 we came home with 5 new plants to fill the Basswood void. Here's what we have.

Top left corner: Purple Ninebark. This is a hearty bush that grows to 8' tall and up to 6' wide. It has purple leaves and purple bark and will offer bunches of white flowers throughout the year. It is impervious to disease and a home to birds.

Top right corner: Dwarf Alberta Spruce. "Berta", as we will call this spruce, will grow to a mature height of 8' tall and a width of 3'.

Center: Dwarf Mugo Pine. Handsome "Mugo", a cousin to the high altitude European Mugo Pine Trees, will top out at 4' high and 4' wide.

Bottom left & right corners: Juniper. Another hearty plant, the juniper will reach 1-2' in height, and spread about 6' along the ground.

Rock-n-Sole: Take II

What a difference one year and new event organizers can make. Last year we ran in the Inaugural Summerfest Rock-n-Sole 10k & Half Marathon with now infamous results. The highly touted new race would take runners over the Hoan Bridge and along the beautiful lake shore, so everyone signed up, even elite Kenyan athletes came out, and then disaster struck. It was 85° at 8:00a.m. with tropical dew points. The shadeless Hoan Bridge (covering at least 5 miles) ran out of water for runners (luckily Joe & I had our Camelbak's), and people began to collapse. Summerfest organizers were in the dog house.

Under new management and with much better weather, this year's race was a delight. It was super well organized, with no threat of ever running out of water or Gatorade. There was music on the course (absent last year) and there were plentiful aide stations, misting stations, ice stations, and medical help available tthroughout the course.

The 2012 Rock-n-Sole, hosting half marathon, 10k & 5k distances this year, was sold out at 7400 participants from 41 states and 5 countries, yet it never felt like an unmanageable or cramped race. Me, Joe, and my friend's Rosanna and Ellen registered early in the year for the half marathon. We were assigned starting corrals based on our estimated finishing time (a number you give when you register for the race). The Corrals were lettered A-K, with the elite and fastest runners designated to corral's A & B. Joe was in Corral B! To be admitted to this corral he had to submit race results documenting his fastest race of 2011. The rest of us slugs, were about a block back from him in Corral's H (Rosanna), I (me) and K (Ellen).


Joe & Me - Another Successful Race



This race would be my 9th half marathon, Joe's 8th, (our third half marathon run in the past 4 months), my 30th competitive race, and hopefully my first race of the year without complicating knee issues. This would be Rosanna's last half marathon for some time, as she has decided to focus on shorter distances since she doesn't have time to get long runs in on the weekends, and for Ellen, this would be her first half marathon - a warm-up for her Disney Half Marathon in September. Joe, who'd just seen Dr. Noon earlier in the week and was given the same diagnosis as me - IT Band Syndrome - hoped to finish the race without having to walk due to knee problems. Rosanna, recently battling painful shin splints, bought compression socks the day before with hopes of making it to the end, and Ellen, dealing with painful plantar fasciitis for the past 6 months, hoped her heel would hold up and let her finish in under 3 hours.



Joe, Me, Rosanna, Ellen - Just before the fog
The bridge doesn't look quite as difficult from the ground!

On the road by 5:15a.m., the four of us carpooled to the lakefront in sunlight, soon to be replaced by dense fog. The Hoan Bridge, clearly visible in this picture would be obscured 30 minutes later by the fog, fog that would eventually burn off into sunny mid-70's weather - weather that is great for sitting and doing nothing, but that makes for a rather hot run.

The course begins at the bottom of the 794 on ramp, and leads you gradually uphill forever, until you hit the apex of the Hoan Bridge, then down the other side you go, exiting on Carferry Dr., only to reenter 794 heading north, taxing your legs and lungs as you once again run up the Hoan Bridge. By the time you get off the Hoan, onto Lincoln Memorial Drive, you've only gone about 5 miles, but are more mentally and physically fatigued then expected. Then you fool yourself into thinking the next 8 miles will be flat along the lake, but before long the scenic route leads you up Lafayette Hill to Wahl St., and then meanders through Lake Park to Kenwood Ave. (always with a slight uphill grade), before spitting you out along the lake for the final 5 miles to the finish line.   



Our cool medal is a spinner



In my training runs, I couldn't get beyond 6 miles before my knee started hurting and uphills were a problem. Yesterday I tackled the hills and by Mile 6 my knee felt good. At Mile 7, still okay. At Mile 8, I caught up with Rosanna, and my knee was humming along. Mile 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13? All good! My knee never tightened, BUT in the final two miles, I started having strange rolling cramps up my right calf, which necessitated many brief walking breaks, which ultimately detracted from my finishing time. I finished in 2:26 - not a great time, not a terrible time, but a rewarding finish for me because my knee was finally good and because I got to cross the finish line with Rosanna (with her shin okay!). Joe finished in 1:41 (with his knee okay!), and Ellen in 2:53 (with her heel okay!.)

Running the Numbers

There’s a huge study out right now (of over 52,000 people) that states, “We can say with certainty that regular running increases longevity.”  Researchers studied health records from 1971-2002 of adults who’d undergone physicals (and follow up questionnaires) as part of the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study at the Cooper Institute in Dallas, and found that runners have a 19% lower risk of dying from any cause than non-runners. The study goes on to say that moderate running is the absolute best. They define "moderate" as running 1-20 miles per week at a 10-11 minute per mile pace. I fit the profile perfectly and should now live forever J

I’m in taper mode this week and loving it. I expect to feel well-rested by race day as I scale back my running, weight training and extracurricular fitness activities. Some of you know I superstitiously look to my racing bib number to give me an edge – if my favorite numbers, 3 and 8, are on my bib, or if the numbers of my bib can be added up to or reduced down to a special number, then things feel auspicious and I believe I will race well. I won’t know my bib number until Friday, but in crunching the numbers of my running journal, I’m already feeling positive about my prospects Saturday because as I cross the finish line I will hit my 500^th mile of the year! Another portentous sign is that the Rock-n-Sole Half Marathon will be my 30^th competitive race – my 9^th half marathon.

How is it that I was not a runner until 2008? If I could do anything over in life, I would go back in time and provide my 14-year old self with the interest, determination and confidence to join cross-country  … it’s fun to think of how that would have altered my life, but picking up running at 37 is better late than never.  

Threat Level Midnight

Every summer my work has an 8-week summer fitness challenge wherein teams of 5-6 employees work to accumulate as many exercise minutes each week as possible to become the overall winner - the reward? Bragging rights. Usually teams are comprised of co-workers within the same unit, but it doesn't have to be this way. After several years of joining my immediate co-workers in this challenge, and feeling frustrated by their lack of activity and competitiveness, I jumped ship this year to join my marathoning friend from a different unit, who has lead the winning team two years running. Teams need names, and thus, we are Threat Level Midnight - a name belying our stealth exercise maneuvers! The challenge began a little over a week ago, releasing fun trash talk and plots for pyschological warfare. My team of 6 hardcore badass fitness freaks racked up the numbers last week. Jaime, our team captain, topped the charts with 1400 minutes (23 hours), followed by yours truly with 1265 minutes (21 hours) - working out becomes a part-time job! No one on our team had less than 850 minutes, and yet we weren't the highest scoring team for the week. Who was? Team Rx (Radical Exercisers) comprised of the very co-workers I left behind. No, this is not poetic justice. This is a scam, I tell you! They recruited Tim, a co-worker who is also a pro-golfer, playing/teaching a game of golf every night after work. A game may take up to 4 hours, but I contend it should not count as exercise. The County instituted guidelines that require exercise to be of a heart raising or strength building nature. I can't imagine that Tim's heart rate or muscles are being taxed as he ambles from hole to hole. Just sayin'. So, Team Threat Level Midnight is going undercover. We are finding ways to walk wherever we go, opportunities to do some leg lifts at the copy machine, push-up on a bathroom counter, etc., and next week we will start dropping psychological bombs to weaken the competition. Mwoo Ha-Ha!

I fear I may not contribute enough minutes next week as I will need to take it easy in my taper mode for the Rock-n-Sole 1/2 Marathon. Last weekend that 11-miler went better than the previous 10-miler. My knee began to tighten around Mile 6 (as opposed to Mile 2), but responded well to stretch breaks, and I ended with a better overall pace (still way slower than normal, mind you). This week my knee was good for every run, including hills, but I didn't run more than 4 miles in one jaunt.

Tomorrow is a 6-mile long run, which I hope to complete before any knee tweaking occurs. I saw Angie Man Hands mid-week and she felt my knee and surrounding areas were much looser and freely moving - more confirmation that PT is helping. I will see my PT next week two days before the race. It'll be the 6-week mark for me since beginning PT and I'm eager to see what my before and after gait analysis reveals. Joe will see Dr. Noon about his knee next week. And since Joe and I are always so similar, it will be no surprise to you that just as I saw Dr. Noon at noon the Tuesday before the Wisconsin Cheesy Half Marathon, Joe will see Dr. Noon at noon on the Tuesday before the Summerfest Rock-n-Sole Half Marathon. Two peas in a pod we are!

Where Have I Been?

I've been asked where the blog updates are - Where have I been? What's going on? My absence has been a case of no news is no news (deep, eh?). And I guess life is good when there is nothing of interest to report. We all have these pleasant lulls where we do what we need to do each day to make the world go round, complacently enjoying our safe and mundane existence. These times may feel dull or boring to some, but I think the longer you live the more you value them because they sustain your energy for those times when everything conspires against you, creating upheaval, unwanted change and stress. The only thing you can count on in life is change, so you know those challenging times will come again, and it seems when mine come, I blog a whole lot more.

I do have a little something-something I can share. This week there seems to be a shift for the better with my tweaky knee. And let me tell you, this shift is greatly needed to bolster my spirits. I was feeling good a couple weeks ago after I received my "star pupil" designation from my PT, but after a demoralizing 10-miler last weekend, wherein my knee was bad by Mile 2, necessitating lots of stops to stretch, resulting in an overall pace that was nearly as slow as my beginning running times 5 years ago, I despaired whether or not my knee would ever really get better. 

Monday I ran 3 miles without an issue. Tuesday I ran 5 miles with no tweakiness. Wednesday, my 3-miler with Rosanna that always has my knee screaming by Mile 2, was seamless, and that included a long gradual hill, which normally decimates my knee. And then today, I ran 3 miles with no hint of tightening either. I am keeping any real pleasure or excitement about this in check as I don't want to get my hopes up for my 11-miler tomorrow - if I go into it anticipating my knee is all better, I'll be crushed if/when it flares up. Instead of thinking about how my knee will perform, I'm focusing on how awful it's going to be to run in the heat. There has been no time for our bodies to adjust and tomorrow will be brutal - many breaks to stay healthy will be needed. Last year, two weeks before the Summerfest Rock-n-Sole race, I experienced heat exhaustion during a long run and it was scary. I don't intend to repeat that tomorrow - two weeks before our half marathon. Joe's knee continues to be problematic as well. He is now scheduled to see my doc, Dr. Noon, next Tuesday. Fortunately, I can report his bicpital tendinitis is improving.

This week we said goodbye to the basswood. This view of the inside of the trunk made us feel better about our decision to take her down - you can see how soft, wet and rotten the core was (in some places we could stick a car key into the squishy wood). The vacant spot on the lawn isn't as harsh as expected - our neighbor has a large pine tree that we could never see before and there is a large curbside tree that is visible now as well. A surplus of mulch will help blanket the base of our pine trees.

I could extend this blog by detailing my disappointment over Scott Walker's win and expound on why I think he will be devastating to Wisconsin, but alas and alack, this is not a political blog and out of respect for my conservative readers, I'll leave my declaration of disappointment as my only comment.