Arpil 17th: Fatigue and Twin Cities

Wow, coming back from a 3 month layoff from a hip injury has been quite interesting. While it’s been frustrating at times, it’s probably good to take a step back and look at what’s happened:

End of June: Hip pain really began to affect my running.

June-September: Had a few good workouts, missed a lot of workouts, raced 3 relays and 3 half marathons with very mixed results.

Oct 2^nd: Ran Twin Cities Marathon which was followed by not being able to walk a week later due to a fractured sacrum.

Oct-Jan: 3 months of primarily pool workouts. Was up to 12 hours of cross training per week in the pool with some biking mixed in. I was feeling pretty burnt out.

Feb: Transitioned back into running

March: By the end of March, I was running 100 mile weeks

Now: Racing like junk and not able to complete workouts.

            I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out what went wrong, why it went wrong, and why everything is still going wrong. Being as competitive as I am, it’s hard to resist doing more work when running is not shaping out the way you want it. However, when things are going poorly, sometimes it’s best to step back and look at the situation. A few weeks back, I ran 20 miles at 5:38 pace so I can’t be completely out of shape and I really think that my body is just fatigued at this point. As a result, I didn’t run any workouts this week and only ran 68.5 miles with a day off. Honestly, it felt great and I have no regrets. I think I’m going to resume training at 85-90 mpw and see where the season takes me. As I often say, last spring I ran a 15:30ish 5k on tired legs and ran 30:28 for 10k a couple weeks later. This past fall I ran a 1:10+change for a half marathon and then ran a 2:20:50 a few weeks later. As evident by 20 mile long run at 5:38 pace, my aerobic fitness is pretty high and I really just need to sharpen up. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do leading up to the Indy half marathon, but hopefully I’ll get things figured out by then.

            In other more exciting news, I received a job offer from 3M and will be moving to the Twin Cities area sometime this summer. Lansing has been a great area that has rejuvenated my running for the past few years and I am really grateful to everyone that has been involved in my life here. Events such as the Great Lakes Relay (still don’t know our team name…I think it’s something Latin…Ask Ken) and the Playmakers store/owners/training partners/coach and various members of the running community have helped me maintain a healthier lifestyle and countless great memories. I’ll definitely look forward to the trips back to Michigan. However, I am really excited to be a little closer to family and really look forward getting to once again attend all of the family events. It’s crazy how things work out, but 9 years of school later, it somehow did. It’s going to be a couple hectic months coming up, but I’m really looking forward to the transition for the next phase of life.

Shamrock Shuffle 8k Recap

            The Shamrock Shuffle 8k started out absolutely perfectly. It’s was about 70 degrees outside which is in complete contrast to the last 2 races where it was in the upper 30’s maybe lower 40’s. After a down week, my legs felt great, recovered, and I thought ready to race. We started the race out with a decent wind at our back, and I breezed through the first mile smooth as can be in 4:50 which probably put me somewhere around 15^th to maybe 20^th place. My stride felt great and I thought I was well on my way to having a good race. We turned the corner shortly after the mile split, and that’s where things started to go wrong. As you’ve probably read in my past blogs, I am really having a problem with over-striding. I think I hit 5:00ish, maybe 5:02 (I don’t remember) for the 2^nd mile. I split 15:39 for 5k (pretty much an identical split to the Meteor 10k) and was slowly fading back through the field. It was really hard to stay mentally in it when my stride felt as awful as it did, and I wasn’t racing up to my standards. On the positive side, I did fight, but with every surge and move that I tried to make, my legs just locked up. I remember seeing a 5:13 mile split on my watch, and really couldn’t fathom how I couldn’t run any faster since I can get down to that pace on training runs, but my stride just wasn’t in sync. The Shamrock Shuffle was a team race and I was a scoring runner so I really did push through to the finish. I ended up running a very disappointing 25:32, and I believe I was 32^nd overall. Our team ended up in 4^th place, and we were 22 seconds out of 2^nd (the race was scored based upon net time). Needless to say, I didn’t feel great about the fact that I cost our team $1,000 and a second place finish, but at the same time, had I not run, we probably would have taken 5^th place.

            On the positive side, the forefoot on my left foot is sore which probably indicates that I am striking correctly with my left leg while my right heel is pretty sore which is indicative of over-striding with my right leg. It’s at least encouraging that I know precisely what I’m doing wrong. If I can retrain my right leg to run efficiently, I think I am aerobically fit and things will eventually fall into place. I guess that’s what training is for.

Meteor 10k Recap

            I really don’t know what to take away from today’s race. While I didn’t push my body to the edge today, I did put out an honest effort and my time doesn’t reflect it. On the first note, the Meteor 10k is a great race with a flat and fast route. I highly recommend this race to anyone that’s looking to run a fast 10k on the road. My 10k PR is from this course last year where I ran a 30:28. I’m actually not sure what I ran today. After crossing the line, without thinking I hit stop and cleared the watch. I saw the finishing line clock coming in and I think I might’ve been a smidge over 31:30, but that’s completely a guess. I went out with the lead group and came through the first mile in 4:59, but I really don’t have the mental edge just yet, and I let the group slowly pull away. I’m not saying that I should have held on to the leaders and been with them to the finish, but I do think that I should’ve held on for a bit longer to give myself a chance of having a better race, but that’s part of racing. I came through the 5k in 15:40ish and was a bit discouraged, but I thought that I might still have a chance to make a charge to put myself in the top 5 since I negative split the race the prior year and actually wasn’t through 5k that much slower. Unfortunately, that charge never came; in the last 2 races and last few workouts, I’m really just landing with my foot out too far in front of me and my stride just hasn’t been efficient. I think the 2 contributing factors to this were the fall I took 3.5 weeks ago on an easy a.m. run where I think I fractured my knee cap (I still can’t kneel on it) and the speed work from last week that tore up my calves. I understand that setbacks are typical with running and tearing up my calf muscles are part of building them up for better performances in the future, but the competitive side of me can’t help but wonder exactly what’s going on right now. So the question that I’m trying to figure out am I (a) not fit (b) tired from the miles that I’m running (c) really just in my building phase since I’m coming off of a fractured hip and lack the winter running (d) just not race sharp yet (e) stressed out. In my opinion, it’s probably a little of column (b), (c), (d), and maybe even some of (a) and (e). I keep trying to compare myself to last spring and I do get excited when I run a workout that matches or is faster than what I ran this time last year. However, I’m not consistent with my workouts and my mileage is the highest it’s been since college (100 mile weeks) despite the fact that I’m coming off of a three month layoff from running. No matter how hard I cross trained, cross training isn’t quite the same as running. It helps, but it takes a little while to get the running shape back as my current weight indicates (142-143 compared to 135-138 last fall). I think today was a good little wakeup call to reality. I wasn’t even close to my PR; however, I do need to keep the big picture in mind and to achieve my goals. I do have to weather the lumps along the way. It’s easy to train when everything is going perfectly, as it really has the last couple years, but I realize that I’m going to have to take a few more licks along the way so I can hopefully slap reality back in the face. So while I have every reason to be a little discouraged right now, I’m hoping to weather this, keep the mileage up, and hopefully get the legs back before too long. I have a down week scheduled for the up and coming week; with a little good fortune, maybe the Shamrock Shuffle can be a step in the right direction. I’ve actually been able to sleep well at night lately, so I’m definitely tired from the mileage. I think it’s just a matter of waiting for my body to adjust.

On other notes, if you ever get a chance to watch "professional wrestling" in the front row, do it. It was an absolute blast and Hillarious at times. I even got high 5's from Ray Mysterio and Christian!!! Seriously, though, it was a ton of fun. Props to Stuber on that one. Also, people should vote on what type of cushioning they prefer. I'm somewhat curious whether or not my perception of what people like is completely wrong or not.