My Aching Body

I've had a rough 2012 running wise.

The IT issues, hip pain, and lower back pain that I have been fighting lately has been discouraging.  I have been quiet about it because I didn't want to admit how worried I have been.  I didn't have health insurance for two months, so I couldn't go see a doctor about the issues.  I could have afforded the initial visit, but if the doctor wanted any tests done to take a peek inside, I would not have been able to afford that.  Then I would have to live with the knowledge that something is wrong in my leg and that the doctor wants a peek.  I couldn't handle it.

I ended up paying to see a chiropractor and paying out of pocket.  My rationale was that a chiropractor would more than likely be physically active himself and well-versed in all the ways that a runner like me can screw up my body.  The chiropractor did his work by moving my body is strange pretzelesque ways.  When he could not elicit pain with certain movement, he declared me probably stress fracture free and probably piriformis syndrome free. Since I couldn't afford x-rays, I decided to trust the nice running chiropractor.  The man declared that runners batter their lower back with the repeated movement.  This is was the first time that I heard this one.  Usually the cry is "You'll destroy your knees!"  Guess what. My knees are awesome.  This may have been standard chiro back adjustment promotion.  Whatever. The heated massage thing convinced me that it wasn't all that bad. He also declared that I have falling arches and gave me shoe inserts, which I have been using since he gave them to me.  He also badmouthed my professional ballet flats as bad for me, but conceded that at least I am not wearing heels.

Three weeks later, the aches and pains are nearly gone.  Fourteen miles today and not issues other than the standard aches and pains that happens when one runs for 14 miles.  In fact this week, my weekly mileage hit a new high for this year.

It's been a bad year.

But I am hopeful that things are turning around.  I'm getting older.  This means more icing and stretching.  This means more responsibility.

On Tuesday, I was slammed with work.  I believe that I stopped working at 11:15 pm that night.  I had to skip my training run.  I was very close to calling off the marathon in December.  Then on Wednesday, I was determined to run my seven miles if only to decompress from all the work that I have been doing.  After hitting the zen mode in that run, I decided that I probably could handle the marathon training after all.

And I did.  This week I ran Wednesday-Sunday.  Every damn day.

And I am ready to do it again next week.  Nearly every damn day.  Rest is, after all, an important part of training.

Let's Hope It's All in My Mind

I'm wondering something.

My right IT band and hip have been bothering me off and on.  I know that it bothered me back in June because I got a sports massage on June 15.  But I don't know how long it has bothered me exactly.  I'm quite bad at keeping details in my training log.

I'm wondering if I did the right thing by not logging the details.

I'm wondering if some of this pain/discomfort is only in my mind.

• I can have runs without any notice of pain or discomfort.  That was today. 
• I can have runs with some pain and discomfort.  That was Sunday.  
• I can have runs in which the twinge appears quickly.  That was Sunday.  It took about two miles to appear. 
• I can have runs in which the twinge takes longer to appear.  That was the SF Half.  It took nearly 8 miles for it to appear.  

I can't figure out its modus operandi.

Right now it feels vaguely achey.  This nebulous vague ache makes me believe that my mind is to blame.  I can't pinpoint where in my right thigh the pain exactly is.  It feels everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

I'll return to work in one week.  With that return, I'll be the new girl for the first time in 11 years. There is a bit of anxiety wrapped up in being the new girl.  I think that anxiety may be manifesting itself with this vague ache.  When I was a little girl, I would have leg aches the day before traveling.  It never failed.

My worry tends to live in my legs.

I'm hoping that with the distraction of work the pain/discomfort will disappear.  I'm rolling and stretching and icing, too!  I have two races coming up:  Big Sur Half Marathon in November and California International Marathon in December.  I want to run better than I did in those same races in 2011.

I need to get healthy.  I need to NOT worry.

2012 San Francisco Marathon: 2nd Half Marathon Race Report

Background:  My training for this tanked.

When I started training, I was employed at one place with no plans to leave.  Then one of those once-in-a-lifetime job opportunities popped up.  I applied and interviewed for the job.  That was stressful.  I got the job offer, and then had to resign from my other job of eleven years.  That was also stressful.

Then as soon as the oppressive summer heat hits, I started feeling this very persistent pain and discomfort in my right IT band.  I initially thought it was my shoes.  New shoes seemed to do the trick.  Then the pain would return.  Sometimes at mile 4.  Sometimes at mile 5.  It was unpredictable.

I rolled, and I rolled, and I rolled.  I screamed through the rolling.  My IT band has issues.

Then I vacationed for a week in Washington, DC.  Because of my IT band issues, I decided to NOT run in DC.  Wise move considering that running in the DC humidity and heat would have really destroyed me.

The week off seemed to help.  I continued rolling.  And stretching.  And stretching.  The pain and discomfort seemed to be absent from many of my runs.  My last eight miler featured NO problems.

Because of the injury and the stress, I skipped a few runs here and there. Or I made them easier.

It wasn't the best training cycle that I have done.  Therefore, my goal was to finish.

Yes.  Just to finish.

I knew that I didn't have a PR in me.  I didn't train to PR.  I trained to maintain my running in the summer so that when marathon training starts, I'm ready.  Plus, I wanted to baby the IT band.

Alarm Failure:  Oh my goodness.  My alarm went off, but I didn't hear it because the ringer was turned down.  Stupid smart phone user.

I woke up 37 minutes before I had to catch the bus to the start.

It was a little stressful.

But I made it.

The Race:  I didn't find the start area for the second half marathon to be particularly well-organized.  I couldn't hear the announcer.  The announcer didn't repeat anything.

This meant that I didn't start with my wave.  Oops.

Whatever.  I hurt no one.

The first six miles of the second half marathon is in the Golden Gate Park.  Slight hills.  Repeated often.  I knew that the park featured the most uphill portions.  I wanted to make sure that I didn't go out too hard.  I actually kept telling myself to take it easy and run my own race.  I even thought, "This isn't a race."  I really didn't want to hurt myself.  I was clearly mentally out of the race.

The park dragged.  I really wasn't enjoying myself that much.  I was so glad to get out of the park and onto Haight Street.  A bicyclist trailing a sound system provided the right music to make the race fun.

Then some painful downhill.  I don't like running downhill on steep grades.  Scary and it hurts.  But I survived.

And then around mile 7.5, the familiar IT band discomfort popped up.  Then disappeared.  Then reappeared.  It wasn't persistent, nor was it particularly strong.  But it was enough to disappoint and discourage me.

I finished with a time of 2:25:24.  Better than I expected, honestly.  Maybe better than I deserved.  It was actually my fastest half time for a race in San Francisco.

Because I have now ran both halves of the entire San Francisco Marathon, I got a fancy Half It All Medal.  It spins.

Afterward:  Strangely, this bad performance is motivating.  I felt like this was my worse race, but it wasn't my worst time.  I wonder how I could have done had I actually been able to train well.  I feel strangely compelled to do more hill work in my training.

But I know that I need to work on that IT band first.

And I'm a believer.

I have been suffering some minor pains here and there when I run farther than say four or five miles. The side of my right hip and my left plantar fasciia are my current nemeses. KT tape works on the foot, but the hip has been a little more troublesome. I finally broke down and bought a foam roller about two weeks ago. I have been using it to release my IT band. It hurt so much at first (like screamy hurt), but it works! I haven't had that side of my hip flare up AND I have been running faster without an increase in perceived effort. Why did I wait so long? In other news, I think this means I should schedule a massage in my near future.

Cross-Training: Rock Climbing

I've tried resistance training with little success in sticking to the program. Doing reps for the sake of doing reps was never enough motivation for me. It was all very abstract.

At least with running, I cover a concrete distance.

This is partially one reason why I loved rock climbing. Resistance training and covering a concrete distance! Progress is palpable! And like running you can sort of get in a zone and not realize how much you have ascended until you pause to look down/look back.

Here I am ascending a climb called Bake Sale; it earned this name because the rock just bakes in the sunshine and burns up your hands. I happened to take my rock climbing class on a Yosemite day that reached temps in the 90s. This is the sort of day most recreational rock climbers won't climb because the rock heats up to uncomfortable levels.

As rock climbing was new to me, I encountered struggles. As a runner, I should be no stranger to this. My instructor in trying to comfort me told me that climbing is like a hybrid of ballet and chess.

I'm comfortable with the idea of being a ballerina. I was even an adorable ballerina one Halloween in elementary school. But I lack the patience to be a decent chess player. I had to slow down and read the rock.

That is probably a metaphor for a lot in my life.

As a bonus: I aggravated/reinjured (maybe) my calf strain in my left calf. This does not dissuade me from future climbing opportunities!

Injury: Tackled? Perhaps. I hope so.

How to Tackle Grade 1 Calf Strains*:

First you must be a master at Google search phrases to land on a diagnosis. Patience is key here, but since you need to rest anyway you can rest your injury while embarking on a diagnosis.

Then you have to ice as much as safely possible. Make sure that you have something in between the ice pack and the skin. See photo above where I use the ugliest of soccer socks for this purpose. Failure to put something between the ice and the skin could result in frostnip and ice burn. That is scary to see. You'll think you killed your skin. Literally. (Don't ask me how I know this. ::whistles innocently::)

You should also compress those calves. This is my first foray into compression, and I have to say that I am in LOVE. My husband hit up our lame little Big 5 looking for something for my calves and brought home two McDavid Calf Compression Sleeves. Made of neoprene, this bad boys are TOUGH to get on. Truth be told, I developed a bit of a complex because I sized in at a medium sleeve and it was super tough to get on. I'm a woman; what the hell size does a man wear for crying out loud?!?! Even though I got stuck in the whole pathetic "my-calves-are-huge-too-huge-I'm-not dainty" refrain for a bit, my mind quieted because those things WORK. I work them for three hour stretches at a time, and I could tell a difference.

(Now I must interrupt here, and write a few words about the differences between correlation and causation. They aren't the same. Did the compression cure me? Maybe. Did time cure me? Maybe. Did icing and rest cure me? Maybe. Was it the whole combo? Most likely. But I can't help but look at those compression sleeves with a sense of wonder. Squeezy squeezy helps. I think. I hope. I think I want a pair for running. A purple pair. I can't run in neoprene.)

Look ahead to the future. I can't wear the compression sleeves to work. I can't ice at work. So I thought I would try KT tape (which I purchased in BRIGHT PINK**) on the left calf. The one that hurts more. My right one is nearly back in business. Most right strides I can hardly notice there was a problem, but I still am limping with my left strides.

Using the website's videos, my husband who probably never realized that a vow to be there in sickness and health meant that he would have to learn how to handle injury like a physical therapist, taped my calf last night to help me through the walking that I cannot avoid today. We used a ball point pen to mark on my calf the site of the pain. He taped around it in the way that the video suggested. Tape is still on after a night of sleeping. No rolling at all. We'll see how well it helps today.

I think the pink tape suits me. I hope so. I have to go out in public.

Last. Writing about the injury seems to have helped. Yay, for superstition.

____________

*My own diagnosis. I *do* have a degree in American Literature and Culture for heaven's sake.

**After realizing how large my calves must be, I opted for pink to soften or feminize the calf. Yes.

Injured

Good news: There is nothing wrong with my hip. Posting about it served the magical purpose of making it go away.

So in that spirit, I am going to post about another new injury, which I fear is for real, but I am going to hope that by writing about it, it will go away.

Bad news: Both of my calves seems to be out of commission and it is my own fault.

Monday night after a nice three mile run in the morning and being told that there was nothing wrong with my hip from my doctor, I decided to take my Bikilas, which are minimalist footwear meant to mimic barefoot running, out for about a mile to work on strengthening my calves and helping my form. A mile is nothing to me. This was not the first time I had run in the Bikilas. I have walked around in them for full days even marching around Disneyland with them. I had run a quarter mile and a half mile in them. I felt ready for a full mile.

I knew from friends that running in them works out your calf muscles in ways that you are used to if normally shod. So I ignored the pain that I experienced during the run figuring it was just sore muscle.

I think that I ran too high on the balls of my feet and didn't drop my heel enough. I think it must have caused what I am dealing with now.

My calves were tight and in pain that very night. Tuesday morning brought more stiffness and slight pain. Like severe muscle soreness. I'm used to sore muscles. When my doctor asked me on Monday if I was experiencing pain, I said that I always do. This is not too much of an exaggeration. I experience migraine at least 10 times a year, regular headaches more frequently, my muscles are often sore, I battle blisters. I accept pain as a part of living.

The more I walked the more the pain decreased. After periods of inactivity, it would stiffen up again.

Wednesday night I decided to give running a shot. I had to stretch out my calves a bit, but I found the heat to be more of an obstacle than the calves. Still felt the same pattern of stiffness and pain decreasing with movement and increasing with periods of inactivity. I ran Thursday night. It was better than Wednesday.

Last night something went wrong. About 1.5 miles into a run, I felt a spasm of pain in my right calf which stopped my running. I tried to stretch it out and tried to run, but my gait was affected and I had a slight limp. Stretched again. The limp disappeared and I ran slowly the half mile home to my house.

Last night my calves were much more tender to the touch. It was worse than the initial injury. Then I got on the internet and scared myself silly to the point that I asking my husband to squeeze my calf while I am lying on my stomach to see if my foot would move. A foot that moves mean that my Achilles tendon is still intact. It moved. Thank god! I'm wondering if I tore a muscle. I am wondering how I can rest when both calves hurt.

I am dedicating this weekend to rest, ice, and reading in the hopes that the pain will subside. If I doesn't subside. I am going straight to the runner PA at my doctor's office for help.

I'm really hoping that I can be back in business in a week. I'm nearly considering prayer which is so selfish and lame of me.

I'm wondering if my whole training for SF is ruined. After the hip, the stomach flu, and this, I am wondering why I should bother even if I heal in time.