Old Man Still running

I walked  three miles with the dog this afternoon to experiment with the foot.  Usually with tendonitis, after the tendon gets warmed up the pain decreases.  I was curious how it would feel on a long walk.  The first mile was discouraging but I noticed on the second mile that I was thinking about other things, not the foot because the pain decreased.   Mile three was even better.  I tried some power walking to increase the pace and it worked fine.   But there is still a main location for the pain.  It seems to be the insertion point of the peroneal longus tendon at the 5^th metatarsal that passes through the plantar ligament.  I’m encouraged that the pain doesn’t go far up the tendon.  A rupture is usually a longitutal tear, and I don’t think I’m feeling that.  It likely is a strain with fraying near the insertion point.

One mile walking in downtown San Francisco.   Seven miles on the treadmll in the hotel!    Wow, most miles in ages.  It felt very easy.  The leg muscles wanted to go on and on. Averaged about 9-minute miles.   Pushed it up to 6:45 pace for awhile.   Mild pain in the foot, but I did run six of those miles in shoes, a fist during this recovery.   I couldn't run in my La SportTiva Fireblades because they are a little narrow and put pressure on the sore tendon...probably part of the orginal problem.   So I had some old Montrails with me and they worked well.   I'm going to need to buy some racing flats if I run Ogden on Saturday.

I ran the last mile without shoes, in socks.  That felt great, no pain, but I was stupid and ended out with a blister on the bottom of one foot.  Oh well, that will force me to not put on too many miles before I am ready.   They also have a nice lap pool at the hotel, so I can keep doing my ultra swimming while I'm at this conference.

Swam a mile in the hotel lap pool at 6:00 a.m.  Unfortunately it doesn't open before 6 a.m. so I didn't have time to do more.   Took a walk downtown during the lunch hour and was surprised to feel zero pain in the foot.   What's up with that?   Nice.

In the evening I ran 9 miles on the treadmill. I was delighted to not feel the foot pain at all until the last mile. I averaged 8:00 miles. One of the miles was a 6:40 mile. I'm delighted that it seems like my recovery is at a point where exercise is now accelerating the recovery. I did feel some pain on the tendon above the ankle, but I think that is more from lack of use over the past four weeks. Hopefully I can start strengthening the ankle now.

Running dreams are funny. I had a very vivid running dream a few nights ago. I dreamed that I was running in the Wasatch 100, but it was all screwy of course. I arrived at an aid station, but had to run through a house. On the other side of the house I went out the door but the course was no longer marked outside the house. I found myself in Washington D.C. I along with other runners were frustrated not knowing where to go next. It seemed like we had to circle around the National Mall, but I wasn't sure what road to take. I was confused that this mountain course was in the city. Still lost, I returned to the house and organized several other runners to go through the streets with me. We each took a different street hoping that we could find some course markings. The race volunteers at the house were of no help and refused to tell use the right way to go. This approach didn't work and I returned frustrated again to the house. I had now wasted several hours. A T.V. was on and a reporter was interviewing the winner of the Wasatch 100. Wow, he had already finished. Hold it, it was still light outside. How could he finish a 100-miler before sunset? I thought, gee, the front-runners knew the course, they have done it before. But that thought confused me because I realized that I had run the course before a couple times. Very strange. Why was I in Washington D.C.? Finally I woke up in a state of running confusion. Got to love those 100-mile race dreams. I'm always getting lost.

Up at 5 a.m. Ran 7 miles on the treadmill. Mild pain in the foot the entire time. That it typical for mornings. The tendon insertion point passes through the Planter Fascia, so in the morning it takes a little while for the foot to warm up in that point. An hour after the run, the foot felt fine. Also swam one mile in the lap pool. Gave up when a big guy decided to swim on his back between the two lanes and couldn't stay in his lane, hitting me.

Gee, it is nice to see my name on the first page of the mileage board this morning.  Haven't seen that in several weeks.

If things continue to go well, looks like I will run Ogden on Saturday.   However, turning sub-7 minute miles for very long may be a problem.  I do need to find some new shoes.  None of the shoes I have will work with my foot problem.

I'm in taper-mode now, resting for the Ogden Marathon on Saturday morning.   I believe I will be fine once I find the right shoes that don't put pressure on the tendon.  I'll go shoe shopping on Friday afternoon.

I ran two easy miles on the treadmill, just enough to warm up the muscles and foot.  No pain this morning during the run.   I then swam one mile in the lap pool.  Feeling good.  In the hot tub I ran a jet over the foot and can issolate the pain area on the tendon.  It is less than yesterday.   The ankle feels weak (weaker than usual...usually it is very strong.)

I've started to do some ankle exercises...foot drills that make a lot of sence.  See: http://www.coachr.org/the_foot_drills.htm

The only drill that is painful is walking on the inside of the foot.

I walked a mile in downtown San Francisco and at the airport.  I'm on my way back home.

All systems are go for Ogden Marathon tomorrow.  I found some road shoes that feel good and don't hurt the tendon, Mizuno Elixir.  Did an easy one-mile job outside, my frist mile run outside in three weeks.   Felt fine.  The quads were telling me to run faster.  "Hold back, just wait until tomorrow."   This should be interesting with the huge taper I've had for the last five weeks.

I ran in the Ogden Marathon, in Ogden, Utah, a fast beautiful race that is mostly downhill.  It would be only my third attempt at a road marathon in comparison to 46 finishes at the ultra marathon distance.  I was nervous going into this race, for good reason, because I had not fully recovered from a non-minor foot injury.  I had really not run seriously for five weeks, when I last raced a 50-mile race.   I had only started to do some treadmill miles a few days earlier.   My theory for going ahead with this race is that the injured tendon is not very involved in straight ahead flat road running.  On the other hand, on trails, the tendon if very involved to keep balance.   So I decided to go ahead and give it a try.   How would I do without any significant running training in five weeks?   I did swim many miles in the pool to keep my fitness up, but I was nervous that my leg muscles weren’t tuned well enough to maintain the fast intense speed of a marathon.

I set some goals for the race.   I wanted to at least break 3:25, which would be a PR time and a Boston qualifier time for me by ten minutes.  Looking at the results for the past couple years and knowing a few runners in my age group who would likely run, I also set a goal to finish in the top 7 for my age group.  If I had a perfect race, a top-3 finish would be within reach, but I knew that was very unlikely given my injury.   I don’t really train for road marathons since I mostly stick to the trails and run longer distances.  So it is an interesting experiment to me when I give one of these races a try.

I got up very early and left my home around 3 a.m. to drive up to Ogden.  I arrived with 45 minutes to spare before the buses would leave.  Instead of standing around in the cold to wait for a bus, I sat in a warm hotel lobby and watched the enthusiastic runners making preparations.  The bus ride was long and intimidating.  It drove nearly the entire course and it sure seemed very long.

The start area was next to a wide open field at 5400 feet.   I noticed frost on the grass and quickly made my way over a warm barrel fire and kept warm for an hour waiting for the 7 a.m. start.  The course would drop about 1,100 feet and end in downtown Ogden.  

Even with all the ultrarunning I do, I feel like quite the rookie at road marathons.  That makes it somewhat interesting to me, learning something new. 

I lined up between the 6-7 minute-mile flags.  I wouldn’t keep that pace going for long but wanted to start out that fast.  Shortly after 7 a.m., we were away, following the South Fork of the Ogden River.  The morning was beautiful and the temperature was perfect.   I was a little tentative as I tested out the foot, but it seemed to behave.   I had bought some new road shoes that didn’t put much pressure on the outside of the foot where the tendon is.   I was so pleased to be running again. My first few mile splits were 6:18, 7:03, 6:49, for about a 20:30 5K time.   That split over 7 minutes got my attention.  I really wanted to keep my splits less than 7 minutes as long as possible, then under 8 minutes as long as possible.

I noticed the foot would complain a little when the road sloped to the inside or outside on turns, so I tried to stay on the more level portions of the road, which meant that I wasn’t cutting the corners very close.  I also noticed pain on the steeper downhills.  But so far, things were going well.   I had some good time to observe the other runners around me.  I saw several with fastrunningblog jerseys who I recognized but didn’t know.

My next splits (miles 3-6) were 7:06, 6:10, and 6:51 for about a 41:15 10K split, which would have been a PR by over two minutes if we were stopping there.   That 6:10 split is very suspect.  I think they had the mile marker in the wrong place.

I started to slow somewhat into a more sustainable pace. I noticed that runners who could keep a 7-minute miles were passing me left and right.   My next few mile splits (miles 7-10) were 6:56, 7:27, 7:48, and 7:33.   I carried a hand-held water bottle, but I knew that wouldn’t last so at each aid station I tried to grab a quick drink.   At certain aid stations those in the relay race would jump in a take over.  This was a little confusing because more people would start passing me.   The views were wonderful as we circled around Pineview Reservoir where I had water-skied many years ago. 

I did start having a problem.  My right calf felt like it was going to get sore and cramp.  This is my challenge in past marathons and I knew it would be a problem since I haven’t done enough recent tempo runs.   When I tried to push a 7-minute mile pace, it got worse, so I had no choice but to back off the pace.  I didn’t want to finish with a strained calf.

From miles 11-15 the course is more generally uphill, with one half-mile steeper hill after mile 14.  At the top was an aid station and someone yelled out my name and waved.   I couldn’t tell who it was.   It was good to hit downhill again, run over Pineview dam, and then hed steeply down Ogden Canyon.   My splits from miles 11-13 were 7:47, 7:34, 8:01, for about a 1:42 half-marathon split.  There was a big crowd at this location, where the half marathon race started.  My splits from miles 14-16 were 7:54, 9:06 (hill) and 7:44.   I was a little discouraged because it was now very tough to keep the splits under 8 minutes. 

I had now been running for nearly 2 hours and had about ten more miles to go.  My energy level was suffering so I started to take gels more often.  That seemed to help.   I did notice that runners were passing me multiple times.  It appeared that several would lollygag at the aid stations.

I really enjoyed running along the Ogden River as it roared down the canyon.  We now had high canyon walls on either side covered with pines.  My splits for miles 17-22 were 7:53, 8:08, 8:14, 8:32, 8:12, 8:42.  I was now really struggling.   I was keeping the cramping at bay.  An S! cap helped.  I wished I had brought more.  But my quads and hamstrings were complaining.   I was also breathing hard.  I was really giving it everything I had.  I never had any lazy stretches.    We caught up and passed many half-marathon walkers who gave us nice words of encouragement.

We entered the Ogden River Parkway, a beautiful paved trail that winds and rolls along the River.  As I looked at the time, I knew I had a sub-3:30 in the bag as long as I didn’t cramp up.  But I just couldn’t find any sub-9-minute speed.   Miles 23-24 were 9:09 and 9:02.  OK, just 2.2 miles to go as I was at 3:05.  If I could keep the pace up I could reach my goal of a sub-3:25.  I couldn’t have any miles over 10-mintues. At the last aid station, fellow-ultrarunning Cory Johnson yelled out a greeting and took a picture of me.

Mile 25 was 9:05.  As we reached the one-mile to go mark, a guy next to me gave me a high five.  “One mile left!”   We were all excited and tried to kick it up another notch.   We spilled out on a long straight city road.  I was so pleased that this marathon only had one mile of city streets.   The last mile was tough.  It felt like I had a bad blister on the ball of my other foot.  I did my best to ignore it and just pushed ahead as hard as I could.   Mile 26 split was 9:13.   The finish line was now really in sight with big crowds on the left and right.  The guy on the loud speaker was mentioning breaking the 3:25 mark.   I did it, I finished in 3:24:49!

I was pleased.  Despite my injury and lack of recent training, I had set a PR by 11 minutes and requalified for Boston.  I finished in 6^th place in my age group (out of 75) and 149^th overall with a large field of about 1,800 runners.  I reached all my goals for the race---barely.  My foot felt fine and I managed to finish without any muscle pulls.   People who finished around me mentioned that it had been hotter than expected.  I really didn’t notice the heat and managed to keep well-hydrated.

I think I could squeeze another ten minute improvement on this course, but I really have no interest in chasing marathon minutes.  I would much rather chase ultramarathon finishes.   I next need to get my foot healed enough to attack trails.  Squaw Peak 50 is in only three weeks.

Recovery has been interesting.  My legs seem more sore than after a typical 100-mile race.  Probably from the lactic acid buildup or the lack of recent training.   But the big different is that after a 100-mile race, I am physically drained for a few days, loss of appetite, taste, sinuses whako, etc.   These marathons have no such effect.  I feel great but the legs sure are sore.  The injured foot was a little sore for the next 24-hours.  Probably only set recovery back a day or two.  That is good news.