Denouement

AM 14.45k in 70 min, quads sore, took it easy, about 7:48 ave pace

PM: went to CityU's gym to run 40 min on the treadmill. Set it at 7.5 speed and was planning on upping it a tenth each mile.  Legs still tired from Sunday race.  At around 1.75 felt a slight pain in my lower shin, about 1 inch up from my ankle sock.  Instead of it shaking off like most pains, it gradually intensified to where it was sharp, not radiating up the shin, but the pain cicle widened, with "nice" sharpness in the middle.  It was probably a pain of 5, where 4 or higher is form changing, and I stopped running at 2.62 miles.  The pain went away within a minute of stopping.  I jogged home to see if it was still there and it was only on the slightest degree (pain 1).  Iced it and called it a day.  There are always freaky pains right before a marathon, right?  (careful, this continues next day).

60 min easy run this morning.  Took it really easy.  Leg felt fine until about 5 miles in, then pain showed up really slight, and slowly got a bit worse, 2-3 by the end.  Went to CityU's doctor to get a referral just to get the ball rolling in case this doesn't go away.  So the plan is xray and orthopaedic specialist, will make appointment tomorrow if still present.

Core and weights, plus 10 minutes elliptical to try out the gyms elliptical.  These ellipticals are weird, Precor, don't like the motion because it's different than the one I used to own :(....

AM: 40 min easy run before big workout at night.  8.19k in 40 min, 4:53 ave pace.  Pain not there until 5k, and it gradually increased to a 3-4 by the end, worse than Wed, not as bad as Tuesday night.  Unlike Tuesday, though, the pain stayed with me when walking for about 10-15 minutes after my run.  Send an urgent email to my coach who counsels me to not run, but take it to the pool until I get some answers from the doc, got a 12noon appt for tomorrow.  I am not sure if I'll have any answers by then, though, which is so frustrating.  Since the appt is noon and many docs work a half day on Saturday, though, I might have time for further testing before the weekend.  I am supposed to be running a 15k this weekend, but it is hilly, so I am guessing even if this issue evaporates (and how would I know it has if I am not running on it?), a hilly race will not be advisable.  Best case is a 15k tempo this weekend. 

I have had some tears today but am trying not to freak out prematurely.  This Yokohama race is my last chance, my last last chance.

PM: workout in the pool. Heinous.  workout was 3-4x2 miles at HM pace with 2 min rest, so basically in the pool I did 4x12-12:20 intervals with 2 min rest, going as fast as I could sustain, huffing and puffing.  Got a bad charlie horse in the third one and modified my stride to a wider circle to prevent other ones.  It was hard to keep focused on the fourth one, and I felt tense in the third and fourth ones.  Probably not best to go from zero pool quality minutes to 48 quality minutes, but what can I do?  1:30 of pool running with rest and warm up/cool down.  Will go do 20 min elliptical to finish the day (want to ramp up usage more responsibly on this front).  Oh my.

60 min pool running, then weights.  Got an xray, then ortho apptment.  He said it doesn't sound like a stress fracture because the pain takes so much time to ramp up, and because there isn't as much swelling as would be expected with a stress fracture.  Nevertheless, he ordered an MRI to make sure.  I got into the MRI same day, but the results won't be in until Tuesday.  He understands that I am not the normal patient, and this isn't just a normal marathon cycle.  In any marathon cycle, we invest alot.  But this is the most important marathon cycle of my life.  So, he said I could run easy on it, get a sports massage if it isn't too deep, and then we'll discuss on Tuesday.  So I got a sports massage yesterday.  It did hurt quite a bit, but it is along my shin, got some bruising along the front of my leg, so the area was more sore after the massage than before it.  Is this a good, helpful pain, or a pain that shows I shouldn't have gotten the massage.  Perhaps time will tell, or perhaps it won't.  I trust my massage therapist generally, though not completely.  That takes a couple of years for me :/  Nothing personal.

AM: coach approved an evening run tonight, but wants me to do my hard workout in the pool if possible, on the elliptical if not.  Broke out a polar watch I owned, because it's heartrate monitor is supposed to work underwater.  Well, after making it as tight as possible, and adding a knot to the strap (to make it tighter) it sporatically picked up the heartrate, which was better than not picking it up at all (how it was when I just put it on as a usual hr fit).  Did 34 minutes warm up in the pool.  HR only up to 100-110, not a good sign.  I am supposed to be doing marathon pace for 58.5 minutes, which I think is around 150 heart rate for me, but not sure--I don't normally track my HR, dear me.  So I decide to give the tempo a go in the pool but if it didn't get high enough I'd move to the elliptical (even more risky than pool since I've only done 30 minutes total on the elliptical in the last three months).  Ended up doing 7.5 minutes in the pool, got up to 132 hr, but to get there I was breathing like I was doing a 10k, so there is a mismatch between effort and heartrate, perhaps pool running is partially anarobic, like lifting weights.  I don't understand it.  Changed my clothes, ate two stingers, and hit the elliptical.  Did 8 min of warm up (HR in the 130's), then 51 min hard, ave HR 158.  I am counting the 7.5 minutes of hard pool running because I was breathing hard and working hard enough for it, even if my heart doesn't agree.  Then did another 48 min on the elliptical, HR settled down to about 135. I'll be interested to see what my heart rate is on an easy run to compare.  So 41.5 min in the pool 107 min elliptical, 2:28:30 so far today.

PM:  Good news! 40 min really easy with no pain.  4.64 miles. 

Ran 6.22 in 50 min on the tm.  Started at 7.0 speed, increased to 7.5 for the bulk of it, went to 7.6 with 10 min to go, 7.7 with 5 min to go.  Walking on the wild side.  No pain.  There is soreness in the area to the touch from massage-bruisiness.  And every once and a while that side feels different, but I am watching closely and think it is not going to return how it was (unless hard running does it, let's keep our fingers crossed).   Core and weights.  Six pull ups.

AM: easy 30 min on the tm

noon:  Follow up with orthopaedic specialist to get MRI results: there is no stress fracture, which is great.  The only abnormality showing from the MRI is some liquid around my tendon.  I will quote the MRI report: "The anterior tibial tendon, the most medial and the largest to the anterior tendons, is normal in size and signal intensity.  It is adjacent to the marker.  A rim of fluid is noted surrounding the tendon suggestive of tenosynovitis."    That's the deal. The doctor said I could do a hard workout on it, with less than full quantity, but then said it would be better to wait a day or two more for hard running, since the risks of it flaring up again is greater than the benefit of the workout this close to the race.  So I stuck to the elliptical,

PM:  way PM.  This workout started at 7:45, way too late, but had to do it then, so that's that.  20 min wu cd, then did 2 x18 min hard, 160 heart rate ave for the first 18 minutes, then 163 ave heartrate for the second 18, with 10 min rest between the two.  I plan on easy run tomorrow. 

Ran 45 min easy, then weights.  Core in the evening.  No pain :D

AM:  First hard workout since my pain started last Tuesday.  My coach wanted me to do it on the TM, and I hate doing workouts on the treadmill, especially intervals.  The workout was supposed to be 5-6 x 1600m at 10k pace, 2:30 rest, followed by 3 x 200m.  20 min warm up/ cool down.  Warmed up 19 minutes, then lots to stretching, then one minute easy.  Then ramped up the tm.   5:52 on the first one. I hate intervals on a TM because you have another 10 seconds of fast after your time is up because you are pushing a button 20 times to get the pace down to rest.  With 2:30 rest, I would have stopped completely then jogged a bit so its just different on a TM. After the first one I was already thinking to cut the workout to four times.  This should have been a cue to me to take the paces easier, but I made a novice mistake of not listening to my body.  Second one 5:48.  Third one was murder.  At .1 mile in I am having evil voices tell me to push the stop button. It is so big and so red and right there and 5:45 is a hard pace to do.  I fought the demons, I told myself I had 1,000 footstrikes to go and to get going, the first half mile was the worst.  After the third interval I hit the bathroom and got back to the treadmill by 2:00, ramped up, and started into #4.  I had the same strong feelings of wanting to quit, visualizing hitting the stop button, and I am ashamed to say I didn't last more than .15 miles, it was a disappointing first workout.  I cried to Paul when I got home.  I can't just quit in the marathon when things hurt!!!!

As the day went on I was able to see the half of the glass that was full.  Most importantly I had no pain.  Also, I had never done this workout on the TM, so I can't compare my track workouts to this one, and I just made a mistake of trying to hit the same paces as I do on the track, instead of relaxing and going by feel.  Also, a 1600 is 4 or so seconds off from a mile, and I was doing miles on the TM, so the paces I was trying to hit were even harder than I was thinking.  Did I mention I hate TM workouts, especially intervals, so I should have cut myself slack to compensate for that.  I am grateful to be hitting any miles sub 6:00.  Also, hopefully I won't need any 5:40 miles in my marathon.  If I do, I hope I don't need more than three ;)  8.87 miles total

PM: 40 minutes on the elliptical, ave hr 128 (kept it around 135 once it ramped up) 

30 min on elliptical, then weights then ran 7.6k, to a park where JJ had a school picnic.  Then ran another 8 minutes to get back to the metro, and metroed to my massage appt.  This was my first run in the beautiful outdoors.  

JJ's teacher leant him a sweater for the field trip because it was "cold".  Ha!  It was 72-75F.  It is hard to remember I am the odd-ball for being in shorts. 

Last dress rehearsal.  10 mile run with last two at marathon pace.   I started the run at noon to mimic my race.  It was 25C--77F, so warmer than my race will be, current forecast is 15C for the high--59F, but that could change quite a bit, whatever the high is, it will be during the race, since the race starts at noon, and will end for me before 2:46 in the afternoon.

Started nice and easy, first 5k pace was 4:37, the next was 4:31, in this 5k I ran into a biker who stopped right in front of me.  I landed softly into his backpack, grateful that my first bike crash was a gentle one.  Good thing I didn't wear music today, there were many bikers out.  Then 4:25 for the 3k til I started the 2 miles at marathon pace. 3.23k in 12:30, or 3:53/6:15 pace.  Almost got ran over by a series of bikers on a tight turn in the middle of the fast bit.  Felt good.  Am excited to run my marathon in cool temps.

Core workout later. 

Easy 30 min run, felt great, hoping I feel as good on marathon day as today. Lighter weights and core (last time til race).

Bad sleep Monday night.  Did workout mid morning.  Quite warm, about 24-25C  5.65 warm up, then 4 x 800m at 10k pace, on HKSI track, first time on track since my mini running vacation.  First one felt hard, got that sore throat breathing too hard feeling you get when you are not used to fast paces on the first one, but got in the groove for the rest of them. 2:51 (2:29 rest, 400m), 2:50 (2:26 rest), 2:49 (2:31 rest), 2:47.  Felt good, 5k cool down.

45 min easy, 5.85 miles.  Then two hour massage/assisted stretching sesson with my sports massage guy.  He gave me a little Japanese booklet for travelers--so nice of him.

35 min easy, 4.4 miles.  Need to finish packing, leaving in 35 min!

15 min warm up, then 2 miles at marathon pace (12:32) then 10 min cooldown, weather was cool and I felt good.

20 min really easy.  Rained hard all afternoon/evening.

Seriously!!! Just lost 30 minutes of my race report.

I don't know if I can write this again.  Will go to word then paste in :( 

Woke up at 7am because it’s race day, even though the race started at 12:10.  Had some oatmeal, then did some CPA CPE online (good times), then walked 1000m to drop off water bottles, walked back. Watched Masterchef while I stretched, foam rolled, tennis balled. Heard the building creaking, then felt vertigo, then realized it was an earthquake, and I am on the 10^th floor of a 15 floor building.  I just sit at my desk like an idiot, should have gotten under the desk.  No one seeing me would think that I grew up in California and had earthquake drills all the time as a child.  Took a shower, got dressed, and went to staging area.  I was in the first row behind the elites.  They sure were fit and lean ladies.  True six packs.  It was a beautiful sight.  I saw a video highlight of the race at the banquet tonight, and the only part of the video I was in was at the start, and I looked downright burly and masculine compared to the elites (and half of them were not Asian, there were Europeans and Kenyans).  Anyway, guess I should take up bodybuilding next. . .j/k that sounds like no fun to me.

Plan was 3:55-4:00k for the first 5k, then 3:55/k (19:35 5k splits) thereafter.  3:56 overall gets me right under 2:46.  When the gun goes off I let lots of ladies pass me, I am warming up nice and easy.  First k was 4:00.  Perfect.  First 5k was 19:29, though, a tad faster than I should have done.  Then had 4k under an elevated highway, which messed up my gps.  I should have right away changed the screen to total time so I could track actual splits, but I ran by feel and by place (stayed behind two ladies), and as a consequence ran 3:50/k for 4k, which brought me to 9k 20 seconds too soon.  3:56 for 10k meant 10k split was 38:45, 25 seconds too fast.  Didn’t worry about it at the time (I am delusional and thinking, “boy I really am in good shape”  what a dufus, really, have I learned nothing?).  Next 5k felt great, got a 19:39.  But by 15k legs started to feel a bit heavy.  Then next 5k was 19:48 and I know I am in trouble because legs are too heavy for half way through.  Midway split is 1:22:34 (same as Andrea’s).  I pull out my 5 hour energy drinking hoping it will help. But guess what, caffeine can’t get rid of lactic acid.  It does help, though, and I do 19:39 for the fifth 5k, bringing me to the 25k mark in 1:37:51, four seconds ahead of my “plan”.  Splits start to sag though, start tracking individual k’s, trying to ignore pain in my quads (SORE!).  26k was about 3:55, 27k was 3:56, 28k was 4:05, 29k 4:06, 30k 4:07, 20:12 for that 5k.  Still on pace for sub 2:46 but legs keep getting more and more hurty 31 was 4:22, 32-34 pace was 4:20, 35 was 4:25, 21:54 for that 5k.  Wait—it gets worse!  Now I start to go paces that count as easy runs normally, and I watch getting ranked top Hong Kong runner go down the drain (have to beat 2:49:58 to get that). 4:26, 4:30, 4:43 for 2k, then it goes toward 4:50, but I am not lapping at that point, what’s the point.  I do manage a measly kick to prevent a girl from passing me, she came in one second behind me.  Got 4:42 pace for the last 3.21k. Brilliant.  Amazingly, only three girls manage to pass me in the race (all between 32 and 41k).   

I start bawling after the race.  I’m sure I was quite the spectacle to the spectators.  BTW, there were spectators all along the course and it sounded like many were saying “Andale”, as in Spanish, but perhaps they have a phrase that is similar?  I am not sure.  Had several people call LOWRY! And that was fun.  I waved to lots of kids, and smiled a lot (not after 30k, to be sure).  There were also voluteers everywhere.  Many more volunteers than runners.  They had a volunteer posted every 10-20 meters—seriously.  You could not get lost on this course. 

I am gutted.  This is truly a hard pill to swallow.   I am officially tried-real-hard-and-got-close. Of course I didn’t get close in this race.  2:47:08 October 2010.  So close.   I can't even tell you how painful the race was.  I suffered through the second half big time.  Ended up running the last 5k slower than a normal easy run because my legs hurt so bad.  The hard truth of it is that I must not have been in shape to do a 2:45, I don't know if it was because of the late injury or self-delusion.  I should not have had lactic acid build up so early in the race, even being 5 sec/k off.  It was like the PF Chang marathon (bad race for me in Jan 2009) only harder.  I will have to compare paces.  

Sorry if this race report isn’t too uplifting, I want to write it while I am processing the race and the end of four year pursuit that has been fraught with medical issues. 

After the race I went to a Japanese spa/bathing house.  Lots of runners went, we had a discount, and it was really neat.  You get naked, and there are tons of naked women walking around, and you go to an area where shower sitting down.  I washed my hair and body.  Then there are multiple baths you hang out in, and there was a cold bath, so I alternated cold and warm baths for four times.  Lots of naked ladies.  About a third are runners, and they are thin and toned.  Women's bodys are beatiful, what can I say.  It was like skinny dipping with 70 of my closest Japanese friends.  I haven't seen any friends naked since skinny dipping in HS.  Anyway, afterward, you get in a kimono and go to individual prepping stations where you do your hair.  Then there was an awards banquet with dinner and dessert.  They had multiple speeches, though, and no sitting. It was torturous.  I am so sore!  The food was good, but only one of the 8 or so desserts was a true chocolate dessert, so I had that one twice.   

30 min elliptical really easy. Quads still quite sore, but better than Mon/Tues.

Happy Thanksgiving all!  It was Thanksgiving here, but then it wasn't.  Kids were at school, and we are hosting Thanksgiving with two other families on Saturday.  Why did I volunteer to host my first year here?  I am wondering?  It is so hard to find all the ingredients you need.  I have been to 6 stores (one of them three times) in the last week gathering ingredients.  I think I am ready!  

20 min elliptical this morning, then 20 min very easy jog.  Every step hurt, quads were still sore, but the first 4 minutes of the run were the worst.  Started at 6.0 and ended at 6.7 mph, so truly easy pace.   

60 min elliptical

Made a chocolate pecan pie, cornbread, sausage, apple and pecan stuffing, and candied yams today. 

3.5 miles in 5:17 ave pace.  Legs still sore but not as bad as Thursday.

Then cleaning-cross training :D getting ready for thanksgiving festivities.  Food and games all afternoon/evening.  Had a great time and really enjoyed my new hk friends. 

41 min elliptical, 20 min easy jogging on TM (2.33 miles).  Legs felt fine first 5 minutes, then could feel some soreness/tiredness in them, but not pain with every step soreness like last week.  Starting to look forward to see what's next.  Need to change my goals on the side bar.  Add that to my to-do's!

5.78k @ 5:12, probably cross trained too, maybe some core, just can't remember!

60 min elliptical