Buttsweat Towel© season has begun

86F, 4:30am - Hills with Mike and Antonio.  Did 3.4 warmup and 3.4 cooldown with 10 x 200m up a hill in the middle.  This time I cleared my watch so I'd have a baseline to compare it too later, to see if I ever get faster; I just started the clock at the bottom and stopped it at the top (well, 200m up anyway).  It came out to 1.27 miles in 6:56 (5:27 pace avg).  So we'll see if it improves.  I lasted a whopping 3 reps this time before I started lagging behind the other two guys, so there is improvement already (last week I kept up for only 1 rep).

86F.  Worked nightshift and was there too late to join Mike and Antonio but I saw them about halfway through the run and did Signal Hill with them.  I did the first 9 miles in the 8:40s, then stopped paying attention to pace, and sped up naturally.  8:33 overall AP.

81F with a nice, slight breeze - felt amazing.  Not surprisingly, my pace dropped a bit: 8:21 avg.

That tops off a 52-mile week, my best by over 6 miles.  Kind of a big jump, so I'll keep the increases slower...maybe.

80F, it even got down to the 70s after I was done.  8:25 pace today.  Last mile in 7:38 (HM pace) so we'll call it fast.  The bats were out in force today, more than usual.  On one stretch I was flinching every few seconds as they kept almost hitting me.  Finally I just put my head down and focused on the ground and quit looking..they have sonar, right?

A bone-chilling 77F!  Ran with Mike and Antonio at 4:30am.  It felt so nice outside that I didn't complain when Antonio continually sped up in our "easy" run.  AP was 8:00.  Last full mile was 7:35, then the last 0.62 was at 6:50 pace and included a 50 foot climb up Signal Hill, where we stopped at the top.  Walked back down and did a cooldown mile.

4:30am, 81F.  Did 10 miles today, all between 8:00 and 8:30.  AP 8:16.  I'm noticing I don't really catch my breath until mile 4 in the morning, but then it starts really getting smooth and easy and I have to hold back so as to keep it "easy."  That's the improvement I've been waiting for, I think.  It's how I felt right before I ran a good HM in April.

As I was turning on to the crazy bat stretch, a guy coming the other way (who had just run the gauntlet) told me not to look at them, they're crazy today.  So I stared at the ground again and still had a couple fly right in front of my face.  I guess if I ever get hit by one, I'll find an alternate route.

84F, 4:30am.  Today was hill sprints day (10 x 200m) with the running group.  First, 3.5 warmup @ 8:39.  The stats on my uphill sprints were 1.26 miles in 6:41 (5:19 avg pace) with walking recoveries back down the hill.  Compared to the 5:27 avg pace from last week, a definite improvement.  The long lost muscles I haven't used in 13 years must be waking up just a little.  I still couldn't quite keep up with Mike but was closer.  Shuffled home on marshmellow legs - 3.3 @ 9:11 pace.

On the way back to my base I landed funny and rolled my ankle.  Managed to jog the last mile or two back but had to modify the way I was landing a bit, more heel to toe, to keep from aggravating it.  I think it'll be ok for running though, we'll see.  Doesn't hurt while walking normally.

84F, 5am.  The ankle was a non-issue, so I went ahead with a long run.  First 9 miles were in the 8:30s and 8:40s.  Last 4 were 8:11, 7:52, 7:35, 7:22.  AP for the entire run was 8:20.  Pretty happy with it, given the heat.

On my other foot, another painful spot has cropped up.  The heel bone is tender and sore, mostly on the inside, not underneath where PF would be.  I started feeling it on my run today and can even feel it walking a little.  Hoping it's not a "Calcaneal Stress fracture" which is the closest thing I can match to it right now, although it's definitely runnable at the moment.  I'm thinking if it was a stress fracture it would feel a lot worse.

No run today, thought I would wait and see if my heel got any better, and I think it did, a little.  It's not as painful when I squeeze the heel bone (calcaneus) and I'm not feeling it while walking.  Might go for an easy run in the morning after work; I'm on night shift permanently now which ensures I'm able to run in the morning lows without having to worry about getting to work late, which is nice.

5am, 81F.  I didn't really get any questions answered about my heel yet.  It's now a little worse than it was before my run - pretty much regressed to Friday.  Definitely runnable, but will I make a small injury into a big one by continuing?  Who knows...  We'll see how it feels in 24 hours, I guess, and evaluate it then.  Run was 8:24 pace.

Update - 14 hours later it's much better, as good as it's felt in days.  I took ibuprofen and elevated the foot end of my mattress and it is now only very slightly tender to the touch.  Weird.  But also makes me think it's not a stress fracture if quickly feels better like that.  But I'm also pretty sure I don't know what I'm talking about.  Either way I'm probably running in the morning.

5am, 83F.  8:02 AP.  It was dark for the first few miles and I started a bit too fast since I couldn't see my watch (except when it lit up each mile), then decided I didn't feel like slowing down.  Last mile a 7:37 - HM pace - is my arbitrary "fast mile" threshold so I'll tally 1 fast mile.  The Garmin 405 doesn't like getting sweat on it; if I don't lock the bezel by the 3rd mile, it starts going nuts (I guess sweat gets in there) and I can't manipulate it.

As far as my heel, I guess it was a little better today, if anything.  Pain never exceeded a 3 or so and it's better than yesterday post-run.  I took ibuprofen 7 hours beforehand so I don't think that would have been a factor in making it feel better.

Tried to do an easy run in the morning and couldn't - too much of a hobble and pain from my right foot.  Knowing it gets worse as the run goes on, I called it off.  I don't think it's a stress fracture since the impact on the ground doesn't hurt; it's right before I push off, when the angle from foot to shin is sharpest.  More research led me toward tendonitis - posterior tibial tendonitis or anterior, depending on which random website I go by.  Either way I'm supposed to rest it to fix it.  Having said that, there is a 10k on Friday that I'd like to try so I might rest until then, warmup a few miles without NSAIDs to test it, them maybe run it.  Sound dumb enough?

The last 2 mornings I've definitely felt like I could've run and the tendonitis, or whatever it is, is basically gone when I'm walking.  So I'm gonna try a nice easy 2 miles (at the most) after work on Sat. morning.  The ibuprofen and rest have been doing it good.  We'll see how it goes!

Zilch.  I knew after the first few steps it probably wasn't gonna happen, but I went to a quarter mile to make sure.  I guess having my foot feel good with ibuprofen while walking doesn't necessarily translate into ready-to-run.  I walked straight to the gym after I realized I wouldn't be running and went at the elliptical pretty hard for 30 min; my legs were wobbly and shaking afterward.  Good.  That cheered me up a little.  I'll go longer and slower, so to speak, next time but I had some frustration to take out this morning.

I see the doc on Monday and I doubt I'll be running the rest of the month, at least, based on the lack of progress after 5 days rest.  Depending on when I can come back to running, I might try to switch to the half in January.  I rerally don't want to enter my first marathon untrained.  My wife and I are tentatively planning to do OKC in April anyway.  But it's obviously too early to push the panic button yet; I'll continue to use the torture machines in the gym for now.

40 min on the bike, with pretty good intensity.  I was going to do the elliptical but they didn't have the Texas game on...  Watching the game almost made it not suck to be in the gym.

40 min. on the elliptical.  I can't last much longer on that machine - I'm sure I'm doing it all wrong but my back starts aching on it.  I jogged a few yards on the way to the gym and my foot feels a little better, about like it felt on my last run - not comfortable, but runnable.  Of course running on it when it feels like that leads to bad things.  So I'll wait.  The med clinic opens in about an hour so I'll go see what they have to say.

The Longhorns and the Texans both staying undefeated in tough games this weekend has made a lot of the hurt go away I think...mental and physical maybe.

**Update - I went to the "doctor's" office, but when I saw the lieutenant rank on the guy I knew I wouldn't be seeing an actual doctor.  He did his best though.  Anyway, didn't get my questions answered on which tendon, or what kind of remedies would prevent it (other than stretching, duh).  He could really only speak in generalities and didn't have the knowledge that I needed.  He did give me a rx NSAID though - meloxicam - so we'll see what that does.  I looked it up and it seems legit, although it was invented for arthritis.  We'll see what a week or two of that does.

45 minutes on the elliptical this morning while MNF was on.  So, yeah...  5 additional minutes.

After reading a little more about meloxicam I cut the dosage in half to 7.5 instead of 15mg which is usually reserved for people with crippling arthritis....sheez.  It makes my foot feel a lot better, but I'd hate to re-injure it by running on pain that's being masked by NSAIDs.  I jogged about 200m on the way to the gym and it felt like just a hotspot on my heel, but definitely still nagging there (of course that was within 24 hours of popping 15mg of meloxicam).  I'm hoping to be able to get back into running by the start of October, which would give me almost 4 months to train before the marathon.  Hopefully that's enough if I stay uninjured.

50 min on the elliptical.

Nothing yesterday (apathy) and this morning I jogged most of the way to the gym, probably 1/3 mile total and it felt really good.  So, I'll do a full mile on the TM this morning unless it starts hurting.  This when-to-start-running-again decision always torments me after each injury, trying to balance waiting long enough so the injury won't come back and waiting so long I'm out of shape again.  I think it's time though...

Oh yeah, did the elliptical for 30 min this morning, high level of resistance though so my HR got up there a lot quicker.

Jogged most of the way to the gym then did a 9:05 mile on the TM.  Followed that up with 30 min. on the bike.  I absent-mindedly picked a different bike (the kind with the real bike seat instead of the chair with a back that I'd used before) and my butt couldn't last any longer than 30 min.  I actually felt violated afterward but I'll deal with those feelings another time.

More importantly, running felt pretty good.  I don't like that I can tell a difference between the two feet, but it really is minor at this point.  If it's tendonitis though, I won't know if I've won the war for awhile, I think.  Up next is a 2-mile slow jog tomorrow morning as long as my foot doesn't regress at all as a result of the run today; I don't think it has so far.

4:30am, 82F.  I guess the 2 weeks off didn't really bring lower temperatures; the low was still 82 today.  But, it didn't matter - my 2 miles went great.  8:24 pace was faster than I was shooting for but I don't think it hurt anything.  No gym afterward, I just didn't feel like it.  Hopefully I'm done with the gym now.  Starting Monday, I'm gonna cut my NSAID in half again to ease off it.

4:30am 84F.  Two loops around Lost Lake, 8:05 AP (whoops).  Can't seem to quiet down my legs, who have missed running; I intended to do the first week back at 9:00 pace but I don't think it's doing any damage at 8.  I even missed the creepiness of running Lost Lake in the dark - the Arab guy wailing out morning prayer from the mosque loudspeakers on the other side of the wall, the bombed out buildings...feels like I'm in an Indiana Jones movie.

Injury-wise, I'm pretty happy.  Feels like there's no pain where the tendon is; the only oddball thing is that I feel like maybe I'm unconsciously landing a little differently on my foot.  The effect makes it feel like my right shoe has half the sole of the left and doesn't absorb as much.  But I'm being picky, it's a minor thing to complain about.

Horrible football weekend though with Texas (NCAA) and Houston (NFL) losing.

5am, 85F.  8:17 AP.  I finally ran long enough to be able to tell that I lost a bit of cardio from the 2-week layoff, for sure.  Hopefully it'll come back in a week or two.  Some lower temperatures might be nice too, if I'm getting really greedy.

I'll take tomorrow off as a precautionary move for my foot, and to let some soreness from my hip flexors and quads subside.  Same soreness I got when I switched from TM to outside running awhile back; just gotta get used to running again is all.

5am, 82F.  Ran a lot more evenly-paced today, 8:30 avg.  No mile was more than 5 seconds off the average.

It took until the 5th mile today for that weird heel thing to crop up, where it feels like the bottom of my heel is taking a pounding - like there's not enough cushioning.  Feels completely unrelated and unlike the injured tendon, but same foot.  Gotta be landing differently or something...ah well, it'll work itself out.

I worked up a general plan of how my training will go for the marathon, mileage-wise, in Excel (nerd).  I'll max out at a 20-mile long run, and do that 3 times; the first will come in early December.  Max weekly mileage of 62 on the weeks where I do 20 (hope I make it).  I think I'm just going to do easy runs and 1-2 tempos/week, no speed work except for the occasional 5K races they have here.  Does that sound about right?