The Dreaded Achilles Heel

The Sugar and Spice is less than two weeks away and I am plagued with an overuse injury. It started with a funny feeling a couple of weeks ago in my achilles and last Thursday after an 8 mile run with the Starbucks group I found myself in a great deal of pain. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for keeping up with the 8 min. pace for 8 miles, but the pain didn't seem to go away. I iced and took an anti-inflamatory with little relief. By the end of the day it was feeling much better, but I decided not to run all weekend. I ran on a trail Monday and it felt fine, but tried to run with the Starbucks group Tuesday and made it about 1 mile before having to turn around. Bummer!

I decided it was time to see the doctor and get some physical therapy. So I went on Thursday to sports medicine at UK and physical therapy. Both appointments took 4 hours out of my day! Yikes. Hopefully it wont always take that long. Neither the doctor or the physical therapist thought it would be a horrible idea for me to the S&S. I was actually really surprised and relieved by that. I still haven't decided whether or not to do the race. I am a little afraid it might put me out of running for months and I don't think that is worth it for one race.

What went wrong??? I have been asking myself this question a lot lately. Why did I get injured? My plan after the marathon was to swim and bike more and run less to avoid an overuse injury from running. I followed this training plan well. I failed because I think I overestimated my ability to recover from the marathon. I thought one week was more than enough time off. I also ran 2 marathons within 5 months and before September 2005 I had never run more than 13 miles at one time, and would have never called myself an endurance athlete. As much as I like to think that I am invincible I have realized that I am not and I need to start taking better care of my body. I guess my "vow to get stronger" was too little too late.

I am using this injury as a learning tool. If I am able to do the race then good for me, but I'll know never to try to run an ultra one month after a marathon. If I am unable to even do the race, same message but it might strike me even harder. For now I will bike, swim, and run as much as I can and stay completely pain free. Right now that's only a couple of miles at a time. Hmmm... 32 miles sure is a long way...

The Red River Gorge and my vow to get stronger!

On Sunday Saori, Kelty and I drove out to the Red River Gorge for some trail running. The weather forecast was chilly, cloudy, with a chance of rain. Not good, but not too bad to keep us away. Saori is a fantastic runner, and one I look up to and have a lot of respect for. We usually do not get to run together because she runs with the "speedys" aka Gary's group. She is doing Sugar and Spice on June 10th. Before then she has a triathlon and marathon! Saori is also doing the Pike's Peak Marathon in August with plans to marry her fiance on the top of the mountain. How cool is that? I just love her ambition.

We had a great time on the trail. I was so glad to be out there after so many months of road running. 3 hours felt like 1. Some parts of the trail were too steep to run so we hiked and ran. Kelty was about 6 inches from catching a squirrel until it ran up a tree. It was very exciting. The Gorge was beautifully green from all the rain, and we only saw 3 other people the entire time out there. There is something that is so peacefully distracting about being in the woods. I do enjoy road running, I'm not saying that, but trail running is more enjoyable for me. Saori and I were talking about this article we both happened to read in Trail Runner Magazine. The article was a trail vs. road debate between two experienced runners, Shayne Culpepper (road) and Bernie Boettcher (trail). It is Trail Runner Magazine so readers were probably supposed to side more with Bernie, and I know I definitely did. He expressed all of the reasons why I love running on trails.

The run/hike was a great workout and I fully expected to be very sore on Monday and Tuesday. To my pleasant surprise I was not. Although difficult, running on dirt is a lot less demanding on my body. I have had some fear that my hamstrings would not hold up for the Sugar and Spice but after Sunday I am feeling much more confident.

I have also been doing some exercises this week and last week to help strengthen my legs and hips:
Step ups with 10lb dumbbells
hamstring curls on the stability ball
kickbacks with green resistance band
toe raises (for achilles)
abduction on Pilates Reformer (hips)

From years of gymnastics and swimming I have always been strong and able to lift more weight than expected, but lately I have surprised myself at how weak I am. I know that my cardiovascular system is fit, body composition is normal, and my flexibility is good. However, my muscular strength and muscular endurance have diminished lately. Some exercises that have been easy for me in the past are much more difficult and I shake and fatigue much quicker. I have finally decided, after months and months of saying that I will, that I am going to add strength training into my routine. I really have no excuse not to; I work in a gym. How much easier can it get? Maybe the pain in my legs and back would have been a lot less had I been doing some resistance training. I'd like to think that would be the case.

Morning Laziness

4:48 am the alarm goes off. Gary hits the snooze button. 4:56 am the alarm goes off again. I hopefully ask, "is it raining?" Nope. hmmm... Another hour and a half of sleep won over the Starbucks group. I actually didn't get very much sleep and told myself that I would have been miserably tired the whole day. I could run after work in the evening.

I came home, changed my clothes, left the apartment, ran no more than 7 steps, turned around and went back into the apartment. Rain! and lots of it. What a bummer. I was not happy. I sat down to blog about how unhappy I was when I looked out the window. Sun! Yes! I left the house for a second time.

I decided to run without my watch for a change. It was very nice not to be thinking about how fast or slow I was going. I didn't even look at the clock before I left the apartment. I felt good running. I didn't feel like a decrepit old lady like the past few runs I have been on. I was pretending that the curbs were roots, and even ran in the grass for a little bit. I am getting kind of nervous because I haven't been on a trail since the Tecumseh Trail Marathon I know my fitness and endurance levels are where they need to be but I'm a bit concerned about how my legs will handle the different terrain. I guess I'll find out this weekend!

Check out Angie's Blog. She's from Arizona and is running the Sugar and Spice in June. She has a great blog about ultras and trail running. I love it! She's helping with the motivation of my training whether she knows it or not :)

Preparing for the Sugar and Spice

I sent my regsitration for the Sugar and Spice Ultra 32 miler last week. I felt excited and confident sending it in, but then Saturday came. I went to Todd's Road in the morning and met Lynn to run an easy 6-9. Running with Lynn is always fun, but it hurt a lot more than I expected. My hamstrings were screaming at me, and I just felt tired. I took Sunday off, and ran an easy 3-4 miles on Monday. I actually felt pretty good, and decided to join the Starbucks group Tuesday morning. This group runs about an 8 min. pace which is a good pace and I have no trouble keeping up and chatting. This time however, I felt like I could barely grunt out answers to their questions about the marathon and I had to really push to keep up.

I suppose I have overestimated my body's ability for recovery. What should I expect though, I did just run a marathon less than 2 weeks ago. For some reason I thought that the training for this ultra would be easy because it would simply blend into my marathon training. I need to keep reminding myself that I do not need to worry about running fast, but running long and easy. I plan on only running about 3-4 times/week in this next month. Tuesdays and Thursdays I will try to run 8 with the Starbucks group. Saturdays probably Todd's Road, and Sundays I'll find some trails for some long easy runs. On my other days I plan on swimming and biking to keep my fitness up and try not to hammer my legs so much. I think they need some well deserved rest.

Well that's the plan so far. I am still excited and optimistic about this race. I think it will be a great feeling to complete 32 miles. Some people have told me that I am nuts for doing this race and so soon after the marathon, but I think if I am smart with my training and not try to overdo it I should be just fine. I can't wait to get back on the trails and reconnect with my nature obsession.