Dance...I mean...Run in the Rain!

I just love this cartoon.  In actuality I think the recommended minimum amount of working out per day is 30 minutes, but an hour is even better.  I generally try to work out an hour a day.  The time I have to work out seems to be getting more and more compressed as our family life gets busier and the girls get older.

I had a great season of racing in 2010, I wanted to finish the season off with a marathon.   I figured it would give me the motivation to continue training and stay consistent with my workouts.  It would also give me some extra confidence for Ironman (IM) CDA in 2011.   I chose to do Tri-Cities Marathon on October 31st....Halloween Day!  I started churning out the miles.  I did multiple runs in a week but these were my long runs:
8/14 - 16 miles
8/21 - 17 miles - My confidence was soaring.  I was thinking I could possibly qualify for Boston since my new qualifying time is 3:20.  In 2008 I finished the Portland Marathon in 3:30:58.  I need to knock 10 minutes off...I can do this!  

Portland Marathon - 26.2 Mile Run - 3:30:58  (10/5/2008)

9/4 - 20 miles - I continue banging out the miles.  I wasn't getting in the speed work I did in 2008 due to time limitations so I was thinking I could at least PR.  Boston is out.  I can do this!
9/25 - 18 miles
10/9 - 20 miles - Days after this long run the bottom of my foot started to hurt in the heal area.  I realized it was plantar fasciitis.  Not happy about this.  I continue wearing a boot at night, rolling it (on a tennis ball), stretching and icing. I bought some shoe inserts, I will do this.  I have time to recover before Oct 31!

As the days continued to pass I decided I would not shoot for the PR but just run the marathon and finish it. No running for now, I was biking and swimming.  One evening after rolling my foot on a tennis ball, I pulled a ice pack out of the freezer and put my foot on it.  I numbed it good.  Little did I know that it was so numb I couldn't feel the freezer burn,ouch!  My foot hurt from that and I could barely walk on it for two days.  That was painful.  My "A" race for this year was Troika, the Tri-Cities Marathon was a "B" or "C" race.  It would have been a big run, but it wasn't meant to be.  If it was my "A" race I may have tried to do it despite the circumstances.  I don't want to impact my IM training.  I need to try and stay healthy.  My number one goal is to get to the IM CDA starting line uninjured.  Tri-Cities Mary...I have bigger fish to fry!  I will conquer you or another marathon when the time is right.  We WILL meet again!  Count on it!! ;-)

With that said, things continued to go down hill.  The plantar fasciitis seems to be about gone but I still have a little knot in my foot.  According to Dr. Google this could be plantar fibromatosis!  :-(  I continue rolling, icing and stretching.  One evening while at the pool my flip-flops which I got at REI were stolen.  I couldn't believe it!  They were right next to my swim bag while I was swimming at masters.  A few days later my swim shorts, goggles and swim cap were taken.  WTH??!!!  I have backup equipment so I continued to go swimming. Finally on Oct 27, while swimming at masters I get a muscle cramp in my calf.  I had to stop swimming for a minute.  The calf was balling up....ouch!

...that brings me to today.  I am GRATEFUL that these injuries are happening to me now and not in the middle of my race season!  I started some dialog with a fellow named JoshKaptur on BT.  He advocates running 3-6 miles a day, 5-7 days a week for building a running base for IM.  This sounds like a good idea.  My foot is feeling better.  Last night I rode 17 miles on the bike.  Before going to bed I set my alarm clock for 6:30am so I can get up and run 3 miles.  I can do that in 30 minutes or less!  The alarm woke me this morning...it was very dark and I could hear the rain coming down. I pictured myself running in the rain, cold, possibly shivering and my feet landing in big puddles of water.  The thought of my feet sloshing around in my watered sneakers faded as I got out of bed.  I would have ran on the tread mill, but the wife already "called it". ;-)  I kept saying to myself....3 miles!  Everything lives in cycles, muscles tear down and rebuild, crops have a cycle, the seasons and even humans do.  I think my body is going through one of these cycles.  I am being torn down just in time to slowly rebuild.  I put on my GPS and my headlamp and I headed out the door. My foot felt good, my calf felt good and I was running.  It felt so good to run, the tears rolled down my cheeks as I ran through the neighborhood (OK, maybe it was just rain!).  ;-)  I ran...and ran...and I RAN in the RAIN.

 

I hope everyone has a fun, safe and Happy Halloween!