The Road To 2012 NYC Marathon – Summary of T-22 Week (Crisis Point).

Wow – what a week.  Two crises!  Deciding to do it chronologically even tho the second is more critical.

Test of Will – Saved by the Security Mall Guard

During Wednesday’s 8 mile run, real crisis of will-power.  I was supposed to do something fun with a buddy Wednesday so had shifted the schedule around and run mid-week long run on Thursday, but it got cancelled the night before so wound up not going.  I decided to go back to my normal schedule and run Wednesday, but wasn’t especially in the mood.  It was also a later start than I really wanted for 8 miles.  Add in that I thought my phone’s runkeeper wasn’t working (it was but it turns out I had muted the phone and forgot to unmute it), and sweat kept going into my eyes at exactly the worst times (while trying to cross busy roads) and that I overdid it the first few miles (I was doing close to 7 min miles than 8) and by 3.5 miles I was ready to throw in the towel.

I tried a brief early walk (I would have normally taken a quick drink break at 4 or 5) to regain my spirit and said I’d turn earlier and revisit it as I got to the local mall (it’s a big mall, not a strip mall) where I could turn a couple of ways to either end early or keep going.  By 4.5 when I got to the mall, I was fed up and I decided to call it early and started to run through in a loop that would take me towards home.  I figured I would max out at 5-6 miles which wasn’t really what I wanted, but I clearly was not feeling it.

Thankfully, about 2/3rds of the way through a security guard drove up next to me and started honking to get my attention.  He told me there was no running on the grounds (it was 10:15pm, the mall was closed it was just workers getting out and going home).  So I said OK and kept running – I was heading towards an exit anyway.  He honked at me again.  I looked at him and said ‘what, I heard you, I get it, but I’m running out of here.  I’m almost out, and it’s not like my car is here for me to go to anyway.’  Then I shot off a way he couldn’t follow (in the car) and left the mall a few minutes later.

But the whole incident riled me up and gave me the energy to finish the full 8 miles to blow off the steam of the situation.  Saved by the security guard.

Test of Planning and Pain

The second crisis of the week occurred on Sunday’s long run.  I mentioned earlier that I was experiencing a bit of a knee issue the last few weeks towards the end.  Well this week, it started at 5 miles.  I walked a bit, I jogged a bit, I tried focusing on my gait a bit, but by 8 miles it was clear it wasn’t going to clear up if I kept going.  Since my whole plan has been to avoid serious injury I stopped.  No sense making it worse.  Unfortunately, I still had a 4 mile walk back to the car (as a side note, the total trip time was not a lot shorter than if I’d been able to run the whole 18!).  I was definitely feeling it even with just a walk.

Coming home, I’ve crashed into research mode. I’ve pretty much determined it’s almost certainly ITBS rather than PFPS (aka runner’s knee).  Some initial thoughts are:

• I already noted I was foot-striking differently (and worse) with the foot in question
• I let it go too long with my shoes.  I was under mis-impression that 500 miles was the point to replace them – further reading says anywhere n 300-500.
• I’ve definitely increased my hill-work and mileage as part of increased training
• My work related sitting posture and leg crossing could also be contributing

I am now wading through the non-PT/non-surgery options, and as per expected, there are plenty of ‘Do X!  No don’t do X!’ recommendations / anti-recommendations to be found everywhere.  I’ve ordered foam roller (for now) and IB compresison wrap (for later).  I am definitely on rest today and tomorrow.  There are mixed messages on cross-training, but the answer largely seems to be ‘try it and stop if it hurts’ so I may try moving back to the gym elliptical or stationary bike later in the week.  I do have a 5k race on Thursday that I signed up for.  We will see.  More on my plans and thoughts later in the week as I figure it out.

Weekly Highlights:

• Northern Iowa Week 13.  5,8,5, 18.  Well 5,8,5,8/12 (8 run/4 walk) for me.
• New shoes!  Racked up 450 miles on the old ones.  (I just happened to replace them this week, not because of ITBS).  Too late tho, since I was actually wearing them for first time when ITBS struck (and I don’t think they caused it – same shoe – the signs have been there).

Metric	Last Week	In Total
Mileage Run:	32.18 miles	561.16 miles
Longest Run:	12.11 miles	18.52 miles
Longest Run Time:	2:18:32 hh:mm:ss	2:47:44 hh:mm:ss
Longest Run Pace:	11:26 min/mile	9:04 min/mile