For Some, A New Beginning

(Wow! It actually looks like I'm running instead of just shuffling my feet! Thanks for the nice action shot, Dave K.)

I don’t remember if I mentioned this last year, but waking up in the early morning and hearing a rooster crow in the middle of the city seems strange, but I’ve heard this sound in the past year when I was getting ready for AREC marathon training on Saturday mornings and I don’t know where it’s coming from. Does one of my neighbors have this chicken as a pet? Incidentally, one of the sounds of my talking alarm clock has is the cock a doodle do of a rooster but I don’t think what I’ve been hearing is a clock but rather a real cock.

After getting anxious last Friday thinking about how I was going to perform Saturday morning, I decided that I had to change my mindset to - just show up and run. I was worrying too much about what pace, how far, how am I going to feel, I hope it won’t be a repeat of last week, and so on and so forth. It’s terrible when what is supposed to relieve stress is causing me to become anxious. I believe it was just a matter of a lack of confidence having been absent from the activity for so many weeks and having a bad run the previous week. When I stopped overthinking the process, I felt so much better. I actually showed up at the start with a smile on my face.

I was planning on starting out early, ahead of the training group because I was going to do the Galloway run/walk method and I didn’t want to be the last person out on the course. Sometimes one has to make some adjustments after being in the middle of the pack in past years to the present time where I am now at the back of the pack. No matter. The same distance still had to be covered only taking longer. Well I changed my mind at the last minute and started with everyone else anyway. Off I go running the slowest pace I could possibly do, so as not to get winded right way like I did the previous weekend. I was slow enough that I skipped the first walk break, and the next, and the next. Well let me just say that I skipped all the walk breaks until past 6 miles. I was lucky enough to have been able to run with this Puerto Rican lady from about 4 miles on (I think she’s Boricua, but I’m not sure). Her name escapes me since the last time we introduced ourselves was around last November, and I’m not good at remembering names. She was also coming back from an injury and was game enough to tackle 10 miles on her first day back. I told her we were both crazy and she concurred. We mutually agreed that we were going to do the 4 minute run with 1 minute walk break after 6 miles since she was getting tired and I had to preserve my ankles. It was at 6 miles that we paused at Steve’s water stop where he offered some honey sticks. Honey stick? President Todd was hanging out at that water station and I told him that I could think of something inappropriate regarding the words “honey stick”. Todd said, maybe I should just keep that remark to myself. With that advice and a fist bump, Boricua and I proceeded down the Peninsula on Ocean Boulevard. Around 7 miles I could feel a cramp developing on my right calf but I managed to hold on. However, hours later as I write this, it’s still stinging. Well, to make a long story short, my unnamed friend and I made it all the way to 10 miles, even skipping the last walk break with about ¾ miles to go. Compared to my sallow look after last weeks’ unfortunate run, I was grinning from ear to ear again.

On a side note, I couldn’t help but feel joyous upon seeing Dona running again when I saw her climbing 6^th Street hill. She had been having a piriformis problem in recent weeks and had to stop running too. With Dona, Boricua, and me back into running, all is well in the world again. New beginnings indeed.

Putting on a happy face :)

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A Return To Running

The first part of this post is a precursor to what happened Saturday morning.

So I sorta jogged on the treadmill on Thursday morning. After a 20 minute warm up on the elliptical machine, I got up on the treadmill and set the speed to 4 MPH because I read Amby Burfoot’s blog in Runnersworld.com last week about his return to running from knee surgery. In it, he mentioned that it was indeed possible to run that slow on the treadmill. I’ve mentioned in another post before that I thought that treadmill speed does not seem to dictate what you are able to run on pavement. Like for example the 15 minutes per mile that I did on the treadmill Thursday felt like 11 minutes per mile on the street. However, the pace was so slow that I was even able to read the newspaper while jogging, which was okay with me because it kept me distracted from the amount of time I was doing it. In the end, I was able to complete 45 minutes which was indeed a pleasant surprise.

 Another thing I tried was eliminating the use of orthotics and just use my shoes which are already built for motion control. It didn’t seem to make any difference in the ankle pains that I’ve been having. It doesn’t hurt any more or any less, so that was also a surprise because I thought my feet would have lesser support.

 If I keep the pace steady and resist the temptation to run hard when my breathing feels good, there might be a possibility that I could run short distances once or twice a week. It would be a good break from my usual stationary exercises and bike rides. After all, one of the tricks to make your body to burn more calories by revving up metabolism is by varying your exercise routine. If I can do that, then I should learn to accept that it should be enough and not do long or hard runs any more. Running a little is after all better than not being able to run at all.

After the treadmill run, I walked barefoot indoors all day in hopes that it might help strengthen my foot muscles and tendons. I even ventured outside to the garage and the mailbox but the pavement was so hot, my feet felt like they were on fire. I hope I don’t develop blisters.

This brings us to Saturday morning. Until this past week I had not run for six weeks due to my ankle tendon pains and I thought I may never run again if the left ankle didn’t heal. The right ankle? Well I’ve given that up as permanently damaged. I wanted so badly to join my running club in their training the past two weekends even just to walk but I got so used to sleeping till 7 a.m. that I’ve gotten lazy and didn’t want to set my alarm to 5 a.m. But I did anyway and showed up for the Saturday morning run. The half marathoners were doing 9 miles and the full marathoners were doing 16 miles. No way was I going to be able to do those distances, so my plan was to run/walk for 6 miles since I was just starting over. Before we started running, I was able to catch up with a few friends about the goings on of the past several weeks that I’ve missed. There were no expectations on my part on this day, so if I ended up at the back of the pack or even dead last, I didn’t mind. So off we go and I started out as slowly as I can, resisted skipping the one minute walk break after each four minute run, went past the six mile turnaround point without complications, reached Donna’s water station at the corner of 6^th and Orlena Streets, went up the hill and didn’t come tumbling down to break my crown, and kept going because I always had the option of cutting the course or walking to the finish. I did neither and when I reached Deb’s water station, I figured I might be able to finish at least 8 miles if not the full 9. My legs felt heavy in the last mile but somehow my long-dormant muscle memory kicked in and propelled me to the finish. Even though my ankles were sore afterwards, it felt like a manageable type of pain. What a heady feeling it was to be back in the game! And I wasn’t even the last runner to finish! Nine miles may have been too much after a six week layoff, but such is the advantage of being in the company of like-minded people. You just can’t help but join them in their journey to the finish line.

Back in the grind and back in the pictures.

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