Run for Haiti

Last Tuesday was the premier showing of  horror flick The Revenge of the Adductor Brevis, with twice daily showings in theaters in Sunnyside, Queens throughout the week. As one would have expected, I was the only person with a ticket to each screening–and it only cost me a week of halted training! A small price to pay, really, for the thrilling flashbacks and gutwrenching suspense created by the familiar scenarios throughout the movie. It’s like, you see the danger coming, you know what’s going to happen, but no one warns the poor girl, and she gets injured AGAIN. Or at least, since my adductor brevis muscle still hurts nearly a week later, I suspect I have reinjured myself.

I needed to test it anyway, after three days of rest, so I went ahead with my plans to participate in the Run for Haiti in Central Park on Saturday morning. However, I completely abandoned my goal of trying to break 32 minutes and just agreed with myself to run it at a decent effort, neither pushing nor ambling. No sense in risking further aggro to the AB.

Saturday was gorgeous, and wore my capris and sunglasses, even though I still needed to keep on my jacket since the wind was pretty chilly. The park was insanely crowded, with at least 6,000 runners queued up for the race, if not more. (It’s unclear to me how many folks ran in the park versus virtually). This was another reason I had abandoned my plan to break 32 minutes–I wasted a lot of time and energy the entire race (but especially during Mile 1) weaving around other runners who were slower yet ahead of me. I had to slow up many times throughout the race as I waited for a parting of the seas, so to speak, and once I nearly tripped a woman to the ground as I tried to get around her but she moved towards me and her foot caught my calf. I felt terrible but honestly, it is no fun to race like that. It’s not competition, it’s a melee. I think I am done with Central Park races for a good long while; I am happy driving to Eisenhower Park to run with the Long Island Road Runners if I feel the need to set a PR or test my fitness.

In any case, I didn’t feel quite myself during the race. I was bummed out that my AB was twanging at me, and I had to concentrate hard to be sure I neither coasted nor overextended. I tried hard to have quick turnover so as to keep my strides shorter and beneath my body. I guess it worked since I finished the race feeling warm and cozy from the effort, but never once did I experience sharp pain–neither in my AB nor in my lungs from running superhard. And wouldn’t you know it, I somehow managed to PR anyway, running a 34:56, an improvement of 19 seconds over my (now) second-best time from the Gridiron Classic in 2007. It’s always cool to PR, but it was a bittersweet record for me, knowing I could have really toasted the course if I’d only been at 100%.

As I was putting on my second layer of clothes along the benches around the bandshell, I started chatting with a guy who was stretching next to me. He was thrilled with his race (I was not), and said he PRed… in 34:56! He also said he was really happy to have PRed because since his last 4-mile race (the 2009 Gridiron Classic) he had made a complete recovery from… falling off a CLIFF! As I walked away from him, headed out to meet my Twitter buddies at the post-race tweet-up, I thought, what are the fucking chances I would talk to that guy out of everyone?  I suppose I should stop whining about my twingey AB, get on with taking care of myself, and just be glad I haven’t fallen of a goddamn cliff, literally or figuratively. Sometimes object lessons in gratitude come at times when I’d rather just continue to wallow.

PS, the Run for Haiti has raised over $400,000 towards relief efforts. Many thousands of runners participated virtually as well, including the Mammoth Track Club (the club of Deena Kastor, Ryan Hall, Meb Keflezighi, etc.). If you would like to race your own 4-Mile race to support the cause, you can register here. Your race must be completed and logged by February 24th, this Wednesday.

Arbor behind the Band Shell in Central Park.

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Ice Cap=Dunce Cap?

Got up expecting a slow outdoors run this morning, and unfortunately I was too sleepy to change course and get saddled up for a run on the treadie. Even though it wasn’t snowing when I started around 5:50, there was a layer of slushy accumulation which meant my feet were slipping with each step. By the time I’d run 2 miles it was snowing hard and a crusty strip of ice had formed along my hairline, where my forehead was plowing into the wind. By the time I’d run 4 miles a little snow-peaked cap of ice had adhered to the space between my pigtails (clearly, I was not wearing a hat). For safety, I was running in the street toward traffic in my life green jacket, and twice a car drove by with such malice–not closely, just meanly–that it sent a shocking spray of gray freezing slush against my shins. m

Adding injury to insult*, afterwards my adductor brevis immediately began hurting in that burny, not-just-muscle-sore kind of way. So I postponed Wednesday morning’s run with AC and made an appointment with the acupuncturist for this evening instead. Now I’m soaking in an epsom salt** bath as I type this, hoping that the pins, bath and day of rest will knock this pain out and have me back running this weekend. 4.02 miles ran in 40:04. Average pace 9:58; fastest mile 9:43; sloest mile 10:23.

There’s nothing like the unexpected visit from a friend you thought you’d long ago cut out of your life, eh?

*Just to be fair, I will admit that as I ran up Skillman Avenue on my second time around my neighborhood  loop, I looked up to see the black tree branches covered in fluffy white snow, and appreciated that beauty. It wasn’t entirely bad to be out running in the snow, even though I felt pretty stupid and embarrassed every time a car drove by.

**What the heck is an epsom salt anyway? The bit about tofu coagulents really freaks me out.

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Give It to Me Straight

So, what can I expect over the next month? I asked DN, my PT lady, as she rubbed down my left leg after my session on Thursday. DN had been bandying around the notion of 1-day-a-week PT, and slowly building up to pavement running, and I wanted to know how it was all going to play out. I was excited, but I was also nervous. I am concerned about re-injury, and about being dismayed at how much fitness I may have lost. No candy-coating, I told her.

DN confirmed that we’ll be taking it slowly.  First, she’s going to analyze my stride and make corrections for me to work on. Then, I’ll have to build up to 20 minutes or so of continuous running on the treadmill, then I’ll start with 10 minutes running on the pavement–flat pavement, no hills. Hills will come later. At the same time, I’ll be continuing with my strength, balance and core exercises, adding more difficult moves & heavier weights. Sounds like a second job, but hey–if it means I’ll have running back in my life, I will do it. And she said yes, I would most likely be frustrated by not having the cardio & aerobic fitness to back up my newfound muscle strength. So, even though I’m technically running again, I’m not in the clear–if I ramp things up too quickly I could aggravate my adductor brevis; and I’m certainly not past the emotional bummer of feeling physically weak and less-than.

I am glad, though, that she answered my question straight. Lately, I feel like the few times I’ve asked a serious question of others, the responses that come back are either wisecracks, evasive, or just plain nonexistent. Few things irk me more than having my big questions ignored, or dismissed–especially if I’ve repeated them, and explained how helpful and meaningful a thoughtful answer would be. It’s as if I’m being ignored, or dismissed. It’s good DN didn’t dick around, I’d have gotten mad.

This holiday weekend I am at the Poconos house with Husband and Matilda. Friday I laid on the deck in my bikini reading, yesterday I laid on the couch reading, and today it looks like I’ll be able to lay on the deck again. I’ve been taking 2-mile walks every day (that’s about as long as I can stand it without going crazy with boredom. It takes forever to complete a mile) to get my body acclimated to the pavement, and I do my strength/balance and core exercises on alternate days. Last night I had a non-drink with BG, my Pennsylvania running buddy, at the Pub in the Pines. I’d been drinking white wine all day (oops!) so by the time 9:30 PM rolled around, I had moved on to Diet Pepsi and water (not in the same glass). BG had a Guinness, and we talked about our injuries–he had shattered his collarbone just four days before I pulled my muscle–and our recoveries. He’s planning on a Fall marathon; meanwhile, just the thought scares the shit out of me. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said say I’m a little gun shy about the training for the epic 26.2.

Which reminds me–just want to make sure I’ve been clear, because it came up as a point of confusion with someone two weeks ago–I am not running New York (even though the plan back in January had been to run it with Brother); I am not running a Fall marathon. I’ll barely be healed up in time to begin training. Also, I am more interested in running London in 2010, and if I run NYC on November 1, I won’t be fully recovered before it’s time to start training again. No way am I putting myself back in that risky situation again; I learned the hard way that my body simply isn’t up for two marathons within six months of each other.

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