A string of threes

I'm not going to throw my arms up and ask aloud 'why me?' Things - good and bad - happen for a reason. Sometimes I wonder why now, why this month, why so close together, and why not something else.

I was involved in an accident while biking home from work on December 3rd. It was my fault and I wrote about it in my previous post. It made me think twice about zooming to catch that yellow light, but I still weave through traffic a bit to get in front of the cars waiting at the red light. And if it's all clear I'll cross and continue on my way. I am also fortunate to own 4 bikes - 2 road bikes, 1 triathlon specific bike, and the 'injured' single speed. So it was fairly easy to grab another bike off the rack and get to where I needed to go the next day.

The following week I had another 'blip' on the WTF radar when I had another incident with my bike. It was minor and everything was fine, but it got me to start thinking about #3 - when and where.

I didn't have to wait more than 4 days. I went along with my normal routine of work and then biking along I Street toward my PT appointment in the evening. I locked my bike up per usual - weaving the combination cable lock between the spokes, frame, around the bike rack - and took my lights as I headed inside for my hour long appointment.

An hour later my bike was gone. #3 on the WTF radar. I think I called this the 'are you effing kidding me' radar.

I should've known something was going happen. No, I DID know. Another accident? Sure, that's what I expected. I guess I'll take a stolen bike over a worse accident. Renters insurance will cover the bike, lights, and lock, and I'd rather spend a few days without a bike than days/weeks/months in the hospital.

So back to the rack for the second road bike. This is one is known as The Lemon as I've had numerous problems with it (mechanical) since I bought it back in 2002. It hasn't been ridden in years and I need to spend some time tweaking with the set up, but at least I'm able to continue biking to work without missing a day. I will, however, be taking the metro to my next PT appointment and not risk losing another bike.

The bike that was stolen was the first road bike I ever bought. I knew nothing about bikes, about sizing, about brands or components, but bought it because it was cheap and said it would fit someone 5'6" and 5'10". Worked for me. I put clip-on aerobars on it and got a shorter stem to turn it into a triathlon bike in 2002. After getting The Lemon it turned into my 'beater bike' since it wasn't as pretty as The Lemon (that's how much I knew about bikes) and I rode it all over the place. It hung silently as I got more involved in triathlons and kept its mouth shut when I moved on to marathons and later ultra marathons. Even with the SS joined the group he hung patiently on the rack knowing I'd come around. The Beater was right. And even if it was just for a brief reprieve, it was a good bike. There's obviously a lot of sentimental value attached to the bike, but it's replaceable.

On the flip side, I've had a bit of good luck happening. I had jury duty on Tuesday and was not selected, and I finally got the results from the biopsy I had over a month ago. I was told it was a 'moderate dysplastic mole' - it's not melanoma nor is it cancerous. It does, however, have a higher chance of turning into melanoma since the cells are still changing. I was told this is nothing to lose sleep over, and I won't, but I need to go back in a month or so for a second biopsy.

I would love to have my #3 on the good luck side of things be that my bike is recovered, but I don't envision that happening. Time to move on. I'm not going to stand around waiting for something good to happen, but instead I'll hop on The Lemon and enjoy the ride.

It's not a matter of "if", but "when"

Rain or shine, I bike to work. I bike to the boathouse for Crossfit, I bike a mile across town to physical therapy. I bike the 3 miles home. I don my cold gear, my rain gear, my helmet, my red and white lights. Good to go.

My route doesn't change. Creature of habit. I know the lights at rush hour and cross on red if I have an opening. Keep to the right and very rarely weave in and out of cars; around stopped buses and taxis, yes. Signalling my move with a point of a hand and a polite little wave of acknowledgement.

Smooth sailing. A 10 minute jaunt to and from work if I catch my green lights. Not if I do, but WHEN.

Occasionally I'll push my luck. I'll weave a little more than I should, or feel comfortable doing, but I want to get to the front of the line of cars. If I miss a light, my timing is off the rest of the way home. It's a slight irritation. My goal is to catch all my lights without having to stop.

I was in my cold gear, protective, single speed commuting glory yesterday when the "when" happened.

Car, meet bike.. bike, meet car. Now that you've met, pull over and assess the damage.

Doing so was a bit difficult as the driver (who I fully admit did have the green as I was 1/4 through my yellow/red, but didn't bother to slow down and realize.. 'hey, there is someone in front of me.. I should maybe slow or stop and let them pass, or maybe even honk my horn') barely spoke English. I'm sure her English is better than my Spanish, but she called her daughter to translate.

My rear wheel is tacoed - bent and unrideable. My bike is visually okay, but after a little closer inspection last night, there looks to be some small dents in the chain stay and seat stay. Her car is visually fine. She said it's making a noise and doing something funny when she turns the wheel, but I never heard her car running before rear wheel met front right bumper, so I couldn't tell you. I passed on my name, number, and email and will deal with it if anything is wrong.

It could've been worse for both parties. I was fortunate to stay upright on the bike and not have to test out my helmets noggin protection capabilities. She's fortunate to have a van fully intact. We're both fortunate to have insurance.. (I'm assuming she does).

Lesson learned. Slow the eff down. It's not a 10 minute commute home if I'm sprawled out on the hood of a car, in the middle of the road, or under a bus.

Offseason on Injured Reserves

Results from the x-ray were not very promising. Arthritis and degenerative joints were the verdict. Basically my L1-L5 are mad at me. Knowing there might be more wrong with me, I took advantage of a 'free injury screening' offered to the peeps in my tri club by a physical therapy place in town and schedule an appointment. I was able to get in this Monday and went through a series of walking, standing, bending, balancing, and 'does it hurt when I do this?' assessments. The doctor was baffled even when watching me struggle to turn onto my side from my back, and then back again. When she laid on my bent leg, knee to my chest, I about punched her through the ceiling.

Found it!

She asked where exactly it hurt and I couldn't remember. I blocked out the pain as quickly as it hit. Wanting to be specific, I had her lay on the leg again.. and then one more time before coming to the location conclusion of "everywhere".

Her diagnosis, on top of upset L1-L5, is an angry labrum. Not sure if it's torn, but that's for an MRI to find out, which I'm going to hold off on for a bit. I'm going to do PT for the rest of the month 2x a week as well as some homework (contracting my transverse abdominis as much as possible) and then we'll see how things are progressing. I don't have much patience so I might see if I can get one sooner rather than later.

On a related note, I entered the lottery this week for the MMT 100. If the labrum is torn I want to have the surgery done ASAP to start the recovery and start running again in hopes of making it to the start line in May. In the meantime I'll be getting in some workouts on the bike, erg, and possibly in the pool. We'll see how long I can do deep water running before boredom sets in. All weight training will be restricted to the upper body; no hip flex/extension is allowed. Bye bye squats, deadlifts, KB swings, snatches, push press, and push jerks. (I might try to sneak in a few light workouts, so stay close by.)

I'm keeping an opening mind and staying positive. I'm glad it happened now and not April 2010. Injuries can be a good thing; my body is telling me to slow down. I've been doing something wrong for awhile and need to correct it from the bottom up, inside out.

May 15h is circled. Sure, there are other races planned leading up to MMT, but this is the one I have my mind set on and will be gunning for.

The waiting game

I've been fortunate to avoid injury most of my triathlon and ultra career. Even with the hint of soreness, I'd bust out the foam roller or TP massage ball. Most of the time, stretching and rolling would suffice.

About a month ago I felt the usual DOMS post workout and it never got better. Foam rolling, massage, heat, and NSAIDS didn't seem to help. I took a week off of running and tried to start up slowly, but my glutes would seize up in the first 100m. I last ran a week ago and eeked out three 800m repeats before stopping before finishing the last two. I spent the rest of the night bent over cylinder of foam or with a tennis ball wedged under my right butt cheek. I would bend myself into bed, easing in my ailing right leg into a not-so-painful position and hope to stay like that the rest of the night.

You'd think I'd do more than take a break from running.. yknow, like take a break from squats and deadlifts.. but I did not. I continued with my Strong Lifts program, continued to deadlift, continued to do deep squats at more weight than I've ever been able to lift. It felt great to excel at something (lifting) when I couldn't excel at something else (running).

Taking time off is all find and dandy, but stopping everything completely would be a hard pill to swallow.

After being in pain for a little over a month, I finally got in to see my doctor today for 'sciatica' issues. After explaining my symptoms in length, she asked me to lift my legs one at a time, then wrote a prescription for an x-ray, for physical therapy, the name of a orthopedist, and for a muscle relaxer. I got the x-ray done and now I'm waiting for the results. Needless to say, when she calls with the results, I have a number of questions to ask no matter what the results are.

I also had a biopsy done on a small mole on the back of my thigh. Everyone is predisposed to a certain number of freckles and moles, and this particular one threw up some red flags when I first had it checked out back in August.

I'm sure it's nothing and I'm not worrying about it or thinking of the 'C' word. But having to wait a week, or even as long as the Monday after Thanksgiving, is plenty of time to play the 'what if' game. And so I'll wait for the results and do what I can to keep my mind on other things.

I wish I could lift, but I'm going to do my best to avoid any lower body lifting no matter what the diagnosis is. Swallow that pill and wait to find out what's wrong.

What I've been doing.. because you're lost not knowing

I look back and I realize it's been over a month since my last post. I started this post at 9am and it's now 12:30pm. I look at my drafts and see a handful of half written updates. I read the contents and remember the events, once fresh in my mind, that are now a distant memory. Even now I can't recall all that has happened between now and that last post, but will do my best to give you a 5 minute update..

- I helped crew for a friend at the Grindstone 100 the first weekend of October (crew report one of my drafts). It was my first time crewing for someone and I had a blast. Enjoyed the area so much that I'm considering running it in 2010.

- Took a trip to New Hampshire over Columbus Day weekend and listed to "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. A typical Brown book. Now who else has parents like my GF's.. we leave DC at 8pm, drive to NJ/NY and nap at a rest area from 12:30-2:30am, and get to her parents at 7:30am or so. We're barely there for 10 minutes and they're already asking what we want for dinner < insert > confused look < /insert >. Raising my hand.. ok we realized my parents are exactly like hers.

- Somehow managed to get injured that weekend after a 30 minute run. I did "Jackie" (1000m row, 50 thrusters, 30 pull ups) the day before leaving and somehow aggravated something in my butt. Wasn't the first time I've had the 'wtf' feeling in my butt, but that always turned out to be my piriformis, which some foam rolling and trigger point rolling cleared up.

- Aggravated my glute/hip/hammy two weeks later. It was to the point that sitting up, laying down, and rolling over left me close to tears. Was fortunate to get in for a massage the day before a big weekend.

- Completed my Crossfit Level 1 Certification Oct 24-25 (big weekend) and did no additional damage to injured glute. Continue to roll and TP massage it. The mix of pain and relief I feel with a tennis ball in my right glute is one I can't describe. I think the contortion of my facial muscles say it all.

- Busy mornings leading a couple classes at Crossfit Capitol Hill. Getting up at 4:30am isn't too bad. I have 15 more weeks to go.

- I've been biking to work every day on my single speed. Could that be the cause of my glute problems?

- Trying to get back on track with Crossfit Endurance runs, but can't seem to relax my glutes enough to have a comfortable run. Continue to foam roll.. and not run. Frustrating.

- I've been following the Strong Lifts 5x5 program. I'm on week 3. I'm thinking a weak posterior is why my glutes are hurting, so squats below parallel and dead lifts are on the schedule. I've also put on close to 5 lbs while doing it. Eek. I'm getting stronger, I'm getting stronger, I'm getting stronger.. is my mantra. I had a few 'slip ups' around Halloween with the family above gave us a ginormous bag of candy and I gave in to temptation. You'd think getting sick after that first binge would've stopped me from doing it again but it didn't. Finally my GF took the rest of the bag into work "for her coworkers". Uh huh. Out of the house. No more. Back to 80/20 clean eating.

- Along the lines of weight gain and eating, we've been making and canning our own apple sauce. I hope to get a pressure canner to can some sweet potatoes. I even tried making my own jerky. It only took 4 hours in a dehydrator I picked up from craigslist a few months back. It tasted... interesting, but didn't stop me from eating it. I gave a few pieces to the dog first and he didn't throw it back up, so I figured it was edible. I'm used to the stuff from Trader Joe's as well as the jerky my father makes, which he does in the oven. Next time I'll try a different marinade and see how it turns out. And, no, I don't wear an apron with my hair tied up in a bun while being all domestic.

- I finally made a doctors appointment for next week to get my butt checked out. I've looked up information about Piriformis, sciatica, etc, and need to stop trying to self diagnose myself and just have a pro look at it. Next step is chiro and ART. Hopefully that's it.

- I also have an appointment to get a biopsy done on a mole on my leg. I had all my moles looked at back in August and was told that one in particular should be looked at. Why they couldn't do the biopsy then and save me another copay? I don't understand. I'm sure it's nothing so I'm not going to worry about it.

- Plans are under way for visiting Seattle this Christmas. I can't say for certain that DC will be where I lay down roots for another 5+ years, so we want to look at other places. I'd like to take more than a map-and-dart approach to the decision process, but everyone I talk to says we'd fit in with Seattle lifestyle. Size-wise it's comparable to DC in population, has lots of outdoorsy things to do, mild climate, etc. Everyone talks about the rain. As long as they don't freak out when it rains (I'm looking at you, Maryland and Virginia drivers!) I'm cool. A negative about moving to the west coast is that it's more than a 12 hour drive to Michigan or New Hampshire to visit family. I'm not going to think about it too much just yet, but for now we're going to enjoy the city, visit some friends, and spend our first Christmas together. Hopefully our first of many.

Now you're all caught up until the New Year.

Back of of the pack

Here's my long overdue report from the Women's Half Marathon back on 9/12. I started it soon after and had to change the first line from 'this past weekend' to 'last weekend' to 'a couple weekends ago'. I'm not changing it anymore. Enjoy!

A couple weekends ago I completed the Women's Half Marathon for the second year in a row. It's a great event put on by the VHTRC and is used by many as an introduction to trail running. For my girlfriend, it wasn't an introduction to the Bull Run-Occoquan Trails as we've traipsed over the dirt and roots many times, but her first ever race, with a bib pinned on her shirt, road or trail. For the past few years she's been by my side, at the next aid station, and trudging behind or on separate trails while I was out training for the next epic fail.. er, adventure. She's hiked enough miles and covered enough ground that I figured she could do the WHM and finish before the cutoff. Piece of cake!

So after enough nagging, she signed up. She signed me up as well, and said if I wanted her to do this race, then I would have to run it with her. Fine with me. I knew it was the week after The Ring and had no problem hanging in the back of the pack with her.

We headed out to Fountainhead for some training runs, doing the first out/back of the Do Loop one weekend, and the out and back to Wolf Run Shoals another weekend. Training was pretty inconsistent during the week for the both of us. I think she's been hanging around me too much and picking up on my 'run every 3 weeks' motto! Needless to say, neither of us were in the greatest shape, but knew we would finish.

After chatting with a few friends and a morning ritual of standing around and not stretching or warming up much, we were off with the rest of the ladies and quickly took hold of the back of the pack on the opening road section. Since we weren't in a rush, we walked most of this section. Upon entering the trail, we walked more to let the burning sensation in her shins ease up. Eventually it did and we started a run/walk pattern on our way to the Do Loop. We had enough beverages and snacks for the trip and passed through with a quick 'hello' to the volunteers on our way out to start the Do Loop.

We were familiar with this section and moved a tad faster since the trail was well marked and we were without the dog, so no stops to pee/mark, poop, sniff, look at things, sniff more, and mark more. At least not as many stops. It felt like any other training run and not like a race since it was so quiet with no other runners around us. It was refreshing, calming and laid back, but would soon change.

We briefly chatted with the volunteers on our way out of the Do Loop as we headed back to Fountainhead. We knew we'd make the cutoff and continued our walk/run pattern, using a runner in front of us to keep pace, and made it with 10 minutes to spare.

This next out and back section is where we missed the solitude of the Do Loop. It's great that female only races are cool and can be awe inspiring, but enough with the cheering. Seriously. No I mean it. It's cool to be all rah-rah during a road marathon or a triathlon, but lose the pom pons on the trail. I don't need to know how good I look, how I'm almost there, how I should 'go girl!', how awesome I am, that I'm doing a good job, that I rock/roc/rawk, and that I'm awesome. Okay that was me at the end telling myself that I'm awesome. I ignored it since I've somewhat used to it, but I thought my first-timer GF was going to punch someone in the face even though she kept threatening "the next person.." between gritted teeth. If I know you, it's fine to exchange pleasantries; if I don't, a grunt or a nod goes a long way. Silence is golden.

We enjoyed an ice pop, and peace and quiet, at the 2.5 mile mark, and chatted with the volunteers (who we knew!) before heading back. We walked most of this section as the lack of training reared its ugly head. Any mention of doing the race again brought replies of 'never again' and 'I'm going back to crewing'. End of discussion.

So instead of saying she ran a half marathon, my GF can say she completed one as we finished together in a snails paced 3:35. She also has her own official race shirt so she can stop borrowing all of mine.

And once the pain started to wear off, she said to me, "Y'know maybe I will try it again next year." WHAT!?!? "I mean.. I have to beat my time. And maybe I'll actually train for it."

You go, girl!

Roller coaster of a run that ends in a derailment

I stopped at mile 56.

In the next breath, or under my breath, I'll say I failed at mile 56.

Around 2am Sunday morning, I wobbly stood up out of my chair, steadied myself, and was about to continue on before hearing, "Why are you going on? You're hurting and you're not having fun."

So I sat back down and finished my PBJ.

She was right. My feet were hurting me. I could feel the hot spots across the balls of both feet, my second toe on both feet were sensitive (blisters under the nails, I figured), I had hot spots on the outside of both pinky toes, and definite blisters on my right foot - on the inside near the ball as well as on the outside of my heel. Stopping to adjust the tongue and retie my shoes were helping some, but the water and salt imbalance and affected me again, ending my day.

I have mixed feelings about not finishing The Ring. I figure I was on pace for a 24 hour finish, but who knows if I would've been able to stay on track the last 13 or so miles as the state of my feet deteriorated. I was worse off last year at this point and forged on, but had my sights set on the Reverse Ring in February and had to finish in order to run that. Now there's no incentive to finish besides pride and an improved time.

There was some good to take away from it all, and that is how good I felt and I well I did up until that point. Weather wise, it was hot out and we were running up on the eastern ridge exposed to the sun most of the day. We were fortunate to have aid at miles 8.7 (Veach) and 13.2 (Milford Gap) or else everyone would've probably dropped at Camp Roosevelt (mile 25). Going that long in that heat would not have been a good idea, so we were thankful for all the volunteers who trudged aid to those remote locals. Hydration has been a problem of mine, so I had a plan to take a few sips of water ever couple of songs on my iPod. I knew I wouldn't be getting enough water, but I would be getting some consistently and not draining my 2L pack when I felt thirsty. I was also trying Clif Shot Blocks for the firs time, and had no problem digesting those in the heat. I did forget (or thought I forgot) my Succeed salt tabs. It wasn't until mile 35 (Crisman Hollow Rd) that we found where I had packed them. I had been getting some salt via the Shot Blocks and Pringles, but I wasn't OD-ing.. yet. I could still see the veins and bones in my hand, so I figured I wasn't retaining water.

I maintained my 'song for a drink' mantra from Roosevelt to Crisman Hollow Rd, but was a little more conservative since it was 9 miles that ran long with a sick climb up Waterfall with less than a mile to go. I wanted to make sure I had enough left at that point even though most of Duncan Hollow is exposed to the sun due to the controlled burn that went on in the Spring. A hot, tough section I couldn't really find a rhythm on, but mentally forged my way through. When I reached the intersection with Scothorn I moved as quickly as possible as well as took advantage of whatever water was available at the creek crossings to cool off my arms, legs, and neck to keep my core body temperature down. Every little bit helped and I was ready to go when I hit the turn at the south end of the trail and headed up Waterfall.

I was wearing my Garmin out there and it tracked my mile pace as just under 30 minutes. I was fine with that and kept plugging away, rarely looking up. I thought of a workout I did the other week - 3x through of 1000m row, 21 thrusters (65#) - that was really tough. I thought of how I felt during those thrusters and how this climb didn't compare to that awfulness. I would survive, and I did. My hydration bladder had about 1/4 tank left and I helped out a fellow runner on the climb who was overheating. I alerted the volunteers at the aid station and a couple of them headed out with some water to make sure he made it in okay. I know if I were the one in trouble, someone would've been there to help me.

At Crisman Hollow I feasted on fruit and a couple slices of turkey. I was also able to get a couple Succeed salt tabs before finding my own. I grabbed some more Shot Blocks and moved on. I had Kerns to cross before the sun went down and I was sure I'd make it with time to spare, but now the game was getting there as fast as possible. I was moving at a good clip before spotting 2-3 bears on the trail about 50ft in front of me. I stopped in my tracks and grabbed a couple rocks to bang together to make as much noise as possible to scare them off. It's my first time every seeing bears there and I figured it was the thing to do even if I looked stupid. When I figured they were gone, I scurried by and made my way across Kerns and down to the Moreland aid station at mile 40.

I ate fruit again (couldn't get enough of it!) and a mix of mashed hard boiled eggs and avocado. Time for a shoe and sock change, too. I was feeling hot spots and wanted to wipe down my feet and put on a fresh pair of socks. It was about 12 hours into the run at this point and my Garmin was almost done, so I switched to my regular Timex watch. I knew the iPod shuffle was almost done, but figured I'd switch out at Edinburg. As soon as I left I got the 'battery low' announcement. Great.

It was around 7:30pm when I headed out and went sans head light until 8:10pm. It was nice to run and make the climb in total darkness. Once I turned my headlamp on I was wishing I would've had my handheld light. The trail can be confusing even with blazes, but it was overgrown, and I'm lead by the look of the trail and not the blazes. Meaning I basically guess where the trail is and go by instinct instead of stopping to look for the blazes. I have a general idea of the trails pattern and follow what I think it right before looking for blazes. I wish I had the handheld since I spent a lot of time looking up and down - at my footing and for blazes on the trees - and was getting a nice kink in my neck. I moved as quickly as I could with a plan to get to Edinburg in 2:30. I got there in 2:44 at 10:16pm, which was over 2 hours faster than last year. I was doing well, but feeling blah. The ipod died 40 minutes prior and I was dehydrated.

Short Mountain just drains me every time leaving little energy to conquer the next section. When I was ready to go I got up and hobbled down the road toward the trail head - a mix of sore feet and looking like I had crapped my pants. I used my usual landmarks to know where I was and how far I'd gone, but wasn't moving quickly at all. I figured this section would take me 3:15 and I was walking a lot, to the point that making it in 3:15 would be close. I got to Woodstock in 3:10 and gingerly sat down and called it a day.

I'm not training for any late season 100 milers and I'm already in the Fellowship, so why go on? Pride? A faster time? Sure, but at what cost? The ability to walk was in the back of my mind, as was the potential damage I could be doing by covering 13 miles on swollen and blistered feet. I did it last year and I didn't want to do it again. If it were a 100 I would go until they pulled me off the course or I missed an aid station cut off time (MMT 2008). Not this time. Sounds like an easy decision to make, but I still wonder...

I'm happy that I was able to cover so much with such little distance running. Most people are regular 15-20 mile weekend runners, whereas I ran just about 30 miles total the month and a half leading up to The Ring. I did a few 5-6 mile runs as my 'long runs', but mostly stuck with intervals that totaled just over 6 miles. Some might say foot conditioning led to my drop, but I say dehydration capped with too much salt when I started taking it (mile 40). My feet, knees and ankles, felt fine until Moreland. I was moving well, strong, but I still wonder..

So much for dwelling on the past as I have to move on to this coming weekend and the Women's Half Marathon put on by the VHTRC. I will be running it with my GF, who will be doing her first ever running race - trail or road. It's probably good that I didn't do those last 13 miles as I had to save something for this weekend. Just out there to have fun and help her to her first finish.