#the only thing i regret is having to skip mgp

[inakanotori]

You can say I was productive today, but not in a way I needed.

[mardoesamarathon]

How We Got Here

Today, I should’ve been in Chicago, completing my very first marathon. 

... But, as you can see above, that obviously didn’t happen.

I’ve run several half marathons before and, up until last year, had zero desire to ever attempt a full marathon. Then I turned 30 and decided to start doing things that scared or challenged me (like getting into people management, buying a house, or running a marathon...). I put my name in the lottery for Chicago, deciding if it’s gonna happen, it’ll happen. And much to my surprise, I got an email last December -- I made the cut!

By that time, I was already training for the Austin Half Marathon (in March) and was happy I’d have a decent base when going into the summer months for training. I wouldn’t call myself particularly fast or hardcore -- my 13.1 PR was 1:53:something (it was literally a downhill race), but I like being athletic and figured now was the time to push myself before I got too, cringe, old. 

And indeed, I managed to stay in decent enough shape after my March race so that I had a base long run mileage of 9 miles going into the first month of training in June. Lethargy be damned! 

Even better, I powered through the ridiculous season known as summer in Central Texas and stayed pretty consistent in my training consisting of 4 runs a week throughout June and July. Sure, I was skipping the cross training day most of the time, but I figured I needed the extra rest day to recover from long runs (not to mention it made Mondays a little easier to swallow). And while I was doing the bare minimum long run mileage as recommended by my training program, I still was keeping up by the skin of my teeth.

But I was more and more intimidated by the increasing mileage of the training program. I knew training for the marathon was going to be hard work, but I instantly regretted not having a stronger base going into the summer. I felt underprepared and in over my head. To try and battle my confidence issues, I started skipping a “back it down” long run weeks in order to give myself more reps in “new” / longer mileage -- for example, I’d have a long run with recommended milage of 14 - 16 miles, and I’d do 14m (since the previous week I had done 12m). The following long run recommended mileage would be 10-14m, and I’d do 14m again to give myself another rep at that distance. Perhaps questionable... but I knew as a beginner, the more miles I could log, the better. Or at least, I thought. 

Cool story bro, but what actually made me defer?

Mid August I completed a 16 long run. I had just come back from vacation, and was supposed to do that distance the previous weekend but was unable to run, so I figured it wasn’t a big deal to just make it up that weekend.

At a water stop towards the end of the slog, I noticed my left shin felt a bit sore. I chalked it up to the heat, Austin’s hills, and the fact that I was tired AF. I powered through the last 2 miles and the pain didn’t come back until I stopped running again. Only slightly perturbed (feeling sore after these runs wasn’t anything new), I hobbled back to my car and iced my leg the rest of the day.

The only problem was, the pain wasn’t any better the next day (Sunday), or the next day... and I was supposed to do a 10 mile MGP run on Tuesday. And worse, I recognized these symptoms before, back from my brief stint playing soccer and high school and also from 2008, when I ran a half marathon in Nashville. I never bothered seeing a doctor either of those times, but I remembered how long the pain lasted then (spoiler: way too long).

Still, it had been awhile (more than 2 years) since I had chronic pain from running, and I had techniques learned from my running group to battle this kind of thing. So, I foam rolled all I could those 2 rest days, and then on Tuesday went for a quick 5 mile run in hopes it would loosen up my left shin a bit. I experienced very little pain during the run itself and took that as a good sign.

Except, it wasn’t. The rest of the day, the pain was even worse. I could barely put weight on my left leg. Walking was more like hobbling at this point. This was not good.

I knew my running group had a free injury assessment clinic we could attend that a local PT ran, so I immediately went to it that Thursday. The PT’s initial assessment pretty much confirmed my fear -- most likely achilles tendinosis (i.e. micro tears) of my left leg, closer to the part where the tendon meets the calf area.  Typical treatment? No running for 4 - 6 weeks and replacing everything with low impact cross training. A follow up trip to a sports doctor confirmed the diagnosis. At this point, the race was 8 weeks away. 

Both the PT and Dr felt the same way when I asked them what I should do about the marathon --- I could in theory try to replace the rest of my training with cross training and still try to run it. But given that I hadn’t even done a 20m run, most likely my time would be much slower than I’d be training for, and it could run the risk of making the injury worse. 

I knew that running 26.2 miles may be a once in a lifetime thing for me, and I also knew that my base fitness left a lot to be desired anyway. The decision was relatively easy (though not unpainful) --- deferral.

And here we are today, the 2017 Chicago Marathon race day. I’ve been in PT the past 6 weeks getting very painful soft tissue massages, doing calf raises, and riding a stationary bike. This past week I was finally allowed to run in 15 minute increments. Running again was wonderful, but hard (NO PAIN YET!). I have a long way to go, but I’m still here and determined not to waste that entry fee, dammit.

Going forward? That’s the question. I need to figure out realistic goals for myself. I need to figure out a well rounded training plan that I can stick to but keeps my fitness at the level REQUIRED to train for this thing without injury.  I need to run this fucking race, dammit. 

So, here’s to writing down the up’s and down’s of what’s shaping up to be a year in marathon training. Better start carb loading now.