Alphabet soup

Posted on October 22, 2010 by threlkeld

Well, since I can’t seem to get to sleep despite 3mg of Zolpidem Tartrate, I will post something.

I’ll post about a new game I play in the pool. I call it the Alphabet Soup Game. I “run” in a 25m pool, about half of which I can cover without my feel touching the bottom. So I am basically running in loops in a 6 ft wide lane for about 12m each way. It takes me around 60-75 seconds to complete a loop.

Time passes slowly in the pool. Very slowly. And lately I’ve found that wearing an MP3 player hampers my ability to keep up a steady effort. It’s a complete pace-killer for intervals/fartleks, just like on the track. Running hard in the pool is like running hard anywhere else —  it takes concentration and focus. So I’ve set aside the music and podcasts and now run in silence.

I have found with some experimentation that there remain some ways in which I can occupy my mind without slacking off on effort. One of them is a game whereby, on each loop, I choose the next letter of the alphabet and think of all the words I can during that loop, then move onto the next one with loop 2 being sponsored by the letter B, etc.

I also play this game when I’m trying to get to sleep — when counting backwards from 999 has not worked — and the same thing happens in the pool as it does in bed: I start off with a mundane, obvious children’s grammar book entry, such as “A is for apple” — and then immediately launch into some of the most obnoxious, obscure words. Words I’d forgotten I ever knew. I mean, I guess I’m happy that I have a decent vocabulary. But why am I coming up with words like “estoppel” and “egregiously” when “egg” would do perfectly well? I slip into themes too, where I’ll go on a psychological/brain journey and hop my way along related tangential words like they’re river rocks (“agoraphobia,” “amygdala,” and my favorite: “aquaphobia” — a fear of water found in the final stages of rabies. And in the early stages of pool running).

My standard pool run time is now 60+ minutes. After the warmup I can usually get through this word game at least twice, sometimes three times. 90 has been my biggest water run so far, and I did that one with music to reduce the shock. But on Sunday I’m doing a 2 hour run at steady ~75% effort, basically to simulate a long run. No MP3s. My vocabulary and capacity for free association will get a big workout then.

I’m becoming more efficient in the pool (meaning I cover more “ground” and I have had to increase my flail pace to get my HR up. I’m also adjusting the spin bike and elliptical machines to higher resistance settings these days since I’m much fitter on them than I was a month ago. Will this all pay off? I think it kind of has to, if one assumes that, at the very least, the aerobic conditioning will be applicable to running. I was also informed by Jonathan, in for him what was an uncharacteristically enthusiastic reaction (“Hang on — flex those again!”) that my shoulders, back (lats, especially) and triceps are making a statement when I enter a room. Some of that’s the upper body weight work. But I think most of it’s the pool running.

The visit to the new orthopedist went well yesterday, insofar as I was listened to quite carefully and the response was positive: “If it’s w, we’ll do x. If it’s y, we’ll do z.” The big surprise is that he takes my insurance, which I’d figured he wouldn’t. I’m so used to getting shafted by our insurance company and loathed by practictioners who grumpily accept it.

The MRI is next week. More news as it comes in. I’m sending Jonathan in to see ortho guy Tuesday since I figure he may as well get to work on fixing both of us.

I am hoping our diagnoses and recoveries will be easy as A, B, C. I don’t even care if they are painful and expensive. I just want them to work.

Uh oh. Can’t see straight. It’s time to make my way to my favorite horizontal space and start counting backwards…

Filed under: everyday life, injury, training, Uncategorized | Tagged: | 5 Comments »

Bumper stickers for pool runners

Posted on October 22, 2010 by threlkeld

Filed under: humor, injury | 4 Comments »

Houston Hopefuls on Runners Round Table…

Posted on October 20, 2010 by threlkeld

Whee! That was fun. Listen up! (Link to MP3 is at page bottom.)

The Runners Round Table: Episode 103 – Houston Hopefuls

Filed under: coaching, elites, injury, inspiration, podcast, racing, recovery, resources, training | Tagged: , , | 2 Comments »

A Hallowe’en run

Posted on October 12, 2010 by threlkeld

Sunday October 31st will mark 12 weeks since my injury occurred. I am a lot better now. No pain in the glute/hip/hamstring. I still have issues with my right adductor, but I’ve been applying Voltaren (gel) for the last couple of days and it’s clearing up nicely. This morning I could put on below-the-waist clothing items (Matt, this is for you: undergarments!) without having to sit down or lean against something for the first time in close to a month.

Tomorrow it’s going to be 50F at daybreak. Now that I have no pain, it’s so tempting to go out and try a run. But I won’t. I’ll wait until Hallowe’en and even then I won’t try it outside, much as I’d love to commemorate the holiday with a run in Sleepy Hollow. Running someplace nice is too much of a letdown if it doesn’t work out. No, the plan is to try a few laps at my gym’s indoor track — a 12 laps to the mile paperclip featuring 90 degree turns. It’s a horrible place to run anyway, so if I can’t run there, so what. I’ll try maybe half  a mile, tops. Just to see.

Then, if that works, I’ll try again — again, inside. I’m not going to run outside until I’m sure I can actually run for more than 10-15 minutes without pain or an altered stride.

I’m dreaming of doing a pain-free two mile run to just beyond Crestwood Station and back. That’s all I want now. It’s what I think about every day while I’m in that stupid pool. Just give me two miles by mid-November. I’m really not asking for so much.

Filed under: injury, westchester | 4 Comments »

Training: Sept 19-Oct 9

Posted on October 10, 2010 by threlkeld

As I type this, I am sitting in a chair with a block of synthetic ice wrapped around my right upper hamstring and groin. I’ve tried to avoid my naughty bits, but to effectively ice your groin (more specifically, adductor) muscles, you need to let things slide a little geographically, as it were.

You know, and I’m not saying this sarcastically, for once — the past few months have been amazing. I’ve met some kind and generous people, both in person and virtually (although I hope to eventually bridge those digital divides with many of them). Many have been a great source of information and support. I don’t know that I could have accepted my current predicament without them.

I’m now convinced that I have a stress fracture of the femoral neck. So, here’s something fun: when I was interviewing the elites at the Fifth Avenue Mile event late last month, I got the opportunity to talk with Shannon Rowbury. Another reporter was asking her about injuries and she mentioned the femoral neck stress fracture that hobbled her after high school. I asked her the what the symptoms (and progression) were and they were dead on.

Several of you mentioned this likelihood as well — and don’t think I forgot about that exciting reader contest. If in a month I can actually run without pain, I’m going to declare that diagnosis sound (and, I hope, myself cured) and I will randomly distribute the virtual loot accordingly to one lucky amateur diagnostician, as promised.

Being the biggest amateur diagnostician of all, I have concluded that all of those incredible muscle knots were, aside from being red herrings, a reaction to the fracture. Or maybe they’d always been there and I’d never noticed them because I never had a proper massage or bothered to try rolling them out.

The update on those is that they are all gone. Not only that, but I have loosened up my IT band (and broken up scar tissue that ran along the top part) to the extent that I can roll happily and pain-free, where in the past such activity made me shriek in agony. I can only hope that once I’m actually running again, all of this loosening up will mean a bigger stride — and that means faster running.

But back to my current stay in injury purgatory. I did a lot of walking/standing around Sept 22-26, in conjunction with the Fifth Ave Mile event (interviewing and then volunteering) and also for a new freelance project. I felt all that walking afterwards — the deep, gluteal pain was back and I was a little mad at myself for having pushed things. I took a couple days off (and used the car more), which helped. Then early this month I made a quick trip out to Arizona, so obviously didn’t do anything trainingwise during those days. Then got back and work was crazy again. I was tired from the travel and sleep disruption anyway, so I took off the Tuesday I got back without much guilt.

Now I’m back and can honestly say that I’m working my ass off again. I am averaging 2 to 2.5 hours of gymwork a day. I have rarely gone twice a day, but I may start doing so on days that aren’t as busy with work, so I can break things up a little more and enable some recovery.

It’s not only physically difficult to, say, do an hour of spinning, then stretching/rolling, then weights, then pool running. It’s also quite hard mentally. If I don’t get it over with in the morning, then I literally have to drag myself to the gym in the afternoon. By which time I’m in a terrible mood and seething with a mixture of resentment and despair.

How have other runners dealt with long term injury? I wonder about this. On one hand, I think that doing the alternate training helps because at least I feel like I’m doing something and I get to maintain the chemically-based mood enhancers that I have come to depend on getting from hard exercise. (You think I’m depressed now? You should see me without exercise.) But on the other hand, the whole rigarmarole is a daily reminder of the fact that I can’t run.

I got up this morning at about 7:00 and it was 52F out, sunny and dry. It was the kind of day that I would have loved to have run the 14 miles up to White Plains and back. I know I’m whining. I know it’s unattractive. I can’t help it.

Filed under: injury, recovery, training | 12 Comments »

Lots of good stuff

Posted on September 29, 2010 by threlkeld

So things are a little nuts.

I just started a sizeable corporate writing job, although I capped it at 20 hours a week. It runs through New Year’s Eve. Whee! If I gave you the description of the project, you’d probably wonder why I haven’t shot myself in the face by now. But in fact, it’s just the sort of project that appeals to me. I will be making real improvements to a big mess and the work taps into some of my obsessive-compulsive content strategist skills. I’m even getting to do a little on-the-fly usability work.

I’m putting the finishing touches on my second article for Running Times, the subject of which is “what do race participants want from their race directors?” Sound familiar? Yes, there was a reason behind that survey. To round things out I did some great interviews with directors of races both large and small, along with runner Kim Duclos, of Emerald Nuts Midnight Run gatecrashing fame. Unfortunately, because of tight space considerations, I could only use about 1% of their material. But maybe I’ll use it for something else eventually. That article comes out in December (Jan/Feb issue).

In the meantime, my first paid byline, a portrait of masters Marathon Trials qualifier Tamara Karrh, appears in the November issue, which should be hitting newstands and doorsteps in about two weeks. There is a companion profile for Karrh on Houston Hopefuls. That’s scheduled to autopublish tomorrow (I think — I put it on autopilot for a reason). Now I’m just trying to find the hours to transcribe and publish the latest excellent interview with Chicagoan Julie Wankowski. I may find those hours over the weekend as I…

…jet off to Arizona for a family get together from Saturday through Monday. I’ll have much time in airports and on airplanes. I am also hoping to do some work on the Fifth Avenue Mile elite interviews I did last week. They will take the same structure as my previous “A few minutes with…” pieces. Those seemed to work well and my questions are not tied to the event the runners were here for, so I can take weeks to publish them (much as I hate to). I’ll take this opportunity to say this again: professional runners are delightful people, by and large. They seem to like their jobs and most of them are, I suspect, brighter than the average person. When I find myself sitting there talking to one of them, I still feel like I need to pinch myself.

As far as what you have to look forward to, I had great chats with Shannon Rowbury (who won the women’s race), Leo Manzano, Molly Huddle, Alan Webb and Morgan Uceny. I’ll get those posted eventually. My one mistake with this race was not taking NYRR up on an invitation to sit on the “press truck.” This is a flatbed truck that drives along at the front of the race, outfitted with bleachers, from which gawking members of the press sit rearward, enjoying a panoramic view of the race as it unfolds. Well, that looked like a total gas, if incredibly dangerous. Yeah — like I said: total gas! My hope is that next year I can run in the race myself, go shower at someone’s apartment nearby, then come back and jump on the crazy truck for the elite races.

And there’s more. I’ll be at the finish line (and perhaps also along the course) of the NYC Marathon on November 7th, serving as aide de camp to photographer Stacey Cramp, who’s shooting the event for Running Times. I get a groovy press pass, a nice Asics jacket and entre to a big party on the Friday that kicks off race weekend.

And there may be still more. Later in November, Coach Sandra, who has several parallel careers, is agenting 10 elites from all over the place (people I’ve mostly heard of and, in the case of Adriana Pirtea, met) to a 10K race in her country of origin, the Dominican Republic. I may be able to get comped on travel costs in exchange for doing a writeup. That’s a big “we’ll see” at the moment, but it should be a lot of fun if it happens.

All these developments are almost enough to make me forget that these days I am a runner in theory only. But not quite. It’s been seven weeks since I’ve gone running. Since my insurance sucks, meaning my stratospheric deductibles require that I  pay out of pocket for things like MRIs and bone scans, I am going on the assumption that a stress fracture is what ails me and will take another 4-5 weeks off (or, rather, spend another month doing insane cross-training only and not running at all). Then I’ll try a run. It will have been three months by then. If I’m still in pain, I’ll bite the bullet and shell out the thousands required to look inside myself.

This was a long-winded way of saying that things might quiet down on this blog. But only because my offline life has gotten considerably more noisy.

Except for the running injury, everything else that’s happened is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to happen when I jumped ship from my corporate gig over the summer. Let’s hear it for leaps of faith.

Filed under: coaching, elites, everyday life, injury, olympics, poll, racing, training, travel | 7 Comments »

Training: Sept 5-18

Posted on September 19, 2010 by threlkeld

Yellow has always meant "day off from running". I am living in a world of yellow.

I was originally going to title this post “Cross-training: Sept 5-18” but then decided against it. Although “running” has always been synonymous with “training” the fact of the matter is that I can’t run at all anymore. So cross-training is my only training. Therefore, “cross-training” is now synonymous with “training.” I may as well drop the compound and save you a few milliseconds of download time.

A week and a half ago I joined a gym. Now I spend much of my time there. I feel like I’ve been going there for six months.

Cross-training is a total grind, let me tell you. It takes hours. There’s a lot to do: spinning, ellipticalling, weights and circuit training, general stretching/strengthening, and lots and lots and lots of pool running. And it’s all indoors.

Outside the windows of the gym the air is cool, crisp and dry. It’s perfect running weather. I have a terrible feeling that, after suffering through probably the hottest summer I have experienced since moving to NYC in 1984, I will miss the fall entirely and — if I’m lucky, that is — find myself out running in another brutal winter.

But I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. I need to focus on the here and now. The exploration into what’s wrong with me continues next week. Or at least I hope it does. The person Sandra wants to send me to is proving difficult to get hold of. In the meantime, I am bracing myself for the worst. Sandra is starting to say things to also prepare me for such eventualities. Things like, “I did this pool running for two months when I had IT band syndrome and ran a good marathon afterwards.” It’s helpful and not helpful.

I got incredibly depressed on Friday evening. Meaning “in tears on the couch with vodka” depressed. I don’t usually do this, but what set it off was trying to run and failing again. Reading about stress fractures keeping people out for six months was also a contributor. And, really, it’s looking at my race times and seeing that the last time I made any real progress was two years ago.

These days, I have a tremendous amount of time to think about things while I’m driving to and from the gym, and plodding along in the pool. I often find myself wondering why I’m so driven to continue. One insight emerged during an interview with Houston Hopeful Julie Wankowski (to be published soon) one evening this week. She described her first sub-3:00 marathon in magical terms. It was one of those rare, ellusive “perfect” races. Such races are transcendental (see also: Flow). Those experiences are among the few during which I’ve felt most alive, masterful and accomplished. I offered to her that those magical races are what keep us striving mentally, despite failure, stagnation, injury and other setbacks. And they keep us training. Or, in my case, cross-training.

Filed under: coaching, injury, strength training, training | Tagged: | 8 Comments »

Reader contest: guess my injury and win a prize!

Posted on September 17, 2010 by threlkeld

My coach is officially stumped by my injury. I am much improved and can do everything I want to do (and don’t want to do, like pool run) except run for more than 90 seconds. So next week I embark on seeking more outside help, from expensive people who I’m sure don’t take my insurance.

We both have several ideas about what’s wrong with my ass. Maybe you do too! To make the process of diagnosis a little more fun (actually, let’s face it: it’s not fun in any regard), I’m holding a “Guess My Injury!” contest.

It’s easy to play. Here’s how:

  1. Leave a comment below describing in simple terms (i.e., “Piriformis Syndrome,” “Illiotibial Band Syndrome,” “Brain Cancer”) what you think my injury is.
  2. From the correct answers I will randomly pick a name out of a sauce pan (as I own no suitable hats) and the winner will receive, by email, a Barnes&Noble.com gift card/pin number good for $25 in online purchases. Or at least I think they’re still good.

The contest deadline is whenever I get a fucking diagnosis.

Filed under: coaching, injury | Tagged: | 12 Comments »

Little progress outside. Lots of progress inside.

Posted on September 15, 2010 by threlkeld

I spoke too soon regarding being able to run again. On Monday I did a test run and made it all of two minutes before I had to stop. This beats 20 seconds of running a week ago. The pain was not terrible, but it was there. For the little that I was able to run, I felt really weird. I’m so used to running in the pool now that I felt like I weighed 800 lbs.

Approaching the six week mark of not being able to run, I am getting pretty depressed about this situation. Especially when I see things like the Houston Marathon’s Facebook updates: “Only 20 weeks to go! How’s your training going?” Fuck you, Houston! I don’t want to hear it.

I have more massage scheduled — this remaining knot is tiny, but it’s in a critical spot (deep in the right glute, at the juncture of everything that moves during a forward stride), so it’s enough to hobble me when running, although not while walking. A tiny knot shouldn’t be able to prevent me from running, so the next step is to go see someone to discuss a possible nerve entrapment issue. I’m working on that for next week.

I hate getting faked out like that.

But I’m making tons of progress on the cross-training front, in just six days. I’m a pro at the elliptical now, meaning I can run fast intervals (200+ strides per minute) totally hands-free. I can stand up on a spin bike without whining too much. But the real progress has been in the pool. Witness:

  • Session 1: 30 mins; 8 x 45 second surges with 3 minute rests. Total fast: 6:00
  • Session 2: 35 mins; 5 x 90 second surges with 2 minute rests. Total fast: 7:30
  • Session 3: 35 mins; 5 x 2 minute surges with 2 minute rests. Total fast: 10:00
  • Session 4: 40 mins; 6 x 2 minute surges with 90 second rests. Total fast: 12:00
  • Session 5: 47 mins; 6 x 3 minute surges with 2 minute rests. Total fast: 18:00
  • Session 6: 50 mins; 7 x 3 minute surges with 90 second rests; 3 x 30 all out with 45 second rests. Total fast: 22:30

Yes, it’s boring to read. Too bad. I need to have little goals while I do this stuff or I will lose my mind. Tomorrow I go for 6 x 4 minute surges with 90 second rests. I am told that I need to work up to doing 5 minute surges as the immediate goal, and eventually work up to 30 minutes of solid hard pool running. Khalid does this for an hour. I have a goal to eventually work up to that as well. Why not?

Filed under: coaching, elites, injury | Tagged: | 8 Comments »

Spinning: initial impressions

Posted on September 11, 2010 by threlkeld

First an injury update: I am so much better that I’ve been given the all clear to go to the track on Monday and attempt a run. I can run until I feel pain, or for 40 minutes, whichever comes first.

Okay, this morning was the third day of my gym-enabled cross-training odyssey. I was told to meet Coach Sandra for the 9:15 spin class. I have never spun. I admit that the first time (about 12 years ago) that someone said they “did spinning” I couldn’t imagine what that meant: spinning around and around? Crazy Manhattanites!

No, like most things it turned out to be a case of some normal activity having been rebranded (and made expensive) by someone much smarter than I. It’s more than stationary cycling. It’s Spinning®! See? Now you can charge a lot for it.

So I apparently did everything wrong today. I’m getting used to this. First I showed up to the spinning studio to find people frantically wiping down the bikes as if there’d been a toxic spill in there. I was trying to figure out if they worked there, but they definitely didn’t, as they resembled me. So then I was trying to determine if they were from the last class, or waiting for the next one. I think it was a mix.

My first question: why bother detoxifying your bike at the end of the class if the next person is going to detoxify it themselves anyway because they didn’t trust you to do it?

With some unease, I saunter over to a bike that’s not receiving this extended foreplay from anyone. I suppose I can claim it, but I have misgivings since people seem strangely attached to certain bikes. I start to adjust its seat and, just as I’m about to climb on, a woman (who was nice about it) comes up and says, “That’s my bike.”

Why does being in this gym take me back to Junior High shop class? I don’t know how anything works and I’m in danger of sawing my fingers off. I continue my strategy of asking strangers for help and she directs me downstairs to a desk where I have to ask for a bike. She helpfully adds that if there are none available, I can come back up and see if the person who claimed it doesn’t show up at 9:15. Then it’s mine for the spinning.

There are no bikes, according to the front desk guy. So I go back up and spot one lonely bike. Sandra is still nowhere to be seen. So I wait for 9:15 and climb on it. The music starts. What I’ve dreaded: I have no idea who it is, but it’s mindless, loud and shrieky. Fortunately, this club understands its demographic and soon enough they are playing Stones, Hendrix and (meep! bad choice!) Golden Earring. Take that, Gen Xers!

Sandra comes tearing in and finds the other sole bike, up at the front, near the instructor’s. (Can you guess why I didn’t take that one?) She questions me with a thumbs up. I return the thumbs up and we’re off.

The class starts. It’s led by a woman wearing something that looks like a customer service headset. She seems calm. But in five minutes she’ll be yelling at us: “Go fast! Turn the knob a quarter turn right! Stand up! Sit down! Position 2! Saddle!” It reminds me of the sole Catholic Mass I went to one Christmas Eve (don’t ask). As happened on that evening, everyone seems to magically know what to do when. I can’t make her out half the time over the din, and I always seem to be standing up or sitting down at the wrong time.

I pedal like mad and realize that standing up while pedaling is hard. At first I lean my forearms on the handlebars, but that’s tiring. So I figure out that you need to be very straight and move your feet as though you’re stomping grapes. It’s somewhat similar to the elliptical in that regard. I also realize that I pedaled too hard during the warmup (and my legs are shot from two days of elliptical and water running) and I’m already tired at seven minutes in.

The next 38 minutes go by slow. The music helps to distract me. I can see why it’s there. Plus we’re supposed to pedal in time to some songs — but not to others! It’s all very confusing. But I eventually figure out how to pedal while standing properly (and see that doing this at higher resistance is easier than at lower resistance). My thighs are burning, as are my calves. This is what is supposed to be happening. I will be spinning throughout marathon training — three times a week. It is Sandra’s substitution for hill workouts.

Then 10 minutes of stretching. Then 30 minutes in the pool, pool running again. I’ve gotten better with yesterday’s practice. But I’m told I need to go faster. If I’m not hurting, I’m not going fast enough. This is becoming a common theme.

Then, after that, it’s back to Sandra’s massage table where I am, amazingly, a lot better. Like at 95% of perfect. I have no idea what’s happened — whether it was the last session, or the pool running or what — but I have one remaining knot (the one in the gluteus) and it’s tiny. We will still work to get rid of it, but at least when I’m walking and doing all this other stuff, it’s not even something I’m aware of.

Even if I can start running again next week, we won’t do hard running until October. I like that she’s cautious, given my history. With all this other stuff I can do to maintain/build fitness, there is no reason not to be cautious.

Next week: the weight room.

Filed under: coaching, injury, training | Tagged: , , | 11 Comments »

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