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This pretty much sums up how I've been feeling lately:



Yeah, it's pretty pathetic. No one wants to read that kind of crap.

Time and the training schedule

I was lucky to get in a good run before the rain started tonight. Tomorrow, during "wintery mix" weather, whatever that is, I need to get in a quick 4 miles. Sunday is long run day, if I've recovered from St. Patty's, the night before.

This week is the first week that I haven't felt like I've had to really squeeze in the mileage, and felt like I've been running like I'm supposed to, and I've felt like I've been running strong, too. I've had to alter my training routine to get the distances in, mainly because of how busy everything else is. Work is actually pretty good, now that the dark cloud has left our office. I've gotten a step up in responsibilities, which I like, but I've needed to put some extra time in to ride the learning curve a bit and stay ahead of the game. Budgets are tight.

In turn, this has meant that my running has taken the place of my commuting, for the most part. Instead of taking the subway home, changing, and heading off to the park to run with the Flyers group, I now start my training runs from the bottom of the park, do a loop and a half, and head home near the top. Unfortunately, this means that I don't get to enjoy the group chatter, but it gets me home earlier so that I can do some other work.

And that work is mostly Flyers work. Doing the newsletter and being on the executive board for the largest local running club in NYC really sucks up the time. Most of that is spent e-mailing people about articles (usually earlier in the month) editing and laying out the monthly issue (later in the month), or e-mailing people regarding board activities (all the time). It's a strange group we've assembled as a running club, let me tell you. In a good way, though. I actually enjoy the work, but there is a lot of it.

So, as much of my time is spent writing e-mails or reading/editing other people's writing, it figures that I don't spend too much time blogging anymore.

Oh yeah, and I'm training for a marathon. That kind of sucks away the time, too. I actually officially signed up for the New Jersey Marathon this past Monday. Got the whole thing out of the way: registered for the race, booked the hotel, and found a ride down to Long Branch, all within about an hour or two. Sure beats having the distraction of those things eating away at the back of my mind. Once I had that all settled up, it definitely improved my focus on my running, knowing I'm actually doing this thing. Unfortunately, I now only have just over three weeks until I taper. Not a lot of time to get in top condition. As long as during those few weeks I can stay uninjured, it should still be a fun time in Jersey.

Back in physical therapy.

Or physiotherapy. Whatever.

Anyway, it's not what you would think... but it's almost what you think. Well, sort of. It's kind of complicated. I went to the sports doc on Friday for something I'd been concerned about for a while, so we'll start with that.

My thumb hurts.

Yep, that's it. My inner knuckle on my right thumb aches when I move it in a certain direction, or put pressure on the outside of my thumb. Oh, and because I've gotten criticised for not having enough photos on my blog, I've included a picture of said thumb.
And can you tell I used to be a photographer? Such artistry! Such expression! Can't you just feel the pain?!?

Actually, it's not much pain at all; annoying at most, and it's not like it's debilitating in any sort of way, like it's keeping me from hitch-hiking across the country or anything.

But the problem is that it's been hurting for over three months! What a pain (really)! Anyway, so I figured it was time to get it checked out, and I called up the Good Doctor, and went in to see him. In the end, he told me what it was (but really I can't remember. It was like some kind of little pellet-type-of-thing in the joint that was injured. He figured that it would take quite some time before it healed completely, but that a couple of physical therapy sessions could encourage blood flow and speed the healing up a bit. Sounded a bit hokey, but insurance covers it, and his office is a two minute walk from the office on Union Square, so I was game. I made an appointment for lunchtime today.

Then yesterday, all hell broke loose. Or so I thought, anyway, which is all that matters.

My best 5K performance is a 20:10, or a 6:30 pace, which I managed to do at a race at the beginning of last May. At yesterday's race, I had no intention of trying to beat that. I meant to take it easy... I just wanted to get in those 3.1 extra miles to hit 50 miles for the week, which I did. However, I still ran a 7:26 pace or something, which is about 15 seconds faster than I wanted to. Being one of the four or whatever guys in our club who actually ran the race, I also managed to score for the team. Being in a race with thousands of runs always makes you want to run faster, though, and I should've expected this. I also should've done some kind of warm-up. And like every other race, nobody stretches afterwards, so neither did I. Needless to say, I pushed myself a bit hard running a race the day after my first 20-miler.

After a bit of runner socializing, I went home, did some work at the computer, and wrote yesterday's blog entry, which, as you recall, was focussed on whether or not I could qualify for Boston. And then I got up.

The pain that I suddenly discovered in my hip was enough to make me walk with a limp. It wasn't the sharp, shooting pain that had made me almost fall while running in Central Park last August, but it was pain, no less. It was a pain a little higher in the hip than the pain I had experienced throughout last spring and summer, but it was still in the hip, and it was the same hip.

Suddenly my perception of the world, my running world, changed instantly. Obviously, the bursitis was back. I had pushed myself too hard this weekend, and the injury flared up again. This was going to be chronic. My marathon days were over. Could I spend the rest of my running days maxing out my training runs at 10 miles, and doing 5 and 10Ks for the rest of my life? Would those distances satisfy me? What if it wasn't even the distance, but the effort? Maybe racing was not in the cards for me anymore at all! Was I sentenced to the life of forever being a casual jogger? Should I start swimming?

And I just bought that stupid $200 NYRR benefactor membership! Plus I have ten more newsletters to put out for the Flyers, and I don't even know if I can race with them anymore!

But lucky for me, I had scheduled that PT appointment. I can ask about it on Monday while they're giving my thumb a good workout. That'll do it. Maybe I could treat this thing and nip it in the bud.

I was still understandably distressed, but I tried to cling to a thread of hope. So I stretched, I took some NSAIDs, and I iced the hip.

By the time I got to work this morning, it was still hurting, but not as bad. And you know what? It really wasn't hurting in the same spot as it did before, so I got hopeful. I called the Good Doctor, explained my new circumstance, and they said he could actually fit me in right before the PT appointment. So off I went at lunch, and the Doc, did all the usual twists and pulls at my leg, and asked all the usual questions (Does it hurt here? Here? How about here?), and came up with just what I wanted to here.. um, I mean, hear: "It seems you pulled your hip abductor (also throwing in a few other muscle-tendon related references that I didn't really understand), but it doesn't appear to be bursitis. When you get your thumb looked at by the PT, you can ask her for ways to stretch this out, but it seems minor and it shouldn't keep you from running."

I kissed him full on the mouth.

Okay, not really, but it would have not been an unreasonable payment for his diagnosis (but thank god for insurance!). I would've rather kissed the PT, who was better looking than him and more, well, female. She was also a runner, training for Nashville's Country Music Marathon, which is the same weekend as New Jersey. She scolded me for not doing my warm-up and stretches properly, but the effect was lost, as she was daintily massaging my thumb as she did it. She then showed me some other stretches to do to strengthen my hip - a few of which I'd already been doing in pilates, gave me a Theraband to use at home, and sent me on my way. Tonight, I'm happy to report that both my hip, and my thumb, are already feeling much better.

So, is there anything to be learned from this little experience? I think so:

1. Don't forget to warm-up properly beforehand, and stretch afterward. We all know it, and it's that one time when we don't do it that we risk injury.
2. If you think you're injured, see an expert quickly, so that you're not jumping to the wrong conclusions. What you think the problem is may be totally off the mark.
3. Sometimes we need brutal reminders in order to take corrective action.
   
4. Getting a hand massage by an attractive PT of the opposite gender is cool.
5. Country music sucks.

Fifty miles, and the implications thereof.

As I hit mile 17.5 out of my 20+ miles on Saturday, the idea of attempting to Boston-qualify at New Jersey once again crossed my mind. With today's hilly Coogan's 5K race, I hit 50.0 miles for the week, and I realised that I could in fact, at my current modest level of increasing mileage, peak at 65 miles per week just before starting to taper in April. That, with a few more speedwork sessions, would probably put me back up to the level I was last year when I ran a 1:31 half at Queens. In fact with a marginal improvement on my recent Bronx Half of 1:34, according to this calculator, I would get a BQ by the skin of my teeth.

But do I really want to do that?

I keep questioning myself on this. I have kept saying that I'll do Jersey "just for fun", but why would I? Is there any point to running 26.2 miles and putting yourself through that kind of physical pain and torture without some kind of serious goal? If I'm training for a marathon, then wouldn't the whole point of training be to attain a PR at least? Currently I've been giving up on setting PRs (last week's four miler, for example) so that I can get the mileage in for the marathon. But it doesn't really make sense to put in all those miles and give up on the other races just to not set a PR in the marathon. I suppose if it were the NYC marathon, which is where I live, that would be one thing, but to make an effort to travel someplace, even as close as NJ, is more of an investment.

I don't know; I need to think about this and see how the training goes.

The Tortoise and the Hair

Extreme Self-absorption Warning. This post actually does relate to running, but I'll get to that in a second.

I got my hair cut today. I go to this place on Fifth Avenue because it's close to work, and I don't feel like I have to wear a bag over my head for a few days after they're done. That said, I still haven't come out thinking "Wow, I have to remember his/her name. I think I just found my stylist!" It's an okay cut. I might even go back to the guy again, if I can remember his name, come mid-April.

I used to have hair slightly longer than shoulder length, and had it cut short in January 2004 (the day before I got Medley), as a new year's resolution (along with "get a cat" as another resolution). After ten years sportin' the hippie look, it was time for a change. As you might expect, chicks dug the new do, and being a man of only a few primative motivations, I haven't gone back.

However, since then, I've often remembered why I grew it out in the first place: it was just so easy to take care of. I just tied it back, or let it down, and no problems. I didn't even have to wash it daily. Plus it was just much more cheaper getting cuts much less frequently. And now I have to spend money on, and use, "product". No guy should ever in his life have to use product. It's just wrong. Whatever happened to wash 'n wear? Anyway, if that "in-between" stage, between short and long, wasn't just so horrific (which doesn't bode well for playing the role of the "professional" at the office), I really would consider just letting it grow out again.

When it comes to hair, mine's a mixed blessing. I still have a lot of it, and it's still pretty thick, which is a lot more than I can say for many of my male friends in their late thirties. The trouble is, I've got streaks of grey, cowlicks, and a widows peak, so half the time, even when I don't have bed head, I usually wake up to some sort of amusement park on my skull. The first person I see when I look in the mirror isn't me, it's somebody resembling Astroboy. Even when I use product, I still feel like I should have machine guns firing out of my ass.

However, there has been an upside to all the hair thing, and that is this (here it is!): after a run, my hair looks awesome. I'm not kidding, it's the strangest thing (Sister Smile can vouch for me on this. She's the only other person who's noticed the pattern of nice-do-following-my-run). Even Wednesday night, when it was warm enough to run without a head-covering of some sort, I came home and reflected on my moptop in the mirror afterward thinking, "Damn that looks good. Maybe I don't need to get it cut on Friday." But alas, when Astro greeted me the next morning, I knew I had to go in for the chop.

Of course the awesomeness of my post-run stylishness is gone after I hop in and out of the shower. It is such a dilemma: look good but smell bad, or smell good and look my regular crappiness. Fortunately for my friends, I err on the side of personal hygiene (you're all welcome). It's not like I can run a six mile loop of Central Park, and then hang out at the bar, or go for brunch. Unless everyone else stinks, too, and with a running club those opportunites do arise, luckily. Anyway, at least I can have my post-exercise moment of vanity. I don't get many of them otherwise. And besides, it gives me one more reason to get out the door to train. Not that I really needed one.