Less, not More

So my mum and I let sense reign supreme on Sunday, choosing race spectating over race participating. It was fun (if a little chilly) to stand and applaud the broad spectrum of runners circling Central Park for the 3rd year in a row. I was disappointed, but not a bit surprised to note that NYRR still haven't gotten their act together to make the course more 'user friendly.' The 2nd or 3rd half marathoner threw her hands up in the air as she passed us, and shouted in disgust 'which way do I go?' All the various lanes and mile markers and lack of good marshaling is mind boggling. I still have absolutely no clue what motivates women (except perhaps Susan Loken) to run the marathon distance of this event, when there are so many other 26.2s out there to choose from.

So I'm taking a few days off to give my rear end a chance to heal. Thanks again for all the support and advice. I'm also working on a few stretches, kindly and expertly described by Chelle. I'm so damn inflexible that I'm finding everything aches terribly when perform any stretch at all; it's hard to know if I'm working the right spot! Now is the time I bitterly regret quitting the yoga.

Lent Update: Not one crumb of chocolate has passed my lips since February 21st! Two weeks still to go. It has not been as painful as expected - in fact I've even cut out other naughty foodstuffs in the process. Have I seen a shift in my weight as a result? Have I hell.

Bum Update

Well it's official: I'm injured. I stupidly went ahead and completed my 'test run' this morning - a 5 over the Queensborough Bridge and back. Every step of the way I felt an ache somewhere deep in my right hip. A set of lights finally brought me and my running partner to a standstill, and when we were free to cross the street I found myself stiff, and limping badly.

I feel very angry at myself, and my idiocy. I'm not quite sure what I did wrong, but clearly I've not been as sensible as I thought. And I pride myself on sensible. Maybe it was running an 11, after doing no more than an 8. Maybe it's the post-baby 'loose ligament' issue I was so desperate to circumvent, that finally got me in the end (pun intended.) Maybe it's just one of those sod's law things. Who knows.

Just as Mike suggested, the foam roller seems only to aggravate the problem. So I'm not sure what's to be done. I guess a trip to a doctor is in order (yuck.)

Nevertheless, my injured (& now sick to boot) mum and I limped our way through the race expo today, to pick up our t-shirt and goody bag. Not quite $40 worth, but still a decent heap of loot.

Pain in the Arse

After the 3-borough run last Saturday, I felt a distinct twinge in my right buttock area. My shorter runs since have confirmed that something is going on there, I'm just not sure what. Self diagnosis is prooving difficult. Reconciling butt maps such as this one with the expanse that is my rear end landscape is no easy task. I suspect the most likely candidate to be the piriformis, and I've been trying to work on stretches for it. Foam rollering down my right IT band is inflicting the extreme torture usually reserved for my left side - I guess the two must be correlated somehow.

Anyway, this places the More Half in jeopardy for me now too. I'll see how it feels on my Friday run and make a final determination then. More than ever before in my running life, I want to avoid putting myself in the 'injury zone.'

My step dad was one of the few stalwarts Saturday, running the 8K over ice and snow, just a few hours after arriving on a delayed flight from Scotland. Major kudos to you Scott!

The Return of the Tri-Borough Run

I missed these runs, there's something so exhilarating about them. I'm really looking forward to doubling their length later in the year.

The first half was slow and awkward, but by the time I hit 1st Avenue I was comfortably into a stride.

Throughout the run I kept thinking, this is a long way. A long, long way. A half marathon is a really long way. Damn - a marathon is a insanely far. How did I ever manage one (three)? It's funny how perceptions can shift, isn't it?

Happy Half Birthday

Thanks again for all your recent comments and advice. I didn't mean to suggest in my last post that I was hoping for a PR in the upcoming race - just that my time is going to be so far off, it will starkly highlight how much I've fallen back from my best, ya know? I think using the More Half as a training run for the Brooklyn Half is an excellent idea. Takes the pressure off a bit too...

Kyla passed the half-year point this week. I can't believe how fast time is going by now. It's cliche, but I know that in a blink of an eye she'll be going off to school/college/getting married... so I try to savour every moment I get with her.

As my half-birthday gift to our beautiful daughter, I am posting a fairly typical (if somewhat extreme) 'exchange' I had recently with a loopy woman. Perhaps in a few years Kyla will read this and be suitably embarrassed.

Conversations With Strangers, Part 3:
Crazy Lady peering into stroller: oh my, she is perfect, she is perfect, she is perfect! Her eyes are perfect, her face is perfect, her nose is perfect...
Me: Well thank y-
Crazy Lady: - the shape of her head is perfect, her ears are perfect, and those perfect eyes... (screeches) PERFECT!

Eleven Heaven

Actually, there was nothing heavenly about my 11-mile run Sunday morning, save perhaps for the near-perfect conditions (40F & sunny) but I just really wanted to use that post title! Nevertheless, it felt good to run further in one stretch than I have over the past 15 months. It wasn't easy and it wasn't fast though, and I now have serious reason to doubt I'll come anywhere remotely close to my half marathon PR on the 25th. That whole race is in jeopardy for me anyway, since my poor mum has recently joined the growing ranks of runners I know who are injured right now. So perhaps I'll hold off on my race return debut till the Brooklyn Half - which is actually where I PR'd two years ago. I love that course a lot; it's so much more interesting than the hackneyed Central Park route.

Maybe it seems stupid of me to race a half as my first, but I've had serious hesitation toward short races (& speedwork) since coming back to running. Though I joined my club for some track work the other week, I held back about 20% effort. I envision myself easily getting injured (or rendering my legs 'dead' for days afterwards) if I push the pace too much on such low mileage and limited base. Over cautious? Probably, but I don't care. I'm listening to my own common sense for once in my life. Let's hope it pays dividends at some point.

Fellow Hellgater/blogger Josh and I received our 15 minutes nanoseconds of fame recently. We were interviewed for the fitness section of the Queens Tribune. If you're interested, the article along with the worst photograph ever taken of anyone, can be found here.