My month of training since coming back to Pittsburgh was awesome. Every workout, I hit the paces, the times, the reps-- I felt strong and consistent and confident. I was slightly less stressed about work, which made sleeping easier. I had more time to cook, since I wasn't commuting for an hour each way to the office. I had my awesome training buddies back, to push through the hard workouts and laugh with through the recovery miles. I felt like I was flying during our trackwork, which I normally always hate. My tempo runs were almost effortless. One weekend, I was a little foolhardy; Friday evening, I "jogged" a very hilly 19:40 CS 5k; on Saturday morning, I ran an 18:00 5k, complete with 7 miles of warm-up and cool-down; and then ran a 19-mile long run that afternoon when I realized I wouldn't have time the next day. A couple of weeks later, I jogged an 18:30 5k for $300 in cold hard cash.
At the end of September, the Hounds always run the Pittsburgh Great Race. This year was no exception; I was excited to race hard, given the consistency of my workouts. I had 2 workouts that week, so I wasn't sure exactly how I'd feel. I was pleasantly surprised with myself. I didn't go out too hard; if anything, I went out too slowly: the first mile was a 5:55, the second slowest mile of the race. I felt controlled as I strode down Forbes Avenue, a steep descent towards CMU, hitting the second mile at 5:30 pace, with M coming to say hello before leaving me in her shoelace's dust. Mile 3 was a bit flatter. I worked on a number of girls through the flat streets of Oakland, putting one woman who beat me the year before behind me, passed another girl who looked like she might be in high school, and striding up next to the woman who would be the first Master's finisher just as I hit the 5k in 18:00 even.
As I made my way towards the Boulevard of the Allies (the notoriously uphill, warm, and desolate part of the race), I buckled down and hit my pace for the 4th mile. I felt really warm as I made my way up the hill in mile 5, and I'd lost all sight of M, and no other women were anywhere ahead of me to chase. I definitely let up a bit in terms of effort, and while it was uphill, my split of 6:15 pissed me off. It angered me enough that my last 1.2 miles down towards Point Park (and the GIANT RUBBER DUCK:
) were 5:40 pace. I was so tired at that point, I remember leaning to turn and not being sure if leaning would make me turn 90 degrees quickly enough. My finishing time was 36:12, for 5th place, which I was very happy about. This was about a 20" PR; I'd been somewhat hoping for 36:00, but my real goal had been to make the podium (top 8) and I felt like I'd run a very strong race throughout.
After the Great race, I was pretty sore and tight, which is to be expected of the hard race effort, especially given the downhill course. It took me a few days before I felt up to a workout, but I did a nice 3x2 miles at marathon pace the Wednesday following. I did the workout on the track, at 5:30 AM, before I had to leave for the airport. It went really well, being a touch fast (1-2 seconds per mile) on each of the repetitions. As I flew to Philadelphia for the month for work later that day, I was excited for a month of focused research and training, with little else in the way of distraction. I was sad that I had to leave my training buddies so soon after returning to Pittsburgh, but I suspected I'd make up for most of that with ample time to train in a new city where I didn't have an established friend circle.
The first week in Philly went well. My workouts were awesome, I ran with a friend of a friend, and I felt like my summer focus on tempo runs and moderate speed were paying off. I did a 19 mile run with 9 miles sub-7 (averaging about 6:40, I think), which felt really, really good. My hips had been feeling a little tight, but I'd been foam rolling and keeping them in check.
The next week, I had a fun workout on Penn's track, where I was very confused about the distances on it (I knew it was weird, but I didn't know that lane 5 was actually the 400). I just ran for time and by effort since I really didn't know why my splits were all over the place at the "200" and "400". I did a little bit of strength on Thursday, because I remembered I'd been neglecting it as of late, and my hips had been tight. In particular, I did lunges, single leg lifts, clams, and my ab routine, all of which were fairly standard but I hadn't been doing the leg strength stuff with much consistency in the last few months. It was always hard to find a day where I wasn't either tired from just doing a workout or worried about making myself sore for my next workout.
Friday, I had one of my favorite workouts, 20x1:00 at 5k pace, with 1:00 "recovery" where the 1:00 is usually supposed to be somewhere between a jog (if you feel bad) and half marathon effort (if you feel like a badass). It went swimmingly, where most of my 1:00s of recovery were sub 6:15-pace. It was pouring rain with a hard, cold wind that seemed to be a headwind regardless of which direction I ran. I felt like a total badass. I also noticed that, in that weather, the normally hobby-jogger congested Schulkyll path had only the most bad-ass looking runners working out. We all shared in the camaraderie of our bad-assness of working hard in such adverse conditions. My last rep was on a slight downhill, making it easy to hit 5:30 pace for the first time during the workout. I felt like a total champ.
I stopped for a sip of water before beginnning my jog home. As I took a step back towards the path, my IT band twinged and I felt a sharp pain on the top of my kneecap. Shit, I thought. Shit, shit, shit. I assumed it was just a bit of tightness that would get a little better if I walked around. As I walked around, the pain did not subside. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! I told myself to calm down. I stretched a bit. I jogged a few strides further down the path. My knee kept hurting. Rather than running the rest of the way home, I walked gingerly. I stretched some more, did some step-ups and step-downs (part of my IT band strength set from 4 years ago, the last time I was injured enough to need to take more than a day or two off from running). My knee still hurt, just walking around. I iced it, did some foam rolling, and was pretty nervous. What have I done?
I went to bed that night, hurting and nervous. I woke up early on Saturday and called around to physical therapists in the neighborhood who were open on Saturday. I found an appointment. I went in, was assessed (though I told them I was sure it was ITBS, since I'd had the problem before). They had me do an assortment of exercises (mostly for glute and hip flexor strength, and some IT band stretching). I then had Graston, which, for those of you who are PT noobs, is colloquially known as "scraping". That wince you just had? Yeah, that's the right reaction to have to a procedure known in common parlance as "scraping". This technique involved one person holding my leg at stretch, to make the IT band as elongated and exposed as possible, and another person running down the IT band with pressure on a hard rubber tool, meant to "scrape" the tissue, getting blood flow to the area, aimed to stretch and break up scar tissue, and aid in healing any inflammation currently there. As the PT informed me, the IT band is the most painful place to have Graston, because there is no muscle or adipose tissue to protect it. As I yelped helplessly, I told him I usually have a quite high pain tolerance.
Skip to the next day, where L-sauce was visiting. I was really looking forward to running with her, since we had a long, hard workout to do (20 miles, with 6 of it broken in pieces of 6:30 pace, and the last 3 to max out effort at the end, gradually from 6:30 pace). I was super excited to do this workout in general, and with my main running squeeze L-sauce in particular. I was really, really sore from "scraping"; my leg was really grossly bruised, and my knee still hurt. I knew there would be no running.
Let's just say I went a whole week without running, went to PT 4 times in 5 days, and gingerly (on the PT's allowance) went for an easy 4 miles on Friday. They hurt. Not horrible, gut-wrenching pain, but a dull, persistent ache on my patella, telling me, "You probably shouldn't be doing this", over and over again. It didn't increase in pain during the run, but it didn't feel better as I continued, either. I had done my PT exercises just before the run, which I decided might have been part of the reason my knee hurt during the run; I had fatigued the muscles I needed active when I ran.
Saturday, in Boston, I did an easy 6 while I watched people rowing during the Head of the Charles. I noticed that running sub-7:00 pace hurt less than running 7:50 pace, which I though was weird. But my knee definitely still hurt, whether or not the PT had allowed me to run. Throughout the day, it hurt more and more, mostly when I was sitting with my knee bent, but also walking around and just standing still. I spent an hour foam rolling and a bunch of time doing my strength exercises, to no avail. And so, I decided not to do my 10-12 miler (which, if I felt good, was to be at marathon pace) on Sunday.
Frankly, at this point, I'm pissed. I worked hard all summer, I eat right, get enough sleep, don't add the miles on too quickly, and I'm still hurt. At the first sign of pain, I stopped and went to the PT. I didn't run through symptoms for awhile before seeking advice. I took an entire week without running, 5 of those days without even cross-training! I did all the right things! How am I not better?! I am going to see a sports medicine person tomorrow, who I hope will be able to tell me whether what I have is patellafemoral pain syndrome, or ITBS, or something else entirely. I want to know how long this is going to take to fix. I want to know if I'm supposed to run through pain or not. Mostly, though, I want to have a medical professional tell me precisely what I've already resigned to: that I won't be running a marathon in 7 weeks. Even if I were able to run 26 miles pain-free by then, I am sure I wouldn't be in shape to hit what I'd been hoping for (mid-to-low 2:50s). Ugh. I built this awesome base, I worked so hard, and now I'm totally wrecked.
Anyway, I'm writing this post trying to be somewhat optimistic. I understand that I'll probably be fine to run a spring marathon, maybe even fast. But I already bought a Boston bib, thinking I wouldn't A-race a full this spring, and now I may be stuck eating $175 or running a hot, slow marathon in the spring. That is on top of the money I've spent already for CIM. And, this sets me back another season. I was really hoping this race would go as planned, and that I would end up in the 2:52-2:55 range, putting sub-2:50 on the radar for my next big full. Now, I'll have to regroup and figure out when I'll be able to go for a 10 or even 5 mile run again without pain. I guess, in the long run, these things don't matter to anyone but me. So I have to remember that my life will be equally full of fun, and friends, and all of the other good things, whether or not I get to race in December; whether or not I get to break 2:55 or 2:50 in the next year. It's hard to keep these things in perspective. I'm working on it, but for the moment, you can find me using my frustration to destroy an elliptical in a city near you!
