A Slow Recovery

Dr. Sue Aery told me to try running today, so I did.  After several weeks of merely walking, it was a strange feeling to once again park in the accustomed place opposite Founders Park and don real running gear - my CWX tights (more for stability and support than for cold on this beautiful morning in the upper 40s), my headband and gloves, and my newest pair of running shoes.  I walked the first mile, and then when I came to that one-mile stretch along our route which I have marked off in 200-meter increments, I gingerly raised myself up on the balls of my feet, and in an odd old-man-shuffling kind of way I actually ran 200-meters, and without any major discomfort.  Wisely, I stopped to walk the next 200, and then I tried it again, completing a total of four 200-meter "intervals" in all, at perhaps the slowest pace I have ever done.  But I was elated!  I finished up with a mile cool-down walk, and although I felt a few unusual twinges during that last mile, I arrived back at my car a happy runner.  If 0.50 miles entered in my running log entitles me to that status.

Thank God for this amazing body that can heal after injury, that can recover and become strong again after stress!  And what a gift it is to be fit and healthy, a gift that we runners often take for granted.  The biggest temptation now will be to increase mileage and speed too rapidly, but I do not want to undo all the good that the apparently successful combination of rest, massage, ultrasound, and acupuncture has accomplished.  I have definitely lost fitness and strength, and I feel this afternoon as if I have run 15 or 20 miles.  So I will rest and stay off my feet as much as possible, and let the slow recovery continue.

Highlands Sidewalker

Since my last post, I have tried to run again in fits and starts, but without success.  So I finally did what many of my fellow runners have done:  I consulted a professional.  The professional in this case is Dr. Sue Aery, who has a background in sports medicine (she was a star platform tennis champion) and who now runs Aery Chiropractic & Acupuncture.  Since my initial consultation on November 9, I have been treated with deep tissue massage, ultrasound, and finally two weeks ago my first-ever acupuncture treatment.  The acupuncture really seemed to be doing the trick for me, and I can now walk three miles without any discomfort whatsoever.  I hope that she will release me to run next week.  But this time I am not going to rush things.

But in the meantime, what a wonderful thing it is to walk!  Granted, I am doing 18-minute miles instead of 9-minute miles, I have gained two pounds, I am woefully out of shape, and I am becoming accustomed to walking on the sidewalk instead of out in the middle of the road.  But being out of doors in the brilliant, leafless early December sunshine brings the same kind of peace of mind that running does.

And what a miracle the human body is! - the process of healing and rehabilitation, so slow and sure, as I feel myself finally recovering.

'What a piece of work is a man! 
How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! 
In form and moving how express and admirable! 
In action how like an Angel! 
in apprehension how like a god! 
The beauty of the world! 
The paragon of animals!

Taking the Bitter Medicine

Letter to the Mayor:

"Pat:  I read your vivid description of your injury, and all I can say is OUCH!!!  Jeez, that must have hurt!!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, and we all hope to see you on the road soon."

Letter from the Mayor:

"Richard:  Thanks.  It is amazing how fast one can go into shock after a painful injury, and one sees one of their body parts in a discombobulated position!  It will take a long process, but I plan on a comeback."

Letter to the Mayor:

"Good!  Keep us posted.  I’m out for a few days with some tendinitis in my lower leg – too much mileage, combined with too much kneeling while pointing my new rock patio.  I kept coming back, running 2 miles, then 4 miles, then OUCH!  So I’m taking that bitterest medicine for all runners, Rest.  7 days tomorrow.  That’s what you need to do on a grander scale, but I’m confident you will be running again.  In the meantime, it must be pretty hard on Sally (as it is on Martha at this end)." 

And so that sums it up.  Seven days tomorrow.  My purpose holds to be uncharacteristically cautious and REST.  Rest that, paraphrasing the Bard, knits up the raveled sleeve of care.  And so this blog will rest, too, until further notice.  

If anybody is reading. . .

"Rest, rest, perturbed spirit" - Hamlet, Act I, Scene 5.

High Mileage Vehicles

We own a 1998 Honda CRV which has accumulated nearly 250,000 miles.  I could sell it for perhaps as much as $500, but it is worth more to me as a vehicle to haul rocks, sand, gravel, firewood and the like than replacing it with a pickup truck.  It also has a rack on top which enables me to haul lumber, so it is in many ways better than a pickup truck.  And it is a 4 X 4, which could mean a backup vehicle in snowy weather.  Looks pretty good from a distance, until you get up close and see all the wrinkles.  It has been in the shop from time to time.  And Jeez! - it sure makes some awful sounds, especially when it first starts up in the morning:  belts squealing, muffler rattling, engine straining and creaking to climb up the hill to the highway in the morning. 

 
That's what happens to high mileage vehicles if you don't sell them or trade them in - they just get older and older, drive shafts unexpectedly dropping out, strange lights appearing on the dashboard.  They are no longer reliable vehicles to take out of Town.

Very much like high mileage runners.  In the immortal words of the Grateful Dead, "They just keep truckin' on."

Injuries

In retrospect - ah, wonderful retrospect! - that ten-miler in my last post was a mistake.  I knew it was a mistake during the last two miles, and I should have stopped there.  But this runner is a stubborn creature and now he is an injured creature.  My e-mail to Vicki says it all:

I’ve been sidelined by a nagging injury – a little tendinitis in my right lower leg.  It seems to clear up when I run – I did a 9:35 mile yesterday as my second mile – but then hurts later in the day.  At least it’s not the other way around.  I remember running those perfect six miles with Art and you almost two weeks ago now, and felt race-ready, then missed some runs due to a stomach bug, and probably came back a little too aggressively to make up for lost time – typical mistake by a runner! – going a couple of miles on Sunday and then a hard 10 miles in the rain the next day (Monday).  I don’t want to wind up really injured, like Skip, so I’m probably going to back off on mileage and speed for awhile, and likely will not run the half marathon.

So that's the short story, and since this blog has few if any followers, it will suffice.  

But I do not know a runner who has not been injured, and usually it is his or her own fault:  too much too soon, inadequate warm-up or cool-down, etc.  How we deal with injury is what makes us real runners, runners for life.  So for my part, I'm going to the gym, walking, stretching, and taking that bitterest of medicines:  REST.

Gang Aft Agley

The famous line from Burns's poem certainly applied this weekend, when we had planned to run 12 miles.  First, it rained.  But a more serious obstacle for me was a 48-hour stomach virus that laid me so low I could not leave the house for two full days, finally beginning to recover on Sunday (enough for two easy miles down the road).  Imodium became a new and very valuable friend.  And I learned again the ingredients of the B.R.A.T. diet.  Who knows how we contract these bacterial infections?  A careless hand on the drinking fountain or the door at the public restrooms?  I am religious about using hand sanitizer after handling money.  Perhaps I overuse it, as MaryAnn suggested.  In any case, it cause us to miss dinner with friends on Saturday night, an evening with the Literacy Council on Sunday, and my final long run two weeks from the half marathon.

On top of that, it has been raining nearly every day, and neither of us is eager to run in the soaking character-building rains of the past.  But runners must learn to be flexible, and today the weather cleared for a brief two hours in the morning, enough for me to be able to complete 10 relatively good miles, although I have to admit I was pretty soaked when I returned home from the intermittent drizzle that would tease me, almost clearing entirely, then returning with renewed energy (usually where there was no shelter).  In the afternoon, another window of opportunity suddenly materialized as the radar showed clear skies and a chance of rain of 0% all afternoon (it was 50% as early as this morning, which is why I chose to take the chance and run then).  So as I write this afternoon, Martha is out completing her final long run, and in much better conditions than I had.

So perhaps after all we will have no "grief an' pain," or sodden shoes, at the end of day.

. . . Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,

In proving foresight may be vain:

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men

          Gang aft agley,

An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,

          For promis’d joy!

Goal Pace

Today I had some help from Art and Vicki as I ran what the little training plan I have devised called me to do:  run six miles at goal pace.  Martha had done the same yesterday, and both days delivered a perfect day for fast running - cool, clear, and slightly overcast.  Art (as expected) pushed the pace, but we averaged 9:54.  Since I was planning on 10:00, this was a confidence-builder.

Art commented that this type of run would be difficult all alone, and while acknowledging his help, I said it was also important to be able to run long tempo miles, or long-run miles, all alone, because essentially that is what you are doing in a race even though you have other runners around you.  Still, it is nice to have friends to help pace me, and I remember all the many friends who have done this in the past, as well as the times I have helped them in turn.