Plantar What?

After my run in Preston Park, my heel hurt worse than after my 11-mile run. I was starting to become worried and frustrated.

In the days that followed, I would have my moments where the heel felt great and think that I was on the road to recovery. Alas, these would be followed by a bad couple of days where the heel hurt and felt like I was back to square one.

I have dealt with injuries before but this one was really starting to get on my nerves. I could feel my preparation for Lakefront starting to slip away.

Soon after we returned to Wisconsin, I had an appointment with my chiropractor/physical therapist. Since April, I had been going to Wisconsin Family and Sports Chiropractic to treat a sore lower back and a pinched nerve in my left calf. In the three months I had been seeing the doctors (a husband-wife duo), they had alleviated the nerve issue (more on that in another post) and drastically improved my back, more so with therapy rather than adjustments.

During my routine visit, I told Dr. Nick about my heel and he quickly shifted his attention to it. He poked, prodded, and pounded with his massage tool. Based on his assessment, he believed the issue was not a case of the dreaded plantar fasciitis, which, according to the Mayo Clinic, is "inflammation of the fibrous tissue (plantar fascia) along the bottom of your foot that connects your heel bone to your toes." This inflammation can require a substantial amount of rest to recover.

Instead, Dr. Nick believed the issue was related to one of the tendons that runs under the plantar fascia.

After a couple weeks of only taking Melanie for walks and avoiding my running routine (which I thought was best for speedier recovery), I was floored when Dr. Nick said "it should improve if you run." What? In fact, he expected me to run at least three times before our next appointment the following week.

A few days later, I laced up the runners and went for a jog with little or no expectations for a pain free run or feeling any better afterward. After my 3 miles, the heel felt pretty good. At the very least, the discomfort was not any worse. The real surprise came the next day.

To my amazement the next day, the heel barely hurt at all! Two days later, I ran 5 miles and two days after that, I ran another 4. I was not 100% pain free, but when I was out on the open road, I never thought about my foot.

I have had a couple minor setbacks with discomfort. One of these have been connected to trying to break in a new pair of shoes on a short 4-mile run. The rigidity of the shoes being the primary culprit for not allowing the foot to flex as much as it should.

A few days later, I ran 15 miles and experienced discomfort in my right knee and hip after mile 10 (I did not stop). Fortunately, this pain disappeared once I finished the run. The next day, I met with Dr. Nick and he said that the foot was still not where it needed to be and the knee and hip started to share the load. He sent me home with a couple of exercises to help stretch and strengthen the tendon. The following week, I ran a long-run of 18.6 miles and had only the normal muscle aches and soreness that comes with the distance. My foot did not flare up during or even after the run!

Am I out of the woods? Hardly. There is still some soreness and discomfort lingering but I keep doing my exercises and it seems to slowly be improving. I'll take it compared to how I felt in early July when I was seriously worried that I would have to defer the marathon until next year.

Preston Park

Soon after I completed my early morning 11-mile run, I felt some discomfort in my right heel. No big deal, it was just my achilles being sore, I thought. I did a couple stretches and thought a day or two of rest would allow for sufficient recovery.

A couple days later, the heel still hurt. Every time I stood up and put weight on it, I felt surge of pain. The discomfort would slowly disappear after I walked on it for a bit, but overall, the heel did not feel good.

I took a couple more days off. In the meantime, the only exercise I did were some core exercises each morning and walks with Melanie.

After about a week, the heel started feeling better, so I decided it test it. I was anxious to continue my training. By this time, Jody, Melanie, and I were in western Pennsylvania visiting family. On July 3rd, Jody and I took Melanie to Preston Park in the Butler area simply because we did not know the lay of the land.

Preston Park is an interesting venue, to say the least. According to one website, "the park is a gift of nearly 100 acres from the late Jane and Dr. Frank Preston. Dr. Preston helped found the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy." When we pulled into the parking lot, had an eerie feeling to it. There was not another soul in the park and the previous night's heavy rain gave the wooded area a rain forest feel. There were some old conservatory buildings that had not appeared to be used in some time. I would not want to be here at night. The trails were muddy and the grass was completely saturated.

I started off on what I hoped to be a large loop trail. Less than 2 minutes into my run, I came to a muddy washout. I did my best to cross it via some tree trunks, but eventually slipped off and gave my shoes a nice new coating of mud. It did not take much longer for the rest of my clothes to be completely soaked from brushing up against all the wet branches and grass. At one point, I called Jody and said "This is stupid." My goal at that point was to make my way back to the car. Jody, was somewhere else in the park, pushing Melanie in a little umbrella stroller.

I did my best to follow the trails but eventually got turned around. After a few minutes of walking back and forth and staring at my Strava map, I found concrete and, soon thereafter, Jody. I was able to run a little bit more, but the the excitement of a morning run had since dissipated. I raised the white flag at the 3 mile mark and we drove back to my parent's house.

How did the heel respond to the hike? Not well. Similar to last time, soon after the run, it started to bother me again. I would sit down and after resting for a few minutes, the first couple of steps hurt like crazy. For the rest of the week, I limped around the house. I would not run again for over two weeks.

20 Degrees

What a difference 20 degrees makes!

On June 26, I ran 6.12 miles at 11:30 AM, just about when the sun was at its peak. The temperature was about 81 degrees F and the sky was mostly clear with a light, breeze coming off the lake that teased my senses. I thought I should be able to knock out the 6 miles in no time. How wrong I was.

After the first couple of miles, my legs grew heavy and my pace started to slow. By mile 3, the sun had taken its toll. I needed to walk. I walked for a couple tenths of a mile, took a deep breath and started to run again. I'll be damned if I was going to walk the remaining 3 miles back home.

My paced was a bit slower and I had to walk again at the end of miles 4 and 5. When I arrived home, I was completely exhausted.

Pace of 6-26 run.

I guess I should not have been surprised by this result. According to this website, based on my height, weight, pace, and the fact that it was 81 degrees (F) outside, my body perceived the temperature to be about 110 degree (F)! No wonder I struggled.

The moral of the story: If it's going to be hot, run sooner.

If 6 miles was brutal in the heat, I could not have image what the next day's run of 11 miles would have done to me knowing that the afternoon temperature was supposed to be 84. So, I made a decision to beat the heat. I woke up at 4 AM (no alarm needed), put my contacts in, filled my CamelBak, and was out the door by 4:30. I needed to be back by 7 AM because Jody had to leave for work and I needed to watch the baby.

Typically, when I run a route longer than 10 miles, I usually eat a bagel with peanut butter about an hour before heading out the door. On this morning, I was not going to get up at 3 AM. Instead, I grabbed a few pretzels and drank a half of glass of water. That's it! During my run, I had one energy gel at about the 5-mile mark and a few pretzels that I had shoved into a plastic bag into my pocket.

I had some concerns that I might experience some linger effects from the previous day's run. These concerns never materialized. In fact, two hours after I started this run, I had never felt better after running 11 miles!

6-27 run. The pace is in blue and elevation is the grayed-out area on the bottom.

Flying Pig: Post Race

It did not take long for me to realize that something was seriously amiss soon after I completed the Flying Pig. Sure, I was sore and achy, but this was to be expected. Alas, I didn't feel very good and I could barely put any weight on my right foot, which I took as a bad sign.

Jody was in no better condition. She did the half-marathon ... while she was five months pregnant! Sure, she walked most of it, but she still did it with minimal amount of preparation! Amazing!

There were no post-race selfies. Jody and I limped back to the hotel; all we wanted was a nap and a shower before our six hour drive back to Milwaukee. Alas, just getting back to the hotel was feat that mirrored the race itself. The three blocks felt like 10 miles. Every curb looked like Mt. Everest. We were not sure if we could cross streets before the light changed, even if we had a head start. I swear I heard a few cars rev their engines.

After cleaning up the room, we limped through the hotel and to the car. Each step I took hurt like a @#$%. This was not the typical post-race stiffness. My right foot and achilles were giving me serious problems.

I returned to the office the next day. For some asinine reason, I scheduled a meeting with a student. I work on the fourth floor. I've only taken the elevator a handful of times and this was one of those times. I walked around the office with a serious limp.

Three days later, I was in no better shape, but I decided to try to play golf. It's probably a sign that I should have skipped the round when I knew I needed a cart for the 9 holes. I hate carts! You just cannot get in a rhythm with them. I also forgot that I had to walk around the greens. Fortunately, I was able to hit the ball without any discomfort, though mentally, I'm sure the foot affected a handful of shots. Like at the office, I limped my way around each green. I shot one of the worst rounds of the year.

I never did see a doctor about the foot, but I'm pretty sure I did significant damage to the achilles, possibly nearly tearing it. I vaguely recall having a couple moments during the race when my feet didn't feel very good, but I just chalked this up to the heat and overall physical exhaustion. Reflecting back to the run, I wonder if my shoes were not the right fit. I purchased them in the final weeks of my training. They were fine for short distances but I never tested them for longer runs. I demoted the shoes after the run and have only used them for walks.

My next run would not be until June 11, over a month after the marathon, when I had aspirations of running marathon number two of that year...

Flying Pig: Lessons Learned

When it was all said and done, I was not too pleased with myself after the Flying Pig. Sure, I ran a personal best, but it felt far from it and I was not satisfied with the race. The year before, when I ran Green Bay, I felt absolutely elation when I crossed the finish line having run all 26.2 miles and I still had energy in the tank. I wanted that feeling again and Cincinnati did not provide it.

So what went wrong?

For starters, my goal time of 4:30 was completely and unrealistic. I should have tampered this once I realized how much faster it required me to run. My goal of my next marathon will be much more reasonable: 4 hours and 40 minutes.

I started too fast. My first mile was very slow, in part, due to all the people traffic. The first few miles were fine but then I got cocky. My pace started to push 10:00 min/mile.

I felt good! The air was cool. The cloud cover was deceiving. The energy of other racers was high and euphoric. I was going to shatter my PR!

I should have known better, especially from all the long runs where I petered out after running too fast out of the gate and not having enough energy to get home.

By mile 16 I was slowing down ... and still had 10 miles to go! By now, the sun was blazing and the air was much hotter. The clouds had disappeared. Runners had gone silent and the mood was one of survival.

In short: I did not pace myself well and fell into the all-too-common trap of running a race I could not run.

As it turned out, my training plan was not right one for me. I followed plan from the Strava website/app that is based on McMillan Running. I'll talk more about this in a later post. Suffice to say for now, this was a 12-week where each week was a combination of easy runs, long runs, and speed intervals. Come race day, I believe this plan hindered my endurance because it did not prepare me for the distance, because it assumed I could conquer the miles. By the end of the 26.2 miles, I was hurting and could already feel my legs screaming for mercy.

Preparing for a marathon is more than just running. What I wanted to do but was never disciplined enough to do was cross-train. This means doing core exercises, upper, and/or lower body workouts, walking, or some other activity. Sure I played some golf (always walking 9 or 18) on non-running days (and even on days when I ran) but this sport is hardly what one would be considered "cross training."

Diet is another significant part of the equation. I wanted to lose 10 pounds for the race. I lost about 6. Close but no cigar. During my 12 week workout plan, I had moments where I closely watched what I ate but I also had a lot of "loose" moments, meaning I fell victim to my sweet tooth's voice and the wrong mentality of "I'm running 4 days a week, I can eat what I want."

In sum, a lot went wrong in the weeks leading up to the race and all of this only added fuel to the flames of the weather and hilly conditions of the race. Hopefully, I can learn from these experiences.

Flying Pig Marathon: The Race

Clear skies and 26 miles do not mix. As it turns out, bad math, over ambitious goals, and sunny skies (by the second-half of the race), really do not mix.

Starting line.

Per last week's post, my goal for the Flying Pig Marathon was 4 hours and 30 minutes (give or take a few minutes). Sounds reasonable until I mention the fact that this would have lowered my personal best time by nearly 20 minutes. Ha!

Even as I write that, it sounds silly. I've never been very good at math.

In order to knock 20 minutes off my personal best time, I would have had to run nearly a minute faster per mile ... for the whole race ... than I had ever run before. Not likely since I had only been training for about 12 weeks.

This goal set me up for a plan that was unrealistic. I thought if I ran the first couple of miles at about 11:00 min/mi, I could gradually increase the pace to reach the overall goal of 10:18 min/mi.

Not factoring into my goal time was the course. Cincinnati has hills. At least more than Milwaukee does. One hill in particular at mile 5 seemed to go on forever. I ran the hills strong but they definitely zapped my energy level. After the endless large hill, there were a series of rolling hills through some nice neighborhoods. The stretch was pretty it did not help my energy reserves.

And then there was the stretch on Route 50. It's been a year and a half since I ran the marathon and I vividly remember a few parts: the big hill at Mile 5, crossing the bridge from Kentucky back into Ohio (made for a great picture of downtown Cincinnati), and Route 50. Route 50 was the straw that zapped my back.

Route 50 is four lanes and we ran in one of the lanes on the southbound side. This stretch of the race was only a mile and half long but it felt like 10 miles. It hardly helped that it occurred at the 18.5 mile mark and, by this point in the race, the sun was high in the sky baking our fair skin. What skin escaped the beat down from above felt the wrath of the concrete as the sun's rays bounced at us from below off the concrete. There was no water along this route. The welcome relief of shade only occurred in the form of the overpass once we turned off the road and went under Rt 50. This lasted less than 10 seconds. I wanted to stop in this shady area, lay down, and let everyone pass me. Alas, I kept running.

By mile 22 I was still on pace for my goal. I was at an overall pace of 10:20 min/mi. Alas, to get to this point I had exhausted myself and still had about 10K left to run. By mile 22 my body had had enough and could run no further. I found myself run-walking the rest of the way home.

Mother nature did not help my race time. The race started with a lot of clouds but the sun made a strong appearance at about mile 10. The course had very little shade. The temperature pushed the upper 70s (and even higher along Route 50). To put his into perspective, during my training sessions in Milwaukee, I ran a total of TWO short runs in weather above 50 degrees and both of these were in the week leading up to the marathon! In short, my body (as well as my mental state) was nowhere near ready to run in "hot" weather.

Although 4:30 was out of the question, I made the best of it and still earned a personal best by a couple of minutes with an official time of 4 hours and 47 minutes and 59 seconds.

Flying Pig Marathon: Toeing the Starting Line

On May 6, 2018, I ran the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, OH. The rationale for such an early marathon was that Jody and I were going on a babymoon at the end of May (a trip to Utah) so I could not run the Green Bay Marathon. And with Melanie due at the end of August, I could rule out any marathon after she graced us with her presence. Thus, to keep my annual marathon streak alive, we would drive the 6.5 hours to Cincinnati to run 26.2 miles.

In the months leading up to the marathon, I thought I had a good plan. I followed a different plan than the Hal Higdon plans that I had used in the past. This plan was from Strava and included a lot of speed workouts akin to sprints and interval training. I thought I would give strength a try over just running miles, which is the focus of most of the Hal Higdon plans.

I had a solid 12-weeks of training. Heck, I only I only missed one workout and came up short of my target mileage in another one when a massive snow storm hit Milwaukee on the day I was scheduled to run 20 miles. Instead, of running outside in blizzard conditions, I tried to run 20 miles on the treadmill. OMG! Worst experience ever! I binge watched Bosch on Amazon but could only muster 17 miles. Not bad, I guess, given that I was bored out of my mind after the fifth mile.

When it was time to leave for Cincinnati, I felt pretty good and confident that I could obtain my goal of a 4:30:00 race. I had even started to carb load a couple days prior to the race -- focusing on eating extra bagels, pretzels, and drinking a bunch of water ... but not too much.

The drive to Cincinnati was smooth and easy. and our our hotel was only a handful of blocks away from the running convention and starting corrals. 

At the time, I thought this was worth a picture...

The pre-race dinner was perfect. A bowl of spaghetti, bread, and water. The weather was even looking good. Maybe too good. No rain, but warm.

Overall, I wouldn't say I felt out-of-this-world great, but I felt good enough that I could achieve my goal to run the race in 4 hours and 30 minutes.

New Shoes!

My last post occurred over a year ago. February 19th to be exact. I've been thinking of this blog for a while now and wondering if I should resurrect it. I'll be honest, I'm not quite sure why, but I'm hoping that it helps keep me motivated.

February 19, 2018 seems like a lifetime ago, and in many respects, a lifetime of events have happened in the nearly 500 days since my last post. On August 28, I experienced one of the ultimate joys in life with the birth of our daughter Melanie.

I also experienced the crushing sorrow that comes with the passing of a close family member when my sister passed away after a brief battle with cancer on December 15.

Both events put a perspective on what really matters: family. I never hesitated to keep the running shoes on the shelf for the past eight months (the exception being a Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot).

In the coming weeks, I will have separate posts about what has transpired during the lost days as well as what I hope will happen in terms of my forthcoming running adventures.

This year, 2019, year is a bit different from all the previous ones now have a giggling, smiling, happy little girl to watch over and entertain. Running isn't quite the priority that it once was. Alas, I need something to keep the waistline at bay.

Moreover, I've missed it. Sort of. I haven't missed the sore muscles, aching achilles, and stiff joints, but I've missed the runs where the neighborhood is quiet and still. I miss the sense of accomplishment after a hard workout or long run. I also hope this year will be different because I want my daughter can be a part of some of my runs (more on this in another post).

A few weeks ago, I signed up for the Lakefront Marathon here in Milwaukee. I'm rusty and out of shape, but there are about 16 weeks before the race and plenty of time to just run. Let the chips fall where they may.

Bring on Lakefront!