Back in the Pool

Since my running is at zero, I figured I should do something other than just bike, so I'm back to swimming.  First swim today since the summer, when I did the Peterborough Sprint Tri.

Swimming and I have a love-hate relationship.  I don't hate swimming, but I don't really enjoy slogging over to the pool and dealing with all the people in the lanes.  It seems to get busier and busier (and the people in the pool seem to get more and more ignorant).

Today went OK, I felt like I remembered quite a lot (including things I do that I wish I'd forgotten!).  Focused mainly on position and form, as I'm pretty bad at it.  I felt good on my one-side drills, but as soon as I added the switch it all came apart like it used to, so still a lot of work to be done.

2012 and Still Shelved

Knee pain.  Blech.

I first hurt it at the New York City Marathon back in November.  It hurt, a lot, I pushed through it (you don't invest that much to be in a race and DNF!) and dragged my carcass to the finish.

I thought it was going to be a few weeks of icing and ibuprophen, then back on the horse.  Instead it's been dragging on and on with no end in sight.  Trying physio, but so far that hasn't given much in the way of results... so next up is what will no doubt be an excruciating massage.

The bright side:

• I wasn't planning to do a 2012 marathon, and certainly not a spring marathon, so the break isn't impacting what I want to do... so far
• I can still bike.  It hurts from time to time, but mostly it's OK... so I signed up for Paris to Ancaster again - my 7th year, wouldn't miss it!

The not so bright side:

• I'm scrubbing the Peterborough 1/2 marathon from my schedule.  I've done that race since I started running back in 2007, so a bit disappointing.  There's no way my mileage will be there and it's not worth the risk.

Hopefully this passes soon so I can start re-building the mileage.  It's going to be a long slow build, but none of my goals this year are based on mega-run-mileage, so I'm still hopeful!

There's no biking like snow biking

The days are too short, it's too grey, and where I live there isn't any snow... so it's all a bit dreary.  Worse, my knee has been pooched so no running.

What better relief than hitting the trails a few miles north where they've got the white stuff??  So up we went to Durham Forest in Uxbridge, Ontario.

Temperature was near zero, sun was out, and the snow is everywhere!

It was an amazing day, quite a few people had been through already so the trails were packed down really nicely.

No special equipment (other than a bunch of extra layers of clothing!).  Normal mountain bike tires got the job done.  I've tried going after a large dump of snow - then it gets really tough, but when there's not all that much it's kind of like wet sand.

Best of all - next week looks like more of the same!

Knee pain = Mileage drop-off

I'm still having some knee trouble...

Runs since marathon 3 weeks ago: 2
Mileage since marathon: 4.5km

Frustrating!

It was bothering me while biking at first, but that has subsided.  I was out for 2.5 hours yesterday without much trouble from the knee (a whisper at the end, but other than that OK).

I should get it looked at... but since it's been going in the right directly (ie. getting better) I have put that off.  I'm reasonably confident that my tight hamstrings are still at the root of the problem, so I'm working on that a lot.  At this point it's the end of the season so I can afford to be a bit patient with it.

Top Posts From This Blog

I'm a bit surprised at just how many hits my little old blog gets... over 36,000 since inception.  

Top blog posts from this blog (based on traffic):

1. How to build a Wood Bike Rack (1,852 views)
2. Calories Burned per Stair while Stairclimbing (1,107 views)
3. Did Lance Armstrong Dope?  (857 views)
4. Homemade Energy Gel (802 views)
5. Ironman Tattoo (775 views)

Kind of a funny mix of topics, no real connection between them other than they probably do well as Google search terms!

I try my best to make the blog interesting to people who stumble on it.  I know most people don't really care about how many miles I ran on any given week or what I had for dinner, so I try to speak more generally in the hopes someone learn something from either what I did right - or (more often) wrong!

It also serves as a bit of a diary for myself, so I can keep fresh the memory of various events and experiences.  

See, now I'm just being narcissistic again... very easy trap to fall into in a blog post, enjoying hearing the sound of your own voice.  I'll shut up now.

Hello Off-Season

Post-Marathon Blues

With the NYC marathon in the books, I'm officially in "off-season" mode.

My knee is still out of commission after the damage I did during the marathon... I pushed through the pain for over 10km, which did some pretty good damage.  It's getting better every day, but it will be a few days before I can bike or run.

6 days so far without any biking or running... I'm going insane.  It's such a big part of my life, it feels weird to not be doing it.  I'm going to go for a swim today just to get myself feeling active again.

Looking Ahead

Next weekend there is a 10 miler in Whitby, if I can get in a run or two next week I might do it.  I won't be racing it by any stretch, but as long as I'm not hobbling I might go for it... or go mountain biking instead!  Probably the latter.

The rest of November and December are going to be goofing around months. No training goals, just keeping active doing whatever feels fun.  I'll keep up a 15km long run every couple weeks, do some mountain biking, trail running, whatever I feel like!

2012

So much to look forward to, I can hardly contain my excitement!  Paris to Ancaster, Whitby 1/2, Moraine Adventure Relay, then Adventure Racing in July/August/September, maybe another off-road duathlon/X-terra... who knows!

I still have to get my sub-20 5k and my sub-1:35 1/2, those are two goals I didn't manage to achieve this year. Other than that, it's mostly going to be an off-road kind of year.

Yay!

Race Report: ING New York City Marathon

Incredible experience... I don't know how I could ever top that at a marathon, it was just so overwhelmingly awesome!  The crowds lining every street cheering (roaring!), the immense and awesome city of New York, amazing.  Worth the 4 year wait!

The downside - my time was way off expectations due to an issue with my knee.  Really disappointing, I trained and trained and my pacing seemed to be going so well.

Things I Learned That Might Be Useful To Others

• The assigned ferry time was really more of a suggestion... you could take any one you want.  Guess I didn't have to wake up at 5am!  
• The ferry terminals are far more comfortable that sitting on the ground at the start, so I crossed over and hung out in the Statten Island terminal.  Don't cut it too close, though - there's still a pretty lengthy bus ride to the site.
• They stick the wave 1 folks in their corrals waaaay before 9:40... I almost missed the announcement because it seemed too early, around 9:00.  
• Use the washrooms in the corrals early, because they move everyone up to the start line when you least expect it
• I was on the lower deck of the first bridge, and my Garmin 305 went all whacky right from the start... and one other time too, also on a bridge.  Use manual laps and a pace band, I'm glad I did!
• I don't know if this is a rumour or real... but other folks were saying not to go too close to the edge of the bridge if you're on the lower deck, as the runners on the upper deck pee off the side!!!  I didn't notice it, but didn't risk the edges either, so... who knows!  Better safe than sorry!

My Race

I was in wave 1, somewhere in the middle of the pack.  I took it pretty easy in the first mile as it's a fairly steep incline.

Other than the fact we were running in Brooklyn, there wasn't much to my early race - everything went as planned.  I ate my gels, drank the occasional Gatorade, and held a very easy-feeling pace (about 5:10/km).  Things were looking good.  

One funny moment - a group of Hasidic Jews ran across the road in front of me.  Quite the contrast, us in our little shorts and tight lycra, them with their traditional hats and hair things.  

I got jostled now and then by other runners, seemed hard to avoid in the crowds.  It wasn't a huge problem mostly, I always seemed to be able to go my pace and find room when I needed it.

Then we hit the climb on the Queensboro bridge, and my first twinge hit... hamstring started to feel sore and tight, followed by knee pain.  Not good!  This wasn't an unfamiliar pain to me, it was much like the ITBS I suffered with a few years ago, and every so often I've had some soreness... but why now?

It switched to downhill and the pain seemed to subside somewhat, I figured I could probably run through it.

When we emerged from the bridge, it was to the thunderous roar of a huge crowd!  It gave me goosebumps... several times actually!  The entire way up First Ave was just amazing, so many people cheering. I started to feel a bit of fatigue, and the knee pain was just there - didn't get worse.

... until we hit the next climb on the bridge over to the Bronx.  The pain got really bad.  I managed to keep my pace a bit longer just hoping it would go away, but then it started really impacting my gait and I just couldn't hold it.  I tried to back off to a 5:30/km, but even that became impossible.  From there on it was a death-limp-march to the end, and it was miserable... I scanned the crowds for my family, not wanting to embarrass myself by walking up to them was the only thing that kept me going!  My pace was awful.

I finally saw them at 25.5 miles - it was awesome!  I ran over and kissed my wife and girls, since my time was way over anyway it no longer mattered.  Lurched to the end in 3:55.

3:55!  I was thinking 3:35, 3:40 at worst, so this really sucked.  Nothing I could do about it, it's done and unlike shorter races that's it for the year.

After the finish line they make you walk another 4-5 blocks for some inexplicable reason... seemed to mostly have to do with bag check, but having not checked a bag this was a real irritation. 

Got home, went to check my time - didn't get picked up at all!  Not a single time split the entire race.  Hopefully they have the info and it was a glitch, although really it doesn't matter that much... it was bad.

Marathons and Me 

Even before this race, I had it in my head this would be my last one for awhile.  Next year I'd like to spend my fall with other things, probably more adventure racing and trail running.  The marathon is a big investment of time, and when it doesn't go right it's pretty tough to take.  Still, this experience will stick with me a long time, it was amazing... the lure of the marathon will get me back someday I'm sure.