Plan B

It's been an interesting 2 1/2 weeks since AR50. I've gone through a range of emotions and my body has gone through a range of repair/rebuild.

The first week after running 50 miles followed by racing a 5K the next day went pretty well, even better than expected. I wasn't overly tired or hungry. I did one easy bike ride, one day on the elliptical and one 6 mile hike with my dog. The overall soreness in my legs dissipated by the Tuesday following the runs and if it wasn't for my injured leg I know I would have been doing easy runs by Wednesday. But not surprisingly the pain in my leg kept me from doing any running. In order to rest my leg I decided to do an easy hike instead which would allow me to spend some quality time with my dog as well. That was on Friday the 11th.

In addition to the leg injury, after the runs I developed pain along the top of my foot. It only hurt when I flexed my foot so I figured it was probably a muscular injury from flexing my foot with every foot swing during the run. However, I was surprised at how much it hurt during my hike. Between the pain in the foot, shin, and calf, I was pretty discouraged. I was able to enjoy the quiet hike through the woods taking in all the sights of spring wildflowers, buzzing insects (gnats can be so annoying this time of year tho,) and the sounds of the river flowing through the narrow canyon a couple hundred feet below me.

Soon I was at the trail junction and I headed down the switchback trail that would ultimately lead me to the waters edge. I had brought my trekking poles for added support and I'm glad I did.

South Yuba River

That canyon is so beautiful. You feel like you're the only person on earth and it's easy to transport yourself back in time to when miners roamed those hills and panned the river bottom hoping for any hint of those beautiful gold flakes.



First thing I did was find a nice flat rock next to the river, took off my shoes and soaked my legs in the ice cold water. In the meantime, Yuba got in the water and proceeded to try to dig up rocks under water. He'll stick his whole head underwater and blow bubbles out his nose. Often he comes up with a huge rock in his mouth. Soon tho, he decided he was more interested in sharing my pop tart.

Yuba

It didn't take long before my legs were numb from the knees down so I put my shoes and socks back on for the hike back out. My left leg/foot felt better after the soak and I enjoyed a little faster pace back to the car.

Nature's ice bath

By that night I was throwing up everything inside my body and thought I was going to die.

At first I thought it was food poisoning but by Saturday morning I had full body aches, my head pounded, I was completely exhausted and it took all my energy just to stand up. I would alternate between feeling hot and flushed to major chills. Unfortunately, Pat was at work and I had both girls. I explained to them that even though it was beautiful weather, we wouldn't be able to go outside and swing, mommy was really sick. Caitlyn immediately went into "Mom" mode and brought me pillows, medicine, and covered me with blankets. My real mom called to check on me and I immediately felt like I was 12 years old and wanted my mommy. I teared up and must have sounded utterly pathetic as I laid on the couch curled up in the fetal position. That pretty much sums up Saturday.

By Sunday Pat came home to take over kid duties and I spent another day in bed resting. I was feeling better but still exhausted. I think it was the combination of the 24 hour flu and the 50 miler catching up to me. All last week I was tired and lacked motivation to do anything physical. Finally by last Sunday (19th) I woke up thinking about a mountain bike ride. I took that as a good sign that it was time to get back on the wagon.

I signed up for an introduction to Pilates class and have been going 1x/wk for the last few weeks. It's very relaxing and I'm really enjoying it. I'm not a Yoga person, Pilates seems to suit me better but I still find I have to stop myself from laughing during some of the strange moves. But you do them right and it creates quite the "burn".

Pat and I went for a mountain bike ride yesterday and I actually found myself forcing the pace. Nothing over the top but it felt good to get my heart rate above 100 for once :)

So this all leads me to my leg injury. "How's it doing" you may ask. "Not well" I will answer. It almost seems worse. Now I expected it to be worse right after the runs but after 2 1/2 weeks of almost no exercise and absolutely no running, I thought the pain would start to dissipate. It's not. I have big plans of running the Big Sur marathon this Sunday with my cousin. Both families are getting together in Monterey to have a fun-filled weekend. But after a lot of thought (and changing my mind back and forth) I've decided that I just can't do the marathon. It would be stupid. And my physical therapist would kill me. Now I know I've been known to do stupid things before (look at the weekend of April 5-6) but eventually reality settles into my stubborn head (yes, I've been known to be a bit stubborn). I have a summer and fall packed with fun races I want to do and if I don't let my leg heal I won't be doing any running this year. At least not pain free. And that says nothing of the long term damage I could be doing to my leg. I have pin-point tenderness over the front of my shin that I'm convinced is a stress fracture but the x-ray showed nothing but I know they have been known to miss things.

I guess I have reached the point that Sarah and Addy reached long ago with their injuries. I have resigned myself to the fact that I just need to stop running for awhile. I will continue to do road and mountain biking and elliptical because that seemed to do a lot of good in February and March. My original plan on how to deal with this injury was to keep my fitness up with cross-training then just run the races. But I've found that what I miss most are the day-to-day runs, the short runs, the speed work, even the tempo runs, as well as the long slow runs. I want to get better so I can do all that again, not just run the races.

So I will head to Monterey on Saturday with my family to joyfully cheer on my cousin as she runs her second marathon. I will give her all my support and keep a genuine smile on my face even though I know it will be hard. I know I will want to be out there with her, running side by side, enjoying the incredible views along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Wow, What A Weekend

Yes, it was quite a weekend. It started out on Friday as I made my way down to Sacramento to pick up my race packet. As a thank you to runners for picking up their packets early, Fleet Feet was giving away another technical AR50 t-shirt, nice touch. My parents were coming into town from the Central Coast and we happened to all be in Roseville at the same time so we were able to have lunch together. Another nice treat.

Returning to Nevada City I made a stop in Penn Valley to pick up my race packet for Sunday's Daffodil 5K not knowing if I'd even be able to make the start. But I may as well keep a positive attitude.

After a restless night of watching the clock slowly pass the hours, it was finally time to get up and make my way to the Auburn Dam Overlook where I caught a bus with other runners to the start in Sacramento. During the ride it was fun to listen to all the different conversations going on, races people have been doing, hopes and fears for the coming day, etc......Surprisingly, I just seemed on autopilot. I wasn't nervous, didn't give much thought to the leg, and was just looking forward to getting started.

Start on Guy West Bridge

We exited the buses (there were 2 full size school buses to transport people) and joined the masses in front of the porta-potties. I then found a single propane heater that folks were gathered around. The weather was clear and cold and the heat felt good. Finally lined up on the bridge and Mark Tanaka buzzed by me rushing to the front of the line. I was lined up in the top 1/4 but it still took me about 20 seconds to cross over the timing mat after the gun went off. The path was narrow and crowded which forced a slow pace which was perfect. After awhile I remembered about my leg and pleasantly realized it felt better than it had in 2 months.

Crossing the American River

Things thinned out a couple miles in and I found an easy stride. To tempt fate I was also wearing a new Nathan hydration pack that I hadn't worn in any training. I know, never try something new on race day but the pack was great, comfortable the whole time with no chafing spots. I was very happy with it and it enabled me to not have to get water at every aid station which shortened my time at them.

Look who I found on the side of the trail, Helen and Norm Klein

I ran the first 30 minutes then got into a 15:2 ratio of run/walk which I kept for the first 27 miles of the race. The miles flew by on the bike path and I stayed on the dirt sides as much as possible to limit the time on pavement and that was helpful. I felt great coming into the Nimbus Dam Overlook at 19 miles, my time was about 3:20. The next section of singletrack up to Negro Bar was a pleasant surprise. I've always taken the bike path but the trail was a lot of fun. Had to make a pit stop along the trail (and try to avoid the masses of poison oak) and about 6 people passed but it was worth the stop.

On the bluffs above the River

Heading up to Beals Point involves some hills that I remember from the Helen Klein 50 last November. I stayed strong and steady but the miles were starting to take a toll. I reached the marathon mark in 4:52. After Beals we got on some rollers and fun singletrack going into Folsom Lake. A group of about 5 of us formed and we motored along the trail. I was keeping my time at the aid stations short and I was quickly making my way back onto the trail. This is when it got really hard for me. The trail became an endless series of ups and downs that made it hard to stay in a rhythm. Mentally, this was a low point for me. I had started to think that a sub 11 hour finish was possible but my slow pace through this section made me start to doubt that.

Crossing Folsom Dam

Finally I reached Rattlesnake Bar aid station and I was wiped out. A volunteer asked if I was ok and I could barely answer him because I was afraid of crying if I tried to speak. He asked if I wanted to sit down and I said "no". Chairs are purgatory at this point in a race. I was able to eat some soup and drink some Pepsi and that helped. I was really worried that the rest of the course was going to be like the last 10 miles and if it was, I knew I was going to have to dig deep. My time at Rattlesnake was about 8:25 so I knew I had 2:30 hours to go 9 more miles if I wanted to qualify for Western States.

I was able to make a couple of calls to my family who were unable to crew for me to let them know how I was doing. My parents were planning on meeting me at the finish with my 2 daughters and I wanted to give them an idea of when to get there. Hearing their voices and their confidence in my ability to finish this race gave me a huge boost.

After Rattlesnake, the trail flattened out and went through some beautiful meadows with outstanding views of the river. The whole course is beautiful and I wanted to take more pictures but I just didn't have the energy and I didn't want to disrupt my rhythm to pull my camera out. My attitude improved and my energy returned as I really started to enjoy the gently rolling trail once again. I was surprised at how good I started to feel again. I hit the bottom of Last Gasp hill and decided to plug into my MP3. I had been carrying it for 46 miles but not listening to it. To my surprise, as I started to walk up the hill my quads tried to cramp up. So far I had had no stomach or cramping issues. If I stayed in a run/shuffle my quads felt ok.

Final miles up Last Gasp

So I ran when I could, shuffled on the steeper sections and before I knew it, I was almost at the top. There was one guy behind me and my goal became to stay ahead of him. I picked up the pace, put a huge smile on my face and raced to the finish line and my waiting family. Stopped the clock at 10:39:18. It was a great day. I finished 293/467 overall and 17/30 in my age group. Results can be found here.

Me, Caitlyn, Sara, and my Dad

Now the goal became how to recover best for a 5K race the next day. I stiffened up considerably on the drive home and even the smallest stair became a huge obstacle. My injured left leg had given me no problems during the long run, it felt better than it had in the last 2 months. But now I was starting to feel it. I got myself into an ice bath and I had my whole family laughing with my pathetic yelps as I lowered myself into the cold water but I knew I had to do it. Had a pretty good night sleep with the help of some Advil PM and I woke up feeling pretty good. Then I tried to stand up. Ouch. I went outside and walked up and down the driveway a couple times then did a slow shuffle and finally a slow jog just to see if I could eventually run. The verdict for the 5K was a go.

Caitlyn waiting for the runners

We got the kids loaded up and headed to Penn Valley about 20 minutes away. Got there early because I knew I would need a long warmup. Saw some friends who were pretty surprised to see me there. I was surprised at how well I was feeling too. Especially how the leg was doing.

Feeling good (for now)

Almost 500 people were signed up for the 5k and 10K so there was quite a crowd. I started towards the front and the first couple hundred yards are downhill and the pace was high, too high. At the first slight uphill I quickly slowed. I was feeling pretty miserable at my inability to summon more speed but there just wasn't anything there. The fact that most of my training during Feb and March was cross-training with ZERO speed work was becoming evident. Oh, and the fact that I ran 50 miles the day before. Started feeling better at the turn-around and I was able to pick it up a bit. I just concentrated on giving it everything I had and tried to not look at my watch. Time didn't matter, effort did. I made the final turn into the park and there was a slight uphill to the finish line. I dug deep and gave it everything. Crossed the line in 25:34, good enough for 4th place in my age group, 44/209 overall. Results are here.

Ahhh, done

Me and my two fans

My friend Jenni who had a great race finishing 2nd in her AG

So now it's been a couple days. I was able to go to work on Monday but it was sure hard climbing into the fire truck. I can now do stairs without holding onto the hand-rail and I have an appt with my PT for my leg this afternoon. I know I didn't do the leg any favors by running on it but I was happy with how it felt at the time. Looking back, I am thrilled I was able to accomplish all my goals. Not only did I finish AR50 but I qualified for WS. Not only was I able to walk the next day but I was able to race a 5K. I don't mean that to sound like I'm tooting my own horn but based on my lack of running these last couple months and dealing with an injury, I just didn't know what to expect. I know what I wanted to happen but that's not always what does happen. I'm thrilled with how things turned out. Next challenge is a 5K race on April 26 and the Big Sur marathon on the 27th.

Tagged

I was tagged by Sarah to play a little game called "six word memoir".

Here are the rules:

1) Write your own six word memoir

2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you want

3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere

4) Tag at least five more blogs with links

5) Leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!


It was easy to come up with my 6 word memoir but I think this picture speaks 1,000 words. I'll have the story to go with the picture up soon.

Never Give Up On Your Dreams

I'll tag Addy, Gretchen, Mark, and Chris

2 Days to AR50

Well, I must say I'm pretty nervous about running 50 miles on Saturday. To say the least, my preparation hasn't been ideal. I've been cross-training around a leg injury since the end of January, I only ran a total of 25 miles in March. The cross training has been really good but there's just no replacement for actually running, especially the long run.

I saw my PT yesterday and we seem to have plateaued in my recovery. The leg is definitely better since starting therapy but now it just seems to stay the same, no better, no worse. I tried doing nothing for 3 days to see if that would make a difference and maybe it did, in a small way. I ran an easy 3 miles yesterday and the pain does lessen as the leg muscles warm up so at least I've got that going for me.

I hate to go into the run with the attitude that I can always quit if it gets too bad. If I'm going to subject myself to all the pain, emotional highs and lows, and chance of further injury, I may as well finish the dang thing and get a jacket for my efforts :) Needless to say, I've had to adjust my original goal of setting a PR from the HK50. I think it's important to have a couple of goals going into an event, a realistic goal you can live with and also a "pie in the sky" goal if everything goes great and you're having a real good day.

#1: Finish in under 13 hours to be considered an official finisher
#2: Finish in under 11 hours to qualify for 2009 WS100
#3: Be able to walk the next day

I have so many concerns that I'm afraid I'm going to forget that this is suppose to be fun! It's going to be a beautiful day, I love the first half of the course and am really looking forward to seeing the trails of the second half for the first time. I need to try and lighten up and enjoy the experience. But I'm a competitive person and like to finish what I start.

Until Saturday.................

Volunteering at Rucky Chucky 50K

(ed. note: results can be found here)

Yesterday dawned beautiful as I arrived in Foresthill at 7:00am. It was hard seeing runners preparing themselves for a fun (and for some, long) day on the trail knowing I wasn't to join them. But I quickly found myself handing out t-shirts and finally being able to put faces to so many of the wonderful names I've read about in the ultrarunning circle.


Beverly Anderson-Abbs was there ready to destroy the course. Popular bloggers Scott Dunlap, Peter Lubbers, and Mark Tanaka were also there sporting nifty camelbacks. Lots of talk about the first (and last) 14 miles being without aid due to the inability to reach the aid station because of winter rains washing out the road. But one thing about ultrarunners, they tend to be self-sufficient and able to deal with adversity when needed.

From l: ? (sorry), Bev A-A, and Scott Dunlap

After a short speech by RD Robert Mathis, the runners headed off down Main St; next stop Rucky Chucky!

RD Robert talking about the importance of water

Mark prepping his watch

And they're off!

I hadn't given much thought to what happens at an ultrarun after the runners take off. Usually it's pretty straight forward for me, you run until you finish. Being on the other side of the coin as a volunteer opened my eyes to what goes into putting on one of these events. It's all about the food! Lots of food. After getting the raffle prizes sorted out, I found myself on KP duty, preparing chili, spaghetti, green beans, salad and a myriad of other things. A young boy whose parents were both running was in charge of the Cuisinart and he was happy to cut up anything we could give him. He was a big help. Before we knew it, we had about 8 crock-pots full of food, warmed and ready for the 111 runners who took off about 4 1/2 hours earlier (there were 85 solo runners, and 13 relay teams of two).

Linda Mathis, Linda Bennett, and Matt on KP duty

Sorting out the raffle prizes

With the food preparation done, we got ready for the finish. Francesca Stone, her friend Isabella (?), and myself were in charge of recording runners and their times as they finished. I was in charge of keeping track of over-all winners plus age groupers. The runners were kind enough to space themselves out nicely that it was never a problem keeping track of everyone.

Mark finishing strong

Mark Tanaka was the first solo runner to make his way back up Main St in 4:43. He was full of smiles and seemed quite surprised that he had won. His quote: "if I'd known I was going to win I wouldn't have snowboarded so hard yesterday". He cracks me up. His phone didn't get any cell reception so I loaned him mine so he could call his family and tell them the good news. It was fun getting to know him after reading his hilarious stories on his blog.

Hey honey, guess what!

Beverly Anderson-Abbs was the first woman to finish and was 3rd over-all in 4:50. What an incredible athlete. After getting cleaned up she parked herself near the finish line to watch others finish and visit.



It soon became apparent that the weather was taking its toll on runners as the day warmed up. Most of the time there was a nice up-canyon breeze blowing that I hope psychologically helped propel runners up the hill. Scott Dunlap finished a little slower than I expected (but then that's silly because I really didn't have any idea what to expect and it turns out he finished 4 minutes faster than 2005) and after hearing his story, I understand why. I'll let him explain his trailside antics on his blog. Let me just say that a couple hours after he finished, he was still sitting at the same table where he planted himself after the finish :)

Scott Dunlap finishes in 5:17

Peter Lubbers stops his watch at 5:45

Around 3:30 I decided to call it a day and get home to my family for some easter egg decorating. I really missed not running but I know I made the right decision. Especially after seeing how much I was able to help. It really made me feel good knowing I was able to take some of the load off of Robert and Linda who do so much for the sport of ultrarunning. Hopefully, the next time I see them will be as a runner. But in the meantime, I encourage anyone who has the chance to, volunteer at an event. It'll open your eyes.

Running Update

Hey folks. Some of you may have noticed on the right side of my blog under the race schedule, I've changed Rucky Chucky 50k to volunteer. I've had a couple visits with my physical therapist and there's definite progress but not enough to suggest that I'm well enough to run a very hilly trail 50k. I'm ok with it. If I volunteer at RC then it's an extra week of healing and increases my chances of doing the American River 50m on April 5.

I've never volunteered at a race before and I'm really looking forward to it. My schedule is so hectic and bizarre that if I have a day off to do a race I definitely want to run it. It looks like there are going to be some great runners there and I'm looking forward to seeing them longer than just a quick hello at the start (I never see them at the finish because they're long gone by the time I get done :) RD Robert Mathis was kind enough to fit me in so I'll be helping with check-in and timing at the start/finish.

On the running front, I did an easy 1/2 mi on Sunday on the treadmill after I did a hilly, fast walk and it was quite painful. The pain is pretty much gone when I walk, climb/descend stairs, or cross-train but the pain during that short run was very discouraging. However, I was feeling good today so I tried running again and it felt really good. I did an easy 6 miles with a few walk breaks and the final 2 miles were pain-free. There were actually times I found myself not even thinking about my leg! So maybe this is the beginning of getting back into the running saddle. Now the key is to take it easy and not come back too fast and re-injure myself. Easier said than done.

So I'm keeping AR50 on my race schedule. It has a 13 hour time limit and I'll probably need all of it. But that's ok. The jacket will be worth it!

And The PT Said........

Well, I finally got to see my physical therapist yesterday. After a battery of tests checking strength and flexibility, interviewing me about signs and symptoms, trying some deep tissue massage (ouch) and ultrasound, the preliminary diagnoses is "soft tissue injury". I'm still going to get an x-ray this week to rule out stress fracture but all the signs are pointing away from that.

So that's good news! He even thinks I'll be feeling really good by 4 weeks of continued cross-training and letting the leg muscles heal. He did say I could run but discourages it because the continued pounding just keeps the tissues irritated and delays healing.

My plans for the next 6 weeks have really been up in the air waiting for this diagnoses. I ran 120 miles in January before developing pain in both lower legs. I backed off the running, only running 60 miles in February and only 5 miles in the last 10 days. After this last rest period the pain in my right leg disappeared. Appears that it is healed. The pain in my left leg was just as bad even after not running on it for 10 days. I'm scheduled to do Rucky Chucky 50k in 11 days. I'm still undecided about it. If I am pain free relatively quickly, I'll probably run it (I'm stupid that way). If not, I'll volunteer. The bigger question is American River 50M in just over 3 weeks. I feel like I'm in good shape cardiovascularly but I just haven't put the miles in. I also don't want to injure myself so bad I can't run the Big Sur marathon April 27th. I'm running it with my 2 cousins and don't want to jeopardize it. So I guess I'll just stay in limbo and procrastinate making any decision until it gets closer.

I must say that deep tissue massage on an injured muscle sure doesn't feel all that great. As the doctor dug his thumbs into my muscle and my whole body tensed and my facial muscles flexed into something probably not that flattering looking, he told me to go to my "happy place". I must be a runner because my happy place involved running even though I was going through a whole bunch of pain because I ran too much.....a vicious cycle.

On Saturday, my family went to Placerville to visit more family. On the way back I managed to convince my dad to stop in Cool so I could check the results of Way Too Cool 50k. It's a "who's who" of ultrarunning, all the biggest names were there with some impressive performances. You can check out the results here. The runners had the best weather to run in. Cool in the morning then about mid-60's. Beautiful day. As I looked around the finish area I saw a lot of smiling runners.

So there it is. Overall, it is good news and I hope to be back running the trails soon. In the meantime, I'm really enjoying being back on the road and mountain bikes.