What ever it takes!

I'm not going to be able to do justice for this post, but I realized that today is a very special day for me as far as running goes.  Exactly 2 years ago this day May 1st 2009 I remember jogging on a hotel treadmill in Cancun Mexico, I had just signed up for the St. George marathon (didn't know if I was in or not yet) and then and there it hit me, I weighed close to 250 lbs, could hardly run 2 -3 miles without stopping and I realized that wasn't how I wanted to spend the rest of my life and that the St. George marathon was going to be my goal to change my life.  I also saw that Ryan Jonson from my work had just ran the Boston Marathon in 3:04 and St. George in like 2:47, I'd never known anyone that could run a marathon in than 3 hours and was totally amazed, at that point, that was my goal, run a marathon in under 3:00, crazy huh, who can do that? Funny how relative everything is...  Nothing else really overly dramatic happend that day, I just remember that being the day I had a complete mindset change.  I went and copied a marathon schedule out of a book onto my calander and started following it every day religiously, I'm positive I didn't miss a single workout to the tee from what the book told me to do for the entire cycle. 

Looking back I'm really amazed I have gotten to the point I'm at now in 2 years, I've learned a lot, suffered through a lot of pain and disapointment but I'm very excited about what running has done for me and how it has changed my life.  When people tell me I should just take time off from running to heal my injuries the concept doesn't even make sense to me, I'm surprised it has only been 2 years, it seems like I have been doing this my whole life.

Well, turns out, I didn't get in to St. George that year, I didn't get into St. George last year now finally I'm garanteed a spot.  I'm at the point now where St. George doesn't seem as mystical to me as it did back then, but the symbolism is very great for me.  I really want to figure everything out and have a great race this year.  Every other race I may do leading up is stirctly a training run, I just want to make sure I do everything just right.  I'm probably setting myself up for another huge upset if something happens but I wanted to set the stage.

15 minute elliptical trainer warm up, 9 mile run, followed by another 15 minute elliptical cool down.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	6:50	6:50		152	157
2	13:29	6:39		158	161
3	20:04	6:35		161	163
4	26:34	6:30		161	164
5	33:00	6:26		164	166
6	39:22	6:22		166	167
7	45:56	6:34		165	166
8	52:23	6:27		166	168
9	58:30	6:16		168	169
Total	58:43	6:31		162	169

 

15 minutes on the ARC trainer, 8.5 mile run starting out slow, 15 minutes on the ARC again and then some leg strengthening exercises.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	7:50	7:50		140	164
2	15:19	7:29		147	150
3	22:38	7:19		151	153
4	29:40	7:02		155	158
5	36:33	6:53		159	162
6	43:12	6:39		162	165
7	49:43	6:31		164	166
8	56:27	6:44		163	165
8.5	59:42	6:30		164	166
Total	59:47	7:02		155	166

 

1600 meter swim in 32 minutes and then 8 miles on the treadmill, the swim took a lot more out of me than I thought swimming did, which is good cause that's what I'm trying to do, simulate longer runs without completely pounding my leg to death but I just never really got comfortable running, I was all over the place, couldn't find a pace that felt good so instead of going the intended 9 I quit and 8. :(

 

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	7:01	7:01		148	154
2	13:54	6:53		155	157
3	20:42	6:48		158	159
4	27:25	6:43		159	162
5	34:13	6:48		158	161
6	41:12	6:59		149	156
7	47:58	6:46		156	160
8	54:41	6:43		157	160
Total	55:01	6:51		155	162

I'm trying to loose about 10 -15 more lbs so I'm on a new diet that I created myself, I used to make peanut butter and honey sandwiches at work but I decided to ditch the bread and just eat  3 - 4 spoon fulls of peanut butter and honey every few hours, I also eat a couple of oranges or apples throughout the day.  Seems to be working,  I've lost 3 lbs so far.  That's just my day time diet, when I get home at night all bets are off and I just eat what ever the wife has prepared for dinner.

5 very slow miles from my office for lunch, about 1 mile up Big Cottonwood Canyon and back.  8:03/mile pace.  Here are some people that are faster than I was.

5:00 am---

Apparently I over did it yesterday,  1 hour on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights.  I brought my bike to work today, planning on going on a ride for lunch.  I haven't been on a bike in 2 years, should be interesting.

12:00 pm---

That was awesome!  Last time I rode my bike I weighed 70 lbs more and wasn't anywhere close to the fitness (obviously) that I am now.  It was amazingly easy, I felt like I was just flying up every hill.  I rode with my best friend whom I also work with, he used to just kill me going up hills when we used to ride to work together 4 years ago.  Today, he had nuthin on me :)   18 miles along Wasatch Blvd out and back.

That settles it, next year, St. George Iron Man.

Saving myself for a long run tomorrow hopefully, so 1 hour on the elliptical again.  Taking the day off to finish some projects around the house before I leave for Istanbul on Sunday.  Should be interesting running there, on my last day there my plan is to run in 3 different continents in the same day.  Asia, Europe, North America.  To bad I don't have a layover in Africa!!

I may try and go on a bike ride this afternoon if I can get through my hunnydo list.

Well, I guess that answered that question.  Unless I decided to do it just as a slow long training run, UVM is off.  If anyone needs a 3:15 pacer I may be good for that.  Very slow, very miserable run this morning, which is to bad cause it was an absolutely beautiful morning.  Ryan was a great sport and stayed with me the entire way.

16.5 miles in 2:07:00  ~7:40/mile avg pace.

I was awakened by the sound of Muslim prayer music coming in my hotel window this morning. A strange way to be reminded I'm not in my own bed. 

I really want to go for a run along the river, but I'm going to try and give myself time to heal while in Istanbul, so I went to the hotel gym and did 1 hour on the elliptical.  Hopefully I will have time to do 2 a days in the gym just to keep cardio up.

Officially in to St. George Marathon, and Ryan finagled his way in as well.  Time to get better so I can tear it up.  5 months to get ready, should be fine.

P.M.

45 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of weights.

A.M. 

60 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes on the stationary bike.

P.M.

45 Minutes elliptical, 15 minutes weights.

Apparently Muslim prayer time at the Mosque was at 4:43 this morning, so needless to say I had extra time in the gym this morning.

90 minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of weights and stretching.

P.M.

30 minutes elliptical, 15 minutes of weights.

I finally caved in and made an appointment with a sports medicine doctor when I get home, I seriously would have done it earlier but I've only been in the United States about 3 weeks out of the last 2 months, and 2 of those I was in New Orleans, so practically out of the country then too.  I sure hope he can do something, cause I'm really sick of this.

A.M.

75 minutes elliptical, 25 minutes weights.  I'm feeling fatigued like I've been running a 70 mile week, so that must mean I'm simulating something with all this cross training.  Hopefully it's something good.

I've been watching the Eastern European MTV while ellipticaling, man those Russians really know how to make running music.  I'm going to have to get myself an Eastern European Techno music CD for my next marathon.  I have no idea what their saying but it sounds like "Run faster, Run faster, Da Da"

This site claims I can run a sub 2:30 marathon if I can somehow loose 30 lbs, and 14 years.  Both seem pretty hard to do, especially the time travel part.

http://academic.udayton.edu/PaulVanderburgh/weight_age_grading_calculator.htm

A.M.

90 minutes on the elliptical.

Yesterday afternoon my co-worker and I took a cab to the Grand Bazaar, that place was crazy, (if you look up Bazar on Wikipedia a picture of the Istanbul bazaar that we went to comes up.)  Anyway, it took over 1 hour to drive 5 miles to get there so we walked back to the hotel in about the same time, my leg was killing me after that walk, that's no good.

Wow, I logged a grand total of 0 miles this week, I'm not going to rank very high on the mileage board this year.

P.M.

60 minutes on the elliptical.

Just to make me feel better about myself I went and calculated what I thought would equal ~ comparable running miles for the week.  I figured an average of 8 mph which is what I try to keep it at when I'm at home and it tells me some number, and I figured time wise that is pretty conservative for me since I tend to run my base treadmill miles pretty fast.  Anyway, I came up with 74 miles,  So that makes me feel better, as far as fatigue goes I actually feel like I did a 74 mile running week.

I was going to take the day off but I woke up at 5:00am and since I work so hard to get on local time and on a schedule I didn't want to mess with it so I went to the hotel gym for an easy workout,  30 minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights.

I asked the local IT guy from the hotel what they said in the Muslim prayer song that plays throughout the city in every Mosque 5 times a day, figuring everyone in Turkey was Muslim.  He said, "how should I know, it's in Arabic, no one here speaks Arabic" Anyway, he was very annoyed that they played it 5 times a day and said only about 5% of the people here actually follow it.  I thought that was really funny and related it to Utah,  I once had a friend from Memphis come visit in Utah and the first thing she asked was "where are all the Mormons"  can you imagine what the out cry in Utah would be if  5 times a day they played church Hymns from every ward house in Utah.  Non-Mormons would riot I'm sure.  Apparently Istanbul is fairly liberal when it comes to religion but most places in this area are not allowed to choose.  All I'm saying here is next time someone complains about Mormons in Utah, tell them to come to the Middle East, they will appreciate what we have a lot more.

The group I'm working for made us change hotels last night, so now I'm slummin' it at the Conrad Hilton Hotel.  I was actually pretty excited about it cause it has a much nicer gym and a pool.  My room over looks a Mosque, lucky me.  Muslim prayer time this morning 4:40am.  

90 Minutes on the elliptical. 

P.M.

45 Minutes on the elliptical,  25 minutes of weights

A.M.  

60 Minutes of elliptical and then I decided to try out the leg,  4km in 30 minutes at 7% incline.  That's a whoppin 12min/mile pace.  Sweet huh?

P.M.

45 Minutes of elliptical

A.M.

90 Minutes of elliptical.  Tried running for 0.5 km but it wasn't happening for me.

Muslim Prayer time gets earlier by 2 minutes every morning, this is a great way to slowly get on an earlier workout schedule.

P.M.

45 Minutes on the elliptical. 30 minutes of weights.  Mostly leg workouts.

Some guy came into the gym wearing some crazy European running outfit and jumped on the treadmill and started making a total fool of himself, flailing arms, crazy stride and breathing so loud I could hear him over my Nickleback playlist.  I couldn't take it and finished my elliptical workout and then jumped on the treadmill next to him to show him a thing or two.  Before you knew it there were two idiots on the treadmill making total fools of themselves.  Man, I'm a wreck, I'd guess I'm at the same fitness level I was when I weighed 210 lbs.  Ouch!!

A.M.

75 Minutes on the elliptical.   In the hotel gym, early in the morning, all alone in a country far far away.

A.M.

90 Minutes on the elliptical, 20 minutes of weights

P.M.

60 Minutes on the elliptical, 30 minutes of weights.

Finally I am done, I get to get on a plane tomorrow afternoon and sit in coach for 20 hours.  I'm am going to attempt to put an end to my 2 week running hiatus tomorrow morning before my flight.  I really wanted to run across the bridge to the Asia side of Turkey  but I need the ability to push the stop button if things go wrong.  Oh well, next time.

Good luck to all you Ogden marathoners,  according to my iPhone it says the weather should be nice for Y'all.  I feel bad I can't do it.  The cool temperatures will help I'm sure.

Assuming I can run tomorrow and not do elliptical that is 10.5 hours on the elliptical this week, last week I may have over guessed on running equivalency, I will go with an avg of 7mph so a total of 73.5 +2.5 = 76 miles this week so far.  If I ever recover it will be interesting to see if my body thinks I have worked that hard.  I'm guessing it will rebel.

Humm, well that stunk.  Plan was to try and force myself to go 12 but either my pain threshold has gone down or I'm in worse shape now than 2 weeks ago.  So much for taking time off.  Did 4 miles in about 31 minutes called it quits and hit the elliptical for 60 minutes.  Then went and did weights/ plyo type exercises for 30 minutes.  2 hours total.

Now for the long flight home,  next time I go to bed it will be in my own bed.  Gotta say though, Istanbul is on my top 5 list of favorite places I've been.   If you ever get a chance to come here don't pass it up, it's been a really great trip.

Progress?  Yeah, I'd say probably compared to any attempt at a run I've had in the last 4 weeks this was progress.  Started with 15 minutes on the elliptical and noticed I was not really feeling much pain at all so I hit the treadmill very slow at first.  Could feel some tenderness but not the intense pain I've had in the past 12 weeks.  And I'm walking normal now, so maybe my 2 weeks off did pay off.

Never mind the fact my HR would indicate that my new 10K pace is 7:00min/mile.

10 minute cool down on the elliptical.

Distance	Time	Avg Pace		Avg HR	Max HR
1	8:29	8:29		142	151
2	16:48	8:19		153	156
3	24:47	7:59		157	160
4	32:35	7:48		161	163
5	40:09	7:34		164	166
6	47:33	7:24		166	167
7	54:42	7:09		169	171
8	1:01:42	7:00		170	171
Total	1:01:46	7:42		160	171

Oh, also wanted to mention.  It is so good to be back home, I just pulled out of my next event so potentially I could be in town until July, wow that's a record.  All the rain sure has made everything beautiful since I left 2 weeks ago.  Happy day!

Jetlag hit me hard last night, I just could not get to sleep.  I had to go try and sleep in the basement cause I was worried I was going to keep my wife up all night.  at 3:45am I gave up trying and just went to the gym.

While I was tossing and turning last night I had grand visions of a miraculous comeback after yesterday's 8 mile run.  I could see myself effortlessly running 6:30 pace again enjoying every moment.  Well it wasn't meant to be, did 15 minutes warm up on the elliptical and then went to the treadmill, instantly knew it wasn't going to happen again today.  Absolutely sick of the elliptical trainer I went and changed into my swim suit and swam 1600 meters in the pool.  They had the water very cold this morning, must be the new summer water temperature but if felt very good and woke me up from my restless night.  After I swam for 45 minutes I decided to change again and hit some weights.

I'm about 10 lbs heavier than I'd like to be, I hope at least 1/2 of that is muscle from all the weights I've been doing lately.

Going to see the doctor today, I have my doubts about him being able to help me anymore than what I've already tried but it's a last ditch effort.  I can't handle this much longer.

As far as days go, yesterday was a pretty rough one.  I finally got around to seeing a Doctor.  Kelli from the blog (kind of like Jenny from the Block) suggested Dr. Brinton at Riverton Hospital, he's a 3:08 marathoner and I really wanted to see someone who would understand how I felt about running and wouldn't just tell me to stop unless absolutely necessary.  Going back through my logs, I found the exact workout that this injury happened.  http://robxt.fastrunningblog.com/blog-03-15-2011.html March 15^th I was in New Orleans and did 4 X 1 mile repeats.  I remember that work out as quite a breakthrough and was very excited about where my fitness level had gotten.  The next day, I complained of soreness but thought that was expected after a good hard run, the next day I took the day off, which I seldom do and should have been the first clue something was terribly wrong.   For the next 11 weeks I just assumed it was a pulled muscle, or tendon, so I started Icying, messaging, and taking gobs of Ibuprofen, and worst of all kept trying to run through it.

After seeing the doctor yesterday I have found out that I have a Femoral Neck Stress Fracture,  http://orthopedics.about.com/od/hipinjuries/a/stress.htm  I had X-Rays done which did not actually show the fracture but you can see the signs of  the bone trying to repair, and there were no signs of muscle damage anywhere.  After reading up on this it’s amazing that a stress fracture never really crossed my mind,  I have all of the symptoms and none of the therapy I was doing did anything to help, in fact most of those treatments are the exact opposite of what I should have been doing,  Heat/not ice  and no Ibuprofen.  Anyway, the doctor was very blunt and said either stop running now or you’re going to need a hip replacement or at the very least some sort of surgery very soon, and the recovery would be much longer.  That news at the time was very upsetting, but after having some time to dwell over it I’m very happy to have a definitive answer finally.  At least now I can move forward and a least know what I should and shouldn’t be doing instead of always wondering.

I was all set to write some over dramatic blog entry about how I was going to leave the blog for a while since it would be to hard to read about other people running while I couldn’t.  Then a couple of things occurred to me, 1. That’s childish,  2. I’m still the same person, I still have the same goals,  I just need to figure out a different way to achieve those goals.  I realized that I’m a little bit different than most “runners” out there.  I actually don’t really enjoy running itself, like most people claim too, I don’t run because I enjoy being one with nature and feeling the breeze flow through my hair, I personally like to run for the end result, I love the burn in the lungs after a hard tempo run, I love the feel of sore legs after hill sprints, and I love finally being in the best shape of my life.  I think these differences in me are what got me to where I am so quickly,  I like to push myself every day.  Which is how I got into this predicament in the first place but I just have to deal with that.

The doctor did give me hope, recovery for this is anywhere from 10 -18 weeks typically,  It’s been 11 so far and granted most of that wasn’t recovery but I’m going to give myself the benefit of the doubt and say I’ve had at least 6 weeks of recovery,  he has told me that the elliptical trainer is fine, and swimming.  Cycling (not so much) so I have decided to use these tools I have been given and continue with the same passion I have always had.  I know it’s not nearly as cool to be an ellipticaler as a runner but right now that is my means to an end. 

I just went and looked back, I ran 325 miles on basically a broken leg over the last 11 weeks.  Oops!!

10 elliptical miles, 30 minutes of weights.

2400 meter swim in ~58 minutes and then 45 minutes of weights.

10 Elliptical miles in 1:18:16.  Avg HR. 143

20 minutes of weights and core exercise.

Found out I'm going to New York next week for a few days, really bummed that I can't run, Central Park in June is awesome.  Isn't there a song about that??

10 miles on the elliptical in 1:23:00 Avg. HR 135. 

My hip is feeling way better, the pain is almost non-existanct unless I hop up and down on my left leg alone.  Knowing me I'm going to go out and think I'm  healed and hurt myself again.  Everything I've read about stress fractures is you know when it's healed when it stops hurting.  That seems odd, anyone know if that's entirely true?

10 Elliptical miles in 1:15:30. 

Wanted to go on a bike ride today,  but the weather is making that difficult.  Not that I can't ride in the rain, just don't want to.

2400 meter swim in 55 minutes.  I tried so new breathing techniques today that I could tell made me much faster, I kept getting to the wall faster than I expected and missing my flip turns.  

Changed and hit the weights for 30 minutes and now I'm off to New York.

I feel like I'm getting dangerously close to being able to run again.  I say dangerously because I'm afraid I'm going to get overly excited and go out to early and end up getting hurt again.  I can walk without a limp, I think I mostly limp out of habit now and I can hop on my bad leg which is the scientific test my doctor put me through.  We'll see how it goes but I may not be able to restrain from a nice easy run in Central Park tomorrow morning.