After running a total of 37 miles in December, I was pretty happy to make it up to 69 miles in January. One of the most frustrating parts of dealing with an injury is how slow it can seem to rebuild the base mileage. I’d prefer to maintain a base of 20-30 miles per week, but that just wasn’t possible when I could only run three miles at a time a few times a week. I’ve increased my mileage gradually over the last couple of months as my IT band has become more cooperative. I’m up to four days of running per week now and have finally gotten close to 20 miles per week. Crossing that line back into the 20s makes me feel more secure and like I’m heading back towards where I want to be.

My IT band recovery has been going pretty well. ART has made a difference and I’m now going in for treatment every two weeks or so. I think the hip/glute/core rehab exercises have made a huge difference. I’ve been doing things like side leg raises, clamshells, squats, exercises with a stability ball, etc. on a regular basis and it seems to be paying off. I’ve been running pain-free for the most part, but I’m not totally in the clear yet. I realized that the hard way when I attempted to run five miles at Stony Creek Metropark recently and couldn’t pull it off. I’ve been trying to run on flat stretches as much as I can. The flattest stretch at Stony tends to be really windy at the beginning, and we went on a day when the wind was especially brutal. I thought it might be best to avoid that stretch and head up the hills instead. Even gently rolling hills make a difference with a sensitive IT band, and I guess it doesn’t take much to set me off. I had decided to go out halfway and run back, which was a mistake. I was feeling overly confident because my knee hadn’t hurt for weeks. I’d been smarter for other outside runs because I’d never go more than a mile or so away from the car in case the pain started and I had to quit early. Well, I started to feel my knee after three miles, meaning I still had two miles to go. I managed to push through four miles, but the pain got bad enough that I had no choice but to walk. When it’s windy and 10 degrees outside, it’s no fun to walk a mile to get back to the car. That was a frustrating run for me and made me realize that I still need to be cautious. I was smarter during a run at Stony yesterday and stuck mostly to the flat stretch, adding a little bit of hills towards the end of the run. The pain still caught up to me eventually, but I made it through 6.75 miles – my longest run in recent months.

Regaining a solid base has allowed me to reintroduce a little bit of speed. I’ve taken that slowly as well, starting with some 400s at 10k pace one week, then 800s at 10k pace the following week. Last week I rotated between 800s at 10k pace and 400s just below 5k pace, making it through three of each before I’d had enough. So far so good! I’ve been on the treadmill for the most part, which is the only way I’ve been able to get good enough footing to pick up the pace. The few runs I’ve done outside have been on the slower side due to spotty footing. It seems like the snow has been non-stop this winter and I’m extremely cautious about slipping. I really don’t like to run on slippery and snow-covered sidewalks, and doing so while my IT band is iffy probably isn’t ideal. Smart layering has helped me feel fine running in the ridiculously cold temperatures – it’s really the footing that bothers me the most.

The treadmill is really getting old, so I’ve tried to get outside for a run each weekend. When I heard that a ton of snow was coming last weekend, I was frustrated. I really didn’t want to attempt six miles on the treadmill, but knew things would be really messy on Saturday and Sunday. Matt and I debated whether we should try a run late on a Friday night while it was still clear. It had been a long day on my feet at work, followed by dinner and a basketball game. Tacos and a couple of monster sugar cookies aren’t my typical pre-run meal, so I didn’t know how well that would go over. We didn’t get home until after 9:00 at night and I was pretty wiped out. A run didn’t seem ideal, but neither did running through the snow or on the treadmill the next morning. Knowing that Oakland University’s campus is well-lit, we knew we could get away with a nighttime run there. We viewed it as an adventure and figured we’d cut it short if we didn’t feel up to it. Oakland’s campus has some rolling hills, which I’ve been trying to avoid. We managed to find enough sidewalks and empty parking lots to get the mileage in while also keeping it relatively flat. We had headlamps, but didn’t need them for the most part because nearly all of the areas had enough light. I’d been aiming to run six miles and luckily my knee held up. We finished the run sometime after midnight and we thought it was a pretty fun and different kind of Friday night date. It’s definitely not our typical running time! One of the best parts was sleeping in the next morning, seeing a ton of snow out the window, and knowing we didn’t have to go anywhere. Instead, I hopped on the bike in the basement in the early afternoon and got in a workout without having to venture out in the snow.

Speaking of the bike, I’ve been trying my best to ride three days each week. I’m not always successful but have been pretty good. I’ve made it up to 22 miles for one long ride and I try to ride at least half an hour each time. I love having a bike in our basement because watching TV keeps me distracted. I watch anything from the news to Seinfeld to concert DVDs and it really helps the time go by.

I’ve also been pretty good about swimming twice a week. I’ve been getting up crazy early to swim a mile one morning during the week, and I get in a longer swim during the weekend. I’ve built up to swimming two miles the last few weekends, and I feel like I’ve definitely improved. I’m sure swimming twice a week has made a big difference, versus the one weekend swim I used to do each week last year. I’ve been working in some speed, doing 8x50m repeats at first, then bumping up to 100s. The last couple weeks I’ve done 8x100m repeats and felt pretty good. I’ve been trying to get some brick workouts in as well, even doing the full swim/bike/run thing a couple times. I realized today that I probably need to fuel better when I do that though. After swimming a couple miles and biking 10, I got on the treadmill for a few miles. Things were all good for the first mile, but then my stomach cramped up. Every now and then I get stomach cramps that I can’t run through, and this was one of those times. After a mile and a half I had to call it quits. I drank a few sips of water between sets while swimming and drank fairly often on the bike, but maybe it wasn’t enough. I’d been working out for a good 1:45 when I had to quit running, and I probably need a sports drink or some kind of snack to fuel that kind of workout. I guess training is a good time to realize these things.

I’m trying to get enough solid workouts in for all three sports because triathlons are my ultimate goal this summer. The first race that I’ve actually signed up for is coming in mid-March. That’s when our local Life Time Fitness has its yearly indoor triathlon.

Life Time Indoor Tri

When I did the race last year, it was my first attempt at doing any kind of triathlon. I loved it and I’m curious to see if I can improve on last year’s time. I’m not feeling confident that my run is fast enough yet, so hopefully working harder on biking and swimming lately can help make up for it.

In the meantime, I keep eyeing 5ks each weekend. For the most part, the weather and poor footing have kept me away. One of these weekends maybe I’ll finally decide at the spur of the moment to go for it. There’s a hot chocolate 5k in Burton next weekend that I’m considering now. It starts at noon, involves chocolate, and it might be a little warmer – definite perks.

I have a couple more things to update that tie in with my last post about strength training. First, I’ve been sticking with the pull-up workout I talked about and it’s going really well. I’ve been doing it for a month now and have already been able to do a few more reps than I could do when I first started the workout. Matt started doing the workout as well, and it’s fun to encourage each other and see how we improve. Second, I finally found a way for all of the time at the gym to pay off – literally! Matt and I went to Oakland University’s homecoming basketball game a couple weekends ago. There were a lot of different activities, including a push-up contest. I was really excited about that because it’s right up my alley! Orthopedic Spine and Sports had a table outside the gym where people could do push-ups to win a pizza or gift card. The male and female winners would get $25 gift cards, and anyone who did at least one push-up would be entered to win a pizza at halftime. I was thinking more about the pizza, but was curious how many push-ups the female leader had done. 35 was the number to beat and I figured that would be pretty rough since I usually stop at 25, with 30 probably being the max I’ve ever done. I had to give it a shot though, and immediately I realized that their setup made things easier for me. They had a foam block on the floor to make sure everyone’s chest went low enough. I usually go low enough for my nose to touch the floor, so I didn’t have to go quite as low as I’m used to. It allowed me to squeeze in a few extra push-ups, and my arms finally gave out after 36. That was good enough to take the lead, and apparently I hung on to it since I got a call the next week to pick up a $25 Visa gift card! I was so excited. It’s not too often I come across a push-up contest, let alone one that earns me money!

Even if I’m not quite where I want to be with running right now, mixing it up with weights, swimming, and biking is keeping things fresh. I’m sure all of the other activities have helped me maintain a level of fitness that helps make up for running fewer miles. Hopefully my IT band will continue to improve, and in the meantime, I’m satisfied that I’m nearly up to seven miles considering how I struggled to hit three just a couple months ago.

– Janet

Follow me on Twitter @reidphotography

A couple weekends ago, we were in our basement with my father-in-law and he saw the pull-up bar that’s set up in a doorway. He asked if I could do three pull-ups. After I demonstrated that I could, he said that I could be a Marine. I realized why he mentioned that when I came across an interesting article from The Washington Post a couple days later. Apparently fewer than half of the female Marine recruits in boot camp training last year could not meet the minimum requirement of doing three pull-ups. Because of the poor results, there is going to be a delay in changing the physical fitness requirements for women. In the past, women have been required to perform a flexed hang with the chin above the bar for at least 15 seconds.

It was interesting for me to read the article because I had just assumed that more was expected of female Marines. I hadn’t ever really thought about a few pull-ups being so tough, especially for women in such a physical job. The article made me realize that women aren’t usually trained to do pull-ups. The article quotes Stew Smith, a former NAVY Seal and fitness expert, who says, “At an early age, we have been telling young girls that they cannot do regular pull-ups because they will never be as strong as boys.” It’s really very true. Fitness tests back in middle school and high school usually focused on the flexed arm hang for girls rather than pull-ups, and I can’t help but think about those darn “girl” push-ups versus traditional push-ups. It sometimes seems like people are shocked if a girl can do “real” push-ups, pull-ups, or anything else that requires strength because we’re taught that it’s not really expected.

It makes me think about how I got started with strength training. We spent a little bit of time learning about lifting weights in one of my high school gym classes. Being a skinny girl, I liked believing that I was tougher than I looked. I enjoyed the weights segment of the gym class and kept interested in weights from that point on. Rather than just feeling like I was scrawny, I liked the idea of being strong. I always like to push myself to see what my limits are, and lifting weights is just one example of that. When I push myself I can see how I improve, and that improvement motivates me to keep with it.

Even though I enjoy strength training, something in me has always made me kind of shy about it. I’ve always felt like there’s a social stigma against women having muscles because they shouldn’t look like a “dude.” I’m not striving to be a bodybuilder or anything, so I don’t know why I worry about it. Maybe I feel like some men would react in a weird way because it’s just not as common for women. So, despite my enjoyment of lifting weights, I’ve always been pretty quiet about it.

In 2011, I ran my first half marathon in Kalamazoo. I saw that there was a “pump and run” challenge that people could sign up for and it intrigued me. People had to bench a percentage of their body weight based on age and gender. Time would be subtracted from the run time based on the number of reps. Since I like to lift weights, I thought it would be fun to try. I had gotten used to using the chest press machine, but had never actually done the conventional bench press. Matt gladly helped me at the gym as I attempted it the first few times, and I found that it was definitely more challenging than using the machine. I’m glad Matt was so encouraging because I got pretty frustrated. I struggled to balance the bar by itself and wondered how I’d be able to lift it when I added weights. I stuck with it and got the hang of it, and as I trained for the half marathon, I also trained for the pump and run challenge. The challenge occurred at the packet pickup the day before the race, and there was a spot at the expo with a couple of benches and a bunch of Marines helping people and counting reps. I got really nervous and it took a few minutes for me to build up the courage, but I had trained for it and eventually I got brave and went over. The Marines were very encouraging as they counted my reps and it was actually pretty cool. A week or so after the race they finally released the results for the pump and run challenge, and I was excited to see that I had won my age group and got a medal for it! I knew that not many women had even participated so there wasn’t much competition, but it was still cool. Despite my excitement, I was shy about actually talking about it. I happily talked to people about my first half marathon experience, yet I kept quiet about the pump and run.

Pump & Run Challenge medal

Last week, my work/running buddy Jeff came back from the gym after lunch with info about a max pull-up workout designed to increase the number of pull-ups someone can do. He explained what it involved and I said it looked interesting. This time, I did actually speak up about being able to do pull-ups. He was kind of impressed because he doesn’t know a ton of women who can even do pull-ups. I don’t know why I get embarrassed about that kind of stuff, but I do. He was totally cool about it though when I said I was interested in giving it a shot.

A workout plan for increasing pull-ups (click for more detail)

Part of the appeal to me is that with training and practice, anyone can do it – men or women. Some women might say they can’t do pull-ups, but that’s because they don’t work on it. I know it’s easier for men, but women can do it too. I probably wouldn’t have been capable of running a marathon when I first started running, but with training and dedication I made that possible. Once again, I was driven by the challenge of seeing what I can do, so I started this pull-up workout last week. I was able to max out at 8 “normal” pull-ups, and I’m curious to see what happens as I stick with the workout. I do some pull-ups fairly regularly, but never more than a couple sets at a time. I was awfully sore the day after I started because I had to do five sets with as many reps as I could. The soreness faded after a couple days though and I’m sticking with it. Jeff wants to see how we both improve over time. It’s more of an individual challenge for myself, but it’s fun that he’s supportive and it helps me realize that I don’t always have to be so embarrassed to talk about strength workouts. Matt is always supportive too, yet that social stigma about women and strength keeps me feeling shy about it in general. It’s not holding me back from doing what I enjoy though, and I’m here to say that the 55% of women Marine recruits who failed the pull-ups requirements ARE capable – they just need to work at it.

– Janet

Follow me on Twitter @reidphotography

Another year has come to an end and it’s always fun to look back and reflect on everything. This was my fourth year of participating in races and was easily my best yet. It was a year with a lot of firsts for me – I wrote my first blog post, I did my first triathlon, and I ran my first marathon. At the start of the year, I had a couple of goals in mind. I wanted to venture into triathlons and I wanted to take things a step beyond a half marathon by running a 25K. Little did I know that I’d end up aiming for a marathon as well.

The first real goal of the year was to finally try a triathlon. I’d gotten back to swimming near the end of 2012, I’d been biking a little bit, and obviously I had the running thing down. I took things slowly, starting with a short indoor race in March at the Life Time Fitness in Rochester Hills. 10 minutes of swimming in the pool, 30 minutes on a spin bike, and 20 minutes on a treadmill seemed very doable and gave me the courage to give it a shot. It was a lot of fun and I was surprised to find out that I was the female winner! I realized that doing so well in my first attempt was a sure sign that I should really get into triathlons.

A nice award for my first triathlon

I followed that up with three outdoor triathlons this summer. Again, I took things slowly with my first “real” one and did the First Try Triathlon in Linden. It was a great introduction to triathlons and was very beginner-friendly. It was considered a “mini-sprint” distance since it was a little shorter than a typical sprint race. I’m really glad I chose that race for my first real experience.

I finished my first real triathlon!

I did my second tri at Metro Beach and my third in Clarkston. All of the tris were a fun challenge and I really enjoyed them. By the middle of the summer I had started marathon training, so it got tricky to juggle training with triathlons. Trying to do long runs the same weekend as a triathlon was not ideal, so I called it good for my first year of triathlons and vowed that I’d do more in 2014.

Pictures Matt took at the Village Triathlon in Clarkston

On the running side of things, I got a new 5K PR in March then again in June. I managed to hover right above or below 22 minutes in two races, with one race being a little long and the other being a little short. I guess I technically broke 22 minutes, but next year I’ll see if I can do it by a little more to convince myself that I’ve legitimately broken that 22-minute barrier.

May 11th was the big day I really trained for all winter and spring – the Fifth Third River Bank Run 25K in Grand Rapids. I had run three half marathons in 2011 and three in 2012, so I felt ready to jump a couple more miles in distance and try racing 15.5 miles. I had a great training segment and it ended up being one of the most successfully-executed races I’d ever run. I took things a bit easy for the first half of the race, then stepped up for the second half. I got faster and faster during that second half, broke my half marathon PR within the race, and felt so strong at the end that I was running at 10K pace for the last couple miles! I was thrilled with how the race had gone.

After the River Bank Run

I couldn’t believe that I felt that strong for 15.5 miles. It really gave me a boost of confidence and led to toying with the idea of a marathon. I had never seriously considered running a marathon because it kind of seemed crazy and torturous to me. I never really had the desire to try a marathon. After dealing with shin splints for so long, I wasn’t sure my body would want to go through that kind of training. However, the 25K went so well…

I started to look into potential fall marathons and Grand Rapids stood out as a good one. It was small, some of the course was the same as the 25K, it was billed as fast and flat, and I’d heard nothing but good things. I kept debating if I really wanted to do it, and at some point I finally broke down and decided to go for it. Being super ambitious, I decided to follow Hal Higdon’s Advanced 1 training plan. Obviously I was not advanced when it came to running a marathon, but the advanced level incorporated the kind of speed and tempo workouts I’d already gotten used to running. I followed the plan pretty closely and training went great. Aside from developing a sore hip a couple months in, everything went as planned. I ran the Romeo 2 Richmond Half Marathon in the heart of marathon training and officially broke my half marathon PR by about two and a half minutes.

When October 20th rolled around, I was ready. The Grand Rapids Marathon was a great choice for a first marathon and I had a great experience. Aside from knee pain for a few miles in the middle of the race and the struggle of getting through the last few miles, the race was great. My ambitious goal was to finish around 3:35, though I really wasn’t expecting to hit that on my first try. Finishing in 3:42 was awesome to me. Although I hurt everywhere when I finished, it wasn’t bad enough to keep me from considering future marathons. I had never seriously considered trying to run a marathon until mid-2013, but once I set my mind to it, I was all-in and I’m thrilled with how it went.

I’m officially a marathoner!

Before starting marathon training, I questioned how my body would hold up to training. Little did I know that it would be AFTER the marathon that I’d have to worry about. When I felt my left knee for a few miles in the middle of the race, it was surely the beginning of this ugly IT band issue I’ve been battling ever since. It’s been a frustrating struggle to get back to running. I’ve taken time off in the past to deal with shin splints, but the pain was never bad enough to shorten my runs. It was always the after-effects that really got me. Dealing with my IT band has been a whole new challenge for me. It’s the first real injury I’ve had that has really prevented me from running. I made six attempts at running in the six weeks following the marathon, and the pain in my knee never allowed me to make it much more than a mile. When the pain hits, it’s not something I can push through – I have to stop.

Several visits to Dr. Erik Barazsu at The Active Fix have helped me improve. I still can’t run as much as I’d like to, but I’m getting there. I’ve been hovering around a 3-mile plateau lately, making it as long as 3.75 miles a couple times. Most of my runs end when my knee hurts bad enough to stop me in my tracks, or when I’m smart enough to stop just before the pain gets that bad. In addition to going through active release treatments, I’ve started to do a bunch of stretches and exercises to work on my hips, glutes, and more. I made it up to 5 miles today and my knee was still okay, so I’m hopeful that things will look up heading into the start of 2014.

So far, I don’t have any races in mind for 2014. I’m going to take things slowly and see how recovery goes before I sign up for anything. If I get back on track, I may consider a spring half marathon. Who knows, maybe even a late fall marathon? In the meantime, I definitely want to aim for more triathlons this coming year. I found out pretty quickly that I’m okay at swimming and the run is my strong point, but I need work on the bike. I didn’t put nearly enough time in on the bike last year and I’m already working on that as this year wraps up. With a new stationary bike in our basement now, I plan on getting in a lot more miles. I’m thinking that I’ll try to do at least one Olympic-distance triathlon.

Here is 2013 in terms of numbers:

– 12 races (3 were triathlons)

– 1351.5 miles of running. August was my biggest month with 210 miles. My biggest weeks were around 56 miles.

– 583.3 miles on the bike

– 45.75 miles of swimming

– 80 times of strength training

2013 was a good year and I’m looking forward to what may come in 2014. Happy New Year everyone!

– Janet

As I’ve dealt with chronic shin splints for more than a couple years, I’ve probably read about every possible solution. The first solution that finally helped was going to a chiropractor. It was a very slow and gradual improvement, but I finally reached a point where my shins didn’t throb the day after every run. The pain was reduced enough that I felt confident enough to commit to marathon training. I did still have some shin issues during training, but the pain was not as bad as it had been in the past. Still, I wondered if there was a way to completely shake the problem. As I kept searching for a solution, I was always a bit curious about active release techniques (ART). I read that ART can help deal with scar tissue that builds up as a result of overuse, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was part of my problem. I kept wondering if I should give it a try but didn’t actually pursue it.

Six weeks after running my first marathon, I was pretty frustrated that IT band/knee pain kept me from running more than a mile at a time. Rest was not fixing anything so it was time for me to figure out the next step. I considered physical therapy, going to an orthopedic doctor, etc., but I was still curious about ART. I liked the idea that it is supposed to help loosen tight areas to allow a full range of motion. Typically, ART is practiced by chiropractors, but not the one that I’ve been going to. That meant going through the complicated process of figuring out how to find a doctor. I always hate trying to find a new doctor. Without a recommendation from someone, I feel like I never really know if I’m picking the right person.

As I began my search for someone who practices ART, I spent quite a while trying to find someone close to home. I found that my choices were pretty limited. In a way, that was a good thing since having less people to consider made the decision process easier. Activerelease.com lists nearby providers and I found three doctors within 13-15 miles from home. I read through their websites and debated who might be best. I found myself leaning towards The Active Fix in Berkley because Dr. Eric Baraszu is a runner, has worked with triathletes, and the site mentioned using ART to deal with things like shin splints and knee problems. When Matt and I looked at the Facebook page, we saw that a runner friend had liked them. We asked her opinion and she had great things to say, so at least I finally had a recommendation from someone. I knew that insurance wouldn’t cover it and it was going to be pricey, but I wanted to give it a shot.

I called Dr. Barazsu to get more info and liked what I heard. For one thing, it was nice that I actually got to speak to him. I asked if he likes to have people start out by coming three times a week, which I’ve found to be kind of typical for many chiropractors. He doesn’t push that, which was another bonus. I set up an appointment and went for my first visit on December 4th.

My first ART visit was somewhere between 60-75 minutes, including paperwork, an exam, and my first treatment. The exam involved things like doing squats, balancing on each foot, rotating my body to each side, etc. I laid on the table as we started with the active release, beginning with the easy stuff and saving the painful stuff for later. He’d apply pressure to certain spots and have me do things like stretch my leg out and to the side as far as I could, or start with my leg straight and bend back as far as I could. Some things were difficult because I was stretching more than I was used to and I really felt the burn from the stretch. Other things were difficult because the pressure he applied could get painful in spots. When he applied pressure to my knee, that hurt as expected. My left adductor hurt a bit too. It seemed like as he felt around, he kept finding new spots. I wasn’t even aware that most of the spots were an issue until I felt the pain! I was surprised that my knee wasn’t the most painful spot. He did something where he bent the three smallest toes on my left foot and I was in agony. I am not very educated about all of the muscles, but I believe he told me it was triggering the extensor and peroneus in my lower leg, as seen here (from NY Times):

Lower leg muscles

In a way, I viewed the pain as a good thing. I figured if it hurt, he was probably finding an area that needs work. As I knew going in, although the knee is where I feel pain while running, I probably have a bunch of problem areas. Limited motion in other areas could be causing the knee/IT band problems.

I expected to feel sore the next day and I was a bit, but probably not as much as I expected. A couple spots were a little sore, my knee was tender to the touch, but the psoas was the worst. That’s a muscle I didn’t know anything about before going in. I felt a little bit like I’d been punched in the side and the pain had faded for a day or two. Overall, it really wasn’t bad. He told me to go ahead and run to see how it went.

I ran the day after my first visit and didn’t know what to expect. I was hopeful that I’d see some improvement, but at the same time I was skeptical because I’d only had one treatment session. I got on the treadmill and was thrilled to make it 2.5 miles. That was double what I had done earlier in the week and the longest I’ve been able to go post-marathon. Maybe I’m on the right track by trying ART? I ran a few days later and made it to 2.1 miles. I went for my second ART treatment the next week, and I was really thrilled when I made it to 3.75 miles the following day!

I’ve been in for ART four times now over the last few weeks and I like how it’s been going. The sessions are around half an hour long. I’ve gotten used to “normal” chiropractic adjustments being pretty quick. It seems like there are usually a bunch of people waiting to be adjusted, you see the doctor for maybe five minutes, then you’re done. I understand that adjustments may not take longer than that, but the half hour ART sessions make me feel like I’m getting more for my money at least. Working on the soft tissue takes longer. I like that Dr. Barazsu didn’t pressure me to come in several times a week. I was very overwhelmed when I first went to a chiropractor because I felt like I was being told that I had to come three times a week for several months, it was going to cost a lot, and they wanted a decision and huge payment right then and there. Dr. Baraszu monitors progress as we go, and he hopes to see improvement in three to five visits. I definitely made some progress right from the beginning!

I’ve been using the treadmill because I don’t want to worry about my IT band stiffening up from the cold, uneven footing with snow, and most of all, because I never really know how far I might make it before the pain starts. Typically, when I start to feel my knee, I need to stop within a minute or two because the pain kicks in pretty quickly. I don’t want to be stuck outside half a mile away and have to walk it in. I’m tired of the treadmill but I’m trying to tough it out for now. My last few runs have hovered around three miles or so, always ending with the same pain on the outside of my knee. I’ve been hoping to make it longer, but I’m also thankful that I’m beyond a mile now. I’ve tried keeping it slow and easy, and I’ve tried speeding up to as fast as an 8:00 pace. I don’t think the speed makes any difference in how soon the pain kicks in.

I’m going to continue with ART and I’m hopeful that it will help. In the meantime, 10 miles per week has been my peak mileage lately. It’s not where I want to be, but what can I do? I’m swimming, biking, and doing more strength training at least. I’m curious to see how things go as I continue on with treatment.

– Janet

It’s been a few weeks since my last blog update and unfortunately not much has changed. I still can’t run more than a mile at a time. I guess I can put a positive spin on things by calling this my off-season…right?

I’ve tried rest and at this point I don’t think that’s going to be enough to solve my problem. I took over two weeks off following the marathon, attempted to run three times, and each time my knee was in pain by the time I completed a mile. I took another 10 days off before my next attempt and it was the same thing. I gave it eight days the next time, but nothing has really improved. I made it a mile on the treadmill yesterday. Rather than stiffening up half a mile in and hurting by the time I reached a mile, the stiffness started around 0.8 and just started to approach pain by the time I hit a mile. That’s not really what I’d consider progress.

I think it’s pretty clear that I have an IT band issue, and yesterday was the first time I felt discomfort down the side of my leg while running before I felt the pain in my knee. Ultimately, it’s the knee that hurts enough to stop me. At least I’ve been able to bike and swim.

In the recent past I’d gotten used to swimming once a week, but now that I can’t run I’ve bumped it up to twice a week. I can already see progress, so that’s something positive. Because my knee has been so iffy, I decided to buy a pull buoy and rest my legs. I feel like a superstar in the pool when half my body gets to float! My freestyle is practically all arms anyway. Without my legs dragging me down, it’s given me a chance to work on breathing on both sides. Whenever I take the pull buoy away, sudden the breathing gets a lot harder for me. This past week I’ve gotten back to kicking again without pain. I’ve been getting to the pool one morning during the work week which means I wake up crazy early, but the pool is usually pretty peaceful then and I don’t have to worry about trying to share a lane like I’d have to if I swam after work. I usually get in 1-1.5 miles each time I swim, so at least it feels like I’m doing something.

I’ve also been biking a little more the past couple weeks, doing around  9-12 miles two times a week. I’ve found that my knee is fine until I set the resistance to a more challenging setting, so I haven’t pushed that much yet. I know that as I begin to think about the triathlon season next year, I really need to work on biking. For months I’ve been thinking about getting a bike set up in the basement, and finally getting rid of our air hockey table recently has made it more of a possibility. We suddenly have plenty of open space and now it’s just a matter of what kind of bike to get. At first I thought I’d get a trainer and use my current bike. I realized that when it gets warmer, I won’t want to go through the process of setting it up and tearing it down each time I want to ride my bike outside. Although it’s probably not that much of a hassle, I know well enough that I won’t want to take the time to deal with it. We’ve visited a few stores to see what’s out there, and I think I’m leaning towards a stationary bike like I use at the gym versus a spin bike. I’m comfortable on the stationary bike and think that will be good enough for me.

The whole idea behind getting one at home is so I can watch whatever I want to watch while I ride. There are a few bikes at the gym that have TVs on them, but I’m limited to a few channels. We have a nice collection of concert, TV, and movie DVDs at home that we don’t watch often enough. If I have a bike in the basement, I’ll finally be able to put those to use. Sometimes it becomes a struggle to want to keep going on the bike, and being distracted by something I actually want to watch should make a big difference. One bike that I like is 20% off this weekend, so we might go for it tomorrow.

I also finally ordered some medal hangers from Allied Medal Displays. All of the medals we’ve collected the last few years are in piles. We’ve been meaning to do something with them, and maybe we’ll put them up in the basement near the bike. For now, we got a male version for Matt and a female version for me:

Medal hangers from Allied Medal Displays

I’m not sure if all of our medals will fit on these, so maybe we’ll get some extenders to add to them or order some additional hangers with different designs. I’m excited to finally hang them up!

Getting back to the whole injury thing, I know the left side of my body is a mess from my hip down to my knee. I started seeing a chiropractor around this time last year when I just couldn’t seem to shake my problem with shin splints. Gradually, it actually did help. Although I still have issues now and then, the pain has decreased dramatically. I actually had no shin pain after the marathon which was kind of amazing to me. Of course I don’t have any now that I can’t run. Seeing a chiropractor helped level out my hips, which may have been one source of the problem. However, I have other issues going on that haven’t been solved. I’ve had a literal pain in the ass for a good year and a half that makes sitting very uncomfortable. I believe it’s most likely related to the piriformis. As Runner’s World explains, the piriformis muscle is deep behind the glutes and can impact the rotation of the hip. It can compress the sciatic nerve and send pain down the thigh. I’m on my feet for a lot of the work day, but now and then I’ll sit for an hour or two and it gets painful at times. Sometimes it only takes 10 minutes of sitting before I get really squirmy. Aside from the sitting pain, my left hip has hurt since August or September. That pain hasn’t faded with rest. Between the sitting pain, hip pain, and IT band/knee issues, something is clearly going on.

I’ve been debating what I should do about it – get a massage, try physical therapy, go to an orthopedist, etc. I’ve read a bit about active release techniques (ART) and I’m intrigued. Some chiropractors do it, but not the one that I go to. I guess the idea is to apply pressure as muscles work through certain movements and it can help deal with scar tissue and overuse issues. I’ve read about a number of athletes who have been helped by ART. I was flipping through the injury sections of some of my running books, and Kara Goucher’s Running For Women addressed an issue very similar to mine. Kara had a sore left hip and pain running down her IT band to her knee. ART treatments seemed to help her deal with the issue.

At this point, rest hasn’t been enough and I need to figure out something that can help me get back to running. I’m willing to try anything that might help, so I may give ART a shot. Of course the thought of paying for whatever treatment I might need has made me hesitate, but I’m really getting anxious. It’s been hard for me to find people in the area who specifically practice ART, and it seems like I’m only finding chiropractors. The people who I have found are good with athletes and dealing with sports injuries, which gives me hope. I think in the next week or so I’ll finally build up the courage to see somebody.

If anybody out there has other suggestions, please feel free to share. Hopefully soon I’ll report back that I’m making some kind of progress and that I can run more than a mile!

– Janet

It’s been two and a half weeks now since I ran my first marathon and recovery hasn’t quite gone as well as I hoped. In my dream world, I would have taken a break from running for a week and a half, eased back into it, then I’d get to capitalize on the fitness I gained during marathon training. I’d run some solid 5Ks and 10Ks because I was coming off such a good training segment.

No such luck. Whatever I did to my knee during the marathon has stuck with me. This is the pain that I developed on the outside of my left knee about halfway through the race. It faded after a few miles and came back once I finished, and it hasn’t completely gone away yet. I felt fine three days after the marathon…aside from my knee. It took a few more days before I could go up and down the stairs normally because my knee didn’t want to bend. I woke up in the middle of the night a few times in agony. I had a tendency to twist my knee the wrong way whenever I’d roll over in bed. A couple nights of pain finally led me to take Aleve for the next week. I felt twinges of pain or discomfort throughout the week occasionally when I walked. Walking was the only real form of exercise I did during the week following the race. I easily walk at least 2-3 miles most days at work, so at least that was something to keep me moving a bit.

I knew my body needed time to recover, so I was smart about not doing anything for a solid week. By the end of that week, I was getting squirmy and needed to do some other form of exercise. I got back in the pool, which I’d neglected for nearly three months. I swam a mile of free and took it easy. Luckily, it didn’t bother my knee at all.

I got back to strength training the next day and took it a little easier since I had taken a three-week break from weights. I made sure not to do much with my legs yet. I got on a stationary bike to see how my knee would feel. It was not good. I only made it a mile and that was probably pushing it. My knee started to hurt and I knew I had to quit. It was pretty frustrating, and it was clear that I still needed more time to recover. I did more strength training later in the week but kept resting my legs. When the weekend rolled around and my knee seemed to be okay, I decided to play some Wii dance games for about an hour. I hoped to work up more of a sweat than I actually did, but at least I bounced around a bit and it didn’t bother my knee. I also went for a nice walk on the trail at Yates Cider Mill with some friends.

The trail at Yates Cider Mill

A view of the Clinton River at Yates

I thought I was finally feeling good, but walking in the cold for a little while was enough to make my knee feel pretty stiff. I thought I’d finally try running this past Sunday, which was the two-week mark following the marathon. The stiffness from the day before told me I’d better wait a little longer, so I swam instead.

I got some more strength training in this past Monday. I tried doing some leg exercises, including walking lunges while holding free weights. My knee held up fine and I saw that as a good sign. My strength sessions had dropped down to once a week when marathon training got really serious, but I’m hoping to get back to twice a week now.

After that, I made my first attempt at running – two weeks and a day after the marathon. I figured the treadmill would be the best bet in case I had to bail. By the time I hit half a mile, I knew it wasn’t going to be good. I started to feel my knee just before that. The pain wasn’t that bad, but it was enough to make me cringe. It was enough for me to realize that pushing it wouldn’t be a good idea. I walked enough to finish a mile and stopped. I was very frustrated. I had to do SOMETHING though, so I tried the elliptical next. I felt my knee a little bit at first, but then I seemed to be okay. I did a couple miles and managed to finally break a sweat and feel like I’d gotten some real exercise.

The next day I came across an article about exercises that can be done to beat IT band pain. The article talks about inflammation of the tendon near the outside of the knee, which sounds exactly like my issue. It gave me a little bit of relief to read that and gave me hope that I haven’t totally screwed up my knee. I’m already well aware that I should be doing more exercises to work my hips and glutes, and the article reinforced that. I did about 30 minutes of exercises at home on Tuesday, mostly putting my ankle resistance bands to use. I used stability balls for a few as well. As the marathon approached, I had slacked off on doing those exercises and I really need to get them back into my routine.

I’m pretty frustrated right now because all I really want to do is run. It’s hard to jump from a schedule of running six days a week to practically nothing now. I might make another attempt at running tomorrow, but I’ll be ready to quit if my knee flares up again. I know I need to let it recover. I’ve taken as long as a month off in the past in an attempt to let my shins recover and somehow I survived. However, I was able to bike, which I don’t think I can do now. If I can’t run, hopefully I can at least use the elliptical. Now is a good time to rest because I don’t have anything coming up that I need to train for. So much for the 5/10Ks I had hoped to run! There are a couple on the horizon that I wanted to do, but I purposely did not sign up in advance because I wanted to see how I recovered from the marathon. I didn’t want to put any pressure on myself to attempt running a race that I really shouldn’t run. Right now, things don’t look promising. As frustrated as I am, I need to be smart and take things slow. If I have to start from scratch whenever I start my next training segment, I’ll manage. It might not be what I hoped for, but I’ve done it many times in the past. In the meantime, I have to try to be patient and hope my knee gradually improves.

– Janet

Sunday, October 20th was the day of the Grand Rapids Marathon – my first marathon. I think it was a wise choice to make this race my first because it was an excellent event.

The sticker I received at the finish

Matt and I drove to Grand Rapids the afternoon before the race and arrived at the expo around 4:00. The expo took place at the YMCA, which was also the site for the race’s start and finish.

This YMCA is a really nice facility

The race expo

We picked up our race packets, which included socks and a very cool shirt.

The race packet

Another photo of the race shirt

One of the cool features of the Grand Rapids Marathon is the celebrity pace groups. Rather than boring old pace groups that simply list times, this race uses times run by various celebrities to determine the pace groups. My ambitious race goal was 3:35, so somewhere between 3:29 and 3:44 seemed ideal for me.

I hoped to fall somewhere between these pace groups

Celebrity pace groups

There were plenty of things to buy at the expo, and we chose to purchase a book written by the race director, Don Kern. His book is about his quest to run marathons on each continent in less than a month. I’m sure it will be an interesting read. Don was also available to autograph the book.

Don Kern’s book

There was a booth for the Fifth Third River Bank Run and they were handing out glasses for free! I loved running the 25K in May and was excited to add this to the collection.

Free glass

Gazelle Sports had a variety of merchandise to purchase, including some awesome Saucony shirts designed specifically for the race. Matt and I browsed for a bit and that worked in our favor. The racks said the shirts were 25% off, but someone came around and changed the signs to 50% off while we were still looking around! It was nearing the end of the expo time, so I’m sure they were trying to get rid of things.

Gazelle’s area

I love this design

After the expo, we stopped for dinner at Noodles & Company on the way to our hotel. When we got to the hotel, we discovered that our toilet was broken. Matt found a workaround to still make it functional, but we called the front desk to let them know. They gave us the option to switch rooms or stay in our room for only $15. We chose to deal with a little inconvenience and save the money! We spent a while preparing everything for the next morning and got to bed around 9:00. They always say that you may not sleep very well the night before a race, and I blame at least half of that on our neighbors. The people in the next room stayed up much later than us. They had their TV cranked up, spoke loudly, and hacked up a lung out on the balcony. Grrrr.

5:15 am rolled around too soon after a restless night, and it was time to get ready for the big race. I had my typical pre-run breakfast of a banana and a Honey Stinger Waffle with water. Rain had been in the forecast just before the start of the race, but luckily it had already cleared up by the time we left the hotel. It was partly cloudy and in the low 40s which was perfect. There was quite a bit of traffic in the area when we got there, but we made our way to a parking lot a few blocks from the YMCA a good hour before the start of the race. I hit a porta potty along the way, then we met up with some friends near the start. After chatting for a bit, I figured I ought to drop my stuff at the gear check. While I was there, I could hear the National Anthem. I hadn’t realized it was so close to the start of the race! I hurried up, found Matt, and we walked around the block to get to the start. Luckily, we still had a good 10 minutes or so.

Right before the start

Waiting for the start

Matt was running the half marathon and would be going much faster than me, so we wished each other luck and found the pace groups we needed. It was easy to walk on the sidewalk then jump down to the street in the right spot. I chose to start a little behind the Dubya Running Mates, who were aiming for 3:44. I was going to start conservatively and hopefully save some energy for later in the race.

Somehow I managed to not freak out before this race. I figured the nerves would really kick in Saturday night or at least Sunday morning, but they never did. I think I took the pressure off myself by not really pushing for a specific goal. I told myself I was going to go out there and see what happened. Everyone kept telling me that I shouldn’t have a goal time for my first marathon. Even though I’d followed Higdon’s Advanced 1 training plan, I was obviously far from advanced when it came to actually running a marathon. I felt confident in my training and didn’t want to discount that, but I also knew very well that the marathon is quite a monster and anything could happen. I viewed my 3:35 training goal as my best-case scenario, but I wouldn’t be bothered at all if I didn’t hit that for my first marathon. My plan of attack was to start easy, run a pace in the 8:20s until later in the race, then drop closer to my 8:13 goal pace if I had it in me.

The race started and I spotted Matt’s parents before I crossed the starting line. It was awesome that they came to support us, and I saw them a couple more times along the route. Over 1,500 people ran the marathon and just under 2,000 people ran the half marathon. We all started at the same time and the half marathon runners split off before the 9-mile mark. Because both races were together for so long, the course was filled with people. I didn’t feel like it was congested in a bad way though and didn’t weave around people too much.

One reason I chose this race for my first marathon was because it was supposed to be a scenic course. We ran through some of downtown Grand Rapids, and much of the run took place on park and bike paths. It was peaceful and pretty, especially with views of the fall colors in many areas.

Another reason this race appealed to me was because it was billed as flat and fast. There were a few little hills before the halfway point, but nothing significant.

The elevation

While there were a number of spectators throughout the downtown, there were not many once we hit the park and bike paths. The people at the aid stations were wonderful and enthusiastic, and there were a lot of people at the various relay exchange points. A few spots here and there did have people cheering, and I especially loved seeing a fluffy white Samoyed several times throughout the race. I had a Samoyed when I was growing up, and it made me smile each time I saw the dog on the course.

The awesome dog I had growing up

I did a pretty good job sticking to my plan to run fairly easy early on. The Dubya pace group was within my view, though they were probably a good 30 seconds ahead of me for a while. I caught up to them before the halfway point and ran near the group for several miles. As I hit 13 miles, I felt a pain in my left knee. I’d never had a problem there before and it bugged me for a while, but I ran through it. Luckily the pain faded after a few miles and I still felt good. The pace was easy enough and I was happy with how the run had gone so far. I wore my hydration belt with a couple of 22 oz bottles, one with GU Brew and one with water. With my own bottles, I didn’t have to stop at the aid stations. I also had some Honey Stinger Chews to eat along the way, and I ate some of those at least every 6 miles or so.

The pace group was nice to keep my pace in check, but with the pacers came larger groups of people. As we ran on some of the more narrow paths, I started to feel like it was too congested for my taste. Around the 16th mile, I finally broke away from them. I didn’t like being right on top of other people and needed more space. I sped up a little to get around them, then I had all the space I needed.

When I ran a 20-mile training run on part of the course a month earlier, one of the biggest struggles for me was on the bike path – Indian Mounds Road. For both the training run and the race, that portion involved an out and back stretch. I was fine on the way out during the training run, but struggled a bit on the way back. There weren’t many people around and it was a pretty isolated area. I had been concerned about struggling with that portion during the marathon, but I was fine. There were plenty of people around at all times. Even when I broke away from the pace group, there were always people in front of me that helped keep me going. Because it was an out and back stretch, soon enough the speedy runners came back in the opposite direction. It was fun to watch them, and I also enjoyed watching people after I turned around. I got to see the various pace groups go by and it was a good distraction.

I didn’t mean to speed up too much, but after 17 miles, my pace dropped for a bit. I felt bad as I passed people off to the side dealing with cramps or those who were walking. I hoped that my conservative pace early on would help me finish strong. My pace for the 22nd mile was clearly slower, and that’s when I decided I should stop to fill one of my bottles with more water. I was running low and knew I was getting pretty thirsty. I pulled off at an aid station, dumped a few cups of water into my bottle, then got going again. That was the only time I stopped during the whole race.

My pace slowed down after that point, and things got a bit more difficult. From about 22-23 miles on, it became a struggle. Aside from the knee pain at the halfway point, I hadn’t had any issues. No other pains, no stomach issues, no cramping. However, I started to get pretty tired and my legs started to break down. The bottom of my feet hurt and my legs got heavier and heavier. I knew an aid station would have some Oreos coming up, so I had that to look forward to. I took a couple of the cookies, but my mouth was pretty dry. I made it through one and a half cookies as I ran before I couldn’t do it anymore. Cookies and a dry mouth were not a good combination. I did have plenty of water in my bottle, but maybe I hadn’t been hydrating quite enough and it was starting to catch up with me. Also, it was probably the fact that I’d gone 23 or 24 miles and I was getting pretty wiped out by then!

Another thing that got to me was the fact that I was going to run quite a bit long. As much as I thought I was being aware of the tangents, I clearly did not do a good job. I’m sure I picked up quite a bit of extra distance each time I drifted from one side of the path to the other when I passed others. While I usually run a bit extra in most races, when the race is 26 miles, each little bit adds up quite a bit by the end! As I got closer to the end, I realized I was going to be about .3 miles over, meaning 26.5 miles instead of 26.2. Since I was feeling pretty miserable and counting down the distance I had left, that fact sure didn’t help me feel any better.

I was kind of surprised that my pace was still around the 8:30s near the end, because it sure felt like I was just trudging along. I was in pain and kept telling myself that even if I ran a little slower, I was still going to keep running. I kept passing more and more people who were walking, and I couldn’t let them get to me. Although walking sure seemed appealing, I couldn’t do it. At the same time, people who were going strong were passing me. I couldn’t let that bring me down too much either. It was a bit of a mind game, but I was mostly thinking about how miserable I felt. When I reached 23 miles, I told myself that I had just over 5K left. It felt like the longest 5K ever.

I knew that Matt should have finished a couple hours before I would finish and that he was going to try to track me. I had my phone with me and we had made use of the “Find My Friends” app. He had talked about coming out to run with me near the end, and I saw him coming towards me when I had a little more than a mile left. Although I was glad to see him, not much could truly lift my spirits at that point. I was struggling and in pain, just trying to get to the end. He kept talking me through it and told me that his parents were going to be up ahead cheering for me. I was happy to see them, as well as my friend Jeff near the finish. I tried to push a little bit at the end. I dropped my pace a little, but really didn’t have much left in me. Here’s how my splits broke down:

My splits

I ended up finishing with an official time of 3:42:07. Because I should have run 26.2 instead of 26.5, my official pace was 8:29. I prefer going with my Garmin’s pace of 8:23 though. That’s 10 seconds slower than my best-case scenario pace of 8:13, and it’s kind of what I expected to hit all along. It was nice to know that I was right on track!

Almost done!

Don Kern, the awesome race director, waited at the end to shake hands with each person who crossed the finish line. Although I really appreciated that personal touch, I failed to show much appreciation when it was my turn. I had finally stopped running and was absolutely beat. I shook his hand and shook my head as I realized how much pain I was in. I got a bit winded for a minute which freaked me out, but luckily that feeling went away. I collected my medal and slowly worked my way through the food area.

I did it! I’m trying to smile through the pain.

Very nice medal

A closer view of the medal

As I walked through the food area, I tried to stretch and recompose myself. I was starting to realize all of the places on my body that hurt. I already knew that the bottom of my feet and my calves were trashed, but my hips, IT bands, and nearly everything else ached as well. It probably took a good 5 minutes for me to walk through the food area. I drank a couple cups of Gatorade, then collected a bottle of water, half a bagel, a bag of chips, a banana, and my favorite – a cup of chocolate custard from Culver’s. I worked my way through the area and went to see Matt, his parents, and Jeff. It was great to see all of them.

Instead of a feeling of elation, my only post-marathon thought was that I was in so much pain. I kept thinking, “I hurt.” I didn’t shed any tears as I crossed the line. I was just thankful that I finally got to stop. A feeling of accomplishment didn’t really hit me. It was so hard to look past the pain!

I got my stuff from the gear check to make sure I’d stay warm enough and realized I had a Clif Builder’s Bar in my bag. The bagel seemed too dry since I was probably dehydrated, but the chocolate mint Builder’s Bar tasted good. I followed that up with my chocolate custard and I was growing happier by the minute. I was ready to check out the beer tent with Matt. I’m not much of a drinker, but a beer at the end of a long race always seems appealing. However, I’m very picky and wasn’t really thrilled with the taste of the beer they had available. I had a few sips and was done with that. Oh well!

After a little bit, we decided to take off and go get some lunch with Matt’s parents. It was a bit tricky getting around the traffic and closed roads, but we made it to Peppino’s. They had a post-race buffet available with pizza and pasta, and I wanted to check that out. The choices were pretty limited, so we chose to get our own table and order from the menu. I had some cheesy breadsticks that nearly filled me up alone, then I ate a few pieces of pizza on top of that. Although I had plenty of calories to gain back, I quickly realized that I didn’t need to do it all at once. I was going to end up feeling sick in addition to feeling like my legs were completely trashed. It was quite a mess whenever I tried to walk. As I walked through the restaurant, a fellow runner looked at me and said, “You look like I feel.” Usually a speedy walker, I was the complete opposite as I hobbled around.

Following lunch, Matt and I had a 2-hour drive back home. I was a bit worried about my legs stiffening up. I did put my compression sleeves on in hopes that it would help a little bit. We stopped for gas at one point and I decided I had better try to get moving. Getting out of the car was ugly. I realized how bad my hips hurt and felt a pain in my left knee as well. We saw an old man shuffling through the store, and I knew that I wasn’t walking much better than him. We made it home, and then I found out just how bad it was to deal with stairs. I had always heard that stairs would be difficult following a marathon. I always thought it was because of sore quads. My quads felt fine, but my left knee was a mess. I had to take two steps on each stair because it was agony to bend my left knee.

As expected, I was quite a mess for a couple days following the race as well. Going to work the day after the race was interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever walked so slowly. My knee was a definite issue and it felt like I was limping along, dragging my left leg. Somehow I made it through the day, sore calves, hips, IT bands, knee, and all. I was walking a bit better by the end of Tuesday, though my knee still made stairs very painful. By Wednesday, nearly everything felt fine again, other than my knee. I’m not sure what I did to it, but it may take some time to heal.

Now that the pain is fading, I’m better able to comprehend the accomplishment of actually finishing a marathon. After talking to so many runner friends, it almost feels like running a marathon is just a given – something most runners do. Part of me feels like it’s no big deal because so many of our friends have run multiple marathons. I need to realize that it really is a big accomplishment though, and feel proud of all of the work I put into it. 18 weeks of training is quite a long time, and it meant pushing a lot of things off in order to concentrate on following my training. Even a year ago, I didn’t really think I’d run a marathon. I wasn’t sure my body would hold up, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to subject myself to that kind of torture. Yet eventually I broke down and decided to give it a try. I set my mind to it, and I was able to do it!

I’m really happy with how my first marathon went. Yes, take note that I keep referring to it as my “first” marathon. I’m sure more will come in the future! I need a little time to distance myself from the pain I went through in the last few miles, but when that memory fades, I’m sure I’ll plan to run another. It just may be a good year or so before I put myself through it again! I’ll leave you with the final stats from the race. Not bad for my first attempt!

– Janet

The last week of marathon training…this is it! I’ve spent the last 18 weeks working toward this race and it’s finally here. Marathon #1, the Grand Rapids Marathon, is tomorrow. Here’s what the final week of training looked like:

Monday: Ran 3 miles. It felt kind of weird to be done with my run in less than half an hour. It was kind of nice though too!

Tuesday: Ran 5 miles. My schedule had a 4 x 400 workout on it and I wasn’t really sure how fast I should run. The plan specifies how fast to run 800s, but this week was the only time I had to run 400s and I couldn’t find any info about the pace. Matt thought somewhere around 10K pace seemed good and I agreed. I didn’t want to go too fast so close to the marathon. I settled on aiming for a 7:30 pace, which is a little slower than my 10K pace. I ran 1.5 miles to warm up and a little over 2 miles to cool down just to get more distance in. My splits were 7:16, 7:29, 7:18, and 7:15. I was a bit fast on most of the repeats, but not too bad I guess. Getting in a few bursts of speed for the last time before the marathon felt good.

Wednesday: Ran 2 miles. 2 miles? That’s it? It was a little cool outside and 2 miles wasn’t even long enough for my hands to warm up completely by the end of the run.

Thursday: Rest

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Ran 2 miles. A shakeout run the day before the marathon. Since I was still really bad about getting enough sleep during the week, I made sure to get at least a solid 9 hours Friday night. It was rainy and cool for this one, but the run had to get done. Matt and I went out to the trail and the run was just fine. My feet were numb to start and my fingers were cold for most of the run, but the rain was light enough and I felt good. This was about 20 seconds slower than goal marathon pace. After 2 days of rest, my legs felt great!

Totals for the week: 12 miles of training with 26.2 more miles coming on Sunday!

Right when it was time to really taper in the week leading up to the race, work got ridiculously crazy. Tuesday and Wednesday were especially bad. I easily walked several miles each day and spent way too much time on my feet. I think that irritated my shins, and my legs were heavy and tired by the end of each day. Luckily things were calmer on Friday.

One really cool thing is that so many people at work have been extremely supportive. A manager who has toyed with the idea of running a marathon was intrigued to hear about the whole process. He had me talk to a “healthy living challenge” group one day about my training. I think he really likes the idea that anyone who sets their mind to it can accomplish it. A lot of people have been really curious about how it all works, and a lot of people have been genuinely excited for me. It’s kind of unexpected, yet a great feeling to have support from so many people.

Now that I’ve been through a true taper, I have to say the concept of “taper madness” was blown out of proportion. Maybe it hits some people more than others, but I didn’t notice a thing. I’ve read or been told that I’d have new aches and pains that would freak me out. I’d get irritated and snappy. I’d feel anxious or antsy. None of those things happened and life went on as usual. As I suspected, even though I spent less time running and working out, I managed to fill that time easily with something else. Maybe the craziness at work distracted me and helped keep me from worrying too much. I’ve had plenty of moments where I think about how I ought to pace myself during the marathon, but no freak-out moments. I didn’t have any new pains or feel like my legs were dead. The hip pain I first noticed a couple months ago is still very much present, but luckily it doesn’t seem to bug me when I run. My legs felt refreshed from running fewer miles.

I’m sure I’ll have plenty of anxious moments the night before and the morning of the race, but I’m trying to keep calm. I need to trust my training. I worked my butt off for the last 18 weeks and feel like the training was a big success.  I’m not truly hung up on hitting a certain pace – it was more of a guide for me in how I should complete my training. I plan on starting slow and possibly running somewhere around 10 seconds slower than the goal pace for as long as 20 miles. If I have anything left in me, I can step it up toward the end. If I don’t, I’ll just continue on the best I can. This is a learning experience. I’d rather end up a little slower than I may be capable of and enjoy my first marathon experience rather than run the risk of crashing and being completely miserable.

I have a feeling my biggest worries will be about what to wear. Right now, it looks like the real-feel could range from about 39-46 degrees while I’m running. While I’d planned on wearing short sleeves before, now I’m leaning toward long. I’m also hoping to get that damn Miley Cyrus song “Wrecking Ball” out of my head by tomorrow. I heard it while I was at work yesterday and haven’t been able to shake it since. I don’t run with music, so I usually end up with choruses of bad pop songs running through my head over and over. Please, please, please don’t let THAT song torture me! I’m also hoping I hold it together emotionally. When I saw Matt coming toward the finish line of his first marathon, I got all teary-eyed. I hope I can hold it together so I’m not crying in my finish line photo!

In the meantime, I’m giddy and looking forward to the race. I’m looking forward to going shopping at the expo and seeing the cool GR Marathon gear they have. I’m especially looking forward to finishing this weekend as a marathoner! I’ve come a long way over the last 18 weeks and I know that I’m ready. Thanks to anyone who has actually taken the time to read this blog as I work toward my first marathon – I appreciate your support!

– Janet

Week 17 was a nice taper week and the Grand Rapids Marathon is now only 6 days away. The past week was about as perfect for running as anyone could ask for. Sunny skies, nice temperatures, and fall colors made for some gorgeous runs.

Paint Creek Trail was beautiful this week

Before I became so obsessed with running, I used to take a lot more photos and post them on my website. Although I am lucky enough to take photos all day long for work, I’ve kind of neglected “fun” photography lately as training has taken up so much of my time. Last week I FINALLY got a new phone with an excellent camera (my old one was terrible) and that will surely inspire me to take more photos again. Most of my runs this week turned into half jogs and half photo expeditions. As a result, this post is loaded with photos.

Here’s how the week of tapering went:

Monday: Ran 4 miles. My typical 5-mile run days dropped down to 4 this week. I split this run up between the Paint Creek Trail and Rochester Municipal Park.

Rochester Municipal Park

Tuesday: Ran 6 miles. I had been worried that the taper might leave me with fresher legs and I’d end up going faster than I should, and that did happen during this run. Not that I really went fast, but when I’ve gotten used to running easy runs 25-30 seconds slower than marathon pace, 10 seconds above seemed faster than usual. When I realized I was at marathon pace for the second mile, I slowed down. Yet I was back to it again for the fourth mile. It was nice to feel good, but I have to make sure I don’t push it too much.

Wednesday: 40 minutes of strength training followed by a 4-mile run. I’ve been told I should stop strength training before the race. Lately, I’m down to only once a week as it is, and I honestly don’t do much with my legs when I strength train anyway. I read an article from Runner’s World that addresses this topic, and it sounds like it’s ideal to cut out strength training 8-14 days before a marathon. So, this was probably my last weights session for a couple weeks.

After the gym, I headed out on the trail once again. I’ve spent so much time on the trail during marathon training because it’s flat, close, and convenient. Although I’m extremely thankful to have such an amazing place to run, for a while I’d grown a little bored with seeing the same sights day after day. The fall colors have suddenly brought new life to the trail though, and I loved running there this week. This was my first run with my new phone and I stopped a bunch of times for photos.

Paint Creek Trail

Along the Paint Creek Trail

Thursday: Ran 6 miles. I had a 30-minute tempo run on the schedule, so I ran a mile to warm up, a mile to cool down, and did a cut down run for the middle 4 miles. Pretty much all of my tempo runs for marathon training have been done on the treadmill. It keeps my pace steady and where it should be. I had to get out to enjoy the nice weather though, so I attempted to keep a decent pace on my own on the trail. I originally figured I’d aim for miles at 8:15, 8:00, 7:45, and 7:30. I ended up with 8:09, 7:55 , 7:44 , and 7:24. It was a successful run, though my pace was pretty choppy and I was constantly speeding up or slowing down to hit the goal paces.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Ran 4.25 miles. 4 miles seems like such a wimpy weekend run after going through the full marathon training segment. Since this was supposed to be an easy run, I used it as an opportunity to take some more fall photos. I didn’t care if I jogged for a few minutes then stopped for a few minutes for pictures. At this point in training, it’s kind of nice to have no pressure and just go out and do whatever I feel like doing. Matt and I went out on the trail, through Rochester Park, and through Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve.

Paint Creek Trail

Rochester Municipal Park

Rochester Municipal Park

Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve is a nice little area off the Paint Creek Trail just north of downtown Rochester. It’s very peaceful and has a lot of pretty sights. We saw a large family of deer in the woods, including the dad.

Dinosaur Hill

Dinosaur Hill

Dinosaur Hill

Dinosaur Hill

Just a few of the many deer we saw

Sunday: Ran 8 miles. My last longish run of marathon training. Because it was going to be another beautiful day, I wanted to go somewhere we don’t usually run and enjoy the fall colors. Matt and I decided to run on the Polly Ann Trail and chose to start in Leonard. We ran on the trail once during the summer, starting in Lake Orion. I wanted different scenery, and Leonard is one of the few towns along the trail that has a good area for parking. We enjoyed the sights as we drove to Leonard on some dirt roads through the country. When we got to the parking lot we saw a couple women heading out on the trail on their horses. Aside from them, we saw a few people walking and a few on bikes, but the people were few and far between. The trail was nowhere near as busy as Paint Creek Trail. There was one short portion that was paved, but the rest was crushed limestone. The trail was so covered with leaves in spots you wouldn’t even know what kind of surface was underneath!

Polly Ann Trail

Polly Ann Trail

Polly Ann Trail

Polly Ann Trail

The trail was beautiful! Although I also enjoyed running through the Lake Orion and Oxford portions of the trail the one other time, I’m really glad we decided to check out the Leonard portion this time. We will definitely have to go back.

Totals for the week: Ran 32.25 miles, strength training once.

I haven’t had a week with so few miles since the beginning of this training segment. It was nice to be more relaxed this week and take in so many beautiful sights. I’m feeling good and I noticed that I had a bit more speed. I’m trying hard to keep the extra speed in check, though the 8-mile run on Sunday was nearly at marathon pace even though it shouldn’t have been.

It’s hard to believe it’s almost time to do this. Don Kern, the race director for the Grand Rapids Marathon, had some great advice in today’s email to race participants – “re-freakin’-lax.” There’s nothing more that can be done at this point. You’re either ready or not ready. I know my training has gone extremely well. The marathon is such a monster though, and it can be easy to worry about a lot of different factors. I need to heed his advice and do the best that I can to chill out. I think I’ll be okay for the most part, but nerves always kick in before any race. Time to take lots of deep breaths and remind myself that I’m ready!

– Janet

Week 16 of training for the Grand Rapids Marathon is complete. Only 2 weeks until the big race! Although this past week could be viewed as the beginning of my taper period, it didn’t really feel like it. It just felt like another stepback week. I think this next week is when I’ll notice more as I drop from just above 40 miles down to just above 30. I haven’t run a week with less than 40 miles since mid-August. Here’s what I did for week 16:

Monday: Ran 4.5 miles. I had 5 miles on the schedule but only made it to 4.5. I think my mind was in a fog or something because I had convinced myself that I was going to end up with 5.5 miles. I had my watch on, but I guess I was oblivious. I did not feel good during the run so it was probably for the best. This run actually felt worse than the 5 I did the day after running 20 miles. I went slow and my shins hurt during a good part of the run. Aside from a few moments here and there, I usually don’t feel my shins while I run. It’s more of an issue afterwards. The fact that I felt them so much during the run worried me. In addition, my nose had been pretty runny during the day and I figured I was coming down with a cold or some kind of sinus issue. Just great. I reasoned that if I’m going to get sick, it’s best if it happens 3 weeks out from the race so I have time to be completely healthy by race day.

Tuesday: Ran 7 miles – 6 hill repeats. Sure enough, the runny nose and congestion problem I developed on Monday was no better on Tuesday. By the time I got out of the car after work I was ready to fall asleep. I was determined to keep up with my training though. Running usually makes my sinuses feel better and luckily that was the case for this run. The hill repeats plus a warm up and cool down went just fine. I had an audience for this workout – our cat and the neighbors’ dog were both watching me out the window.

It’s always nice to be greeted by our cat when I get home from a run!

About 5 minutes after I was done the sneezing started up again. I also had all of the warning signs of a migraine, but fortunately it never fully materialized. I haven’t dealt with a migraine for at least a couple years and I think the sinus pressure probably had something to do with it.

Wednesday: Ran 5 miles. I felt crappy all day at work and could barely breathe, but decided to try running anyway. It was actually the best I felt all day. Once I was done I went back to feeling like crap again. Too bad I only had 5 miles to run!

Thursday: Ran 8.75 miles. I had 8 miles on the schedule but went a little bit longer. It’s starting to get dark too early now and I ended this one in the dark. I’m not looking forward to the evening headlamp runs! I finally started to feel better today and could breathe again. It’s a relief that it didn’t turn into something more serious.

Friday: 40 minutes of strength training. Typically my rest day, I decided to get to the gym since I hadn’t been all week. I didn’t feel like it would be appropriate to go earlier in the week while I was sniffling, and I finally felt okay by Friday.

Saturday: Ran 4 miles at marathon pace. Here’s where the cutting back started to feel weird. Only 4 miles on Saturday? At least it was a pace run to help keep things challenging. It was dark and raining when I woke up. I wasn’t too excited to head out, but I’m sticking to my plan and if it says I’m supposed to run, I’m going to run. By the time Matt and I went out it was light and had pretty much stopped raining. I still had some congestion that annoyed me during this run, but I was fine otherwise and we averaged 7 seconds per mile under my goal pace.

Sunday: Ran 12 miles. It was raining once again when I woke up, but it let up by the time we headed out. I guess I got lucky with my timing this weekend. Matt ran with me for the first 5 miles. My legs felt tired and I was a bit slow for the first 4-5 miles, but then I must have warmed up enough to pick up the pace a tiny bit for the rest of the run. It was super humid outside and when I actually did have brief moments of rain, I think that felt better.

Totals for the week: Strength training once, ran 41.25 miles.

Everyone keeps warning me that strange things will happen when I taper. I’ll suddenly feel new aches and pains, I’ll be lethargic or really jittery, I’ll have a short temper, etc. We’ll see what actually happens. I have a feeling I’ll be thankful to have a little bit of extra free time! If I was smart, I’d use the extra free time to get more sleep. However, I always find something to fill that time and never get the extra sleep. For example, I write a blog post like this when I ought to be in bed. So if I end up feeling lethargic, I’m not going to blame it on the taper. I’ll be used to it from my typical lack of sleep!

2 weeks to go and I’m ready to just do this thing…I don’t want to wait anymore!

– Janet