Barrie Half Marathon

No no the blog isn't dead, there have just been so many things going on lately that I haven't had a minute to sit and update you all on the current state of affairs. Let me start by just giving a quick recap on what I've been up to the last couple months, and where I plan to go from here. If you don't remember after Around the Bay, for the second year in a row, I got injured. What's new right. This one though really came out of the blue. With previous injuries, I've usually been able to see them coming for a while, or really just ran through injuries until the point where I can't physically make a stride then take time off. This one was had a real quick progression from feeling something a little weird, a tight kind of feeling in my right hip after the race, then two days later could barely walk. Was forced to take an entire 28 days completely off running to rehab the injury, which was most likely according to both my own judgement and my clinical instructor (a top physiotherapist in Ontario) that I had a tear in a couple muscles in my hip. One of those muscles (tensor fascia latae) is a critical stabilizer to the whole hip, and proper functioning of the knee hinges on it, the other was most likely pectinues (a hip flexor, internal rotator of the hip, adductor, as well as critical for pelvic stability). Don't ask me how I managed this, cause I have no clue. But anyways, by no means did this mean I couldn't still train. Biking didn't seem to hurt the leg, and I captured my love of cycling once again. I bike over 300k per week for the first 3 weeks, then just under 500k (488km) the fourth week. Also swam a shade under 30k per week during that time period. Starting to love training like a triathlete so much I got inspired and bought a true time trial bike. Her name is Elektra. This Cervelo P2 is a lightning fast spitfire on the tarmac, waiting patiently to be unleashed on the triathlon scene.

But before then there are other matters that must be settled. In May, I made my comeback. It was a really slow start but the hip started to progress one run at a time. In the month I ran 425k, biked 1600k, and swam 80k, plus did 20 hours of strength training. One solid month. For the majority of the month, I thought that the Barrie Half Marathon was June 20, and figured I would be able to get ready in time to put fourth a decent effort to try to win for the third straight year. However, I found out not too long ago that the race was actually June 7, and this put a lot of pressure on me to rush the hip pretty substantially, and had to do a couple workouts to see where I was at. Last Monday (May 25) did my first workout in over 2 months, tried and true mile repeats. Starting with 4 of them trying to just feel it out and let the pace come to me. I went about as good as it could have. The pace wasn't staggering, but it was decent, only problem was that it was just at half marathon pace, and it felt real fast, almost like I was sprinting. That Thursday, I tried a tempo run and same thing, the hip wasn't too bad, just felt a lot harder than the pace would indicate. I've probably pushed way too hard to get back, since about 4 weeks ago I started feeling a couple bumps in the hip just medial and inferior to the ASIS (the bone you can palpate at the front of your hip). Well they went from being able to feel a couple slight bumps and thinking that it was just inflammation in the area that collected in the lymph nodes (a big network of them at that part of the hip), to being able to feel 4 distinct perfectly round and freely moveable nodules. Just like last fall this is probably a good indication that I got more calcific tendinitis due to poor repairing of the muscle tear. But I can run, it hurts like the dickens for about the first 15-20 minutes of every run, then feels progressively better. However, it definitely has affected my stride on that side. During the weight bearing portion on the right leg it hurts the most, and I'm thinking its just those little calcium buggers basically getting squished and impinged on the muscle. To compensate, and this was especially evident early in my comeback based on both the wear patterns on my shoes and the auditory feedback I was getting on ground-contact, my left foot is striking the ground much harder than my right and the last 2 weeks I've been getting some oo too familiar pain on the medial border of that "someday will be graphite" tibia. Well you might say, this really sounds like a pretty bad cycle that I'm getting into now, but Monday did 7X1 miles and it actually was solid. Not solid given my status, but solid in that if I did that last year I would have been somewhat content with the effort. Then Wednesday did a 9k tempo at projected half marathon pace, and again it went pretty well. I mean still not 100% but its run-able and decided to give it a go for this Sunday. Why you ask. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if me the two-time back-to-back champion didn't at least try to defend my title. If at 6k, where there is a steep hill which is giving me some nightmares right now and making me real nervous, there is a good amount of pain in the hip, I'm calling it there, and I'll know that I tried. I say that now, but this time I'm going to try my best to stick to the plan. For me, I know even if I feel some real pain in the hip, I'm not the type of person to pull off and sulk on the side of the road. Normally, I will push myself to keep going until I can't physically lift my foot off the ground, but I will try to constantly remind myself during the race that the future in more important, and while this race seems like the be all and end all right now it's not. However, based on this weeks two workouts, I can give it a decent effort. This race will definitely be about aerobic strength and nothing else because really with only 2 real workouts under my belt going into the race, I'm relying about 100% of my aerobic fitness that I have build up not only the last few months, but for last 5 years in change of training. The tempo run was a good start knowing at least that I could go 9k at race effort, but let me tell you thinking that there is 12k to go after that is scaring the hell out of me. I was pretty tuckered out after that, and going into the race with less mileage and less workout time that ever is intimidating. What I do have going for me is knowing that if I can push myself for 5 hours straight on every Sat and Sun for the last 6 weeks or so, pushing till I've bonked completely numerous times, or a few Sunday's ago yacking right on the lawn after, I can  push myself for 70 something minutes. It will not be a PB, and whether I win or not I will be proud of myself for trying my best. So wish me luck that the hip holds up, and allows me to be able to grind through 13.1 miles and finish.