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Oh my right knee, you old frenemy

Not a Weekly Run Down, as there was a strong lack of running, but linking up with Deborah and Kim to talk about my knee diagnosis and some other 2019 odds and ends.

Am I disappointed in the injury? I think frustrated is a better word. I ran 862.97 miles in 2019. Four half marathons and the NYC Marathon this year, I met some amazing people. I wish it had ended differently, but disappointed doesn’t work for me.

This week’s exercise:

  • Monday: stretch and foam roll
  • Tuesday: tried to run, made it 50 feet
  • Friday: went for a walk after ortho, it wasn’t bad. PT after
  • Saturday: stretch, PT and foam roll. Realized rowing didn’t hurt, so 2K row
  • Sunday: literally running errands. Run / walk. Ice and PT after.

On the Knee:

I was able to get in to see the orthopedist on Friday afternoon. It was a new to me doctor, although I knew the practice. As is their normal, they had me do x-rays first and then a metric ton of paperwork. There is nowhere else I feel handwriting/penmanship is a use it or lose it more than doctor’s forms.

I was glad to have a good book (hi Book of Life and the amazing All Souls Trilogy, 1600+ pages still 1.99 on Kindle) as there’s often a wait. I can’t say I minded too much as getting me in with less than 24 hours notice didn’t do much for their schedule.

Dr. Lopez is a welcoming face – such as you ever really want to see a doctor. As he listened to symptoms, onset and examined the scars of a 20+ year ago surgery on my right knee, he began to manipulate that leg as well as the other to compare. I didn’t tell him of my thoughts of the IT band but knew he was thinking the same when he began to palpate that area of my thigh.

He had me turn to my left side and brought out the ultrasound. Since I couldn’t see the screen, he narrated what he was looking at as he continued to touch, bend and adjust my leg. After confirming that my knee wasn’t pregnant he said the ligaments looked good, no arthritis or bursitis. We then reviewed the x-rays, which were clean aside from a possible spur, which has been a possible spur for five or so years. AKA no worse.

He gave me a prescription for PT and some home exercises. Due to some travel this week, I can’t get in for my first appointment until 1/6, but I’ve packed my bands, small ball and will stretch as much as possible. I’m not even packing my sneakers, which feels weird. But I think the break from running will be better for the knee.

Next up:

  • 2019 Recap: so many good things. Maybe for Friday coffee.
  • 2020 Goals; I want to think about this some while traveling this week, and maybe wait until week one of PT to hear his assessment
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Runfessions of a sidelined runner

Today I’m linking up with Marcia at Marcia’s Healthy Slice for her monthly Runfessions linkup.  Be sure to check out her blog and those of the other great bloggers linking up.

My primary topic? The first injury that has kept me from running.

Yep, I ran through plantar fasciitis and achilles tendonosis. This knee pain that I think/hope is just a big IT band flare is impossible to run through. I got in a mile on Sunday but couldn’t get more than a few feet on Tuesday. Hopefully by Friday afternoon I’ll have an answer as to whether it’s ITB, or something else and a course of treatment. ETA: Confirmed, IT Band and Patellafemoral Pain Syndrome. Back to PT on 1/6, but home exercises in the mean time. I <3 my orthopedist. As he ran the ultrasound on my knee: I promise, your knee isn’t pregnant.

Hopefully, because not running is driving me nuts. I know it has been a great release for me, but I really, really missed it over the holidays. I runfess that If I physically could without pain, I would. But I’m listening to my body. While at mom’s I stretched as much as I could and when I got home tonight I foam rolled for about an hour. Hurts so good.

It’s super confusing as I have no idea why it started hurting. I ran last Wednesday and the only memorable event was catching my foot on uneven sidewalk. I didn’t think anything of the knee when it started to hurt as that sometimes happens. But then it got worse or at the very least didn’t get any better. The good news is, walking is less painful and stairs are fine. I could take Advil and make it “better”, but I hate relying on that.

I runfess that this week of being sidelined has put a damper on my 2020 goal planning. I wasn’t likely to be able to run on Jan 1 anyway as I’m going to be out of town, but I wanted to have a plan for running into the new year, and I can’t do that as I don’t know when I’ll be able to run pain free. So I’m ostriching. Not making 2020 plans and not thinking about the races I’ve registered for, but (might) not be able to run.

I runfess that I know it will ultimately be fine. I’m in a city of world class doctors, I know a great physical therapist and I’m lucky to have excellent health insurance. But I’m very disappointed to end the year hobbled and possibly not be able to mark my running anniversary running.

Lest it sound like all is bad, it isn’t. I had an amazing holiday with my family. I’m looking forward to New Years with a dear friend and her kids. I just wish my knee wasn’t so painful.

What do you have to runfess?

Ever dealt with IT Band or other knee issues?

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Dashing through December with Jingle Bells

Where on earth did this month go? How is it already Christmas week? Apologies for a comments blitz of late. I’m trying desperately to catch up. One of these days I’ll either put email on my phone or figure out how to blog. Not gonna happen.

It’s not even technically winter yet as I type this on Wednesday, but I’m already smelling spring as I got into the Cherry Blossom 10M. I ran this in 2018 and this was when I first “met” some of you when Coco found my recap. While I’m not sure I can actually go in April due to some travel on either side.

First I need to get my cranky IT band back to 100%. Baby steps.

If you celebrate something this time of year, enjoy it.

Race recap: Delray Jingle Bell Jog.

build your own Santa
Hysterical, but impossible to run in

I eyed this race last year when I was in Fort Lauderdale but I decided it was too far for a 5K. Hmm, sounds like the reason I haven’t done Brooklyn’s. This year I was actually staying in Delray and the calendar worked, so I signed up. Rather than a tee shirt, this race provides you with a Santa suit. I’m 5’2 and it’s sized to fit someone a foot taller and wider, so it never was practical. Luckily Delray has all the chains and I hit up TJ Maxx, Ross, Stein Mart, two running stores and Target to find a red shirt to run in. Spoiler, I should have just gone to Target first.

The race begins (and ends) in Anchor Park so I had a nice two mile run from the condo to the start. I left a little later than planned, because 6:30 is early and as a result I hit Delray “traffic” aka the drawbridge.  As we waited, I met another runner out for a morning run and we got to chatting. While Delray isn’t a particularly small town, the running community felt it — everyone chatted or waved. Due to the bridge and generally late start, I got to the start just before we set off and I lined up with all the other Santas, elves and winter holiday finery.

all the Santas, all the palm trees

We set out at the sound of a loud jingle bell and were off, up Casuarina and onto AIA where we ran for a mile and change before turning around and coming back to Anchor Park. The lead / escort vehicle was a surfing Santa in a red sports car. Awesome! There was one water station that served the out and back and really, is there a better combination than palm trees and Santas?

penguins!
beer and water bottles

When we got back to Anchor Park there were medals – I won’t lie, the main reason I did this race – beer and ice cream. Not typically a breakfast beer person, but this was cold and refreshing. I also won an OrangeTheory water bottle. Once I’d cooled down, I didn’t want to start running again so I walked back to the condo via a delicious breakfast at Another Broken Egg Cafe.

I’d do this race again if I was in Delray that weekend, but it’s not (nor is it meant to be) a destination race. However, it has multiple locations and I’d certainly try another location too if that worked. A fun, local fun run.

Double Weekly Run Down with Kim and Deborah:

Week of 12/9:

  • I missed a Monday, but I knew I would with the gala. It went well.
running friends are the bestest
  • Tuesday: I had full blessing from my boss to sleep in and show up when I wanted to given the long hours/late night for the gala. Not only could I not fall asleep, but I was wide awake at 5:30. Luckily I have a dear friend who is also a morning person and was happy to go out with me. We walked, ran and forgot to pause the Garmin while we chit-chatted on a beautiful December morning in Central Park.
  • Wednesday: bupkus. Much delayed flight to Florida.
Look Ma, no layers!
  • Thursday: new location, old running habits. Had to find the shortest route to the beach that didn’t involve running on US1. Check!
  • Friday: lots of walking errands to try and find a red shirt for the Jingle Bell Jog as the Santa suit was way too big.
Jingle Jogged
  • Saturday:  Delray Jingle Bell Jog. So much silly fun that started off with a gorgeous sunrise over the intracoastal and ended up with ~1200 Santas. This should have been a longer run with the beginning of half marathon training, but determined not to get injured again.’
Florida hood ornament
  • Sunday: would have been a beautiful morning to run, but my Achilles were feeling the hills and not enough (OK, any) stretching, rolling or PT so I walked to the beach and sat there four a couple of hours before watching Eli Manning’s amazing swan song.

Week of 12/16:

 

  • never miss a Monday: one last Florida run with some crazy birds before a return to reality.
  • Tuesday: aforementioned icy rain reality. Digging out of my inbox and a lovely evening catching up with a friend over sushi.
definitely a different look!
  • Wednesday: beautiful winter morning and the last day before it turns to the teens so I scooted out for four wake up miles. Knee cranky after standing during holiday party and more no stretching so I hit the gym after for some PT.
  • Thursday: holiday lights, long foam roll.
  • Friday: time to start shopping
  • Saturday: long foam roll
  • Sunday: tried to run, knee wasn’t great but walking was better than it had been so taking that as good sign.

Plan for the week: run if I can, foam roll a lot.

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Ted Corbitt 2019

Original post title: Trying not to run on caffeine and sugar.

That was before this became a pointless weekly run down due to a wonderfully crazy work week. My office has our annual gala on Monday and I wear a lot of hats for that. On the plus side, I made relatively good decisions for real food and  not venti sugar bombs and as a result, I slept except for some Monday night insomnia.  I’ll touch on what little running actually happened after my Ted Corbitt recap, but first…

What I said last week about only two things for Black Friday was true, and then Cyber Monday hit. Still on the running theme, I got:

  • Project Repat T-Shirt Quilt. I’ve been dithering on this since Kim mentioned a quilt she had made a few years ago. The 55% off gift card made me pull the trigger.
  • JackRabbit sale and coupon on sale for my 1080s. I hate the new ones, so glad to stash a pair of the v9s especially as my “new” ones are already 100+ as I ended up wearing them for the marathon. Oddly the ones I bought were the runners up in August.

Ted Corbitt 15K recap:

At one point, I wasn’t going to run Ted. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel a month out from the marathon – the rest one day for every mile run adage can be confusing for a first time marathoner. And then as I got further into training and wasn’t trashed after 20 miles, I realized I’d be able to run 15K just fine and I signed up.

Ted is one of my favorite races (2017, 2018 recaps) and running it in his centennial year just seemed right. The giveaway was a pair of gloves, which I like. As someone who is forever losing her gloves, can never have too many.

I’m still bad at Flat Cari

I’m not a huge weather stalker – but found myself peering at it this week. It looked like it was going to be a downright balmy 20/30s. Sold. I didn’t get a good Flat Cari as I’m still using my stepstool as a staging post. That’s the 2017 shirt, which remains one of my favorites. It’s a vivid blue. I layered the NYC Half long-sleeve tee under it. Bottoms were my favorite LBCs, Black Winterland. It was so nice not to need all the layers. I was partially still marathon Cari with my Run NYC hat and marathon gloves.

I left between 7:45 and 8 to run to the start. I saw a message on NYRR’s Facebook Friday night that mentioned the new start. I’m glad I saw that otherwise I totally would have run to 102. This was somewhere I’ve never seen an NYRR race start so there was some zig zagging to find the start line. While I don’t like rushing-and getting a bit of pedestrian rage – it had the added benefit of not having to wait at the start and not cooling down.

Just shy of mile two, I was lapped by the eventual winner who was passing mile seven. A fellow runner and I just looked at one another and said WOW. .There really is no other reaction possible. I feel badly for the local runners who might otherwise have won without a sponsored athlete going sub 5 minute miles.

Me? I finished ahead of 400, not 4000 others. I had so much fun. I really like the new course and one amazing benefit of marathon training is that Cat Hill or the first round of Three Sisters didn’t faze me. Second set did, but that was more tired legs 11 miles in.

I didn’t look at my prior times before this week, so I really had no idea how I was running vs. prior years. I need to find the switch from long run to race, but this wasn’t really the run to figure it out. That I had enough in the tank to kick it up a notch in the final mile means I could have gone faster, but PR chasing wasn’t a goal.

speaking of final mile

As I turned onto the 72nd St. transverse for the last tenth or so, I hear someone calling me and see this maroon blur streak in. It was so good to see Amy, one of the Rogue coaches coming off their Saturday run. Was glad to find her after the finish for a hug and hello. It was short as we were both freezing when we stopped moving.

It’s pretty safe to say that Ted is one of my favorites that I’ll return to every December. It’s a nice year-end since I’ve never done the Midnight Run. I was also reminded of why I truly love the half marathon distance and I’m excited to properly train for one.

Weekly run down with Kim and Deborah:

two of my favorite runners
  • Monday:  planned missed Monday due to Winter’s Eve with two of my favorite people. Too cold & raw even to walk to the bus at 79th, so no step goal.
  • Tuesday:  couldn’t sleep, so after trying to fall back to sleep from 4-5, I headed to the gym to kickoff half marathon training with a treadmill lactate threshold workout since it was still snowing. 3x 10m at 5.4mph and 2m recovery at 5.0.
  • Thursday: I at least made it to the gym for some PT before it closed.
  • Saturday: Ted Corbitt 15K
  • Sunday: 25m row; yoga and PT.

Plan for this week:

  • Monday: off; gala
  • Tuesday: run?
  • Wednesday: run?/fly
  • Thursday: run? packet pickup
  • Friday: off
  • Saturday:  Delray Jingle Bell Jog
  • Sunday: morning walk to the beach?

 

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Thankful for running

I’m the worst about doing those gratitude posts on social media. I always feel like I’d leave out someone or something, or I’d start strong and peter off because I’ve never been a daily poster. And after I’d started this on Monday, I realized it was the Tuesday Topics. Fail on me.

I know I’ve said this approximately eleventy billion times across the marathon journey, but I’m really grateful for the running community. So many amazing people.

Marathon Monday with Fred

Did you go bonkers for Black Friday? I really didn’t, but I bought myself two presents. The first, to no surprise, is the Skirt Sports’ 25% off everything on top of the month-long 40% off or more!  I needed another capri and went with Lioness as there are no more LBCs that I need. And now I’ll have black in Gym Girl, LBC and Lioness. While I didn’t love running long in it, it worked for the Albany Half and puttering around on Marathon Monday. I love the freedom of thinking not everything needs to work for 18/20 miles.

The other purchase? I badly needed a new Keurig. Mine was a hand me down nearly three years ago. It no longer made a 10 oz cup, and never felt clean enough for my liking. So I’m the owner of a K Select in Oasis, because who wants boring colors? Of course I still had to buy coffee twice at the weekend because I hadn’t set it up. It will be ready for Friday’s Coffee Date… whether I will is another story.

Weekly run down with Deborah and Kim:

Glow worms
  • Never miss a Monday: Run/walk with Elizabeth. Still very much loving the NoxGear Tracer 360, getting the playing with it out of my system. We took a detour from the standard three-ish mile loop to say hi to Fred.
  • Tuesday: coffee with a friend
this was a pleasant surprise
construction gates never looked that good
Ready for the parade Macy’s on the way out of the city
  • Wednesday: morning miles before work. My watch had some egg nog, apparently because I do not run nine or four minute miles.  I ended the run and started a new one and it behaved. So glad to have East RIver path fully open for the first time in years so no more stairs!
Trails, blessed trails
  • Thursday: no Trots worked for my schedule, but I did get in three miles before we drove to Albany. Nowhere near a PR, but negative splits like I haven’t seen in eons.
Walking off Thanksgiving
Running with Elizabeth and running into her friend
  • Saturday: my first without Rogue scheduled since June. Elizabeth and I met in the Park and ran into one of her friends while on the West Side. The wet spot? Her trying to teach me to drink from a water bottle spout v opening the bottle. I really, really love the impulse purchase marathon hat. All Skirt with Pocketopia and Watch Me Go, which worked well on a blustery day. One thing I don’t miss about marathon training – I can run just to run, don’t need specific miles. Half marathon training starts this week though.
holy sweatball
  • Sunday: I wanted to run since I knew I couldn’t Monday. I woke to icy rain and ended up taking the bus to the gym. I didn’t have my headphones so couldn’t stay on treadmill, ended up with a swetball of an elliptical session.

Plan for the Week:

  • Monday: off; Winter’s Eve with Darlene and Elizabeth
  • Tuesday – Friday; crap shoot with work. I’ll get some runs in
  • Saturday: Ted Corbett 15K
  • Sunday: crap shoot, gala Monday.

GoTheDist:

November totals:

  • 468,102 steps
  • 213.97 miles run/walked
  • 75.89 miles run

Year to Date:

  • 5,547,207 steps
  • 2486.05 miles run/walked
  • 824.24 miles run

Note: 998,569 steps Q4 to date, I remember when that was a stretch quarter goal. I won’t lie, 825 miles run would have been nice albeit meaningless.

2018 step/mile goals are good, and I’d forgotten about the PR goals.

8 gym visits; 28 for September – February cycle.