What a terrific weekend!
As I approached this year's Monument Avenue 10K I felt sure I could beat my time from last year, which was a 44:04, because I knew I'd been training with more distance and tempo runs. Optimism. Then I looked at that pace, 7:04 per mile, and how in my last three tempo runs I couldn't hold a sub 7 minute mile for more than 3 miles. Hell, my last one I only made two miles! 7:04 for over six miles seemed a little out of reach. Anxiety.
So I pulled up my training log from last year and found I hadn't run crap over 7 miles back then, and I've been getting in at least one 7+ mile run or workout in every week since January. Optimism. I also have been able to negative split my 10 mile runs finishing them at about 7:30 pace overall and even got a couple of sub 7 final miles in there. More Optimism.
Then on Thursday night something weird happened I still can't explain. I came home from having dessert with my grand kids and their parents, walked upstairs and almost couldn't get back down! I had this very sharp, stabbing pain in my left heel where my Achilles tendon connects to my heel. I tried stretching it some and that was horrible. I hadn't twisted it, strained it or anything and yet it was if I had a very bad case of tendinitis. Anxiety.
I took a handful of ibuprofen, and put a bag of Brussels sprouts (I couldn't find any ice packs) on my heel and watched some TV.
It felt a little better.
Before I got in bed I smeared a glob of Blue Emu cream on it and went to sleep.
It still hurt the next day, but only when I tried to stretch it out or walk down stairs. Walking and even hopping a little didn't bother it too much but it felt hot. I decided that after work and hitting the expo for packet pickup I would buy some ice and soak this piece-of-shit-old-ankle-that-got-injured-for-no-damned-reason when I got home at night.
During the day my leg didn't feel too bad, but I was careful not to stress it and just limped whenever I had to go down some stairs. Fortunately, the expo was all on one floor and I was able to move around that with no problem.
I love running expos. All the people (read that "all the cute running girls"), the energy, and the stuff! I love stuff. Especially buying it. And I found one piece of stuff that I had hoped to find and picked it up pronto. It's called The Stick.
The Stick is a massage tool that looked to be a very effective piece of plastic and fiberglass. And all the cool kids at Indoor Nationals had them, so I knew I should have one, too.
The sales people they had at the booth were actually very knowledgeable about physiology and massage therapy. I told the lady about my Achilles and she said, "you're going to roll this up and down the back and both sides of your upper calf."
"Ummm. OK."
"When you do that you're going to find a trigger point (sharp pain) in one of these three spots," as she pointed to the back of my calf muscle under my knee and off to the outside about three inches below my knee. "Those spots are where knots form that tighten up your calf and restrict blood flow to your tendon."
Damn if she didn't nail it.
That spot on the outside of my calf made me jump when I hit it. I went more gently and after a few rubs it worked out a little.
I bought The Stick.
Now I look like the cool kids when I stretch after a run.
On my way out of the expo I met a guy named Daniel Komen. He was manning a booth with a sign "Train With the Kenyans." Google Daniel Komen. Holy cow.
I was standing there chatting with the only human ever to put two sub 4 minute miles back to back. The world record he set in the two mile back in the 90's still stands, along with his world record in the 3000.
He was super nice and he and his booth-mate David Cheromei run a running camp that is put together as part of a mission trip experience to raise money for the school that Komen started for orphans in Kenya. My wife and I, along with some friends of ours in our church in Manteo, sponsor a child through Heart for Africa and he was familiar with that and spoke highly of it. He asked me to come and support his school and said the kids get a lot out of seeing people there to help them and run with them. He smiled and said, "Kenya make you fastman!" I've got all their info for doing a trip to Kenya for the camp and then working with the kids at the school or doing grounds/building work while there in hopes I could actually do that some day.
Daniel told me he would autograph my bib number and I got a picture with him.
So cool!
So it was home to use The Stick and ice both ankles since I discovered bad knots in both of them.
In high school I had a nice case of tendinitis in the same area and the Trainer had me do a little icing routine using a big bucket and the jacuzzi. I shoved my leg down into a bucket of 1/3 ice and 2/3 water for two minutes, then immediately shove that leg into the jacuzzi where the water temperature was about 100 degrees. Sounds painful doesn't it? It is. Ridiculously painful. But I only had to do it twice in two days and the inflammation was gone and I raced on it like nothing had ever happened.
I don't have a jacuzzi and I remembered how much moving into that hot water felt. I figured I'd do without all that this time and just do the ice part. So I dumped about half a large bag of ice into a paint bucket and filled it with water. Then I grabbed a beer and used my phone as a stop watch. Three times in and out and that should do it.
I soaked for two minutes in and five minutes out, then just kept them in there for a full five minutes the last time. Geez, that was something. Brrrrrr.
Then I massaged with The Stick, popped a couple more ibuprofen, rubbed on some more Blue Emu then went to bed.
When I woke up I felt fine.
Moved around the room. Stretched. My calves felt sort of tight and sore liked I'd worked them out hard, but there wasn't any sharp pain, even when I walked downstairs.
Sweet!
The race itself went about perfect. Just like the weather. 55 degrees, sunny and a very light breeze.
I decided to do this race differently than I usually do, which is out fast and see how long I can hang on, and do the negative split thing I'd been doing on my long runs. According to the things I've been reading it's best to go out for the first quarter of whatever your running at a pace that is slower than what you actually want to average for the race. Then you steadily speed up, but just barely. It makes it seem easier and it feels like I always have something in the tank along with speed if I want it. I was surprised as I got to mile 2 at 7:10 pace and had been telling myself to take it easy. Hold back.
At the 5k mark and the turnaround point I was at 7:04 and felt very strong. It was also the only point where I got a good picture. I took about five during the run and they all looked like crap. But this one looks cool:
Hitting the turn hard
I pressed the first half mile after the turn and didn't get passed again the whole way. I would look at my Garmin and watch as the average time dropped steadily. At mile 5 I was dead on 35 minutes and a 7 flat pace. I was going to PR this bitch.
I reminded myself of how dead I felt last year at this point and how hard I was fighting just to hang on. "Completely different," I said out loud. A guy next to me glanced over and I continued, "compared to last year. I feel great this year!" He smiled and grunted, and slowly faded off behind me.
I was grinning as I looked ahead and started pumping. My hands were relaxed (except for holding my phone), my legs were driving along, and I kept on accelerating.
I covered that last mile in 6:26 and was smiling ear to ear when I came across the finish line.
I swear there are very few feelings in this world like the one I get when I run fast. I don't even know how to describe it except that I always remember that day I was laying at the top of my stairs exhausted, sick and weak, then compare it to what I was doing in the last strides of that race.
And I just smile.
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