Wheres the Reset Button?

It's only been like 10 months, so i thought it was time to post again.

This year was supposed to be the turnaround year. The year I recovered from last year's stress fracture. The year I had an amazing showing at the Houston Half Marathon. The year I was supposed to have a great marathon in NYC and hopefully get to a sub 3:45, or maybe even a 3:30 time. The year my coach, Vince, would finally help me reach that next level of my running ability, and be able to hopefully qualify for boston in the next couple of years.

Fast forward to april, and I got the half marathon time - 1:39. I cracked the 1:40 barrier that i wanted to hit. My winter running was going good, and I was doing a lot of maintenance runs with friends who were training for boston just to keep the sticks limber and moving. I did a few 5k's (PR'ing too - 21:30!) and other races, but otherwise was taking it easy until the first week in april, for Cherry Blossom, which has grown to be a race that I want to make a tradition (I mean, I get to see the family and spend time with friends who live in DC). Last year, this is when I found out about my stress fracture. Up until April I had felt fine, and through the race, I felt real good. I PR'd the 10 mile race in 1:13 and would recover over the next few weeks before starting my marathon build up in late May. A week later, a light pain still lingered in my shin. Not a good feeling, considering the year before. Another MRI, and its over again.

Sometimes you wish your body was like the Nintendo we had as kids, that when things weren't going right in the game, you'd press the reset button and it would be back to the beginning. The doc put me out for 8 weeks. Cross training was my new friend. Damn reset button - where were you!

8 weeks later, back to running. Took it real easy. Or so i thought. It's now been 3 months and I am still struggling. Not having the "fun" that I had when i started, and not even having the fun that I had in Houston - where although I had a side stitch for over 6.5 miles of the 13.1 mile course, I still loved the fact that I held strong and held my pace under a 7:38 with the exception of one mile. Today, I went for a 5 mile recovery run that felt like I had 2 lead weights on my legs. Had to keep stopping - my calf was stiff, my ankle stiffened up cause the calf was stiff. I had one of those moments where I just stood there in the pouring rain and thought I really wanted to call it a fond farewell to running.

Call it overreaction, but the past 4 months of my running life have been pure hell. My right leg, from the hip down has gone gimp on me, and maybe its time to focus on getting that working 100% before I decide to push it again. This 2009 New York City marathon may be my last marathon for a while.

I learned a lesson from my friend Phil. Building up for him from sprint and half iron triathlons over the past 3 years had him pulling a 11:47 at this year's Ironman. Although if he were 10 years younger I bet he'd be under 11. Just f-ing with ya Phil (im sure you'll read this). Maybe I need to step back, press reset, and build back up. I've got years in front of me, and although I wanted to qualify for Boston soon, there's a pretty good chance that it will be there when I do finally qualify (although most of my friends will be really old by then). It seems pretty safe that in the 150th running of the Boston Marathon, you will see me there.

So maybe that is the right idea, and starting november 1, I will step back from training for marathons and focus on the half marys and smaller races - and get the body in prime shape. This hip and leg and ankle on my right side will finally feel strong and good, just maybe.

Maybe I should just go on Ebay and buy an old nintendo just so i can press the button.........

Starting Over

I've figured I need to update this more than once every 3 to 4 months. So after I am a spectator this weekend, I promise to become a better blogger :-). It's amazing how much has changed for me in 2008, and thinking how much better 2009 will be with all of the knowledge I have gained!

I'm Baaaaaack!!!!

I may have found something this weekend that may be part of my post-marathon future.

But first, let me apologize for not putting up a blog post in what has become almost 3 months. As my friends and fellow running people know, it has been a long 3 months for me. April 7 was a day that I have referred to as pure hell. It was the day I found out that I nearly ran my leg into full fracture. So on the first week that the doctor told me I could return to running, I was at teh running store getting a gait analysis, and got to the road. My doctor had advised me to get orthotics, but after talking with some friends, I had decided against it.

The road back from the fracture has not been easy. Most of the base that I had gained over the past year was gone. Back to the drawing board, Bill. Even all that time I spent in spin class didn't add up to anything much to just somewhat hold that base. So I started to try and build my run base again, although I am a little far behind where I need to be for Chicago, I realized my focus should be to complete Chicago, not compete. Last year I had also signed up for the Tupper Lake sprint and the NYC Triathlon, so I had to train for that too.

This past month, Jason, one of my closest friends, and the person who got me to start running, moved to Cleveland to move closer to his and his wife's parents. Jason and I have spent a better part of the last 2 years running, and he's been a supporter of all that I do with running - always encouraging me when I hit a rough spot, and celebrating successful days. He says I have a 3:10 in me, I just have to get the base in and work my way there. I know the day I do qualify for Boston, he will be the first call I would get on the phone, that is if he wasn't with me on the course working towards it. His performance in the NJ marathon made me so happy to have him as a friend as he broke the one barrier that had been eluding him in the past 11 marathons he ran: he broke the 3 hour barrier. I couldn't keep my mouth shut when introducing him, telling everyone that he just ran a 2:56 marathon. One of my usual Tuesday/Thursday running peeps felt intimidated when he showed up to a run, and when asked why, she said that he might be too fast to run with us. He said it was the offseason and just wanted to get some mileage in. He's run 2 marathons with his wife, and now they're going to be the proud parents of a future marathoner in September. Jason, if you do read this, you know how much you have helped me as a runner. Thanks for being a great friend too. And you better run Boston with me when I qualify, although I'll be running it with you this coming spring, I still won't be part of that fraternity that you, Widener, and Zelwin are members of. I'll be pledging it soon.

Ok, back to the tri stuff. Boy, do I hate to swim. When Strouter offered to have a team entry for tupper (and all I had to do was ride the bike), I took her up on it. 3 flats and over four hours later, I pulled back into transition seeing Erin wondering where I was. I exorcised that demon when I got puncture-proof tubes and Kevlar lined tires (thanks Phil). I was never that good at swimming, and once I realized how close the NYC tri was (one month away at the point when I started training, I decided to hit the pool. Thanks to my swim coach (thanks Burns) I got at least 200 meters in without stopping one day. Fast forward to this past sunday, and I am walking toward the pier at 96th street and freaking out. Always being a person who doesn't like leaving his comfort zone - I was freaking out. I realized at that point that I'd have to swim almost 1 full MILE. ONE MILE!!! My heart raced as I jumped in, and my heart rate jumped. About 400 or so meters in, I realized that I'd have to swim the rest, so I relaxed and the rest of the swim was good, although there was no current, I made it through in 39 minutes. All I wanted to do was complete the tri, so I didn't push myself nearly as hard as I could have, but then again, I didn't want to push my shin too hard and ruin a chance at having a good performance at Chicago. For more about the race, look on racewithpurpose.org for my race report. All I have to say is that my body held up and I felt great after the race! My body is holding up now through training and its safe to say that IMMMMMMMMM BAAAAAACK!!!!!

Green - with envy

This weekend is a marathon weekend for me. Well, a marathon weekend for me to be a spectator rather than a participant. It's now been 3 weeks (actually 22 days) since the Doc gave me the bad news, and all in all, it hasn't been that bad.


About 3 days a week I'm doing something on the bike, and I'll usually throw a half hour or so in the pool so I'm not slacking on my workouts. Today was a good appointment with the doctor, she now says I can stand up in the saddle, I have definitely listened to what she had said, and two more weeks and I'll be back there for some more xrays to make sure that all is healing good.


Back to this weekend. This was supposed to be me hitting the road with Jen A and hopefully being with her and able to see her hit 3:40 and also help me set a PR and bringing me closer to getting closer and closer to hitting my goal of 3:30 by the end of this year......and then the injury came.


This weekend is instead me on the sidelines as a supporter - something I haven't done in almost 2 years. It's gonna be hard not to be out on the course, especially given that two of my close friends, who got me into the marathon thing in the first place, will both be running for their own PR performances. Ben (middle) and Jason (left) will both be looking to go sub-3 (Ben ran chicago in 3:07, jason did Chicago Lakeshore - the correct distance - in 3:03), and I get hopefully to see it happen. I'd be ecstatic to be able to witness the two of them achieving this, and I hope both of them can do it. The hardest part is that training with the two of them is so hard for me, since they have been running together since Cross Country and Track in High School, and are at a pretty high level as runners.





I am so envious of Ben and Jason - a tempo run for me with Jason usually results in an easy run for him and a killer (but great) one for me. His 7:30 pace definitely helped push me this winter/spring. I always think I can catch up to them, but I think I lost sight of how the progression as a runner should be a lot slower than I tried to take it this year. I was trying to get to 3:30 by the end of this year and am not so sure I can make that - but the training season has yet to begin and there will be almost 5 months til my fall marathon (NYC!) of which I will try and make an assault to shave at least 15-20 minutes off my 2007 time. If I can do better, great, but I have to stick to the goal of having running as a PART of my life, not my life being running.





Seems like that was the problem, and the thought that if PR after PR with no time to let my body recover would help somehow, was pretty dumb. The worst part is that I see more than a few people on our team with the same mentality that I have. One member especially, it gets under my skin how proud he is that he's got metal on his legs, I can't fathom why you would keep pushing your body THAT far through that much pain just so you have to spend some more time in a cast or have more surgeries, it just sounds dumb to me.....but it isn't my body and if thats what he wants to do, thats what he can do.

So I'll be on the sidelines with Kelly and Jessica (Ben and Jason's wives) on this sunday to see some personal history hopefully being set for the two people who got me to become a committed runner, along with seeing Jen A hopefully get her goal too.


Jason has said many a time that I have a BQ in me, it just takes time to build up to it. It took him 8 years of running to hit it, so I should have a little more patience. Maybe I will, but I'm green with envy that the three of them get to hit the course this weekend and show the NJ marathon what they've got.

Finding Inspiration just may be 2 hrs 51 minutes 12 seconds away

While I know that I should be going to bed at this moment, I am still thinking through what transpired today.

I sat in my office this morning and awaited the first splits from Boston. Avi, Tom, Patty, and Peter K were all running the Boston Marathon. Of all of these 4 people - I had spent the most time with Avi, and had the chance to ride alongside him for his 21 mile run last month, but more of that to come later. Shirking a little of my professional responsibility, and feeling like a 5th grader, I had the window with the tracking set up for the 4 of them in the race, and found myself refreshing a lot more than I should have probably been, but there's something about big race days that make me do that (flashback to 2005 when my close friends Adam, Ben, and Jason all ran Boston together).

So back to my time with Avi. Before LA, I had done my 21 miler with Dave in the lovely hills of River Road, but Avi and Bob had also chosen to use this lovely training ground for their 14 miler in preparation for Boston. We met them on the course, and we had stopped to talk to the 2 of them to see how their workout was going. Avi and I started to talk, and I know he wasn't the first to mention it to me, he mentioned that I was working way too hard, and not letting my body rest. A few other teammates had mentioned it, and when he said it, I blew it off, but said I'd keep it in mind. He had known of my desire of achieving 5 marathons in 2008, among a bunch of other half marathons and shorter races, and definitely showed his dissatisfaction at that desire, and mentioned to concentrate on few races and do well at them, rather than many and do OK.

Looking back on it, it was great advice, and it took an injury for me to figure it out. I'm sure that I am not the first person to make this mistake, and I won't be the last. I call it an immature runner - I was, and still am a newbie to this sport, and have lessons to learn, but its a good thing I have people looking out to help me avoid the pitfalls, or at least tell me that they may be ahead.

Avi and I spent the whole 21 mile ride just talking as if we were both just going for a walk in a park, it was as if he was conversing first, running second. He was able to transcend the whole thing and almost naturally just have that flow to keep rolling. I have the thought he had the same feeling on those hills that I had the weeks before, the miles of 9-11 looked as if he kept floating up that road like it was lunch, and he ate it up. ATE IT UP. Like I had never seen before. After that, we continued our talk, about tons of things, running, life in general, and my lack of drive for the triathlons coming up. I love the thought of the three sports, but the desire to leave myself out on a course for 12-18 hours is something I don't think I have the desire to. OK, let me get back on track before I get derailed by ADD. Those days were the ones I came back to once I found out I'd be off from running. I thought back to those tuesdays and thursdays where KC said she'd beat me if I didn't back off. I laughed at it, but in hindsight, maybe I should have just taken time off and let my body get a rest. 100% of my body took a beating for almost 9 months of road work, and something had to happen, and I didn't realize it until it was too late.

Avi spent almost 18 months of building base to make his 2:51:12 performance today. He also made a big fan out of me with his great desire to concentrate his energy on the few races he does a year to make them his BEST performances. The injury has me concentrating my efforts on the three things that I am involved in - my job, RWP, and my position as the President of the NY chapter of my undergrad alumni association. I have let the last one slip over the past 8 months or so with the whole marathon thing, but its time that I can get a framework in place to where I can devote a chunk of time, but get better returns, by getting others involved. Its like RWP is for some people - an outlet where they can meet people with a similar background, and a desire for the success of a common goal - our alma mater.

I've diverged from the subject of the blog a little, but today had me thinking a lot. Inspiration is something that I try to find in the most complex things in life sometimes, when its sometimes thrown at you in the simplest things. Something simple like putting a foot down on the ground and repeating this for 26.2 miles. Building a 1 mile run at a calm pace to that 26.2 may take years, but the trip has only begun for me, and I hope I can help someone like I think Avi has helped me, and others on the team to figure out how to perform at our best.

And I had to include this picture - the classic Avi picture from the Poland Spring run this past fall:

On a funny note, Avi, if you read this, don't drink coffee ever again before a run (he was trying something new before the run, which didn't work out so well ;-) )

Wondering - could it have been too much?

Just a little over six weeks ago I ran the LA marathon, which, has clearly been the worst race that I ran in the two and change years I have been running. To run a 1:47 front on the marathon, only to barely be able to cross the line in four hours (4:02 actually) was very disappointing to me. I felt so well on the first 16 or 17 miles, but by the time Deana came onto the course at 19 (in front of the Staples Center) I was so gone and pissed off that my body was giving out at that point. The wheels had fallen off, but Deana wouldn't take that as an excuse - she pushed me to keep going - all I had wanted to do when I saw her was walk off the course and call it a day.



March 2, 2008 put my running addiction into perspective - I had been way too hard on my body since last July when I started training for NY, but it woudn't be til just about a month later where I would find out just how much damage I really did. I spent the next 4 weeks waiting to get an appointment with Dr. Callahan, a doctor at Hospital for Special Surgery that KC, my RWP teammate had recommended to me. I toned back on my runs, although I did take the week off after the race while I was still on vacation. Tuesday and Thursday runs have kept my sanity all through the year, and to those people who have joined along, I am sure they enjoyed the regularity and especially my presence :-). The Tues/Thurs runs after LA showed me very toned back, I had spent most of the winter pushing my body harder and harder on these runs. I felt like I needed to give my body a little break, but not lose much fitness before I ran the NJ marathon on May 4. The rest of the month was great running-wise, I had set a PR in my 10K time by over 45 seconds a mile....I didn't think I'd ever be able to run a 10K at a 7:45 pace!!!!!



April 1 was the first visit with Dr. Callahan. Got X-rays, but it showed nothing too out of the norm, but she wanted to get an MRI just to rule out a stress fracture. I still wanted to run, even with knowing that there might be something wrong as I knew it would be a while if i was injured to return to the road. Call it the stupid moment in me, KC wanted to kill me during our run the next day when I told her that. That sunday was the Cherry Blossom 10 miler, and I reallly wanted to go to it, and be able to run it, especially that Josh and Christine were going. I spent the better part of the past 3 or so months complaining how my leg was sore to Josh, and he's had problems of his own, so having both of us on the course in one piece was a good thing. Friday, I had made my appointment for the MRI on that coming Monday at 7, and left for DC hoping that monday would be a breeze.



Had an amazing weekend down in DC with some great RWP people. Definitely not taking the Chinatown bus again though :-).



Went in for the MRI monday morning, and I knew a return call from Dr. Callahan's office at 10am to my office to come back that afternoon to visit again was not a good sign. When you walk into an exam room where there is an aircast and an Ultrasound "bone healing system" (See it at left) it isn't a good sign, but the nurse tried to play it off as if it was left in the room.

It was in the next 5 minutes that I found out that I'd be taking a 2 month vacation from running. I was in a little bit of a shock, but at the same time, I knew exactly what I had done to get this. I had beaten the living shit out of my legs for almost 9 months - so something had to give. It's a tibial stress fracture, about an inch above the tibial malleolus (ankle bone on the inside of the right leg). She had said i was on borrowed time if i kept running, that it might have actually compounded and fully broken in another 2 weeks to a month. Lehigh Valley Half - gone. Jersey Marathon - gone. NYRR races - gone.

My body is definitely thanking me for the time off, in the past 9 days since i've stopped running, I've biked twice (have to stay in the saddle) and the leg has felt good. Plus this ultrasound system supposedly speeds up the healing by something like 30% in clinical trials - it helps when she says she uses this on the professional athletes she sees. Although I hate the fact that I'm off the road for another 1.5 months or so, I've become content with giving my body a rest. Biking and swimming will become my best friends over the next 2 months, and get me back just in time for my first triathlon - Tupper Lake sprint on June 29th. It might be high hopes, but I'd like to be in the top of my age group, and I think if I could pick up on the swim and bike, I'd have a good chance at it.....time will tell.

Enough for now, I have other things to finish tonight, although I like this whole blog thing......

And for those 2 of you, you know who you are, thanks for making me put my running into perspective - the two of you know I want to run for the rest of my adult life, and at the rate I was going, I wasn't going to hit my 30th bday. At least one of you can coach me in my swimming now!!