I AM BROKEN

:'(

Well, unfortunately I've come to the point where I have to admit I'm broken and I apparently can't fix it myself. After my decent week back in early May I played soccer with Brandon outside on the field. A good hour and half worth of slinging the ball around. It was fun, I didn't feel anything too bad while playing, although I'll admit my knees ached with some vigorous twisting to kick the ball hard. The rest of the day I felt more or less fine. Legs a little worn, but nothing major.

Something that has been weird about my recent struggles is how when I fuck something up it doesn't affect me right away. Often it will take two or three days before it is at its worst. Almost like the delayed muscle soreness after a marathon. Anyways, two days later I was pretty much limping. It was really frustrating. I wasn't even really running, I was just kicking a soccer ball. The feelings were pretty much the same though. I took the whole week off and went nine days without a run.

When I got back to it I noticed I was even more out of shape. It's pretty frustrating to have 9:15/mile feel hard and leave you panting. By my second run back my legs revolted again. It was at this point I called it. Something needs to be done! My hamstring theory didn't really work. My hamstring is much better, still a little tight, but that didn't work at all. So something else is going on.

Anyways, there is probably some sort of muscular-skeletal imbalance. Weak hips or overpowering quads or who the fuck knows. Something is jacked up and it's primarily affecting my knees. The my knees themselves feel fine, they don't hurt when I run or anything. So I don't think it is anything with the knees themselves. But whatever is out of whack is putting a lot of strain on the muscles and ligaments around my knees so afterward they swell up and complain.

It kind of makes sense, because the imbalance wouldn't really get better by taking time off. Maybe if I lay in bed until I withered to nothing and restarted from scratch it would. However, appealing as that may be, it is not an option! So it's off to the doctor to get referred to a specialist and then hopefully get some sort of physical therapy or exercises to help fix what is wrong. I just want to know what is wrong. Hopefully it won't be too hard for them to figure out.

That's it in a nutshell. I need to schedule the appointment but I'm afraid of how much this is going to cost. I've had a lot of expenses recently, and although I have plenty of savings, I don't really feel like blowing a ton of money. Hopefully must of it can fall under normal visits to the doctor/specialist, which are just co-pays of something like $30/ea. Whatever it is though, I'll bit the bullet and do it I guess. Running is key to me staying in shape and a big part of my social life, so I'll miss it even if I won't miss it... if you catch my drift.

Guess what? I have a race tomorrow! Yay! Probably my last one for a long time. It's the Rum Run, year FIVE. Holy shit! You know what's great? I'm totally going to fun run it. I'm not going to give a single shit. Just enjoy myself and hobble along at whatever is easy. Should be fun. Actually kind of looking forward to it... no pressure!

Anyways, posts to this blog will probably become much less frequent. Not that anybody reads it. I'll keep you abreast on the whole diagnosis/rehab thing though. Just about every running blog ever has that stage, so onward I go!

BEST WEEK SINCE FEBRUARY

At about mile seven out of ten. About when the legs started asking for me to be done.

Last week would definitely be categorized as a success. I had a solid, easy six miler on Monday with PRC followed by a spastic pace three miler on Wednesday (I had to tone a tempo-ish run down due to previously mentioned stomach issues). That left Saturday, where I joined the Portland Marathon Clinic for the first time this season. They were running ten miles from Club Sport, which is only about a 15 minute drive. Sounded good since Sunstone was planning on running a grueling hill route through Cooper Mountain Nature Park. That run, while beautiful, would not have been what my legs needed!

Anyways, I was glad that Katie decided to go to PMC as well. With some slight prodding I convinced her to join the 3:30 group since they typically run long runs at 9:40ish a mile. Turns out they ran 9:25ish for this run, I guess they run a bit faster earlier in the season. I usually don't join until at least June when they are running upwards of 14 miles, so it was a bit strange to be there that early. The turnout for the run was HUGE though, very surprising. Vincent was also there and also ran with the 3:30s so it was fun to have some buddies to run with.

The long run actually went pretty well. It felt really hot out, I think it was only about 70 degrees or so, but it was muggy or something. Reminded me very much for training for the marathon during those hot summer months. The run got off to a bit of a rough start, the warm weather coupled with me being out of shape meant it was harder than it should have been. Luckily, around mile four, my body found it's groove and it started to feel more like a typical long run. This lasted until about mile seven before my legs started to complain. It was fun while it lasted, my breathing was easy, my legs felt great, and I could talk without issue.

Turns out the course called for an eight mile lollipop loop back to Club Sport, followed by a two mile out and back for those who wanted to do ten total miles. I could have totally been done after eight, but I made myself due ten miles. Those two miles were harder than they should have been and I found myself being the "caboose" of the group again. Just like old times. They totally sped up though, and I was not about to speed up to match them. I kept chugging at 9:20/mile and eventually, with the help of a stoplight, caught up and finished right with the group.

My legs felt worn but responded in a good way. Like they used to after a long run. That ten miler was way harder than it should have been, but I'm glad I did it. All together for the week I ran 19.6 miles (totally rounding that up to 20), which is the most since February. My legs feel good and that is encouraging. However, I've been able to basically do a week like this before and then after two or three weeks consecutively of running semi-regularly they blow up again. I'd like to think my legs feel different this time, I swear they do, but only time will tell. Not celebrating yet.

RUNNING... FOR THE BATHROOM

Well, after Mexico I've been running again. My legs feel alright - nothing crippling, but they don't feel like they've magically fixed whatever is going on. I'm going to attempt a long run this weekend, probably 10 miles, and we'll see how that goes. Overall they do feel better than they did a few months ago, so I'm hoping for continued improvement. If they still get fucked up even after all the time off and efforts to stretch and whatnot, I'm going to have to see a sports doctor. And that's annoying and expensive.

Mexico has left quite the impression... on my digestive tract. I ate something that wasn't washed properly, and... there's no easy way to put it...I've been shitting my brains out for 11 days now. I even went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't something more serious. He seems to think it's just a case of Traveler's Diarrhea that's taking a while to clear up. I hope so. I actually had a good day on Tuesday, I thought I was cured. And then yesterday/last night was probably my worst day. So that has been interesting. The threat of that happening has certainly made my runs more interesting.

Aside from that, nothing much has been happening. I do have a race on Saturday the 21st... another year of the Rum Run. It was a total cluster last year, you can read that here, so this year they have changed locations and it's actually right by my house. Super handy, but I will miss the Tualatin location. It was somewhat of a tradition and I liked finishing around the lake. The new course has a pretty big hill right in the middle too. Should be interesting. Based on my runs since Mexico, I'm even in worse shape than the Blooms to Brews 10k, so if I'm able to run the Rum Run under 8:00/mile it might be a small miracle.