Day One Hundred Twenty Six - Good News and Bad News

It's been a while since I updated. Call it a mixture of things with the holiday season and work and all that crap. But honestly, the real reason is that my leg is still a mess and I've been pretty depressed about that for the past couple of weeks. I've done some cross training which seems fine, but as soon as I try to run it starts to get really painful. The last time I tried was this past Monday and I couldn't even make it two miles. Sucks. Ass. I've been told to try an acupuncturist, so I'm making that appointment today, as even with lots of rest I can still feel some pain just simmering beneath the surface waiting for me to try and run. Back out tomorrow morning to see what I can do, but I'm honestly not very confident. Officially less than a month to go at this point and I'm not thrilled with the prospect of running this thing with an IT problem. However, if I have to crawl through Phoenix with a bloody stump I WILL finish this run.

So that is the glass half empty portion of this update.

And now for the glass half full part:

Today I reached TNT's fundraising goal of $3800.00! I sent out my final letter yesterday to friends and family and recieved several donations overnight. Then today I sent the letter out to my co-workers and one of them came through with the final $100.00 donation to send me over the edge. Unbelievable, right? You'd think I'd just be floating on air all day right? It's a pretty big accomplishment.

Yeah, you'd think so. But of course, in typical Bill fashion I fouled the whole thing up with a crucial typo in the letter I sent out to my co-workers. I added a zero to my fundraising total which made me look FAR more industrious than I actually am. I quickly sent out a correction email, but I still look like the clown that doesn't proof read which would seem much less important if my job weren't so detail oriented.

Well, it'll keep me humble at any rate. Which is good, because while I have received the necessary amount to fulfill my fundraising requirements I still have a ways to go to reach my personal goal of $4500.00, so I'll just keep on trucking.

Thanks so much to all those who have donated. I'm amazed at your collective generosity.

Now let's just hope my leg doesn't fall off in trying to come through on my part of the deal.

Thanks guys.

BD

Day One Hundred Thirteen - Unlucky Day

Another Saturday morning, another group run in Central Park. Got there a little before 8:00 and talked to Christine, one of the coaches, about my IT Band issues. She gave me the same advice that Steve gave me last week and told me to take it easy and see how far I could go. We were scheduled to run anywhere between 16 and 20 miles and I was cautiously optimistic that I might be able to crank out the minimum. I ran with Jen and Charlotte for the first 5 miles or so and then C split off to run a New York Road Runners race - it's one of the last qualifying races for next year's NYC Marathon (you have to run 9 races with NYRR to qualify) and happened to be taking place in the park during our Saturday practice. So Jen and I continued on around on a second 6 mile loop.

Right at the start of the run I knew my knee was going to start hurting exactly the way it did last week. I started feeling some pain around the 3rd mile. By the 6th mile I was wincing and having trouble with inclines and declines. It was strange though because when we were on a flat surface I felt great and like I could go all day. But then we'd hit another hill (you really have no idea how hilly Central Park is) and I would feel as though I couldn't go another 10 feet. I started to overcompensate and limp around mile 11 and knew that there was no way I would make 16. I decided to err on the side of caution and called it a day at 12 as Jen continued on.

I was pissed. It's just a frustrating injury when you know that there's not much you can do for it besides rest and I'm supposed to get 2 20 mile runs in over the next 3 weeks or so. I spoke with our head coach Ramon and he told me more of the same regarding the injury, although he said that I was OK time-wise and that I should be feeling better in plenty of time for the marathon, but I'm still anxious about the whole thing. I've been icing my leg and stretching as well, but I can still feel it under there. I didn't want to feel like such a quitter after talking to Ramon so I decided to try for a short 1.7 mile loop just to boost my distance a little bit, but I only made it to the first hill and then had to stop and walk back to the bag watch area. It sucked. Especially when, as I was stretching, runners who had finished 16 or 18 miles already started coming in.

Taking a week off from running. I'm supposed to be cross training, but I skipped yesterday. I have to go today, but I'm nervous about my knee hurting again and pushing my recovery back another 2 days. We're supposed to run a 10k this Sunday for time but I have to work so I'll have to get my long run in on Saturday sometime and I'm pretty nervous about that. Wish me luck.

In great news - I'm only $175.00 away from reaching my fundraising minimum! My step brother Jay and his fiance Jen get a huge thank you today as does my best friend The Rold, who is pretty much the greatest guy I know - and I write this with the full knowledge that he will NEVER read this blog.

All right, that's all for me. I'm gonna feel sorry for myself for a little while and then go to the gym and try not to hurt myself.

Take care.

DAY 113
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 12
TOTAL MILEAGE: 269.5

PS - Congratulations to my friends Dan and Bridget who got engaged Sunday night at the foot of the most romantic statue of Abe Lincoln in all of New York City. Good luck guys.

Day One Hundred Nine - Same IT, Different Day

Our Wednesday evening practice was switch to Tuesday this week throwing the world into disarray. Thus, the lack of blogging this week. Also, I've been extremely lazy and unmotivated pretty much since Thanksgiving, give or take. This happens between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I kinda don't get why they don't just give us the whole month off to recharge, but whatever.

So, if you remember from Sunday I kinda screwed up my IT band and wasn't feeling so hot about it. I kept icing it off and on through Monday night and on Tuesday headed over to practice. G-Rocks punked out so she could brown nose at her new job, so it was up to me, Drew and Charlotte to keep things going for the team. I guess once you win the Spirit T you can just coast the rest of the way.

Drew and I were both feeling a little apprehensive about the run because we were both nursing sore knees. The gist of this week's practice was pacing. Warm up for 5 - 8 minutes, then run at Marathon Pace for a little over a mile, then turn back and run the second half of practice FASTER than Marathon Pace, just to give us an idea of where we should be with our effort levels. We were timing ourselves to the halfway point and then back, and our time back should have beaten our time out by around 3 minutes. Got it? It doesn't really matter if you don't.

The entire run was 5.5 miles - not really long enough to really push my IT band, but long enough for me to know that it hasn't gone away. Around the 4th mile I started to feel it again and by the end of the run I was hurting. But I was also pushing myself effort wise, so hopefully I can get some more distance out of it if I am keeping things slow on Saturday morning. We shall see. Still nervous with the race coming up, but what can you do? Just keep running and resting it I guess. For the record, ran out in 27:34 and back in just over 24:00, so I guess I did it right.

Drew really did a number on his IT band and is in rough shape right now. Compared to him I've got it easy, so let's all hope he can get enough rest to heal up in the next few weeks. His wind is good for the long run, it's just keeping the wheels moving, you know? I'll join Jen in sending whatever good vibes I've got his way.

Priming up for another 18 tomorrow. You know I'll tell you how it goes.

DAY 109
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 5.5
TOTAL MILEAGE: 257.5