Tendonitis is apparently a very tricky thing. Although I no longer feel like I am walking a tight rope with my injury, I do still feel like I cannot run like I want to do. This may seem hard to believe considering that I have run three races, Seneca 7s, Mountain Goat, and Run for Recovery, but after each race I have run, I sit there and wait for the inflammation to come, and usually it does. Not as bad as it once was, but enough to be annoying and discouraging. Thus, the reason why I have only run one work out this year, which I did with Miles & Macros one Wednesday.
Part of the issue is while running there usually is not any discomfort or pain. Like on the day I ran the workout, which at this point feels like it was forever ago, but it was probably like a month and a half ago. I felt so good while running out there and running fast for the first time this year. The following days, the inflammation did come, which was discouraging, but unlike before, it did go away relatively quickly.
So at that point I figured I had reached some sort of good healing point, but I still chose not to push it, but I figured I could try to add more distance to it, and that might make me feel more comfortable, and it has helped some, but it feels like that even has its limits. I can do eight miles consistently now, and on the weekends, I can do one ten miler, or an accidental 13 last weekend, but it has not instilled much confidence in me.
Seneca 7 always seemed so far off, so of course I always thought that I would feel one hundred percent by then, and it still ended up being a roller-coaster. I thought about trying to get someone to sub in for me, but I did not want to go through the trouble of doing that, and I had the shortest legs, so I figured I might as well go for it.
It was so worth it! It felt so invigorating to run fast again, and to be racing people. It is a very staggered start, so it was more of passing people than racing, but still, having people in the sightline to chase down is an amazing feeling. The biggest issue was that I had asked to be the person who comes up out of Watkins Glen, which is basically three miles uphill with some reprieve in the middle. I was worried about this part, but my body handled it pretty well! I was surprised after that leg to see that my time was good enough to make it onto the top ten leaderboard on Strava in third place, I think. I could not believe that I was able to run sub six-minute miles for most of the miles that I ran that day. I literally had not done that in six months, and I did not expect to be able to just come back and do that.
The coolest part of Seneca 7 is the team aspect. Just riding around in a van all day with six friends going from one spot to another handing off a bracelet and eating PB&Js. It is the dream! Our team was able to improve from last year as well, which was awesome. We finished ninth overall, and we were sixth for mixed gender teams, and it was nice to know that there was still a good amount of running fitness in my muscles despite them not being used for months at a time.
This gave me some added confidence for Mountain Goat the following weekend. Mountain Goat was a massive step up though compared to Seneca 7. For Seneca, I ran a little under 9 miles, and I got long breaks in between each leg. So I was only running a little over three miles max before getting a rest. Mountain Goat would be more elevation and ten miles straight of harder running, which at this point was very far out of my comfort zone. Going in I tried to tell myself that this was just for fun, but to me that is almost an impossible task to make myself believe, but I tried to go in with no plan in mind.
Thankfully the Goat starts out flat, so this allowed me to feel out my legs, or lull me into a false sense of security, so I went for it. As always, once we got to the first big hill, I found myself in no man’s land. It was early on to be alone, but such is life. If there is one thing I am good at, it is running my own race and staying inside of my ability. So again I found myself running faster than I thought I was capable of, but by the time I got to mile four, I thought I was going to burn out and die. Nevertheless, I kept chugging along for the next six miles not losing much time on my pace, and I was out there having fun with it too. If there was someone coming up, I would verbally start to hype myself up, and then I would pantomime reeling someone in, silly I know, but what is running if not fun. My favorite was Jerry seeing me at the top of Colvin and telling me that the race starts now, and I was close to passing a guy, so when I got next to him, I said 3-2-1 go!
With about a mile/mile and a half left coming down out of the last park, I started to hear footsteps coming up behind me, which is not something I had heard all race, normally I passed, and then that was it. This time, there was a guy in a yellow singlet, who I had passed shortly after Colvin that was now reeling me in, and honestly at that point, I was pretty content with him passing me, I thought there was no way at this point in the race with basically no speed training this year that I could hold this dude off, but when he got next to me I said my cordial good job, and then kept with him.
There was a guy ahead of us in a green shirt, and I asked him if he thought we could catch the green shirt guy, I figured if yellow singlet was going to pass me, then I needed to pass someone else, so he agreed while breathing hard, so I surged, but I could not catch green shirt guy, so when we got to the final stretch to the finish line, which lasts forever, I kept thinking okay I am good, then I would hear yellow singlet’s footsteps, so I would push again, and it felt like that happened three times where he would start to catch up. I was able to hold him off, and that was so exciting! Racing is the best! I got 33rd, and I was probably a little too adrenaline fueled, because I felt fine, so I captioned my picture, I am so back! Which days later when I thought I would be able to run a workout, I decided I was not back.
A couple weeks after goat, I got the chance to race again thanks to Joe Bright. He gives out free entries for the Run for Recovery from Ducan Bright, and it is always fun to run a race, especially if it is free at Green Lakes. I felt like I could run fast, so the day before, I cut the beard off and went to the mustache, and in the three ish miles of the race, I led the whole way, and for the first time in my life, I got to break the tape, which was exciting. It also felt good considering on my run on Friday, I felt so bad. Usually my tendon does not bother me while running, but it was bothering me on the run. I was worried, but we survived. Racing is one of the few adolescent joys that can be experienced in life as an adult, you are literally out there just trying to run faster than other people, it is so simple, but so joyous!
After the race Saturday, I took an Epsom salt bath, which a physical therapist had recommended to me, and I kept forgetting to do it, and at the time, it felt fine, but the next day I was running, and my legs were so loose they felt like jelly. It was so weird, and I was racking my head trying to figure out why I felt so weird, and eventually I landed on the Epsom salt. It had to be that! So maybe that will become more of a regular thing. Anyway, I tried to make a loop that did not exist, so I ended up running farther than I expected, so I got my first long run of the year done at 13.4 miles, and I felt good, just so exhausted by the end. So hopefully I feel good in the coming days, and we can get some real long runs going. It is still just so confusing. Every once in a while, I will find a knot in my calf, and I eliminate it, but then a couple days later, I go back to my baseline of just feeling okay. I can run in Green Lakes and get eight miles done, so I am happy, but I would even happier if I could go back to training like normal, and I would like to start training for Berlin or running Hang Glider repeats. I miss that.
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