HAPPY EASTER!

It has been 9 long days since my last post so I figured I’d give my faithful readers and update on my injury / training / etc. Today is my first “walk normally” day after my doctor advised me to walk less for ten days following my injury. I don’t know how much I really reduced my walking since it is tough not to walk in a large city where mass transportation is the only real option to get to and from work. I also managed to get 2 rounds of golf in there (riding a cart, not walking) but I wasn’t going to pass up the first two rounds of the year for anything.

Over the past several days I have been lifting, swimming (once), and cycling (outside and stationary) to stay in shape while waiting for the green light on running again. I’m only 11 days (and counting) from being able to run and have the itch to get outside and bang out a quick 3 miles.

Speaking of running … today is the 110th running of The Boston Marathon. Two of my friends finished the race together in 3:52:45 which is an 8:53 pace. I’d love to qualify for Boston someday but the current qualifying time for my age group is 3:10:00 which is (at least) an hour faster than I will likely run my first marathon. In the meantime I’ll focus on running some portion of San Diego and then shoot for running all of Chicago. I’d also like to do the NYC Marathon someday but since it’s a lottery process to enter I’m not sure what the odds are I would make it in (but they are likely MUCH higher than my odds of getting into Boston).

Tonight I think I’m going to lift and maybe do a little stationary bike. Tomorrow night I’m heading to a Sox game at Comiskey (like many stubborn old men I refuse to call the place U.S. Cellular Field or The Cell or some other silly corporate name) so I’ll probably pass on tomorrow’s workout (unless I go to the gym early).

Well that’s all I have for now … GO CUBBIES (they are off to a 7-4 start and play the Dodgers L.A.T.E. tonight).

Bad news. The marathon ninja has been diagnosed with a stress reaction to the left femoral neck due to overuse (running too much, too soon).

(Note that is not my pelvis - just an example of where the femoral neck is)

The long version of the story…
Following my last long run two Saturdays ago (3/25) I noticed some soreness in my left hip. The next day (3/26) the soreness was more pronounced and I was walking around with a slight limp. My leg / hip felt better that Monday (3/27) which was a rest day and better still on Tuesday (3/28). Since I thought the soreness was gone altogether that Tuesday I went for a 7 mile run and felt great during and after.

Then I woke up on Wednesday (3/29) in some real pain with a moderate limp. Over the course of the day the hip felt better but I could tell something was wrong so I went to a physical therapist a week ago (3/30) to get it looked at. The therapist thought I had hip bursitis but wanted me to see an orthopedist to be on the safe side. Last Sunday I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8k (5 miles – 40:11) and again felt great during and after the race. This Monday I was in pain again and saw the doctor on Tuesday (4/4).

The doc took an x-ray and gave me an exam. He felt I either had a stress reaction or stress fracture of the left femoral neck caused by overuse (running too much too soon) so he prescribed an MRI. I had the MRI that night and scheduled another appointment with my doc this afternoon.

At my appointment yesterday (4/7) the doctor confirmed I have a stress reaction of the left femoral neck and told me I should not run the San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. He said I could walk the course but would almost certainly re-injure the leg if I did.

Going Forward...
I'm supposed to limit walking for the next 10 days - that means taking the bus rather than walking to the train each morning / night and taking cabs around where I would have walked before.

In the next three weeks I can do NO RUNNING at all and will do cross training like riding the stationary bike, my 'real' bike, swimming, and (non-weight bearing) lifting.
The elliptical machine is out because it will stress my leg too much. Unfortunately the only thing more boring than the elliptical is the stationary bike. I'll try to focus on swimming and lifting over the next few weeks.
In 3 weeks I go back to check in with the doctor and he thinks then I'll be able to start running again - only 3 or 4 miles at first but gradually building that up.
In 6 weeks my leg bone should be totally healed and I can start gradually adding more mileage to my training. The big problem is that will only be 2 weeks before the race.

Right now I plan to keep up the cardio via cross training and shoot for running 1/2 or slightly less of the race. As a matter of fact I’m going to a spinning class in an hour. It just isn't worth pushing it and going against doc's orders only to do severe damage to the bone during the race.

I'm very, very bummed out but hopefully I can salvage something and run at least a part of the race. The good news is we caught this early and it is a fairly short recovery period - some people with this injury are out months.

Also, I'm now planning on running the Chicago Marathon on October 22nd this year. I will be sure to follow the 10% rule and very gradually increase mileage during training so I don’t end up with another stress reaction.

Even though I’m still a little nervous about my upcoming doctor’s visit to further diagnose my hip injury, I’m in a very good mood today. This morning I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8K race in Chicago with some friends and set a new Personal Record (PR) for that distance.

I ran the race (FYI 8K is just shy of 5 miles) in 40:11 which works out to around an 8:03 pace. My first mile was 8:50 or so and each subsequent mile was faster than the one before. When I realized I just might have a chance to break 40 minutes I turned on the jets for the last mile and cranked out a 7:10 mile.


Besides running a solid race, the best news of the day was that I was running at all. It had been five days since my last run which seemed like a lifetime ago. I had forgotten how much fun a road race can be versus a normal training run since my last road race was the Run Hit Wonder several months ago.

As far as the leg and “quasi injury” (that’s what I’m now calling it in hopes it will just go away) I feel pretty good right now (6 hours after the race was over). I actually felt better during and after the race than before I started. While this can be viewed as good news it’s exactly the same thing that happened during and after Tuesday’s 7 mile run – felt great during, felt better after, limped throughout the next day. I’m trying to prepare myself for feeling bad tomorrow but we will have to wait and see. I would rather run 15 miles outside in good weather than spend an hour on the dreaded elliptical.

As far as treatment of the injury I’ve been doing cycles of 20 minutes ice, 20 off, 20 ice etc. I also got a pack of ‘icy hot’ patches so I now smell like a nursing home – I guess the patches are endorsed by Shaq so I should feel like a 7’1” human wrecking ball.

Two things I almost forgot to mention ... the postrace food wasn't so hot but the free beer was excellent. Also I hear the marathon guru himself - Hal Higdon - was spoted in the 'competitive start' zone of the race.

To get into the 'Preferred Start' zone this year you had to run a sub 42:30 in last year's race. Hopefully this means I'll have preferred start in the '07 Shuffle and get to wear the uber-cool green bib.

Tomorrow is a rest day but I will try and get to the gym for core work and stretching. Tuesday I see the doc so I’ll probably be making another entry then.