Category Archives: injury

Mistake I’ll Hopefully Never Make Again

02mi, 05mi, 07mi, injury

Start time: 5/16/2016, 5:40 & 6:00 am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 2.04 & 5.21 miles
Average pace: 8:44 & 9:58 min/mile
Total Miles For May: 52 miles
Total Miles For 2016: 372 miles
Current Shoes: 52 miles

I would have thought that feeling a tiny bit creaky after Sunday’s run would have been the issue for this Monday run. Turns out, no, it was forgetting to set out running socks the night before. The better option (hindsight is always 20/20) would have been to potentially wake Charlie up to try and find a pair. Instead I ran without, and now I have two massive blisters on my feet. Ugh ugh ugh.

Two Runs and an Injury

06mi, injury

Start time: 8/28/2014, 5:37am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 6.1 miles
Average pace: 10:28 min/mile
Total Miles For August: 80 miles
Total Miles For 2014: 545 miles
Current Shoes: 102 miles

Start time: 8/29/2014, 5:35am
Location: National Mall
Distance: 6 miles
Average pace: 9:45 min/mile
Total Miles For August: 86 miles
Total Miles For 2014: 551 miles
Current Shoes: 108 miles

Ran on Thursday w/ Ben and Steve, and my right calf (which had been a little stiff on Monday) was continuing to be so that day, too. Friday was supposed to have amazing weather, though, and I wasn’t sure if a Saturday run was going to happen. So given the opportunity for a Friday morning run, I jumped on it…

…and a quarter mile from the end, my right calf went from a little stiff to really hurting. *sigh* I’ve had this happen before (back in 2007) and it was an achilles mechanism strain. (Essentially the muscles that connect to the achilles tendon.) I ended up taking two weeks off last time and that did the trick then, so hopefully… maybe? Fingers crossed. Until then, ice and stretching and elevation and such.

Climb Every Mountain

03mi, injury, travel

Start time: 7/28/12, 11:20am
Location: Lost River, West Virginia
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 10:16min/mile
Total Miles For July: 45 miles
Total Miles For 2012: 309 miles
Current Shoes: 104 miles

Went for a short run while out in the mountains (Lost River, West Virginia). Phew! Those hills (plus some bright sunlight and perhaps the attempted return of my breakfast) did me in.

Then, later in the day I whacked my little toe against a chaise lounge. Broken or just banged up? A good 24 hours later, still hurts like the dickens and slightly swollen. We shall see. *sigh*

It happens every year…

0, 04mi, injury, pacers arlington

Start time: 09/12/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:29min/mile

…that run where I inadvertantly step off of the trail and shout an obscenity. Today was at least just a stumble (and twisting of the ankle) and not an outright fall, thank goodness. But still cringe-worthy because it seems to happen at least once a year. Oh well, fortunately nothing was broken and it’s just a little sore, not too bad. (And definitely not that bad considering that I still had over 2 miles to go.) I really need to stop doing this, though. Must remember to stick to the left on the trail!

Here We Go (Again)

0, 04mi, achilles, aidsmarathon, injury

Start time: 06/18/06, 7:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile

At long last, my training season has started up again. I’m training for the Florence Marathon, and raising money for Whitman-Walker Clinic. This year I’ve agreed to raise a record high of $3700, so every little penny will help!

Anyway, after Tuesday’s run I decided I was doing good and ready to start up training this weekend. I wasn’t sure if I was going to run with the 9:30 or 10:00 group but decided I’d give 9:30 a go; if it was too fast I could always slow down, but I had a feeling that if I didn’t try it out I’d never attempt to move up. When I got there (along with jabulous) I saw there were two names on the 9:30 sign-in sheet from last week, and one person who had just put her name down this week. I added mine to the list, and introduced myself to Stephanie. Little did we know… we were it for the 9:30 group. Meanwhile, the 10:00 group appears to be Boyztown or something. Hmmmmm.

We headed out onto the course, and it was about a mile and a quarter in when I felt a sudden twinge in my left calf. Oh hell, I thought (or perhaps it was something a little ruder), not again.

Within about ten seconds, though, the severity of it went from a 5 to about a 3 (versus the initial incident which was probably an 8) so I decided to keep moving. If I had to I could always stop when we hit the two-mile point and hitch a ride back with Soyini. It never got any worse, though, more uncomfortable than anything else. Still, not something I’m willing to have happen every week. We finished up in exactly 40 minutes (which once you add in the required walk to kick off the run is pretty good) and I talked a bit with Coach Karen and Coach Julie Ann. They reiterated my need for more stretching with the achilles tendon and calf; I think tomorrow at work I’m going to set up my Outlook to auto-remind me twice a day to do the stretches. After jabulous‘s group finished up (not far behind me at all) we headed back home, and from there it was some stretching, ice, and a bit of ibuprofen. It’s still sore at this point, bah.

So, right now I’m leaning towards not running for the next week or two, coupled with really making sure I continue to stretch every day and take proper care of myself. Which, let’s be honest, totally stinks to be sidelined again and so very early in the training process… but better for it to be early than later on, right? Ah well. I’ll catch up quickly. And who knows, maybe I should take it easy and hang out with Boyztown when I do get back. (Don’t get me wrong, Stephanie is super-nice, I like her a great deal. But at the same time…)

One Week Later: I Suck

0, cramp, injury

After taking a week off from last Sunday’s calf problems, I figured I was ok to start running again. I’d gone for a long (2.33 mile) walk on Tuesday night which helped a lot, and on Wednesday gotten a massage from Kris that seemed to really knock the problem out of the park; Thursday afternoon it seemed to be entirely gone. So, about half an hour ago I suited up, headed down to the Arlington Boulevard Trail… and in less than a third of a mile it was starting to hurt again. By the half-mile point it was starting to increase rather than decrease, and that’s when I stopped.

It killed me to stop. It’s still killing me to have stopped. Part of me keeps thinking that if I’d kept going it would’ve gotten “worked out” and started to decrease. The rest of me thinks that it’s better to be safe than sorry, that it was the right decision to not keep running and risk further injury.

But I’m pissed at myself, and mad, and just really torn up by all this (no pun intended). I don’t take injury well as you can tell, and any and all doubts that had gone away about starting back up with official training a week from today are now back in full force.

And just think, this is what I do for fun.

I’m glad my car isn’t a stick-shift.

0, 02mi, cramp, injury

Start time: 05/28/06, 7:50am
Location: Clarendon neighborhood
Distance: 2.66 miles
Average pace: 9:56min/mile

Well, the plan was to knock out a 5 miler this morning. It went well at first, running through Clarendon and all the way down to the far end of Rosslyn before starting to come back up on the huge hill that is Wilson Boulevard leading away from the Potomac River.

It all got cut short, though, when my left calf started to feel sore. I slowed down to stretch it, and that just made matters worse; it completely tightened up and running no longer became an option. So, that was the end of this morning’s run. I don’t know if it was the extra-hillwork (that is one steep hill), a potential lack of potassium, or perhaps that I’d done extra stretching this morning before running. Ah well, win some lose some. Fortunately it was the left leg, since I’m now off to drive up to Pennsylvania. Wheeee!