I'm Back, Somewhat Healthy, But Definitely Back

Back at the old cross country house in Dayton, the walls were full of all sorts of random stuff including many random newspaper clippings.  Some of them were humorous stories,  most of them were unintentionally funny.  And in the kitchen, near the back door, beneath the Foster Cans, was a clipping showing a sled dog, sitting morosely in the snow, with the saddest face.  I have tried to remember the caption, but can't recall it word for word, but it was something along the lines of "Sled dogs get very jealous when they see their friends go for a run without them."  I don't know how many people ever noticed it, but it was one of my favorite little oddities on the walls at 434 Stonemill.

It doesn't matter who you are, dog or human, if you are a runner at your core and can't run, you fundementally are not happy.  Oh you might think things are okay.  You go about your daily life, but there is a bit of a funk to your existence.  You think back on those days when you were healthy and could run, but dreaded heading out the door to do so.  How stupid you were.  Didn't you realize how blessed you were.  When you are healthy and just need to take time off, you can exist fairly well.  But when time off is forced on you, you can put on a good face, but deep down it slowly eats away at your core.

I had overdone it back in February.   I wasn't doing the little things to keep my body going and ended up straining my groin.  But initially it wasn't a big deal.  I had a great January and a few weeks off weren't going to kill me.  I could still ski and ended up having 4 wonderful days of beautiful powder in Jackson Hole.  A close encounter with a tree nearly sent home on crutches, but I got lucky and just ended up with a slightly swollen knee.  I could run if my groin got better.

Blue Sky Day in Jackson along with fresh powder.

But as a few days became a couple of weeks, I started to get anxious.  My initial rehab was to do nothing.  After a few weeks, I tried to do an easy 4 miles.  Couldn't finish it.  Another painful session with Heather at In Motion Rehab and things seemed to get better.  I ran 2 miles.  The next day I ran 3 miles.  By the end of the week I ran 6 miles.  Things were back on track.  And then I did something stupid.  I played for my work's co-ed rec league softball team.  First play of the game I re-aggravated the groin.  No more running for another week or so.  

By now, I had put on some lbs.  And began to realize my goals for the summer were not going to happen.  I was in a funk.  I had just started running with the BTC MUTs and really enjoyed having a group to do workout's with.  This was the first time I had a group to regularly work out with since I left Dayton in 2005.  I was really bummed I couldn't run with them.  I needed to break out of the funk.   I hadn't updated this blog.  I hadn't done anything really to get the groin better besides rest and a few dry needling sessions with Heather.  

I started going to the gym.  Started doing strength work for the groin and in general.  In a few days, I noticed I was mentally much happier.  And the groin felt better.  With nicer spring weather upon us here in Colorado, I got re-aquainted with my boy Blue.

I hadn't ridden my bike since probably last September.  Did a couple of rides with Bobby Stuckey and his Saturday group.  Last Saturday, rode up towards Ward.  Bonked about 2 miles from Ward, before turning around and heading back down.  Still for 3rd time on bike after 6-7 months off it, I was happy with the ride.  Those 3 rides within 8 days of each other, totaled nearly 90 miles.  

Another slight re-aggravation set me back a day or two, but now I knew I could get on the bike, stair master or elliptical and still get a workout in without any problem.  This slight setback didn't nearly upset me like the two before.  I was able to work thru it and get back to running.  Last Friday did 5 miles at North Table Mountain in Golden (a favorite of mine in the Golden area). Sun did 6.5 miles on S. Boulder Tr/Mesa Tr/Big Bluestem Tr.  Monday did 4 miles on treadmill, with 2-3 of that with a 10%+ on the incline.  And on Tuesday did an easy 5-6 miles in the snow.  It's slowly coming back.

I had two goals for this year. 

Goal #1: Run an ultra marathon.  Ideally finish a 50 miler.  That goal is probably out the window for now.  I'm not sure how the summer is going to go.  But I got a new running goal as I signed up for the Jungfrau Marathon in Switzerland.   13.1 miles of relatively flat road running (only 500 ft gain over 1st half), followed by 13.1 miles of uphill trail running with a net 4300 vert ft gain, topping out at 7000 ft above sea level.  I'm excited about this race and the chance to go back to the Grindewald region of Switzerland.  I was there during an European tour right after high school and always wanted to get back.  Plus another chance to see Fio in Switzerland.

Goal #2:  To start homebrewing.  As a chemist this is right up my alley and I should have started doing this years ago.  Today my equipment arrived.

It's like Christmas without the wrapping paper.

When I got home from work, the lovely folks at FedEx had delivered my homebrew kit.  I quickly got to unpacking.

Your slightly more than basic homebrew setup

Everything I need is here.  Primary fermenter, Secondary fermentor, bottling bucket, malt extract, grains, hops, etc.  I already had picked up a 19L stock pot for boiling the wort, along with a few other odds and ends.  So I am ready to go.  Brisco's Homebrews is open for business.

Keeping a journal of your brewing process is very important.

So while I have neglected this blog in the past 6 weeks, I will be back to post regularly again.  I'm excited to be able to run again and excited to make my first batch of brew : Brisco's Genesis Dark Mild Ale.   Along with catching up on a number of fine local microbrews that I have visited the past few Fridays, the blog will have updates on my brewing process and my training.

Overdid it! Winter Games and more.

This past weekend I didn't do much, because the weekend before I may have overdone it.  As I wrote in my last post, I was feeling very tired after the Nighthawk race on the 6th.  So I bailed on my workout the morning of the 7th and focused on the Teva Winter Games 10K snowshoe race at Vail, which was on the 8th.

Going in, I figured the course would be "easier" than the 10K I did at Ski Cooper in January.  It would be run completely on groomers.  No trekking thru snow.  No running thru the woods, jumping over logs, being smacked by branches.  However, I didn't know how hard the uphills would be.

Did a few laps at Keystone Friday morning and then headed to Vail.  Race started at 5:30.  So there was still a decent amount of light at the start line.


Start.  I'm in red between guy in blue and gal (918) in gray.

There was a little bit of pushing and shoving at the start, as I was trying not to trip over other people's snowshoes.  Quickly it became apparent who was winning this race.  A group of 3 guys formed a pack that pulled away quickly. Those 3 guys, eventual winner Josiah Middaugh, a multiple XTerra triathlon winner, Jason Delaney, last year's Pike's Peak Ascent winner, and Sage Canaday, winner of the Mt Washington Road Race.  A pretty stout group of guys. Not going to compete with that group.

But another group of 4 or 5 formed and I moved around them into 4th.  On the first climb, I was paced by eventual female winner, Hannah Williams and another guy.  I kept them in sight for the next mile.  The first 1.5 miles of the course weren't too bad.  Then it got interesting.

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The climb up to the Riva catwalk was rough. It was a power hike.  That's when 4th and 5th got away from me and another gal passed me.  The calves were screaming.  I was able to recapture 6th on the downhill along Mill Creek Rd.  Then hit the bear of a climb going up the Bear Tree run.  This went straight up the ski slope.  But I found a good rhythm and power hike this well.  By the turn off of Lindsey's Way onto Lion's Way, I had done a good job of putting distance between myself and 6th place.  I also knew it was mostly downhill from here.  And now it was completely dark. 

The descent down to the Vail Village Catwalk was pretty steep in sections.  It's amazing how a blue intermediate run feels relaxed on skis, but downright frightful on snowshoes.  You are just trying not to catch your front claw on the downhill and go tumbling. 

Along the catwalk, I had a moment to take in Vail Village below me, twinkling in the night.  With no one around, it was very peaceful and quiet.  A slight uphill after the 5 mile mark and then downhill to the finish.  6th overall, 2nd in my age group, with a time of 55:13.  Luckily this wasn't a true 10K, but more like 5.25 miles.  I was glad for the shorter race.

The following two days, I would get in over 60 000 vertical feet of skiing at Beaver Creek.  Which including my day at Ski Cooper put me over 300 000 feet for the season.

This all ended up taking a toll on my body.  The following Monday on my easy run, I felt a bit of tightness in my groin.  A few feet later, that tightness became a pull and my run was done. 

A massage from Jean Pierce on Thursday showed how tight my adductors had gotten.  A trip to Heather North at In Motion Rehabilitation was in order for Friday.  My achilles was starting to get a little sore and tender and I knew would need some work, so figured good time to get that taken care of and get the groin strain worked on.  She really worked the muscle over and then did some dry needling.  Neither was a very pleasant experience.  Then the same thing on the achilles, which is just the most painful thing I have to deal with.

But come Sunday, I felt remarkably better.  A few more days of running are in order to ensure all is well.  Plus have ski trip on tap for Jackson Hole.   So a little downtime from running won't be so bad.