Post-accident run with a much better ending

Today's run (street): 4.45 miles

Yesterday was a long day, we went to Boston to visit family and came back last night. We were pretty exhausted by the time we went to bed and I'd hoped that it would lead to a good night's sleep. With my scrapes and bruises from Friday's accident still mending, it was a little hard to get comfortable. I woke up groggy and with a headache, but I was determined to get outside for a run.

I wore a pair of loose running pants to protect the bandages on my calf and knee and a long sleeve running shirt to cover my elbow bandage. With my left middle finger in a splint and bandages across the back of both hands, I probably looked worse than I felt. I'd taken a couple of aspirins and a Sudafed and, while I felt strong at the beginning, I think the Pseudoephedrine was sapping my energy as I ran.

Despite all the damage caused by yesterday's roll and slide on concrete and blacktop, I was fortunate to avoid any injury that affected my ability to run. I purposely kept my pace easy and that helped me get through the distance. I followed a meandering route that had a few roads with slight elevation and I realized that I'm liking running hills more and more. I may be ready to return to the monster hills at Stillwell.

I headed back toward home after passing four miles and when I reached my driveway I was especially careful to avoid the raised edge that sent me sprawling on Friday. Having missed my run on Saturday, my weekly mileage will be lower than normal for the week.  No matter, I was glad to get back on the road and finish the week with a good running experience.

Laying on my driveway at 4:25 AM

One fall, many injuries: (knee, elbow, shoulder, both hands)

Today's run (street): 2.5 miles

Most of today's run was pleasantly routine but it ended badly. I'd expected colder weather when I laid out my running clothes last night, including long sleeves, long pants and running gloves. The local TV station showed 55° this morning so I opted for short sleeves and running shorts. In retrospect, I wish I'd gone with the original gear.

I ran my usual loop and besides the mild but persistent pain in my lower Achilles, I felt pretty good. By the first mile my Achilles pain had disappeared (as it usually does) and I concentrated more on leg turnover. I had read that arm motion influences cadence and I tried to run with more upper body movement to see if it had a measurable effect on my speed. I'll look at the Garmin read-out to see how my pace compares to earlier in the run, after trying that method.

I was preparing to hit the stop button on my Garmin when I reached my driveway and took a sliding spill along the blacktop. Apparently, my foot caught the edge of the concrete section that leads to the street. I remember falling and hitting the ground, my headlamp flying off and clattering on the ground. It was still very dark at 4:30 AM but I could see a lot of blood and the middle finger on my left hand was numb.

I collected my headlamp and righted myself. It took me three tries to key in the security code to open the garage door and I concentrated on keeping the den floor clean from blood once I'd made it inside. I washed my wounds and sprayed liberally with Dermaplast. Once I saw the extent of my injuries I went upstairs to tell my wife who was up and attending to the damage in an instant. She is a Red Cross volunteer and has been trained to dress wounds. That came in very handy today.

I soon realized that the bandaging required for the size and amount of cuts and bruises that I'd received would greatly limit my mobility. Besides that, my finger was aching and I wondered if I should go for X-Rays. I decided then to work from home today, since I wasn't able to shower and probably couldn't manage well on the train and subway.

I'm feeling better after ibuprofen and icing my finger. I can't believe how quickly a routine run could turn into a day-changing event. It could have been far worse and I was fortunate that if I was to trip, it would happen in front of my house. I won't be running tomorrow but hopefully by Sunday I'll be ready to (carefully) return to the road.

My definition of victory

Victorious

Today's workout (elliptical): 25 minutes

I had lunch yesterday with one of my running mentors, a man who has competed for decades. I told him about Saturday's race and we laughed about my sprint to the end, where I beat out another runner by a second. That made me think about why I race and what I expect from the experience.

I know that there are many runners who line up at the start of a race expecting to win, or to place high in their age division. I know a few of those people, some of whom read this blog. I admire and envy them but I know that I'm never going to be a front of pack finisher. I'm not conceding that I'll never have another age-place win, but I usually come in right in the middle of overall finish order.

Despite the fact that I'm barely competitive in my own age category, I do get a lot out of competition. Every time I pass a person in a race, I feel like a real competitor. This past weekend, when I held my own on the hills while many started walking halfway up, I felt like my training had paid off. And yes, as I sprinted toward the finish and held off a young runner who may have thought he'd blow right by me, I felt like I'd won my own mini race.

I've often thought about racing while out on a training run and tried to imagine other people around me, pulling me along. That never resulted in a noticeably faster performance and I think that's because only real competition brings out the best in us. There are few things in life that feel better than crossing the line to see that you've beaten your targeted finish time. I don't worry about those who finished long before me in races, because I define victory many different ways.

Flat out on the treadmill

Today's run (treadmill): 2.6 miles

It's frustrating when thunderstorms move in after days of perfect running weather. I anticipated wet conditions this morning and planned a treadmill run for the morning. We are still having issues with our Sole F63, but the company has responded well. They sent us a replacement console that I installed and that fixed the problem with the speed control. However, the incline function is popping an error that requires recalibrating the treadmill. I can easily do this but the process to go into programming mode isn't working.

Sole is sending some additional boards and cables that will hopefully allow me to get past this issue. In the meantime the unit works great as long you you only want to run level. That was good enough for me this morning, I started at an easy pace and worked up to the mid-8:00 range by the end of my run. It was a good workout, and though I don't really like running on the treadmill, I'm glad I had that option today.

I wish I felt as good as I ran

Today's run (street) 2.5 miles

I always expect to run well after a couple of days off, especially when my last run was a race. I guess it's the combination of muscle fibers tuned for speed and the benefits that come from additional rest. That was what I'd hoped for when I began my run today.

I was actually excited to get out this morning, two days away from running will do that. I imagined that I was again charging up Berry Hill Road as I headed up the first street. I was moving fast and felt some oxygen debt that sometimes comes from transitioning to aerobic breathing from anaerobic. The recovery from that process didn't come quickly and I found myself wishing that I'd reach the top of the street so I could level off and head down a little.

I suspect my laryngitis is a symptom of a cold or virus that I'm fighting, and this definitely affected my running this morning. But as I ran along feeling a little queasy and under-oxygenated, I was also ripping through the course at about 30 seconds per mile faster than usual. By the time I'd reached my second mile I had settled down enough to focus more on the run. I finished almost a minute faster than normal for that route.

Why I ran so well while feeling unwell is a mystery, but it could be a result of my race conditioning carrying through, despite other factors. I was glad to return to the road today and though I didn't love the experience, I did like the results.