Unknown territory

I went into unknown territory today, in every sense.
I was not sure I would complete the 16km I had scheduled, I didn't want to push myself too far and I knew that also 14km would have been good, since next long run is again 16km. I had planned on doing a 12km route and then just add one or two 2km laps in my neighbourhood, but around the 8km mark I knew it was going to be all right so I went for an unplanned detour in the woods.

I ran on unknown trails, discovered a place where they apparently train dogs, and went by a few of these  piles of recently cut timber. They were quite high and I can see why somebody found it necessary to explicitly forbid climbing...
At 10km I had my first ever energy gel (Power Bar Gel - lemon/lime), and was surprised by how salty and sticky it was. Eeeeewww! Why did I buy three of those?
It's weird, as I think back now I can only remember very few things of today's run, I was so focused on listening to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that I didn't even realize I was running. I was fully aware though of the fact that this was going to be my longest run so far without regular walk breaks.
At some point around the 12km mark I was feeling tired and I was starting to talk myself into accepting that 14km was also good, when I realized I had started to hunch forward. I straightened up, tightened my newly found abdominal muscles and focused on keeping a straight posture and what do you know... 500m and it was like the tiredness had been wiped away from my body. All those core strengthening exercises are paying off!
I continued for the last km in my neighbourhood and ran into my family at the little park close to home, and even had my daughter run next to me for a few meters, which was sweet :-)
Another 500m or so of walking after having stopped the Garmin at 16.01km and then I was home, pleasantly surprised at how easy it had been and how good I was feeling, but nonetheless aware that there was still time for problems to arise. Ten hours have passed since then, and I am only feeling (rightfully, I would add) tired, knees a bit sore but it's not a worrisome tiredness, just the kind you feel when you've been on your feet for a long time (U2 GA, anyone?).

Let's see now when I will stop worrying about injuries and start enjoying the running again!

8+8=16?

I had a big scare today. Last Thursday I had emailed the Stockholm Marathon organization to ask what my options were in case I could not run this year, and today I got a reply:


"Hi,

I have cancel you and i will refund 85 euro to your visacard that you pay with.

Regards
Pamela W."
[name edited]

Panic. No phone number to call, no personal email, just that "info" address. I sent three short emails in about 6 minutes, the first one sounding something like "hey, that's not what I asked!", the second one "HEY! I WANT BACK IN!!!", the third one "listen, please read my first email, I didn't ask you to be canceled". I was shaking head to toes. My name did not appear anymore in the marathon start list.
I had a phone number of another person in the organization, I called, she gave me the email address of Mrs. Pamela W. and promised me she would also call her. After 58 minutes of nothing from them, my name finally appeared again in the start list, and shortly after that Mrs. Pamela emailed me that I was registered again for the marathon. Note: my original question remains unanswered, but after today I will just assume that the only option is a partial refund, I will not dare email them again.

The training week: even with my sore knees after Saturday's 12km I had no problems standing (and jumping and dancing) for hours on Sunday at a rock concert. On Monday I had the second appointment with the sports doc, who took notice of the changes and proceeded to do some manipulation of knees and hips. Given the good results with the shoe inserts and the core strengthening exercises, he gave me the ok to keep training for the marathon this year, and see what happens. Happy me!!!

Before going out on Tuesday for my scheduled 8km I was afraid it would be too much, I was going to decide on the spot whether to run the whole distance or cut it short. And... it was a breeze. I have never felt so stable while running, and of course I had no idea I was so unstable before! I was able to keep a faster pace (following the indications of my training program) without any problem. I believe that running the last km slower to allow for a better cool down also helped a lot, so I will always make sure I have a cool down phase at the end of every run from now on. 

Only thing to notice: after a few hours my right Achilles tendon was hurting quite a bit, and also the top of my left ankle whenever I flexed my foot (pulling toes towards leg). 24 hours (and some NSAID cream) later, it was all good again.

Another 8km run today, with no problems. All joints are good as of now. 

So... this Sunday I have a 16km run scheduled. That's a pretty steep increase from last Saturday's 12km and it's going to be my second longest run ever, the longest one being the 17km that tipped my left knee over the edge in December (and that was with regular walk breaks). Wish me luck people, I feel this is an important test for me and it will have a big influence on my chances of running the marathon this year.

12km

I knew there was a hammer waiting to fall after Sunday's 10km. My knee started acting up at night, when I got up to assist my son: I got out of bed and it was kind of stuck for a few minutes, and the same happened in the morning again. This didn't happen again during the week, instead I had a pinpoint pain behind the knee cap which on Thursday my PT attributed to irritated cartilage. If I'm not mistaken, this should be what's also known as "runner's knee".

I didn't run for the whole week but I got the thumbs up to do it as long as I stayed pain-free, so I went out today for the 12km I had scheduled for tomorrow with little hope of completing the whole workout. To my surprise, I had no problems and was able to run the distance pain-free, with just very minor signals from my right foot first and from my right hip later. Both lasted for about one km each, and I think this may be connected to the inserts. I now feel like the right one may be a bit too high under the ball of my foot, I'll talk about it with the sports doc on Monday.

Got home and everything was good, and it stayed so until I made what I now believe was a mistake: I spent some minutes on my knees while bathing my son. I can't say if it started right when I got up or shortly after that, but now both of my knees (left more than right) hurt in a new spot: inner side, below knee cap, on what I just learnt is called the medial condyle of the tibia. As always, let's wait and see what happens tomorrow.

This week I sent that email to ask the Stockholm Marathon organizers what my options are if I can't run it this year, but I got no reply so far.

I'll keep going on with my program as long as it works (and this week it got very close to failing), but I already have a plan B: half marathon in October and Stockholm Marathon 2013. Like this I should be able to increase the mileage very gradually, which may be what my body is asking me to do already now... I guess I just need to hear it one more time.  

All good?

Another week of training gone by without major problems.

I moved Tuesday's run to Wednesday so that I could once more go alone and spare the kids some cold. Temperatures are back above zero but it's not exactly spring yet, and I also wanted to have one extra day of rest before repeating the long run at 7km.

On Friday I finally went out with company again for the shortest run of the week, 5km. My son fell asleep almost immediately, my daughter kept her brain in a very low energy state while watching a dvd on our portable player. Sometimes I play this card when she doesn't want to go out running, plus it helps to keep her silent and spare me some breath.

Today: 10km. Almost from the first step I had some discomfort in my right knee, at 5km I took a short walk break to drink some water and when I started running again the discomfort had shifted to my left knee. I was not happy, but I kept going. I kept the slowest pace I can possibly keep while still running, and I think this has been one of the very few runs during which I managed to keep my pace constant from beginning to end.
I actually had to run 10.5km because I had misjudged my route, and I was afraid this could be the last drop for my knees. When I got home, I guess I was just waiting for the hammer to fall: swelling, pain, locked knees, inability to go up and/or down the stairs... but nothing happened. In fact, the discomfort I had felt during the run just eased away by itself in a very short time, and I had no problems at all with the stairs. As I write this (almost 12 hours after going out) I feel perfectly fine, not even tired from the run.

With my fingers crossed I keep following my plan, one run at a time.

Still freezing

Temperatures have stayed below freezing point the whole week, which didn't add any fun to my runs.

Tuesday, 5km: I went out as soon as my husband came home, so I didn't have to face the darkness but "only" the COLD!!! It felt MUCH worse than on the previous Saturday at -8℃, the sun was hidden behind a thick layer of clouds and it was already pretty low anyway, there was a killer icy breeze and even though I had put shorts under my pants I had to keep a pretty fast pace to keep at least my upper body warm. I was already planning on taking a picture of the thermometer which must have been showing something like -15℃ or so, and I can't write here what I said out loud when I got there and I saw it happily reporting just -5℃ (I said it in Italian anyway...). So no picture of the stupid thermometer, and again red skin when I got home.

Thursday, 5km: hubby came home sooner than expected so I was once again able to avoid the darkness. This time I had double pants even though it was not as cold as the previous runs (-5℃ again), and I didn't regret it. Eventually one run below freezing without red skin on my legs!

And today, 7km, slow. At -2℃ and without wind (though still no sun either) it was almost warm if compared to the previous three runs, but I was still happy with the double pants. This has been the longest run of 2012 so far, and of the last two months. Really nothing to report from my left knee (the injured one), while the right one did send some signals now and then. It was a mere annoyance, it can't be called 'pain', but I will keep an eye on it and I will talk about it to my PT at the next appointment in 10 days.
Oh and I found a new little furry friend along the route... can you see him? :-)

Ice!

Two days later, I think I can safely say that I had no problems after Saturday's 6km run. The inserts feel good, they don't bother me in the least and it actually feels like the shoes fit better with them. 

It was COLD!!! It was the first time I went running in (way) below freezing temperature, it was -8℃ when I went out in the early afternoon. 

This is a very hurried shot of an area right behind my house, at the beginning of my route. I had to hurry because I didn't want to include any kids in the shot, and I was very lucky as there were many playing around with sleds and ice skates. This on the left is a small frozen pond where people were skating, the paths were being used as sled tracks. On the other side of the road there's a much bigger pond, also completely frozen, which makes for a really nice skating ring.  

Back to my run... with just thermal underwear shirt and long sleeve shirt my upper body was fine, and with my thicker pants my legs were also fine, at least until I turned my back to the sun... which is when my inguinal area started to get cold, very cold. When I got home I saw that the skin there was all red, and it was also a bit itchy: was it starting to freeze??? Maybe if I need to go out again in similar temperatures I will also wear my shorts under or over the long pants. Any ideas from the experienced runners out there?

I have another training program, starting at 5km now and still leading to the marathon on June 2nd. I just can't make myself give up!

I'll have to go out at night this week, because this weather is supposed to continue and I am not bringing the kids out in the stroller. Not looking forward to that, I really don't like running in the dark. 

Grounded

Less than 18 weeks to the marathon. Running it is not an option anymore, that's for sure. Maybe I could run/walk it, but I need to consult the doctor about this.
Tomorrow morning I will have the shoe inserts, but I will have to wait until Saturday to try them because I don't want to take the kids out in -10℃.

Last week I came home from physio with a program of core strengthening exercises to do every day... if nothing else, my belly and my butt will surely benefit from it!

I guess I should contact the Stockholm Marathon organization to see what the options are, if I can "move" the registration to next year or pass it on to my husband, but I don't want to do that just yet.

Can you tell how bummed I am?