#questboston

In the grand scheme of things, this is nothing...

But...

I suspected it strongly on Tuesday after my morning run in St Louis, and just received the official diagnosis from my Orthopedist of another femoral shaft stress injury. This one is in the opposite leg, but is nevertheless my second in 7 months. Best case scenario is that this is a "stress reaction," which would mean 4 to 6 weeks of no running. Worst case scenario is a full-blown stress fracture, which would be the typical 6 to 8 weeks like before. Since it does not yet show up on an x-ray, we'll just have to wait for my four-week follow-up to know which one it is.

While this is obviously frustrating, it is also forcing me to re-evaluate everything with regard to running. As part of this re-evaluation, I have made the decision that I am no longer going to allow the B.A.A. and their outrageous and inequitable qualifying standards to rob me of my ability to run and enjoy other great races.

Don't get me wrong, I still want to run Boston, and I'm still going to strive to excel in running, but at this point pushing myself past my physical limitations for the sake of a 3:10 marathon just doesn't make any sense. I love to run and I love to race, and right now I'm not able to do either. There are WAY too many other great races out there for me to sacrifice all of them in the hopes of running a BQ.

With this injury I'm going to take a step back and re-assess everything. This includes my goals, my training plan, my mileage, my schedule, my shoes....everything. I simply want to be able to (1) Run/train with my friends, (2) Stay in phenomenal shape, and (3) Participate in great races across the country.

As for next steps, I'm going to hit the pool again for some glorious aqua jogging (and other allowed cross training activities), focus on getting healthy, forget about all races until this fall, and do what I can to ensure a successful race in New York in November.

The last time I posted about running, it was actually about not being able to run due to a sinus infection and bronchitis. I ended up taking 11 days off because of the illness, but started feeling better on Wednesday.

Thursday - Track Workout

My return was last Thursday night at track with the JSRC. I was feeling decent (though with some definite fatigue), but then right when the workout started, the rain began to pour! Not exactly the best conditions when trying to come back from an upper respiratory illness. The workout was pretty simple, with:

3-mile easy warmup

6 x 100m stride outs

2 x 800m fresh (300m / 400m recovery)

2 x 400m good (200m / 400m recovery)

2 x 800m fresh (400m / 400m recovery)

.4-mile cool down

My times were a little off from normal pace, but I think that was to be expected with the illness, the rain, and still being on Augmentin and Prednisone. I was happy with the consistency of my 800m splits, which were 3:07, 3:07, 3:07, & 3:07!

Friday - Shakeout Run

This was a super-easy 4ish mile shakeout run, in my Saucony Hattori shoes, through the streets of Bellevue. My legs felt surprisingly good after track the night before. Nice to get the kinks worked out on an easy run.

Saturday - Long Run

On Saturday Paxton and I drove across town to meet up with Dan, Dawn, Sally, Bob, Kelly, and Judy from our group for the Nashville Strider's 20-miler on the Stones River Greenway.

I didn't especially need a 20-mile run, but I knew it would be a comfortable pace, with good friends, and I do want to keep my mileage up since I'm pacing the Country Music Marathon again this year. This is also one of my favorite routes in Nashville, though it is very challenging with over 2,700 ft of cumulative elevation gain...

The temperatures at the start were in the mid 60s, which is a little higher than normal, with fairly high humidity. Thankfully the humidity burned off after an hour or so.

I felt pretty crummy during the first 5-miles, but then things started to settle down and I got into a nice, comfortable rhythm with the group. The hills in the last 3 miles were a bear, but I kept feeling pretty good until Paxton and I finished mile 19 after breaking off from the rest of the group a mile or so earlier.

By far the best thing about Saturday morning was seeing Paxton look really strong, especially at the end. It's great to see him running so well again after taking a lot of time off last year.

This Week

This week we are in St Louis with the kids for Spring Break, so I'm hoping to get in a few good runs at Forest Park before heading home on Wednesday.

Well other than a 2 mile shakeout run on Saturday my training is complete for the 2013 Rock ‘n Roll New Orleans Marathon. My running over the past week has been pretty meh, including two 3-mile goal marathon pace runs which were not terribly comfortable.

Not sure what race day holds but I’m pretty confident that I’m not in BQ shape for this one. My plan is to run the first half fairly conservative and then see how I feel for the second half. Since this is the first marathon after the stress fracture, the primary goal is to simply get this one under my belt. As for time, I honestly think I would be happy with anything under 3:30.

Anyway, about to board the plane for New Orleans with my bride. Looking forward to a great weekend together.

My lead-up to the Rock n' Roll NOLA Marathon next weekend has been a little bizarre, and definitely not according to any recognized training plan. Mostly this is because of my Honduras mission trip and subsequent upper respiratory infection.

The week before the trip I got in just over 32-miles of total running, which is significantly less than my normal 50 to 55. Last week in Honduras, I was only able to run 3-times for 15 total miles. Those 5-mile loops were crazy hard with almost 1,600' of cumulative elevation gain, which was mostly in the last mile...

Near the end of our trip I came down with some type of upper respiratory virus that quickly turned into an infection. My plan had been to run a 20-miler last Sunday after we returned, but I ended up being too sick. I was finally able to get 20 in on Tuesday of this week, though this was less than 2-weeks from NOLA.

I ended up feeling very good during the 20, though I was still sick and taking antibiotics. I was able to maintain a comfortable 8:10 pace throughout, and felt the best in the last 5-miles.

After an easy 5-miler on Tuesday, I had a fantastic track workout last night. Here's a rundown:

2.4-Mile warmup

6 x 100m stride outs

1600m fresh (6:15) / 400m recovery

800m fresh (2:58) / 300m recovery

800m fresh (2:57) / 400m recovery

1600m fresh (6:05)

1.75-Mile cool down

I was expecting to be TOAST after my illness (and still being on antibiotics) and the 20-miler on Tuesday, but ended up feeling great. That last mile repeat was the best I've felt at track in a long time.

This morning Nathan, Paxton and I did an easy 4-mile shakeout run, and we plan to join the group tomorrow for a 15-miler. With that, it should be a 52-mile week this week. Next week I plan to run 15-miles total before the race on Saturday, which means that my 4-weeks leading up to NOLA will look like this:

32-Miles

15-Miles

52-Miles

15-Miles

Not exactly tapering by the book, but I guess we'll see what happens next week.

It seems improbable, but January 2013 is now my biggest mileage month ever at 222-miles, and I've still got a track workout tonight!

I didn't even notice this until a couple of days ago, since I haven't had a single week greater than 52-miles in January. Seems like I was routinely cranking out 55 to 59-mile weeks back in mid-2012. Oh well, guess there's a chance I could reach 230 by the end of tonight!

After early morning storms and tornadoes moved through Middle Tennessee, Nathan and I set off for very, very wet and rainy shakeout run through the flooded and debris strewn streets of Bellevue.

It actually wasn't that bad to run in the rain, because the temperatures were still around 60º throughout. It would have been miserable had the temperatures been cooler.

In total we finished just over 5 1/2-miles, which includes 4 x 100m stride outs at the end in the Bellevue Church of Christ parking lot.

I was not able to run this morning due to the "Father's Breakfast" at Kate's school (Wouldn't miss it!), which meant an afternoon run for me today. I had been dreading this all day since my scheduled called for 12-miles and I would have to do the whole thing by myself.

However, early this afternoon I decided to text my friend Josh and see if he had any interest in running. Thankfully he ended up joining me for 8 of the 12-miles, and I thoroughly enjoyed the run.

First of all, I felt really good today. My legs have bounced back pretty well since last Saturday's tough marathon workout. Second, I've been having a hard time running on my forefoot/mid-foot recently due to shin splints. Today they were feeling MUCH better, and I ran the entire way on my mid-foot. Third, it was great catching up with Josh (fun and interesting conversation). Fourth, the temps were very mild in the mid-60s (crazy for January).

We kept the pace pretty chill throughout with all of the miles but one between 8:30 and 9:00. In total I finished just over 12-miles with an average pace of 8:47 per mile.

Beast Mode....ON!