Chapter 6: Falling Forward
It feels unnatural.
“Cut Back Week”: Honestly, up until I hired Coach Brown, I’d never heard of such a thing let alone would even think about implementing it into training. In my mind it’s Go Further, Go Faster, No Retreat, No Backing Off!
Last week I started to experience what I thought was “ankle soreness”. This really set in after my 8-mile long-run (makeup) on August 20th. After that run I had some soreness on my right leg, just above the ankle. It was sore to the touch and sore when walking. I figured I’d just twisted it or something as it didn’t hurt and it wasn’t changing my gait, it was just sore to walk on and run.
Earlier this year I found the Science of Running in a local bookstore and have enjoyed it. My undergraduate degree is in Sports and Health Sciences and through that course of study I learned anatomy and kinesiology and this book brought back some learned knowledge I simply forgot about. After some referencing and reading, it turns out I have Medial Tibial Stress Syndrome (MTSS)!
Shin Splints!?!?
Are you fucking kidding me. In my 40+yrs of living and all the physical crap I’ve done in my life, I’ve never experienced “Shin Splints”. At one point I really thought it was a made-up thing to allow lazy Soldiers out of running. Turns out I was wrong! I’ve been wrong a lot in my life, so it’s not surprising, but it is surprising it took 20+ years of running to actually contract this condition.
After discussions with my coach, she decided it best to make this week a “Cut Back Week”. Instinctually I recoiled to this plan. I want to go FORWARD; faster, further and stronger. I feel like this slight impediment may derail my entire goal of a sub 4hr Marathon! How could my coach want me to “cut back” on week 6!? I simply didn’t want to believe it. However at this age, I’ve somehow managed to garner some level of wisdom and I know better than to ignore the experience of someone like Coach Brown. She knows what she’s doing, lives it daily and displays it through her own running. To not acknowledge this level of experience and respect her achievements would surely spell out failure for whatever my running goals are.
So with shin splints in my right leg and advice from my Coach. It’s a cut back week.
Scroll to the bottom for the results of cut-back week:
Sunday / Monday / Tuesday : (Days 36/37/38 of 112)
Running and Blood Results, that’s all I can talk about over for these three days. Some good news and some piss poor running results derived from a piss poor performance.
Sunday was a rest day in which I did absolutely nothing productive other than maintaining my strict diet of high protein, low carbs and no sugars. I literally didn’t even have time to lift weights. As far as physical fitness, it was a wash. As far as my nutrition, it was a win. I’ll take the “W” when I can.
Monday was scheduled as a Quality Run: 1.5mi Warmup + 6x400m at 7’23” pace with 2-minute recovery jog followed by a 1.5mi cool down. This was something I expected to be easily accomplished! However I was completely thrown off in the heat and humidity! It’s almost as if I could feel the full weight of atmospheric pressure above me, crushing me, pushing me down. The same force used to crush steel drums or train cars, was now crushing my legs. They simply didn’t want to work as I required them to work.
This turned into a 3-mile run that was split up into two separate efforts of 1.5mi each. On each effort my pace was horrendous. This marathon training buildup is non-linear. There are no straight lines during training. Most days are good, some days are bad, even fewer are great and the rest falls into a grey area. Today’s paces were 11’56” and 11’34”, both well below what I’m capable of.
This is when discipline sets in. When motivation has flown away like a little bird and the harsh realities of nature set it. It’s a dog-eat-dog world and nobody cares about you. Show up, do what must be done and don’t expect any recognition. Nobody cares, work harder.
3.0 Miles | Avg Pace: 11’45” | Avg HR: 120 | Best Mile: 11’34” | Feeling: Pressure
Tuesday had a 3-mile easy run prescribed and I had it in my mind to get this done in one shot. It was a personal choice this morning to play hide and seek with the humidity and it was my turn to hide from the humidity. The best place I found was on the treadmill in an air conditioned room. I thought I was safe, turns out I wasn’t.
Whenever I’m on the treadmill I always run at 1% incline. I read some study years ago that indicated that a 1% incline most closely replicates the effort level of running on the road. I started the run at a 10’30” pace for 1-mile then increased the pace every mile. Mile 1: 10’34”, Mile 2: 9’30”, Mile 3: 8’30”. It felt pretty good to be indoors but the humidity found me and by the end the treadmill looked like it went through a car wash.
3.0 Miles | Avg Pace: 9’36” | Avg HR: 131 | Best Mile: 8’46” | Feeling: Better
Blood Results!! I got my latest blood results back and I’m not longer in the Diabetes Range with my A1C! I can handle this situation with diet, exercise and weight loss. This is great news! I will continue my diet of low carbohydrates, no sugar, high protein with vegetables some fruits and nuts.
Wednesday: 8.30.2023 (Day 39 of 112): Hurricane Idalia
It’s Wednesday and that means I’m getting in a 5K with the club, the difference this time around is that we were catching the tail ends of Hurricane Idalia!
Perpetuating the stereotype by doing crazy things; this group of runners tonight was doing exactly that. This particular storm had a warm wind and warm rain that didn’t impact our region too bad. The conditions weren’t ideal, but they were good enough to run in some old shoes.
Wednesday was considered a “rest” day, but since I botched my Monday run I wanted to makeup for that shortcoming. I got in an easy 5K run with Dave in a light rain under warm and humid conditions.
We had 14 runners show up for our Wednesday run in the rain. This is incredible! I remember running on Wednesday’s when there were just 4-5 of us and we were ecstatic at the times we got 10 people to show up. Now, during a hurricane we got 14, the growth of the club is great to see.
3.14 Miles | Avg Pace: 10’44” | Avg HR: 125 | Best Mile: 9’54” | Feeling: Wet
Thursday: 8.31.2023 (Day 40 of 112): Post Storm Conditions were ideal.
The storm cleared out and left absolutely ideal conditions for the last day of August. The temperatures dropped, humidity was swept out to sea with the storm and the Carolina blue sky was widespread overhead. The day truly ended on a great note.
Making time for running can be difficult. We each have our own lives, jobs, families, appointments, pets and other interests outside of running. It can be difficult to keep all of the plates spinning long enough to accomplish just one task. Time is the critical element in our lives that never changes, it keeps moving forward in a constant march that is unyielding. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It happens everyday and is unstoppable. What you do with your time is a clear indication of what is important to you. Prioritizing time and tasks can be difficult, some days are harder than others.
Thursday was that day for me, I had a lot of iron in the fire and ensuring there was enough time to get my Marathon training done seemed like possibly the straw that would break the camels back. I simply couldn’t start at 6:30pm with the rest of the group, but I could start at 5pm and so Robert said he’d join me. It’s good to have friends like Robert!
The Prescription for the day:
1-mile Warmup
2x (2 mile run at 8’50” + 0.5mi jog)
1-mile Cooldown.
The weather broke for the best and while the sky was clear, the sun left a warmth that wasn’t quit welcome yet on this run. Regardless, Robert was ready to roll so we took off early with an expectation to be done by 6:20pm in order to see everyone off.
We started with the 1-mile warmup that had us finishing at a 10’42” pace. Then came the difficult part, 2 miles at pace.
The first iteration of 2-miles had a couple of major hills in them. I was uncertain how this was going to play out, but we pushed hard and did our best not to slow down up the hills.
First 2-mile iteration: 8’45” pace. (Mile 1: 8’26” | Mile 2: 9’02”) My legs were spent and I felt like the next 4-miles would be a serious struggle. After a short walk we picked up a slow jog to finish out the 0.5mi rest.
The next and final 2-mile iteration had a few downhills and another uphill effort. These two miles were completed with an average pace of 9’18” (Mile 1: 8’56” | Mile 2: 9’39”)
The final cooldown mile was done in 10’48” and that left my legs feeling heavy. We made it back to the brewery in plenty of time to see the group off. Crazy enough, we get back and Robert decides to add on another 5K with the group. Unfortunately I had more iron in the fire to attend to and couldn’t stick around.
“What’s another 5K anyway?”
It’s a quote that seems to be appearing like an apparition at my weekly runs.
Friday: 9.1.2023 (Day 41 of 112): Rest Day
I took the day off in preparation of the Easy Run (Long Run) tomorrow morning.
More good news though, Friday’s are my weigh-in day and this morning I was an even 217.0 lbs! That’s another 1.8lbs lost on the week!
Starting Weight: July 23rd, 2023 : 234.0 lbs
Today’s Weight: September 1st, 2023: 217.0 lbs
Weight loss to date: 17lbs.
My next goal is for an even 20lb weight loss that I’m aiming for in the next 2 weeks that would put me at 214lbs. The next big goal after that is 210lbs as I haven’t been below 211 in over 10 years. I’m on the path downward and it feels good.
I’d really like to be below 200lbs by the Tuna 200 race on October 20th and then be as light as possible for the Richmond Marathon on November 11th.
I’ve been using the Iphone App “LoseIt” to track everything I’ve been eating. It works for me as it tracks all of my calories, macros and more. It’s even easier that I can scan all of the foods I eat.
Saturday: 9.2.2023 (Day 42 of 112): Easy Run / Long Run
The prescription was for 10-easy miles at a 10’33” - 11’34” pace. I was hydrated and prepared for this run. Stepping out of the house the temperature was 57F, albeit with high humidity, but the lower temps offset any of that.
We had a large group show up for this weekends long run and it was great to have company on the trail. Most of us had a similar pace and similar distances. Roughly 3 miles into the run the declaration was made that a few of our runners were going for 13.1 miles, a new distance PR for both of them. I was already going for 10 and the argument was made that I ought to just do another 5K to make it a full 13.1.
With the cooler weather and a water-refill at mile 4.6, and again at mile 8.5 I figured I might as well keep this run going until mile 13.1. Because…….
What’s another 5K anyway?
I kept this run at a nice and easy pace with friends that was conversational. It was great to see fellow runners pushing each other, keeping each other accountable and being overall supportive during this long run.
It felt good to to turn this 10-mile run into 13.1.
The details:
Mile 1: 10’59”, Mile 2: 10’48”, Mile 3: 10’46”, Mile 4: 10’41”, Mile 5: 10’38”
Mile 6: 10’48”, Mile 7: 11’05”, Mile 8: 10’42”, Mile 9: 10’44”, Mile 10: 10’53”
Mile 11: 11’09”, Mile 12: 11’48”, Mile 13: 11’09”, Mile 0.18: 10’23”
I always feel good having the ability to run beyond 10-miles. I’m not sure why is such an empowering ability, but I find it gratifying and I feel a small sense of pride that it’s possible in my 40’s.
It’s great running with friends. As we say in the club:
Running with friends is better!
13.18 Miles | Avg Pace: 10’57” | Avg HR: 136 | Best Mile: 10’38” | Feeling: Thankful
The cutback week appears to be a success! I was very hesitant in the beginning about it as I don’t like taking steps backwards or slowing down. On my Thursday 7-miler and my Saturday long run I felt no pain or discomfort. It appears that my shin splints have left.
So how did I go about getting rid of them? After each of my runs this week I promptly iced and elevated my ankle/leg. I also supplemented with Tylenol and ibuprofen along with taking it much easier on my runs this week.
Weight loss is staying consistent around 1 - 2 pounds per week which is healthy and should lead to better long term success. I’ll continue to track everything on the LoseIt app and continue to increase my water intake.
It was an amazing week to get my blood panel back and see that my A1C has dropped to normal levels. My blood pressure and weight continue to go down and overall I’m feeling healthier.
Running consistently is a funny thing. How a run feels can change day to day and week to week. This is when discipline is required. Some days I don’t feel like running and the logistics of getting to the trail and gathering all my gear seems cumbersome and a pain in the ass, but the miles have to get done. Motivation is fleeting and will leave you lacking and short when the time comes to perform.
Discipline will produce better results than motivation, every day of the week.