Going forward, only forward

I'm not too good at turning these days.  The flu shot resulted in some sort of compensatory neck strain--I hadn't realized before how much I pick up and hold things with my left hand at work--and I had to pull the plug on an attempted 8 mile run yesterday.  After about a mile, a slight stiffness on the left side of my neck turned to a sharper knot and then to a repeated spasm.  I turned around and went home and stretched, applied arnica, ingested muscle relaxants for perhaps the first time in my life (they seem to have helped), got my husband to push the knots looser, stretched, etc.  And I pigged out.  My husband felt a bit sad that we weren't back in Ottawa (or Vankleek Hill) for Octoberfest, so we had our own impromptu celebration.  This included a delicious though perhaps disgusting culinary breakthrough: some of the sausages split while frying, and my husband failed to make a consistent sauce with the drippings, but I took the solidified portion and made a pancake out of it.  It's probably mostly trans fat...but so tasty.  It reminded me of traditional Nfld outport cuisine.  And it's a good sign that my appetite and  digestive system have pretty much fully recovered.

This week, my weight has finally steadied, at about 8 pounds lighter than pre-illness.  Every morning, the exact same weight.  This is fine.  I woke up a couple of pounds heavier this morning, though, which  I interpreted as successful carbloading, and I crossed my fingers and banked on the linear nature of treadmill running.

I rewatched the 2012 Boston marathon, including a bunch of pre-race coverage, while jogging for 3 hours.  The treadmill odometer/speedometer ran out of battery life, not that it was accurate in the first place, but the sliding knob that adjusts the belt pace doesn't lie, and I started the run slightly faster than I'd started last week's run, and I ended up at a still faster pace: an experiment gone right.  I had more muscle soreness this time--fortunately, not including my neck!--though it took a while to manifest and the first 1hr45 felt really good, and then my hips started to feel jammed.  I kept reminding myself to tighten my core, thus releasing the tension in my hips, but at 2hr30, my right leg started to get kind of stuck.  I'm not sure exactly what throws the mechanics off in this case, but sometimes this hitch occurs and my right foot lags, and that's it for the rest of the run.  I can continue, but I can't pick my right foot up as quickly as before, and sometimes it feels like it'll trip the rest of me up.

This time, I decided to push the pace.  Maybe increased quickness would improve hip "buoyancy" and allow my right leg enough space to swing through more cleanly.  I was sweating a lot (I think I drank about 1 L/hr), but the air was otherwise comfortable and my breathing remained easy.  I eventually got into my biomechanical comfort zone, which on the flat outside is (was?) about 8:15/mile, and stayed at this effort for the last 20 minutes or so of the run.  The hitch went away.

Another thing I noticed with this run was feeling more stiffness in my feet due to too constant flexion--every so often, I loosened up by allowing my feet to point more after impact and to flex less otherwise.  This addresses a point of inefficiency that has existed for years.  I think my core was so weak that my hips were somewhat compacted and my foot action was constrained as a result.

The last fifteen minutes of the run were tiring muscularly, though still easy aerobically, but I was accompanying the Boston marathon winners who were suffering considerably more.  This comparatively lightened my own burden.

My neck still isn't 100% normal though it was not a factor during this run.  The true test will be withstanding the physical demands of my job.  Hopefully, I will feel fit enough to run outside this week.  If not, I have next week off to recover: we're going to North Carolina to check our next posting out.  I was hoping that this vacation would be spent in Belize or someplace like that, but we're getting sent to something of a dump and thus we really need to see which areas are reasonably un-dumpy (another slap or two in my face from Dixie but I'm trying to be positive and one bonus is an apparently relaxed dress code--I was wearing short shorts and tank tops in Virginia (and slightly less in my rather private backyard during the even hotter sauna this summer in Kansas), but it sounds like I can actually get away with wearing pyjamas in public this next place!  Shades of old Shanghai, and practical too if I get light and airy jammies: cool cotton wafting back the rays...).

At any rate, this year has been challenging, but I think I can finally commit to a fall marathon.  I haven't signed up for one yet because I was wavering between two small local races that are a week apart in November.  My hopes were pinned on the later one because it is later, and flatter (though still hilly), but I recently found out that they don't have same day bib pick up; thus I've decided that the first one seems a bit more picturesque and better organized.  It is two out-and-backs which include a ~200 ft hill; consequently, I cannot abandon hills just yet.  I have three good ones to choose from: the familiar ~250 ft one on the 8 mile loop, a ~300ft one on post that's on a 11-12 mile loop, I think, and a ~220 ft one on a 6.5ish mile loop which includes some trail and steeper portions.  I have enough time to work up to running the 8 mile loop twice, I think, and perhaps 3:20 on the treadmill.  I will see.

Meanwhile, I am working on fulfilling another craving: roasted tomato sauce.