Slowly Back to Running...Slowly

  For the second straight year, I've had to postpone my plans to run the Long Branch Half Marathon this Spring. Last year, I held off, and ultimately, didn't enter because of effects of a torn right meniscus in the summer of 2015.
   This year, my training and racing was going well, and I entered the race as an "early bird" in November. My knee was still bothersome, but I was able to build up to 35 miles a week (mostly on the treadmill) by mid-February. I felt the weekly long run was a missing ingredient in my training over the past few years, so every Friday I would do 10 on the "mill" at about 7:45-8:00 pace. It was a physical and (mostly) mental challenge that I felt was properly preparing me for the May 1st half.
    I also was including weekly mile repeats on the treadmill, five of them, with a three minute walk break in-between. I'd usually start that at 8.0 pace (7:30 miles, at grade 2), and finish anywhere between  8.5 (7:04) and 8.8 (6:49).
     One Monday, the knee was bothering me, so I did the mile repeats at grade 0. Knowing this is easier, I pushed the pace above 9.0 (6:40 miles) for awhile, and felt my hamstring tightening up. I finished up the workout and stretched, hoping it was a tweak that would go away.  It was worse the next day, but I tested it anyway; outside this time, on a hilly, 6-mile course I do frequently.     Unsurprisingly, it felt like I was running on the worst potholed street in America with each step. The "hammy" was so tight at first that I could barely rotate my right leg. As it loosened a little, both knees took over the pain. I hobbled back at nine-minute pace, and even that was a struggle.
    Next step, a total shut down of running, and a couple of visits to my sports therapist, Dr. Jeff Larkin. Three weeks of cross-training entailed some great workouts (a numbing 41:54 10-K on the Concept 2 rower) and some some boring, mediocre ones on the elliptical as well. I got in some intense weight-training workouts, too, as my body did feel fresher and stronger without the rigors of the daily runs.
    I realized the half was a "no-go" again this year, and that began a long and frustrating process of ultimately getting a deferment for next year's race.
   In late March, I gingerly tried  three-miles on the treadmill again, slowly "building up" to 6.4 (9:24 per mile).  I can't believe how long that takes to complete! I stretched for a good 20-minutes after, and proclaimed myself happy that I was able to run at all!
    I've progressed to a half-mile warm-up (at 5.0-6.0 pace), and four miles in just under 35 minutes. I start it off real slow (have to!), today at 6.2 (9:41 pace), grade 2. Each quarter-mile, I bring it up .1, trying to maintain level 2 for a as long as I can, and then dropping it to grade 1. Today, I topped out at 7.7 (7:48 pace) and while the hamstring bothered me the entire time, I was able to complete it without going to my last resort, grade 0.
   That's four straight days of running now, and my legs say tomorrow should be cross-training. I've lived on the foam roller, and I promise I will continue it when (if?) I am healed!
    The Bob Beckert Memorial 5-K in Warren on June 5th is something I always like to run, and hopefully this glacier-like upward progress will continue.
     Sometimes, I wonder why I still bother with it, when there seems more reasons not to run, then to do it. But I'm also amazed at what a sense of accomplishment I'm getting from finishing these short, slow and painful efforts. Maybe that is the reason I'm still out there, trying!