Spring!

It’s spring.

Want to know how I know? Well, there are some people who wait until they see their first robin to declare spring – they rely on the return of migrating birds. Others wait for the “official” declaration on the day of the spring equinox. Still others rely on groundhogs. But I have a more definitive method: spring is here when our coach Cliff emails everyone to say that the Wednesday workout is moving from the Halifax Commons to the SMU track. The thing is that Cliff is a little shy around the whole email thing. He checks his email maybe twice a month – he sends emails twice a year – spring and winter. So my heart leapt for joy yesterday when I saw his very short but very polite email: “Dear Doug. We will meet at Saint Mary’s tonight. Cliff.” Is there any more elegant sign of spring?

For our first time back on the track, Cliff went easy on us: 4x150m (@1500m pace), 5x1200m (@ threshold 3:34/k), 4x150m (@1500m pace). We were a little fast on the 12s, but not dangerously so. It was just so nice to spin around and around the track.... and without any knee pain whatsoever!

I learned something interesting last night at practice. There’s a guy who sometimes shows up to train with us who used to run for Ethiopia. He was never world class, but he was fast – rumour has it he ran under 30min for 10k. Anyway, he was chatting the other week with one of the guys I train with, and he said that guys like Haile Gebrselassie (another Ethiopian) do their easy recovery runs at around 5:00/km. For a guy like Haile who’s run a 2:03 marathon, that’s really slow. Obviously, his fast workouts are damn fast, but he slows it way way down for the recovery days.

At first I thought, awesome, I run faster than Haile on my recovery days. Then I thought – wait, why the heck am I running my recovery runs faster than one of the greatest distance runners ever runs his? Huh. I’m thinking it might be wise to slow things down on Mondays and Thurdays or Fridays (depending on which day I take off). I can’t run my intervals like Haile, but I can run my recoveries like him.

Back on Track -- Literally

As mysteriously as my knee issue came – it went. Just like that. Saturday I decided to run easy instead of working out with the group, but my knee still hurt. Sunday it hurt when I woke up, but by midday it felt okay to run on, so I did. I shortened my usual 20-25k long run to about 16k, but I put a little mustard on the pace to see what would happen. Funny thing – my legs preferred the faster pace, and by the end of the run, I had less pain than at the beginning. On Monday evening, I did a treadmill run, and felt no pain at all. Yesterday, I could finally run on the Shubie trail – thank god for spring rains – and felt fantastic.

So it looks like I’m back in business.

I’m wondering now if it was something about my new shoes. I’d only been in them about a week when the knee pain showed up. Now, they were the same kind of shoe as my last pair, but the new model changed the position of the post support – they moved it back a bit and shortened it. This, of course, raises the question of why in the world these shoe companies feel like they have to change a shoe every friggin year? I mean, it takes forever just to find the right make and model, and then once you do, they change the damn thing on you the next year, and you have to start all over again. They could change the colour and look from year to year all they like, but why change the shape and mechanics of the shoe? I suppose if I were rich I would just buy in bulk once I found a good shoe, but, alas...

Anyway, I seem to have adjusted to the new shoes now (fingers crossed). Tonight, we’re going to be on the track for the first time since the snow started flying in December. I can hardly wait – I love the track. I’ll have to take it a bit easier than I’d like, but it should be awesome.

Boo Hoo

Well, some heroic blog this is turning out to be. First I missed runs because I got sick, and now I’ve got some sort of knee issue to deal with. I hopped on the treadmill this morning just to get 5 miles in, but I hopped off in frustration after only a mile and a half. Things are not feeling great at all. And I have no idea what the problem is. It might be related to a calf stabilizer muscle, but I don’t know enough to say for sure. All I know is there’s discomfort that is telling me to stop and put ice on it.

I hate clichés, but this is turning into one: when it rains it pours. Or maybe the more appropriate one is “stupid is as stupid does.”

I’m sure this knee thing is minor. It has to be. I was able to do a fairly hard workout last night at the Sportsplex. We did two sets of 800m, 400m, 2x200m. The pace wasn’t overly fast – 2:34 and 2:38 for the 800s, 71 and 74 for the 400s, and 33-34 for the 200s – and I was able to complete the thing. But my knee didn’t feel fantastic, especially with all the tight turning on the indoor track.

So what do I do now? Just take the day and try again tomorrow? Take two days and then go back out on Saturday with the group? Make an appointment with the physio? I’ve still got over 11 weeks until the half, so I shouldn’t be panicking, but I’m sure feeling the stirrings of self-pity – I hate that feeling.

And it’s not like I even have a legitimate case for complaint – even less of one for feeling sorry for myself. I mean, last night Denise showed up to run some laps. She’s been battling back after getting a bunch of blood clots in her lungs – just like Serena Williams has now. What is it with world-class female athletes and blood clots? Someone should look into this. Anyway... the point is that she’s gone from being a world-class marathoner to not being able to get out of bed to working her way back to 8 minute miles (5:00/km) for an hour. And I’ve got a knee boo boo. Boo hoo.

Patience. The long run is all about patience – and paying for your mistakes. It’s going to be fine.