Sunday's Long Run: Powered by Cipro

After nearly two weeks of sore throats, blowing, sneezing, massive chest congestion and to top that off, conjunctivitis (pink eye), last Friday I decided a trip to the doctor was in order.

I pretty much always "run through" colds. I feel that it helps me both physically and mentally and that it helps move some of the "stuff" through my system.  Usually the cold goes away in a few days. This one I thought went away on October 14th. But on the 15th, I found out otherwise.

The biggest wild card in my training over the last 5 years has been injuries and illnesses. I blame my kids for both, but I still love them! Comes with the territory. It wasn't my 5 year old's fault that some other kid in his preschool class came to school with pink eye!

So two weeks of misery and I'm off to the doctor on the 22nd, figuring he'd give me a 5 day Z-Pack antibiotic to beat this thing. He looked and listened and told me I had bronchitis and a sinus infection. Ycchh! My head WAS hurting. So he put me on 1000 mg of Ciprofloxacin a day for 7 days.

My fear with antibiotics based on previous experience is that they tear up my gut and give me heartburn. And that does bad things for my training, which already went down the tubes for weeks 5 and 4 prior to my marathon.

In the meantime, I spoke with my friend Dave, who said for me to get a "decent" performance at the Malibu Marathon on November 14th, I really needed 1 more long run, since my last one was 2 weeks ago. I'm thinking the chances of that were quite slim given how I felt. But between that discussion and my catching this awesome Will Smith motivational video on Saturday, I was determined to run 18 to 20 miles on Sunday come hell or high water.

My body was dragging and I got to bed too late on Saturday night, so I didn't wake up until 8 am on Sunday. But I reminded myself, you're on drugs getting over bronchitis, dude. Don't kill yourself.

So by 8:20 am I was out the door. I didn't take my morning Cipro. Jeez, I was reading the label and it said it could cause inflammation and tearing of a tendon...doh!!...and here I am running 2 1/2 hours. Ughh. Coughing and spitting every 20 yards or so, I left my mark on Newbury Park. At least it would allow me to retrace my steps should I get lost.  In fact, the coughing got so bad at times, I thought I was going to lose a lung.

But after awhile, things settled down. I didn't concern myself with pace and told myself I would just slog this out. I drank fluids and took in my "GU" packs and steadily moved along. By 11 am I had run a loop around Newbury Park, later determining my run was about 19 miles in 2 hours, 40 minutes. That was about an 8:25 average pace, as slow as I've ever run, but I DID IT! I celebrated at the pumpkin patch later that day with my kids.

So it is now Wednesday night, October 27th. I have one day of Cipro left. Still coughing but not nearly as much. Seems like everyone I meet these days has this same cough.

With 2 1/2 weeks left, all I can do is stay fit, maybe do 12 to 15 this weekend, then ride in the taper to marathon day.

And stay healthy!

No Long Run, No Race and No Running!

That was my weekend. After weeks of decent training and long runs, my plan was to run a 5K in Westlake Village yesterday. Didn't happen.

Has been a week since the cold that knocked me out and about 5 days since I thought I had it completely beat, but doggone it...I still have the congestion in my chest.

The congestion in and of itself seems to remedy itself after moving around a bit and loosening it up. But my body has been telling me...SLEEP...PLEASE SLeeppp....ZZzzzz. I've been having a hard time waking up before 7 a.m. And the feeling continues.

But...I was DETERMINED to run the 5K yesterday, even knowing I was low on energy. But then came hurdle #2...the wife...

My wife has been laid up with a cold and/or sinus infection for the last 4 or 5 days, and she laid down the law with me yesterday. YOU ARE WATCHING THE KIDS!

The kids weren't getting up for a 5K and my body wasn't cooperating anyway, so other than a visit to IHOP, I didn't do much of anything on that rainy, dreary Sunday.

But then towards 6 p.m. I thought I might be able to sneak out to do a run. Within minutes, instead of running, I was driving off to local pediatric Urgent Care because both of my little ones came down with a combination of pink eye, cold/sinus infection and ear infection.

We closed down urgent care at 8:15 p.m., brought home our stash of eyedrops and antibiotics and that was the end of my weekend.

Not a good weekend. Still not feeling up to snuff. But I'm alive and hoping that this forced rest helps me in 4 weeks as I run the Malibu Marathon. What I'm really hoping is that I can run one last 18 to 20 miler next Sunday.

The Yin and Yang of Sunday's Long Run

Probably wasn't a great idea to do a long run this past Sunday morning. My right hip flexor (where the leg meets the groin) had been sore for a week. But I still ran an hour on Saturday morning.  Got home and took kid to soccer game. Meanwhile we had a birthday party at the house most of the afternoon. Mom flew into town Friday night and that kept me busy. Kids were amped up on sugar Saturday night.

I was moving around on my feet from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, the day before my planned 20 miler. And it was hot this weekend. But I was determined to get my long run in.

Plan was to leave at 6 a.m. and finish around 8:20 a.m. to beat the heat on Sunday. Problem though...my body was so worn out from Saturday that I slept through the alarm and didn't get out the door until 7 a.m.

So in any case, I managed to run through my tiredness and "deal" with the hip flexor issue to slog through just under 19 miles in 2 hours, 17 minutes. It was not one of my prettier runs and was not one my most enjoyable runs. But I did it.

About 15 miles into the run, I felt on irritation in my throat, which I though was a particle or something. It didn't go away when I got home, and then I started sneezing. so after my mediocre run I'm treated to what I thought were allergies the rest of the day. It was warm and slightly windy out and it certainly felt like an allergic reaction.

Well the next day...BAM...here comes the sneezing and runny nose. Yes, my first cold of the Fall. But I still ran 5 miles that morning to clear out my head. That night, though I don't like doing this, I took a Nyquil that knocked me out and dried me up. The next morning and day I was a zombie, parched mouth and lips, no energy, felt like I hit a brick wall.  But I still managed to run a SLOW 1.5 miles in the morning, once again, to "clear my head."

By Wednesday I felt about 60% and today, Thursday, I'm back to 90%. I still get the chest congestion but my morning runs help me unclog that with some massive coughing attacks.

And I visited the chiropractor today to work on my hip joint. I think I made some progress in attacking my hip flexor issue. Crossing my fingers...

So while I'm quite happy to have completed this long run, one of my final ones prior to the Malibu Marathon on November 14th, this was not one of my better weeks!

So why the Chicago Marathon medal you ask!? I was reminded of the Chicago Marathon this weekend because it was a spectacular finish in nearly 80 degree heat. Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru won his 2nd Chicago Marathon in a row in a time of 2:06:24...pedestrian compared to Haile Gebrselassie's 2:03:59 2 years ago in Berlin. I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2:42:47 exactly 15 years ago. That was my 5th marathon and a PR at the time (even with a 1 1/2 minute mid-race "pit stop).

Sometimes Races Don't Go As Planned

So this past Sunday my plan was the run the Camarillo Half Marathon as a training run. A way to gauge my speed over a longer distance than 5K/10K. With the Malibu Half Marathon only 6 weeks away, this would be a great, local opportunity to kick up the training a notch.

But sometimes things don't go quite as planned.

I paid $65 to enter this race, a significant amount of money for a local training run. Would have been a lot cheaper to just go out and do a hard "tempo" run locally, but that's no fun.

My body was not quite ready to do a full bore half marathon on Sunday. The week prior I ran a solid 21 miles and 2 week prior I ran a decent 5K. But last week was HOT, which made me tired, cranky and dehydrated. My training was mediocre at best.

So come Saturday, I decided to run an hour, not hard or anything. If I was really planning to do an "all out" half marathon the next day, I would not have run more than 30 minutes the day prior.

In any case, what I noticed is that my right hip flexor (where the upper inner leg meets the groin area) was sore.  I believe my body was still in recovery mode from the prior 2 weekend's runs.  I crossed my fingers and hoped my body would magically feel better Sunday morning.

I woke up. Felt pretty much the same. But I had to go and make the most of my $65.

Long story short. I actually ran pretty well for the first 30 minutes of the race. I was in 6th place overall, behind 5 much younger stallions than this old geezer, when 5th place stopped and turned around. We had shared some doubts about the course (e.g. did we make a wrong turn) magnified by a lack of mile markers. He stopped and asked someone, they apparently didn't know, and he turned around. I, the sheep that I am, followed him, soon realizing we had indeed been going the right away.

At that point, my hammies felt like rocks. My right hip flexor was tight. I slowed down considerably as we both ran back to the start. Not wanting to be confused with the finishers, I tore off my number and called it a day. My body needed a little break.

It is now Tuesday night. While I didn't actually take a day off, I ran light the past few days and am feeling better. Next stop...a 20 to 22 miler this Sunday, followed by a 5K next weekend.

My good friend, 57 year old Dave Louks, was the top masters runner in the Camarillo Marathon. This workhorse ran a 2:58, good for 5th place overall out of 235 finishers. The VC Star contacted me to ask about the race. Apparently there were some issues (that I wasn't aware of given I didn't do the whole course). So I had them talk to Dave and...wallah...he is prominently featured in this article that, unfortunately, highlights some major shortcomings of this inaugural race.  I do hope they can work out the kinks and come back next year.