Brief(ish) Surgery Retrospective

Nearly exactly one year ago, I had surgery to reattach all my hamstring tendons to my butt bone. This is also known as proximal hamstring reattachment surgery. Before I started writing this I was trying to do a little research to refresh my memory, though now that I've done the research, I have a hard time believing this is what actually happened.

I'm pretty sure it did, though. I believe I damaged my hamstring many years ago while doing speedwork on a treadmill. My big mistake was not resting and treating it correctly, so that many years later after a decline in my running and also while playing basketball, my hamstring(s. we have multiple different hamstring muscles!) gave up on everything and separated themselves from where they belonged. This is also what my test results from 1 year ago confirm.

The surgery took place on a Monday, and after that I had to stay home and barely move for two weeks. During quarantine times, this seems like not a big deal, but one year ago it was a huge deal. It was so huge a deal that I bought a Vespa immediately after the two weeks, because that time being immobilized was more than I wanted to endure in the future.

I feel very fortunate that I have recovered well, and am even running better than I have in a couple years. Wednesday was the actual anniversary, but I ran to celebrate it on Thursday. If it wasn't for a bootcamp I started on Monday, I would've been running to celebrate it every single day this week. Alas, life has all kinds of ideas about how we should be living it.

If I had to pick something to say in the year since surgery, it's that I hope you're finding as much joy in your ability to run as I have found in mine, however redeemed it may be.

What a Difference Two Weeks Makes

At the beginning of last week, I was planning to write a whole post about what a great previous training week I'd had. I'm still in what I'd designated as my "base phase" for the year, which is supposed to last through April. My strategy going into the base phase was just to get the miles in, so I didn't have many expectations of it being especially effective. I thought it was just important to get back into the rhythm of running regularly, even if it meant plodding along at 11:30 minutes/mile.

And yet after a little over two months of getting the miles in, I have started to get faster with minimal speedwork. The week before last, I ran 3-4 times and averaged under a 10 minute mile for each of those runs. It seemed like such a dramatic and sudden improvement that I thought maybe there was something wrong with my watch.

Yet as we all are very aware, a global pandemic somewhat dampened my excitement. Originally I had two races scheduled for last weekend, and both were long. Since I'm still feeling hip pain, I didn't run for the whole week so that I could run both as pain-free as possible. Didn't matter though! Both were canceled.

Make no mistake, on the list of tragedies the coronavirus has caused, canceled races are nowhere close to the top. But I think it's important to record this event from all angles, and I would be remiss if I didn't write a bit about how it's impacted running and runners.

There will be plenty more time to muse about that. For now, at least in NYC, we're all relegated to solo runs. For many of us often, running is already a solitary endeavor so maybe it's also the closest thing to normalcy that life has to offer right now.

Aborted Runs and Core Building

I have been trying to work on Phoebe's barking in an effort to be a better dog parent and neighbor. Unfortunately, this means that when I get more than one bark alert (from the Furbo) after I've started a run, I turn around and go back home to make sure there isn't something wrong. In one case, building management started some construction upstairs and it was probably good that I came back home, because it continued ALL DAY. In the other case, though, I was probably just being paranoid. One way or the other, a couple runs have been cut extremely short. I'm confident it's just a big puzzle and I'll keep refining my solution.

My hip has been bothering me during runs. It feels painful at the top of the hip bone, so I consulted Dr. Google, as one does. Consensus of several online forums (and this one Runner's World article) is that it could be related to a weak core. I have decided to try strengthening my core before consulting an actual doctor. Please send along all your helpful core exercises.

Finally, I signed up for the OSR 30 like a chump. It's a competitive race, but I will be lucky to finish it in 7 hours. I applied (again) to do the Empire State Building Run-Up and didn't get in, so figured I needed something else dumb to do. Please send along all your encouragement.

Early February Déjà vu

I'm sure I've written about this before, but when I was around 8 I asked my dad for a pair of Nike Air Max Triax running shoes for Christmas. That was his brand of choice and I guess I thought they might make me like running as much as he did. Boy was I wrong. Running sucked in spite of my fancy shoes.

When I was 12 a treadmill dropped into my life and I began to develop a love/hate relationship with running. To this day, I'm impressed remembering the different treadmill runs I concocted for myself, which I now know were rudimentary interval workouts. During those early years, I started to think of a 10 minute mile average pace as a decent baseline.

I consider 2008 to be the year I decided to start running as an adult, at 21 in my last semester of college. I signed up for a 10k back in the days of folding up a check in a registration form and mailing it away to the race directors. It shouldn't have surprised me that after a few years of no running and eating like a college student, 10 minute miles were way out of my reach. And yet, it did surprise and disappoint me!

But hey, I'd already mailed off my $20 (honestly it was probably less). I accepted the harsh reality of grinding out 5 miles on the treadmill at a 12 minute per mile pace. I did this at Anita Newman Hall, after I finished work at the dining hall around 10pm. It sucked, but I did it for days, weeks, months, because what choice did I have? $20 was on the line.

Somewhere in that mess of late night, post dining hall turtle miles, 12 minutes per mile became easy. I graduated myself to 10 minute miles and never looked back...Until I did. Two-ish years ago, 10 minute miles had become hard again! Back to square one.

ALL THIS to say that I ran some effortless 10 minute miles on the treadmill today, and 10 minute miles haven't felt that good since 2008. Then and now, it was less about achieving a certain pace and more about rediscovering what it's like when running feels good.

First Long Run of 2020

In terms of regularity,  February has been less strong than January, but is starting to pick up a bit. I did my first long(ish) run of 2020 this weekend. It was right around 10 miles in Manhattan and a little in Queens. Pace was a bit under 11 minutes per mile. This is what Garmin had to say about it:

Rude.

I also collided with a slow-moving pigeon and accidentally kicked it into my friend Emily, who also kicked it out of her way before it flew off. I apologize to the universe for my mistreatment of its idiotic child.

One thing I haven't done yet but need to do soon is sign up for the popular 9+1 races I like. Some of them will probably sell out soon if they haven't already. I've already signed up for the NYC Half, Brooklyn Half, and NYC Marathon so that's 3/9. Ideally, I would also like to do the Queens 10K, Bronx 10 Mile, Staten Island Half and I dunno three more I guess. The 18 mile tuneup is convenient training for the marathon, so probably that one.

I'm also mulling over doing an ultra in mid-summer. I have one in mind, but I'm not ready to commit to it here yet even though I'm already excited about it.

Okay, Here's the Plan

I'm trying to stage a comeback, which I know I've said in the past.

This time feels different somehow? Maybe it finally feels easier to let go of having been able to do this much, much better. I'm back to square one, baby. Maybe even farther back because I'm over ten years older than I was the first time around. Scarily, those things matter now.

So I've decided to dedicate the first four months of 2020 to getting out there regardless of pace. So far, I have mostly succeeded. Thoughts still creep in from time to time about not running fast enough, but I can't win 'em all.

Here's the Garmin view of the month. Green is working out (mostly running with one day of riding only). I can live with this for the first month.

Cautious Optimism

It's possible my physical therapist sensed my restlessness shortly after my last post. I went to PT on Tuesday a couple weeks ago and I didn't get cleared to run that day exactly, but it pretty much would have been except I forgot to bring shoes.

I say that so you'll understand why I then booked a class at Mile High Run Club the day after. I was PRETTY MUCH CLEARED. Basically cleared. Plus, I had run up and down the hall of the office under Caroline's (the PT) supervision.

I was nervous about the class, but my plan was to walk/run (this is basically what happens anyway because it's intervals) and to stop immediately if anything felt bad or wrong. But...it didn't! The fastest I ran was 5mph (12 minute miles) and that was for one two-minute interval. That Friday, I was officially cleared.

Fast forward to Saturday, when I did my first post-surgery outdoor run. Again, I tried to just run comfortably and pay attention to how my body was feeling. This was the result:

!!!

I do not exaggerate when I say that, next to helping pace Elana to a 5:00 marathon in 2017, I am most proud of this running achievement in the last 2-3 years. I still can't go crazy with running, but this is a better start than I imagined was possible, so let's see how it goes.