I don’t have an update on the leg yet other than continuing to rest it, much to the chagrin of a certain figure skating diva who wants to laugh at my feeble attempt to ice skate.  I do have a different kind of update, though.  My original running blog was on myspace and then moved to Blogspot briefly, where the purpose was (is) stated at the top:

“My adventures as I eat healthier, quit smoking and start running.”

So obviously the running piece of that 3 part adventure is on hold for now.  The eating healthier part was doing better until I recently discovered over the counter medicine that (mostly) keeps my body from launching an all-out attack on me whenever I eat dairy products.  That has opened the door to things like cheese (pizza) and cheesecake.  I’ve already bought bigger pants in preparation for the inevitable.

The final piece is smoking.  While running forced me to greatly reduce how much I smoked, I had not completely quit.  I basically knocked it down to the popular, comfortable level of “only smoking when I drink”.  Better than smoking all the time?  Yes.  Better than quitting?  Of course not.  But I continued because my mind, the true source of most addictions, kept telling me I HAD to have a smoke when I was drinking.

So a little over 3 weeks ago I went to dinner with someone followed by conversation in the freezing cold parking lot followed by drinks somewhere else (with heat) followed by an awkward moment (hey, figure out what you’re good at and stick with it).  All of that lasted over 5 hours and, after silently berating myself for the awkward moment, I realized that I had indeed gone out drinking without smoking or even thinking about smoking.  That night destroyed the final, pathetic excuse I was using to continue smoking so I’m happy to report that I have not smoked since then.  My body appears to be finished with the coughing and headaches associated with withdrawal symptoms and I have no desire to smoke any more.

As of that moment I just so happened to have a pack with 1 cigarette left in it which is still in a drawer in my apartment.  I was going to toss it, but I see it as a positive reminder that I’ve gone this long with it right in front of me so I have no excuses left.  So thank you to the person who not only continued to speak to me after the aforementioned awkward moment, but also unknowingly helped me quit smoking

After a 20 mile week of pre-training I was in enough pain that I finally made an appointment with a sports medicine doctor.  X-rays revealed nothing, but when he touched a certain spot on my lower leg it sent pain shooting all the way through my foot.  That basically told him what it was, but to be sure he sent me to get an MRI.  I talked to him today about the results and the good news is there is no stress fracture.  The bad news is it is a stress injury and there’s a 3 inch area of swelling in my tibia.

Right now I’m not having any pain just from walking so he’s not going to put me in a boot.  I’m supposed to avoid all activities that cause impact to my right leg which obviously means no running.  It also means no elliptical, treadmill, stair-climber, etc.  He did say the bike was ok so at least I can do some kind of cardio.  I’m supposed to rest it and then see him in 4 weeks to see how it’s going.

This pain is the same thing I had earlier this year which did not completely heal despite 6 months of no running, so I’m a little skeptical.  At least this time I have a sports medicine doctor who made a correct diagnosis instead of the crazy doctor I had last time.  This pretty much ruins any chance of running the marathon in April, but I could still possibly run the half.  Only time will tell.

A while back a friend of mine talked me into yet another crazy decision, registering for the Country Music Marathon in 2010.  Well according to my calendar training starts on December 7th which means pre-training started today to make sure I’m back at the level I need to be next month.  Near the end of the training will be my first half-marathon which I had to drop out of at the last minute last year.

After not running for the last week (thanks to having no car and dealing with replacing a blown engine and hating treadmills) I started my pre-training tonight.  In the middle of the run I remembered that the training plan only called for 3 miles and when I looked down at my Garmin it said “2.99″.  I was about a mile away from Centennial where my (borrowed) car was so I ended up running 4 tonight.  The plan calls for 4 miles tomorrow so I’ll just switch it up and do 3 instead.

I didn’t have any bandages with me (which keep my knee brace from ripping open the back of my knee) so I went without the knee brace.  I do have a slight pain in my knee which is not all that surprising, but my lower leg that normally hurts feels fantastic.  Now that could be because I haven’t run for the past week, but it sure seems like the knee brace is at least part of the cause of my leg pain.  The problem is I can’t find another knee brace that even comes close to fitting.

7.5 months ago was my last run before finding out I had tendinitis and couldn’t run my half  marathon.  That was also the last time I ran 5 miles.. until tonight.

Bright and early this morning I went to Brentwood for the 2009 Race for the Cure 5k. From a race perspective it was the most unorganized race I’ve ever been to. Registration was a nightmare, getting your timing chip (actually a strip) required standing in 2 lines but you had no way of knowing that until after you’d waited through the first line, the start was delayed over 10 minutes, the course was not flat like they had said and it was not measured correctly. Basically they organized an “event” not a race. Nothing wrong with that, but I’m not sure I want to plan on running it next year, at least not competitively.

So after a delay they finally started, but most of the people in front of me obviously didn’t understand how a race was supposed to work. I was fairly close to the front of the pack, but still stuck behind people doing ridiculous things like walking (there was a separate start for them), running backwards while trying to take a picture or just running incredibly slow. As a result my first mile was slower than I was trying for, even with me running up on the grass to try to pass people.

My initial plan was to run 8:00 miles and sprint the last .1 to try to break the 25:00 mark. My first mile was 8:09 thanks to the slow people, but I rebounded with a 2nd mile of exactly 8:00. The faster than normal pace started taking it’s toll and my 3rd mile was 8:15. Realizing I wasn’t going to beat 25:00 I wanted to make sure I at least beat 26:00. Right after I crossed the finish line I looked down and saw my new 5k PR of 25:29 and then came really, really (like made the noise and everything) close to throwing up. Luckily I held it in, but I guess I pushed myself literally as hard as I could have today and I have a new PR so I’m happy. After I recovered I looked at my Garmin again and realized that I had actually come closer to my original goal than I thought because the course was actually 3.16 miles. The results they posted showed me as #100 out of all men and #18 in my age category (30-34) which is kinda disappointing because the only reason I agreed to get older was to make it easier for me to place in races

UPDATE: And the official results:

Overall: 136 / 527

Sex: 100 / 199

Age (30-34): 17 / 25

I also did the math and determined that even if they had measured the course correctly I still wouldn’t have beat my goal of 25:00, but I would have been close.  I ran the last 0.16 mi at a 6:52 pace and based on that if you take off the extra 0.06 mi I ran 3.1 in 25:05.27.

Wow I suck at updating this. So in the past month here is what’s happened:

- Completed week 8 of the C25k

- Completed week 9 of the C25k which was the final week! All 3 runs were under 30 minutes and I felt great.

- My first run after finishing the C25k was a 3.5 mile run which went great except I did something to my knee and couldn’t run for the next week.

- I ran 3.1 miles Monday without pain, my first run since I tweaked my knee.

- This Saturday I’m running the Race for the Cure 5k in Maryland Farms which will be my first race this year. I guess it’s my first race since last Thanksgiving. It’s just a 5k, but that’s right in line with my training right now so I’m looking forward to it.

- In other news I signed up for the Country Music Marathon for 2010 and training for that starts in December, although I’ve got some pre-training to do in November to get up to the 25-30 miles-per-week that I need to be at to start.

Today wrapped up week 7 which was my first week of all runs with no intervals (2.5 miles all 3 days this week).  This was also my first week with mileage in double digits.  Nothing really exciting in my runs this week, but in running-related news I did register for my first full marathon a few days ago.  So if all goes as planned I will run the Tom King Half-Marathon (that I missed this year because of tendinitis in my leg) in March 2010 and the Country Music Marathon in April 2010.  Also earlier this week I joined a gym again so hopefully some cross-training will help keep me healthy during my training for both of those races.

Ok, now that I’m running on the streets again (FINALLY!) it’s time for me to start bitching about the idiots I encounter along the way.  Usually it’s oblivious drivers or asshole bicyclists, but today’s award goes to the Metro Parks and Recreation Department and luckily this time it didn’t involve one of their “cops” nearly hitting me in a crosswalk like last year.  I went to Centennial Park which is where I park my car, stretch and walk part of the loop to warm-up before heading out into the surrounding neighborhoods.  But today I was greated by chains and signs saying that “Game Day Parking Not Allowed”.  Ok fine, I’m not there for “Game Day” so.. um.. how the hell do I get into the park?!  Of all the entrances they managed to close all but 1 of them which is of course on the back side of the park and the least convenient one.  And I would have had no problem moving all of the barricades they had set up, but at least one of them was smart enough to put locks on them.

First, all it really did was make it a pain in the ass for anyone to go to the park.  Second, unless Vandy is playing a good team no one really goes to the games anyways so why would they expect people to park all the way down there?  During my run I lost count of all the roads that were closed.  What I didn’t lose count of was how many fans I saw.. about 12 including the girls who were dressed up all fancy with heels and other attire that should never be worn to a football game.  So to enter and leave the park I had to drive way out of my way just so non-existent fans didn’t park there.  And as I was stretching after my run they set off the tornado sirens for a couple of minutes for no particular reason.  Great job guys.. that level of incompetence is why you have a job where your shirt has your name sewn on it!

This morning I finished up Week 6 of the C25k which was the last week with intervals.  Today I ran 2.25 miles without stopping, again at the greenway with the crazy hill.  Next week all 3 runs will be 2.5 miles so that should be interesting.  I think I’m going to finally get back out on the streets instead of staying in the park like I have been.

So I forgot to post all week, but I did all my runs and that’s what counts.  Monday and Thursday were intervals like I’ve been doing, just a little longer than the previous runs.  Today was the first non-interval run of the C25k and the first time in over 5 months that I’ve run 2 miles without stopping.  Not only that, but I did it at the greenway and included the bitch hill (up and down it twice).  Not only that, but I actually had a negative split so my 2nd run up the hill was faster than the first.  Not only that, but I did it without my knee brace because I’m an idiot and forgot it.  It also helped that the weather was finally cool for a change.

Next week is my last week with any kind of intervals.  After that it’s solid runs with increasing distances until I’m at 3 miles.  Now if I could just get the clouds to go away so I could relax by the pool it would awesome.

I just realized I hadn’t posted anything this week, but I have indeed been running.  I ended up on the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday schedule again.  This week was the first time in 5 months that I’ve run 0.5 mile non-stop which seems like nothing, but it’s a big step.

Thursday I got to run at Centennial which was the same day the pro-healthcare reform rally was taking place.  I got to drive past it on my way in and out of the park and could hear them for most of my run.  Other than that there was nothing out of the ordinary for my Tuesday and Thursday runs.  Friday I flew to Jacksonville, FL for the weekend which is where I am now.

So 5 months after my first planned run here I finally got to run in Jacksonville.  Granted this was not a 10 mile run like my last one was supposed to be, but it was still nice.  I ran near the beach and got to run with my shirt off, which I’m sure no one appreciated!  At any rate, week 4 is complete and I’m ready to head to the beach now for some relaxation.