I always struggle with a post title. But I like that this one rhymes…so that’s that.
Anyhoo…yet another month has passed and here I am to fill ya in on my little life and take a few minutes to reflect.
So get this? I actually ran 2 races in the last 30 days! There was the Fall Flat 5k trail run, the weekend before Thanksgiving, that I do each year to help benefit the nonprofit organization The Greenbelt Conservancy. They’re the organizers of the night hikes I go on as well and also the Cold Feat 10k trail run held in February. It had snowed a couple of days prior to race day and then warmed up and melted leaving things quite muddy.
What?!!!! Snow?!!!! but this weekend is the FALL Flat 5k, not the Winter Flat.
muddy race course
The entire course had to be tweaked to avoid some completely impassable areas but a good chunk of it was still super slick and I walked a lot of it.
I started to notice some aching on the inside of my ankle just before the race and wasn’t about to make things worse by losing my footing. (foreshadowing….i sprained my ankle anyway shortly thereafter because that’s my life).
The ankle pain seemed to be the very beginning of posterior tibial tendonitis. But since i was only running one or two times a week for short runs it wasn’t really bad and I immediately started looking up stretches and other pt exercises. The day after the race it hurt a bit more and then one night while walking Duncan I rolled my foot on a rock that was disguised by leaves. The sprain healed within 5 days and I was feeling much better but each time I run I’m achy for a few days after so I’m going to rest up the rest of the year and try my hardest to start 2019 healthy.
The other race was just about a week ago…another race I’ve done numerous years in a row now…the Big Chill 5k….a charity run where the entry fee is an unwrapped toy $15 or more. Always leaves me speechless when I see the back wall of the Rutgers University gymnasium just filled with toys that will go to kids who might not get a single other gift.
Been super busy working but I’m finally catching a breath and thought it would be a great time to tell you about yesterday. I ran the Fall Flat 5K trail race here in Staten Island and got to catch up with my good friend Gina. She and I ran this race last year. I blogged about it here.
So before I tell you about yesterday’s race let me first admit something that I haven’t told anyone yet. I had a bit of a freak out a week before the race. I woke up limping. Not kidding! It’s really pretty ridiculous. I feel like I’ve been a broken record the entire year! My “good” foot was hurting. I realized that it was the first week I’d run 3 times in a single week since the original toe injury and I also went to yoga twice and I probably just overdid it. I forget sometimes that for months that foot worked about 150% every single day. Every single downward dog I put more weight on that foot because I was still giving my bad foot a break. Needless to say I kept this to myself and decided to take an entire week off to see how things would go. The limp went away after about 2 days and since then I’ve been doing much better. I’ve been icing and stretching and while the foot is achy today I don’t think this is anything more than some mild tendinitis. 2017 has been rough. Clearly my body is letting me know that I need to take even smaller baby steps with this whole return to running. So I’m going to keep to only 1 or 2 runs of 3ish miles a week for the rest of the year. If there’s one thing I can do next year to help the situation it will be to start incorporating more strength work into my DAILY routine. I’m not going to allow myself to train for anything more than 5k until I feel more secure physically. Between the toe injury X2, the back spasms, the knee strain in my sleep, hurting the arch of my foot during physical therapy….am I missing anything? Yeah, I don’t want to have to utter a single word about injury in 2018! Ok, enough about that. Now on to my recap…
Fall Flat 5K Trail Race Recap:
The race starts at 10am at a park that’s only about 15 minutes from my house. Bib/shirt pickup opens at 9am. I like to get there right at 9am to park at the entrance right nearby. There’s a second parking area but you have to walk a bit. Because this race is held by the same organization that runs the night hikes that I go on, I was able to see a few friendly faces.
I grabbed my cute shirt and walked back to the car to toss it in.
Fall Flat 5k 2017
And then of course my running buddy Gina arrived. She and I met back in the mid 90’s! We worked together. We’ve stayed friends ever since. Gina is a Crossfit/Spartan Race kinda girl but every so often she likes to do a trail or road 5k.
I had no time goals in mind. Gina was hoping to shave a few minutes of last years time so I basically followed her lead. The course was changed up a bit this year which was nice. The only part of the course that overlaps puts you going in the reverse direction so at least you never feel like it’s Groundhog’s day 🙂 I totally forgot to turn my Garmin on but I sort of knew when we hit the first mile just by how I felt. I said that to Gina who looked down at her watch and confirmed we were at 1.03. I’m fairly predictable 🙂
photo courtesy of Run & Shoot Photography
We ended up finishing in 36:28 which was 2:30 faster than last year! Mission accomplished!
I love this race for so many reasons. It’s a local race but it’s one of the more popular events (size-wise) that this organization (The Greenbelt Conservancy) runs. There were about 300 runners (and walkers) of all ages and paces. It’s so nice to recognize so many familiar faces and to see the local running family. There are lots of local photographers capturing the event and they post their pics on Facebook which is such a lovely bonus.
It’s an event that truly appeals to all levels of fitness. The main goals are that everyone enjoy the trails that are maintained by The Greenbelt Conservancy and that the event raises some money to help ensure the trails can continue to be maintained. Win win! And the price is right. I think I paid $25. But even on race day the registration is only a few dollars more.
My foot felt fine the entire run. It was definitely achy all day afterward. I iced it on and off and even wore compression socks. Today it’s feeling improved. I’m not freaking out anymore. I think with the continued TLC and the lower mileage I’ll be fine. Dear Santa: For Christmas I’d like to be free of injury next year mmmkay?
Do you run on trails?
Do you run local races?
Have I asked these questions before because I feel like I have 🙂
So happy to report that my back is almost back to 100%! I was seriously freaking out when i last posted.
So now I’m finally planning my comeback.
Clearly Duncan is thrilled about my comeback
I’m looking forward to joining my hiking group tonight and returning to the yoga mat tomorrow morning. I’ll modify as needed for my back if I feel the need.
And I’ve resumed what I was just getting underway with at physical therapy for my toe 2 weeks ago when the back went out. Yesterday I did 3 sets of toe raises and took a brisk walk. I’ll incorporate some jumps soon. Just want to make sure my back is truly 100 percent first. The next couple of weeks will be all about stress and rest which is what my toe needs to continue repairing in its final phases of healing. I found this great post on the site irunfar.com about recovering from soft tissue injury that explains everything so clearly.
My plan is to actually start running a little in another week or 2. I’m going to follow the rule of 2 starting with a 10 minute easy run and adding 2 minutes to each subsequent run so long as I have no pain. (I’ll be taking at least one rest day in between runs to monitor the situation).
Over the next 3 monnths I’ve got three 5Ks that I’d like to run (slow and steady!) if possible. I have to say that I am being cautiously optimistic but even just the idea that I’ll be running again this year makes me so happy.
Since Mr. SOTSS has already signed up for the Trenton Half at the end of October I’m hoping I can run the 5K. (Here’s my recap from 2016, 2014 and 2013.)
And finally the Big Chill 5K in December (you can read a little about last year’s race here. If all goes well I’ll think about increasing mileage next year.
Before I get into today’s post I just wanted to share this sweet pic of me and my friend Sue from last week’s road trip to visit her…A sign I’m happy is my eyes practically closed….the bigger the smile the more I squint.
This morning I ran a local 5k trail race called the Fall Flat 5k.
Fall Flat 5k on a perfect Fall day
It’s in a park that is just 10 minutes from home and while I’ve participated in some of their other events this was the first time running this particular race. Bib and shirt pickup was a breeze and since I was an hour early I enjoyed the views of the lake before sitting in my car for a bit. (This was clutch because I sat on a wet bench and used my heated seats in the car to dry off before the race began. HA!). Frankly, the sole purpose of registering was to see and chat with my friend Gina. It made me giggle when I thought that my goal for the race would be “conversational pace” but not in the sense of speed….more about the ACTUAL CONVERSATION. Well, I hit my goal! I talked non-stop for the entire 3.1 miles and Gina got a word in every once and a while 😉 The entire run went by so fast that it left me wishing we had a longer course to run just to keep the conversation going.
It’s so important to make time for fitness but also to make time to connect with friends too. I’m determined to make 2017 the year of conversational pace! I want to commit to running (and chatting!) with friends at least once a month!
Do you run solo or with a group? Like local races? Do you like to talk or zone out when running?
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