Around The Bay 2011

As some of you may or may not know, I have been suffering from an Achilles injury the last month-ish. Really, it all started in my right leg last June when Plantar Fasciitis set in, then during Muskoka 70.3 when my achilles and knee began to hurt on the bike course, and 2 weeks after that, my piriformis tightened up while running Scotiabank Waterfront Half. The pain never went away despite the rest, and now I'm in physio 2 - 3 times a week wondering about my season.

Anyways, this past weekend was Around the Bay. I wanted to do this race for the sense of accomplishment. It is counter-productive for my speed goals, but it's an historic race that a lot of Baydogs have raved about. Plus, they have really nice shirts! I was very skeptical, almost fearful, of what would happen to my achilles. I started out with a 10:1 strategy. I have found that this strategy works best for me, especially with the half marathons. Where it foils me is when I look at my pace average right after a walk, so I run too fast to improve the average. Again, I tend to think counter-productively even in races.

All the hype/talk of me running this race on no training, a bum achilles, people questioning my sanity for running this race injured, and my own worries about what would happen if my achilles did "pop", lead me to have some not so pleasant thoughts. I was grumpy, snappy, scared in the days leading up. I couldn't help but wonder 'should I do this?'. I assured myself that if I was ever in doubt of my physical well-being while running the race I would just stop and walk. But, my competitive side questioned, is that really racing?

I went into this race with the mind set that this would be the longest distance I have ever ran, and that no matter what, it will be an accomplishment. I assured myself that I would be okay, and that no matter what happens, I will have fun. I started off with a light warm up trot where my achilles immediately started hurting. Not exactly the thing you want to feel before you've even started. This had me worried, but I just shrugged it off and decided to drop back in the corral. The gun went, and 4 minutes later I crossed the timing mat. As I started to run, the achilles loosened up and the pain went away. I felt great as I was able to stretch my legs out and run at a good pace. One problem: racer Matt had taken over my psyche pushing Cautionary Matt to the back burner. This would prove troublesome for me physically during the more demanding section of the race.

I was moving along quite well, little to no pain in any of my trouble areas, sticking to my 10:1 strategy, and watching the seconds tick off my pace avg and imagining how awesome it would be to obliterate my time goal by NOT training and suffering an injury! I was on top of the world! I would run behind people to get paced/block the wind, seamlessly move through packs, I felt fantastic! Little did I know that all this would add up to pay a price later on, as my legs were slowly deteriorating.

A little thing starts to happen to your mind while you're feeling good in a race. You start to imagine the ending, without visualizing the process. You dream of crossing that finish line with your low personal best flashing in bright lights above you, smile beaming, friends clapping and patting you on the back. The reality is, that if you can't visualize the process, all those images can vanish, and leave you feeling defeated. Sure people will congratulate you, but you yourself may feel as though you let yourself down.

As the race progressed, I began to think that I was going too fast, and that I needed to start pacing myself so that I could finish strong. Unfortunately I was too busy Garmin watching to realize how the pain had started up again in my achilles, a new pain was starting in the ball of my foot, and my knee cap was tender. I periodically took longer walking breaks, which meant that my joints were tightening up, and restarting became more difficult.

The mind does funny things in the middle of a race when fatigue and pain sets in. It is at this point that I feel the mental training and drawing upon past experiences really helps. I re-evaluated my goals for the day: finish, get my medal, and set a time to obliterate next year. I knew that I would be slow, so I couldn't let myself be disappointed with the drop in pace.

I walked up the first hill, and decided that I would make it my goal to run up all the hills...even if it meant an extended walk at the top. The pain in my right leg made it impossible to push off on climbs, so I literally limped up the hills with a fast cadence, using my left leg to push off as strong as I could (that would prove to be ill-advised as today my left leg is hurting more than usual!). My physiotherapist told me about this one big hill: "you'll go down a hill, turn a corner, cross a bridge, and then climb a very big hill". Well, I went down a hill, THOUGHT I crossed a bridge (I saw guard rails), and climbed what "felt" like a big hill. It wasn't until I was hobbling down a steep decent that I realized I was entering a valley. I looked across and sure enough, there was the hill my physio was talking about.

Sometimes, it is the goals within a race that make that day successful. By setting myself the little goal of climbing the hills, I felt I was able to be successful. Hills have always been my achilles (no pun intended), so as I began the ascent in my hobbled state, I was determined to not allow myself to walk. The pain wasn't worsening, but it wasn't getting any better, and I knew when I got to the top it would be a flat finish, and I can walk flat.

I slowly limped my way up the hill, and was pleased to see the last turn of the race. Home free! By this point though, the pain had become quite unbearable when I ran. The fatigue, lack of training, pre-existing injuries, and never before done distances had taken their toll. It was at this point that I decided that my race wasn't going to be defined by my time. It would be defined by my will to finish. I walked a lot those last few kilometres. I was still Garmin watching, wondering what time I could get if I could start running and hold even a 7:00 pace...I could easily finish below my goal of 3:00. The thing is, running really slow is more painful than walking fast, and the pain was too muc to bear. I decided walking was in my best interest. I felt good and strong mentally and did not feel tired except for my legs.

It's tough when you've always felt like an underdog and want to do the best at everything you do as a big "FU" to the people that teased you when you were younger or picked you last when playing sports at recess. I fought my way through a lot of the pain those last few hundred meters, and as I could see the final turn into Copps Coliseum I started running, knowing that the finish was near. I painfully descended the ramp into the arena, and ran down the lane to the finish line. The finish felt great as I stepped on the timing mat, turned off my garmin, and stared at the time - 3:00:55. At the time, it was bittersweet. Yes I had finished Around The Bay, the longest run I had ever done, and I did beat my time by 5 seconds. But I felt as though I gave up those last 8KM, and as a competitor, that's tough to get over.

As I've moved on and reflected on my race over the last 24 hours, talking to friends on facebook, or friends at school that are runners or will be running their first marathons this spring, I'm beginning to think more positively about my race. I am proud of my finish, proud of the heart and guts that I put into my race, proud that I was able to mentally keep myself in check, but most of all, I am proud that I finished. And that, is a victory all in itself.

The one lasting impression that I have with this race, and my whole racing experience as a whole, is that it's a sense of accomplishment. It's great to be competitive inside your little bubble of competitive people, but it's amazing how people that are not in that bubble are so in awe of your personal accomplishments. And THAT'S what I need to focus on in these types of races where I'm going for firsts and not worrying about times. The fact that so many people are afraid to do what I did, and that's what makes me a champion...not what some timing chip say.

Injuries, Off-Seasons, and Seasonal Goals

Soooooo, it's been a while since I posted something on here. Last time I was all about the goals that I had set out for myself. The training had been going well. I had been doing about 2 or 3 bricks a week, not pushing my run as fast as I want it to be in the season, but building a base so that when I get outside I can put the hammer down. Then, I remembered that I had that pesky 'Around the Bay' race coming up so I spontaneously ran 20km at a ridiculously slow 6:00 pace with breaks to get me ready. Then, I did the speed work 2 days after. Then, I felt a great deal of pain in my achilles. I have been dealing with a lot of pain in my right leg for almost a year. A lot of my runs have had to be offset by a day of rest (I've never been able to run 2 days in a row without issues). A lot of thoughts went through my head regarding this pain. Tear, partial tear, on the verge of tearing, is my season in jeopardy, wtf is happening, etc. When you get a pain in a region that is notorious for serious/long term pain, it effs with your mind. And that's what happened.
I started physio this week, and it's been great. My physio is an athlete like myself. She's trying to qualify for Boston and wants to do a half ironman this year. I like having people help me that know what I'm dealing with. That's what I like about my chiropractor. She was highly ranked in the Women's Hockey Program (she was a linemate of Cassie Campbell) and knows what it takes to be an athlete at a high level. Now I have a physio who is helping me get healthy and achieve my goals. Moving into the future, I think I'm going to need a team of people like this that are going to help me be the athlete that I want to be.
All that being said, once I get over this little hiccup of the injury, I should be back on track. I'm looking forward to my season. It's all about the speed, but I may end up doing Muskoka 70.3 again because this could be the last year it is run. it's the weekend of Wasaga, meaning I would miss out on an opportunity to podium (a lot of that opportunity was due to the race being run at the same time as Muskoka), but it would be worth it because Tanya would be running it with me, and it would be her first 70.3. Anyways, the training has been going well, despite the current pain/discomfort. My swim pace has increased to under 2:00. My run pace is in the mid 4:30s and should be around 4:20 in the warm weather, and my cycling on the spinner is 3km/h faster than it was last year. The schedule is still the same. I may add the Guelph Lakes I sprint or try-a-tri because it is the club championships and I want to help the Baydogs finish first (I'll probably do the sprint because last year I had a shitty bike and an even worse run...so I want to kick it's ass this year). Hopefully the weather prognosticators are wrong and we don't have 3 more months of cold weather. Last year was soooo nice being able to swim in the lake on Victoria Day weekend!
Anyways, that's it for now. Happy training, and see you in transition!