Saturday, November 1, 2008 [4M]

I wasn't planning on running today but I couldn't resist getting out in the rain. First couple of miles were slow and not very pleasant but towards the end I even started feeling good. My foot was hurting mostly in the beginning but I didn't feel it much after I warmed up a bit, although I still think I need some more recovery time before I can jump back to building up the mileage. 

Friday, October 31, 2008 [3M]

I went by Club O after work and after debating for a while between running and cross training I opted to go out again for a few miles. After being out for so long it feels like I'm trying to learn how to run again. My form was awkard and I felt out of shape. 

Thursday, October 30, 2008 [0M]

Nothing. 

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 [3M]

My foot is still hurting a bit but I decided to ignore reason and go for a run. It was just one of those days when I wanted to run to burn off frustrations and was getting more frustrated because I couldn't run so in the end I said "the hell with it all" and just went out for a short one.  It didn't feel all that great but it was good to get out there again. 

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 [0M]

Some elliptical, some bike. I don't really remember exactly what I did and for how long but it wasn't much. 

Monday, October 27, 2008 [0M]

I finally went back to Dr Oloff's office today to find out my MRI results. The MRI ruled out the stress fracture but that's all I got as far as good news. The bad news is that the pain is related to the chronic Achilles issue, which was a bit surprising since the pain was not at the usual spot but more on the inside of my foot. The tendon was shown to be irritated, though, and is starting to detach at the point where it meets the heel. There's a lot of fluid accumulated on the sides of the tendon, which is why my foot has been hurting. For the short term, there's not much I can do but give this some more rest. For the long term I have two options: 

1. Do nothing. I could start running again once  I feel better and keep doing whatever I have been doing all along. Whenever the Achilles starts acting up again I err on the conservative side, start the I-squared treatment and hope things get better without having to cut back on my training much. 

2. Have surgery to fix the problem for good. 

Things would be a lot easier if I wasn't running competitively, since I wouldn't really have any reason to go through surgery. I would go about living my life and not worry about this, even if the Achilles was acting up every now and then. If I want to keep running, though, and especially if I want to make another attempt to prepare for a marathon, I think I need a more permanent solution. It's frustrating when I'm doing some serious training, running peak mileage and good workouts, to have everything go to waste because of this one injury. The source of the problem is that I have an elongated heel bone, which irritates the Achilles tendon, and there's basically no other way to fix the defect without surgery. My main concern is that this kind of surgery will require a long recovery period. Few weeks on crutches, lots of time in physical therapy and about 4-6 months before I can get back to running. It's up to me to decide if I want to go through surgery but it's not an easy decision to make. If I were to have surgery it wouldn't until some time in mid-January so I still have some time to think about it. Oh, nothing as far as training today. I was back home early in the afternoon after my appointment and stayed home, completely unmotivated to do anything. 

Sunday, October 26, 2008 [0M]

Nothing. I didn't have the time to fix my bike to go for a ride before going to a concert this afternoon.

Week Recap (19 October 2008 - 25 October 2008) - 0 Miles

Almost 3 weeks without running. Compared to the previous two weeks I did a somewhat better job at cross training this week although I could still do a lot more. I'm having a hard time finding the motivation though. There's only 6 weeks left until CIM and I think I need to accept that I won't be toeing the line for my first marathon on December 7th. I have to wait a couple of more days until I find out what's wrong with my foot but I'm not very optimistic that I can get back to running soon. I tried a few times to jog a few steps and my foot was still hurting quite a bit so regardless of the diagnosis I I still need more time off. Even if I could start running again tomorrow and jump back to hundred mile weeks right away, I would still not have enough time to be ready for a marathon in 6 weeks.

Saturday, October 25, 2008 [0M]

No cross training today unless I can counting paddling on a surf board counts as cross training. I took  my first shot at surfing this morning and spend some time in the ocean, battling some pretty big waves. I didn't have much success since the waves were too big for a beginner but maybe I did get a bit of an upper body workout. 

Friday, October 24, 2008 [0M]

After another bike attempt gone wrong I can only say that my bike must hate me. I got out of Club O just after 5 and I thought I'd have enough time to put a couple of hours on the bike before it got dark. I headed south towards Bair island and got a flat tire about 4.5 miles out. I had a spare tube this time so I made the switch but as I was pumping it up I broke the air valve and was left with no backup. I thought about walking back at first but I figured I'd rather take my chances riding a bike with a flat tire instead of walking 4.5 miles wearing bike shoes. Running is so much simpler. 

Thursday, October 23, 2008 [0M]

Elliptical + stationary bike. Pretty short workout today. My right calf was feeling sore after yesterday's session on the elliptical, somewhat remeniscent of the last time I pulled my calf on the elliptical. I tried using the elliptical again but got off after a few minutes since my calf was making things somewhat uncomfortable. I got on a stationary bike for about 20 minutes but I could still feel the calf a bit and got fed up so I called it a day. 

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 [0M]

30 minutes on the elliptical + ~15 minutes of swimming. I would have stayed on the elliptical for a while longer but my foot was hurting a bit so I opted to head in the pool instead. I reminded myself that I pretty much suck at swimming and couldn't stand it for too long. 

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 [0M]

9 miles of biking. I was planning to go on a longer bike ride but I couldn't get out of work until 6:30PM . I started from Club O and biked along the Bay trail to San Mateo bridge. I decided to turn back as it was starting to get dark and I don't have any lights on my bike. I slowed down a lot on the way back as it got pretty dark by the end and I didn't want to crash on anyone. 

Monday, October 20, 2008 [0M]

I had an MRI this morning, although I won't get the results until next Monday. No workout today as I opted to go out for dinner after work.  

Sunday, October 19, 2008 [0M]

28 mile bike ride. I bought a couple more tubes today so I could fix the flat I got yesterday and have a spare one for today's ride. I drove over to Canada Rd at 5PM and headed south towards Woodside.  I continued on Woodside Rd then picked up Portolla Rd and made the turn once I got to Alpine Rd. Pretty good ride, I was moving at a good clip the whole time and did a decent job working the hills. I think I'm starting to get a bit better at this biking thing although I'm sure I'm not even close to being a competitive biker. Not that I would ever consider picking it up as sport. 

Week Recap (12 October 2008 - 18 October 2008) - 0 Miles

Pretty much just a horrible week for many different reasons. No running obviously since my foot is still hurting but not much of anything else either. This turned out to be my busiest week ever at work and I ended working late too many nights and not having time to train. Even if I wasn't hurt it's very likely that my training would have taken a hit. Of course I would have been a lot more motivated to squeeze in a run on some of those long days but I just can't do the same when it comes to cross training.  

Saturday, October 18, 2008 [0M]

~29 mile bike ride. I finally managed to do something that counts as a running alternative. I started from home, headed to Oracle, picked up the bay trail to Foster City and continued all the way to the airport. Things were pretty smooth on the way out and I made the turn after about 55 minutes. The way back was far from smooth though. I didn't even go a mile after making the turn and I got a flat tire. I didn't have a spare since I used my last one last night and didn't buy another one before today's ride. I pumped the tire up and managed to continue for about 6 more miles without major issues by making a couple more stops along the way. I was thinking that I would manage to get back with just a few more stops but somewhere along the way I hit a bump and completely ruined the tube. I couldn't get any air in it so I ended up riding for about 7 miles with a flat tire. Probably not good for my bike but I don't know what else I could have done. Inevitably that last part was really slow and wouldn't really count as a workout. It's just my luck these days, even my bike is giving me a hard time. It's not enough that I can't run. 

Friday, October 17, 2008 [0M]

I left work as soon as I could today and was home some time after 1PM. After only getting about 3 hours of sleep over the last 2 days I needed to start catching up and took about a 4 hour nap. I wasn't in the mood for working out but at least I fixed my bike so hopefully I'll manage to go for a ride tomorrow. 

Thursday, October 16, 2008 [0M]

I finally had my appointment with Dr Oloff today but I didn't really get much out of it. I had an X-ray which didn't show anything and I'm having an MRI on Monday to check if I have a stress fracture. No time for a workout today, I was up all night in preparation for tomorrow's demo. 

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 [0M]

Today brought back some memories of MIT. It wasn't the good kind of memories and had nothing to do with running. We have a big demo on Friday and have been putting some long hours lately. Today I wound up working from 10:30 AM until 4:30AM, pretty much without a break. I'll be glad when this week is over.