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When I was setting my goals for 2017, I didn’t know if I would get in to the New York City Marathon. I figured, well, if I don’t get in to NYC, I’ll just do a fall half, which is why one of my goals was “6 races, with at least 2 that are 13.1 or greater.” Well, I did get in to New York City, but wasn’t able to finish. I obviously didn’t plan for that scenario. I mean, at the time I entered the lottery for New York City, I had started and completed 26 races, so the thought of a DNF never crossed my mind. After New York City, when I realized I would fall short of my race goal, I realized that if I ran a half marathon in December, I could still hit that goal. I went looking for local half marathons in December, and found the Huntersville Half Marathon. I asked around about it, and heard good things, so I decided to sign up.

They had Thursday (and Friday) packet pickup at Fleet Feet Sports in Huntersville, but that would involve driving up to Huntersville on either Thursday or Friday evening during rush hour traffic. So I opted for race day packet pickup.

I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary on race morning, other than make sure the weather conditions were OK. Friday night, we got a dusting of snow, but it only stuck to the grass, the roads were just wet, and it stayed (barely) above freezing, so there were no issues getting there. Even in perfect weather, it’s a bit of a haul from my house (about 35 minutes), so I did have to allow a little extra time for travel, and for packet pickup.

There was a footbridge between the recommended parking lot and the starting area, and that did get some snow and ice accumulation. To their credit, the race organizers shoveled and salted the bridge, so it was passable, if a bit nerve racking.

It started off bad, then it got worse, but it got better at the end.

Weight Check: 175.3, down 3.3 pounds from last week. Uh, wow. There were a few more miles this week. But there was also an interesting experiment. I decided that I probably wasn’t going to be able to get rid of caffeine, but maybe I could switch to something with fewer calories, like, say, 0. So I tried Coke Zero Sugar, and it was weird, but not completely terrible. Then I tried Coke Cherry Zero (which apparently hasn’t been re-branded yet), and that was…decent. The problem is that it’s not as widely available as some other sodas. This week, I’m going to try Diet Mountain Dew, and possibly *shudder* Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi. In a perfect world, I’d cut out all caffeine, and probably sleep a lot better, but until I get to that point, I can at least not gain weight when I drink caffeinated soda.

Total: 6.82 miles

I’m back to scheduled runs. Going by time instead of distance is weird, but I’ll be switching back to distance next week.

Monday was my first outdoor run since my surgery. I had the day off work, so I figured I’d go over to the greenway, because it’s flatter than my neighborhood. I figured I wouldn’t be ready for my neighborhood. I apparently wasn’t ready for the greenway either. It was rough, and I had to take several walk breaks, but I did sort of rally on the last partial mile, and I made it the full 30 minutes. No issues around the area of my surgery, just issues with very out of practice legs.

On Wednesday, it was 65 degrees and humid. Seriously. On February 21. The weather would have been terrible if I was at peak fitness, and I’m nowhere near peak fitness right now. My legs still felt pretty bad. It’s hard to tell if they felt better Wednesday than Monday since the weather was much worse. I did manage to speed up a little bit at the end, though. Still it was not fun.

Saturday, I did not want to run. The only thing that got me out there was that it was supposed to get up into the upper 70s, so I needed to get out there before it warmed up. (Again, this isn’t something I should need to think about in February.)

I’m glad I went out there, because it was so much better than Wednesday.

The weather was still bad, but only 60 degrees, so not quite as warm as Wednesday. My legs didn’t hurt this time, which is a huge improvement. They still got tired, especially toward the end, but I pushed through and gradually improved my pace.

Also, I managed to stick to my coach’s recommended run/walk interval, 8 minutes run/1 minute walk, with a run for the last 3+ minutes, so there’s that.

I didn’t get my Huntersville Half recap done because I was busy watching the Olympics. I will be popping in at some point this week, since Wednesday is the drawing for New York City. For me, that’s just when I find out if I have to out and raise a bunch of money for charity or not, because I’m running the 2018 New York City Marathon, no matter what.

Running! Actual running! I finally got to run this week, even if was only on the treadmill, and it was mixed with a bunch of walking. My legs complained about the long layoff, but there were no issues with the area around my surgery (or with my freaking right foot). I’ve got a long way to go, but I’m finally on my way back.

Also, I signed up for the 2018 Teal Diva 5K. They moved it to Freedom Park this year, which is a lot closer, and hopefully they can make a course that’s a full 5K and not just 3 miles.

Weight Check: 178.6, up exactly one pound from last week. I drank too much Mountain Dew when I was at work, and my parents came to visit this weekend, which resulted in too much food, and while I did get over 0.0 miles this week, it was nowhere near enough to make up for it.

Total: 3.62 miles

My foot swelling finally stopped on Monday. To test things out, I went over to the Y on Tuesday morning for a 30 minute treadmill walk. It was mentally excruciating, even more than usual because I wasn’t running. My legs were a bit sore, especially on Wednesday, but otherwise, no issues.

Thursday was the big day. I was just one day short of a full month away from running.

I’ve never been so happy to run on a treadmill.

I walked for 5 minutes, ran for 5 minutes, walked for 5 minutes, then ran for 5:31 so I could get up to 1.5 miles. My walk intervals were at a 15:47/mile pace (3.8 mph), and my run intervals were 12:00/mile. I had no pain or discomfort related to my surgery. My legs didn’t feel great, especially near the end, but that wasn’t the surgery, it was the long layoff. It’s not a lot, but it was a first step.

My love affair with the treadmill was over on Saturday, and it went back to being mentally excruciating. This time, I went with 3 minutes walking/6 minutes running, 3 intervals, and added an extra 22 seconds at the end because I didn’t want to stop at 2.08 miles. My legs still weren’t great, but I definitely noticed improvement since Thursday. Even better, there were still no issues in the area around my surgery.

I have the day off on Monday. If the weather cooperates, I’d really like to drive over to a greenway and do a short outdoor run in a place that’s much flatter than my neighborhood. Regardless of where I run, I would like to finally finish my Huntersville Half recap and finally start to reduce my backlog (which also includes a 2017 wrap-up, a 2018 preview, and a January 2018 review).

Also, I have another follow-up appointment on Tuesday with my surgeon, who, no offense, I hope I never have to see again afterwards.

I was all set to start running again, or just walk on the treadmill, and then my right foot decided to start swelling up, most likely related to my surgery (which was also on my right side). I’m beyond frustrated at this point.

Elevation seems to help a little bit. Standing on it for 20 or so minutes does the opposite of help. I can still pretty much get around as long as I don’t stand for too long.

The good news is that I did get to go back in to the office this week, and I went out with friends 3 times, so at least I don’t feel like a hermit any more.

I did find out recently that the Teal Diva 5K is moving to April 28, and also moving to Freedom Park, which is much closer than Mooresville, more scenic, and hopefully they can get the distance right this time. If all else fails, I can always walk the 5K with my parents.

Weight Check: 177.6, up 4.2 pounds from last week. Yeah, that’s really not good. That’s the downside to going out with friends 3 times in one week when I can’t run.

This Week’s Runs

A week of non-running brought to you by my freaking swollen right foot.

Total: 0.0 miles

If the swelling ever goes down, I’ll get back to running.

Also, next Saturday is the Charlotte 10 Miler. I’m bummed that I’m going to miss it this year after running it three years in a row.

Maybe this week I can finally finish the Huntersville Half recap.

The word of the week is Nope.

Did I run? Nope.

Was I feeling up to a 4 hour drive to Savannah? Nope.

Did I go to my friend’s wedding? Nope.

Weight Check: Oh dear. 173.4, up 5.7 pounds from last week. I haven’t been running, but I have been eating, and apparently I’ve been eating poorly. I don’t expect my eating will improve this evening as I watch the Super Bowl. (My understanding is that the relevant cheer I’m looking for is “Fly Eagles Fly!”) I’m really, really, really hoping to get back out there running this week, and hopefully that can at least keep my weight from going up any higher.

This Week’s Runs

Nope.

Total: 0.0 miles

Early in the week, I felt a little bit worse than I had late in the previous week. That’s why I decided not to drive to Savannah. I’m really bummed about missing my friend’s wedding. I’m also a little bummed about not getting a chance to run in Georgia, but mostly I’m bummed about the wedding.

I did go see the surgeon on Friday, and my recovery, while slow, is still progressing. Apparently I had a bigger hernia than I realized, and it would have been nice to know that so maybe I could temper my expectations for recovery. Also, I talked to someone from his office (she had a title which I can’t remember, but she’s something like a nurse) who recommended that I take ibuprofen instead of Tylenol, so that seems to have helped a little.

I’m very slowly feeling better. Walking is still a little uncomfortable, though, and I feel like I need to wait until I can walk normally before I try to run. We’ll see. If I don’t have any setbacks, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to run at some point this week. I think I’m going start with a treadmill run, ideally Monday or Tuesday, but if I have to, I’ll wait longer.

I really miss running right now, though.

Well, it’s not quite a month late. I had been waiting for the motivation to finish my race report for the Huntersville Half, then I remembered that I did my November wrap-up before I finished my Trophy Trot 10K race report, so, screw it, I might as well get one post off of my plate.

December was kind of meh, and ended very poorly.

December 2017
Total Mileage: 89.44 miles
Average Pace: 11:04/mile
Number of Runs: 18
Last Month (November 2017): 83.72 miles
Last Year (December 2016): 125.59 miles
Races: 2017 Huntersville Half Marathon, 2:13:32.93

Total Mileage for 2017: 1,645.48 miles

I reduced my mileage a bit after the race as recommended by my coach. Then the holidays cut into my mileage a bit. And then there was my last run of the year, which, sigh.

I’ll go over my goals in more detail in my 2017 wrap up post (at this rate, you might see that in 2021), but I hit my mileage goal easily, my race goal barely, and missed my PR goal.

Best Run: December 9, Huntersville Half Marathon, 2:13:32.93 (10:12/mile average pace)

It wasn’t a great race, but it was still fairly solid, my 3rd fastest half ever, and on a much tougher course than the two that were faster (Charleston and Tobacco Road).

I have to give a shout out to my run on December 26. 6.01 miles at a 10:16/mile average pace. It helped that it was on the nice flat greenways near my sister’s house, but it was also the day after Christmas, when I ate a lot of food and drank a lot of beer, so I was pleased with the result.

Worst Run: December 30, 4.17 miles, 12:32/mile

When you’re supposed to go 12 miles and you get just over 4 and have to stop, yeah, that’s a pretty good candidate for Worst Run for the month. Hell, if it wasn’t for a really, really, really bad run in October, it would have a pretty good chance at worst run of the year. I was sick, I had this nasty cold, and for some reason, this cold in particular just completely sapped my energy, and that’s why I had to stop early. I barely kept up my tradition of ending the year with a part of a mile matching the year, so an extra 0.17 for 2017.

Kind of a fitting end for my running in 2017, though. Sadly.

Normally, I’d preview the next month, but January is over. Spoiler Alert: It wasn’t good. Stupid hernia.

On the bright side, I have plenty of room for improvement in February, right? Right?

Since I’d like to end this on a somewhat upbeat note, and since I mentioned it in my November Wrap Up, I did indeed go see The Last Jedi, twice, and loved it. So there’s that.

On my old blog, I titled my weekly posts “Weekly Running Report,” and on the rare occasions that I didn’t get in any miles, I had to change it to the “Weekly Non-Running Report.” I don’t have to change the name here, but (spoiler alert) I don’t have much to wrap up.

Weight Check: 167.7 pounds, down 1.5 from last week. Considering my lack of activity, I’ll gladly take it.

This Week’s Runs

(This space left intentionally blank.)

Total: 0.0 miles

My recovery has been slower than I’d like. I can’t seem to shake this nagging feeling right around the spot of the surgery. It’s not really pain, it just alternates between discomfort and, for lack of a better term, feeling like something isn’t quite right down there. Either way, I don’t want to risk aggravating it. Waiting a few extra days now will hopefully pay off later.

Also, while I’m not able to run, it’s hard to write about the times when I could run, so no Huntersville Half/December/2017 recaps yet.

I still don’t know when I’ll get back out there. I’m just taking it day by day. It sucks right now, but I know I’ll be able to run again eventually.

I have a trip to Savannah planned this week, so I’m hoping by then I’ll be able to run, so I can add Georgia to the list of states that I’ve run in. I’m coming back on Sunday, so next week’s wrap-up may be a little late. (Hopefully it will be a little longer, too.)

Surgery is done. I survived, but I’m still recovering. There was a complication that led to me getting a catheter, and that was hands down the worst part of the whole thing. Guys, I do not recommend getting a catheter if you can avoid it. Overall, there wasn’t a whole lot of pain (outside of the 5 seconds when they inserted my catheter), mostly just varying degrees of discomfort and soreness. I’ve managed to switch from high powered prescription painkillers to just extra strength Tylenol. Progress.

One other thing that made it interesting is that we got some snow on the day of my surgery. I was still able to get to the hospital, and then from the hospital to a friend’s place. (I didn’t want to go back home. You know how I complain about running on the hills in my neighborhood? That’s not as dangerous as trying to drive on them when there’s snow and ice.)

Running? I don’t know when I’ll be back. I’ll take it day by day. Right now I’d say Tuesday at the earliest.

In addition to all of that, the lottery for the 2018 New York City Marathon opened this week. I entered. Fingers crossed. I’ll find out on February 28 if I got in, or if I need to start raising a boatload of money for charity.

Weight Check: Oh dear. 169.2, up 4.5 pounds from last week. Pretty much everybody I came into contact with after my surgery thought I should eat. Add in a really low number of miles (and all of them on Monday and Tuesday), and you end up with a 4.5 pound gain.

Total: 6.22 miles

Yes, that’s it.

Monday, I had the day off work, so I waited for it to warm up a little bit. It was still cold, 28 degrees, but not as bad as it would have been around 7 AM or so. My legs felt fine. I ran really well, I kept a steady but relatively fast pace on the first two miles, then I sped up on the last mile.

On Tuesday, I had no hernia pain, and hopefully that’s the last time I ever have to make that comment. It was cold, 23 degrees, and I had to work that day so I couldn’t wait for it to warm up. I think I sped up a little bit because of the cold, and, subconsciously, because I knew this would be my last run for at least a few days, I guess I wanted to make it a good one and sped up a little more. My legs did feel a little tired near the end, but I was still able to push through and increase the pace late.

And that’s it. I guess that even if I was healthy I wouldn’t have been able to run on Wednesday or Thursday due to weather, but I might have been able to get out there Friday, and definitely on Saturday and Sunday. Oh well, I’ll get back to it this week.

Also, since most of my recovery ended up being away from home and my laptop, I made no progress on my Huntersville Half recap, or my December wrap-up, or my 2017 wrap-up. (And have I mentioned that I need to do some kind of 2018 preview? Yeah.)

My surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday. The only new information I’ve got is that, according to the surgeon, it looks like more of a wear and tear type of injury rather than one that was caused by one specific thing, so really, a sneeze could have triggered it. This is a relief, because I was worried that I might have gotten it from picking up my 1 and a half year old nephew on Christmas. I mean, when he was standing there, looking at me, with his arms up, how could I say no? It would suck if that’s what caused my hernia, but luckily, it looks like that wasn’t the case. Also, it wasn’t caused by running, which is a relief.

I’ll still be able to run on Monday and Tuesday this week, but I don’t want to run the day of the surgery because I’ll be fasting and I’m not even allowed to drink water, which is less than ideal after a run. My plan is to start back up the following Monday, but if my recovery goes better than planned, I might be able to get in a run sooner.

Also, no pain this week. I will continue to knock on wood until Wednesday.

Oh yeah, still no Huntersville Half recap, or December wrap-up, or 2017 wrap-up. Maybe I can finish those while I’m on pain medication. They can’t be any worse than what I write sober.

Weight Check: 164.7 pounds, up 1.4 from last week. It wasn’t a great week of eating and drinking, and there was definitely less running than I’d like, so that means a weight gain. I guess it could have been worse.

Total: 12.44 miles

I probably should have run Monday, but it was 19 degrees. I’m not training for anything, and trying not to injure myself, and I knew the rest of the week would be warmer, so I skipped it.

I got back out there on Tuesday. I felt a little rusty, but not too terrible. The weather felt great compared to last week, but 31 is still pretty cold. I managed to gradually speed up along the way, with a big push at the very end. It was still a bit slower than I’d like, but not bad considering everything.

Wednesday was a good run, but you’ll have to take my word for it. I somehow screwed up and accidentally deleted the data for this run from my watch, so I had to try to estimate it. I knew my distance was 3.11 miles, and I’m pretty sure my overall average pace was 10:51/mile at the end, so I used a pace calculator to determine the time and rounded up to the nearest second. I believe my splits for each mile were around 11:07, 11:04, and 10:44, which, considering my recent runs, is really good. As far as the actual run, there was no hernia pain, and the rust was gone. The weather was almost perfect for me, 48 and overcast. I kept the effort fairly easy until late, but I was still able to keep up a pretty good pace. I’m really happy with this run, although I still can’t believe I deleted the data.

The weather was insane on Friday. 65 degrees and humid on January 12. It felt like July, but next week it’s supposed to drop back into the lower 20s and possibly upper teens. Go home, Mother Nature, you’re drunk. My legs felt OK, though. Not a great run, mainly due to the temperature and humidity, but at least I successfully saved it when I was done, so all the gory details were preserved.

Saturday, it definitely cooled off, 41 degrees, and while there wasn’t a lot of wind, any time the wind did blow, it cut right through me. The sun helped, though. My legs felt fine, and there was no hernia pain. I managed to speed up throughout the run despite only increasing my effort right near the end. I was happy with the result.

Like I said earlier, surgery on Wednesday this week. Once I’m recovered, hopefully I can get back into a routine.

Still no pain from my hernia since Thursday. I’m waiting for all 3 days of pain to hit me all at once. That won’t be fun…until the hydrocodone kicks in.

With all of the excitement this week, I still haven’t finished my Huntersville Half recap, and until that’s done, I won’t be doing my wrap-ups for December or for 2017. I really hope I’ll be able to get them all done this week, but we’ll see.

It was really freaking cold this week, and even without the hernia it would have screwed up my schedule. The first week of January is a very bad time to show up at the Y, so the treadmill wasn’t really an option. I still managed to get a few runs in.

Weight Check: 163.3, down 3.0 pounds from last week. I wish that I could say that came from healthy, sensible eating, but no, it’s because this lingering cold has taken away my appetite, so I’m just not eating as much as I should. I don’t recommend this weight loss program.

Total: 12.30 miles

They ended up being all easy runs, and (except for Monday) didn’t match what was originally on my schedule. With Charleston deferred, I’m not training for anything any more, so I’m just trying maintain at least a sliver of fitness. Like I mentioned yesterday, until I get my hernia taken care of, I’ll just be sticking to shorter runs and no workouts.

At the time, I thought Monday was very cold, 25 degrees. Little did I know that it would be my warmest run of the week. While there wasn’t enough wind to check the Windy box, when the wind did blow, it cut right through me.

I still wasn’t fully recovered from my cold (and I’m probably still not 100%), at least as far as energy level. It was much better than last Saturday, though, and I was able to get over 5 miles with only a slight slowdown on the later miles. Other than the cold-related fatigue, my legs were OK.

I tacked on an extra .18 to welcome 2018.

Wednesday I apparently proved that it’s possible to run with a hernia, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. I was scheduled for 5 miles easy, but I decided early to do only 4 miles because of the weather, 21 degrees. I still hadn’t recovered my energy. I didn’t notice any fatigue in my legs until the last mile, although that may have had more to do with the cold than how my legs actually felt. It wasn’t a great run, but 4 miles is better than 0.

On Saturday morning, I didn’t notice any hernia pain, so I figured I could run…as soon as the temperature warmed up to something semi-reasonable. I waited until just after 10 AM, when it got up to a balmy 23 degrees. It was still cold, but the sun was out and that helped.

My legs felt OK, maybe a little rusty. I kept it to a 5K. I don’t think I’ll be running more than 5 miles at a time at least until I see a doctor again. All things considered, I think I ran pretty well, and I was able to speed up at the end.

After all I went through this week, it felt really good just to be back out there running again.

Next week, it’s going to be not quite as cold, so at least that won’t get in my way. It really just comes down to how my hernia feels. And I’ll find out more after I see the surgeon on Friday. Also, I think I need to wait another week before I try to run at the Y.