Legs Don't Fail Me Now

Just a few more miles

It's been a while since my last post. Needless to say that it's been a long haul, these three-and-a-half months.  My life has been consumed with Pfitz's marathon training, work and battling the elements.

In early November I moved from Charlotte, North Carolina, to beautiful  Clovis New Mexico.  Land of feed lots and packing plants, railroad tracks and boarded up buildings.  This is the Llano Estacado, the stacked plains.  This is where high plains meet high desert.   And, it is where the winds blow...ALL THE FRIGGIN' TIME!!!

When I arrived, the winds had just begun to blow (for the season) and haven't stopped since.  As I sit here to write the winds are whipping at 30 miles per hour outside the RV.   It has been a challenge running in this wind, especially with the build up in mileage necessary in marathon prep.   I tried running in the early mornings, which were hit or miss.  If the winds were calm, it would be alright.  But this was definitely the minority of times.  Usually it would be blowing 15 to 25 mph and make the windchill feel like it was in the single digits.  I would have to zigzag through the neighborhoods to avoid the several miles of inevitable headwinds back to the RV.   I would return just as the sun was rising, looking like a lost winter hiker coming out of the wilderness, moments shy of collapse from the exposure. 

Clovis Sunrise

 Slowly, but surely the wind and cold would break my spirit.   Knowing this I began to mix things up.   Pfitz was mixing it up too, with tempo and pace runs.   I began to run after work, right from the hospital. 

Blocks around here come in two sizes, the half mile or the mile square.  They run on straight North, South, East, West plots.  I mapped out a 4-mile loop that took me down MLK Jr to 7th to Thorton and back on 21st...perfect!   I could now run 2 or three laps a night for ~8 1/2 or 12 1/2 miles, or I could cut a lap in half for ~11 1/2 miles.   The winds are predominately westerly/south westerly which made my running a headwind/tailwind/tailwind/headwind.   It was tolerable and actually pleasant to be running these short loops after work, in the dark.   That was until the "people" started coming out.  Seems I was running in a pretty rough neighborhood on this run.   Come on people, it was MLK.   Since when was MLK in a good neighborhood?   I was oblivious of it until I was looking at the paper one day while at work and I saw a familiar looking photo.  It was a picture of the apartments I'd been running past 2 to 3 times a night under the caption, "Clovis Murders Down For The Second Year Straight."   Oops!

Oh well, back to the drawing board.   It was time for a change anyway, so I looked up my trusty Google maps for an answer.  What I found was a 10-miler that ran around town, or a 12-miler that i ran as an out and back, uphill and into the wind.  I was able to still push myself when needed and it bypassed the 'hood.  Whew!

Weekends weren't as creative though.  I settled on running ~5 miles into the wind with anywhere from 10 to 16 miles of cross or tailwinds for my long runs.  My iPod playlists helped me battle the winds and the boredom on my long runs and got me through it. 

The Long Road Ahead

Along the road there were a few detours.  We took two weekend trips to Santa Fe.  Though beautiful, the 7000' elevation and brutal cold (both times were below zero) made it next to impossible to train.  It was no big deal though, as my long run mileage wasn't up too high yet.  Ruidoso, on the other hand, was during big mileage.  It was the week after my 55 mile week and I needed to run 16+/- miles.  The weather was beautiful, but the mountain terrain and (again) 7000' elevation made it tough.  I managed to run a mostly road 15 miles, but turned up lame by the end.  My left calf muscle hurting from the extended downhill running back to the hotel.  The next day's run was worse.  Uh oh,  looked like I had an injury developing.

I took a few days off, resting my weary muscles; massaging and stretching them; hoping things weren't too bad.  I tried my next week's running and ouch!   UH OH.  Now what?  So that puts me to two weeks ago.

These past two weeks have been that I can only call "an extreme taper."  Forced rest.  No problem.  I am very familiar to injury and have become a whole lot smarter at treating them properly.  I've been successful with Kinesiotape and cross training.  The leg is feeling much better, but I'm still not running.   The plan for my final week, marathon week, is to tape and try short runs tomorrow, Wednesday and Friday, then Carb-it-up for a GREAT run come next Sunday.  

Austin Marathon here I come!  I'm still going to try for sub- 3:10, injury or not.  It will be as much a surprise for me as anybody at this point in the game.

Of course, I will keep you posted.