Monthly Wrap-Up: December 2017

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.

Weekly Wrap-Up: January 22-28

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.)

Weekly Wrap-Up: January 15-21

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.

This Week’s Runs
Day Total Miles
Monday 3.11
Tuesday 3.11

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.)

Weekly Wrap-Up: January 8-14

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.

This Week’s Runs
Day Total Miles
Tuesday 3.11
Wednesday 3.11
Friday 3.11
Saturday 3.11

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.

Weekly Wrap-Up: January 1-7

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.

This Week’s Runs
Day Total Miles
Monday 5.18
Wednesday 4.01
Saturday 3.11

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.

Hernia

Well, this isn’t the way I wanted to start 2018.

Late Tuesday, I noticed some lower abdominal pain (below the belt), which I thought was odd, but when I got up Wednesday morning, I felt fine, and even went for a run. Later Wednesday, though, the pain came back. When I woke up Thursday morning, I still felt the pain, so I didn’t run. The pain got worse throughout the morning, so that afternoon, I went to Urgent Care to get it checked out. They thought I might have a hernia, and sent me to the ER. I had some tests done, an ultrasound and a CT scan, and they determined I had a small hernia, but it didn’t involve any intestines poking through, just fat tissue. I have an appointment scheduled with a surgeon next Friday, and then I’ll know more.

As far as running, it’s just a matter of pain management. I mean, I was able to run Wednesday morning. I’m not going to push it, I’ll stick to fairly short easy miles, no workouts or long runs, just to try to hang on to what little fitness I still have, but if I’m not in pain, I can run.

I had to defer the Charleston Half Marathon until next year. It was only $15 to defer, and since I waited too long to make a hotel reservation for this year’s race and ended up in a hotel that was a bit more expensive than I would have liked, I’ll most likely save more than $15 on next year’s hotel. Also, I pretty much knew I wasn’t in PR shape, so I’m not too upset about deferring.

I have no idea what caused my hernia, although it almost certainly wasn’t the result of running. It still sucks, though.