Well, I received my MRI results this morning. Going into the appointment, I was really hoping the scans would show something so we would know the cause and we could come up with a definite plan for recovery. Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. He said there is a small case of arthritis in my spine and some slight compression on a nerve. However, he couldn’t confirm it’s the cause of the pain in my leg and he suggested three options:

(1) Physical therapy – I’ve already been in physical therapy for six weeks and saw slight improvement, but not significant improvement.

(2) Steroid injection – This would only be a temporary solution and he wasn’t confident it would help.

(3) Wait and see – He said the pain started out of no where and could go away out of no where.

All said and done, I still have a lot of thinking ahead of me to come up with a plan. I’m confident I won’t consider the steroid injection, simply because it’s temporary and may not help resolve the issue. I’ll probably continue with physical therapy exercises at home and possibly see a chiropractor. I’ve been running every other day and will continue to run as long as the pain doesn’t increase in frequency or pain level.

Below is my mileage over the past few weeks. While it looks like I’m getting in some good mileage, the runs haven’t been pain free and 6-8 miles has pretty much been the threshold from a pain standpoint. I’ve tried resting and cross-training, but it seemed to make the pain worse. Not sure if it’s from the scar tissue in my hamstring or not. Oddly, yesterday’s run was the best feeling run and it was at a pretty good pace (splits of 7:22, 7:07, 6:44, 6:24, 6:25, 6:34) on some pretty good hills. Who knows, maybe I was trying to run from the pain and frustration.

So, for now, I’ll just keep on moving and see where it leads.

It has been almost four weeks since my last post and I feel a lot has changed. I’ve had at least 2-3 physical therapy sessions a week and we focused a lot on my stomach, lower back and hamstring. Each session included a short warm-up on the elliptical, some dynamic stretching, some strengthening exercises and 15 minutes on the back-traction machine. I also focused a lot on my posture while I’m at work and at home.

The hamstring feels a lot better and, knock on wood, I haven’t even felt it much during the past week or so. I’ve been wrapping it with a bandage during the day and I think that has been helping, along with the stretching and strengthening.

However, for the past week, my lower calf and achilles have been pretty sore. I’ve been icing it daily for the past three days and I’ve also added some calf raises to my strengthening workouts.

All said and done, I’ve been approved to run every other day and strengthening workouts 2x a week. My running mileage for the past few weeks has been 2, 6, 10, 16 and I’m on schedule for 18 this week. This is lower than my normal mileage from last year, but I’m perfectly fine with slowly increasing it. Below is a break down on my daily mileage:

I hope my recovery continues and, as a result, I hope to be posting more often.

As I previously posted, I took some advice some running friends and made an appointment with a physical therapist at Beacons Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. They came highly recommended and my first appointment was last Friday. I had seen their commercials on TV and I knew they often took care of the professional athletes in Cincinnati (believe it or not, but we do have them here!). Walking through the halls, I saw all the autographed posters from athletes, both local and remote, as they came into town for games. At least I could trust their experience, right?

Anyway, I checked-in and was told my insurance covered physical therapy at 100% with just a $15 co-pay each visit. Much better than I was expecting, so I don’t have to worry about forking out a lot of money over the duration of therapy. I’m in the waiting room and the therapist comes around the corner and calls out my name. I knew she looked familiar and we quickly determined we went to high school together. Actually, she was a year younger than me, I knew her from soccer and she cheered for other sports with my younger sister. At first, I wondered how much she experience she could have being relatively young, but I was quickly impressed with her knowledge, questioning, etc.

So, we went through the history, symptoms, etc. She confirmed I have some scar tissue in my lower hamstring, but then we started talking about the other pain I’ve been experiencing. It has been a sore achilles, sore calf, hamstring pain, pain in the hip/butt and lower-back pain. She thinks the back could be contributing to those issues and she suggested some dynamic stretches that would allow me to stretch my hamstring without having my back contribute to other issues. I have also taped up a towel that I will use in my car, as that’s often when I have the most pain.

As far as my therapy schedule goes, I’ll be trying to go 2-3 times a week for 4-6 weeks. I’m actually looking forward to it and starting to be optomistic about the recovery. I’m interested in getting their thoughts on whether or not I should run during this period, so I’ll find out tomorrow. I have gone back to getting in some workouts. I was on the elliptical for 20 mins on Thurs, 30 on Fri, 30 on Sat and 45 on Sun. Because of our great weather this weekend, I also snuck in a two mile run on Saturday. Just the simple two mile run made me realize how much I miss running.

After two weeks without any exercise, I visited another doc today. Several friends referred me to Beacon Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, so I decided to give it a try. The doc and I spoke about the cause, symptoms, etc. and he prescribed me to 4-6 weeks of physical therapy at 3x a week.

I’ll be honest, I still have my doubts simply because it has already been five months. Does he really think he can turn this around in the next four to six weeks? I’m going to give these next four weeks a lot of dedication to stretching and listening to what they are having me do in the PT sessions. Here’s to hoping for the best…

I’m still here…just trying recovery option #351. It seems like I’ve tried it all to get back on the road. I’ve reduced my mileage, tried cross training, saw a physical therapist, saw a chiropractor for active recovery, stretched, etc. I’m still experiencing pain in the back of my left leg: heel, achilles, calf, hamstring, hip and lower back. It’s never really more than one spot at a time, but it’s usually the hamstring or the achilles. The hamstring is at it’s worst when I’m sitting in my car. I’m guessing it’s due to the location where the end of the seat hits my leg.

So, I made an appointment with a massage therapist two days ago and he really worked on my leg. I mean, he worked on it so much that I’m still sore today. I haven’t had any exercise in the past seven days in hopes that some time off will help. It never hurt when I was cross training (ex. elliptical), but I’m not sure it was helping, either. I can’t believe it has been five months and I’m starting to wonder what the future holds for my running. I guess time will tell…

With that said, I’m really enjoying reading about others progressing through their goals. I know some friends on twitter and dailymile have some upcoming races. I’ll be cheering on a lot of them down at the Flying Pig in May, so I wish nothing but the best for you guys/gals and can’t wait to watch you hit those goals! Keep up the great work!

After much, much internal debate, I finally made the decision to defer my return to Boston until 2011. Although I was back on the road and had a few weeks in the 30s and a few in the 40s, I was in a lot of pain during last weekend’s run and even more pain the following day. I then came to the realization that there wasn’t a chance that I would be 100% by April 19th, so I canceled my Boston hotel reservation.

So, what’s next? I plan on staying in shape by using the elliptical and I’m hoping to limit my running and slowly increase it once I can get in a few pain free miles. The leg has been feeling ok with the reduced mileage and I’ve been wrapping it to keep the blood flowing. Here’s how the past week went:

Mon: 45 min on elliptical
Tue: 20 min on elliptical
Wed: rest
Thu: 45 min on elliptical
Fri: 2 mile run on TM
Sat: 1 hr 5 min on elliptical
Sun: Rest

If everything goes as I hope and I can get back to 100%, then I plan on breaking down the year by the following:

Jan – recovery

Feb – recovery

Mar – avg 20 MPW

Apr – avg 30 MPW

May – avg 40 MPW (introduce speed work)

Jun – avg 50 MPW

Jul – avg 50 MPW

Aug – avg 60 MPW (goal: 17:59 5k)

Sep – avg 60 MPW (goal: 1:22:59 half marathon)

Oct – avg 60 MPW (goal: 2:54:59 marathon)

Nov – recovery

Dec – begin training for Boston 2011

These were my goals entering the year and I now need to get healthy to make them happen.

For someone that averaged over 51 miles per week for the first nine months of 2009, I never thought I would be so happy to have consecutive weeks of 35, 34 and 40 miles. It has been a very tough couple months and I’m still far from 100%, but being out on the road is a positive step. I’ve given myself until Feb 5th to make a final decision about Boston, as I can still cancel my hotel prior to that date and only lose $20. It then quickly goes to $40, $60 and then $285.

Leg update: If it’s not the hamstring, then it’s the groin, upper calf, lower calf or achilles. All on the left side. I have another ART session on Thursday, but I may move it up in the week because my hamstring and calves are pretty tight/sore. I’ve also found that the hamstring doesn’t hurt nearly as much when I’m up walking around versus sitting down. It’s at it’s worst when I’m sitting in the car. Like I said, I’m out on the road, which is better than nothing (I think).

Anyway, here was this past week’s breakdown:

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 6 @ 7:14 – Treadmill run. Gave the legs and my fitness a little test. Splits were around 8:00, 7:41, 7:30, 7:13, 6:27, 6:27. Pleased with how I held up during the run.

Wednesday: 8 @ 7:56 – Just a cold, morning run. Added 20 minutes on the elliptical in the evening.

Thursday: 6 @ 6:58 – Decided to give my body another test. Splits were 7:11, 7:04, 6:50, 6:53, 6:57, 6:47.

Friday: 4 @ 7:59 – Started off the workout with 20 minutes on the arc trainer and then jumped on the treadmill for the four miler.

Saturday: 12 @ 7:56 – Met the Mojo Running store for a group run. They had some new runners that are training for the Flying Pig, so I ran with them which made for a nice comfortable run.

Sunday: 4 @ 7:45 – Just a four miler through the neighborhood.

Total: 40 miles

Well, the leg appears to be doing slightly better. I visited an Active Recovery therapist twice last week and once this week. I have another appointment tomorrow and I’ve been pretty pleased with the status. They massage and stretch different areas of the leg and they also perform heated electric stimulation on the hamstring. The hamstring hasn’t been hurting as much and we are still working on the calf and achilles tendon. It appears those have been over-compensating for the hamstring, so they have been pretty sore.

I was actually able to get in some good mileage last week. I can tell my overall fitness has suffered from the reduction in miles for the past few months, but I’m hoping to get a better guage of where I am within the next few weeks. Here’s my breakdown for the last month or so:

You can see I took a rest period at the beginning of December. I then realized complete rest wasn’t doing much good for my leg, so that’s when I decided to get in a few miles and started looking at active recovery.

I have yet to make a final decision on whether or not I’ll be running Boston. I did find out that I am able to defer my registration until 2011. Basically, I would lose out on this year’s registration fee. I have really been looking forward to a rematch with Boston, but I want to make sure I’m 100% before attacking it again.

I’m nowhere near 100% right now, so it will largely depend on whether or not I’ll be able to continue to increase my milage, increase the distance of my long run and incorporate speed work into my runs. At the end of January, I’m hoping to have my long run at 14 miles and my weekly mileage in the upper 40s. To put it in perspective, at that point in my training for my last two marathons, I was at 18 mile long runs and my weekly average was in the mid-60s.

More to come over the next few weeks, but I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I know a lot of you have already started training for a spring marathon. Good luck, stay injury free and keep getting in the miles!

I managed to go 21 days with runs on four of those days for a total of nine miles. Pathetic. To put it in perspective, I averaged 7.4 miles a day for the first 270 days of the year.

When I met with a doc and a PT a few weeks ago, they said I should be able to return to 70-80% of my total mileage. I tried to get back on the road, but my hamstring kept bothering me and I didn’t feel like I was doing any good. So, I took some time off to rest to see if it would help with the recovery. I didn’t feel like there was much recovery taking place, so I decided to seek some other opinions on twitter and Runner’s World online forums. Several people mentioned that rest wouldn’t do much good and I should look into Active Recovery Therapy. I received a recommendation from someone and I plan on making a call tomorrow to see if they can fit me in on Wednesday.

What a year! I hit PRs in the 5k, 10k, 15k, 13.1 and 26.2 distances. I also had my first race without a PR. I learned a lot about training, about racing and about injury recovery. I met some great people and amazing athletes on dailymile and twitter. I’ll admit the last few months have been extremely difficult, but I’m hoping for a strong recovery and I’ll be back in 2010. I still have a lot to learn and I still think I have some PRs ahead of me. Here’s a recap of my 2009 mileage and races: 

January: 276 miles

February: 231 miles

• Last Chance for Boston Half Marathon – 1:26:37 (4 min PR) - Interesting race: (1) Middle of February in Ohio…temps were upper 20′s to start and lower 30′s to finish, (2) the course is a one-mile loop…yes, a one-mile loop and (3) the race has a 5k, 10k, half and full on the same course. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the race, as I was using it as a tune-up for my full marathon in April. It was difficult to determine what place you were in during the race because it was a one-mile loop and the different races meant people were ending at different times and people were running a large variety of paces. Around mile 12, I started to pass someone who I knew was running a pretty good pace. We chatted for a minute or two and he said he was running the half, but wasn’t feeling great. At this point, I kicked it in, but I didn’t realize I was now leading the half marathon. There was only a two second  gap between myself, 2nd place and 3rd place with a mile to go. I was able to run a 6:13 last mile to win by 10 seconds. My first overall win…very exciting!

March: 269 miles

• Mercy Heart Mini Marathon 15k – 1:00:43 (1 min PR) – Probably the hilliest course you could find for a 15k. This year also had some of the worst weather with very cold temps and strong gusts of wind. I was hoping to break an hour, but considering the course and the weather, I was happy with the result.

April: 156 miles

• Boston Marathon 26.2 – 3:09:39 – Everything I expected and more. It’s Boston. I could write for days about the race. I was happy to BQ with a sub-3:10 in Boston, but it was my first race that I didn’t set a PR and it was my worst paced race. Even with that said, it was Boston and I left with a huge smile on my face.  

May: 165 miles

• EyeRun 10k – 40:40 (PR) – It was my first 10k and I had a goal of sub-40. I ran the majority of the race in 3rd place with 2nd place too far ahead and 4th place too far back. This made it difficult for me to push my pace. I wasn’t happy with the time, but I ended up with 3rd place overall.
• Bashful Ostrich 5k – 18:46 (40 sec PR) – This race is held on Memorial Day, which means a lot of grillouts on Saturday and Sunday before Monday’s race. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a time standpoint, but there are a lot of runners in the race and I knew there would be some great competition. I finished in the top-15 in 2008, which has a special top-15 plaque, so I was hoping to have a chance for the same result. About two miles into the race, I passed a group of high school runners and I heard them say they couldn’t let another runner pass them. This told me I was now in the top-15. I was able to pick off some more runners and finished in 9th place overall. Very happy with my time.

June: 215 miles

• Parkinsons 5k – 18:25 (21 sec PR) – This race was hosted by a local running store, which is the same store I run with every other weekend. This meant I would know a lot of the runners and there would be a LOT of pride on the line. Basically, there would be four of us from the store that would be pushing each other. There were three other runners that were very fast (15:50 was the winning time). Through two miles, I was in 3rd out of the store group. I didn’t give up and ended up passing one around mile 2.3 and passed the other around mile 2.9. I ended up coming in 4th overall and 1st in the store group. I was very happy with my time, as I dropped 21 seconds off my previous PR from two weeks prior and it was a 61 second improvement over my PR from last year.

July: 246 miles

• Building Blocks for Kids 5k – 18:43 – This was on a very similar course to the Parkinson’s 5k with a very small adjustment to the actual course. However, the weather was absolutely horrible. At the gun, it started to down pour. I ran the first mile with one eye shut because the rain was coming down so hard. Some fast runners in this race (winning time of 15:57), but my time was good enough for 4th overall.

August: 261 miles

• Chicago Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon – 1:24:31 (2 min PR) – This was a last-minute decision, as the race had been sold out for months. However, I read a tweet by PF Changs and Runners World about a free entry being available. PF Changs was kind enough to give me the entry, so my family made a weekend trip to Chicago. I had a little incentive to run a strong race, as someone on twitter gave me a predicted time of 1:30 and a local runner gave me a prediction of 1:28. How was that incentive? Because my goal was sub-1:25. That was the time that I told myself I needed to give me a chance at sub-3:00 in my September 26.2. I felt absolutely great throughout the race, but decided to stay with the 1:25 pace group through mile 12. At that point, I knew my goal was safe and I improved my pace on mile 13 to shave off some more time. Ended up with 1:24:31 to finish in 97th place out of 14,000+ runners. Kara Goucher ran this race and it was pretty cool being in the same starting corral as Kara.
• Sprit of Columbus Half Marathon Relay – 6.55 @ 6:08  – I ran this race with a couple friends, so we made two relay teams of two members each. I ran the first leg of my team and ran my 6.55 miles at a 6:08 pace. I was very happy with my pace and gave me some more confidence going into my 26.2 in September.

September: 182 miles

• Air Force Marathon 26.2 – 2:59:59 (7 min PR) – Sub-3. It was everything I worked for during the last year. Tough conditions from a personal standpoint coming into the race. My one yr old daughter had to be rushed to ICU six days before the marathon. My wife and I were by her side in ICU for the next four days. I was mentally and physically exhausted from the hospital visit and I had dropped around 6 lbs in those few days. She recovered well and the day before the marathon, I decided I would run the race. The race went exactly as planned with my best pacing ever. The full race report is here, but here are my splits: 6:57 / 6:53 / 6:40 / 6:48 / 6:48 / 6:53 / 6:54 / 6:51 / 6:49 / 6:48 / 6:51 / 6:49 / 6:48 / 6:50 / 6:49 / 6:52 / 6:49 / 6:49 / 6:52 / 6:49 / 6:49 / 6:51 / 6:53 / 6:57 / 6:51 / 6:50 / 6:15. Unfortunately, as I was reaching for the finish line to break three hours, I injured my left hamstring. And, with that, my mileage greatly decreases as I approach the end of the year and start the recovery process.

October: 197 miles

November: 62 miles

December: ??

Total: 2,260 (through the end of November)