Touchdowns matter not.
He cannot fill the hole left
After ‘94.
via A Bills fan’s eternal lament, in haiku form « this is the city line..
Archive for the 'pain' Category
I had my wisdom teeth extracted on Friday, and it’s messed with my sleeping schedule so much that I was actually awake to watch the end of the Panther game tonight. What a great second half… I’ll never get to sleep now.
I had gotten up to about 3 miles at a time on the treadmill before the surgery, and everything felt great, so once I’ve fully recovered, I should be out on the road again. That is all.
I”m in the Jet Blue Terminal at JFK this morning, on my way to Austin to take my qualifying exams. I meet with my committee chair Monday morning at 9, get my 4 questions, and begin writing around 50 pages worth of answers by 5pm on Friday. I polled some of my colleagues and have decided on the following as my game plan:
- As Joe suggested, I will plan all of my meals in advance. This should be fun and delicious, since I have a super long list of Austin restaurants I miss. Having Kelly and others around to deliver the meals, as Don suggests, is going to be helpful.
- Lisa convinced me that I should only spend about 3 hours each day reading and reviewing literature so I can force myself to write for the rest of the day.
- I’ve asked Kelly to reset my bloglines password so I can’t procrastinate with my RSS feeds.
- Everyone suggested avoiding staying up all night writing and trying to adhere to my regular sleep schedule, until perhaps Thursday.
- Save save save save.
I’ve brought with me my APA publications manual and a bunch of pdfs and things I’ve written, but that’s about it. I’m excited and nervous to see the questions I’ll be answering.
Kelly and I are staying in Austin until the 12th, so we’ll have time to relax once it’s all over.
The only real bummer I can foresee is that I’m still in physical therapy for my leg so I can’t run Town Lake at all while I’m there.
Ok, going underground….. now!
Not that it was much of a choice. I’ve had to come to terms, over the last 4 weeks, with the fact that I am not able to run the NYC marathon this year. My strained leg is taking too long to heal, and there’s no need to push it. That’s the lesson I learned in Charlotte last year. Better to take the time off now than to risk worse injury just out of pride.
Luckily, I’ll just defer my admission to the marathon until next year. I’ll have to pay again, but I have little choice now. Oh well. I’m not beating myself up about it, just working hard to get back on my feet. Been to a few cycling classes, and have continued consistently stretching and practicing yoga. Sadly, my two favorite yoga classes at the gym got discontinued, probably because I was one of only 2 or 3 who ever showed up. Hopefully those teachers will be back at other times, they were my 2 favorites.
Relatedly, I finally got in to the physical therapist this week. It has been a nightmare to schedule these appointments, since I have to take off from work early to get to the office before they close. Visiting this place is like stepping back to the 70s. It’s basically a railroad apartment, mauve walls and brown trim, divvied up by orange, brown, and green striped curtains. Behind each curtain is a cot and an aged brown-plastic machine covered in dials. It definitely seems like more of a rehab-after-workplace-accident type place than a sports medicine practice. Thanks HIP! If it weren’t so close to my house, I might seek another place.
Anyway, they hooked me up to this shocking machine for 15 minutes, then gave me an ultrasound massage on my hamstring, and then I rode an archaic stationary bike that looked like a discarded The Price Is Right prop for about 6 minutes. Two feet from the bike was the receptionist’s desk… she was filing as I peddled. A strange place indeed. Perhaps I’ll get some pictures next time– have a few weeks of this ahead.
Oh, and I went to see My Bloody Valentine last night. They were terrific, and the fact that I brushed past J Mascis in the crowd would have made my 15 year old self ecstatic. Haven’t done much that would impress 15 year old me lately, so that felt good. (I can feel him shudder each time I put on my running tights!) The highlight for me was actually the extended noise break they closed with– it was overpoweringly, sensory-overload loud. Like thunder on pause forever. I was fine with earplugs, but people seemed to be losing their minds a bit. I can only imagine that this event had some negative impact on the Jersey Boys performance in the theatre next door. The highlight for Kelly is that she didn’t go to the show and therefore missed it.
Apart from not playing “Cupid Come,” they covered everything I wanted to hear. Alphabetcityblog documented the show way more carefully than I ever could have, I’m just glad I got their in time for the whole set, had a decent view (though this person had a better spot! — this was more like where we were), and was able to meet up with Jon and Melissa beforehand. Well worth the price.
My legs feel better today than they have in weeks. My left knee is still a little tweaky, but I when to a cycling class today and felt good as new. My leg actually felt better after the hour ended. It was nice to sweat without grimacing in pain, been a while since I did that. Stretched more and iced afterwards, and, as of 10pm, still feeling great. We’ll see how I’m feeling in the morning.
Planning to hit up a couple of more cycling and yoga classes this week, and then I’ll have some recovery stories to tell (I hope) when I finally get in to the physical therapist next Monday.
Sound wise, I just realized that my current (and several-months-standing) favorite band, Black Moth Super Rainbow, has a free EP available on their site to get us excited for the “Drippers” EP, which drops scratch-n-sniff CDs & 10″ vinyl soon. A few other mp3s on there site as well. Enjoy.
The Bills and the Panthers have never gone 2-0 for the first two games of the same season.
The last time the Panthers went 2-0 in their opening games was 2003. That’s right… we all know what happened then. Only undefeated team in the NFC South!
The Bills have the strongest offense I’ve seen in a while.
Sundays promise to be nice despite the lack of long runs, at least for a while. I got my Physical Therapy referral this week, and should have some idea when I’ll be back on the streets this week.
If you’re not up on SBNation yet, check out Buffalo Rumblings and Cat Scratch Reader.
I was feeling so good after Sunday’s 2 miles, I decided to go to an easy yoga class Monday evening, then try for another 2 on the treadmill. I was nice and stretched out, but about 3/4 of the way through my run, I got stiff in my left knee, this morning it was very sore and weak again. I guess I’m not ready for two-days-in-a-row again yet, no matter how loose I am.
I had visited my doctor just before the yoga class, and we spoke about where I should strengthen. He know’s I planning to run the marathon, but he didn’t seem worried. Interested, though. I think he’s just glad he doesn’t have to break any bad news to me. He told me to beef up the ibu dose, ice more, and gave me a referral to physical therapy that he seemed to think wasn’t so important. I am, however getting worried that the next 7 weeks will breeze by with out a chance to recover fully. I’m making the promise to myself that I won’t run if I’m not up to it. Even kinda not up to it… the aftermath of no running for weeks is not worth it. I can always just run across the bridge to Brooklyn and straight into an ice bath. No shame in that.
It is amazing, though, how much a little strecthing can make unbearable pain disappear immediately, I’ve been good about getting at least 2 20-30 minute stretching sessions in daily, even despite the working late so much. I found my knee brace today, and hope that’ll give me the support and compression to get me though the day between stretches.
I was meeting with a good friend and music professor on campus today, and when I told him about my sorta injury, he asked to make sure I was using the RICEV method.
me: of course! Wait, what’s the V?
him: Vodka. It goes with the ice.
I made a lot of progress on my paper last weekend, and got some very helpful feedback from my doctoral committee chair on Monday night. Tuesday night, I went for another see-how-it-feels run that ended badly. At the 2-mile point, my knee was barely hanging on, so I walked another two (walking is painless) and headed to an easy yoga class. The good news is, every day since Wednesday, the fatigue has been gone from my legs, and the pain is reducing. I still fully intend to run the marathon (8 weeks away still), but I am not going to push the training at all– definitely not going to try and get back up to the 40/50 miles a week range. I ran the last marathon with only about 25 miles a week, so I’m not worried about finishing. Maybe it won’t be my fastest race ever, but I’m going to do all I can to keep from injuring myself.
Paper-wise, though, I’m at the point where I’m putting the finishing touches on this thing. Nearly two years in the making, it’s the biggest milestone I’ve had since starting graduate school. The next step after it is accepted (might have to do a revision or two) is to fly down to Austin the first week of October and take my qualifying exams. Once that happens, and after some relaxing and celebrating, I’ll begin my dissertation proposal.
Knee’s feeling much better, so’s the psyche, thanks to the good folks at AskMeFi. That is all.
My accidental 2-mile overage on Sunday seems to have been a bit too much for my tendons– the back of my left knee is very, very sore. Apart from a bit of walking around campus, I took Monday off, and didn’t go running until Tuesday afternoon. I had decided to just run a couple of miles to see how it felt. It was not so good. My outer-calves felt very week, and the back of my left knee was a little… pinchy? I struggled through a mile, walked a bit, and then ran a second mile that felt a little better. But I knew I shouldn’t go any further. I stopped by the gym on the way home to give my legs the big stretch I should have energy to do on Sunday: rolled out my quads and IT band, rolled out my shins and calves, and stretched the front of my legs on that ankle/calf strengthening machine.
Once I was back at home, I iced. I think things are less painful today, and I brought the heating pad to work for some additional therapy. I found a few things online that have me believing that after a few days off, I should be ready to go again. It’s the only thing keeping my spirits up; every day I can’t train bums me out a little more. I just hope that the time I take off doesn’t force me to step down the last several weeks of my training too much.
It’s been a while since I updated do to travel (bus rides to Fredonia & back), visitors (Jeremy was here), and lots of miles logged on the roads in the last two weeks (86!). The Fredonia runs were great– make sure to click on the maps to see the satellite view. It was pretty hot while we were there, but the change of scenery was great.
The only back-in-Brooklyn run I’ll comment on was yesterday’s 18 miles. I got a bit of a late start and was feeling quite sluggish all along. The splits tell a sad tale– I went to my dark place at the end of mile 15 and walked .25 mi or so for each of the last three miles. It turns out that I was really only supposed to go 16 (an error on my fridge sheet!), so I can’t feel too bad about it, but I know that getting up the endurance to run it all the way through will be slow to come. I have another chance this weekend, with 17 on the same course. The first 15 miles were right where I need to be pace-wise. I took an ice bath afterward, and though I was moving slowly this morning, I feel ok now. You should have seen me get off the bus this morning at work, though. Here’s the links to my runs:
18 miles Sunset Park to Coney Island & back
8 miles in Prospect Park
4 miles on treadmill
8 miles in Prospect Park
4 miles on the treadmill
10 miles in Prospect Park
7 miles in Western NY
3 miles around Lake Erie State Park
7 miles SUNY Fredonia to Lake Erie State Park
3 miles around Lake Erie State Park
14 miles Lake Erie State Park to SUNY Fredonia & back
The trip to Fredonia was great, and we got to see many people. Had tons of great food, but I’m glad to be back on a regular diet again. The one bad part about the trip was that I ended up in the hospital with stomach pains one morning, but it seems like it was just a bug (though they mentioned the possibility of an ulcer!). The hospital in Dunkirk has a bad reputation, but it was about the best ER experience I’ve ever had. Got checked out by my own doctor this afternoon, and it seems like I should be fine– he took more blood to check to see if there was anything to worry about. He gave me the additional good news that my cholesterol numbers were great (which I wasn’t expecting) and that I have the blood pressure of a pre-teen. I’m interpreting that as permission to eat buffalo wings and bacon at every opportunity.
There is probably so much more to tell, but I have a million other things to do. Including finishing my redesign of this site. The upgrade went pretty smoothly, but left me with the irresistable opportunity to overhaul everything. Some stuff still points to older pages, but that should be over soon. Let me know if anything starts looking kooky.
Some boring-borderline-incredible thunderstorms and showers interupted my schedule this week, but an early 3 miles this morning in about 70-degree breezy made up for it. Here’s the rundown of this weeks’ runs:
3 miles in Prospect Park
6 miles in Prospect Park
3 miles in Prospect Park
I seem to be getting better at slowing down, and things have felt pretty good. I’ve made it to three yoga classes this week and have done some leg strengthening, and I’m pleased to report that the soreness in my calves seems to be subsiding. I think I need to be warming up a little more before I begin my runs so I don’t have the lower-leg weak feelings when I bust into my run. Spending an hour at yoga this morning before my run got rid of that weird feeling, but it’s not realistic to think that I can do that most days.
Something strange that I did notice: my 2nd mile is always too fast, maybe a reaction to all the traffic and people evasion I traditionally have to do on my first mile. Kelly suggest walking to the park before I start my run, and I think I’ll start doing that.
Embarked on my 21-mile week last night at 7:45. We had an early evening storm, so I went to a 90 minute yoga class before I ran, counting on the rain to cool things down. All it did was make it unbearably humid. My 7 miles were sluggish, but pretty unremarkable otherwise. Probably as much due to the North Carolina overload we engaged in at the Birds of Avalon/Polvo show the night before as much as the weather. I took it pretty easy, but still managed to nearly reach my heart-rate ceiling. My splits were pretty consistent. My lower legs were a bit weak for the rest of the evening, and kinda sore when I woke up this morning.
Luckily I ran into Kelly before she left the park so I could change my pizza order for dinner. The Grandma and Sicilian slices she brought me were exactly what I needed.
My plan was to do about 50% of my normal mileage this week, so my 4 milers on Wednesday and Friday filled that out for me. I was a little sluggish on Friday, after the Katrina Benefit (feat. Neko case!) we went to Thursday night, a long day at work, and an incredibly heavy diner lunch. My shins have been a little sore, so I’m taking it easy today. Standing and sweating at the Belmont Stakes all day yesterday took it out of me as well. I may go to a yoga class tonight, though, just to stay streched out.
I went to 2 spinning classes this week, and realized, with the help of my heart rate monitor, that I never really my blood pumping on the bike as much as I do running. I had always thought it was the other way around, but apparently it’s all in my head. I usually top out at near 181 or so on my runs, and I’m lucky if I get to 161 on the bike. Strange.
I counted out the weeks to the NYC Marathon, and it looks like I’ll be starting the Hal Higdon program during the first week of July. I’ll be in Southern California that week, so I should have a few nice runs before I come back to the city to run in the brutal heat. I’m thinking I’ll be getting up pretty early to avoid the sun this summer.
P finishing the Buffalo Marathon
Originally uploaded by activitystory.
I finished my second marathon, this time in much higher spirits. I did a bit better than I expected to, I ran it in an official time of 3:44, though according my watch, my time was 3:39, since it accounts for every step, the extended bathroom break I took in mile 21, and some stops to stretch my hamstrings in the later miles. But whatever, either way, I’m ecstatic.
I didn’t really stick to my gameplan, which was to keep an 8 minute mile pace. Each of my miles up to 11 was well under 8 minutes… which I tought was ok because it felt good and I was banking under-pace minutes for later on. Once I got past the half-marathon point though (another personal record– ), I started to feel some fatigue in my quads and couldn’t keep pace. Miles 13 to about 16 were dark times for me… I’d stopped passing people, the road was uphill, there was a headwind, and the pack had totally spread out. Pretty desolate feeling, but I did my best to keep my spirits up. I can’t explain why these long races are so emotional for me, but I spend the whole time bouncing between emotional highs and lows that I tend not to experience in normal life. Probably endorphins.
Miles 17 to about 22 were in a park a ways north from the rest of the race, and the twists and turns broke the monotony a bit. Also, Kelly and the Mulvilles showed up to cheer me on right when I needed it. These were my slowest miles; I found myself walking through the water stations and in a few other spots.
Once I hit mile 22 or so, I got super psyched again and picked things up. Had to stop to stretch my hamstrings a few times, but I certainly was excited to be in the homestretch.
I saw Kelly and the Mulvilles near the end of the race, this time they’d met up with Kelly’s mom. It gave me a nice little burst of energy to finish strong. Right when I got to the finish line, I saw Mark snapping away. .
After the race, my ice bath was not as scary or painful as I had imagined, and I think it worked… I’m much less sore than last time. I’ll definitely try that again after the NYC marathon in November.
Along with the cheering and up-to-the-second pace and distance updates from my Garmin, music also got me through the tough times in this race. I repurposed some of my training mixes and had a playlist of tracks just for this race. Here are the training mixes, which Libby has already distributed over the last few months:
- Mix from P (weirder stuff from Charlotte Marathon playlist)
- Marathon Mix 2 (rockier stuff from Charlotte Marathon playlist)
- March training mix
- April training mix
I’ll put together a mix of the “loose” songs I listened to later in the week.
Thanks for all of the support. I’ll be posting my progress for the NYC Marathon in the coming months as I work out how to make myself go faster for longer.
Originally uploaded by our silly family.
Nathaniel and I finished the Thunder Road Marathon in Charlotte yesterday. My foot/ankle wasn’t fully healed from what was probably a sprain a week or so ago, so it was pretty painful for me. I ended up about 35 minutes off my goal time, but I’m glad just to have survived. The first half was really hard on me, and it took me a while to adjust, but I knew I had to finish.
So, once I got everything straight with my shoes and my new gait, I got to where I could run most of every mile. My final time was about 4:24, splitting 9:05 on the first half and 10 something on the second. Physically painful, but I feel really good to have gotten through it depite it all.
The track was more hilly than anything I’d ever attempted, so if I’m healthy for the NYC marathon, where the Verrazano Bridge is the only real hill, that’ll seem easy in comparison (I hope!). But the verdict is in– I’m definitely gonna run more marathons. Nathaniel seems to feel the same way.
Here’s my big nasty bruise that is probably evidence that I shouldn’t have run:
& if anyone cares, here’s my run playlist– “The Clap,” by Cherry Valence was the first song to come up, and Colin Meloy’s acoustic cover of “Sister I’m a Poet” was, strangely, the track that I was listening to when I crossed the finish line.
A Certain Ratio Do the Du
ABBA Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
ABBA Mamma Mia
ABBA SOS
ABBA Super Trouper
Aceyalone The Faces
Air Miami World Cup Fever
Bardo Pond Tommy Gun Angel
Bauhaus Kick In The Eye
Baxter Dury Gingham Smalls 2
Baxter Dury Lucifer’s Grain
Baxter Dury Oscar Brown
Black Moth Super Rainbow I Am The Alphabet
Blur To The End
Bowery Electric Fear Of Flying
Brian Eno Here Come The Warm Jets
Broker/Dealer Can’t Believe
CAM`RON Hey Ma
Cherry Valence Lose That Smile
Cherry Valence The Clap
Chromeo Fancy Footwork
Colin Meloy Sister I’m A Poet
Cub New York City
De La Soul Brakes
Devo Jerkin’ Back ‘n’ Forth
Dub Narcotic Sound System Shake A Puddin
E.S.G. You’re No Good
Egyptian Lover Egypt Egypt
Flin Flon Upper Ferry
Four Tet Smile Around The Face
Garden Variety Harbored
Gary Numan Films
Glass Candy Digital Versicolor
Glass Candy Rolling Down The Hills (Spring Demo)
Gwen Stefani Crash
Happy Mondays God’s Cop
Henry Badowski Henry’s In Love
Hercules and Love Affair Athene
Honeymoon Killers laisse tomber les filles
Huon Complex
Ian Brown Gettin’ High
Ikara Colt At The Lodge
Jawbreaker Boxcar
Jesus & Mary Chain Featuring Mazzy Star Sometimes Always
Joanna Newsom The Book of Right-On
Joe Jackson A Slow Song
Joe Jackson Another World
Joe Jackson Look Sharp!
Joy Division Disorder
Joy Division Isolation
Justice D.A.N.C.E
Koufax It Had to Do With Love
Kraftwerk Spacelab
Ladytron Seventeen
LCD Soundsystem Someone Great
Le Tigre Well Well Well
Liz Phair Support System
Lou Reed Hangin’ Round
Luscious Jackson City Song
Lynnfield Pioneers Crossfade
MAKE-UP They Live By Night
Mayo Thompson Black Legs
Mayo Thompson Good Brisk Blues
Mayo Thompson Side Two To You
Mayo Thompson Venus In The Morning
Michael Jackson Rock With You
Mikkel Metal Microho
Motorhead White Line Fever
My Bloody Valentine Only Shallow
My Bloody Valentine Soon
Neko Case Deep Red Bells
Neko Case Hex
Neko Case Hold On, Hold On
Neko Case Knock Loud
Neko Case That Teenage Feeling
Neko Case Things That Scare Me
New Sweet Breath Bring It On
No Doubt Hella Good
Old 97’s Timebomb
Oxford Collapse Lady Lawyers
Oxford Collapse Please Visit Your National Parks
Palace Music Work Hard/Play Hard
Polvo Vibracobra
Princess Superstar Bad Babysitter (Featuring High & Mighty)
Public Image Ltd. Socialist
Pulp Party Hard
Pylon Feast On My Heart
Ratatat Seventeen Years
Redd Kross Look On Up At The Bottom
Royal Trux Let’s Get Lost
Shocking Blue Inkpot
Silkworm Couldn’t You Wait?
Silkworm I Must Prepare (Tablecloth Tint)
Simian Mobile Disco Hustler
Smiths Girl Afraid
Snow Pony Easy Way Down
Sole Sides Greates Bumps Latyrx_Lady Don’t Tek No
Solex A Round Figure
Solex Oh Blimey!
Solex Shoot Shoot!
Sons & Daughters Awkward Duet
Sons & Daughters Taste The Last Girl
Spoon Anything You Want
Squeeze Squabs On Forty Fab
Stephen Prina Cums For Shove
Stereolab Miss Modular
Stereolab Our Trinitone Blast
Stereolab Tone Burst
Subhumans Mickey Mouse Is Dead
Suzi Quatro Strip Me
Talking Heads Dream Operator
Talking Heads Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists Hearts Of Oak
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists The Ballad Of The Sin Eater
Television See No Evil
The B-52s Legal Tender
The Field Everyday
The Lilys lilys_nanny_ext
The New Pornographers From Blown Speakers
The New Pornographers It’s Only Divine Right
The New Pornographers Sing Me Spanish Techno
The New Pornographers The Laws Have Changed
The New Pornographers Twin Cinema
The Odd Numbers Holiday
The Stone Roses I Am the Resurrection
The Stooges Loose
Warren G & Nate Dogg Regulators
Gang: running my first marathon in 6 days. Please help me bring the noise. I’ll probably spend the first 2 and a half hours or so listening to the latest episode of The Best Show, but I’ll be on the road for a good hour and a half after that. You’ll win a prize if your track is in my headphones as I cross the finish line!
Three quick things:
- I broke 500 miles for the year this week with my longest run ever of 20.3 miles. Feeling it today, but I’m no longer worried about finishing the marathon. Follow my progress at RunLog.
- I launched a new mp3 blog: DON’T ROCK N ROLL NO!. For now I’m just posting the tracks that were on the Record Jumble Disc, but expect frequent updates. I have a bunch of stuff on deck. Please comment!
- Also, Greg and I posted up our tracks for a new monthly “virtual 12″” project we’re starting over at somesounds. Have a listen.
Yesterday I saw two disasters photographed on flickr:
Isabel’s fine, though Beth said the blood tests were more traumatic than the biting. Kelly was at home when the crash happened, but only heard it. She snapped some pics as well, but I haven’t seen them yet. I’m just glad she wasn’t out on the street (as far as I can tell, there were no injuries and no children on the bus). Be safe!