May 2014 Mileage: Everything is awesome

May did not begin with unicorns.  It began with a Real Estate Crisis that induced a 5-day migraine, during which I could neither eat nor drink.  Only puke.  And writhe in white-hot blinding pain centered behind my left eye.  This was, however, not nearly as bad as hyperemesis because 1) it only lasted 5 days  -and- 2) I briefly experienced a modicum of relief after every time I threw up.

Before the migraine hit, I’d been cautiously approaching near normal with my ankle.  I still couldn’t really run every day, or as fast or as far as I would have liked, but things were finally moving in the right direction.  In hindsight, I now suspect that there may have actually been 2 injuries going on here (running injuries do tend to occur in multiples): an initial injury to the posterior tibialis tendon, which led to a mild stress fracture in the medial tibia. Consequently: months of pain, limping, and not being able to run.

On the morning the migraine hit, I woke up feeling nauseous and terrible, and when I attempted to run, I only made it 3 miles at an incredibly slow pace.  After that I had to take several days off.  I tried to jump back into things with a “long” run the weekend after the migraine passed— I managed 8 miles and felt about as awful as the first time I went back out to the forest after 2 weeks of Vortex in Nicaragua.  

Then came the rush of packing up boxes so that we could move.  On May 16th, I ran one last time around big loop at Forest Park.  It was nothing spectacular.

Three more days off for the move.

And then suddenly… EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!

The morning after we arrived in Colorado, I stepped out my front door and onto this trail:

And I thought I would miss running in Forest Park.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!

But wait, it gets better.

Foothills Trail, which is beginning to feel like my "turf."

Do you see the grazing deer? (above)

The last two weeks here in Colorado have been the highest mileage I've run since January. They've been slow though. I am mainly terrible on the rocky trails here. They remind me of the road on Ometepe, which I considered un-runnable. Plus, even parts of the Foothills/Pineridge trails (on which I am mainly comfortable) are narrow, rutty, and rocky. The trail is essentially v-shaped single track, which forces your ankle into hyper-pronation. Which is a pretty bad thing if you are dealing with the remnants of an over-pronation ankle injury. Plus, the trails are relatively highly used, and I frequently meet hikers, runners, and mountain bikers. And dogs. Everybody is generally courteous (except some of the dogs, but that is another story), but when you meet someone on narrow single track, one of you has to get off the trail so the other can pass. I haven't gotten used to who does this and when (mountain bikers are supposed to be the ones who yield, and they generally do, but many times I feel it is most safe for me to be the one to just step aside). This is further complicated by the possibility that apparently, there may be rattlesnakes hiding in the grassy or rocky crevices just to the edge of the trail.

Awesome.

Could this be the deal-breaker, Colorado? I don't think there are rattlesnakes in Eugene.

We'll give it some more time, though. See how it works out.

I've done two long runs since I've been here. The first was mainly on trails. I was fine, but my ankles (both of them) didn't feel so great after the extended hyper-pronation for 17 miles.

So yesterday, I decided to run through town on the sidewalks and biking/running trails. In other words, concrete.

It's pretty much six of one, half a dozen of another. The excessive mobility of my ankles on the rocky, v-shaped trails, or the pounding of the concrete.

But, so far so good. The injury hasn't returned. I'm thinking (if registration is still available) it is a distinct possibility that I may attempt the Estes Park Marathon on June 22.

Because why not celebrate tentative recovery from injury and completely starting over your life by running 26.2 miles at approximately 8,000 ft elevation?

Awesome.

Stats for the month:

118.4 miles. 458.38 year to date. About a hundred and fifty miles short of where I thought I would be at this point. But we'll see where I can go from here.

Thanks for reading.