One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, & a whole lot of Zombie Shuffle

2/17/2012 posted by Jenn

Three weeks ago I had my highest mileage week in a long time – hovering around 80 miles. Every day an offer for adventure popped in from my facebook running group and I happily obliged running up and down mountains like I was Heidi. On Wed we ran with our packs to the snowline and then strapped on snowshoes and continued on into the brilliant sunshine and untouched snow – magnificent! Running back down the mountain, I noticed my left knee felt tight, but wanted to keep up so I didn’t give it much pause.

The next day I met up with a friend for a 20 miler and was promptly returned to my car doing the infamous Zombie shuffle (dragging one leg behind you like a crazy lady while howling in pain). That left knee was pissed at ‘ol Heidi and out for vengeance.

I quickly diagnosed myself with a light case of Quadricep Tendonitis – very common for runners when jumping back in with intensity after a prolonged period of rest. In essence, the quadriceps muscles that connect to and support the knee are not yet strong enough for the extreme burden you are placing on them and small tears begin. Hmm, sitting on the couch all of Nov and December and then pretending to be ultra-runner extraordinaire in January. Can’t imagine why my body was grumpy. Doesn’t it know we’re invincible?

I rested 2 days and then set out with my friend Annie to run a few 9.6 mile laps on a local lake loop. This was to be her last training run before her first Marathon. She was hoping to run 20m and I was hoping to run 30m. The problem with a loop is well, it’s a loop. So if you decide half way through that this was not your most brilliant idea, you’re darn well screwed. I guess I knew around mile 3 that I should stop, but I was stubborn enough to keep at it until mile 4 when the pain became sob worthy and I was officially on the far side of the lake. Engage the old Zombie shuffle for a very, very long 5.6 miles. It was one heck of a pity party out there, but the only thing that kept me going was counting down the minutes ‘till Annie would be coming around on her 2^nd loop. It dragged on and I’m wondering, “where is she?!!”… Even at her slowest projected pace she should have come around long, long ago.  Finally, up in the distance in front of me, I see a gal who looks like Annie, but who is Zombie shuffling toward me. Sure enough, girlfriend banged herself up on a rock and sent her entire chin/knee area into a tailspin. The two of us hobbled back to the car and used a quick stop at the grocery store and a calorie-dense therapy session to hold back the tears for a while.

I was headed out to Palm Springs the next day for a long planned intensive week of training in the desert, culminating in a 2 day session in Joshua Tree with a couple of hard core vets that will be in Jordan. This is something I had been looking for forward to for weeks, ready to show them how much I had progressed in the two years since we had run together last (oh pride & ego!, will you never rest?) and suddenly I was scared, angry and embarrassed that I wouldn’t even be unable to attend.  I spent that Superbowl Sunday stewing and sleeping on the couch…you can bet I was just a peach to be around….

Well Joshua Tree came and went and was absolutely incredible and I am fully determined to write a blog on it…so just hold tight for that story….but 2 days before we left our cush Palm Spring resort (after a full week on resting my knee) and headed out to the desert I started feeling the nagging clues of a cold. Well, it will just have to wait I told myself and loaded up on all types of Vitamin C and Dayquil. And it did wait, sort of… I ran my heart out across the desert, so happy to be able to RUN & HIKE that I barely noticed as I hacked up a lung in a Dayquil stupor. Sure, I might have been dizzy at lunch, but c’est la vie, right?

But of course, you can’t tell your body to press ‘pause’ on getting sick, so now I’m back in rainy old WA with a full blown Sinus Infection…my first in 33 years! And effectively sidelined again! I’m hoping to have it cleared up by, well, NOW and be back out there again in the morning ….

I guess the moral (for me) is….Appreciate every second of being out there, because the body is in charge and we are not in control of how long the good times are going to last. Yes, we can (and should) take precautionary measure to stay healthy and strong…but sometime you just have to play with the hand that is dealt you and hope it doesn’t last long. An icky fact.

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By the way, my friend Annie scooted off to Austin just as I got home from Joshua Tree to run her first marathon. On her ‘test’ jog around her neighborhood, her knee was still giving her excruciating pain. After a visit to her doctor, then the physical therapist, and of course an ear full of opinions from yours truly she headed to Austin to see what trouble she could give that race. It’s this Sunday….let’s wish her good luck!

Hope you all are in excellent health this week. If not, there’s plenty of Dayquil at my place.

Xoxo, Jenn