September 2013 – BEYOND DEFEAT

NYCM Training: Week 1

Posted on September 29, 2013 by admin

Posted in All, Fitness, Running 2 Comments

My ‘A Race’ this fall is now the NYC Marathon after bowing out of Wineglass Marathon and Beach2Battleship Full Iron. I had a great full week of training for my 6 week plan.

SUNDAY: 1 Mile @ 5:25 pace at the 5th Avenue Mile.

Then I saw Dr. Levine and he did his magic.

TUESDAY: 4 Miles @ 8:30 pace

THURSDAY: 6.5 Miles @ 6:55 pace.

Saw Dr. Levine again.
That night we went to The Met and in my favorite room (The Temple of Dendar), there was a party!

SATURDAY: 12.5 miles @ 7:45 pace! My furthest distance in months!

I ran with Abbe and Bojana and then pulled away from them after 3 miles as I needed to get inside my head. After I finished I waited for them at Engineers Gate and had a moment of zen. Any local runner knows that Engineers is the center of the running universe as far as NYC is concerned, so it should be of no surprise to see friends. While I waited, Meggie and Gia rolled up, followed by Elizabeth! Hi runner pals!

We celebrated our runs by eating doughnuts from the new Dough Loco, it was amazing!

You will notice no cross training on my plan. Dr. L and I discovered that biking irritates my IT Band, pulling on my patella the wrong way. Until NYCM is over running, and swimming is the name of the game.

RACE REPORT: 094 5th Avenue Mile – 5:25

Posted on September 24, 2013 by admin

Posted in All, Race Reports, Running 1 Comment

I love the 5th Avenue Mile. For a few minutes you hit hyper drive, maxing out your breathing and heart rate and as soon as you think you are going to die, it’s over.

The day before I did an easy 5 miles and then headed over to Elizabeth and Juan’s wedding in The Central Park. It was beautiful, fun, and chock full of runners in civilian attire. That night I headed down to the Kitchen Hell’s) for some carbo loading with Maura, Aiden, Dennis, Bojana and Elyssa. Pasta and beer… everything the body needs to survive.

RACE DAY

I took my time getting up since my heat wasn’t until 9:55AM! I even cleaned the apartment.

Dr. Levine has been doing an awesome job getting me back into the game. I have had 3-4 weeks now of zero knee pain during my 2-6 mile, easy tempo runs. I was excited to race and also very nervous as I had not done any speed work in months.

We live close to the start so it was an easy warm up over to where all the runners were converging. I immediately saw Erica. We caught up and did some warm ups before bumping into Elizabeth and Juan, dressed in wedding gear for the run! I ran into Joshie and a few of his Gotham City Runners who looked ready to rock. Finally, I ended up down 5th by 77th Street to watch the 2 heats before mine when a friendly voice next to me says, “Hey Baker!” It was Robert, who was taking pictures and running in the media heat (he works for Runner’s World.)

After watching a few heats I made my way back up to the start. My knee felt great and I was starting to get pumped.

This was my 4th time racing this puppy and I now have my strategy down pat. I lined up hard left and about 10 deep. The gun went off and it took 3-4 seconds to hit the start mat which I thought was strange.

There were a few guys in front of me running a lot slower than I wanted to. As soon as the gates opened up I busted out to the left and hit overdrive, flying last them my heart rate redlining. I saw Jess yelling at me at this moment and waved.

My strategy for the mile is simple, run as hard as you can. No watches, no pacing, no fear of pain. 5 minutes of hell.

The first 1/4 mile was going great, then I hit the uphill at 70th street making my way to the 1/2. It was hear that all those months of zero training took their toll. I was exhausted and thirsty and wanted to drop out bad, my pace slowing. I tried to ignore the pain.

Then, something miraculous happened. As I crested the hill and began making my way down the final 1/2 mile stretch to my left I heard Robert and Erica yelling my name! I perked up and gained some power, then to my right my step-brother Matt and step-cousin Meghan (in town visiting for the weekend) yelled at me, sparking yet another boost power surge!

Finishing the race I saw that I was already over the 5 minute mark. I knew I would never break my PR of 4:57, but I was hoping to be kind of close. I crossed at 5:25, satisfied to have raced and that the race was over!

Sex/ Age	Bib	Overall Place	Age Place	Finish Time	Pace/ Mile	AG %
M35	318	412	65	5:25	5:25	70.11%

I’m back baby! My wheels are good, I just need to get my engine back in high octane mode!

The rest of the day was spent with my Step-Mom, one of my Step-Brothers, Colleen, Meghan, Grandma Kitty, Jeff and Ali at a bar watching Sunday football. There was even a random surprise of Doug and Danika being in the same bar, so they hung out as well!

My 6 week marathon training plan starts now.

The Return

Posted on September 18, 2013 by admin

Posted in All, Running 5 Comments

In case you weren’t already aware by my lack of wordy race reports, I have been sidelined all season. Lets go through a brief history of my injury, as it’s quite entertaining. I also want to document all of this for future reference, like some strange runner’s science project. Maybe someone can learn from it.

– Late February: While at my Mom’s in Tampa for the Gasparilla Half Marathon (the season opener if you will) I noticed that when I bounce up and down I have a slight pain in my left knee. I run the race anyway, the injury definitely playing a role in my performance.

– I see Dr. D who gets me doing PT. Basic exercises using cables and balancing devices. I stop running.

– I get an X-Ray and MRI, all good aside from my Bipartite Patella. A bipartite patella occurs in 1% of the population. As a child as the pieces of your knee are fusing together, sometimes a small piece doesn’t completely solidify. It is held in place by cartilage and most people would never know they had it unless they had an issue and got an X-ray, case in point.

SIDENOTE: I was signed up for numerous races, the highest caliber being a Marathon, Olympic Tri, Marathon, Ironman and Marathon (in the order) with some smaller races sprinkled in between.

– The pain comes and goes and in late April I run the Connemarathon. We were in a remote part of Ireland so beautiful words cant describe it, I had to. I finish in 3:33:00 (my 9th marathon… weird number stuff) and my knee is really messed up.

– Back to PT with Dr. D and no exercise.

– 6 weeks later he has me bike and slow run. I feel pain after biking and during the runs.

– I race Rev3 Quassy OLY Triathlon. It’s a 10 minute course PR for me ironically. My knee hurt during the run.

– I see Dr. D 2 times a week and thing s are up and down. I change shoes and doing anything I can to help. I race a few local races but still I have pain.

– At the end of August I decide to change it up. I stop seeing Dr. D. and head over to Dr. Levine, who I had seen once before and like every single one of my friend go there. He is an Ironman doctor and uses ART and Graston. The techniques are pain like you have never felt, him digging into your quads and IT band. He tells me not to run unless I have zero pain.

– I start tracking all the Red Tailed Hawks in Central Park instead of running and instantly age myself.

– As my knee starts to get better I bike a few times. Each time after my knee hurts bad. Dr. Levine and I deduce that biking might be the cause of my patella pain so I stop all biking, eliminating my Fall Ironman from happening. At this point I just want to race NYC Marathon, specifically because my little brother Jeff got in.

– 2 weeks ago I run 2 miles with zero pain.

– The next day I run 4 miles with zero pain.

– Last week I run 4 miles with no pain and on Monday of this week it’s zero pain baby!

So my question to all my runner/triathlete friends is… are there any 3 week Marathon training plans for Wineglass? I didnt think so, I will probably be on cheer patrol so those of you running Wineglass look for me.

Ironman is out, by I have renewed hopes of racing my 4th NYC Marathon.

All season many people have gotten an earful, mostly in person, about what I think caused my injury. (Big hug to Abbe as she has heard it most and is so over anything having to do with knees!) Unfortunately for me, I think it’s my bipartite patella. I think I slammed it or something and weakened the cartilage (this is a common thing for people with weird knees who bike in traffic). Therefore, the cartilage needs to heal. Whatever movement biking does to my IT Band, it seems to pull on my patella in a way that running does not. Who knew? Everyone is always like, “Running is bad for your knees, you should bike.” Then I’m like, “No shit, I’m a triathlete I have to bike.”

I’m really happy. I was in a bit of a depression all season as my favorite thing to do (running AND triathlons) was taken away from me. Now, after learning a whole lot about the human body, I am back and ready to BATTLE.