Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Marathon Gods are laughing at my lazy ass.



The Portland Marathon is 10 days away - October 4th. Its been a long year of training. It really started last Fall, when I made the decision to run through the winter. Normally, I have a season ending run, then its too dark, cold and rainy to run in the mornings, so I move on to kickboxing or step aerobics. Last year, we planned some early Spring runs and so I ran through the winter. Got up in the pitch dark, wore my reflective gear and ran. We ran the Lief Erickson trail all winter long - several times in a foot of snow.

What I'm saying, is that I had a good base. I was running 7-10 miles on the weekend and 4-5 miles a few days a week. I felt strong. This was a great way to lead into my triathlon/marathon training. I've had relatively few issues this year. My main problem has been a nagging issue with my IT band and my right hip/quad. This usually flares up every month or so, I get some treatment and then I am fine. If I get past the 8 mile make on a run without pain, I'm usually in the clear. If it starts to hurt, it will nag at me until I am done my run. This pain showed up during my 21 mile run and I've been having it treated ever since.

I have a great chiropractor who is really more of a physical therapist. He doesn't just adjust me, he uses ultrasound and electronic stimulation, as well as massage. He can make anything better. Seriously. Trevor hurt his lower back big time, two weeks before the 1/2 Ironman and Dr. Jake had him ready to compete just in time.

I don't know what the hell is going on with me. I went and saw Jake on Monday and he got the knots in my muscles to release. Yesterday morning I did upper body weights, abs and a 3.5 mile run. This morning, I woke up and my low back was hurting. It has gotten progressively worse during the day. I'm walking like I'm 9 months pregnant...kind of shuffling along, holding my back and groaning. Nice.

I used to get this back pain often. I haven't had it in over two years. Yet, here it is, 10 days before the marathon. Just to make things interesting. Probably as a pay back for when Trevor hurt his back and I commented that he always has something like that happen before an event! Bam. Here you go.

I have an appt this afternoon to see the Dr. I also have appts all scheduled for next week leading up to the big day, so there will be plenty of opportunity for my back to get the attention it needs. Actually, its not my back, its my butt. My quads are much stronger than my glutes and that makes my body try to compensate and it trys to use other muscles to get the job done - enter the lower back. Its called "lazy Glute syndrome". You know what the glutes are right? My ass. So I have lazy ass syndrome. Anyone have a cure for that?

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