Third time is the Charm

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The year 2022 is almost over and it is a good time to reflect and look forward to 2023. I will share my thoughts related to running in this post. I still call myself an accidental runner. Running has given so much to me and it has also taken so much from me. I truly credit running for what I'm today (good or bad) because during the year 2007-2012, running really shaped my life, how I approached various things while living in US and to a great extent it kept myself fairly sane. Although, one must question how running marathons can ever be called being sane :) 

I have always struggled with what running needed from me in the form of miles run or the discipline part of it when there are no goals in sight. I still do not think I have fully incorporated running into my lifestyle. It still requires a lot of mental work from me to get into running mode for extended times (anything more than couple of weeks). But, that may not be a bad thing per se. 

Let us get back to the title of this post. I truly think I'm trying to get into the running for the third time. The first phase was between 2007-2012 when I started from zero and had pretty good 4.5 years running streak with mainly accomplishments and few setbacks. The second phase can be from Aug 2016 till end of 2019 or about 3.5 years. It really took a lot of discipline and hard work including some setbacks to get to running 1:28:05 half marathon in early 2019 (January and March). 2020/2021 and for most part 2022 were non-running years mileage-wise. I'm also 15 years older person than who I was in 2007. I maybe a bit wise but a lot more cynical than how I was in 2007 for sure :) 

So, this running comeback is not going to be easy. This being not easy is probably the reason I am writing this post today. I encountered pulled calf muscle or a grade one calf muscle tear (most likely soleous) while running speedwork today. Surprisingly the running didn't feel difficult at all today and that's why I'm more surprised at this sprain in the morning. However, I had encountered this exact same sprain two times previously and I believe both times it was the result of ramping up too quick. I may not be that infallible athlete as my mind wants to believe. 

December of 2017 incident: I ran fairly well that season starting from a good base of 50 day every day running (easy) starting on May 1st. Let's look at mileage of 2017 
  • Jan-Apr 2017: 110/108/45/44 kms 
  • May-Aug 2017: 250/206/189/171 
  • Sept-Dec 2017: 165/192/220/115
If I were to trace it, I think during Sugarland 30k race (10th Dec, 2017) I encountered this issue. The weather was cold and probably I pushed little too much without support from my muscle system. I ran a pace of 4:25 /km for that 30 km race or a total time of 2:12:49. In November for the 25 km race, I ran the exact same pace of 4:26 /km or a total time of 1:50:35. In October for the half marathon race, I ran the pace of 4:20 /km for total time of 1:31:54. So, I think speed-wise I was doing well but I didn't have the right amount of base to keep hammering those faster miles specially when I was making a comeback from an extended gap. Importantly, I was running faster and was running less mileage in months of Aug-Nov as I listed above. 

Recovery run after 30 K on 12th Dec: I ran 8.4 miles or 13.3 km at not a recovery pace of 5:06 /km. I remember feeling this discomfort (sharp pain in calf) for at least last 5-6 km and I continued to run on it. 

Run in Leeseburg on 18th Dec: I quit running at 3.37 km Garmin says. I think first mile was pretty normal but the sharp pain came to surface within 2nd mile. Good that I stopped right away and didn't cause further damage. This means 6 days of rest with traveling wasn't adequate to fix the issue. 

Houston run on 26th Dec: Wish I took notes if this hurt or not. But, I ran 11 km@5:06 pace. Must have felt okay. 

Houston run on 28th Dec: The fact that I went running again must mean that I would have felt okay. Ran 5 km@5:15 pace. Maybe I was taking it easy and watching. I think I probably saw Tricia Hernandez for consultation sometime around this and she may have asked me to wait a bit more. Not entirely sure. I know she massaged the calves and felt it was healing all right. She also commented how inflexible I was in general. 

Houston run on 8th Jan, 2018: 6.5 km@5:15 pace. This may have been the shake out run.

Houston run on 10th Jan, 2018: 5 km@5:05 pace. This must have felt good. 

Houston Marathon on 14th Jan, 2018: 5 weeks of running involving on 45 km meant the marathon was going to be a suffer fest and it was beyond 15the mile. But, I think I didn't have any injury issues during the marathon. So, the injury did heal during 5 weeks for sure with intermittent running. 

I must have been feeling well by 26th December and the last pain encountered during run was on 18th December. That seems too good to be true. I am not sure if I was feeling good by 28th December run and decided to wait 10 more days (8th Jan) as a caution of I was hurting on 28th December run and felt better by 8th Jan run. Some insights but still more questions.  After the full marathon on 14th January, I took rest till 23rd January but started running quite frequently after that. This must mean I didn't have left-over injury issues after my full marathon. I ran 171 km during February 2018 and had a stupid ankle sprain in March. That was a different story all together and for another blog post.

Second incident of this injury happened to me on 15th May 2022 when running a steep uphill section of Upvan lake area, I felt this sharp pain that I had to stop. I think I was within 3-4 km when the sharp pain happened. Since, I was in middle of run, I continued jogging with stops and finished 10 km. I remember last 2 km didn't feel too bad but middle of km's were bad. 

I also remember very vividly that at home even walking was quite painful. I may have also done some unnecessary rubbing/massage to aggravate the inflammation even more. This time I took a complete rest and started running on 20th June 2022. That's a gap of more than 5 weeks. I am pretty sure I gave it more rest than needed but I must have felt fully healed because I ran 8 out of remaining 11 days in June. I also ran with Striders on 10th July a 16 km run which must not have hurt. I also ran a 18th km run in July with Striders which was quite hilly and didn't hurt at all. So again, this time we know for sure 5 weeks of complete heals the injury, but I may have taken extra rest than needed. We will never know the right amount of rest then :)

  • Feb-June, 2021 Mileage: 63/113/103/26/24 km (Mar/Apr were run with PBR group)
  • July-Dec, 2021 Mileage: 0/56/0/53/0/1.6 km
  • Feb-May, 2022 Mileage: 5/34/38/53 km. I believe the longest I ran were two runs of 11 and 12 km and both went over the Wagbil hill when I wasn't trained at all and was coming back from a long period of no running. 

Third incident of this injury: What's different in sprain encountered today: I stopped immediately and didn't jog/run at all. Even the walking was less than 1 km. I did ice it three time in the day, took a muscle relaxant in the evening. Let's look at the mileage of last few months. 

  • June-Dec (till today), 2022 mileage: 48/50/27/32/59/129/153. 

And, I have run 4 half marathon races during this time and I have run 12 runs of great than 16 kms (mostly between 18-24 with only two runs of 16 km each, four races of 21.1 km). I was pretty disciplined till end of November and I got desperate in December. I violated these two principles of Jack Daniels.

1) My long runs were consistently 50% or more of my weekly mileage. 
2) I started Threshold pace runs and overdid them last week. Last week, I did 3*2.67 km & 4*2 km reps are threshold pace. And, I ran my long run quite fast. This was not well thought out and clearly I paid the price. How much price, I am yet to see. 

I also got some feedback from Reddit community, and it is about making a better base with all easy running before going crazy with long(er) runs of 20 km or more and speedwork. Makes so much sense in hindsight. So, I am still not fully done with running and this comeback may be harder than I thought and I may need to make some changes and be smart about it. To end on a positive note, here are some pictures that remind me of good running days I had while back in India. 















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