Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Marathon Training Injury and Cure for Quadmuscle

After the Green Valley 10 miler we continued training.  If you follow Hal Higdon's novice 1 schedule week 10-15 your long runs are 15, 16, 12, 18, 14, 20.  We were following this program and on the 12 mile run Marci my sister and Lisa my niece said they would like to come to Furman to run with me. Oh by the way Aly had talked them into signing up for the ING so they were now on the program also.  We have a crew running it now so it should be real fun, more on this later.  Back to the 12 miler we started out going pretty good and were chatting like crazy when at about mile 8 my right quad started "barking" at me.  Well I kept running and thought just finish this run, I had ran more than a 12 miler now for 5 straight weeks so whats up with this.  Well by mile 10 their was no way I could run every step it felt like someone was raking fingernails on open muscles just above my knee. I could walk fine but if I tried to jog, trot, run at all the pain was intense.  (I had taken 2 advil before the run)  So I told the girls go ahead and they did.  I walked back to my truck and the girls were not there.  I waited about another 15 minutes or so, started getting nervous and they finally showed up.  They missed the turn off the Swamp Rabbit Trail and ran en extra 3 miles or so.  
I am not running fast at all during this training.  My times were anywhere from 9 minute to 11 minute miles.  My theory is to finish, this being my first of hopefully many so I figured just get to the start line healthy and finish.  I tried running for a time in my 30's and ended up having to stop because my back hurt so bad, so when this quad problem came up it really bothered me.  Well we kept training and now Aly and the crew were running way to fast for my injured leg on the training runs.  I remember telling her to slow down and when  I looked at my Garmin we were at a 12 minute pace.  This was hard to take as my mind still thinks I should run a 5:22 mile like high school (ha ha).  Well talking  to Kyle one night he said that he went to Greg Spindler (Ironman who is training to get back to Hawaii) who is a massage therapist when he had an injury so I figure try it.  I went in and had him work me over.  He told me "no problem he would fix me up in no time".  The first appointment he looked at me and said my right hip was rotated forward and my left hip backward which caused my right quad to never fully stretch out thereby it tightened up and never released.  Made sense to me.  Well he massaged (hard not relaxing) the muscles loosened them up and told me go do my long run, only if it got to tight finish on the bike, just do the cardio hours.  My next run was 18 miles so I tried to finish it I made it 13 and finished with 45 minutes on the bike.  
Now I am getting pretty nervous as the marathon is getting closer and I could not run without pain at all.  So I kept my next appointment with Greg and he did the same massage on me and told me keep running.  I also went to my doc and got a prescription for Naproxen a mild muscle relaxant.  Well by the next Saturday 1 week after not being able to finish 18, we were running from Starbucks it was like 50 degrees with a light rain, Aly, Ariel, Kyle and I ran 9 miles together then I was supposed to go another 5 for a total of 14,  I told Aly I am feeling so good I wanna try get my first 20 mile run in.  So she went home and told me she would come find me later.  Well I ran from Starbucks in Greer towards Greenville up to St. Mark rd decided that was to dangerous to run on so I wound thru subdivisions to get into Silver Ridge to finish 20.  I hit Silver Ridge (a subdivision with 4.5 miles of roads half a mile from home) on about mile 16.  I was doing great until I looked at my water bottles and they were gone.  Well 16 miles in on my first 20m running out of water/gatorade was hard.  This makes me think of what it would be like to be a Christian without the Bible.  We really need the water of the word in our life just like we need water for our natural bodies.  Well being real lucky, and marrying up like I did, Aly was looking out for me along with the kids.  At 17 miles I heard cowbells then I saw the navigator with Aly, Brandi, Parker and Ryder.  It is really hard to explain the feeling you get when you have pushed yourself past your limit and then love is shown to you.  It is like a cool shower when you are really hot or like a warm soft bed when you are cold and tired.  Anyway they came over and asked if I need anything I said gatorade and water, Parker had grabbed a G2 so I put a 20 ounce down in 10 seconds, filled my water bottles and kept running.  They stayed by me with the car for about 2 miles and I told them thanks I loved them and I would see them at home, 1 mile to go until my first 20 miler was done.
I ran home and my garmin hit 20m halfway up Beechwood hill (our heartbreak hill we live on top of) so I stopped running right there walked home and said Praise the Lord, for like the Bible says "It is in him we live and move".  Now I had finished a 20 miler the one run everyone told me you had to do if you were going to finish a marathon, after 2 and a half weeks of running in pain I ran the longest run of my life so far without pain so I began to believe that this marathon thing was doable for me.
So what was the cure for the Quad muscle problem to me it was prayer, seeing Greg Spindler and the muscle relaxant.  I really do recommend Greg if you are having issues he is in Greer, SC just read about him on his website here is the link www.gregspindler.com people come from all over to have a massage from this guy.  Just don't think it is going to be to relaxing it is more like therapy.  Tell him I sent you thanks.

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