1. Broke my right leg (fibula - spinal fracture) which is a common skiing injury, but I did it running quickly and avoiding a rogue cyclist. Very painful. I did not know it was broken for several days but believed it was a very painful sprain. It was only when I was climbing a ladder (hopping really) and a nurse looked at my foot and said "did you know that something is broken in there? I can tell by looking a the collected blood in your toes." Great. Super. Peachy. Well, I was in a plaster cast for like a month. The next month - i got yet another cast. The third month (december) I had a walking "boot" cast. And FINALLY for XMAS I had it taken off. I used crutches for most of Q3.
2. I intended to begin the new year with a vigorous training plan. Nope. woke up on Jan 1 with a very painful tooth I had already had a crown on. Well, it turns out that I had a bad infection in the root. It was excruciating and, like the broken leg, I did not really get it at first...and I was stuck in pain over the weekend and refused to go to urgent care. So after not sleeping due to pain on Sunday, me dentist phoned in prescriptions for and vicodin and antibiotics which I began taking at once. Instant relief! Of course when it said "take 1-2 every four hours" I decided to take 4 every 2 hours. That worked well ;) ten days and three trips to the dentist later, I was good again and ready to train hard!
3. Well, not so fast buster. I ate a sandwich that had been in my car for a couple days (I was really hungry). This gave me horrible hives. I had welts all over my body, and over a two day period my fever when up to 103 - which is not normal for hives. Of course (and as usual) this happened on the weekend. I had bumps everywhere. It really sucked. I mean - what the hell else was going to happen? Death?? that seemed like a relief after all of this crap.
On top of all of this my health insurance had been canceled 6 days prior to breaking my leg...but I did not find out until I went to the doctor (I'd been on COBRA after my ex-company had laid me off after I had laid off the 400 people I hired - swell CEO Alan Salmasi - who could not "run his own barbeque" as one exec once told me - rich guy who messed up many lives needlessly). so much lost time. so many lessons learned. so depressing a way to do that.
Well, finally in Feb I began working out again slowly. But it was here in March that things really took off for me.
Here's my plan for 2011:
- Do what it take to get my weight to 165. Why 165? Because the last time I was really fast I was 150 (1986) and 25 years old. Back then I would run 5 x 5:30/mile at lunch time as a "tempo" workout. Ran much faster then. I'm reading and reaching out to some nutrition experts on this. I'm reading a book by Matt Fitzgerald on this exact subject called: Racing Weight Quick Start Guide. We'll see. Those girl scout cookies are awfully tempting.
- Run the Rock N' Roll Marathon on June 5th. My goal for that race is a Boston Qualifying time (3:35) which should not be too hard. 8 min/mile is 3:30
- then i'm doing vineman in mid July. My goal there is 5:30. Would be a PR
- Then on July 31 I'm doing the SF Marathon
But every journey begins with the first steps...And those have been happening this month for the past 10 days.
