Tuesday's workout was 6 x 800 meters, with 400 meters of jogging after each set. Koach Kelsey divides the group into three or four smaller groups, roughly based on speed. Although last year I generally ran in the "fast" group, I've been self-selecting the second group this year so as not to get sucked into the fast people's vortex and overstress my butt and ankle. Plus, I think the fast group this year is quite a bit faster than the fast group last year (and I'm slower, haha).
My first four 800s went pretty well. I was wearing my brand-new racing flats that I had just bought earlier that day (the Brooks Racer ST 4). It was my first time ever running in racing flats and my feet felt so light. Peter and Stephan were in my group and we took the front of the group, taking turns at who among us would be in the lead. First four sets: 3:14, 3:09, 3:09, 3:06. On the third lap of the fifth set, I began to feel my left ankle acting up. I let up a little bit on my last lap, finishing in 3:09. As I started my recovery jog, I realized that I was limping. After one loop, when the pain in my ankle didn't let up, I decided to call it a day.
I didn't really think much of it. Having completed five of the six sets, I felt I had a pretty decent workout. But as I sat and watched the rest of the group do their last set, I couldn't help but feel a bit left out. It turned out, Peter and Stephan were probably holding back for the first five sets, and flew through their last set at around 2:50. It looked so fun to be running that fast, and I really wished that I could have joined them.
I know it was a good idea, no matter how difficult, to sit out that last set. The next night, I went to the Wednesday night fun run. Two miles in, I got the pain in my ankle again. I ended up just jogging/walking around the top of the reservoir--another disappointing four miles. It's starting to get discouraging.
And because I was unwilling to admit defeat, I went to the Armory workout on Thursday too. I actually did not feel any serious ankle or butt pain at all. Then again, the workout was really short, and I was not running nearly as fast as I would have liked considering the distance--12 x 200. My 39-41 second splits were fine, but I knew I could go quite a bit faster. I started to wonder whether I needed to take some more time off.
I had scheduled an appointment on Friday morning to meet with a new sports medicine doctor. I liked Dr. Metzl, but I just wanted someone else to take a look at me and tell me if anything was wrong. I pretty much picked a new doctor at random, typing in "sports medicine new york 10011" into Google. The first result was walking distance to my apartment, took my insurance, and could fit me in within a few days. So I booked a date with Dr. Marina Babiy.
First off, Dr. Babiy spent at least 20-25 minutes analyzing me, compared with about five minutes for Dr. Metzl. She she asked me 20 different questions about the pain I was experiencing, made me walk in front of her, tested my reflexes, had me press my leg against her hand in different directions in order to pinpoint the pain, and observed my back to see if the butt issue was linked to my spine (since the sciatic nerve going down the leg originates in the spine). Dr. Metzl didn't do any of this.
At the end of the exam, she told me that although the pins and needles sensation that I felt could be indicative of sciatica, it was more likely that I had a muscle or tendon strain in my butt. She scheduled me for an electromyogram (EMG) to rule out the sciatica. Regarding the ankle, she said she did not see any major inflammation, so that it was probably a sprain as opposed to a stress fracture. I didn't tell her that I had seen Dr. Metzl a few weeks earilier and he didn't see anything bone-related or serious. Nonetheless, she ordered x-rays on my ankle. She said that based on the EMG and x-rays, she will determine if more imaging is necessary.
In the meantime, she prescribed 800mg of ibuprofen twice a day, physical therapy, and lots of icing. She also said no running for two weeks, at the end of which we will reassess the situation. I am bummed, but two weeks is not that long, and it's somewhat comforting to know that additional testing will be done.
The convenient thing about Dr. Babiy's office is that not only is it close to my house, but she also has a number of physical therapists on staff. So I was able to go to physical therapy right after my doctor's appointment (and I only paid one copayment!). The PT that I saw, Steven, taught me some stretches for my butt and had me use a foam roller. He was surprised to hear that I don't own a foam roller, nor have I ever really used one. I have to say, after trying it in physical therapy, I wondered how I could possibly have gone for so long without it. It felt so good...like it was simultaneously soothing and intensifying my pain at the same time... I had to buy my own the very next day at Jackrabbit.
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A few weeks ago was John's MacConnell's birthday, so I had him and a small group of runners over for dumplings. By the way, John's working of a new website, http://www.runningpantsinc.com/. It's still a work in progress, but right now he's using it to show off his new running pants man / lightning bolt character. Here he is:
The website also has an ever-changing running haiku of the day, and you can submit your own running haiku. You can also request a running pants man temporary tattoo. And my favorite part of the site is the area where readers post pictures of their body parts adorned with the running pants man tattoo. Can you guess which body part is mine?
For John's birthday, I made chive-and-pork, and napa-cabbage-and-pork dumplings. Both fillings also included shitake mushrooms, ginger, scallion, little dried shrimps, soy sauce, sesame oil and Franzia. Here are the fillings:
I always have a good time stuffing dumplings with friends. I think it's more fun to have a dinner party where everyone is helping out, rather than having one person stuck in the kitchen the whole time. The dumplings below were made by me and John. He made the fancy crimped ones in the midde, and mine were the pleated ones on the sides. They tasted even better than they looked. :-)
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