Metroman and Butt Results

I'm a little late in posting this but about a week and a half ago, I saw Dr. Metzl for a follow-up visit after my steroid injection.  I told him that I didn't think the injection worked, that I was continuing to feel discomfort when I sat down (especially after biking or running), and that the pain was maybe even more acute following the injection than it was before.  I mentioned to him that while the discomfort seemed to go away for a day or two after I got my injection, it quickly reappeared, and that I was no better off than before I got the shot.

He told me that that "really sucks," but that he was convinced it's piriformis syndrome.  He said that the fact I felt better for a couple of days after the shot meant that we're targeting the right area.  Most steroid injections (including mine) combine the steroid (in my case, celestone) with a local anesthetic (lidocaine and sensorcaine).  It seems that while the celestone didn't make my piriformis syndrome go away, the lidocaine and/or sensorcaine did, albeit temporarily, which means that we're on the right track.  

Dr. Metzl told me that the next thing for me to do is to get targeted physical therapy on my piriformis.  I told him I had been seeing Dr. Degis for PT, who had just switched the focus of my PT from my hamstring to my piriformis.  Dr. Metzl told me I should see a different therapist, Marisa D'Adadmo, who is apparently very experienced with piriformis syndrome in runners.  I'm supposed to see Marisa once or twice a week, for six weeks, and if I'm not better, I will check in with Dr. Metzl again.

At this point, though, I'm not exactly sure what I should do.  I've been working with Dr. Degis for quite some time, and I feel like I have a good relationship with him.  And since we just started targeting my piriformis, I think I want to give him a chance to help me recover.  I'm thinking that if, after two or three weeks, I don't feel any better, then maybe I will switch therapists and start seeing Marina.

One last thing about my appointment with Dr. Metzl.  As were were finishing up, he told me (again) that I should just keep doing what I'm doing...meaning that I can keep running and biking.  I think I'm going to put myself on a break, though.  I can't imagine that continuing to run is going to help things.  I'll still bike and swim, but for the time being, I've already resigned myself to taking a little running hiatus (well, except for one little relay race...more on that in my next post).

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Last week was also the Metroman Triathlon, in Asbury Park.  I had done this race last year, and was looking forward all year to redeeming myself after my sucky second-to-last place ocean swim last year (and not-much-better bike).  Unfortunately, because of my butt condition, I had decided that I wasn't going to do the full triathlon course (1500m swim, 21 mile bike, 10k run), but was just going to do the swim and bike portion.  Fortunately, Anthony (who ran the Distance Medley Relay at the FRNY Track Meet with me) agreed to do the run for me.  We had about 15 Front Runners signed up for the tri or the relay, so I was really excited for the race.

And this year, I felt prepared for the ocean swim.  Having completed the two-mile Hudson River Swim in  June, and the Avon Ocean Mile the week before, I wasn't going to let a little swim faze me.  In fact, after seeing most of the Front Runners do the Avon swim without a wetsuit, I decided to go sans wetsuit too. And I was really glad that I did.  The water temperature was around 75 degrees.  But more than that, it just felt so much more FUN to swim without a wetsuit.  Because of the salt water, I was already buoyant.  The waves were not too rough, so I never felt nervous (although, towards the end, I was definitely ready for it to be over).  And unlike last year, when I was having trouble sighting, and getting freaked out by all of the swimmers coming at me from different directions, I think the other swimmers actually helped me to stay on course. The only thing I didn't like was that my tri-top was chafing the right side of my neck, and every time I took a stroke or breath it would chafe more.  So I had to spend a good deal of time adjusting it while swimming.  That was annoying.

When I finished the swim, it was such a great feeling to exit the water.  There were still plenty of people in the ocean as I was leaving, including many who started in my wave, although they were just about all women (the relay teams started with the women and we all wore pink caps).  Still, I left the water feeling a lot more confident than I felt last year, when I was one of the final people leaving the water despite the fact that I was in one of the first waves.  Also, Chris Stoia's parents were by the transition, and they were cheering me on.  That was really sweet of them.

Then, it was off to the bike for me.  The only issue with the bike was that my damn bike computer was not working properly.  So for the first couple of miles, I was fidgeting with it, trying to line up the sensor thing with the little magnet on the spoke.  I finally just gave up.  Then about four miles into the ride, it just started working.  This actually happens frequently on my bike rides, but never during a race.  Note to self: find a way to fix it.

Twenty-two miles later, I handed off my chip to Anthony.  I did not envy him.  By the time the run came, the temperature was probably in the mid-90s.  And since the entire run was on the boardwalk, there was nothing to block the sun's oppressive rays.  The other runners on the course looked miserable.  But Anthony stuck it out and finished strong.

Team Dave and Anthony's final time was 2:40:22, broken down as follows:

Swim:  35:42 (176/200)

T1:  2:26 (116/200)

Bike:  1:12:19 (133/200)

T2:  0:55 (26/200)

Run:  49:00 (84/200).

For comparison, my swim last year was 45:47 and my bike was 1:15:27...  so I showed an improvement in both.  Yayyy! 

Swimming to Dinner

It's been almost two weeks since I got my steroid injection.  During this time, the only running I've done has been the Van Cortland Track Club 2 x 2 mile relay last week.  But even so, I can still feel that my butt/hamstring is not really fixed by the injection.  I have a follow-up appointment with Dr. Metzl tomorrow, and will see what he has to say about my next steps.  

In the meantime, I've been continuing to go to Dr. Degis for physical therapy.  As I wrote last week, he has shifted the focus of my PT from my hamstring to my piriformis.  Each session consists of about 20-25 minutes of using the ultrasound machine to deeply penetrate the muscle with soundwaves, and about 20-25 minutes of active release / stretching that, I think, breaks down the scar tissue in the pirformis so that new muscle can grow.  

Unlike the electrical stimulation machine that I've used in the past, which sent shocking electrical pulses into my butt, the ultrasound machine is barely detectable, except for gel that has to be rubbed everywhere so it glides more easily.  But the next day, I always feel an immense achiness right in the area where the ultrasound was applied, which makes me feel like it's working.  Looking back, I think it may have been the ultrasound, and not so much the running I did at the 2x2 relay, that put me in such pain and made me limp last Friday.  But I'm still taking some time off from running for awhile.

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Sunday I went with a bunch of the Front Runners Multisport athletes to Avon-by-the-Sea in the Jersey Shore to do the Avon Ocean Mile Swim.  It was my first ocean swim since the Metroman Triathlon last year (where I came in second to last in the swim after I freaked out and then got off course).  And I was determined to confront my fears of ocean swimming at this race.

I knew I could do it.  The fact that I did the two-mile Hudson River Swim last month gave me the confidence that I needed.  But the day before the race, Jeff, Chris and I went to check out the water.  The waves were HUGE!  Even bigger than they were at Metroman last year.  There was NO WAY that I was going to get into that water!  Jeff and Chris immediately went into the water, dove through the six or eight foot high waves, and started swimming around having fun.  I couldn't even get past the first wave; it just looked too scary.  I didn't know how I was going to do the race the next morning.

Chris then came back out of the water, grabbed my hand, and helped me get in.  I started out with the smallest waves, putting my head under the water and letting the crest of the wave go right past me.  After a few more waves went over me, I was feeling somewhat comfortable, tried to calm down, and got myself into a good mindset for the race the next morning.

Sunday morning came, and the waves did not get any smaller.  When we arrived at the start, I could see that pretty much the entire field looked like they were serious swimmers.  Not only that, but practically NO ONE was wearing a wetsuit.  Maybe five or ten people out of 170ish swimmers.  There were about 25 of us Front Runners there, and even most of the Front Runners decided not to wear a wetsuit.  Granted, the water was about 75 degrees, but I couldn't imagine doing an open water swim, particularly in tides as big as they were that day, without the added buoyancy.  Even with my wetsuit, I was nervous, and was seriously considering not doing the swim at all.

Rachel talked me into doing it, though.  She made me realized that a one-mile swim was not particularly long compared some of our workouts, that I was properly trained and ready to do this swim, and that the nerves were just in my head.  So I decided to go for it.

I made a point of testing out the water before the race--putting my head in it, feeling the temperature, getting comfortable with diving through the waves.  I think doing this really helped me out.

When the starting horn sounded, I just went out.  I dove through the waves and I swam.  No freaking out whatsoever.  I actually was quite calm throughout the whole swim.  Which isn't to say I was exactly comfortable.  Even swimming way out into the ocean past the tides, the ocean swells were still pretty intense.  And each time I felt myself immediately lifted up and falling down, I felt my heart in my throat.  But I just concentrated on my stroke as best as I could and kept going.

Unlike the other open water swims that I've done, this one was only marked by one buoy, at the turnaround point.  So for half a mile, I had no idea if I was going straight or zigzagging all over the place.  People were swimming across me both left and right, and the buoy was so far off you couldn't even see it for most of the swim.

There was a moment, though, when I got a little nervous.  I was maybe 3/4 of the way to the turnaround, when the lead swimmers were on their way back.  As they were all coming towards me, en masse and really fast, I was bracing myself for a  head-on collision.  But luckily, they were spread out wide enough that I didn't run into them.  And as they were passing me, I saw the sole buoy floating in the water not too far from me, and it gave me some confidence to know that I was almost halfway done.

After I turned around at the buoy, though, I think the swim got a little bit more difficult.  Since the waves were coming from my right and I breathe from my right side, I felt several times that I was going to get flipped over in the water.  And by this time, my wetsuit was badly chaffing the back of my neck, so I felt I had to adjust it every few strokes.  And the sun was in my eye.  And all the thrashing around was starting to make me feel a little nauseas (I was really glad I didn't have breakfast that morning).  And I was just plain tired.  I think the waves were pushing me to go towards the shore, because at one point a lifeguard floating in the water (there were many of them, which made me feel very safe) had to point me and some others in the right direction.

But I finally finished, in about 37 minutes, in 135th place (out of around 170).  Not particularly fast, but not the slowest.  And I did it without freaking out, so I was very pleased.

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This weekend I'm doing the Metroman Triathlon in Asbury Park.  I did it last year, and had pretty much a disastrous swim.  So I decided I had to do it again this year to redeem myself.  Unfortunately, because of my continuing butt injury, I've decided only to do the swim and the bike, and Anthony is going to do the run for me.  Still, I'm excited to have a chance on improving on my swim.  I wrote a race report last year before I started this blog.  It's pasted below for your reading pleasure (along with a picture of me exiting the water, delirious):

I completed the Metroman Triathlon in Asbury Park, NJ this weekend with some FRNY/Tritons friends. Onesimo, Chris and I did the Intermediate distance (1500m swim, 21.08 mile bike, 5.8 mile run). Ryan and Jeff and did the Sprint distance (500m swim, 10.54 mile bike, 2.9 mile run). It was Chris and Jeff's first Triathlon, and me and Ryan's first ocean swim. Joe Lim came to cheer us on and take pictures.

The swim had a beach start. And unlike Ryan and Jeff, I wasn't smart enough to go into the water beforehand to test it out. Big Mistake. When they sounded the start and I ran into the water, I pretty much immediately started to freak out from the cooooold water, the rough waves, the saltiness and the low visibility. Luckily I had waited for most of the people in my wave to go before me so I avoided getting trampled. But still, I couldn’t bear to put my face into the water. I distinctly remembered thinking that Les Jones had said to dive UNDER the waves, not over them…but as the waves kept crashing into me, it was just too scary to dive into them. As a result, I kept getting pushed back to shore and fighting harder to go out.

And despite all that we’ve learned about technique in the swim clinics, I pretty much doggy paddled all the way out to the first buoy about 75 meters away from shore, where we turned left. Once I passed that buoy, I decided that there was no way I would be able to doggy paddle for the whole mile, so made myself put my face in the water, just a little bit at a time. For the next quarter mile or so, I alternated between swimming a few strokes of freestyle, and a few of breast stroke / doggy paddle / back stroke. I finally started to settle into my stroke somewhere around .3 miles, but I felt I had a really hard time sighting, and was zigzagging all over the place. They said were five total buoys that marked the course (with a turnaround at the last one), but I somehow lost track of them.

Around .4 miles was another episode of swim panic. The swimmers in my wave had already turned around and were coming directly at me. The swimmers in the wave after me had caught up and were coming directly at me. I would lift up my head and see swimmers in all directions. To make matters worse, the two major landmarks on the Asbury Park boardwalk are both similar-looking huge brick structures with green trim, which made me confused about which direction I was going in.

Somehow I made it to the turnaround point. The swim back occurred mostly without incident, until I reached the fourth buoy. We were supposed to turn right (back towards the shore) at the fifth buoy. Because most of the swimmers had already passed me, I didn’t really have anyone to follow. So I turned at what I thought was the fifth buoy. It turned out I was one buoy too early. After several minutes of swimming towards the shore, a swim marshal on a kayak came up to me and asked if I was ok. My response was something like, “Um, yeah, the finish is that way, right?” His response, “Um, well, No…you made a hard right at the fourth buoy. There’s one buoy left.” I looked to where he was indicating, and I saw that the buoy I skipped might as well have been a million miles away. Disappointed, but still determined to finish, I turned around and swam to the buoy and then to the shore.

The bike and run were less eventful, except that I narrowly missed crashing my bike into a flock of Canadian geese.

My final time for the 1 mile swim was 45:47…about six minutes slower than I had done the Hudson River 1.3 mile swim in May. Out of 190 people who did the Intermediate Distance swim, I came in 189th. But I was glad I finished, and I’m looking forward to my next ocean swim (August 23rd in Long Branch, NJ). I was able to make up some time during the bike and run, where I ended up passing 24 people to finish in 2:43:35 (165th place). My next Tri is West Point, on August 16. Fortunately, the swim is in a lake.

5 Weeks Till Boston; 6 Weeks Without a Kitchen

I've been cautiously trying to ramp up my running as I near the peak of my training for Boston, which is now less than five weeks away.  I usually try to peak at around 45-50 miles a week when training for a marathon, but this time I think my highest weeks are going to be closer to 35 miles.  I'm hoping, though, that my cross-training (swimming, biking, yoga) will make up for some of my lost miles.

One thing I've decided not to do anymore is speed workouts.  Two weeks ago, I went to my first speed workout since November.  I had been running pretty consistently, and figured that if I didn't push myself too hard, I would be able to get a good workout without further injuring myself.  The workout that night was 5 x 1mile (first 1000m @ 10k pace, last 600m faster), with a 3 minute rest / 1 lap jog between sets.

I ran the first set at 4:10 (1st 1000) / 6:30 (total).  It was the fastest mile I had run since probably September or October.  It felt exhilarating--every time I run on the track I feel like I am pushing myself to go as fast as I could go, and with each step, I feel like I want to go faster and faster.  That was a mistake.  By the end of the mile, I felt like I wanted to die.  I had forgotten how nasty and stale the air was inside the armory.  More significantly, I had forgotten that pretty much all of my running over the past several months had been in the 7:45 minute pace or slower.  The fast boys doing the workout (Mikey B, Stephan, Peter Macari, Timmy and Matt) sucked me into their vortex.  But I couldn't keep up with them, and I felt like I was killing myself trying.  Although my butt felt fine, I didn't think there was any way I could maintain that pace for the other four sets.

So for the next set, I decided to let the boys do their own thing while I paced off of Kerstin, who said she was doing 7 minute miles.  It felt much better running with her.  At first, I felt like I was holding myself back, but I quickly settled into her pace, and figured that this would leave me with enough juice to be able to do the last 600 faster.  About the third or fourth lap, she ended up pulling off because of a shoelace issue or something, and all of a sudden I was left without a pacer.  And I suck at pacing myself.  I ended up running the rest of that set way too fast (4:17 / 6:42), felt like crap, and had to sit the next set out to catch my breath.  Ugh.

The last two sets I ended up, again, pushing myself harder than I should have: 4:09/6:33, and 4:10/6:30.  Of course, at the time, I was very pleased that my last set was the exact same time as my first set.  But for the next FOUR DAYS, I couldn't walk without limping, and I couldn't sit without feeling the intense pain in my butt.  I decided then and there that I wasn't going to do another speed workout.

It's funny, though... the four miles of fast running made my butt feel so bad, but four days after that, I did a twenty miler, and I ended up feeling fine afterwards.  The 20-mile run itself, though, was bruuutal.  The plan was to go from Chris's house in Washington Heights, across the GW Bridge, and into the Palisades Park in NJ.  It's a really pretty run, but there's no water, and the hills make Harlem Hill seem puny in comparison.  On the day of our run, though, everything but the very Southernmost portion of the park was closed due to all of the trees that had fallen into the road from Snowpocalypse the week before.  Even the part that wasn't closed was icy and littered with fallen trees. 

We ended up all turning back at around mile 5.5.  Most of the group went to do loops around Fort Tryon Park, but Mikey had a good idea of running North on the Hudson River Greenway, into the Bronx, turning around at the Tortoise and Hare Statue.  I had never done that route before, so I was excited.  Although not as bad as the Palisades Park, this route was pretty hilly too.  And my legs were just about worn out after the heavy climbs and steep descents of the park, even though we only ran about 6 miles in it.  But one of the lighter moments of the run came when, shortly after Mikey and I crossed the bridge into the Bronx, a teenage girl saw us in our skimpy running clothes and shouted out to us: "Work it, Girls!"  Haha, I love the Bronx.

Mikey said that run took us 3 hours and 1 minute, which works out to about 20 miles at 9 minutes per mile.  Considering that six months ago I ran 26 miles in 3:09, I was a little disappointed with our run.  But the good thing about the run was that it made me realize I need to do a lot more hill training before Boston.  Because of the weather this winter, most of our long runs have along the Hudson River or Eastside Greenways, which are both pretty much pancake flat.  But if I'm going to avoid crashing and burning at Boston, I'm gonna need to better train for Heartbreak Hill.

I felt pretty good the day after the 20-miler, although, when I woke up, I was sore, tired, and lazy, and ended up deciding to skip the Coogan's 5k.  I felt bad, since this was the first points race of the year.  It would not have been a pretty run, though.  And I did end up making it to the FRNY brunch at Patrick and Johnny's house afterwards.  :-)

The following days, I felt really good.  So I decided I would give the Armory workout another try.  It was another 5 x 1mile workout, this time with 800 @ 10k pace, and 800 faster.  I paced off of Cenk for most of the sets, except the 3rd (which I sat out because of stomach issues) and the 5th (when he made me go in front).  This time, I felt much better cardiovascularly, and was really happy with my times and how I felt afterwards.  However, starting from my second set, I could feel my hamstring/butt issue acting up, and I knew that wasn't a good sign.  Nevertheless, I completed the workout, which I admit was probably not the best idea.  Here are the splits:
1:  3:22 (1st 800) / 6:22 (total)
2:  3:20 / 6:30
3:  um, quick trip to the men's room.
4:  3:21 / 6:24
5:  3:07 / 6:14
So with my fifth set, when Cenk made me go in front, I didn't have anyone to pace off of, and ended up going out way too fast, and I couldn't go "faster" for the last 800.  Nevertheless, I was happy that I had it in me to do a 6:14.

The next few days meant more limping and more butt pain.  Not good.  So, after that workout, I REALLY decided that I'm not doing any more Armory workouts.  Tonight, though, is the FRNY Track Meet, at the Armory.  I'm only planning on doing one event, the Distance Medley Relay, with Anthony, Da and Tsing (the four gaysians...  we're team "Joy Luck Club").  The DMR is a four-person relay with a 1200, 800, 400 and mile.  I'm doing the 1200...and I'm a little nervous, but I'm not going to push it too hard.

Sunday is the New York City Half Marathon, which I'm signed up for.  I really like this race because you get to run through Times Square, which is closed off to traffic.  And although the first half is in Central Park, the second half is down the Westside Highway, which is flat and fast.  My PR is on this course 2 years ago, although at the time I was a little disappointed with my performance...  I got a 1:31:30, way off my goal of sub-1:30.  I KNOW that I have it in me to do a sub 1:30 sometime; I just have to get back in shape and wait for this damn butt issue to go away.  But for Sunday, I'll be satisfied with a 7:30 pace (1:38:19) if I feel good afterwards.  I'm thinking maybe I'll start there and ramp it if I can, once I get out of the park.  I'll be delighted if I can get a bit faster than that, we'll have to see what happens.

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I got another MRI a few weeks ago, this time on my hip and pelvic region.  The results show that I have a "small superior right hip labral tear," "mild bilateral intertrochanteric bursitis," and a "mild stress reaction" at the "pubic symphysis." 

Seeing these results, Dr. Babiy referred me to Dr. Srino Bharam, a hip specialist.  Dr. Bharam stretched my leg in a bunch of different directions to put pressure on my hip joint, asking me if I felt any pain.  I did feel a little bit of a pinch in the joint when he put me in a certain position, which confirmed the MRI report's diagnosis of a small labral tear.  Dr. Bharam said he thinks that the the hamstring/butt issue that I have is related to the labral tear because of the way my running mechanics are changed as a result of it.  He said that ideally, I should stop running for a while.  But short of that, I should just be careful not to overtrain, and after Boston, he recommended that I take some time off of running.

To be quite honest, though, I think Dr. Bharam is just plain wrong.  My research online shows that labral tears occur in sports with twisting/pivoting motions, like golf or softball, or contact sports like football or hockey...  nothing about how it's a running injury.  The most common symptom of a labral tear is a clicking or catching sensation in the hip joint, which I don't have.

Dr. Degis thinks (and I tend to agree) that I have a tear/strain in my hamstring up by the tendons that attach the hamstring muscles to the sit bones of the pelvis (the "ischial tuberosity").  Because tendons receive less blood flow than muscles, it takes a long time for them to heal.  And because the tear is where it is, the pain occurs mostly when I am sitting, which stretches the tendon out and puts pressure on the exact spot where that tendon attaches to my pelvis.

If you do a Google search for "running ischial tuberosity," the very first result is a Runner's World forum discussion on ischial tuberosity pain syndrome, a discussion which has lasted 4 years with 142 responses.  The postings all sound like exactly my symptoms (pain while sitting/driving, no pain while running, pain while bending over, etc).  Virtually all of the postings make the outlook sound extremely bleak (suffering from the pain for 2, 5, 7 years; getting surgery that doesn't work; cortisone injections that don't do anything; running careers that ended, etc).  Dr. Degis, though, said he knows this condition very well, and he says that he is confident it will eventually go away.  I am currently just seeing him once a week.  He knows that I have the marathon coming up, and my sessions are mostly just to keep myself loose so my injury doesn't become worse.  After the marathon, he thinks I should cut down on my running, and go in 2-3 times a week to aggressively break down the scar tissue and rebuild my muscles in the area.  So that's the plan...after Boston, the running will be minimal, and I will do what I have to do to get rid of this pain in the butt.

Dr. Bharam, the hip specialist, also mentioned mention a treatment that I've been reading a lot about, platelet-rich plasma therapy.  Some of you might recall that Dr. Gallina, the ankle specialist, said this was a possible course of treatment to take if my ankle tendinitis didn't heal.  The New York Times says the following about PRP:

The method, which is strikingly straightforward and easy to perform, centers on injecting portions of a patient’s blood directly into the injured area, which catalyzes the body’s instincts to repair muscle, bone and other tissue. Most enticing, many doctors said, is that the technique appears to help regenerate ligament and tendon fibers, which could shorten rehabilitation time and possibly obviate surgery.

The problem with PRP is it that because it's still in the experimental stages, it isn't covered by insurance, and costs about two thousand dollars.  Still, it sounds promising, and if it means I can run without pain, maybe it's worth it.

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As a way to cut down on my running, I've decided that this summer is going to be the summer of triathlons.  So far I'm registered for the following races:

5/16: Jersey Shore Sprint Triathlon

7/18: Metroman Tri (Intermediate) -- This was the race where I had my disastrous ocean swim last year.  Hopefully this year will be better.

10/2: Mightyman Half -- This will be my first Half Ironman...I'm excited and nervous!

I'm looking to do a couple more... maybe the Mighty Montauk in June, and something in August / September.

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A few weeks ago, the Front Runners had its First Friday happy hour at RF Lounge, a swanky lesbian bar in the former, less fancy Rubyfruit Bar and Grill.  Afterwards, some of us went to Grand Sichuan Seventh Avenue in the Village.  I had a few drinks at RF Lounge, so I don't remember everything we ordered, but I did snap this photo of the whole fish with chili sauce.  It was very good.

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I'm still working on renovating my kitchen.  It's been about six weeks, and it's starting to feel like the project that will never end.  Fortunately, I think I'm closing in on the finish.  These past couple of weeks, I've installed the oven and microwave, got an electrician to put in some new circuits, had the countertop put in, and did most of the plumbing except for the drain.

The electrician put in two new 20 amp circuits and carried the lines into my kitchen, where there will be two new outlets: one for the microwave/hood, and one under my sink for the disposal and instant hot water dispenser.  I was originally planning on doing the electrical work by myself, but then I got nervous and ended up calling for help.  But when I saw the electrician do it, I was kicking myself after seeing how easy it was...  All he did was run the wire through the five feet of wall between the kitchen and the breaker box, connect it to a breaker, and plug it into the box.  I had to patch up the holes in the wall myself.

With the electricity in, it meant I could install the microwave hood.  This, I really should have gotten help with.  I ended up having to lift the microwave, which weighed like 100 pounds, by myself, hold it up with one hand and a shoulder against a brace on the wall, and screw it in with the other hand into the top cabinet.  If I dropped it, it would have crushed my feet, and I would have said goodbye to my new microwave.  Luckily, it went up without incident. 

The most exciting thing about the microwave is that I installed a duct so that it would vent out the exhaust instead of recirculating it back to me.  I've always thought it was pointless for range hoods to spit the exhaust back into your face, but I think that's what most NYC apartments have.  Fortunately, I already have a vent in my kitchen, which wasn't really serving any purpose.  So I just got some ductwork to hook up and spit out all the exhaust into that vent.  Hopefully, it's not going to spit it out into someone else's apartment...

Then came the granite countertop.  I ordered the countertop from E Stone, Inc. in Brooklyn, which I highly recommended since it was about a third cheaper than Home Depot or even Ikea, and also quite a bit faster (less than 1 week turnaround versus 2-3 weeks) since they did all of the cutting on the premises.  Here's the guys installing the countertop:

And here's the final product:

What do you guys think about the faucet?  I love the commercial kitchen look to it, but it's a little big for the space.  I think the sprayer is going to hit up against the bottom of the wall cabinet every time I use it, which could be annoying.  On the other hand, I think it looks kinda sexy.

With the countertop in, I turned to installing the stove.  This ended up being a really annoying project.  In order for the stove to sit flush up against the back wall, there's a little recessed area in the back of the stove where the gas line coming out of the wall is supposed to fit into.  Unfortunately, my gas pipe missed the recess by about 6 inches, so the stove ended up sitting away from the back wall by about two inches (the depth of the gas pipe).  To fix this, I ended up having to cut a hole in the back panel of the stove to accommodate the gas pipe, and then thread the gas connector through the inside of the stove.  It's hard to explain, but there are electrical wires in the area where I threaded the gas connector, so I don't think there's any risk of that area getting too hot for the gas line.

Anyway, here's a picture of the cutout I made into the back panel:

And here's me connecting the gas line:

But after all that, I actually got the stove to work!  And all without a gas or electrical explosion, haha!

Next up: connecting the dishwasher and putting in a new drain for the double-basin sink.  Then I just have the moldings and trim left....  almost there!

Awards Night, Hot Pot, Intensive Butt Stretches, and a 13-miler.

Lots of big developments this past week.  The biggest news, I think, was that on Saturday I attended the Front Runners New York Annual Awards Night Dinner.  Awards Night is one of the highlights of the year.  It's the club's chance to dress up and recognize the runners who have had a great year, both in terms of running and in service to the club.  We give out points awards for the various age groups, and also for middle and long distance runners, triathlete, newcomer, most improved (which I won in 2007), volunteer of the year, the lifetime award and Front Runner of the Year.  As one of the Race Captains this year, Awards Night was especially exciting for me because I've spent the past year following the entire membership's racing performance and seeing how people have developed as runners.

Well, I am thrilled and honored to report that I was one of the five nominees for Front Runner of the Year!!!  This was so, so exciting for me.  This award goes to the member who has contributed the most to the club and has had the biggest positive impact on the club in the last calendar year, considering athletic achievement and performance as a runner first and also weighing in team spirit, camaraderie and volunteerism.  I was pretty much in tears when they announced me as a nominee, and as my good friend Dane (the FRNY Men's VP) read about my performance this past year.  It was especially moving since the award is based in large part on athletic achievement, and this year I've been dogged by my fair share of disappointments--such as my still-continuing butt injury, and my 3:59:07 Virginia Beach Marathon when I was trying for a 3:10.  But I've realized that in running, there are good days and bad days, but the successes and achievements will always overshadow the disappointments.

It was even more of an honor to have been included among a group of such great athletes.  Here's the little blurb from the special Front Runner Gram announcing the award winners.

We had five fabulous final nominees for Front Runner of the Year in 2009: Steve Vizena, who ran 14 NYRR races with 13 above the illustrious 80% age-graded percentile denoting national-level athlete; Dave Lin, who was not only a RTB ultra captain and Boston Marathon Qualifier but also race captain extraordinaire and election official; Sandi Rowe, who combined volunteerism, team enthusiasm and athletic determination throughout the year and also PR-ed all over the place; Rich, who won the award by capturing his fourth of the top ten all-time NYC marathon finishes by a club member as well as the top overall finish for any Front Runner at a NYRR race last year by coming in second out of more than 3500 racers at the 18-Mile Tune-Up for the NYC Marathon; and Tim Guscott, who raced in 28 NYRR races, competed abroad in an array of marathons, and achieved many PRs while supporting his teammates along the way. 

It should be noted that Rich, who won the award, ran the NYC Marathon in 2:41:50!!!  That's a 6:11 pace--in other words, faster than my 5k pace!  Holy crap.  Here's a picture of four of the five nominees (Steve couldn't make it).  What a great looking group--and don't you just love how Sandi and I are wearing coordinating colors?

Oh, as this is a running and eating blog, here's a picture of the buffet.  The main entree was a chicken dish served with polenta.  It was very tasty.

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I've been making a lot of progress in my injury recovery, I think.  I've have four sessions so far with Dr. Degis, the Strength Conditioning Specialist.  My meetings with him are like everything that I think physical therapy should be (but wasn't with my previous PT).  I see him three times a week for 45 minutes.  Each visit is about half really, really intense stretching.  I will just lay there, and he'll put my legs in different positions and stretch them in different directions.  We'll also do resistance exercises/stretches, where he'll stretch my leg in one direction as I push in the other direction.  The result is deeper stretches than I could possibly do on my own, and it feels really good.

The second half of my sessions are exercises that I do in order to strengthen my hip/hamstring/butt muscles.  He says that the reason I developed this injury is because I have an imbalance in my muscle mechanics.  So the exercises I'm doing are all focused on gaining stability/balance and core strengthening.  One exercise involves standing on one foot on a wobble board while swinging my arms.  It's really hard!  The board can wobble front-and-back, left-and-right, and anywhere in between.  And swinging my arms deliberately throws it off-balance, so I have to use my hips and core to keep from falling off.  I'm still trying to get the hang of it.

I have a good feeling about my sessions with Dr. Degis, and I'm already starting to feel an improvement.  Hopefully with a few more weeks of therapy, I'll be back to normal.

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In the meantime, I am running just twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Wednesdays I do 6 miles, and Saturdays I do a long run (less than 12 weeks to Boston!).  I'm hoping to increase it to three times a week in the next week or two, and then by the end of February to be in full-on marathon training mode.

This past Saturday, I did about 13.5 miles, from Rutgers Church (where FRNY meets on W. 73rd Street) to the base of the GW Bridge and back.  Compared to the 14-miler last week down to Battery Park, this one felt much better.  I ran with Mikey B, Mike Terry, Peter and Matt, and cardiovascularly, I felt like I could go on for a few more miles.  And coming back, we were more than four minutes faster than going out!  We even decided to run the hills of Riverside Park for our last mile instead of the flat path next the the water.  That was fun!

My legs also felt pretty good afterwards.  We had a speaker at the FRNY Bagel Breakfast right after the run, which meant a lot of sitting on the floor, so I had to do quite a bit of stretch and adjusting while listening to the speaker.  But for the rest of the day I felt pretty good.  Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

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This past week has also meant a lot of good cross-training for me.  I've been going to the Monday night spinning classes that Front Runners is organizing in Long Island City, and the Tuesday night swim clinics that Tritons (the N.Y. gay triathlon club that used to be part of FRNY but is now its own club) organizes in Roosevelt Island.  The spinning classes are really good for me, since the bike is my hardest part of the triathlon (it's also the longest part of the tri), I really don't like biking by myself, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to bike outside in the cold.  It's an intimate group (about 10-12 of us), but we all get along and are all really enjoying the workouts. 

I also think my swimming form is vastly improving with the Tritons workouts.  So much of swimming depends on having the right form--there's a right way to rotate the body, the entry of the hand has to be at the right angle, you can't turn your head too much when you breathe, you need to glide with each stroke but not for too long, kick with the hips not the knees, reach with your stroke, head down legs up--it's so complicated!  But it's great that our Coaches Les and Claudia are there to make sure we're doing everything right.

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Winter is the time of year when I break out the induction cooker and hold my infamous Chinese hotpot dinner parties.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with hotpot, it basically involves a bunch of people sitting around a table with a pot of boiling soup in the middle, into which various meats, veggies, tofu and seafood products are dunked in to cook briefly, then fished out by the eater and dipped into a tasty sauce.  It's the same idea as Japanese shabu shabu.

Hotpot is believed to have originated in Sichuan province in China.  Sichuan is a landlocked province that has hot, humid summers and chilly, foggy winters.  Hotpot, like the spicy food that Sichuan is known for, has a way of warming the body on cool days, and cooling it on hot days.

I like my hotpot SPICY.  I usually just buy a packet of "mala" (numbing and spicy) hotpot concentrate from Chinatown, which is full of Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers (and a healthy dose of oil so the spiciness adheres to the food).  I have a "yin yang" hotpot, which includes a divider so I can make half the hotpot spicy and half non-spicy.

For the stuff to go into the hotpot, I got my usual list of favorites.  A variety of sliced meats including beef, pork, and chicken.  Veggies included taro root, nappa cabbage, snow pea shoots, and oyster and enoki mushrooms.  Tofu in a million different stages of refinement: fresh tofu, frozen tofu (which becomes spongy and soaks up all the delicious soup), fried tofu (differently sponged), and tofu skin.  Dumplings and wontons of different kinds (chicken, pork, veggie).  And my favorite: a million different seafoods and seafood products.  For some reason, processed seafood products (fish cakes, fish balls, imitation crab and the like) go really well in hotpot, and you can get all sorts of fun shapes, colors and sizes in Chinatown.

At my hotpot parties, people make their own dipping sauces.  I'm a purist, so I just use shacha sauce, which is made from ground up garlic, shallots, chilies and dried shrimp (although I think the real purists mix in a raw egg so it coats the dipped food better).  But people get creative with their sauces, mixing in korean bulgogi sauce, soy sauce, ponzu (a Japanese citrus-flavored soy sauce), mirin, rice wine, sriracha, and whatever else I have in my cupboard.

Here are some pics from the dinner.  Hotpot is one of those meals where I pass on the Franzia and go instead for a nice cold beer.   Delicious!

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One of the readers of this blog (yes, there actually ARE readers!)  commented on my post about the Under Armour run that I didn't post any pictures of the free jersey that we got.  I was so sad that I didn't have my camera that day, since it was such a cool sight to see 60-something Front Runners wearing their bright blue jerseys running en masse through Central Park.  I did manage to have my Blackberry handy at a subsequent Wednesday night fun run, though, where Mikey B and Jeff both happened to be wearing their new jerseys.  They were kind enough to model them for me.

Sunset Park to Hudson River Park

Fatai, Roberto and I went on a little bit of an adventure on Friday.  We decided to go to Sunset Park to check out Brooklyn's Chinatown.  Believe it or not, even though we frequently go to the Chinatown in Flushing, Queens, neither Fatai nor I have ever been to Sunset Park, which is a lot closer to Manhattan (just four stops into Brooklyn on the N line).

My primary reason for wanting to go to Sunset Park was to pay a visit to the Yun Nan Flavour Snack, which I noticed in the past month in both the New York Times and New York Magazine.  I don't know anything about Yunnanese food, other than the fact that the Yunnan province is bordered by Sichuan province to the north, and the Vietnam, Laos and Burma to the south.  So I had a feeling that it would be a tasty mix of the spiciness of Sichuan with the tanginess of Southeast Asia.

The Flavour Snack is a tiny little place, with no tables and just a few seats lining the counter which wrapped the room.  The menu was equally minuscule, consisting of only noodle soup, with a choice of three different noodles and six different toppings.  Our plan was just to get a "snack" here, in order to try out the famed noodle soup before going somewhere else in the neighborhood for a slightly more upscale dinner.  So the three of us shared a bowl of the rice noodle with crispy meat sauce.  Ooooh, sooo goood!  It was a delicious mix of gently-cooked sliced pork, tender slices of pork intestine and crunchy fried pork skin, in a richly flavored broth heavy on the cilantro, chili peppers, and fried shallots (not to mention a healthy dose of MSG). 

I would have been happy ordering another bowl of noodles all to myself, but the three of us eyed a cute Sichuan place around the corner, Metro Cafe (menu here), which we wanted to stop into.  Apparently just opened in March, the Metro Cafe combines an authentic Sichuan menu with some fun Japanese and Taiwanese dishes.  We mostly stayed on the Sichuan side.  One of my favorite Sichuan appetizers is fuqi feipain, which literally translates as "Husband and Wife Lung Slices"--it's a cold dish with beef tripe, tongue and tendon, marinated in a spicy mala sauce.  The fuqi feipian was delicious here, definitely better than at Grand Sichuan.  It was more "ma" and less "la" than than Grand Sichuan (i.e., less chili-oil hot, and more Sichuan peppercorn spicy), and it left my mouth and tongue with a great tingly/numbing feeling.

The other highlights of the night were the braised fish with hot bean sauce (dou ban yu) and the twice cooked pork (hui guo rou).  The fish was a giant piece of (I think) buffalo carp belly.  It came with so much hot bean sauce that it was served in a deep pyrex baking dish!  When we ordered the twice cooked pork, I naively asked whether it was made with pork belly or lean pork.  The response, in Chinese, was: "This is an authentic Sichuan restaurant.  We don't serve lean pork!"  It was delicious.  :-)

The next morning, I joined Mikey, Matt and Peter on a 14 miler from Rutgers to the South Street Seaport and back.  I don't know why, but it seems like every time I do a long run, I end up eating crazy spicy food the night before--usually either Sichuan or Thai--which invariably unsettles my stomach the next day.  Without getting into too many details, it took me four attemps Saturday morning to rid my body of the mala-fest and begin my run.  Even so, I had to make everyone wait at the Christopher Street facilities around mile three for a quick pitstop.  But after that, I felt fresh and about two pounds lighter, haha.

The run felt pretty good most of the way.  After my pitstop, Mikey and I slowed down a tiny bit while Matt and Peter stepped it up.  They got to the turnaround about a minute before us and waited for us to finish.  (Of course, that meant they got a minute break and we didn't!  By that point, I really would not have minded a break...).

On our way back, the run started getting a bit more difficult.  Since I'm just running about 2 or 3 times a week because of my continuing butt issue, I felt like 14 miles was definitely pushing the limits of my fitness level.  Then, around mile 11, I felt my right hamstring tighten up.  This was similar to the feeling I got around the last eight miles of the NYC marathon.  I knew this wasn't a good sign, but I pushed on.  The last couple of miles were not easy.  And the last mile, from 53rd Street to 72nd Street, always seems like it goes on forever.

In the end, though, I finished, without too much pain, just a few second behind Mikey, and about 3-4 minutes faster in the second half than in the first half.  I was pretty pleased, considering everything.

The rest of the day, though, was kind of a mess.  I went to get brunch after the fun run, and had to get up twice in the middle of eating to stretch my legs because my butt/hamstring was so uncomfortable.  Later, I went to the Museum of the City of New York, where they show a 25-minute film on the history of the City.  Halfway through the movie, I had to get up from my seat and stand against the wall.  I'm feeling much better today, and am looking forward to the Tritons swim workout tonight--my first swim workout in a very long time.  Also, tomorrow I'm going to see Dr. Eric Degis, the guy who Chris Stoia saw for his butt problem, who, apparently, was able to work wonders on it.  I'll keep you posted.