It’s getting rather embarrassing, really.
I really do have Lyme Disease. I promise. However, from my running performance you’d have no idea. I get emails weekly from people who are suffering terribly with the disease, but as they get worse I only get faster and more fit.
I don’t feel so fantastic and I don’t feel as if I’m getting “better”, but the running just keeps coming. I’ll take it. Still, I can’t help but somehow feel guilty for achieving while others are suffering.
How’s it all possible? I don’t know.
Training terribly
Training has been tough lately. Over the last three months my legs have been feeling like burning bologna. They’re not very snappy and I’m almost constantly achy and sore. Also, for a period of about a month, I was getting these shocking, burning sensations in my thighs. Almost as if I’d suddenly spilled hot coffee on my leg. The first time it happened I was running and it surprised me so much that I jumped. I thought I had been shot, stabbed, bitten by some unseen dog. It didn’t hurt so much as it felt like hot water being poured over my upper thigh. Freaked me out!
It didn’t happen again for several days, but then it started to become a familiar part of my runs. Later, it started happening while doing non-running activities. Simply walking or eventually just sitting would trigger it. Every time I’d look down expecting to see that I’d somehow knocked my coffee into my lap.
All of this made training really tough. Physically I was getting these new, weird symptoms and I wasn’t recovering after long or intense runs. Mentally I was starting to think that my luck had run out with the absence of muscle pain/burning.
Then, as mysteriously as it all started, it went away. The aches and pains resolved to a level relative to the efforts I was putting out and the burning stopped all together. I haven’t had an incident in several weeks now (knock on wood).
This is stupid!
Why did I put myself through all this? The Brooklyn 1/2 Marathon. I love this race and always center my training around it. This was my 5th time. 2nd time post Lyme diagnosis.
Like last year, I set a pretty ambitious goal and like last year I was nervous as hell. I kept thinking, “This is crazy!”, “Should I even be doing this?”, “When’s my luck gonna run out?”.
I staked out breaking 01:30:00 as my goal. That’s a 6:52 pace for 13.1 miles. I’ve never run more than a 10k (6.2 miles) at that pace (faster actually). It sounded stupid. Like I said above, my training was crap. I did a lot of speed work, but only got in two quality long runs. One of eight-miles and another of ten.
Mind over… over everything
When I coach, especially beginners, I’m always telling my runners that training is like balancing a physical/mental seesaw. As long as you keep the weight even on both ends, everything works out. However, if you add weight to the physical side by upping your training distance or intensity you need to balance it with heavier mental preparation. The opposite is also true, if you start weighing yourself down mentally with lofty goals you need to apply a comparable amount of training to achieve them.
Balancing the seesaw in preparation for this race was a real challenge and it was, without a doubt, the hardest event I’ve ever done. The goal put me on the limit for the entire thing. The first half of the race was very hilly so I was constantly monitoring my breathing, stride, pace, form, all the systems. Fortunately, the last six miles are pretty much dead-flat and I was able to engage the autopilot, but… man, it was a rough run.
Results
Of course, after all my worrying, things worked out pretty damn well. I finished in 01:28:04 at a pace of 6:43! That time put me in 193rd place overall (out of 7,000) and 17th in my age.
I chopped over 5:00 minutes off my PR from last year. And just like last year, I was dumbfounded.
The aftermath
Unlike last year, I suffered pretty badly afterward. The race was over and I was home by 10:30am and I felt pretty good for the rest of the day. A little more tired that usual and a little sore, but nothing unexpected. I even stayed awake though 90% of the new Shrek movie which I promised my daughter we’d go see in preparation of my needing an hour nap.
The next day, Sunday, however, I was roadkill. Very tired and VERY sore. However, against every rational-thinking fiber of my being, I went out and ran while coaching my beginners group. I ended doing seven miles — 1 to get there, 5 with them and one more to get home. Going for a run was a good idea, but I shouldn’t have gone that far. As a result, I continued to pay with very painful legs and a very tired body through Monday. Today I’m feeling much better and getting back to “normal”.
Going forward
I’m taking a week off from running completely. The weather here in NYC is crazy nice so I may duck out for a bike ride, but just a casual spin. Running, though, is off limits until next week. Maybe next Wednesday when I coach again.
As for treatment… there’s no news there as I continue to stall on the Bicillin shots. I told myself not until after this race so I either need to find a new excuse or make an appointment with my LLMD.
And that’s it. If you got this far, thanks for reading!
