Three Years, Two Stress Fractures, and One Whopper of a Hurricane
In 14 days -- barring injury, catastrophe, or unforeseen weather event -- I will finally toe the starting line of the New York City Marathon.
This race has been a long, long time coming. I had toyed with the idea for years, and had failed to be picked via the lottery at least once, before I finally bit the bullet in 2012 and raised $2500 for a charity slot via Camfed. (They are an incredible organization, sending girls to school in Africa in a uniquely supportive way that encourages a positive cycle of education; I would strongly advise anyone in need of some hope and positivity to poke around their website.) Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy wrought such havoc that the 2012 NYCM was, unprecedentedly, canceled that year. I deferred my slot to 2013, only to wind up with a stress fracture of my right foot less than two months into training. Using my final deferral, I signed myself up for 2014. And a week after I moved from Philly to North Carolina, guess what happened? ANOTHER STRESS FRACTURE, this time in the left foot. (I won’t get into the physiology of it all, beyond stating that the ‘female athlete triad’ affects not only anorexic cross-country runners, but also healthy eaters who are simply so stressed-out that their estrogen balance is nonexistent.)
Fortunately, this time, I recognized what was happening and immediately stopped all impact activity. (My previous fracture, I now realize, had smoldered for months before reaching its tipping point, due to equal parts stubbornness and ignorance.) This time, I continued to do CrossFit, but on a very limited basis at first: lots of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, and kettlebell swings; no double-unders, box jumps, running, Olympic lifts, or even rowing. The pain disappeared rapidly, letting me know that this was probably a stress ‘reaction’ more so than a true fracture; after 3-4 days, I could no longer feel it with normal walking or standing. But this time, I was determined to be smart; despite the marathon date looming in the uncomfortably-near future (and these perfect, crisp, colorful autumn days that make even non-runners want to get outside), I marked the calendar and resolved to take seven full weeks off from impact. After 3 weeks, I returned to rowing; shortly thereafter, I reincorporated Olympic lifts; last week, at the seven-week mark, I finally returned to running. (I still haven’t done double-unders or box jumps, and I don’t plan to do those things until after the race is over -- why tempt fate?)
This plan may have been more conservative than I truly needed, especially given how rapidly the pain disappeared -- but after my frustrating experience last year, I wasn't taking any chances. A stress fracture, or any suspicion thereof, is not a situation where one can ‘use pain as a guide’ -- because if I felt pain, it meant I was already back to square one, with a damaged bone, and that the race was completely out of the picture. Given the choice, I voted in favor of a healthy body with less sport-specific preparation.
However, that meant I had to wrap my head around the idea of simply completing this race as an ‘experience’, doing easy run-walk intervals the whole way through, not chasing a PR time or attempting to break 4 hours (which was my original goal). This was a surprisingly easy mental adjustment, probably because my abilities, goals, and base definition of fitness have changed so much since discovering CrossFit that I honestly have no real desire to ever run another marathon. Finishing this one will be mostly about closing a chapter -- completing something that’s been hanging over my head for three years -- and getting to take part in a historic event, the biggest marathon in the world, in one of my favorite cities at a beautiful time of year. This time, the experience in and of itself will be enough.
So, with just three short weeks of training, what’s my strategy?
Given that I’m just now starting to train -- in the window of time where most of the more traditional NYCM runners will be starting their taper -- the biggest bang for my buck is going to come from interval training. There’s a lot of good evidence out there showing that speed and power translate well to improved endurance, but that that does not work in reverse (doing a long slow 20-miler isn’t going to help you improve your one-mile time, but doing regular sprint workouts will almost certainly help that slow 20-miler feel easier). I want to strike a balance where I’m getting enough time on my feet to remind my body of how a run is supposed to feel, but not increasing the distance so quickly that I reinjure myself. As far as the race itself, my tentative plan is to do timed intervals the whole way through -- 3 minutes of slow running, 1 minute of walking -- with the option to shift that ratio as needed in either direction depending on how I’m feeling.
Last week, I did a bunch of 200m and 400m sprints, mostly as part of CrossFit metcons; I also did a two-mile beach walk (in my marathon shoes) with a little jogging thrown in. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), my new CrossFit box tends to incorporate a lot of running, so there have been several workouts in the past week that I suspect would have been approved by CrossFit Endurance (on Thursday, we did a 400m sprint, 100 kettlebell swings, a 400m sprint, 100 air squats, and a third 400m sprint -- CFE would like that one; it’s pretty much impossible NOT to run Pose when your quads are fried!).
Then, yesterday morning, I hit the Tobacco Trail on my own and covered 4 miles, 3 of which were running, completed as intervals 0.5 to 1 mile in distance, at anywhere from 70 to 95% effort. It didn’t feel awesome, but I was pleased anyway, because I gained a LOT of valuable insight from that workout... namely: I am MUCH faster than I used to be, but I also have a much poorer gauge of my percent effort (across long intervals, at least), and it was therefore one hundred percent my own fault that it didn’t feel awesome. The problem is not my physical ability, but my body awareness to gauge that ability. Basically, I made the oldest rookie mistake in the book and went out too hard; the first 8:40 mile felt like 70% effort (I literally teared up at one point because it felt so amazing to be outside, running, and HEALTHY on such a beautiful day), but then the last mile (8:35) felt like DEATH. Those times are, by the way, a full 60-90 seconds faster than anything I would have been able to manage pre-CrossFit -- but this all means that I’m trying to fit a new body, geared for strength and power, into a highly outdated mental framework of endurance capacity. I won’t go so far as to say it’s like going from a Chevy to a Lamborghini (I don’t think there’s any Lamborghini out there that would struggle as much as I did yesterday!), but in terms of perceived effort vs actual stamina, there’s definitely a mismatch. I used to be able to ‘just keep on hanging in there’ through a 12-mile swim or 26-mile run; there wouldn’t be any finishing kick, but I had the endurance to keep going. In terms of effort, my starting pace was my finishing pace, because I only had one gear. Now, I have much more power and much quicker recovery from the use of that power, but that means it’s a lot harder to plug into that ‘flow’ mentality -- partly because I haven’t used it lately (the pace and effort that I will need to sustain for 26.2 miles is nowhere near that of a CrossFit metcon), and partly because I now have the luxury of having multiple gears to choose from. I’m incredibly out of practice with that type of intuition. A pace that feels like 70% at the start of a workout does NOT feel like 70% once I’m a little ways in, and the pacing for (what is likely to be) about five hours on my feet is going to be very different from pacing for a 15-minute metcon. It’s going to feel silly-slow at the beginning, then hellaciously hard by the end. I know all those things cerebrally, but my body needs to relearn them.
On the plus side, I had zero foot pain (meaning my bones are healed and my shoes are good to go), and my soreness today is pretty mild, just a little stiffness in my calves and a bit of a wobbly/weak feeling in my hamstrings. I’m actually glad to be a little bit sore, since it means the appropriate muscles were working, but it also gives me another reason to be grateful for these few weeks of preparation, no matter how short.
The primary goal for the next 14 days is just to stay healthy and not overdo things. Next weekend, I’m thinking I may do as much as a 5-mile run -- just a regular, smooth, easy 5-miler -- to see if I can find that mental ‘flow state’ again, but that’s definitely the longest distance I’ll cover prior to the race. The absolute most important goal, the thing that supercedes everything else, is that I canNOT ramp up the mileage and pavement-pounding so quickly that I hurt myself. Better to be physically healthy and with a solid fitness base, even if undertrained for this specific task. Otherwise, it’s lots of sleep, lots of water, more rest days than usual, no alcohol, and the best diet I can manage (which, at the moment, means trying to be as autoimmune-friendly as possible: fewer eggs/nuts/nightshades, more meat, fish, sweet potatoes, avocado, kale, spaghetti squash, etc). I’m dropping to three days of CrossFit next week and only one or two the week after, and am skipping the really heavy strength-based days (like tomorrow’s 1-rep-max back squat) in favor of running or resting.
Monday -- treadmill intervals: 10 x 400m, with 2 minutes’ rest in between. I’m going to shoot for a 2:15 pace, which equates to a 9-minute mile; that’s probably still faster than I will ultimately go in the marathon, but MUCH slower than I was running yesterday.
Tuesday -- CrossFit (pull-ups and bench press + whatever the metcon is)
Wednesday -- CrossFit (power snatch + whatever the metcon is)
Thursday -- rest day
Friday -- CrossFit (cleans + whatever the metcon is)
Saturday -- run 5 miles easy, with goal of finding the ‘forever pace’
Sunday -- rest day (pack/prepare for trip!)
Monday -- rest or possibly CrossFit (kettlebell snatch and push press + short metcon)
Tuesday -- treadmill intervals: 8 x 200m on the 3:00, with goal pace probably around 1:10.
Wednesday -- CrossFit (ring dips and bench press + medium metcon -- take it fairly easy)
Thursday -- 15-minute jog
Friday -- rest, fly to NYC
Saturday -- rest
Sunday -- NYC Marathon!
CrossFit critics, as well as many other people, will think I’m insane, naive, or both for attempting to complete a marathon with a ‘long run’ of five miles. They might be right, and I’ll admit I’m a little nervous that when the inevitable low point hits me around mile 16, that I might feel more discouraged than usual because of the relative lack of sport-specific preparation. But on another level, I’m also really curious to see what’s going to happen with this makeshift little Couch-to-5k CrossFit-to-Marathon program. I’ve been shouting from the rooftops for two years now about my amazement regarding how my physical capabilities have expanded across all fitness domains, and this marathon is definitely going to be a true test of functional fitness. I didn’t necessarily plan it this way by choice, but if I get through this race without crumbling to pieces, it really will be ALL due to CrossFit.
Can anyone else out there relate to any of this? Anyone else going to be in New York for the marathon? I'd love to hear about your experiences!
