I started this blog in 2016, with just a couple posts. It was a year of some good running, but interspersed with a couple of health issues. Here is a run down from late 2015 to summer of 2016.
After ending 2015 with some decent efforts, a 1:21 half marathon in Washington and a relatively solid showing at the USATF masters championships in San Francisco, where I took 8th in my age group, I looked forward to 2016 with some high hopes. Although I had hoped to be top 5 in SF I was pretty happy to run sub 37 minutes on the course at Golden Gate Park and to finish near or ahead of some pretty good runners in my age group (I was 8th in the age group and 25th/415 in the age grade catergory). In the back of my mind, however, was the thought if I ate a really good diet and shed some pounds I could move up some.
Start line at the 2015 USATF Masters 10K championship in San Francisco.
Trying to finish strong at USATF Masters 10K XC on the way to a 36:54.
As the new year got rolling, however, I could not get on track. It was more difficult getting out the door. Long runs were a grind, and easy runs were almost painful. My whole body ached. And my workouts and races fell off from the previous year. I was running nearly a minute slower for 8K and 10K, and recovery between hard efforts dragged on for weeks instead of days. I was getting in the miles (55-60 miles a week), hadn’t gained any weight (150+/-) from previous years and felt that I was eating okay although knew there was some room for improvement.
The kicker came at the Platte River Half Marathon in April, a key spring race. I had run a 1:22 there the previous year–fastest 55-59 year old time in the race’s 15 year history. But in the 2016 race I felt somewhere between off and awful. Although I did win my age group again and was happy about that, the time was only 1:26. I could not figure out why I was training the same amount, doing similar workouts, but feeling fatigued every day.
I went to the doctor for a physical. Everything checked out okay, but they ordered a blood test. I thought it might be a Vitamin D deficiency, or maybe iron, or even testosterone. But who knew? A few days later I got a call from the physicians assistant who said that two things stood out, very high cholesterol (265) and a high A1C (3 month level of blood sugar) of 5.9, indicating that I was pre-diabetic. What?
They suggested that I go on statins right away, but also gave the option that I could try to work on my diet and get follow up test in about 6 weeks. So that’s what I did. I cut out weekly pizza and burger, processed lunch meats, near daily sesame bagels, and snack food like chocolate, cookies, chips. Instead I ate more nuts and fish, stuck to only egg whites, and gobbled up more whole grain food in place of processed wheat.
By 3 weeks I felt better, and at 6 weeks I got the 2nd blood test where the cholesterol had dropped a remarkable 60 mg to 205, and AIC fell a bit to 5.7. I felt good, and proceeded to win my age group at Bolder Boulder 10K with 38 minute 10K. It was about the same time as the year before, and I felt better than I had since the end of 2015. I had turned the corner.
The highlight of that year was a 12 day trip to Scandinavia, with a day and a half in Iceland and then 10 days in Norway and Sweden. I joined up with about 15 runners who had lived or were otherwise connected with Alaska to run the grueling 4 day St. Olavs Loppett (350 km, 170 miles) from Ostersund Sweden to Trondheim Norway. I raced about 24 miles (6 miles a day) and by the end, felt like I had run full marathon!
With Tamara at Tannforsen Waterfall in central Sweden, 2016.
Running an 8.3K leg in the St. Olavs Loppet, June 2016.
After recovering for a few weeks I started my prep for the Bellingham Bay Marathon, where my goal was a sub 2:55.
Prior to this week, August 2, 2016 was the last time I posted on this blog. I had planned to continue with stories of some of my early running days, interspersed with updates on running adventures. However just a few days later, on August 6, I had a freak fall while warming up for a 10 mile run. I tripped on a rock fell into a pile of other rocks on an old creek bed. The pain was immediate and searing. I could barely get up, and a passerby had to walk me 0.1 mile to a curb for Tamara to pick me up. I thought I had broken my collarbone figured I’d be out for 6 weeks or so while it healed. Actually it was a shoulder dislocation, resulting in a torn rotator cuff and torn labrum. I would need surgery and 6 months of rehab.
So that fall, I stayed home devastated.
rrunnin234 