Weekly Training Summary

Another good week on the road to recovery.  My last week of running just 3 times a week.  I ran nice easy 3.3 milers on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a total weekly mileage of 9.98 miles --- and to think, I used to do that in one run.  I also walked 3 miles on Tuesday and Thursday, as well as 1 milers on Monday and Tuesday at home.  My wife is on a mission to walk at least 1 mile a day, in addition to the miles she runs (she's up to 3 weeks now).  We try to walk as a family after dinner -- good exercise for the kids, and keeps them off the TV and computer for at least 15 - 20 minutes!!

Anyhow, I rounded out my exercise with 1600 meters in the pool on Thursday and 3200 meters today (Monday was my youngest daughter's birthday, so I skipped the pool).  I tried out a different wetsuit today.  When my brother was stationed at Camp Pendleton, he competed on the Marine Corps triathlon team.  He lent me a couple of his wetsuits to use at my upcoming 1 mile Chesapeake Bay Swim race -- a Quantaroo and an Orca wetsuit.  Last week, I tried the Quanta, this week the Orca.  Although I think the Orca fit better under the arm, it was a bit tighter around the neck.  Not quite a choke, but I don't think I ever got my breathing right today (I did 3200 meters in 51 minutes with the Quanta, and 53 minutes in the Orca).  So I think I'll race in the Quantaroo suit.  If I ever do triathlons, I'm going to have to learn to get out of the wetsuit a bit quicker.  I swear it took me about 5 minutes of struggling to get that thing off.  How do triathletes have such short T1 times (T1 = transition 1, the time between the end of the swim and the beginning of the bike portion of the race)?

Meanwhile, I heard from my endocrinologist on Friday about my follow up vitamin D tests.  Last fall (before my stress fracture), during my annual physical, I had abnormally high vitamin D levels (around 79/80).  My internist didn't think much of it at the time.  When I got my stress fracture and the bone density scan showed me at the low end of normal/borderline osteopenic, I told my orthopedist about the high vitamin D levels and he referred me to the endocrinologist thinking that maybe I had some problem with my bones absorbing vitamin D and calcium.  The endocrinologist ran a battery of tests (calcium urinalysis, blood calcium, vitamin D 25, vitamin D 1,25, parathyroid) and all came back normal (e.g., vitamin D levels of 46 -- below 30 is considered deficient).  He concluded that my stress fractures were just from overuse (more on that later).  He told me to get a follow up vitamin D check a couple of weeks later.  So now my vitamin D levels are at 22 -- I'm vitamin D deficient.  I'm taking 50,000 IUs of vitamin D per week (1 pill per week for 6 weeks), plus 4 citricals (2 in morning, 2 in evening) to boost the calcium levels.  In 9 weeks, I retake the vitamin D blood test to see how things are going.

Anyhow, that is the state of my insides.  So what really caused the stress fracture?  I can't believe it is just overuse.  I mean, I've run several ultras with no issue.  Fall 2008 was an extremely race heavy season -- I did a 1/2 marathon in the beginning of September, I ran 49 miles over 24 hours at an ultra relay the end of September, Marine Corps Marathon in October, and JFK 50 miler in November.  No stress fracture.  Then Boston in April 2009, still no stress fracture.  I had already run three of my four 20 milers training for the 2009 Marine Corps with no stress fracture.  So what gives? My wife and I wonder whether the orthotics that I started running in in July may have contributed to the injury.  Even though I told the podiatrist I was a marathon runner and brought in my running shoes to make sure the inserts fit, I wonder if they are walking orthotics.  They are very hard and don't seem very cushiony (my wife has over-the-counter inserts that while firm underneath have cushioning).  I'm beginning to think that running on that hard surface, coupled with the overuse, may have led to the fracture.  My wife commented that a  running friend of hers had also recently begun wearing orthotics when she started developing a running injury (not a stress fracture).  Anyhow, I've stopped running in the orthotics.  We'll see.

Back to training.  This week, I add a fourth day of running (next Sunday).  So now my weekly mileage will approximate one MT run (MT = Rockville Millenium Trail - a 10 mile loop around beautiful Rockville that is 1 mile from my house).