I'll Be Doing At Least One More Boston Marathon

In a recent post, I expressed uncertainly about whether I was going to run the Boston Marathon next year.  After getting a lot of encouragement from friends, I decided to enter.  This morning, I received my acceptance.

There were two reasons why I had reservations.  One was lodging.  The hotel I stayed at for three of the past four years was more than twice as expensive this year.  Other hotels within walking distance of the finish line had similar rates.  After some research, I found a hotel that’s farther away, but close to a Metro station.  I was able to get a reasonable rate (for Boston) through Marathon Tours & Travel.

My other reservation was the realization that I won’t be in very good shape next April.  I’ve already lost quite a bit of fitness.  In December, I plan to take a two month break from racing.  During that time, my training will also be limited.  My top priority will be getting healthy.  I probably won’t begin any kind of serious training until sometime in February.

I’ve had to revise my marathon goals to finishing at any pace I can, rather than having ambitious time goals.  I hate to do that in Boston, but it occurred to me that I would probably have regrets if I don’t do the 2016 race.

First, let’s suppose that I’m able to get back in shape to qualify for 2017.  I’ve already run four consecutive Boston Marathons.  The 2016 race will be five, and 2017 would be six.  If I can get into the 2017 race, I’m pretty sure I could continue the streak in future years.  In that case, I would regret not running in 2016.

Alternatively, let’s suppose I’m not able to qualify for 2017.  If 2015 was my last Boston Marathon, at least for a few years, I would have wanted to know that at the time.  There are things I might do differently if I knew I wasn’t coming back.  I’ve never brought a camera with me to take pictures along the route.  That’s not something you do if you’re going for a fast time.  If I couldn’t run fast anyway, I’d want the opportunity to share images of the race with friends who have never been there.

I don’t take for granted that I’ll quickly get back to being able to qualify consistently.  I don’t take for granted that I’ll be able to qualify at all.  When I started running marathons, it took years of training before I qualified for Boston.  Each year, I improved my PR by about 10 minutes.  Even then, I needed to have a good race on a reasonably fast course with favorable weather.  Out of my first 40 marathons, I only qualified four times.

It was only when I lost weight, took my training to another level, and moved into a new age group that I was able to qualify consistently.  By then I was training year-round.  Once you reach a high level of fitness, it’s much easier to stay in peak shape then to get there from scratch.

Next year, I’ll be starting over from scratch.  Currently, I can’t break four hours.  My fitness will get worse before it gets better.  I don’t know how long it will take to get back to where I was earlier this year.  It may take more than a year.  In the meantime, I’m not getting any younger.

Five years ago, the B.A.A. revised the qualifying standards, making them five minutes faster.  They may do that again, possibly as early as next year.

The registration process for Boston allows the runners with the best qualifying times (relative to the standard for their age groups) to enter first.  They start with people who qualify with at least 20 minutes to spare (BQ-20).  Then they open up registration to runners who qualified with 10 minutes to spare (BQ-10).  Then it’s BQ-5.  If the race isn’t full yet, they open it up to everyone else for one week.  If the race fills during any of these registration periods, the runners who get in are the ones who qualified with the most time to spare.

Last year, just qualifying wasn’t enough.  You needed to beat the qualifying standard by 1:02.  This year, it will likely be more.  Today, registration opened to the last group of qualifiers.  I heard that there are only 5,000 unfilled slots.  There will probably be at least 10,000 runners competing for those slots.

I move into a new age group next year.  If they don’t revise the standards, I would need a time of 3:40 to qualify, but to be sure of actually getting into the race, I might need a time of 3:35 or faster.  Even before my current problems started, I needed a good race to break 3:30.  Even with a good comeback, 3:35 isn’t something I can take for granted.

It’s within the realm of possibility that 2016 will be my last opportunity to run the Boston Marathon.  I didn’t want to let that opportunity slip away.  For those of you will be there, I look forward to seeing you in Boston.  For those of you who won’t, I’ll post a race report with lots of pictures.

Race Report: 2015 Fox Cities Marathon

This morning, I ran the Fox Cities Marathon.  This race has a point-to-point course that goes through six cities along the Fox River, starting in Menasha, WI and finishing in Neenah, WI.  I’ve done this race twice before.  In 1999, while I was working on running marathons in every state, I chose this for my Wisconsin race.  At the time, I was trying to avoid repeating states, so I didn’t return until 2011, when this race was the site of the Marathon Maniacs annual reunion.  This year, it was one of the quarterly reunions of the 50 States Marathon Club.

The course has been a little different each time I’ve run it.  This year’s course started on the University of Wisconsin – Fox Valley campus and finished at Riverside Park in Neenah.  Past incarnations of the course crossed the Fox River several times.  This year’s course mostly stayed on one side of the river, but there was one notable crossing.  Late in the race, we crossed the widest part of the river on the Freedom Trail trestle bridge.  This used to be a railroad bridge.

Appleton is roughly a five hour drive from Minneapolis.  It was nice to have two consecutive races that were within my driving range.  I stayed at the Hampton Inn in Appleton.  There were closer hotels, but this is the same hotel where I stayed in 2011.

After checking in at Hampton Inn, I drove to the UW – Fox Valley campus to pick up my race packet.  While I was there, I also attended the 50 States Marathon Club reunion.  The highlight of these reunion meetings is recognizing members who have finished running marathons in very state.

I knew several of the runners who were recent 50 states finishers.  Two of them were runners I celebrated with at the races where they finished.  It was nice to also see them get their awards at a reunion.

After the meeting, I joined other runners for dinner at Rocky Rococo, my favorite Wisconsin pizza chain.  They have a pan-style pizza that I don’t find in many local restaurants.  You can order whole pizzas, but they also have pizza by the slice, which is convenient when you don’t know how many people will be able to join you.

I had a horrible night’s sleep.  I only slept for about two hours, not all at once.  Usually, I can shake that off once I start running.  Of course, I usually start at a fairly fast pace.  If I ran a more relaxed race, I didn’t know if I would still be able to shake off the lack of sleep.

There were several options for race day transportation.  The last time I did this race, I parked at the start.  I was intending to do that again this year, but made a last minute decision to park near the finish in Neenah and take a bus to the start.  I got to downtown Neenah so early I was able to find street parking in the same block where I caught the bus to the start.  I arrived at the start about an hour before the race.

At the start, we were able to go inside the student union, which had comfortable seating and real bathrooms.  I had no regrets about parking near the finish.  I was comfortable before the race, and I knew I would have my car nearby when I finished.  I was able to hang out with several friends who were at the reunion meeting on Saturday.

The weather was excellent.  The overnight low was 50 degrees, and the high was around 70.  There was no chance of rain and very little wind.  Last week, in weather that was a few degrees cooler, I ran in tights.  This week, I opted for shorts.  I waited until the last minute to line up, so my legs wouldn’t get cold.  My legs are currently sensitive to cold temperatures, and I didn’t want to risk having circulation issues.

In my last race, I started too fast and slowed down pretty dramatically.  My pace in the second half was more than four minutes per mile slower than my pace in the first half.  I started this race with two goals.  First, I wanted to improve on last week’s 4:57 finish time.  Second, I wanted to keep my pace more consistent.  My guess was that a time in the 4:30s was probably realistic, so I should be starting the race somewhere around a 10:30 per mile pace.

I was assigned to the “A” corral, based on the estimated finish time I gave when I entered the race.  That was months ago, when I was healthy.  I lined up at the back of the “A” corral.  I probably should have lined up farther back.

As we started running, I was evidently influenced by the people around me.  I wasn’t trying to start fast, but found myself right behind the 3:40 pace group.  After easing up a little, I slipped behind the 3:45 group.  I don’t know what happened, but before I knew it, I was right behind the 3:40 group again.

The pace felt easy.  I had a hard time believing I was really on pace for 3:40.  I’ve done a few races where the pacers deliberately went slow in the first mile to let everyone get warmed up.  I wondered if these pace groups were doing that.  Surely, I wasn’t really on pace for 3:40.

We started with the half marathon, but the two courses separated early in the race.  They turned north to run a shorter loop before heading south toward Neenah.  We continued east to run a much longer loop.

I missed the one mile sign.  When I reached the two mile sign, I checked my watch.  My time through two miles was 17:10, an average of 8:35 per mile.  For the first time, I knew that I was going much too fast.  It felt deceptively easy.  Over the next few miles, I slowed down by 5-10 seconds per mile.  My pace eventually leveled off at nine minutes per mile. That was still too fast.  It’s roughly the pace I was running last week, and that race was disastrous.  Still, it felt deceptively easy.

In the early miles, we ran past a few farms.  The first time I ran this race, it was run in the opposite direction.  I remember running past farms late in the race, when the runners were all spread out.  These miles were kind of boring, so it’s better to run them early in the race.

After a few more miles, we started reaching residential neighborhoods.  In the middle miles, these gave way to paved trails around parks and through greenways.  The race goes through a number of different communities.  More than once, we were greeted by squads of high school cheerleaders.

Through 11 miles, I was running a pace similar to the way I started last week.  I still felt OK, but I was conscious of the fact that I started falling apart at this same point in last week’s race.

The early miles were mostly flat.  As we got closer to the halfway mark, the course became slightly rolling.  There weren’t any big hills, but even on small ones, I started feeling some discomfort in my legs.  My KT tape was helping, but running downhill was uncomfortable.

Just before 12 miles, there was a steep downhill.  I had to slow down.  Then I had to work hard to regain my pace.  I heard people cheering for a pace group.  I realized it had to be the 3:55 group.

This was the most scenic part of the course.  We were in a greenway alongside a river.  I realized we must be seeing the Fox River for the first time.  Previous incarnations of this course crossed the river several times.  I missed that.

I was carrying a camera, but so far I hadn’t taken any pictures.  I was tempted to stop, but I was worried that my legs might get stiff.  I was still in a good rhythm, so I decided to forgo taking pictures.

Knowing the 3:55 pace group was right behind me gave me motivation to pick up my pace ever so slightly.  I was still ahead of them when I reached the halfway mark. My time for the first half was 1:57.  That was four minutes faster than last week.  So much for starting at a more reasonable pace.  The question now was, “How much would I slow in the second half?”  Last week, the collapse began at 11 miles.  If nothing else, I was holding out longer.

The small hills on this section of the course were beginning to take a toll on me.  The downs were uncomfortable, and the ups took me out of my rhythm.  The 3:55 group moved past me and pulled away.

I overheard two other runners talking about one more hill that was coming up.  After that, the rest of the course would be fairly flat.  That sounded encouraging.  As we left the paved trail to return to streets, I noticed we were beginning a hill.  A spectator confirmed that this was the last significant hill.  It wasn’t actually that big, but the damage was already done.  Knowing the rest of the course was flat didn’t help.  I held a nine minute pace for 14 miles, but now I was beginning to slow down.

I never saw the 15 mile sign, but that’s about where the 4:00 pace group passed me.  I took consolation from lasting four additional miles before they caught me.  Last week, they caught me at 11 miles.

When I reached the 16 mile sign, I finally had a chance to check my pace.  Over the previous two miles, I averaged 10:15.  That’s better than last week.  Last week, I went from 9:15 to 11 in one mile.  I realized I would continue to deteriorate, but I was comparing myself to last week.  Mile by mile, I wanted to limit the damage.  I wanted to have a less dramatic second half collapse.  My primary goal was to beat last week’s time, and I liked my chances.

In mile 17, I slowed to 11 minutes.  Last week, I was already running 12-13 minute miles by then, so I was still holding up better.

Mile 18 seemed to take forever.  When I looked at my watch, I assumed it would be a 13 minute mile.  It was only 11:24.  That was actually encouraging.  I started the next mile with some extra motivation.  I just wanted to limit the damage.

The next mile took us through more residential neighborhoods, and one yard had several signs.  One read, “200 yards to the 19 mile sign.”  I looked ahead, and there it was.  When I got there, I was disappointed to see I ran that mile in 13:06.

At that pace, I wouldn’t be able to break 4:30.  At first, I thought I could do it if I sped up a little.  Then I realized I was forgetting about that pesky 0.2 miles at the end.  I actually had no chance of breaking 4:30, but I still had a good chance of breaking 4:40.  Earlier, I thought finishing in the 4:30s was a realistic goal.  At this point, it looked likely.

Just after the 19 mile mark, I was passed by the 4:10 pace group.  Having realized I wouldn’t break 4:30, I wasn’t too concerned.  I tried to bear down and keeping from slowing down.  My next two miles were each 13 minutes or a few seconds faster.  That was encouraging.

This race had a 90s theme.  I think it’s because the first Fox Cities Marathon was held in 1991.  Throughout the race, I saw signs with questions about 90s movies.  Then the next sign would identify the movie and year.  One of the movies was Toy Story.  As I neared an aid station, I saw two volunteers walking along the road in costume.  One was Buzz Lightyear.  The other was a toy soldier.  I regret not taking a picture.  I was past them before I remembered I had a camera.

Last week, I started walking at 22 miles after taking more than 14 minutes to run a mile.  This week, my time for mile 22 was 13:30.  This week, I kept running, knowing it would allow me to beat my times for miles 23-25.  If nothing else, I was going to beat last week’s time.

I reached what looked like a boardwalk.  We were alongside some old railroad tracks.  I realized we had reached the trestle bridge.  I’ve never run across this bridge before.  While I missed the other river crossings, this one was a welcome addition to the course.  I no longer had to worry about my legs getting stiff.  That ship had already sailed, so I stopped twice to take pictures.  Each time, it was difficult to start running again.

Shortly after crossing the bridge, I saw the 23 mile sign.  Even with the stops, that mile was under 15 minutes.  By comparison, the same mile of last week’s race took more than 16 minutes, because I walked it.  Miles 24 and 25 were also slow.  Each one took between 14 and 15 minutes, but that was better than walking, as I did last week.

Last week, I picked up the pace from 25 to the finish.  That wasn’t going to happen this week, but I did the best I could.  It occurred to be that I might be able to break 4:40, but it was going to be close.

As we ran through Neenah, we weren’t on the main street, so it was hard to tell where I was.  At one point, I looked to my left and saw a bridge.  I recognized it.  The last time I ran this race, our approach to Neenah took us across Doty Island.  We entered downtown Neenah from the bridge on my left.  From there, it was only a few blocks to Riverside Park.

After three more blocks, we turned left.  I heard someone say we were almost to 26.  Looking ahead, I could see the 26 mile mark.  It was just before a turn.  I checked my watch when I got there.  4:36:07.  I knew I had it.

I turned and looked for the finish line.  I couldn’t see it yet.  At the end of the next block, I saw the 13 mile sign for the half marathon.  We had one more turn.  Then I could finally see the finish.  For four miles, people had been saying, “You’re almost there.”  For the record, you’re not “almost there” until you can see the finish line.  NOW, I was almost there.  I kept pushing and finished in 4:38:38.

One of my goals was to beat last week’s 4:57.  I did that.  I thought something in the 4:30s was realistic.  I did that.  I wanted to do a better job of pacing.  Two out of three ain’t bad.

The finisher medal read, “25.” That’s because this was the 25th Fox Cities Marathon.  Finish line food, besides fruit, cheese cubes and cookies, included cake.  Again, that’s because they were celebrating 25 years.

I made my way through the finish area and found the 50 States Marathon club tent.  Eventually, I retrieved my gear bag and walked back to my car.  It was a half mile walk.  I didn’t eat much post-race food, so I grabbed some lunch on my way back to the hotel.  Eventually, after a shower and a long soak in the whirlpool, I had a proper dinner.  By proper, I mean pizza and lots of beer.  This is Wisconsin, after all.

This was my fourth race wearing KT tape.  My left leg is improving.  My right leg isn’t.  After the race, it was as sore as it’s been.  The good news is that I’m one week closer to the end of my 2015 race schedule.  I need to hang in there for 12 more weeks.  They’re not getting easier, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I Know Why My Legs Are Always Stiff

Last night, I had an epiphany.  I woke up at 1:00 AM and realized what’s wrong with my legs.  Then I couldn’t get back to sleep.  Why do I always have my biggest insights in the middle of the night?

I’ve written quite a bit recently about groin injuries in both legs.  As inconvenient as those injuries have been, they’ve been overshadowed lately by other problems with my legs.  Some days, I have trouble just getting around.  The most frustrating thing has been not knowing for sure what was wrong.  I think I finally understand.

First, here’s what I’ve been experiencing lately.  It began in June.  In the first few days after the Bighorn Mountain 100, I had a case of DOMS.  Understandably, some of the muscles in my legs – particularly my quads – were sore and stiff.  You expect that for a few days, but it seemed like I never completely got over the stiffness.

I eventually noticed that I was most prone to stiffness after sleeping and after sitting for a period of time.  Some days were worse than others.  On good days, I felt normal.  On bad days, just walking around at work or at home became difficult.

I also started having legs cramps during the night.  I wake up frequently during the night.  That’s normal for me.  What's not normal is having my legs cramp up as soon as I try to move them.  At first, the cramps were mild.  By mid-August, they became severe.  I’ve learned to prevent them by gently flexing the muscles in my legs before trying to move.

Usually I experienced these cramps in my upper legs, but a few times I’ve had cramps in my calves.  When I mentioned this to Deb, she suggested I might have a magnesium deficiency, so I did a little research.  A magnesium deficiency can cause muscle cramps, but as I did more research, I became skeptical.

Foods high in magnesium include whole grains, green vegetables, nuts, beans, bananas and avocados.  These are all foods that I’ve been eating more of in the last year.  There are also several foods that can cause your body to lose magnesium.  These include carbonated beverages and caffeinated beverages.  In general, I’ve been consuming fewer of these.  If I didn’t have a magnesium deficiency a year ago, it seemed unlikely that I should now.

Although I was skeptical, I tried taking a magnesium supplement for a while to see if it would make a difference.   I eventually concluded that it didn’t.

As I learned about magnesium, I discovered that people taking calcium supplements need extra magnesium, because calcium affects your body’s ability to absorb calcium.  That got me thinking about calcium.  It plays an important role in the way muscle fibers function.  A calcium deficiency can cause all kinds of muscle symptoms, including cramps and soreness.

About a year ago, I started flirting with the idea of switching to a plant-based diet.  I’m more about moderation than absolutes, so I made gradual changes to my diet.  It wasn’t too hard to give up meat, since I didn’t eat much red meat to begin with.  That mostly meant giving up chicken.  Giving up dairy products was another matter entirely.

I live in a dairy state.  I grew up in the city, but my dad grew up on a farm.  I grew up drinking milk with most meals.  Most people have some degree of lactose intolerance.  I don’t.  I’m a descendant of Scandinavian immigrants.  My heritage includes generations of dairy farmers.

While giving up dairy products was a big deal, I was able to do it.  I still sometimes ate cheese when I was dining out, most notably on pizza.  At home, though, I eliminated dairy from my diet completely.  That was about a year ago.  Dairy products are good sources of calcium, so it seemed plausible that I was no longer getting enough calcium.  It also seemed to explain why my symptoms got worse in early August.  I was still getting dairy in my diet when I traveled, but in early August I was home for three weeks.

I made a point of adding some milk and cheese to my diet each day.  At first, it seemed to be making a difference.  After a few days, I noticed my nighttime cramps were less severe.  They never went away, however.  I also didn’t notice any real difference in the chronic stiffness in my legs.  I eventually concluded that calcium wasn’t the answer, but I’ll still pay attention to my calcium intake in the future.

There are other causes of muscle soreness, stiffness or cramps.  Muscle fatigue can be brought on by overuse.  I run a lot.  I race frequently, and conventional wisdom would suggest I need more than one week to fully recover from each marathon.  It certainly seemed plausible that my muscles were breaking down from overuse.  Still, there were problems with that explanation.

First, why did my symptoms get worse as I did less training?  Why did they peak when I had a three week break from racing?  Finally, why weren’t some muscles affected more than others?

The symptoms in my legs had an eerie symmetry.  There weren’t just one or two sore muscles.  All of the muscles in my upper legs seemed equally affected.  Also, both legs were affected equally.  When one leg felt fine, they both did.  When one leg was stiff or sore, they both were.  When one leg had nighttime cramps, they both did.

It was that bilateral symmetry that made me think it had to be a systemic problem, like a nutritional deficiency.  When that theory wasn’t panning out, I wondered if I had some type of strange degenerative disease.

Over the past few months, I’ve written quite a bit about my groin injuries.  I’ve alluded to the other symptoms, but haven’t had much to say.  In fact, the stiffness and cramps have been a bigger problem.  At times, they’re almost debilitating, and they’re having a bigger impact on my racing.  Life would be so much easier if I only had to worry about the injuries.

At times, I was tempted to see a doctor to find out what was wrong.  Two things were holding me back.  First, I would have felt awfully sheepish, since I haven’t recovered from the groin strain in my right leg, and I’m back to running marathons every weekend.  I also didn’t know if I’d have any symptoms when I went into the clinic.  I have good days and bad days.  As bad as I feel on some days, I sometimes have days when I feel fine.

I’m worst in the morning.  Before I can move, I need to gently flex the muscles in my legs.  Then, one leg at a time, I need to slowly bend and straighten my knees.  After exercising each leg while still lying in bed, I can finally get up.  Walking to another room is initially a chore.  I gradually loosen up, but not much.  Then, after taking a hot bath, I’m instantly cured.  It’s only temporary, but I feel good as new after a bath.  That was an important clue.

I also noticed that my problems seemed to be temperature related.  If I was in an air conditioned room, I got stiff after sitting for relatively short periods of time.  My symptoms were worse when my legs were cold.  I can’t sleep if I’m warm, so we keep the house cold at night.  My legs tend to get colder toward morning.  Not surprisingly, that’s when I stiffen up the most.

I tried sleeping with PJs on my legs, instead of just sleeping in my underwear.  I still had some stiffness and cramps, but my symptoms weren’t as severe.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t sleep all night that way.  I got too warm and started having trouble getting back to sleep.

When I started reintroducing dairy products into my diet, it happened to coincide with the nights I was sleeping in PJ bottoms.  I thought the calcium was helping, but it was actually keeping my legs warm that was helping.

That was the last piece of the puzzle.  I don’t know why it took so long, but I finally connected the dots.  I DO have a strange disease.  It’s not a degenerative disease.  It’s a circulatory disease.  I’ve had it all my life.

I have a vascular disorder called Raynaud’s Syndrome.   This is a condition that causes a loss of blood flow to the extremities when you get cold.  If I get cold, my hands turn white, almost immediately.  It’s kind of like this.

One of the characteristics of Raynaud’s Syndrome is that it’s symmetrical.  Both hands turn white at the same time.  It doesn’t matter if one hand is exposed to the cold and the other is covered.  They’re both affected.  This is why I’m so sensitive to cold and wet conditions in races.  I’ve lost track of the number of times in the last year alone that my hands went numb during a race.

When I was young, I had the same problem with my feet.  I can recall times when I started getting cold while I was outside on a winter day, and I couldn’t get warm, because I was away from home.  My feet often got painfully cold.  This is why I never took an interest in winter sports, despite living in Minnesota.

After I took up running, I stopped having problems with my feet.  I still had symptoms of Raynaud’s in my hands and arms, but I developed such good circulation in my legs and feet that my feet seemed to be cured.

It’s possible that my circulation is decreasing gradually with age, but I never noticed because I constantly generate good blood flow by running.  Why am I having symptoms now?  For the first time in several years, I’ve cut back significantly on training for more than a week or two.

I mentioned I have good days and bad days.  I’ve noticed recently, the good days are the days I run.  After a run, my legs feel normal for the rest of the day.  At night, I’m inactive for several hours and my legs cool down.  Then my symptoms return.

After the groin strain in my right leg, I cut back on running, but I started cross-training on a stationary bike.  During that time I was fine.  The first time I went several days without either running or cycling was after the Bighorn Mountain 100.  That’s when my symptoms started.  In July, I started noticing soreness in my groin, even riding the bike.  After noticing that on two consecutive days, I stopped doing the cycling workouts.  I never got back to them.  That’s when my symptoms got worse.

I’ve been both puzzled and frustrated with the way my marathon pace has deteriorated.  At first, I thought I was just getting out of shape, but I was surprised by how quickly my performance was dropping off.  More recently, I noticed that my race performances have been all over the board.  I think that’s a combination of two factors.  My overall cardiovascular fitness has declined, but that’s only part of the problem.  I also often start races with stiff legs.  While my overall fitness has declined a little, the blood flow to my legs has apparently declined more.

I never had symptoms in my legs as a child, but I’m starting to realize that what I’m experiencing now has come on gradually as I’ve aged.  For years, I’ve been a bit stiff when I first get up.  That’s the main reason I prefer to run in the afternoon.  If I’m going to run in the morning, I need to take a hot bath first to loosen up my legs.  On race days, I get up as early as I need to, so I can take a bath and do some stretching.

In recent years, I’ve been running more than ever.  May was the 13th consecutive month that I ran at least 200 miles.  On the days I didn’t run, I usually did some type of cross-training, even if it was only for 20 minutes.  Doing some activity every day generated enough blood flow to my legs that I didn’t notice any symptoms other than being a little bit stiff in the morning.  That seemed normal.

Do I know for sure that I have Raynaud’s Syndrome?  Yes.  I realized I had it when I was young, although I didn’t know what it was called.  Do I know for sure that it’s the cause of all my recent symptoms?  No, but everything adds up.  I expect I’ll be fine when I can resume daily activity, similar to what I was doing before my groin injury.  Unfortunately, I have to heal first.

I have a long road ahead of me.  In the short term, I’m still determined to finish my race schedule.  That’ll be 13 more weeks of races.  I probably won’t be able to heal from my injuries until my race season is over.  In the meantime, my training will still be limited.  When I eventually heal, I’ll be able to gradually return to a daily training schedule.  I’ll have a reduced training volume at first, but if I can do a short workout each day, I’ll hopefully have better circulation in my legs.

In the short term, I’ll still have the same stiffness, and I’ll still have nighttime cramps.  While that’s uncomfortable, at least I have a better understanding of what’s wrong with my legs.  Not knowing has been driving me crazy.  In recent weeks, I’ve had bouts of depression and anxiety.  I haven’t been very productive, and I’ve been irritable.  Hopefully, my mental state will improve now, even though my physical state is still the same.  Understanding is half the battle.