Team World Vision Training - 2 weeks to go

This training cycle has me leaping from one pain to another. Last week my left quad, which has been bugging me for a few weeks ago, continued to act up along with my right calf. I got in to see a physical therapist, and he suggested some dry needling. So I agreed to have some small needles jabbed into my calf and quad muscles. 

My calf felt better after the dry needling, but my quad was about the same. Both pains didn’t bother too much on the handful runs I did. Unfortunately,  I felt flat on those runs. My legs didn’t have any pop to them, and I felt fatigued on almost every run.

On Saturday, I went out for a twenty mile run, and unfortunately my right ankle started acting up. Earlier when it acted up, it felt better after a day’s rest. The ankle started hurting just over eleven miles into my twenty mile run, and the pain came and went. Some miles it didn’t hurt at all, and others it was pretty sore.

After completing twenty miles, I feeling pretty confident I’ll be able to finish the Twin Cities Marathon. At one point I had visions of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, but at this point I’m just aiming to finish it and have fun.

I’ve surpassed my goal of raising $50 per mile for a total of $1310 for Team World Vision. Thanks to everyone for helping bring clean water to communities in need. You can still donate through my Team World Vision page: Nate Leckband - Team World Vision, or my Facebook fundraising page: Nate Leckband’s fundraiser.

5K - Yearly Goals Update

I ran Julliette’s Race last Saturday, and I was looking to complete one of my goals for 2019, running a 5K in under 18 minutes. I don’t do race reports anymore, but I figured for this one I’d do a report since I’d really geared up for this race.

I wasn’t overly optimistic about being able to break 18 minutes going into the race. I’d been dealing with a sore ankle, sore calf, and sore quad, and I hadn’t run hardly at all for two weeks. Then, last Wednesday my ankle and calf started feeling better, and my quad was a little better. I did a 12 mile run on Thursday (another reason why I wasn’t overall optimistic about the race), and while the quad was a little sore, it was definitely manageable. Before the run I saw a chiropractor, and he did some pressure point thing to my quad and calf, and on Friday my quad felt the best it had in a couple weeks.

***

The race itself started out pretty well. I needed to average 5:47 to break 18 minutes, and I started out running just under 5:40 per mile. 

I was running with a couple people for a while. The first was a guy who I’d beaten in the previous year (only because he was running with his dog and it stopped to poop), and he told me our pace after about a quarter of a mile. He pulled away from me around the half mile mark, and I pulled away from the guy behind me around the mile mark.

So, I was running alone, which wasn’t ideal as I sometimes get in my head too much. When I hit the second mile marker at a little slower pace than the first, I really had to battle the negative self-talk.

With a quarter mile left, I really was having a lot of self-doubt. I started to feel certain that I wasn’t going to make my goal, and began to think about slowing way down since I wasn’t going to make my goal anyway.

Feeling like giving up has happened many times, especially in 5K races, but often something happens that is hard to explain—it feels backwards from the mind of matter mantra. While my brain’s telling me to give up, my legs decide they have a little more left.

That’s was happened in Julliette’s Race. I picked up the pace, and cross the line at a decent pace—not the sprint I’ve managed at several 5Ks in the past, but still a little faster than I’d been running the last mile.

When I stopped my watch at the finish, it read 17:58—just sneaking in under 18 minutes. I didn’t get too excited—the official results weren’t yet in, and it was perfectly possible that my official time would be 18:00.

It wasn’t. I came in officially at 17:58. I’m pumped. A yearly goal, checked off the list. That makes two goals completed as I also hit my goal of raising $1310 for Team World Vision.

I’m pretty pumped about breaking 18 minutes at Julliette’s Race. When I ran 18:10 at the Eagan parkrun several weeks ago, I was certain I could hit 17:45 or faster at Julliette’s Race—a flatter course with no sharp turns or hills—but after all my little injuries and lack of running, I knew breaking 18 minutes was far from certain.

Two goals down for the year, three more to go.

Coping with Mental Illness - DBT

In my last post, I wrote about how I was dealing with a mixed state—a combination of hypomania and depression. While the manic side of the mixed stated is more prevalent, the depressive side is also bothersome. I hate how the manic side keeps me from focusing, pushes me to do or say things I wouldn’t normally, and makes it difficult to sleep. But I also hate how the depressive side saps my energy, makes me sad with little provocation, and has me feeling guilty about any past mistake that crosses my memory.

Last week, I went to see my therapist. I talked to her about what was going on and asked her what DBT skills I should work on. Several years ago, after a hospitalization for depression, I attended a six week class on dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT. DBT includes four different skill areas including interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and mindfulness. I talked to my therapist about my problems, and she suggested several skills to work on. These skills have been helpful and have definitely improved my mood and increased my effectiveness. 

In some future posts, I’m going to share some of the skills I’ve been working on and how those skills have helped. If you want to read about the types of DBT skills, you can browse the “Skills Lessons” from the website, “DBT Self Help.”

I’m working on skills in three sf the four categories in DBT: mindfulness, emotional regulation, and distress tolerance. Since I’m not dealing with any interpersonal issues, I’m not working on any skills in interpersonal effectiveness. Working on these skills has helped me get through this latest episode, and I really feel like I’ve turned a corner and am almost back to “normal.”

Thanks for reading.

Mania and Depression

The last couple weeks have been somewhat challenging but manageable. I’ve been dealing with some hypomania and mixed states. Hypomania is marked by an elevated mood, increased goal-driven behavior, and increased gregariousnes among other symptoms. It is not as severe as mania. A mixed state includes symptoms of both mania/hypomania and depression.

I usually notice something is wrong when I start sleeping poorly. Symptoms of hypomania include a decreased need for sleep and sleep difficulties. During most hypomanic episodes, I have difficulties falling or staying asleep. Thankfully, during this episode my sleep hasn’t been great, but I’ve only had one night that I slept less than six hours. 

Having sleep problems used to really bother me because I thought my poor sleep was making me manic. And though poor sleep can aggravate or cause bipolar symptoms, the doctor that manages my medications told me it’s more likely that the hypomania is causing the poor sleep and not the other way around. By thinking about the poor sleep as a symptom rather than a cause of hypomania, it helps me relax a little more about my sleep and not stress out about it, making it even more difficult to sleep.

For the last couple weeks I’ve been in a predominately mixed state with hypomania being most prominent. I have moments where I want to seek out conversation or do all the talking in a conversation. Thankfully, after going through bipolar cycles for years, I’ve been able to cope with these symptoms better than I used to. I try hard to say to myself, “Do I really need to talk to this person right now? Is this the best time to talk to her or him?” Then, when I’m having a conversation, I try to focus on listening and asking questions rather than thinking about what I want to say.

And while the hypomania can be bothersome, I’m sometimes able to focus enough that I can harness some of that energy and get more done than I normally would. Unfortunately, when I’m in a mixed state, I also fall into a depressed mood, which makes it hard to get anything done and generally has me wanting to do nothing but sit back in my recliner and do nothing.

While dealing with my latest mixed state hasn’t been fun, it has given me the motivation to go over some of my DBT skills and to use those skills to help get through it. In some later posts I might write about which DBT skills I’ve been working on and how they’ve been helping me through this episode.

Thanks for reading.

Team World Vision Training - 3 weeks to go

Three weeks out from most marathons are known as “peak weeks.” A peak week is the week with the highest mileage and the hardest workouts. This week was neither for me.

Though I didn’t do what I’ve done for every other marathons I’ve race, I’m actually pretty happy with this week. On last week’s long run I had to call Laura to come and pick me up because my right ankle hurt so bad. I feared it was peroneal tendinitis, an injury I had on my left ankle that nagged me for months.

Thankfully, my ankle doesn’t hurt at all, and the sore quad that just won’t get better along with a sore calf are now starting to improve, A chiropractor did some pressure point thing to my quad, and on the next day it felt better than it had in weeks.

I’m going to see a physical therapist who specializing in running on Thursday, so I’m hoping he can help me get even healthier before the race. 

This week I ran 27 miles—pretty low for a peak week, especially considering almost every one of my past peak weeks have been 50+ miles. But, I’m feeling much more confident about the race. Now I’m just trying to decide if I should race it as fast as I can, or enjoy it, take it the sights and the crowds, eat every type of food offered, and finish without feeling like my legs have been worked over by a meat tenderizer.

I’m still accepting donations to Team World Vision vision to help bring clean water to communities in need. While I run the race I’ll be dedicating each mile to a donor or donors, so if you feel so inclined, make a donation before the race and I’ll run a mile in your honor.

Here’s a statistic on clean water access:

Worldwide, 144 million people depend on surface water for their water supply.

If you would like to donate to Team World Vision, feel free to visit my Facebook Fundraising page or

Team World Vision Fundraising page.

5K Goal

One of my goals for this year was to run under 18 minutes for the 5K. Last year I didn’t come close to my goal of breaking 17 minutes. My closest effort was 17:45 on a fairly flat course.

So, this year I decided that it wasn’t likely that I was going to get much faster—especially since my main focus was going to be training for the Twin Cities Marathon. 

I have, however, been doing interval workouts geared toward a sub-18 minute 5K, and it was starting to look like those workouts are paying off. We have a local 5K called “parkrun,” a free weekly timed 5K. I knew my first 5K a week from this a month ago wasn’t going to be under 18:00, but I wanted to see where I was at. I ended up running an 18:41, but I was also running by myself for almost the entire race, so I thought I could have gone faster if I’d been racing someone else.

A couple weeks ago my only goal was to improve from the previous week, chipping away at breaking 18 minutes. That race there was a runner in front whom I only saw for the first mile or so. He was quite a ways in front, and ended up almost setting the course record,

I did have someone running with me, however. He ran right behind me for the entire race, and though it would have been helpful if he would have taken the lead for a while so I could draft, it was still motivating knowing that someone was running right behind me, presumably to try and beat me at the end.

After having him behind me for two miles, the competitive side of me started strategizing. I decided to slowly speed up until there was a quarter mile left, and then go as fast as I could to the finish. 

The quarter mile mark comes right after going up and down the biggest hill on the course, and I didn’t have a lot left when we hit the hill. Still, I was able to pick it up and finish relatively fast, beating the guy behind me by four seconds. My time was 18:10–a big improvement from the previous week.

Tomorrow I’m going to be running a flatter course with far fewer turns than the parkrun, so I’m hoping I can break 18 minutes. I’m not overly optimistic, however, as I’ve cut back my running pretty significantly because of injuries. Thankfully my ankle hasn’t been bothering me at all, and my quad strain feels a little better. 

So, wish me luck for tomorrow—I’ll need it. 

Team World Vision Training - 4 weeks to go

First off, I want to again share my joy for the thoughts, well-wishes, prayers, and generosity that so many of you have shared with me as I've training for Team World Vision. I've surpassed my fundraising goal for Team World Vision and have raised over $50 per mile of the Twin Cities Marathon. That money will bring clean water to communities in need. 

My training this week was difficult, and there's now some doubt in my mind if I will be able to run the Twin Cities Marathon. For several weeks I've been dealing with a sore quadricep muscle, and now for a couple weeks I've been dealing with a sore ankle.

On Saturday, when I tried to complete my long run, I had to call Laura to come and pick me up because my ankle hurt even when I was walking and I didn't want to do any further damage to it. Later that day, however, it felt fine, so it's hard to tell exactly what's going one. I did a 20 minute run yesterday, and my ankle didn't hurt at all. There's a chance my ankle might have started hurting because I stopped using my Superfeet insoles (my doctor recommended them), so I'm going to replace those.

I also have an appointment in a week with a physical therapist who specializes in running, so I'm hoping he'll help me get healed enough to complete the marathon.

Here's a stat for this week:

In 2017, Team World Vision helped bring clean water to 3.2 million people.

Though I've already surpassed my fundraising goal, we can still do more! You can donate through my fundraising page: Team World Vision - Nathan Leckband, or through my Facebook fundraising page: Nate Leckband's Facebook Fundraiser.

Team World Vision Training - 5 weeks to go

This week started out great and kept going well until Friday after my run. I'd been pretty injury-free since I'd taken those five days off for an ankle issue, but on Friday I had two issues crop up.

Part of why my week had been going well before Friday was that I'd been feeling healthy and strong on all my runs. I've had a bit of a sore right quad for a couple weeks, but it was really minor and I didn't notice it much if at all during my runs. The calf popped up on Wednesday, but I barely felt it, and on Thursday I had a strong interval workout where my calf and quad didn't bother me at all.

Then, on Friday, my right calf started aching during my run. It wasn't bad at first, but as the run went on it continued to get worse. Then, with about 3/4 of a mile left, my right ankle started bugging me. At the time I thought, Uh oh, this is a new pain, and it’s not good.

I don’t have a solid answer for why my calf and ankle started bugging me. I have a few guesses though: My volume was up the previous week, and though it wasn’t nearly as high as it’s been in the past, it was still up there. Then last week it wasn’t quite as high, but before Friday I was on my way to the two highest back-to-back weeks of mileage in over a year.

I also got a new pair of shoes with a zero drop that may have led to the calf soreness (and maybe ankle—who knows). Normally I run in shoes with between 5 and 10 mm drop, so I knew I needed to ease into my new Altra Escalantes, but when I was going to go for a short run with them, they were feeling so great I ended up going seven miles. I honestly don’t know if that made a difference on the injury front. I felt fine the rest of the day and the next day after the run, but it’s possible the run in the Escalantes contributed to my calf and ankle pain.

With the soreness I was a little worried, especially since my ankle felt similar to how the other ankle felt when I had peroneal tendinitis, and that injury took months to heal. Fortunately, I took Saturday and Sunday off, and by today (Monday), both my ankle and my calf are feeling much better. I’m taking today and tomorrow off of running too, and I’ve been cycling while taking a break from the running.

I’ll maybe give an update on my injuries mid-week. I hope it’ll be good news.

On a very positive note, I’ve achieved and surpassed my fundraising goal for Team World Vision. Thank you so much to all of you for your generosity in helping communities without access to clean water. Though I’ve reached my goal, you can still contribute. Your donation will make a big impact for those with water insecurity.

If you’re interested in donating to my Team World Vision fundraiser, you can donate through my Facebook fundraising page, or you can donate on my Team World Vision fundraising page.