Back in the Saddle

I haven't posted in a long time.  Partially on purpose.

Life is busy and while I often have ideas I want to put down "on paper", by the time I get a chance to do that, I've forgotten what it was I wanted to write about.

But, also...  I've been feeling very negative about my running.  This spring finally hit a goal I've been chasing for 2 years:  Sub-30 5K.  It was amazing.  I continued track workouts, pushing myself to go faster than I ever thought I could, attempting to maintain a 10 mile long run base.  But as I did all that, I noticed pain creeping in.

I ignored it at first, but then it became clear that it wasn't going to just go away.  It needed to be addressed.  First thing to go was the long runs.  Running coach for our club said no more than 5 miles at a time.  Icing.  New Shoes. Stretches.  Massage.  Some of it helped, some didn't.  Some helped temporarily, but right after a hard workout, I'd be back at square one.

I was reluctant to give up the speed work...  I was finally getting faster and didn't want to lose what I worked so hard to get.

But, inevitably, August rolled around and I was facing a 10K race when I had been running mainly 2-3 milers all summer.  Surprisingly, I survived.  I realized that I hadn't lost as much endurance as I would have expected.  That made me happy.

Now that September has rolled around, training for the WDW Marathon has officially begun.  I have come to terms with saying goodbye to track workouts (for now).  I am not where I had hoped to be to head into this training cycle (base mileage), but I'm going to make the best of it.

I just ordered Piyo and am hoping that the strength and flexibility that everyone has been raving about will be that little something extra that turns my "just enough" training into something more.  Time to get back in the saddle.