Tapering

Even though this is my second half marathon, I have never properly trained for a race of this distance.

It's sometimes because of motivation, but mostly it's due to injury.

For example, this time around, I maintained my fitness during the winter. I ran on the treadmill occasionally, swam and went on the bike. When it got warmed outside, I even did a few suicide runs, where my boyfriend would drive me 8-10km out and I'd run back home.

And then my knee/s started hurting. And it kept getting worse, until I went to see a doctor about it. He identified that I had tendon pain, and I took some time off and did a bunch of electro-therapy. Then I got better!

At the same time the knee was getting better, I decided to buy Vibrams. I thought the natural running pattern of the lighter shoes would force my stride to become better and would make everything better.

But I didn't factor in the time it should take to transition, and my calf got injured. (Mostly normal muscle tightness from being pushed too hard after it hadn't been run on - ever.)

So my calf hurt, and I took about 15 'rest' days where I biked and walked instead :)

Yesterday I had an amazing bike/run workout. I biked for an hour (15mi) and then went on the treadmill, with my Mizuno's. I thought I would try run for a minute, walk for a minute and repeat until I wanted to stop. But I ran for 3 minutes... nothing. I ran for two more minutes... I told myself I'd run for ten minutes and I would stop if I felt the knee twinge. I made it to a mile (11:11min) and NOTHING HURT. And of course, I wanted to keep running because it felt amazing. But I didn't want to push it, to jinx it, because I had a race at the end of the week.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that whenever I feel great, and enjoy running, I jinx it by signing up for a race. And while 'training' for that race, I destroy my enjoyment of running. On top of staying healthy, there is the added pressure of having to run a race at the end of the training cycle. So after my second half marathon.... I'm not going to sign up for another for a while.

I want to run whenever I want, for however long I want to. I want to enjoy running, I want to stay injury-free, and I want to have lots and lots of races in my future. But I have to get back to running strongly and consistently, and that hasn't happened since before I started racing.

So no more signing up for races........... (unless I'm able to run injury-free through the summer).... or at least, not months in advance! ;)

Injury Rehab

As runners, I think it's hard to accept that our body is failing us. Sometimes it's out own fault - we went too far, too fast or we tried something we maybe weren't ready for. For me, usually it's that I stopped running for a bit (due to being busy, travelling, or whatever) and then coming back as if nothing happened.

Whatever the reason we are injured, it's hard to accept it (at least it is for me). I WANT to run, and to run pain-free. It seems like it's been a while since I've had a great run where my knee wasn't hurting. It seems like it's become normal and most days I go with it. A couple of weeks ago I went running for 50 mins just ignoring my knee pain, consoling myself with the fact that at least it's not getting worse.

Well, last week it did get worse. I had to stop and have a little melt down as I understood that this injury wasn't due to not being ready to run or being out of shape. This was a real thing that will not go away.

So I scheduled an appt with a chiropractor, since that's what our school has close by. They assured me they could see/help me, and I gave it a shot.

The Dr said I have irritated lateral tendons and he zapped my knee with electricity. He then used a laser to break up scar tissue. He sent me away to ice it and take it easy. He wants me to run as long as it doesn't hurt, and to go back on Monday.

It seemed that the zapping and shining worked, a little. It hasn't been as sore as that workout where I ended up crying and limping home. It mostly hurts when I cross my legs at school, or when I twist my leg side-ways.

So I'm learning to take it easy and I'm learning that I can only go as far as my weakest tendon.