« Double Day | Main | Itchy Stitches Be Gone! »
June 12, 2007
A Run of Sorts
So this morning I woke up at 4:30 and even though my alarm wasn't going to go off until 4:45 I couldn't fall back asleep. I'm the kind of person that if I wake up at 4:44 and my alarm is going to go off at 4:45 - I will fall back asleep for that one minute and thoroughly enjoy it. Not so this morning. Why you might ask? Well - I had a run planned this morning and I was really quite anxious and excited to get on with it! :) I laid there in bed though waiting because I knew O wasn't nearly as excited at that time of morning to be getting up and he had agreed the night before to run with me.
My plan was to try a 30 minute run and see how I felt during and after. And that's exactly what I did! And while it was a definite improvement over the 5 minutes of jogging that I did on Saturday, I still would grade this run as a B- or maybe a 5 out of 10. I was able to do the full 30 minutes but I did feel some pain in my hip/tailbone area and while I could get through it, I wouldn't have wanted to (a) run harder or (b) run any longer. My assessment of the situation is that the run isn't quite there yet. I'm going to try again on Thursday.
When I got home from work today my goal was to hop on my trainer for about 30 minutes. I decided on a nap first though because Roxy talked me into it. She's sneaky like that - looking all comfortable on the bed with a long yawn. Just makes you real sleepy you know?! :) When I got up from the nap though I felt like everything hurt. My feet, my hip, my tailbone. And my ribs really hurt (although they always hurt when I get up from sleeping because I'm far too stubborn to give up sleeping on my belly). I walked around a little and while I felt better I still decided that I may be pushing my body a bit too hard right now. It's hard to imagine 30 minutes of easy jogging as too much training when about a month ago I was training more like 3 hours/day but the circumstances are what they are and I have to accept that. So I decided against the bike tonight in favor for a dinner (O is away tonight at his high school's graduation).
The good news is my new helmet came in the mail today! That means I can get back outside on my bike and since I feel best on my bike right now, I may be doing a lot of riding! I sent out an email to just about every cyclist friend I have to see who would want to ride with me on Friday or Saturday. I want to ride outside again soon but I definitely want to ride with someone my first time back. And I think I want to ride in the one park near where we live because half the park isn't open to traffic and the other half has a speed limit of about 30 mph. Small baby steps you know. :)
My plan for tomorrow is a swim workout in the am that is a little more bona fide than the 1500 yds I did yesterday and then maybe an easy spin on the trainer tomorrow night.
I have to admit I get a little down about this whole situation on occasion. I suppose the most frustrating thing is the thought of not being able to race the way I want or missing races altogether because I'm not healthy enough to get back out there. But I remind myself often that this is the hand I was dealt and that part of becoming a better athlete is learning how to deal with these obstacles. Every great triathlete out there has had to get through the valleys too. And quite frankly my "situation" could have been much worse. I will say one thing though. I have always been a determined person but I don't think I've ever in my life felt the kind of determination I feel right now to get better, to get back to training and to get back to some serious kick-butt racing. Whatever was smoldering deep down inside of me is now burning so strongly I'm having trouble controlling the heat! Now I just need my body to cooperate and I just need to be smart about all this and it could very well turn out to be the low that turns into a very big high. If only a little patience...and knowing that my timetable isn't always God's.
Posted by beth at June 12, 2007 8:18 PM
Comments
You compared your 30 minutes of running to the 3 hours of working out per day you're used to. I have this theory that I always train the same amount, if you factor in my energy level and volume. If I feel really good, I run a lot. If I don't, I don't run as much, but it feels about just as hard. So for me, a 40 mile week when I'm kind of struggling might be just as hard as a 70 mile week when I'm feeling good.
Right now your body is struggling to recover, so you could look at is as you're still training hard each day, a lot of that energy is just going towards your healing...as your body gets better and better, the volume will come back up and it won't be that much harder than what you're doing now (though it will be more time-consuming).
I know your progress _feels_ slow, but from afar, it actually seems quite quick. It's great to hear how fired up you are!
Posted by: Alison at June 12, 2007 10:33 PM