I finished out the spring training well and feeling upbeat about my slow but steady improvement. I had an awful 5k at the BAA 5k but the workouts were coming along and I expected things to start to look up.
I also began working with Anna Willard, yes the former world #2 in the 800m and Olympic steeple chaser, on changing my muscular system and form through a very involved system of exercises, massages and stretches in hopes of fixing the coordination. Now obviously anytime you do something that is going to change your form it comes with a huge risk of injury. I knew this going in but decided to push on because what I really want is to race marathons again and without change that wasn't going to happen.
After a couple of months I was starting to see some changes in my form. Coordination was about the same but my flat 100m sprints before workouts were getting much faster. In fact some of the fastest I have ever done. However this increased speed was not coming from an even change in my form and I got hurt in mid may. I felt a pain on a workout in my low butt/ high back of leg area. It was quite sore on my run the next day. On that Sunday I raced the Travs Trail 3 mile. One of my favorite races. I was in a good bit of pain on the warm up but decided that I would gut it out and take a few days off after.
It turned out to be a lot more than a few days. I could barely walk for a week. MRI's would reveal that I had caused a stress fracture at the base of the pelvis where the hamstring attaches. This would be pretty slow to heal. During this time I continued to do the exercise from Anna and continue to work towards fixing the coordination problem.
I have started to jog a little bit over the last couple of weeks but I'm a long way from any real training. I'm also starting a new job in a week or so and am more than a little worried about how I'm going to fit everything in. I want to get back to a reasonable training level, for me about 100 miles a week plus or minus about 20 miles. I also spend about 30 minutes a day on the new exercises. I try to go to a 90 minute yoga class once or twice a week, an hour exercise session with Anna each week and an hour of treatment with her associate Brad each week. This combined with writing lesson plans for a whole new curriculum, and doing the normal test corrections and day to day homework associated with teaching and you can see how I'm a bit nervous about trying to get through the day with enough time to make a healthy dinner and find enough hours of sleep to actually absorb the work I'm doing.
As it is I don't have the most exciting life. Basically my social interaction with the world beyond Melissa and Uta is Facebook and Twitter. But one thought I have for how to get more done is to quit both of those. So I think I'll start firing out the blog because the comment section at least gets me a little bit of a window into the rest of the world but it isn't as easy to lose 30mins mindlessly scrolling.
I hope you are all well. I hope your running has been and is currently going better than mine.
5 comments:
Glad to hear you're still at it. Keep plugging.
Great seeing another blog. I saw you took third at the James Joyce Ramble with a really solid time earlier this year - nice work. Use acclimating to the new job as a chance to heal up and start rebuilding fitness. You'll be in your groove by mid-fall.
Good to hear from you! Sorry you've had a tough time. Congrats on new job. I have no idea how you'll fit it all in, but seems like you've at least got a plan to tweak. I wish you (and Melissa and Uta) all the best. Would love to hear you on another podcast at some point. Any thoughts on the Olympic marathons?
Glad to see one of the best blogs on running back online!
Indeed so glad to hearing from you.
Speaking about Tweeter, something I read today and may fit to your post:
"When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life."—enjoy the process!
Post a Comment