I spent second half of 2013 salvaging my tired, depleted
body from various mysterious overuse injuries.
I think I subjected my body to way more than it could handle during spring/summer of 2013 and
predictably it started to revolt against every form of workout. My legs and
core clearly had no strength to support continued pounding of long runs over 10
miles. For the past six months my emphasis has been on strength and cross
training. I honestly believe these two activities have restored my body and saved
me from becoming a total couch potato.
I have spent lot many hours in the gym spinning bikes,
swimming, climbing stair master and Elliptical machines. Religiously spent one to two hours on
Pilates, weights, balancing, yoga and strength training per week. My body started to respond to running since
November 2013 and I have been slowly building mileage since then. I could muster about 50 running miles each on
November and December. Had an ankle sprain during a trail 5k in January and
suffered a minor setback for couple of weeks.
I backed off again and after few weeks of rest I was back out running
again. Thanks to rest and strength
training I managed to run about 75 miles in February and wrapped up March with
92 miles. I did a 5-mile trail race at
Chimney Rock Park in NJ today. This was a ridiculously technical trail with
elevation changes of about 2000 feet within 5 miles. Trail was muddy, insanely
rocky and tree roots coming out randomly at places I’m pleased to have finished
this without breaking any part of my body LOL.
All my runs have become time based as opposed to
distance-based training I was doing in the past. I have been learning to run at
targeted heart rate zones, which I never did in the past. I have even signed up for the RVRR speed sessions on Tuesdays. I have no expectations about what my pace should be. Plan is to just show up at the track and do what super coach Pete tells me to do. I’m alternating my long runs between roads
and trail to teach my body to land properly on rocky trails. Hope is that trail & hilly runs will improve additional muscle groups that doesn't happen purely with road running. My long runs have
gotten up to half marathon distance but I’m in no hurry to race at this point. I
have a spot for NYC marathon in November but will not think about it till July.
I yet do not have the confidence my body
can cope with marathon training. My goal is to build an endurance base and get
my body ready enough to survive marathon training. We’ll see how I feel by July and then decide
whether or not to pursue the marathon training. So for now my mantra is “Train
more, Race less”. Or at least stop daydreaming about races until I get used to consistent running and recover well from longer runs.
