Injuries (and Life) Get In the Way

Wow- this is bad.  I am not the best example right now.  It is now July 12th.  I started the blog in February. I have not yet run my 40 🙁

Excuses…well, it is hard to train, work, parent and blog.  It was kinda coming together, but really not so much.  Blogging definitely gave.  What’s different now?  I teach, so summer Lisa is here.  I have a little extra time, I am happy  (like in Fever Pitch, summer Lisa is AWESOME and chill, but school year Lisa can be a bitch).  I am still parenting and training, but now there is a little time to get the blogging in as well!

While I have continued to train, I pulled back the reins. In April, I had a kick butt 13.5 miler. The scenery was beautiful.  Even though it was early April, the leaves were just budding up here in MA.  There was just a tiny tiny hint of spring in the air. My average was under ten minutes, I was keeping up with my hydration and fuel.  I was tired at the end (it being my longest run in years), but overall it felt pretty good! 

The next day, I was fine. The day after that I got this awful pain in my right achilles which got worse when I would run.  I took off a few days (swam a little) and tried again- still pain.  So, I took off a few more days and started again but without hills, without speed-work and limited strength training.  It wasn’t until the last week of June that I felt pain free.  Injuries suck:-(

With the pull back in mileage, I am only just back to 8.5 miles for my long run.  I am trying to increase my weekly mileage now.  I think that once I have a long run in the upper teens and my weekly total is at a comfortable 40 plus, I’ll be ready.  We shall see.  I think I was a bit of a dumbass.  I shouldn’t have tried to ramp up the mileage as quick.  I really wanted to be able to do the 40 miles close to my fortieth birthday!!!!  And I still see myself as an invincible 20 something:-)

Over the past few weeks, I have noted a couple things that I know I need to research and either apply or at a minimum, reflect on how to improve upon my breathing, stride length, cadence, form/drills and strength training.   I can’t help but think that besides how I trained, one or more of the above contributed to my injury.  At the same time, I am not looking to change anything drastically.  I am in a good place now and I don’t want to mess with it, but if I can make little adjustments over a really long period of time if I know they are beneficial, I am up for that.

What are your injuries?  Have you ever gotten to a point where you thought you could just push it a little further and it only ended in pain for weeks?  How do you keep yourself in check?  Is part of this just about getting old?