Slacking

My fellow runner-blogger girlfriends have inspired me to talk about my own experience of slacking with the running thing since our races.  I didn't really think I had been, but my runs have been just brutal lately.  I looked back over my training log today just to see if I'd really been lagging as much as my body tells me I am.

Weeks 3 and 2 counting down to the race.

The week of the 12th was a fairly typical week for me mileage-wise, although I rarely take two rest days in a week, and that total of 15.6 miles would usually be met by three runs instead of two.  I was nervous about taking such a long break from running the following week and during my conference, and I considered bringing a pair of running shoes with me to Colorado.  My first hesitation, though, was that I really wanted to give myself permission to be fully immersed and present with the yoga experience, undistracted by anything - including my upcoming race.  Second, running and yoga, without question, take the same level of dedication and discipline, only with different intentions; I sensed (correctly) that I would have no mental game for running while I was there.  Third was the altitude - I couldn't walk the quarter mile from my lodge to the cafeteria without becoming winded. Fourth would be the raging sinus infection that came on the day before I left.  That single seven-mile run on the 21st was just awful, but I crammed it in out of desperation...and I left the shoes at home. 

Race week...and the next.

Two days after getting home I did my first run in almost a week, and that evening six-miler was awesome!  I was all nice and red blood cell loaded from four days at 8000 ft elevation!  I wanted to run like a mad woman that week but knew that tapering should be intentional now (although I think 19.1 is my highest mileage week ever).  A race is incredibly motivating, but as with anything that we work towards that much, and after that much elation, the letdown can be pronounced.  Did I really only do a single five mile run in the following week?  Yes.  Yes I did.  Was I still craving my yoga like a drug?  Absolutely - and that did not help.  So no wonder it hurt so bad.  (Can you read that?  "TIRED legs!  Lots of walk breaks.")

So here's this week - much closer to my previous normal, but still a challenge.  I ran five miles with Kim in the dark on Monday morning.  It was a good run for me so I was extremely surprised that when I got home, I could hardly walk for the pain in the right side of my butt.  It's my hip fracture injury, spasming like it used to back in the day.  It was so tight and unbelievably sore I couldn't even work with it; she wouldn't even stretch.  It's my left hip that's given me all the trouble this year; my right side has been nice and quiet.  I have definitely learned this year though that as one side strengthens, its opposite weakens, and I suppose my body is just finding its balance.  As a runner I've had all kinds of weird little shoots, stabs, and aches, but nothing that rest and stretch won't fix, so I gave it two days of yoga to settle down.  I went out again on Friday and explored a new segment of the Gateway; two miles in and I could tell it wasn't going to go well.  My endurance, meaning my lungs and heart rate and such, was finally back after my long vacation from running, but my butt and legs?  Oh they were furious with me!  I had to make myself walk every uphill segment and could only run half-mile segments at that.  I had to cancel both of my evening plans and could barely stand to sit in my recliner.

I got so frustrated.  Despite everything I've put my body through in her lifetime - the injuries, the obesity, the toxins - she always responds so well to my demands.  She rarely lets me down, even though she has every right to.  And I don't like to acknowledge my weaknesses: not the physical ones, not the mental ones.  I am strong, damnit - I am not broken.  And then I go look at my training log.  Mileage nearly cut in half and running only one or two days a week, for four weeks, but for some reason I was making five miles my "short run."  I'm injured, but I increase my mileage instead of shorten it.  The fact that I can run 10+ miles does not mean that the shorter, easy runs lose their importance.  I knew this.  I just forgot.  I wasn't paying attention, but my body is always communicating.  She's always telling me something I need to know, if only I would listen. 

My schedule after Friday's ugly run would have meant that if I didn't run Sunday, I couldn't run until Tuesday; I didn't want to wait that long.  I considered my lack of maintenance training and realized that maybe three miles is plenty to start with as I build back up.  Saturday, I did an 80-minute yoga practice and really focused on gently stretching that injury, only as far as she wanted to go.  Before heading out yesterday, I drank a ton of water and spent 20 solid minutes on the foam roller.  I really took my time on the uphill portions ("Baby steps, baby steps...") and finished three miles without pain and without needing a break.  I got home and spent half an hour right back on the foam roller and using yoga to stretch it all out.  Then I gave myself a hot Epsom salt bath.  Now we're talking!

When I began this endeavor, I used to give my body that kind of attention before, during, and after every single run - even a two miler!  I realize after writing this that it was only four months ago that my longest run was 6 miles; just over two months ago, it was only 7 miles.  How easy it is to start to take this for granted, that my body will just go these long distances even when I don't offer her the care and training she needs in order to keep this up.

I'm gonna try not to forget that again. Especially since she and I are gonna go even farther this year.  :-)