I feel like the past 3 months I have written the month of training didn’t go as planned. This month was no exception. Another reason I’ve accepted I’m injured is because I haven’t had any solid months that I’m happy with. You know what they say…if at first you don’t succeed…try again…or change…or just get injured and rest.
That being said I’ll still continue to document my training and plans. My month started out really well. I got over my arch injury from July and began to slowly up my miles. I was running solid base miles again and slowly progressing into longer runs. I had cross trained so I started with 20 miles and then hovered between 30-40. I felt fine and running completely injury free.
Paces: All untimed except my 5:50 mile.
Longest runs: 2 hours and 15 minutes
Shortest run: 1 mile
I did one race the entire month of August and that was a mile race. To be honest, I felt slow and like I hadn’t raced in a while (which was 100% true and 100% fine). In August all my runs were injury free. I had so many glimmers of hope to actually run my fall marathon. Then on August 22, I woke up with serious pain in my foot, My foot was swollen and bruised. It was the weirdest thing and still is the weirdest thing. Needless to say from August 22-for at least 5 weeks, I will not be running.
After getting several tests done, I was diagnosed with a minor stress fracture in my foot. It’s a little bit worse than a stress reaction but not quite a “full blown” stress fracture. Not the absolute worst news but still a big deal.
So needless to say I took an entire week off. I joined a pool to actually swim only to find out the pool was closed the week I joined. So I’ll end up attempting to swim today (attempting being the key word…if you don’t see a post tomorrow you know why 😉
Don’t get me wrong, I’m really upset I have a stress fracture but there are worse things in life. I have other hobbies and activities that don’t include running and I can catch up on them.
I’ve actually kept relatively busy between working and hanging out with friends. The less I’m in the house right now, the better I seem to be. So I’m always willing to hang out or grab dinner or something.
So what are my goals for September?
To continue to recover. I’ll swim when I find the time but I’m also working a lot so I won’t have a lot of extra time (or energy). I’m very happy about working a lot honestly, I would rather work and stay busy doing other things. My fitness is something that can be gained back when I am healthy, however, pushing it too quickly is going to further injure me.
The month of September will be a “down” month for me while I recover. I plan to do some strength training, swimming and whatever doesn’t hurt (when I have time). So in reality I’m setting myself up for success and having a good month of training. I’m not doing anything painful or any “serious” workouts but I am finding nonstrenuousness activity to eat up a little bit of my time.
Finally, thank you to my two blog sponsors Injinji and Mike (from Fitness Pal). Both are great products that I use regularly (before they sponsored LOLZ). They both allow me to blog freely without paying for a domain and upgraded wordpress, ect. I’m glad I found two products that I personally use that are willing to sponsor LOLZ, that’s like hitting the lottery.
Questions for you:
How was your month of August?
What are your plans for Labor Day today?
You really have such a healthy attitude toward your running and recovery. Perspective and staying grounded in reality is hard for a lot of people and it just seems to come naturally for you. It’s refreshing to read this from such an accomplished runner 🙂
Thanks Michele! It honestly wasn’t always like that all but over the last few years I’ve realized that running doesn’t define me and nothing lasts forever. 🙂
1. Wow, you have the perfect runner physique!
2. How can I improve my speed? I feel like I’m getting slower and slower or I’m just not making any progress.
Hollie, your attitude towards recovery and ability to ensure that your life doesn’t revolve around running is really impressive! Being a relatively new runner, I’ve seen a lot of gains this August. So I’m excited to see where September takes me 🙂
I am sure that finding out you had a stress fracture was upsetting, probably a lot more upsetting than the blog posts or responses, etc, might let on (there’s always a lot about people you just don’t see on words on a screen). But, you’re making the right move by staying busy with work and also joining the pool, meeting friends, going to diners, etc. There’s so much more to life than just training and racing, and I hope you have a great September!
Pool running. It’s the best, you’ll see.*
*This is a lie.
Hahahahaha this provided me with the LOLZ so thank you.
OMG, pool running together would be filled with LOLZ!
This is such a bummer but you have the best attitude and you’re doing the right thing to recover the right way. You should be so proud of the fact that you’re mature and self-composed – so many runners don’t know when to back off and allow themselves to heal and, well, that never ends well. You, however, are going to come back from this and kick some serious butt 🙂
Sorry about your stress fracture, but at least now you know, and you can move forward. You have a good attitude and great plan.