Last week a combination of life and reflection happened. I realized I am diving too quickly into training. This post is lengthy and more of a reflection than a training post. If you want the training side: I ran 25 easy, uneventful, miles.
If you want the reflection side…here we go.
As funny as it sounds, I’m not as young as I used to be and also not a new runner. Due to my awkward form, I’m more susceptible to injury too. I’m not sure why I thought increasing mileage and adding racing was a good idea but it’s not.
Unsurprisingly from jumping into training too quickly, everything feels achy. While I could continue to increase mileage, I would probably increase those aches. Running is funny that you think you can get away with things…sometimes you can, but 99% of the time it humbles you later.
Right now, nothing is injured but quite frankly I don’t feel good running. I have a gut feeling I would get injured soon if I didn’t change something. I’ve decided to actually go about getting back into running the smart way.
How will I do that?
Instead of increasing mileage, I’m going to keep my mileage low. In fact, I’m not going to race again for a few weeks. Currently, I am achy, tight and sore, plus I don’t feel great.
I would like to be glamorous and say I’m coming back from my running break well but the truth is, I’m not. That’s fine and I’m not upset about it. Last week, I wrote a post about coming back easy and not comparing yourself to anyone (including yourself). If I can’t take my own advice, I have no business writing posts about it.
I’ve also been talking to one of my post-collegiate coaches and mentors frequently. While running with him a while ago, I ran well (in the 2012-2013 time frame). Life happened and I moved 4 times in 2014 and didn’t run very competitively either. After that, I remained coachless until last year.
We have been talking more regularly the last few weeks, and he suggested taking 2 weeks off and using the antigravity treadmill, and building mileage from there.
He also knows my early running history better than anyone (and knows my history now too). While I don’t need a coach right now, I am talking to him consistently and would like to give credit. When I’m looking for a structured plan, he will probably be the first person I will seek (and he knows that, so thanks Jim 🙂
On the personal life side, for the rest of June and possibly even July, my life is going to get extremely busy. Due to my husband’s job, it’s not something I can talk about online and will never be able too. I will still work regularly at my running store job but will be doing a lot more again outside of that. I don’t like vague blogging, but saying “I’m busy” will have to suffice. ETA: I’m excited about this change and no one is forcing me to do anything.
That being said, this summer probably won’t be the summer of hard training. I won’t say definitely not, but I doubt I will train and run hard. It will make my running blog more boring because I’ll be running and racing far less (if any). Heck, I don’t even have children or pets to talk about. I’ll run when I have time, but with the summer heat, my only time might be a quick hour in the middle of the day (in that case, I won’t run or run on the antigravity treadmill). If I’m going to run on a treadmill at all, might as well as be in style right?
For the first time in a while, I am 100% okay with not training seriously. Six months ago if I had been thrown the same situation, I would have begun to stress out with cramming runs into that situation. Right now, I’m okay with not getting into serious training right now.
Below is last week of running. It doesn’t feel like a lot but to be honest, it’s probably the most I’ll log outdoors for a while.
| Monday: | Easy 5 miles |
| Tuesday: | OFF |
| Wednesday: | Easy 5 miles |
| Thursday: | Easy 5 miles |
| Friday: | Easy 5 miles |
| Saturday: | OFF |
| Sunday: | Easy 5 miles |
Total: 25 miles
So yes that was a lot of life updates. If you just scrolled to the bottom: you missed that I’m backing off running seriously for a while, ran 25 miles last week, and going to be busy for the next 2 months. I’ll still blog and I’ll still run but probably nothing more than 5-6 miles and minimal if any racing.
Posts from the Week:
The Importance of Easing Back into Training
HT 3.9 (26:12) miler Race Recap
Questions for you:
Are you training for anything?
When is your favorite time to run?
I can relate to having to make running less of priority, which isn’t a bad thing! This summer my focus is on my social work internship. Running right now is more of a self-care thing and I don’t plan on pressuring myself to do work-outs. I only plan on racing the Belmar 5 this summer and then I’ll plan for the Fall when it gets closer. My running needs to take away stress not add it to my life.
Returning to training… and training and recovering… definitely gets harder. You always hear it about masters runners, but anyone who has been running for years and ran in their teens and 20s will see the difference as well. Clay and I were talking about it the other night, and while we are young (31/32), we don’t recover as quickly as we did in our 20s. Another friend and I were discussing this as well at the trail 5K where I volunteered Thursday night (he’s also 30s), and the heat and humidity makes it harder to recover than running the same distance/pace/workout in more ideal temperatures.
In the end, you only have one body and it has to last you forever, to do things besides running. You don’t have to apologize or feel bad; you know how your body felt with the buildup and racing and if you were just achy, sore, and it was doing more harm than good, it’s smart to scale back!
Good luck with everything personal going on as well, wishing you and Tim the best.
I would love to try an anti-gravity treadmill someday! 🙂 I’m not training for anything and am totally taking it slow as well. My runs are easy and I will often even stop to stretch and walk a few feet just to “shake everything out”. I am very injury prone, so when I start to get especially tight/achy, I will force myself to do more walking and cross training activities. Good for you for being smart getting back into it!
I’m actually training for a 5k next month. A pr would be nice, but I’m coming back from a meniscus tear so I’m keeping the expectations low.
Thanks Hollie. I especially appreciate this post as I have been out with pf since October last year and have had to be ok with very low volume and low expectations and no racing plans. It’s not all plain sailing and easy comebacks and sometimes it’s good to be reminded that that is OK! Thanks again for your candidness.
Thank you for stopping by! PF is such a painful injury and I’m sorry you’ve been out so long with it. How is it healing?
I appreciate this post so much. I’ve really taken the past year off because life happens from running and the thought of starting back up again feels so overwhelming but seeing your thoughts and process makes me feel like I’m not alone in the starting over process. Or in the “life happens and sometimes that means running doesn’t” situation.
Thank you for stopping by Vanessa and it’s always nice to hear we aren’t alone. Running will always be there for us!
This is great. You are just doing YOU and not forcing anything that doesn’t feel good which can be so hard when you run and race as much as you have in the past. I hope there are exciting things headed your way this summer (sounds like it) so just enjoy and take it as it comes. Running will always be there if you listen to your body and mind and let them lead the way…
This post was a great read, Hollie! Keep inspiring!