My goodness it's been a long time since I updated my blog. Why has it been so long? Well I was tired (and probably you too) of constantly doing negative blog posts. Of course sometimes it's necessary to write those kinds of posts, because if I only write about the positive and totally disregard the negatives then I'm being dishonest, and the blog was really intended to be a place where I can be quite open about my feelings. However, this time around its all positives. As you may or may not have remembered last summer I had signed up for the Houston Marathon in January of this year. I'm not going to go too much into this because that's not the purpose of this post, but essentially during my build up, I dragged myself through severe pain from a number of injuries from my persistent hip pain that had been going on since March 2015, knee pain that came on suddenly at the end of October, and a stress fracture that was developing in my left tibia as usual. On December 6th the pain had become so severe in my left tibia that I could only manage a few steps starting my long run, and had to limp back to the car, and call it right there. I was down and felt horrible. But after a couple weeks of sulking and healing, I started back up again. My first week back I managed 100k, week 2: 120, and since then averaged 140k for the last 4 weeks. In fact, since i started running again on December 21st, I have not taken a day off running. I've been biking 5 days per week Monday to Friday on the trainer for 70-90 minutes in the evening, doing a half hour of core/strength everyday, and on weekends swimming Saturday and Sunday morning. On Saturday I've been doing a double run, where I'll run 10 miles back from the pool, then hop in the car and run 10 miles on the AlterG treadmill (video below) for a nice 20 mile, or 32k day. The AlterG has really been a critical part to my comeback since during the week I haven't been doing any run workouts on the road. On the AlterG I run at 83% of my body weight, and that little bit of weight reduction means I can incorporate speed workouts relatively safely into my week. So for example, I've done a ladder type workout, I've done 400s on the machine, and just last weekend I did a tempo run which turned into a 31:40 10k run. On the road I've really just been trying to get back to being able to run consistently, and be able to build my strength to end this 2 year long cycle of injuries.
That being said, I'm not going out there and mindlessly running 20k at snail pace. In fact, last week my average run speed throughout the week was the fastest it has been since July of 2014, after coming back from altitude. Sure I'm not doing structured workouts like mile repeats or anything, but I've tried just running purely by feel, and well I've been feeling quite well recently. Essentially, I looked back to what I had done early in my running career, and discovered that all my runs, workouts or not, were at a pretty fast pace. Although, studies indicate that at faster speeds there is greater impact forces on the tibias (primary weight bearing leg bone) for example, I don't think those studies take into account the impact of running economy. My theory is that when I run at slower "recovery" type speeds, my form breaks down since I'm holding myself back the entire run. Basically, I'm running with one foot on the brake. Now when I'm feeling good I just run to my desire and don't worry about whether the pace is "too fast" or not. This is exactly what I did when I first started running where I would just go outside and run. When I got to a hill I would gallop up it and then blast down the other side. And honestly, this is the first time since crossing the line at the Scotiabank Marathon in 2013, that I am loving running again and believing that this is what I was born to do. In contrast, the past two years, after trying to get myself psyched up to go out and run dreading it, out on the run I would be looking at my watch again and again counting down how many miles were left. Now I go out and can feel some new energy surging through my entire body, making me want to go faster and faster, and further and further. I'll get to the end of my 12 mile run, and say to myself hey we still got some time before class still, lets pump out another mile. Concurrent to my re-kindled passion for running, I've been improving significantly on the bike. The past three weeks my average power has been the highest it's ever been overall, and I've even seen significant improvement during individual workouts from week to week.
In terms of my game plan for season, I am enjoying running so much at this point that a part of me doesn't really want to ruin that feeling by gearing up for another race. I do love the feeling of testing myself in races, and pushing my limits, and being able to reach another gear that I would not normally have on a usual training day. I will still obviously be racing this year not only to get this feeling, but also I kind of have to given that it is in my contract with my amazing sponsor Skechers. I've been re-signed by Skechers just recently, and I'm excited to represent them once again this year. Looks like they have some amazing new shoes coming out this year, and I'm looking forward to trying everything. Back to my ongoing internal debate, I think a big part of not wanting to put a race firmly on the schedule is that in the spring time of the last 2 years I've had some really bad luck, and not been able to race a bunch of times for races that I've signed up for. For example, 2 years ago I signed up for the Ottawa marathon, only to get a stress fracture in March, and had to cancel that race. Then last year I had signed up for Mississauga Half and the Toronto Yonge St 10k, and had to pull out of both of those due to the hip injury, also in March (possible pattern?). Then obviously the Houston Marathon recently which I wasn't able to race. As much as its not a huge deal having to pull a race off the schedule, something that needs to be mentioned is that let's face it races these days are not cheap. Anyways, after I've decided what race I want to do in Spring, I'll update you. For now it's looking like early March I'll do a rust-buster of a race probably 10k or if feeling really good maybe a half. Then will likely be doing Around the Bay 30k, then a 10k in mid-April, then Mississuaga Half, then if still injury-free let's hope, a full like the Ottawa full. Then I would be taking a 2 week break off running, but would still aim to train 20-25 hours a week on the bike and in the pool as I transition into all out triathlon training. Planning on two half-ironman's this summer both in the US, and then the USA Age Group National Championships in Omaha, Nebraska in August which I qualified for last year in Penn Yan, NY. Until next time thanks for reading. Below are two AlterG videos.
