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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Back in Training

Time for an update. Today marks 2 months since the marathon and while I'm still proud of that accomplishment I'm in no hurry to reproduce it. I'm not going to lie, getting going again has been HARD.

I started back on a 5K training plan on January 24th and right away the first few runs were tough. Not so much physically tough as mentally tough. I still had a lot of mileage fatigue going on in my head. To make matters worse I could feel that my fitness level had eroded a little. For marathon training you push for endurance and stamina. 5K training you focus a lot on speed, fast leg turnover and breathing. It had been well over 3 months since I pushed a short but fast speed workout. My legs weren't used to the quicker turnover and my anaerobic system was still on vacation.

That first speed workout was brutal, but I was very satisfied with the results. Then I nailed an easy 10 miler on the weekend. The next week we got hit by that blizzard so I had to skip a few runs and finally give in to the realization that if I'm going to enjoy the spring races I was going to have to climb aboard the dreadmill, which I affectionately call chug-chug, and log some miles. Thankfully I adapted pretty quick to the treadmill and don't dread it as much as I used to. I doubt I'll ever be able to put more than 5 miles on it at a time, but something is always better than nothing in running. I'm currently on week 7 and I have a race scheduled at the end of this week. I'm happy to say I feel strong and more confident than I did 5 weeks ago. I'm still wondering where my fitness level is, but I think it's a lot closer to where I left it last fall than where it was, last spring.

I'm glad I can reflect 7 weeks later and say I'm happy to be running again. I was really afraid the marathon wrecked me. Don't get me wrong I'm glad I did it, but I wasn't ready for the post race fallout. I was very close to hanging up my running shoes for who knows how long and that would have just crushed me. The joy of running has since returned along with my desire to improve speed and race performance. A big part of this joy as come in the form of friends who have either embraced running for the first time or getting back to it after being gone for awhile. Both are tremendous motivators. The food portion is taking a lot longer to get back as bad habits return quickly. I'm no where near as bad as I used to be with my food choices, but I know I'm a long way from where I want to be.

I'm still carrying a big cloud of doubt around with me about my current fitness level. If I were going to speculate on this weekends race I think I'll probably leg out a 22:50 5K. Which would put me almost a minute off my best time. It would be the first year I didn't set a new PR in the first spring race, but I could live with that time for now. Oops, it's getting late and I have to get a short interval session in to sharpen me up for Saturday.


For the love of running,

-Bob