And Now to Running...?

The doctor said it would take time. So, I must take my time. Last week I had a bit of a relapse. My hammy injury is 100% gone, but I noticed a dull achiness in my area of injury (again, this injury has been a source for an endless array of jokes). It wasn't pain, per se, but something was present. I was not hurting and whatever it was didn't affect my stride during or after the run. Now, here is the thing - this could be getting back into the groove pain, but it also could be, and what I feared it might be, a step backwards of sorts. And this, I must avoid at all costs. My strategy up until last week had been to run every other day, a little bit more than the previous running day and to decrease the amount of days, then hours, between each run. I decided to take an extra day off last week and since I went camping from Friday-Sunday, I realized this would be a fine opportunity to stop down for a few days.

I ran 31 minutes on Monday and 46 minutes on Tuesday and felt pretty good. I feel pretty good right now, too. I am going to run again on Wednesday night and conduct a series of tests to see how the injury is feeling. I will take Thursday off. These tests will include 3 or 4 x 400m at 5:15-5:20 pace; not fast, but not slow either. I want to see how the injury area feels when I pick up the pace. I want to see if it hurts to race. There is a method to my madness. The goal all along has been to get back up to where I use to be 10-12 weeks after I decided to take time off. So, 6-8 weeks no running and another 4-6 weeks of building. I suppose I am on pace for this.

December 1 - return to normalcy, or what I call 10 mile days - 70 mile weeks.

January 1 - return to workouts (track workouts)

The doctor also told me one other thing which I failed to mention yet on this blog. He told me the days of running 7 days a week might be over. He explained that less might be more and that I should entertain the idea of cross training one day a week. My overarching strategy since I started this post-collegiate running career has been to increase my mileage steadily each year as I believe miles (but not only miles) are the main key to success in this sport. Everyone handles mileage differently, but in order to be your best I think you need to run as much mileage as your body can handle. I believe I am dancing that line.