Reclamation

Topic: Reclaiming my running health
Key Words: Slothfulness, Game Genie, Young'ins
Word Count: 680
Next Topic: Running Myths Exposed!

As I've previously pointed out, I shut it down last week; no running, and after Monday, no exercise of any kind. Slothfulness to the max. I realized that this plan was ultimately due to how I approach an injury. When my hamstring acted up, on some level I said, "I don't want to get injured, I better back off." Others would, on an equally subconscious level, say, "Man, I hope I don't get hurt trying to run through this." Said another way, is it more important to make sure you make it to race day, or make sure you give yourself every chance to have optimal performance? I would love to break 4:30 come October 7th, but would hate to be sitting in Houston nursing a torn hamstring. I'm completely comfortable with my decision as I think, regardless of my mental leanings, it was the medically correct thing to do. Ever thought about it ... run through, or nurse back to health, how do you lean???

Philosophy lesson over, on to the steps in my hamstring reclamation. First step, Friday night, drink plenty of beer since I couldn't run with HoustonFIT Saturday morning. Step two, sleep insanely late and only get up at 1PM because Jonathan happened to call. At this point, you might be doubting my plan, fearing that slothfulness got the best of me, but nay, at 4PM on Saturday I went for a swim at Memorial Park (OK, it was a run, but it was real humid!). Three miles, generally at about 9:30 pace, the hammy was better, though certainly not quiet. Step four, more beer on Saturday night (come on, it was my birthday weekend!). Sunday was the real test, and my freshly minted 31 year old body passed by not succumbing to any kind of sympathy injury; everything felt good. With that hurdle passed, my plan was to run six miles on Monday night, and around nine on Wednesday night. If I could get through that, then I would be willing to declare myself healthy enough to consider giving HoustonFIT a try this weekend.

I got a late start on Monday's run because Game Genie brought a movie over and got quite enamored with one of our many movie channels. So come about 7:30, I started my swim. Running six miles by myself is a mental challenge; I want to quit. To fight that, I came up with an inventive running path for Memorial. I ran clockwise to the 2.5 mile marker of the three mile course ... and I turned around! I knew that if I made it back to my car with 5 miles under my belt, I would be more than willing to run the half-mile out and back to complete the six. Three miles or four miles complete at the stretching center could have very easily turned the run into five, and I didn't want that. I was under strict self-imposed orders to run no faster than 10 min/mile, and I must say that at that speed, the hammy felt nice; relatively pain free, and when there was pain, it was brief. Over the last half mile I picked up the pace to around 9 min/mile, and the hammy hurt. That may have been mental, but it makes sense as speedier running recruits more effort from the ham. Anyway, I completed my bizarre course in 1:01:31 and unless I experience some problems tomorrow, I am going to continue on with my plan for a long(er) run on Wednesday.

In the vein of "keeping an eye on the progress of the young'ins in the Yellow group", I crossed paths with Brenda and the Chris's a couple of times at the park. Monday runs and I hear they are doing runs Thursday mornings at 6AM .... that's dedication that I certainly didn't have for my first marathon!