Where Have I Been?


Yes, it seems I have been lax in writing on my running blog for some time. A brief summary from the last couple months:


Hartwood 10 Miler - August 22, 2011. I'm at the top of my game, but have really run too far too fast during my training runs. One month to go before my first marathon. It's a Sunday and I've docked 27 fast miles before the race. I start out fine with a nice and flat course until I reach mile six. The last four miles are hills. I quickly tire and can't catch my breath. I slow down, and my legs feel heavy. Hill after hill...then I see the finish line, but instead of relief, I find a sinking feeling as I see the race volunteer waiving people onto a trail back into the woods. By the way, a trail is not something you want to race on after you're tired (you end up injuring yourself). So, I'm on the trail and it seems like it will never end, twisting and winding through trees, and over logs. I'm trying to catch a glimpse of the road - I can hear people but can't see them. Finally a clearing and we head out onto the road with just a small incline to the finish. Surprisingly with my troubles, I still finished at an average 9 minute pace. I feel fine...until the next morning. Woke up and there it was - a swollen ankle the size of a grapefruit. Applying pressure was almost unbearable the first day. After many doctor's visits (three different doctors), an x-ray and an MRI, I found that I had two tendon tears (inner and outer peroneal tendon), a blood pool in the calcaneus, and tendonitus. Wow. It took me four months to heal. In the meantime, the only thing I could do was swim. So I joined a gym and started attending a Masters Swimming class in October. 

I swam until I could run again which was in January. I kept my runs slow. I also decided to get a coach. My first race was the Sweetheart's Forever 4 Miler. Last year my time was 34:45 (8:41 pace). After only one month of running, I had no intentions of beating my last year's time. As a matter of fact, I just wanted to finish! I felt tired the first mile of the race with all the hills, but it flattened out a bit and I started getting into a rhythm. I felt great! I had plenty of energy and decided to run by feel. I had enough left in the tank to sprint to the finish and only then did I glance at my watch. I was shocked! I ran 34:01 (8:30 pace)! After the race I spoke with several other women who had injuries and swam during their off time. And they too came back stronger! I really didn't think that swimming could help keep my cardio up, but it did!


So now that I'm running again, I bet you're wondering if I'm still swimming. Well, I'm proud to say yes I am! I use swimming as my cross-training. I use it on my recovery days. It's FANTASTIC on recovery days. You get a great cardio workout without the impact. You also increase your lung capacity, and work your upper body and core. So with every dark cloud comes a silver lining. If I hadn't injured myself, I would never have found swimming. And since it's become a part of my routine, it's made me a stronger runner.


I've run several races since then and every single race I've run I've beat my last year's time! Imagine that!