Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Too Focused To Pay Attention

For the five weeks, I have been running with two goals in mind. Recover from my autumn cold and increase my weekend long runs to 15k so that I can run 90 minutes without too much difficulty.

Five weekends ago I ran 10k which was demoralizing after having been off for a few weeks. 

Four weekends ago I ran 12k which was pretty tough. 

Three weekends ago I ran 14k which was tough but a little bit less so. 

Two weekends ago I ran 15k and also went back to my much hillier route which meant added distance and difficulty. It felt surprisingly good and I was pumped. Runner girl was back! 

This past Saturday I did the same 15k hilly route again. The hills and the first 10k went quite well. Then I turned into a nasty headwind for 3k which sapped my strength and slowed me down. I persevered and finished but was exhausted by the end...and for the rest of the afternoon. I also had some foot and shin pain which seemed a little odd because I had stretched and iced right after the run and hadn't experienced any problems up to that point. 

Later that afternoon I entered my run into my online training program (Training Peaks) and I looked at how my mileage was adding up. 

That's when the first of two things hit me.

CĂ©line, you've been so focused on getting your running fitness back that you forgot all about recovery weeks. 

I have been running for five weeks without a break - increasing the mileage every single week without slowing down to let my body recover. 

So, ready or not, this week is an easy week - 5k runs in the morning before work and 10k on Saturday. C'est tout! 

Then the second thing hit me as I limped around the house all afternoon. 

How old are your running shoes anyway? 

Because I had not been training for anything official since early September, I wasn't paying close attention to the mileage on my shoes. Thankfully, Training Peaks tracks that for me too. I did a little checkie-check and discovered that my 'new' shoes had actually been purchased in June (June!) and had 719k on them.

I usually trade them in at 500k to avoid injury. 

How does one run an extra 200k without noticing? 

My mathematical prediction? 

Easy week + new shoes = an extra little bounce in my step. 

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