Arpil 17th: Fatigue and Twin Cities

Wow, coming back from a 3 month layoff from a hip injury has been quite interesting. While it’s been frustrating at times, it’s probably good to take a step back and look at what’s happened:

End of June: Hip pain really began to affect my running.

June-September: Had a few good workouts, missed a lot of workouts, raced 3 relays and 3 half marathons with very mixed results.

Oct 2^nd: Ran Twin Cities Marathon which was followed by not being able to walk a week later due to a fractured sacrum.

Oct-Jan: 3 months of primarily pool workouts. Was up to 12 hours of cross training per week in the pool with some biking mixed in. I was feeling pretty burnt out.

Feb: Transitioned back into running

March: By the end of March, I was running 100 mile weeks

Now: Racing like junk and not able to complete workouts.

            I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out what went wrong, why it went wrong, and why everything is still going wrong. Being as competitive as I am, it’s hard to resist doing more work when running is not shaping out the way you want it. However, when things are going poorly, sometimes it’s best to step back and look at the situation. A few weeks back, I ran 20 miles at 5:38 pace so I can’t be completely out of shape and I really think that my body is just fatigued at this point. As a result, I didn’t run any workouts this week and only ran 68.5 miles with a day off. Honestly, it felt great and I have no regrets. I think I’m going to resume training at 85-90 mpw and see where the season takes me. As I often say, last spring I ran a 15:30ish 5k on tired legs and ran 30:28 for 10k a couple weeks later. This past fall I ran a 1:10+change for a half marathon and then ran a 2:20:50 a few weeks later. As evident by 20 mile long run at 5:38 pace, my aerobic fitness is pretty high and I really just need to sharpen up. I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do leading up to the Indy half marathon, but hopefully I’ll get things figured out by then.

            In other more exciting news, I received a job offer from 3M and will be moving to the Twin Cities area sometime this summer. Lansing has been a great area that has rejuvenated my running for the past few years and I am really grateful to everyone that has been involved in my life here. Events such as the Great Lakes Relay (still don’t know our team name…I think it’s something Latin…Ask Ken) and the Playmakers store/owners/training partners/coach and various members of the running community have helped me maintain a healthier lifestyle and countless great memories. I’ll definitely look forward to the trips back to Michigan. However, I am really excited to be a little closer to family and really look forward getting to once again attend all of the family events. It’s crazy how things work out, but 9 years of school later, it somehow did. It’s going to be a couple hectic months coming up, but I’m really looking forward to the transition for the next phase of life.