After club nationals, I had to take a few days off running due to some foot issues that I was having. The foot began to feel “ok” and I resumed training. I hit 80 miles the week of Christmas and ran every day of the week which has been uncommon for me since my last sacral stress fracture. I have been trying to get in shape, but I’ve felt as though I’m on the cusp of another major injury since resuming running (i.e. about the last 4 months). While training the week of Christmas seemed to go well, my foot issues have resurfaced which has lead to more interrupted training. The bottom line is, I can’t keep training the way that I have the last 4 months. I thought that origin of my problem was doing workouts too soon, but I’ve stopped running workouts and my issues have not gone away. Over the last 4 months it has really become quite obvious to me that I really just need to start over and go back to what lead to my PR’s over the 2009-2010 seasons which is really getting down to the right running weight.
As many people know, my college running career was not necessarily successful and was filled with many injuries. My average running weight in college varied but was in the range 149-153 lbs. Keeping in mind that I’m 5’7”, that’s not exactly a runner’s build and I wasn’t exactly a chiseled runner at that weight. Conversely, when I ran my last marathon in 2010, I was 137-139 lbs and I still think I probably had a few unnecessary lbs. While I suffered a season ending injury that year, the injury was due to feeling invincible and training rather unintelligently. While one way to drop weight is to increase mileage, this method has always lead to me to an injury. Alternatively, I have to drop weight and increase my mileage as my weight goes down. Trying to cut weight while training is mentally taxing and challenging for me, but there are plenty of websites and phone applications that now allow for you to easily track your calorie intake vs calories burned. While the calories burned are not accurately calculated since everyone’s metabolic rates are different, the caloric intake is. To lose a lb a week, you have to burn 500 more calories a day than you consume. While there is preliminary guess work involved, I am guessing that I burn between 3000-3500 calories a day after training is factored in. In a perfect world, I would like to lose 1 lb per week which means I have to take in between 2500-3000 calories per day, but there are going to be days where I have a couple beers or eat a treat and go above my caloric allowance. As a result, I’m setting a more realistic goal to lose a lb every 1-2 weeks. Currently, my weight is 150-151 lbs so I do in fact have quite a bit of weight to lose.
2012 Running Outlook
First and foremost, I do not plan on toeing a start line until my weight is 146 lbs or lower. As of right now, I’m leaning toward targeting the half marathon at Grandma’s marathon for my peak race season. This gives me about 6 months to get fit which should be plenty of time and allow for me to not rush into things. While I love racing, I may have to sit out a couple early season races to avoid pushing myself before my body is ready to be pushed. My two goals for the spring season are to get my weight down and eventually work on speed again. I think I can get into PR territory this season, but it is probably unlikely to expect a huge PR given how the last year and a half of training has gone. Realistically, I am building a foundation for the fall/winter season. That being said, if I get the right day where I’m feeling good, I won’t shy away from attempting to hit a big PR, but the season will not be a disappointment if a PR doesn’t happen. While my fall season isn’t completely mapped out yet, I have some rough target races:
October - Twin Cities Marathon, TC 10, or the USAtf national championship marathon (not sure where it is this year).
December – USAtf Club Nationals
January – Austin Half Marathon
February – USAtf Cross Country Nationals
This is a very tentative targeted race schedule which could change, but I’ve always found that having races to target for the up and coming season helps get me through tough times in races of the current season. My ultimate goal is to be fit and run USAtf Cross Country Nationals, but I’ll only run this race if I feel that I’m fit going in. While I have an itch to run a marathon, I’m staying open to the possibility of not running one this year, but time will tell. I’m pretty sure that my next marathon will be the Twin Cities
Currently, I hit 60 miles this past week on 6 days of running and one of the 6 days I only ran 4 miles. The 4 mile day and day off of running were due to my foot issues once again. While I only ran 60 miles this past week, I’ve begun to implement a little bit of biking and have dedicated a little time toward massage therapy. I’m hoping to hit 70 miles this week (if I am able to run all 7 days), but the number one priority is to get my weight under 150 lbs. After the holidays, my weight was up to 153 lbs so I’m slowly progressing toward my goal weight in a healthy manner. While I don’t know if I can or want to get down to 137-139 lbs this spring, I’m hoping to at least get back down to 142 lbs for Grandma’s half. For now, I’m keeping my long runs down in mileage and running easy to reduce the pounding that my body is absorbing. I really need to get my foot issue resolved and this seems to be helping a little. I’m not sure what the technical “injury” is, but like most injuries, it is due too much pounding. My foot is beginning to get better, and I think it will be fine as long as I correct the root of the problem.
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