You’re such a good listener (not)

The nice thing about running is the more you run the better you get. The caveat is the more you run the more likely you are to get injured. Finding the right balance seems to be a juggling act. You could also say the more you practise anything the better you get, it’s just that in running your improvement is so easily noticeable and likewise measurable (for example, being able to run longer, faster). The same cannot be said about soccer (aka football). During my soccer playing days I very seldom thought of training as something that would make me better. Instead it was the necessary evil which allowed me to be in the starting eleven the next game. (This is not completely true as once in Sweden I missed a full week of practise only to be thrown into a new starting role and because we won the game I pretty much kept my spot until the end of the season). I think the one time I really thought I learned something from practising soccer was when I was playing for Nanaimo United in the top division of the Vancouver island league. The coach was great, but he was of the old British school and made us do all these intricate long ball exercises. I never knew there were so many ways of practising the long ball tactic and it was a lot of fun! Take that, Spain! I’m sad to say, however, that there were many times during my soccer-playing days that I almost wished I’d pick up a slight injury so I could skip the next practise. Now, during my fledgling running days I would hate to have to miss training due to injury. Quite frankly I would try to run through an injury.  

According to Swedish marathon champion and favourite blogger Fredrik Uhrbom, runners are always hurt one way or another, sometimes you have to tough it out and get it done and eventually the pain will disappear. I remember being hurt last year, developing what I think were shin splints. A painful ball developed on my lower leg, I tried to ran through it but when it became so bad I had to stop during a run I took a couple of weeks "off" when I only ran sporadically. When I picked up training again, the ball was smaller but still there and although it didn’t hurt while running, I would feel pain afterwards. I kept running and soon enough the swelling had subsided and there was no pain. Perhaps the injury had healed sufficiently during the light weeks of running, but it’s hard to argue with Uhrbom when something like this occurs and I've heard a lot of people with very similar experiences... but really, listen to your body; by running regularly you’ll know what is serious and what is simply a blemish or muscle soreness. The problem is of course to differentiate between the two. That’s why I say, forget about the intervals, the long runs and all the other types of training we do to improve our running, the most important aspect is to learn to listen to our bodies. 

The Xerox 10k through this park is coming up next week..hopefully I can participate uninjured. Photo: Government of Canada, used with permission.

My shin splints occurred in August last year so I’ve been fearing what August had in store for me this time around.. that popping sound when bending my knee surely must develop into runners’ knee soon, I thought.  Instead, the more I’ve been running lately, the less I’ve noticed it. Then came the ankle sprain scare….Tried running on it, and it worked! Because I’ve really been enjoying my running lately I thought I’d keep on running while carefully monitoring how I felt physically every day, and now 13 days later, I’ve run 13 days in a row since!  I’ve been going by the 20-minute rule: even if you don’t feel completely up for a run, start one and see how you feel after 20 minutes, then make a decision to go home or keep running, and I’ve felt great after 20 minutes every time. Not that I’ve had a problem with not feeling like running, training has been going so well I’ve been raring to head out the door each day. I’ve been feeling fresher than ever after a hard workout, which I speculate may have something to do with me getting used to running every day and therefore requiring less time to recover between workouts. I feel like I know when I’m beat and need a break from running and I haven’t felt like that. 

Recently, focus has been on speed, including fast hill-repeats of 300m, the Fartlek I’ve mentioned before (now extended to five cycles of 4:30 min on and off and faster pace ~ 5:40 pace) and 8 x 800m at 5k pace, 1:30 rest. During the latter I managed to hold 5:30 pace but was that ever tough. I thought about calling it quits after 6 repeats citing excuses such as it is hot out, six is enough, but I kept telling myself when it got tough that "this is the last one" and it worked! I think the same attitude could be applied to long runs if the running gets tough in the final miles. Luckily, I haven’t really had to do that during long runs, but I think I could benefit from running further more often. Therefore I ran 14 miles the other day and I felt great as I handily found a pace just below 7:00 towards the end. I just didn’t want to stop, not even to take a break for water. During that run when passing a couple of friends on bikes one of them said “Wow…You’re being over-taken by a jogger, I’m going to post this on your Facebook”.  I told him “I haven’t passed her yet” as the friend decided to play along and sped up to race me but then slowed down allowing me to pass.   

Naturally, it would have been good to take a pre-emptive day off before fatigue set in, but when you’re feeling this good it’s hard to stop and as I entered my 13^th consecutive day running a break would probably have been wiser. Additionally, I broke the 20-minute rule; I wasn’t feeling good after 20 minutes but seeing it was the weekend and not running on a day off would seem like a waste I kept at it after all… Ironically, I had just been thinking about writing a post about the benefits of hill running over speed-work to avoid injuries. Here, I was blasting through a 12 x 400 m session at 5:00 pace feeling Bolt -fast when my hamstring tightened up. Now I’ve iced it and it feels pretty good the day after so we’ll see. Hopefully I’ll be OK to race the Xerox 10k among the trees of the Arboretum on Tuesday. Either way, I’ll come back smarter and stronger. If I can race, I just hope that all the hill training will have paid off, but that will have to be the subject of a different post.