I've done this coming-back-from-injury thing often enough to have realized a couple of things.
1) The short distance speed comes back quickly.
2) The endurance does not.
I recall being acutely aware of this early last summer, after taking 2-3 months off from running to let an IT band injury (yes, it's a theme with me) heal. I was doing two speed workouts a week and kicking butt at them. Then I'd get to the weekend long run, and my own butt was the one getting the boot.
This time around: same book, different page. Perhaps doing a lot of speedwork is the reason stamina doesn't come back as quickly? It stands to reason, as your body likely can't do both well while still adjusting to mileage increases. But since my short-term goals are the 5k and 15k, and I don't plan to race a half marathon until June, I'm okay with doing the short-interval speedwork well and sort of plodding through the long stuff.
At least, I thought I was okay with it.
I've been running on the treadmill a lot. Part of that has been because of the ridiculous wind we're having this spring- well, every spring, thanks to lakeside living. If there's anything I hate running in, it's wind. Give me cold, give me rain, give me heat… wind is my enemy! Also, the local community park's paved trail and local tracks are only now starting to open. Though I do long and easy runs outdoors, I've been taking my speedwork to the treadmill.
400s are fun, and good for 5k training. On Tuesday, I did a 7 mile, 10x400m interval workout, with the 400s at the 8.9 treadmill setting (6:44 pace). They felt good. Almost easy. But, they're 400s… and in my opinion, the easiest of speed intervals. It's not that hard to gut out a little more than 90 seconds of hard running if you get to jog for a bit thereafter.
On Thursday (today), I had a 6 miler planned. I'd had a rest day on Wednesday… and by rest day I mean a 60 minute trainer bike ride. With my growing list of cross-training activities, I think I had 2? 3? true rest days in the last month. Anyway, I figured with 48 hours since my last run, I could throw a little tempo into my 6 miles. Yes, it would require endurance that I haven't been honing for months, but 3 miles... how hard could it be?
After a slow warmup mile, I started at 7:53 pace. First half mile felt good.This is easy, yo! I was even entertaining thoughts of a sub-7:30 mile for the third and final mile.
That stamina thing? Yeahhhhh. So about 1200 meters in, this started feeling alarmingly…challenging. Wait, whaaaaat? At nearly 8 pace? No. Just… no. But as I headed into the 2nd tempo mile, it felt bad enough that I stayed put at 7:53, knowing I had another 2 full miles to go. Turns out when you have no hope of respite anytime soon, and your body hasn't run very fast for very long in ages, reality bites. I turn to the facts, looking for comfort. I've been injured. I've been away from running for awhile. I can't expect to come back and run tempos like before. But inwardly, I'm wailing, this isn't even close!! Three measly miles, c'mon, I was running sub-7:30 tempos last summer, FOR 8-10 MILES.
I took a quick water fountain break, and coming back to the TM, had a little “now what” moment. Shut down the tempo and call two miles enough, and jog it out with 3 more easy miles to make it 6? It looked tempting.Did my leg hurt? Maybe a niggle there, in the injury spot? I was injured 6 weeks ago, after all…I should probably stop.
Then my pastor walks into the Y and gets on an elliptical. The athletic pastor who knows I'm a runner and regularly inquires about my running, is also a basketball coach, and whose teenage kids are into track and soccer and, well, you get it…. a situation in which you don't want to look like a wuss. I wasn't going to hang there gasping over the treadmill's side rails when someone I knew personally was right there. So I prayed fervently and ramped up the treadmill settings, figuring whatever heavenly aura Pastor G. brought into the room could rest on me and save me from an untimely death.
That 3rd mile felt easier than the first 2, and I ran it in 7:47, praisetheLordgloryhallelujah.
Though it's easy to be bratty and ungrateful about the current state of your running when your wits are addled by exhaustion and and your competitive juices are in overdrive, a couple of cool-down miles at a nice easy pace was enough to get me mentally grounded again. That thing about “competing against the athlete you were yesterday” only works if today's athlete is coming from the same place as yesterday's athlete. When I think of my “yesterday” to beat, I look at last summer... 1:39 half. 45:xx 10k. (in a training run). Training to run a 3:30-3:32 marathon… Or even the 2013 Peg, when I had 16 PRs in one year, and capped it off with my first marathon in 3:46. But I'm in a different place right now. 2016 Peg. Comeback Peg. I do a disservice to the injured Peg of a more recent "yesterday"- and any injured runner out there- by failing to be grateful for every healthy run.
Those long sub-7:30 tempos and that half PR last summer only happened after several months of hard training. On the other hand, two months ago, I couldn't run 2 miles without pain. Remember what that felt like? Remember how you pined and ached for a run, and swore you would give anything to run without pain, no matter how slow? You have that now. Enjoy it. You will get back everything you had before, and MORE.
Being an athlete is more than just speed and stamina and being at your best. It's overcoming and staying mentally strong and training smart. It's letting the good things happen and unfold and grow in their own sweet time. It's staying in the moment, however hard it is, and not ruining that moment by yearning ceaselessly for an old version of you.
Embrace the new version of you, and then set your sights on making it the best version yet.
Better than 2013, and better than the short summer of 2015? Yes, and yes.
I ended the run smiling, with 6 miles done. 3 tempo @ 7:51 average. My legs ached, but tired legs make me happy. I'll end this week with 26 miles, more than I've run since October, 2015. Very soon, I'll do a 4 mile tempo. Faster. Then 5, and 6, and 8. From there… the best version yet.
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