Breaking Point

I suspect this is true of many runners, but one thing I’ve observed with myself over the years is the amount of discomfort I consider “normal” and acceptable is pretty high. I’ll go through a run basically in complete misery and just figure that’s the way it is and think nothing more of it. In fact, whether it be to try to convince myself or because I really believe it, I’ll even tell myself and others that things are going relatively well when they really aren’t. At the same time, I also have a breaking point, and when I reach it, I’m pretty much done. In other words, I might be running 10+ miles a day and battling through all sorts of stuff in the process, but when I hit that breaking point, my mind, body, or whatever will just say it’s not worth it anymore and I’ll throw in the towel 10 steps into my next run. The pain isn’t necessarily any greater; it’s just that what I’d been willing to tolerate for an hour or more previously I’m not willing to put up with at all any longer.

That’s basically what happened over the last few days of this past week. I’d been going on for 2-3 weeks really not enjoying running at all. I was tired, beat-up, out-of-shape, and just plain suffering. In spite of my best efforts to remain conservative, I hadn’t taken a day off from exercise since I started walking on August 1, and I was paying the price. At the same time, it’s hard for me to accept not being able to run certain distances and certain paces, particularly when I’ve got people running with me, so I was trying as hard as possible to get myself back to where I could run what I considered to be a reasonable amount (40-60 min a day) at a reasonable pace (at least in the 7:20’s or better). In short, I was beating my head against a wall and getting nothing but a headache to show for it.

I guess I still haven’t learned enough to completely stop myself from being stupid, but thankfully I may have learned enough to prevent it from getting really bad. I wound up taking 4 straight days off, and I went from being sick, not having any energy, and having all sorts of aches and pains to not feeling too bad. Last night was my first run back, a Garmin free 30 min that I called 4 miles. I started nice and easy, stayed relaxed, and felt better as I went. I also felt like I was running a decent (for me) pace towards the end. It was completely different from the ugly runs of the past couple weeks and sort of made me remember what it’s like to feel good and actually enjoy being out there.

So basically I’ve had to push the reset button and recommit to doing things the right way. That likely means tossing the Garmin aside for a while and incorporating in some very short, slow days as well as a day off here and there. Quite simply, I wasn’t giving my body time to absorb the training I was doing so I really wasn’t getting anywhere. Taking it slower might require more time to get fit again, but that’s better than losing another 2-3 months to injury. My left shin still hurts a little, although it loosened up nicely last night, and my right achilles is always an issue, so I’m not out of the woods yet. I’ll have to keep treating those problem spots and continue to do the ancillary things to prevent them, and other injuries, from taking me out. I’ve done a much better job of late staying on hip/glute exercises as well as core work, and I will be incorporating in some drills very soon. After years of using the same muscles to make the same motions over and over, I’ve got to get back to being an athlete, not just a shuffling distance runner. If I can do that, I have a feeling it will not only help keep me healthy but get some speed back in my legs as well.

So there’s the update. Hopefully a minor, 4-day setback will pay big dividends down the road. As Howard has preached at me for years, just because you’re filling up the logbook doesn’t mean you’re training. One of these days I’ll get that so I can stop repeating the same lesson over and over!