Just as the title suggests, my mileage went from 70 miles down to 10. Actually more like 9.8, but who’s really keeping track? Uh, ME! All in a matter of one week.
A friend of mine recently asked me, “You ever take a recovery week and knock your mileage in half?”
I sort of have during training. Definitely very close to it.
Now I can say, I took it down 85%. That’s if my math was right, which it normally isn’t.
If you read my previous post – Too Early to Hit the Panic Button – you’ll know why my mileage dropped down last week. And if you didn’t, well, you can go ahead and mosey on over to the other post if you’d like. I’ll wait patiently.
After cancelling my long trail run on Saturday with some friends, I thought I would run around the neighborhood or hit the treadmill, but my left foot had other plans for me. It was achy. I decided to skip the running. It even hurt to walk at times.
I’m not one of those people who will push a training run and run though pain and discomfort. Even at the slightest hint of pain or discomfort, I’ll ease off the pedal and yes, sometimes that means hitting the brakes altogether.
I’m definitely a cautious runner and I take it easy when necessary. If that doesn’t make me a “tough as nails” runner then, who really cares? My run doesn’t depend on what others think. My run depends on how I feel. I try not to run on ego and so far, that’s worked in my favor.
This mentality has kept me on the low end of injuries, and has kept me running pretty steadily for the past 16 years, so yeah, I’d say it works for me.
The only time I took weeks off from running was back in 2014 when I sprained my ankle — twice (June and October). Other than that, whenever I get a twinge, or ache, or weird funky sensation going on, I lay off the running, up the cross-training, foam rolling, icing, strength training, stretching, praying, and voilà! Back at it in a short time.
When I started to feel the achy arches and heel pain particularly in my left foot, I started to venture down Worryville Road. But I realize, that place is sad and hopeless and dark and not a street I want to head down. Besides, I didn’t have my headlamp with me and it doesn’t do anything to remedy the situation.
So I made the right turn onto Positive Lane, and focused on what I can control.
I got out my tennis ball and baseball that I acquired courtesy of former Red Sox player Daniel Nava after he hit into the bleachers at batting practice at Fenway that I was able to pick up a couple of years ago. Thanks Daniel! It was more painful to use the baseball than the tennis ball to roll my foot over. Pretty sure I said some words in some other language that hasn’t been discovered yet.
No pain, no gain. Right?
I also froze a water bottle to roll my feet arches over which probably hurt more than the baseball! I primarily focused on the left arch, but had to get the right one in on the action as well, so it wouldn’t feel left out of the party.
But hey, on Sunday morning, both my feet felt pretty decent so I ditched my usual road running shoes for my trail shoes for more support and jumped on the treadmill. I warmed up and stretched out my calves and took it easy, which was pretty easy to do when you’re listening to Simon & Garfunkel, Carly Simon, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, and Otis Redding, just to name a few. I like to mix up my musical repertoire now and then.
Of course, all the while, telling myself if I had any ounce of discomfort I would stop.
The discomfort never came. 6 glorious miles!
I suppose I could’ve pushed for more miles, but why? I should have plenty more times to run longer and THAT’S my goal!
My goal is not to run longer on this day. My goal is to run longer on MORE days!!!
And I could be wrong in this assumption, but wouldn’t that be the goal for most runners?
So, going forward, I’m taking it day by day, and if I need to ease off a little bit here and there, I will. Most importantly, I’m staying on Positive Lane. It’s better there. Because one thing is for sure, some people have it a whole lot worse in this world, and this is just running.
Thanks for reading!