Towards the end of 2007 and especially early this year a very clear idea materialized in me about a fundamental change that I needed in my life. Starting to seriously run was part of this change. Before that time, I ran shorter distances, some 5-10K races, but never longer than that. I even used to say that I would never consider running a marathon when people asked if I was training for any longer distances. Then as I was getting more serious about it and I started enjoying the process more, I realized that it made me really happy and that the more I ran, the better I felt afterwards. I even experienced what many call “runner’s high” during which I felt absolutely exalted and invincible, as if I was the strongest person in the world who could achieve anything. The decision to train more seriously came soon after the new-year, and I decided to first train for a half marathon. Originally I was planning to run the NYC Half in July, but then I found out you had to enter through a lottery, and as I am not very lucky when it comes to draws, I quickly realized that I had to find another half to run if I wanted to be sure I would get to do it. At this point it was late winter/early spring already, and my training was nowhere near a half-marathon yet, but I signed up for the Brooklyn Grand Prix anyway which was in early May. Despite not having had trained as much as I wanted to, it was an enjoyable run which I finished at 2:05:20, a time I was satisfied with.
By then, I was starting to think about marathons. Many of the people I ran with at the races were veteran marathoners or training for a marathon at the time already, and after having had a good experience at the half-marathon, I saw no reason why I would not be able to finish a marathon one day. I started talking to my good friend, fellow grad student, and running buddy, Rachel about marathons, and as she was also preparing for her first ever half, we decided we would look around and see what marathons/halfs were there in the US, particularly looking at fun-to-visit spots, like Miami. It wasn’t hard to make a decision once we read about the Miami Marathon annually organized in January, when it is probably the coldest in NY, so we signed up, I for the marathon, and Rachel for the half, got plane tickets, made hostel reservations. Even now, almost 4 months after that, it seems very crazy that we did this on an impulse and now I know that I had thought the whole process would be much simpler than it really is. After looking around on the web and reading many different blogs and articles on marathon training, I made up a training schedule for myself, first focusing on a half that was in early October here in NYC, and then the January marathon. I was way too enthusiastic! I scheduled 5 runs per week, one long run every weekend, and 3-5 miles for weekdays, almost no cross-training, and very little strengthening. I though that going to yoga twice a week would make up for less stretching before and after my runs and that taking 2 days off a week would make up for the fact that I increased my mileage too quickly and ran only on the pavement in Central Park.
Not surprisingly, I started to feel the first signs of training too much in late August, in the form of shin pain. I tried to ignore it for a while, I even did a 15 mile training run in mid September, by which I was in a considerable amount of pain even when I walked. Actually, it hurt more when I walked and got better as I warmed up on the first few miles and by the 15th mile, my leg felt great. Only until I stopped running, though. I went on like this for a little over a month, then the pain got worse, even when I warmed up, and after going by my local runner’s store and finding a flier for a physical therapy practice for runners, I decided to call. It’s been 3 weeks now since I last ran, I have been doing PT for 2 weeks, and now I am able to walk without pain. I am not sure how long it’s going to be before I can run again – I am going to see the doctor again tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll have an idea then – but what I know for sure is that this experience has changed the way I think about training and racing and running all together. I have had to miss the half marathon I was planning to run early October, and I was pretty upset about it. However, I feel like not only am I becoming more aware of how my body works and how much is too much when it comes to pushing it, I am also becoming a more balanced runner and person overall. I bought a bike right before the pain started, and for the first couple of weeks I had it I barely used it. I tend to get things on an impulse and then quickly realize that I only wanted it because I didn’t have it before, then once I have it, I am not interested in it anymore. Well, after 2 weeks of not being able to run, I finally took my bike out for a ride in Central Park and now I am addicted.
Over the weekend the weather was absolutely perfect. It was warm and sunny during the day, cool but still nice at night. On Saturday I biked halfway around Manhattan and took the ferry to Governor’s Island – this is a great thing to do on a summer weekend, unfortunately, last weekend was the last one it was open – and spent some time riding around the island. It was so nice there! Beautiful view of the city, the Statue of Liberty, New Jersey, yet you can’t hear the noise of the city and there are no cars allowed on the island. It was so refreshing to spend a few hours away from the craziness and the noise. Throughout the weekend I kept seeing people jogging in the city, I felt more calm about it than I had in recent weeks. Being able to exercise outside again on my bike, I feel less stressed about the fact that I can’t run and that my marathon training is most likely not gonna happen at all.
Talking about stress… running is the single best de-stresser I have ever tried. I had been an athlete for many years – did competitive fencing for 15 years – but nothing I had ever tried before worked like running does. The past few weeks have been especially frustrating in lab, none of my experiments have been working and I feel like I have no way of venting. It’s my fault of course, right now I don’t have much else that I care about enough to put much effort into in order to distract myself from work. When fall started, I was very determined to put all the effort I could into my research and training. Now I can’t run and I am very unhappy with my work. I obviously need a new hobby.
Writing this all down just now has already made me feel better. I feel like it had all been welling up inside me, and it needs to get out. I never thought I would write a blog one day, and I am not even sure if anybody is ever going to read this, but it somehow feels right to do it. Maybe it’s this over-connected world we live in that makes me feel like I can share my thoughts and feelings about what’s going on in my life and it will somehow make my life and possibly others’, easier. When I started getting worried about begin injured, I spent a lot of time reading forums and blogs on running websites, and they helped me a lot to understand what was going on with me and to make a decision about going to see a doctor finally. I am only hoping that if people do read this blog, someone might find something I have written about helpful, whether that might be in training for a running race or in grad school. I wanted to write some about my work, but as it turns out, I need to do some right now, so next time. Ciao.
No comments:
Post a Comment