My goal in June was to “start over” on the year. It had been a tough first five months with the passing of my grandfather and step mom, along with their delayed memorial services and burials. There’s never truly closure until those moments have passed, so June 1 was to mark my new “January 1”.
I had a 5k race at the end of May and a 10k race the first week of June and I was in pain from running but I still ran. The pain continued even when I played softball so I was forced to back off. Self-diagnosed shin splints confirmed by my Dr. when I went in for a visit for something else. He suggested that when it comes to going for a run that I need to walk for 3/4 to a mile and stretch. Yea I have to admit that isn’t in my patience level. So I rested more and walked just in general instead of running. I only logged about 25 miles for the month, but on my walk the other night I came to the conclusion I need to fully start over even with my training. My body is not in the conditioning or shape it needs to be for what I expect or want to be doing – running long distance. I realized that 10 years ago when I was working out that it was crazy if I had run 3 miles straight. That I would be happy with a mile or mile and a half and then go to strength training. When I started training for a half marathon (first official race I ever completed) I used that base training to get me where I was. Even five years ago I was training solid and eating healthy and doing amazing. The last three years I have slowly dwindled, peaking with some races, and even completing a half in my goal time of under 2hrs. That was my final peak and it was almost 2 years ago. Since then I got into a mindset that a minimum of 3-4 miles no matter what was what I should be doing for every run, no matter how long I hadn’t been running or had been running. So now it’s time to go back to the drawing board and train for just a 5k distance and move up from there. It’s definitely not what I expected to be doing, but most importantly it’s what I need to do for my body (and mindset) to survive.