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Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Never Give Up. Never Quit. Sometimes Take A Break. (My Running Journey So Far)

I've been looking back at my running journey a lot lately. Although I have always run off and on, I never considered myself a runner until the last year or so. I had never viewed and sought out running as it's own sport (as opposed to just an aspect of one). In high school, I played sports. All of them. Mostly it was something to do. When you grow up in the middle of nowhere boredom normally leads down two roads. One to sports the other to drugs. I enjoyed being active, and my parents were hippies so drugs weren't appealing to me. So sports it was. When I look back on the practices, the running was really the only part I was good at; I was always one of the first to cross whatever distance we were running. As soon as the ball came into play (softball, basketball, volleyball) I sucked, and I often fouled out of every basketball game I ever played. That should have been a clue. (Key word should).

We never had a track team in high school. Except for that one year we had a teacher that loved track. So he started one. I can't remember his name but he was tall, with huge glasses and a big nose. There were only a few people on the team, and they struggled with maintaining enough people to compete in meets. Once, the coach came to me and asked if I could run with them; they didn't have enough people to qualify and wouldn't be able to compete if I didn't join them. I did, and did OK. I remember finishing somewhere in the middle, and being happy I wasn't last but disappointed that I didn't win (as if that would have been even a remote possibility). I think at that point I wouldn't have considered "just" running when there were opportunities to play more popular sports that had more social interaction with all of my friends. I realize now that's what sports were for me in high school; a way to keep myself out of trouble, stay active and be social all at once.

I graduated high school, and joined the track team at UCSD my freshman year. I'm not quite sure how I ended up there, but I was determined to be part of the pole vaulting team. The training was intense and for several months I worked hard, though never actually picking up a pole. They ended up cutting me, explaining that they just didn't think it was going to work out. They suggested I join one of the other track teams... like throwing (javelin, shot put, etc). I'm not sure why but I decided not to. I don't know if it was the sense of rejection, or my viewpoint of throwing events not being as glamorous as pole vaulting, but whatever the reason I just left and took a break from activity.

This break, coupled with the freshman meal plan eating from campus dining halls lead to more than just the freshman 15. I graduated high school at about 118 lbs, and by the end of freshman year I had ballooned up to close to 140, maybe more. At some point it broke and I had to make a change. I started running, simply to lose weight. I started running campus loop (about 4 miles) then running down to Black's and along the beach for a stretch before heading back. Over time, I kept running further and further before heading back. Each new point I would run to would open up a new stretch of beach beyond that to aim for next time. This became the start of my relationship with distance running. Adding on a little bit at a time, pushing yourself a little further each time, yet still pacing yourself and saving something in reserve for the way back. The furthest I think I ever made it was about 8 miles up and back.

In April of my sophomore year I met Ryan, and he opened up my world to a whole new realm of activities. Rock climbing, mountain biking, camping, hiking and backpacking. My running took a backseat as he sucked at running and I very much enjoyed spending time with him doing these other things anyway. I still ran, but it was as a supplement to the other ways that we were active together.

After being together for 4 years, we got married. Another 4 years later, we had Rory, then Abby 2 years after that. I was not active during my pregnancies. My hormones were absolutely out of control, and I had very strong and severe symptoms. I was exhausted, nauseous and uncomfortable for most of both pregnancies. I like to say that I'm just a committed personality type, and whatever I throw myself at I do so wholeheartedly. That was certainly true of pregnancy for me. My body was growing little human beings and there simply wasn't much left for me. So for 5 years my body was taken over by my beautiful little parasites, and the sole purpose of my existence was to create and provide for them.

When Abby was a year old, I finally felt in control of my life and had enough energy to expend on myself again. Finding time outside of work was an issue. Working full time took as much time away from my family as I was willing to spend, so my compromise was working out during my lunch break. It was not ideal, as I die in the heat and working out during your lunch break is the fastest way to do that, but working on the coast alleviates that enough to make it survivable. Finding my way back to running was a tough start. I experienced aches and pains that I had endured before (shin splints) and ones I had not (hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain). I was frustrated that only running 2-3 miles a few times a week brought on so many issues, but since running was the core of my lunch workout, I had to figure it out. I did lots of online research, went to Road Runner and got fitted for shoes, started stretching and doing specific strengthening exercises and eventually was able to work myself back up to 4-5 mile runs, and by summer of 2013 I had decided to run my first half-marathon and was training for it.

That half-marathon turned out to be the Coronado Strand Half that November. I was still battling with a reoccurring hip injury that I had not been able to work out, and at mile 2 it started to lock up. I thought, "Well I've come this far. I'm trained for this distance, and I'm here, now. I can either call it off and quit, or just push through." I've never been a quitter, and I didn't think I would be doing lasting damage to my body, so I pushed. It wasn't pretty, but I finished with a respectable time of 2:10. In fact, It only motivated me further, since I knew that without the hip injury I surely would have been able to finish in under 2 hours. So I went to my masseuse for the first time, (an amazing therapist that Ryan had seen several times) and he worked out my problem muscle; the TFL, which was the cause of the hip issues.

All fixed up and injury free, I turned around and signed up for the inaugural Holiday Half at the end of December, since I was already trained. It was an amazing race; the weather was perfect, I was both rested and trained, and I snuck in just under 2 hours, finishing in 1:58. I remember saying that I should just stop there, because there was surely no way I could top that... and yet I knew that after taking on 13 miles, I still had it in me to go for more. So the full marathon planning began.

After some back and forth I settled on the Carlsbad Marathon in January of 2015. It gave me plenty of time to train up to it, and the majority of my heaviest training would be after the seasonal cool down. Through it I started using a new breathing technique as lined out in an article I saw on RunnersWorld, and downloaded a metronome app for my phone to increase my cadence to the ideal 180. These have helped decrease my injury incidences by correcting my stride. Since those take a lot of concentration, I have had to stop running with music, something that I would have told you before was absolutely impossible for me.

I'm tapering down now, but I peaked at 40 weekly miles and completed two 20 mile runs 2 weeks apart. I really concentrated on decreasing my overall pace to between a 9-10 min/mile. I also decided a few weeks ago to trade in my long run and some of my weekly miles for the Holiday Half again this last weekend, figuring that trading in the weekly miles would be well worth the practice run in a real race situation. I'm so glad I did because I shaved 7 min off my total time from last year, and finished in 1:51,which is a new PR for me, I placed 55th out of 260 in my division which is top 20% and something that really puts my hard work and dedication into perspective. I was able to maintain the same 8:30 pace I was running last year, but instead of hitting the wall and slowing down the last 3 miles I was able to hold out and speed up for the last little bit. It was a pretty amazing feeling to be so in control of my body, my pace, my energy expenditure.

Although I still have a lot to learn about running and myself, I have come so far in the last few years and really feel in tune with my body. A forthcoming post will probably cover what a spiritual experience running has been for me, but this one is plenty long as it is!