Wednesday 19 December 2012

#91 You Can't Do That

The (not so long) 'Road to Boston': Hamilton headaches continue

It's now been 4 full weeks since training for Boston officially began (on M 19 Nov). Those weeks were meant to serve as continued recovery from Hamilton as well as begin to build 'base' for the upcoming Boston cycle. The mileage was relatively low (60, 100, 60, 120) and most runs were (supposed) to be easy and comfortable. It should have been a walk (okay jog) in the park/MGT. Instead, my training has been a roller-coaster ride of random injuries, setbacks and inconsistency all likely stemming from that brutal downhill and the last painful miles of Hamilton. My right foot/leg has continued to cause me headaches with a combination of foot and knee pain, 'shin-anigans' and now Achilles tendinitis/ankle issues. I'll be the first to admit that these issues are to a large degree self-inflicted. On easy days, I tend to run too quickly, sometimes too far, and generally fail to take the necessary time to properly warm-up, cool-down and stretch. I should know better! Taking care of your body while NOT running is just as important as the actual running you do, and yet I continue to underestimate this important principle.

I am now trepidatiously entering the SWEP portion of the program feeling much less than 100% and will have little/no time to tend to meddling muscles and troublesome tendons. And with only 17 weeks left until Boston, every day counts. There are however still 6 weeks until the first test of the new cycle: the Robbie Burns 8k in Burlington, which leaves 'plenty' of time to take care of myself, be smarter about recovery and hopefully get back to feeling strong and confident. I again hope to recap and summarize the coming weeks of training just as I did for NYC  Hamilton in a regular ((bi)weekly) post which I'm hoping will get picked up and featured on the Canadian Running website. We shall see.

In other news, our new training group is beginning to take hold and things are coming together nicely. 'Black Lungs Toronto' aims to be a performance based running club where running hard, training smart and racing fast are our primary and sole objectives (with a secondary emphasis on drinking beer, talking smack and socializing). All (20 or so) members of BLT are highly competitive and committed distance runners who have met our "sub-elite" time standard roughly equivalent to a sub 1:25 half and/or sub 3hr marathon. We are committed to training ('the program'), to racing, to wearing club colours (black and white) and to training together and contributing to the camaraderie of the group. Expect big things from BLT in 2013 as we make our presence on the Ontario running scene well known...

That's all for now. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and most importantly, keep running!

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