#runrecovery

These days I see many runners embark on a running streak. The official definition of a running streak, as adopted by theStreak Runners International, Inc., and United States Running Streak Association, Inc., is “to run at least one mile (1.61 kilometers) within each calendar day. Running may occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill.”

I think my longest “running streak” this year, may have been 4 days; and even that is a stretch for me. If you follow me on Strava (or Garmin Connect), you will notice that I haven’t uploaded an activity since December 15th. That’s right, I took 4 unplanned days off in a row! 

Typically, I take 2 days off a week; which I feel is more than most runners at my level. I like to give my body the opportunity to recover each week. Plus, I’ve been seeing very positive results with my new found recovery. 

Let’s back up to July 2015...  It was in this month that I sustained an injury that resulted in my longest time off of running since a college injury in 2001. I trained very hard for the Napa to Sonoma Half Marathon in July 2015. I took very little recovery after the Sugarloaf Marathon in May 2015 before I started training for Napa. In years past, I always took a full week off after every marathon. This time, I didn’t allow my body the recovery it needed before entering into the next training cycle. I went into Napa in very good shape. Race day came and I felt tight. I was able to maintain my pace until about mile 4. My plan to progress my pace each mile fell short when I couldn’t even maintain my starting pace. I started slowing down, but I didn’t know why. Nothing hurt, my wind was fine, my body just could not move any faster. The next day, I noticed a pain in my hip flexor. After being assessed by my athletic trainer friend who also ran the race with us, I made an appointment with my PT when I returned back to NJ. I did, in fact, sustain a hip flexor injury. I stopped running and did everything my PT told me to do. My “no running” streak lasted 6 weeks. 

About 2 weeks into my newfound running, I was back to my normal pace. It took this long because I forced myself to run with slower people in order to ease back in. About 2 months later I ran my first post-injury race; and impressed myself with my speed. Within another 3 weeks, I set a new PR in the 8k. I was back and better than ever!

It’s been over a year since I started running again after my injury. Since then, I have completely changed my training. I allow myself 2 days off a week now, instead of just one. I no longer follow rigorous training plans created by anyone other than myself; I have become my own coach. My training now consists of more races and fewer workouts (if any). Life is too short to burden myself with forced workouts that I don’t enjoy. Instead, I constantly test myself with races that I build strategically into my marathon plans. This year, at age 35, I PR’d in the 5k, 8k, 10k, 15k, 20k, half marathon and full marathon... So, I must be doing something right! And that “something” is listening to my body.

If you remember my last post, I had a disappointing performance at the Marine Corps Marathon. As usual, I took my week off after the race. Once I started running again, I ran very short runs and took extra days off when needed. Two short weeks after the marathon (after 1 week of barely training), I was back racing a 10k. I did not expect to perform well at all; but I needed this race for the USATF -NJ Grand Prix. I ended up with a 1 min course PR and felt amazing. Less than two weeks later, I raced again. In between these 2 races, I ran short recovery runs and took days off. I ended up running a huge PR and one of the smartest races of my life.