I’ve spent the past few days reducing my mileage- It went from about 80 miles last week to about 45 miles this week, it is a huge hardship to reduce my miles because the whole premise of dropping from 100 to 85 was consistency in being able to have long stretches at 85. Instead, I think it has completely backfired. I don’t think the reduction in mileage has made much of a difference and clearly the intensity of workouts are the problem and at this point I’m over-trained. Just too many intense workouts at one time, and I think that my blood levels are indicating over training. Unfortunately, now, I have to jump way the other way and it’s almost like an injury- I have to wait until my body heals itself and my hormones level out so that I can go back to training.

I’ve talked to several people about what to do and how long its going to take…recovery could be anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months. Here’s what I’m doing to recover and get back on track with running:

-Keep my mileage low
-Workout once a day
-Take off Sundays
-Eliminate the altitude tent

This week I’ve been running 9 miles a day at an 8:30 pace and it seems hard- which is once again an indication of how over-trained I am.  It affects everything-attitude, feelings, hormones…every aspect of my life.

I’m just hoping that I can get things in order and back on track as quickly as possible.

We’re at the airport about to board the plane back to Atlanta. It was an interesting race yesterday, I don’t think I raced well at all. I just mentally felt like I was over-tired, over-trained and feeling kind of frustrated. I’ve been spending a lot of time with the Sliders-Sarah and her husband Steve are both excellent runners and have been encouraging me to rethink my coaching situation and look for different options. I also spent a lot of time with one of the Kenyan’s here- he explained the Kenyan way: keeping your easy days super easy so I’m going to rethink the way I’m training and look for ways I can do more workouts but just make them easier instead of the intense workouts. In the meantime, I’ve been having so many hormonal problems that I’m going to probably need to rethink everything and take it easy for a month to recover…. off to Atlanta.

Here’s what the starting line looked like at the Bermuda International 10k

Jim filmed my warm up ritual… may not be too entertaining but here it is:

…And here’s my finish at the Bermuda 10k- not as good as I had hoped

Before Jim and I left for the airport, I double checked to make sure I had everything I needed… for me and the kids while we’re gone.

Though I remembered to bring ice for for the ride to the airport, I just boarded the plane and realized I forgot my compression socks- I need them to keep my feet from swelling from the near 3 hour flight. Great. Hope it doesn’t affect my race tomorrow.

I’m leaving for Bermuda tomorrow morning, but have to get a run in the morning before my flight leaves.  I had to go over some important rules with my kids, like not making an international call to ask if they can open a bag of chips, which they very well might do-you never know. For some reason they chose to film me reviewing the rules…. maybe they’ll watch it while I’m gone (yeah, right)

Its Monday morning, it’s the first day back to school for the kids after our snow day on Friday.  It is COLD! I have a 2×1 mile today with a 3 mile warm up and warm down. Very light week for me because I race on Saturday in Bermuda- its my first race of the year and I only have to do the miles at a 5:20 pace, full rest in between, should be an easy workout….we’ll see.  I had to take my flats in to be resized for a different pair; Brooks sent me the wrong size. Then I’ve got to figure out what trainers I should wear for the year. A busy day ahead! Off to the dentist, Daniel has basketball practice, its spirit week at the girl’s high school, Madeline has speed and agility..got to go!

I ran 17 miles today on the hills at Westminster, slowly. I’m still recovering form having a few injuries- my plantar fascia is bothering me on my left side, so as a compensation my entire right side has been bothering me. I did Graston yesterday down both legs, which (especially on my right let) should relieve a lot of tension.  And as that heals, the muscle is just going to be more reactive and better. I did an ice bath today to further calm everything down.  I’m hoping, after that much mileage and pilates, I’ll start feeling better by tomorrow- its hard to tell.  Hopefully by Saturday I’ll be able to gauge my progress.

I started wearing the oxy socks again, which is something I don’t do on a regular basis unless I have to because they are so warm.  Realistically, I’ll know something in the next few days.  I’m still going to run in the Bermuda race.  Its only a 10k so even if things go really badly, I should be able to pull through and run halfway decently. Until then, I’m trying to keep my mileage high enough while still healing this injury and making sure I’m keeping a strong base for future races.

I decided not to do my 2nd run today, which was mentally very hard on me.

On a more positive note, I met a very sweet lady on my run this morning who told me that I was the inspiration that kept her working out every day, and that she tries to schedule her runs the same time as mine to help keep her motivated! It reminded me of when I was in college- I was almost entirely supported and mentored and encouraged by men, and now when I return to running so much older, I’m almost entirely supported by women.

It seems wherever I go it’s the women to approach me, run by me, want to run with me, and that’s been a huge change, but a wonderful change that gives motivation and a reason to keep running. 

I had another rough week of workouts, almost unbearable.

I think the workouts are too hard and too many, and as a consequence, my soleus has gotten very tight and my plantar fascia is horrible.  I think I’m making too many changes to my routine;  I’m extremely frustrated and trying to make adjustments.  It’s the week after Christmas and I want to go back to hard workouts, but I can’t so this is a very frustrating time for me.

I did massage today, after a ridiculous workout (3×2 miles)- should have easily done them at 5:15’s and 5:05, instead I did them 5:15 and couldn’t hit a 5:10 for my second.

I’m trying to get ready for a second workout now, meanwhile my kids are going stir crazy (my daughters have dressed up my son like Johnny Depp.) because they are still out of school for the holidays and I’ve been gone all day between workouts and massage.  After retaping, I’m going to try for a 2nd run.