Trying To Stay On Task

Having been a couple of weeks since I sat down with the intention of writing I find the title of this entry to be accurate when it comes to running and working out. Coming down off of the success that I had at the LA Marathon back in March and getting back to work on races that I have later in the year has been an adjustment. I’ve asked myself how many miles should I run per week, what should be my longest run, what kind of ailments should I expect to have after running so many miles ahead of the LA Marathon and then taking a week off to recover.  The last couple of weeks have been a piecemeal of working out as trying to figure out how my body is adjusting to running so much and then reigning that in and thinking about my next race which is the first weekend in June and the SF Marathon at the end of July. I have found it tough to define also.

I wouldn’t say that  my desire to run long distance has changed since I ran my second marathon but it has struggled to re-channel my abilities and look forward to what’s next for me.  Also something that I’ve considered are the difference between me and other friends that I know are runners.

I consider running and working out an enduring aspect of my personality, one that when it goes unfulfilled does not feel right about his life. Being competitive and running gives me something to look forward outside of the normal relationships that I have with people, the work that I do for paycheck and anything else that I am involved in. It gives a chance to transform myself from one thing into another, at a very low cost at that. The largest cost for working out is the time that you spend doing it.  I know that shoes might be expensive and have to be replaced and race fees can cost $150, but when you calculate the hours that are poured in every week not to mention the chance of being injured and any money that goes toward that.  Although I consider this to be a small price to for all of the benefits that running and working out has on both the mental and physical state of being a human being.

Of course this includes those nagging injuries that I have had throughout my running career. Whether it is the continuous tightness in my legs, whether I stretch or not, this nerve problem that I have in my right hip that came up yesterday when I was putting in a 10 mile run. This nerve problem has made it difficult to sleep on my side comfortably and even walk. Or the struggle that I have had with my right foots heal that seems to be in some kind of continuous pain no matter how much I run/walk or don’t run or walk.  And these are  the three that I can think of that are plaguing me currently. At times I feel like an old man that lives inside of a perfectly good body.  One that has a hard time traveling up the 10 stairs to our second floor apartment because I feel so creaky. Whose right heal hurts so badly in the morning that I have a hard time walking and has to hold on to tables, chairs and the walls so that I can walk out to the living room. And its these daily hurts that make myself question just how I am doing to deal with this long term.

Now that I have written this out is easy to see why I have had a hard time adjusting to the problems after running 100’s of miles with the ailments that my body currently has plaguing it. My challenge now is how do I recover from these problems?And keep on running the 100’s of miles per month that I have in past months so that I can both recover and train to do well in race that are coming up.

I know this has to be a common problem that runners have and mine is not unique. Just how I am going to deal with it has to be unique to me.

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