As you may or may not remember on my last blog, Time to get real with myself, I made a commitment to getting myself healthy. I gave a deadline of March 1st. I stuck with that deadline, but life got in the way of reporting about it.
I wrote that blog on February 5th as I was in the second week of doing my strengthening everyday and had really stepped up my game. I finished that week and the following week with the increased resistance and doing about as many reps as I could each night. So that would total 3 weeks straight of this routine. My runs were going OK but I was still limiting myself to around 3-4 miles. Some days the runs would be pain free and other days it would remind me that it still wasn’t ready. I ran 5 miles pain free that Saturday in the 3rd week. By the 4th week I decided to step things up again.
On Monday, February 16th I started doing my clam shells with the X-Heavy band. Basically anything but the leg lifts. The very next day I had a terrible run.
Felt like I hadn’t made any progress. So far it feels like 2 steps fwd and 1 step back.
These are the words I wrote in my journal. Negative thoughts…. So, I skipped my routine that night and decided to skip the next night. I ran again that Thursday and had a great run! Was I on to something? I was toying with the idea that maybe my muscles were finally to beat up to keep getting better. I needed to rest and rebuild. It was working!
That Saturday I ran 6 miles pain free! The next weekend I did 8 miles! Eureka, I think I did it! That was February 28th. The last day before my deadline. I feel like I accomplished my goal. I didn’t end up doing it the exact way I had planned out, but that is the good thing about our goals. There isn’t always a specific road map to follow to achieve them.
THE ROAD AHEAD
I still haven’t ran beyond that 8 miles that weekend. I’ve been slowly building the number of days that I run each week. I’m running 5 days a week now here at the end of March. The distance can range anywhere from 1.5-7+ miles. I’m able to maintain my Ironman Muncie 70.3 training plan I laid out for myself. I run 5 days a week, bike 5 days a week and swim 3 times a week. I have lessened my hip strengthening plan to a couple times a week. I like to think that my swimming and biking will help to strengthen my glutes now. Both done with proper technique do target that area. Perhaps that is why I didn’t have issues last season running 40+ miles a week while triathlon training only to get bit with itbs after I took a break from swim/bike. Time will tell.
I’m excited that I am finally able to get my run back going again and I have been stepping up my game on the bike! Muncie will be a big PR this year or bust!
Hyper-formance Triathlon 