Entries RSSI have a vague recollection of making a deal with the devil a few weeks ago. In my last few days before the Marathon, I gave a whole new meaning to the term “active rest.” I iced and stretched multiple times a day, I consulted every sports injury book I could find, and I even tried at home, do-it-yourself accupressure, all in hopes of magically making my random undiagnosed general foot/leg injury go away in time to run the marathon pain free. I begged and pleaded in my own head with the running powers that be, to heal me. I even remember thinking, just let me be 100% for race day, then I’ll take all the time off my body needs. Doh! Rookie mistake. The words are coming back to haunt me in the days and weeks since crossing the finish line.
General soreness went away in a day or two, but the pre-race injury that so cooperatively stayed away on race day has come back with a vengeance. It is definately on the mend, but taking its sweet time. A few days off turned into a few weeks, and now it has been 16 days since I have been running. But who is counting. And ok, I did sneak one little walk/jog in there desperate to get back on the road, but I was dragging my reluctant pit bull and ended up doing much more tug of war-ing than actually running so it doesnt really count. I had thought so much about pre-race, it didnt cross my mind what might happen post race. As ridiculous as it sounds, my whole life had unknowingly been separated into two portions; pre marathon and post marathon. My days were so consumed by my training plan that every evening and lunch break were masterly calculated and planned days in advance. My friday night plans were dependant on how long my saturday morning run was going to be and my saturday afternoons were allocated to spend as much time recovering as necessary. Some might say I was a little obsessed, and I daydreamed about how great it would be post marathon when I could sleep in, drink coffee in my pj’s and suddenly have hours and hours of free time added back into my week. What exactly was I thinking??
I think I have settled into a little bit of post accomplishment funk, all made worse by an injury that is keeping me from running altogether. But If I were able to continue running afterwards, I kind of think I still might be in a similar predicament. 4 months of focusing on a very specific goal and then. . .nothing. Anyone is bound to feel a little down, right? I have actually found myself missing the songs on my ipod and searching for another excuse to put the earbuds in, just to bring me back. So now the problem is: what to do about this? Last night over corned beef and guiness, I began to drop hints to my training buddy about potential goals for the future. Has she heard about this triathlon? That half marathon? Trying to plant the seed of getting a new goal on the calendar, even if it is eons away. I think just having a big red circle somewhere in the datebook will help. But unfortunately I think she is still in the post race euphoria, excited to trade running dates for cocktail dates, and actually responding to all of her emails instead of reading the latest workout/recipe/blog on runners world. But lets not give her too many ideas. Selfishly I am hoping she finds herself searching for purpose and a way to work off all that corned beef soon so we can both be back on the wagon. In the meantime, I’ll try to enjoy having more time to walk the dog, watch more movies, and do more cooking. All of the things I thought I missed so much. Turns out, I enjoy everything a little more, when running is a part of my schedule, too. Maybe when my official training starts back up, I will remember this and appreciate just how busy my days are, just a little more.
