Relentless, Surprise & Burn Out

It's been an interesting past few days. I've had ups and slight downs. At group training on Saturday I was awarded the "Relentless For A Cure" singlet to wear during our practice. The singlet, from my understanding, recognizes your hard work and commitment to TNT - through your training and fundraising (with checks I'm nearing $1,900). It was nice to be recognized by the staff, I really appreciated it. So for our run I wore the "RFAC" shirt. The shirt itself is meant to be passed on from week to week so it's a one size fits all deal, which meant I got to run wearing a dress/tunic. I thought that was funny.





Saturday was also our six mile run. Coach Kiley told us the course and for the first time I thought, "wow, that is pretty long". This time we started in Hahamonga Park, ran down to the Rose Bowl, ran around the full bowl, back up to Hahamonga Park, on the trail for a bit and around an old baseball field and then finally back to where we started. Took my pace group one hour and 30 minutes. At about the 45 min mark I was getting tired and by the time we reached the aid station (our first!) I was in need of the gatorade. We only stopped for maybe a minute, but man did that make a difference! Gatorade and starbursts... who knew! At the end of our run I thankfully found out that a lot of other people had the also felt like the run was long and were getting tired sooner than they expected. Turns out we ran closer to 7 miles, probably over. Pola, in my pace group has a GPS watch that said we did more like 7 and a half. Either way... we went past six! No wonder I was so dang tired!! I remember when I used to have a goal of running six miles, well I did and blew past it! That feels pretty good. A little sore the next day, but good overall.

After our run we had a doctor come in who is a runner himself and knows a lot about runner's injuries. He spoke for a bit and then brought out his table and gave "muscle imbalance" examinations to any one who wanted one. That was NEAT, very cool! I laid down on his table and he would bend and maneuver my legs in different positions. He held my ankle and would push on my leg and I'd have to resist against the pressure. We started on my left and it was VERY strong, solid as a rock with hardly any movement. He said that was good. We then moved to my right leg. As soon as he pushed, my leg went to jello and slipped under the pressure. I laughed because it was so drastic. We tried again thinking maybe the pressure caught me off guard - nope. My leg fell again. Surprise! Turns out my inner leg muscles on my right leg are not nearly as strong as my left. This explains the odd sensation I was starting to get in my right knee as well as the pain I've been having in my right arch. Fortunately, Dr. Smith showed me some exercises I now have to do twice a day to strengthen my leg. On a funny note, Dr. Smith also examined my feet and could tell right away that I danced, apparently one of the bones in my foot is much more "prominent" than usual.

So Monday I decided to take the day off from my training for no other reason than to avoid burnout. I needed a longer break than just a Sunday rest day. Kind of odd timing after just getting the "relentless" shirt, but I was sensing the negative feelings starting to creep in. Most days I wake up, go to work, drive home, change, go run, come home, eat and go to bed. Then repeat about three more times before anything changes. Honestly, the extra day of nothing was all I needed. I'm feeling much better and now we're adding hill training along with cross training in our weekly schedule, so I think that will help add a little variety in my life. I think it was just a combination from being tired, bored with the usual and having just come off a very long run.

Again another long post - and I still have more I want to write!