re-learning to run
I’ve been doing a lot of running lately.
Since 2019 (and probably before then) I’ve been dealing with shin splints that pretty much never went away. Because shin splints are associated with new runners, I’ve gotten all the reactions: Are you new to running? Sometimes there’s just pain to push through as your body adjusts (eye roll)
I’m racing in a couple months and my goal on the run is to finish 8 mi without pain. It’s not so much short term pain I’m aiming to avoid so much as long term injury.
My training plan until Aug is to run 3x / week with at least 1 non running day in between. I’m focused on form, keep a moderate pace and increase total distance by no more than 10% each week.
To recap my illustrious running career: I’ve done 2 half marathons and a bunch of shorter 5K type races. That’s it. Sometimes I think it’s sad that’s all it took to sideline me for 2 years. Then I decide I’m lucky my body acted up to force me to make changes. All for pushing yourself physically but there is SO much misinformation. Pain is not always good, especially if it’s around the joints / bones. Soreness is OK.
Makes me shudder to think how poor my form was and how little I knew about cross-training when I did 2 half marathons about 1 month apart in 2018. Looking back, that was the tipping point where the load increased too much + coupled with poor eating where some damage was done.
During that time I never kept to a running schedule, ran whatever distances I felt like (with an overall goal of increasing milage over time) and didn’t think about nutrition. I thought running was pure cardio and as long as I could catch my breath I could keep going.
There’s all these crazy stats that cite 65-80% of recreational runners get injured each year. That’s insane. Any sport where over half the recreational athletes drop out annually would appear pretty dangerous right? Well running injuries are usually invisible. People can’t even tell you have one until you mention a twinge in your heel, knee, hamstring whatever.
Alright so I’m training much slower and accepting that it takes months, not just weeks to train for even distances like a 10K…what else?
Also changing the way I look at food. Maybe I’ll do a longer post outlining the major changes I’ve made but it boils down to:
Eating more - calories as fuel
Upping protein - especially after workouts (misconceptions I’ve had to get over: women won’t “bulk!” / protein shakes are 100% necessary for people like me who can’t down a ton of food after hard workouts and not an “artificial supplement”)
Seems like a no-brainer and it’s crazy to think such intuitive advice would make such a difference.
Next week is going to be an inflection point as the mileage gets higher. Hoping to trust the process and let the training play out.