It has been a while since my last post. Over four months to be exact. 2011 was a rough year In terms of running. I think I spent most of the year battling nagging injuries and because of my stubborn nature, I chose to ignore all signs that I needed to rest instead of running races. My performances suffered and I became frustrated after each event. The last event I ran in 2011 was the Topanga Canyon Turkey Trot and I was overall pretty satisfied with my performance in the race but still I needed to take a break and I did.
I spent the first few weeks of December just relaxing then I decided to start cross-training more. I bought all kinds of exercise devices and equipment like resistance bands and I even bought an aerobic step which most laughed at. The goal for me was to rebuild myself by strengthening my legs and working on strengthening my core. I also registered for the Boney Mountain 21k which was titled as the hardest race in the Xterra trailrace series. I knew that it would be the first week of January and I knew that I would have good amount of time to train through December but I wanted to train smart and be efficient and not break myself down as I had done in the past.
I set an attainable goal for the Boney Mountain 21k and that was 3 hours. By setting the bar lower than my usually high standards, it took a tremendous amount of the pressure off of me and I felt more relaxed and calm before the race. I went into the race confident and ready because I had spent the previous 3 weeks just working out and not running at all. Everything I did involved leg building. As a runner, you sometimes forget that just running alone is not enough. Running as much as I have run over a nine year period have weakened my legs and joints and I really have done nothing to build them back up so I thought it was important to get back to reshaping and building me, the person then concentrate on the running after.
On the day of the race, I went out to Boney Mountain State park and just had fun. I took pictures while running, I walked when I had to, and I finished strong slapping high fives and skipping through the finish line two minutes shy of 3 hours. For the first time in a while I ran a race without putting a ton of pressure on myself and it felt good.
So now I am back full circle and the LA marathon is staring me in the face and for the 9th year in a row, I will be lining up at the start line, trying to keep my LA marathon streak alive. It always seems like the race comes so fast but for the first time in a long while, I felt like I was heading into the race in the best shape of my life but a week ago without little to know understanding of what happened, I came up with a bizarre hip flexor injury and now it is looking like I may have to change my goal for the race but I am one hundred percent going to run or walk the race.
I have also decided to raise funds for a charity that I felt could use some exposure and as if the injury was not going to make this race hard enough I felt like it would be fun to run the race in a costume. Why you ask, why not. My dad is the reason why I started running and when he passed 9 years ago the thing he reminded me of just about every other day was to go out and enjoy everyday like it is your last and for me the LA marathon is my race and my day to enjoy myself, smile, run, walk, and in the end celebrate completing the race one more year.
Sit tight because here we go…
No comments:
Post a Comment