from whence i have come #2
In my last post I talked about not running while focusing mostly on the ankle injury. I ended the post suggesting I had more than just the ankle to be concerned about. In this post I will tell you about what the rest of my body has had to say about running since the marathon, and my thoughts on why all this has happened…
Okay, here’s the upfront no B.S. 100% truth: Prior to Victoria Marathon in October, my body was a train wreck waiting to happen. Why do I say that? My first clue is how badly my ankle was injured and how long it is taking to heal but there are other clues.
First, in general it took a LONG time for me to recover from the marathon. Much longer than in previous races. Second, I’ve had a nagging achilles heel problem and a tight I.T. band ever since the race. Those kinds of things usually heel up very quickly but not this time. Third, I sucked at the race but not only did I suck, I sucked way too early – even compared to a bad running day.
If you read my race report, you know how I complained about the hills in Victoria. However, thanks to Aaron, I have a painful admission to make. The admission is it really wasn’t all about the hills. So what was it then? I’m pretty darn sure I was over-trained. I busted my ass for that race. I was running long and intense miles, was lifting weights and biking great distances two to three times a week. For some people my regimen was probably not over the top. However, what I’ve now realized is that I erred by increasing my overall workload too quickly and, perhaps more importantly, was unable to see signs of over-training.
I think another contributor is that I’ve trained and ran for six marathons in the past four years and during that time put on a lot of miles. In those four years I never took a good long break from marathon training. Not advisable folks.
The reward I got for my stupidity was that on race day, not only could I not maintain the pace I needed for more than a mile, I wasn’t even able to maintain a 30 second per mile slower pace. That is really telling since before the race I was banging out mile after mile at that pace (and faster) with no problem!
All of this tells me something was wrong. Really wrong. I was totally flat for that race and my body has been a wreck ever since. My inner voice says it was because I pushed too hard and my body simply fell apart on race day. What do you think? Make sense?
My next post will be about taking these realizations, growing from them and setting out some goals for 2005 so stay tuned for part III.
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Comment by Murph
Thursday January 06, 2005 @
it doesn’t sound far fetched at all. from everything we’ve ever read about running, isn’t the main point that everyone tries to make is “don’t forget to rest”? it makes total sense that during the heightened stress of the race that the body would just shut down.
i had a similar experience in arizona last year. i trained HARD for that race. i was determined to at LEAST hit 3:45, 3:30 at best. a couple days before the race, BAM, i get the flu. i really think it was due to the fatigue of all the training i’d been doing, the stress of the holidays, a large project at work and the pressure i’d placed on myself to excel in that race. the body is a freaky machine, and sometimes it forces us to slow down and rest.
i’m really enjoying reading about your experience, mark!