Since the half marathon I spent the week running recovery runs and simply trying to get my workouts in my schedule. Back to school for my kid, back to competitive dance (for her)/carpooling (for me) and everything else being a full time working Mom, wife and part-time dance mom entails left little time for really great training. My phone's health monitor told me on Sunday I could do better, so this week I'm trying lol.
So far I've managed two solid runs. Monday's was a run commute but I managed to tack on an extra 2km to it, so I was pretty satisfied with that. Yesterday was a rainy day. I was totally going to bag my run in favor of a strength routine but fate got in the way and due to an armed standoff I couldn't even get close to my home (my kid was at dance practice and hubby was at work). Thankfully the standoff ended peacefully and before I needed to carpool three pre-teen singing girls home from dance. But it left me stuck. Run in the rain or bag it altogether? I decided to run. It meant I had to get changed from my work clothes into my running gear in the back of my suv; thankfully there was only 1 other car in the parking lot and I had enough coats and gear to cover the windows! In the end it was an awesome run. Truly. I got totally soaked but I had the trail to myself and energy to spare. I scrambled up the hills and jumped from rock to rock to avoid the small rivers caused by the rain. It was glorious.
The drive back to pick up the girls though was not. My knee spasmed and felt like one part of the muscle above my knee was twisting inward and the bottom was twisting the opposite way. OUCH. Clearly I pushed it a bit too hard lol. Then my knee went into full-on movie goers knee and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to straighten it ever again. Thankfully some slow breathing helped and the pain eased off, and I could extend my leg. Crisis averted ;-)
On my run I had my usual mix of passing thoughts; my to-do lists, things happening at work, home etc, but then I thought about a recent conversation with my mother. She had congratulated me on my recent half marathon and made a comment about how my body had betrayed me, after I was injured (and how great it was I had overcome that). I thought about that a lot. She had actually asked me if I felt like that a year prior and I had said no. I still feel that way. I don't feel like my body betrayed me when I cracked my knee and caused this OA. It was an accident and more than anything I am pissed off at my thoughtlessness which led to the accident, not my body. I thought about why she would think that way and why I didn't. Then I thought about my running and how a lot of runners talk about their body and their mental state as two separate things. To me, they are intertwined. I can't imagine getting through a 50km race fighting with myself. Sure, races have a huge mental aspect, but the mental state must cooperate with the physical state or you're finished. So to feel like my body betrayed me seems like I'm separating the two halves and I don't think I could go long if I felt that way. Our minds and body must work in concert, rectify any issues they might have at a given moment and move forward.
So what's my next goal? I'm toying with the idea of the half marathon in October. It's on a trail and it's a small race so both are big draws for me. Aside from that I'm going full force into preparing for the Wraskally Wrabbit 2017 edition. I've been away from my favorite race for 2 years and I'll be damned if I'm missing a third. Time to get stronger and eat some hills!
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