Not much to update on regarding my preparation for the Rock'n'Roll Savannah Marathon next November. I have been keeping to my moderate schedule of running whenever the hell I feel like it at whatever pace and distance feels good....minus one time.
I will admit that I consciously chose one run about a week or so ago to 'go fast' and boy did I. With my new Garmin GPS on my wrist I could tell exactly how FAST I was going. I won't blame my addition of fancy running gear for what happened next, but I will say it was probably a combination of the watch and my ego. That being said, my body did what it was told. It went fast. Then I did what it told me...by not being able to walk effortlessly for about a week. The morning after, something was definitely not right. A pulled muscle at my best guess, on the outside of my left leg. The one you feel if you point your toes down and inward.
The first response received was that "its probably because you weren't wearing shoes." Of which I disagree. Yes, I may not have received the injury if I was wearing shoes, but who knows what else I may have suffered had I been. The problem, shod or not, was that my running form was improper. Running unshod comes pretty naturally after some time doing it, though I had only traveled at speeds that were 'natural' for me. By forcibly increasing the speed of my run, my body could manage the movement, but not control it. This allowed for improper, over exaggerated form that was not apparent until the run was over. Bottom line, it was my own damn fault for being impatient. Almost two weeks later and I am still feeling remnants of the injury. I have been sticking to dog walks and a cycle here and there. The couple short runs that I have managed felt ok during, but after the pains returned to some degree. So I am continuing to take it easy until all pains have ceased. I don't expect this to impact my running schedule, as I have none, but I imagine I will have to start hashing out some sort of vague schedule before too long.
With the clock ticking to next November, I thought it was appropriate that there was a NYTimes article by Christopher McDougall yesterday, were he stated his reasoning for returning to the marathon; an event he had sworn off due to his past injury and frustration with, put simply, the idea of the marathon. A good, quick inspirational read.
365 days and counting...
