After finally taking that giant leap off the Fear Fence, training has begun.
I chased one too many bagels and pulled my calf muscle back in the first couple days in February. Rested an entire week (patience is not my forte) before thinking I was strong as an ox and ready to get back out there only to pull it again after a sissy 1.9 km. But instead of doing the smart thing and booking a physio appt, which would entail having to find a PT after mine went and got knocked up and moved to Hicksville, BC, I just did the random stair raise and loafed around the apartment for a couple more weeks. "I'm injured and I must rest" played loudly over any random idiotic thought along the lines of "Maybe I should go to the pool or hop on my bike."
2 1/2 weeks after the first re-pull (yes, there were more) of the initial pull, I tried again. This time I managed a couple succesful 5 or 6 km runs. In my mind, I was healed a la Steve Martin in Leap of Faith. Hallelujah! The trails were calling and I was raring to get to them. 4 weeks after the initial pull, I planned a nice easy jaunt in the forest, starting at EOL, heading to Bridle and pulling out at the Golf Course. Had I stuck with that original plan, it would have been 12 km on some sweet rolling technical trail, then down the road to hop on the bus. But nooooo. I see the bottom of Pangor and think, 'hmmm...what's up there?' Really, what could it hurt? The leg feels great, let's go! The entire way up all I kept thinking was this trail would be SO. MUCH. FUN. to bomb down. I'd now gone 11km and the leg still felt fantastic. So off to Deep Cove I went. The second I stepped down onto Indian River Drive, I re-pulled my calf. This was literally 1 km past my planned 12 km and now I still have 3 km to get to civilization and donuts. Mmmm. Donuts.
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to actually hike down from Quarry Rock? This is a fun section to run. I love it so much. There's so many roots and rocks. I love practicing downhill on this busy section because it forces you to come up with route plan B, C and D on the stop of a dime what with all the people hiking. And when every step you take, you feel your calf pull just a little more, you're reminded how critical it is to stop running. But then you start thinking, it hasn't popped yet...maybe I'm okay to run bits and pieces. I'll get down faster. So off I went, running, walking, running, stretching, walking, digging thumbs into the calf, more walking, running... Needless to say, my calf hurt like a sonofabitch by the time I got to donuts, so I got three and ate them all. At the bus stop, I was literally using the back of the bench as a foam roller. Lesson finally learned. Rest, get a massage and book a damn physio appointment.
Lesson #1 - Patience, Patience, Patience
Lesson #2 - Always go with the gut.
Lesson #3 - The little devil on your shoulder rarely has good advice, but it's still so much fun to take it
Lesson #4 - Running in a dress is FUN!
I had 3 more weeks of complete rest before Cap Crusher. I'd already dropped from the 13 km to the 8 km and knew going in that if my calf wasn't 100% by the time I came thru the dam the first time, I was pulling out. And that's exactly how it played out, amidst much hugging. It was tight for most of the run, whether that was from doing nothing for 3 weeks and still trying to warm my legs up or from the re-pull of the re-pull of the pull, I wasn't questioning it. I was so terrified of pulling it again and having to rest another month. I'd already delayed my initial training date by a month and was in a panic as to when I'd get to start if I pulled it again. So play it smart. #babysteps became my new motto. My next three weeks of runs ranged from 2 km to 5 km and all had multiple long walking breaks. I was following my PT's orders to the T. Foam rolling, stair raises and balance board circles became part of my daily routine. Then he wanted me to start in a lunge and swing up into a calf raise on a balance board. That quickly became 'Maybe we should try this on a pillow instead' followed by 'Let's see how you do just on the floor" to which I finally got much praise :) I was intent on healing so I could run again, but I was afraid to go for that run in the off chance I'd pull it again. It felt like Knee Knacker was looming on the horizon and I couldn't even run 7 km. My cardio was gone.
Lesson #5 - When injured, cross train.
Lesson #6 - If you don't cross train, expect to be bent over gasping for breath every ten minutes.
Three months to the day of the initial calf pull, I was up to 18 km and giddy with it. It wasn't until I did my first KK training run that I realized I need to stop focusing on how far behind I am for the 50 miles in Squamish and start focusing on the fact that I'm bang on for the 50 km in KK. My biggest worry when registering for Squamish was that it would over shadow the excitement I had for KK and that's exactly what was happening. And then it dawned on me. If I'm up to running 50 km in July, why the hell wouldn't I be able to run 50 miles 6 weeks later?
Lesson #7 - Chill (yourself and the beer)
And of course, seeing how all my racing is done for North Shore Search & Rescue...
ahem ;)
https://events.helpforcharities.com/kk/profile.php?profile_id=141840371420587199
Thanks to Gary & Eric @ http://www.ridgelineathletics.com/ for the plan. I'm almost up to where I'm supposed to be. And thanks to WRM for making me laugh throughout my 3 months of slothing. And the hugs. So many hugs. #wehugmas
I chased one too many bagels and pulled my calf muscle back in the first couple days in February. Rested an entire week (patience is not my forte) before thinking I was strong as an ox and ready to get back out there only to pull it again after a sissy 1.9 km. But instead of doing the smart thing and booking a physio appt, which would entail having to find a PT after mine went and got knocked up and moved to Hicksville, BC, I just did the random stair raise and loafed around the apartment for a couple more weeks. "I'm injured and I must rest" played loudly over any random idiotic thought along the lines of "Maybe I should go to the pool or hop on my bike."
2 1/2 weeks after the first re-pull (yes, there were more) of the initial pull, I tried again. This time I managed a couple succesful 5 or 6 km runs. In my mind, I was healed a la Steve Martin in Leap of Faith. Hallelujah! The trails were calling and I was raring to get to them. 4 weeks after the initial pull, I planned a nice easy jaunt in the forest, starting at EOL, heading to Bridle and pulling out at the Golf Course. Had I stuck with that original plan, it would have been 12 km on some sweet rolling technical trail, then down the road to hop on the bus. But nooooo. I see the bottom of Pangor and think, 'hmmm...what's up there?' Really, what could it hurt? The leg feels great, let's go! The entire way up all I kept thinking was this trail would be SO. MUCH. FUN. to bomb down. I'd now gone 11km and the leg still felt fantastic. So off to Deep Cove I went. The second I stepped down onto Indian River Drive, I re-pulled my calf. This was literally 1 km past my planned 12 km and now I still have 3 km to get to civilization and donuts. Mmmm. Donuts.
Do you have any idea how difficult it is to actually hike down from Quarry Rock? This is a fun section to run. I love it so much. There's so many roots and rocks. I love practicing downhill on this busy section because it forces you to come up with route plan B, C and D on the stop of a dime what with all the people hiking. And when every step you take, you feel your calf pull just a little more, you're reminded how critical it is to stop running. But then you start thinking, it hasn't popped yet...maybe I'm okay to run bits and pieces. I'll get down faster. So off I went, running, walking, running, stretching, walking, digging thumbs into the calf, more walking, running... Needless to say, my calf hurt like a sonofabitch by the time I got to donuts, so I got three and ate them all. At the bus stop, I was literally using the back of the bench as a foam roller. Lesson finally learned. Rest, get a massage and book a damn physio appointment.
Lesson #1 - Patience, Patience, Patience
Lesson #2 - Always go with the gut.
Lesson #3 - The little devil on your shoulder rarely has good advice, but it's still so much fun to take it
Lesson #4 - Running in a dress is FUN!
I had 3 more weeks of complete rest before Cap Crusher. I'd already dropped from the 13 km to the 8 km and knew going in that if my calf wasn't 100% by the time I came thru the dam the first time, I was pulling out. And that's exactly how it played out, amidst much hugging. It was tight for most of the run, whether that was from doing nothing for 3 weeks and still trying to warm my legs up or from the re-pull of the re-pull of the pull, I wasn't questioning it. I was so terrified of pulling it again and having to rest another month. I'd already delayed my initial training date by a month and was in a panic as to when I'd get to start if I pulled it again. So play it smart. #babysteps became my new motto. My next three weeks of runs ranged from 2 km to 5 km and all had multiple long walking breaks. I was following my PT's orders to the T. Foam rolling, stair raises and balance board circles became part of my daily routine. Then he wanted me to start in a lunge and swing up into a calf raise on a balance board. That quickly became 'Maybe we should try this on a pillow instead' followed by 'Let's see how you do just on the floor" to which I finally got much praise :) I was intent on healing so I could run again, but I was afraid to go for that run in the off chance I'd pull it again. It felt like Knee Knacker was looming on the horizon and I couldn't even run 7 km. My cardio was gone.
Lesson #5 - When injured, cross train.
Lesson #6 - If you don't cross train, expect to be bent over gasping for breath every ten minutes.
Three months to the day of the initial calf pull, I was up to 18 km and giddy with it. It wasn't until I did my first KK training run that I realized I need to stop focusing on how far behind I am for the 50 miles in Squamish and start focusing on the fact that I'm bang on for the 50 km in KK. My biggest worry when registering for Squamish was that it would over shadow the excitement I had for KK and that's exactly what was happening. And then it dawned on me. If I'm up to running 50 km in July, why the hell wouldn't I be able to run 50 miles 6 weeks later?
Lesson #7 - Chill (yourself and the beer)
And of course, seeing how all my racing is done for North Shore Search & Rescue...
ahem ;)
https://events.helpforcharities.com/kk/profile.php?profile_id=141840371420587199
Thanks to Gary & Eric @ http://www.ridgelineathletics.com/ for the plan. I'm almost up to where I'm supposed to be. And thanks to WRM for making me laugh throughout my 3 months of slothing. And the hugs. So many hugs. #wehugmas