I’m Going Back To The Beginning! My Running Reset

After more than eleven years, it was WAAAY past time for a running reset. For a long time my body has been healthy enough to run. I want it to be HEALTHY – no qualifier. Tragically, I think the only way to do that is go back, more or less, to the beginning of my running journey. Don’t worry, I’ll explain!

I NEED TO START OVER

You may consider this post a sequel to my post about not running for a couple weeks before the Run Sunset Beach Half Marathon. If you missed that riveting piece of psuedo-journalism, I will sum up: basically my left knee has been giving me a hard time. In an effort to help it heal, I reluctantly accepted that the only solution is real, true, at-length rest.

The race went okay, but for safety, I decided to take another couple weeks off afterward. During this time, I stacked a teetering new epiphany on top of my rest realization: I need to reset my body if I want to run my best. I have been relying on healthy enough for far too long.

For years, I have been spackling over issues with kinesio tape and misguided determination. As long I wasn’t actively in pain pain, I would run, often long distances if that’s where I was in the training cycle. Eventually I would take time off post-race or go on vacation or enjoy my usual post-Christmas break, and that would enable me to beat back the issue… only for it to rear its ugly head again when I inevitably jumped back into my running routine too soon and amped things up too fast.

You wanna know how long I waited to knock out a couple longish runs after all 39.3 miles of the Goofy Challenge? A week and a half.

You wanna know how long I waited to run again after I busted both knees in a fall? Four days.

I have had Achilles issues, IT band issues, and knee issues wax and wane. I have handled them… but I’ve never quite managed to banish them permanently.

BUT I WANT TO KEEP RUNNING FOREVER!

The light has dawned and I see the unfortunate truth: my problems are almost certainly compounding. And if I don’t knock it off, I could compound things right into an early running retirement.

I. DO. NOT. WANT. THAT.

What I want is to return to neutral. I want my default mode to be painless. And if I’m really lucky, I would love the kinesio tape to become an occasional tool, not a unavoidable crutch.

Hence my longer than usual post-race rest period. Not only that, but I am easing back into running with incredible caution. It’s driving me nuts how slowly I’m going, really, but I need it. Two miles at a time – that’s it. And you know what? While my knee does feel okay when taped on this short run, there’s still a niggling feeling of discomfort. So I’m taking Friday off. Maybe Monday too if I deem it necessary. However long it takes. 🙁

It’s awful. But I don’t think there’s any other way to reset my body. And as I noted in my first post about rest, if I push too hard, I may knock myself out of the game entirely. Perish the thought!

That’s how you find me here, with my distressingly low mileage count. I am deep in the trenches of trusting the process. I’m doing my strength training and wishing on a star. My next race isn’t until October. That’s lucky, because it gives me time. And I need all the luck I can get!

Got any tips for active recovery? Lay ’em on me!

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