I had this post half-written, and I lost it! So, here we go again, which is kind of like my running. Here we go again. My history with running has a lot of ups and downs. From walking out of swim practice during running one day to running to lose weight to completing my first Ironman, my relationship with running has changed a lot over the years, and in a good way. I don’t see it just as a punishment or a tool for weight loss, and completing a run now leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment that I can’t get from my job. I am frustrated though. Since I was not running even remotely consistently recently, I am basically starting from negative when it comes to fitness, and I am learning to adjust to what my body needs.
First, I have accepted run/walking for the time being. I have written about zone 2 training before here and here, and I think for me right now sticking to it needs to be my highest priority to build good base fitness for running. Unfortunately, I can not run at a steady zone 2 heart rate, so I have adopted a run/walk system to try to keep my heart rate down. My runs over the last week have been 3 run/2 walk and 4 run/2 walk. Previously when trying to run/walk, I would just run as far as possible until I hit this little hill in a neighborhood near mine and then I would walk to catch my breath, but by structuring it I was able to maintain a steady pace and was not struggling to catch my breath at the end, which has been the case before when I have been trying to get back to running.
I am also trying to do a better job of listening to my body and its signals when something might be wrong. I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot that is currently bothering me, and while on vacation I actually had to stop walking on the beach barefoot to help it. Now that I am home and can get into a routine, I am trying to add stretching and foam rolling into my regular routine to help it and to help with other injury prevention.
Also on the topic of injury prevention is not increasing my mileage too quickly. After experiencing runner’s knee twice from increasing mileage too quickly, I have a plan. Since I am run/walking, my first priority is getting to be able to run at a steady zone 2 heart rate for thirty minutes before I focus on longer distances. This doesn’t mean I won’t do more than thirty minutes, but that I want to hit that milestone before I work on running for longer periods, so I can do those long runs in zone 2 as well.
Finally, I am holding off on adding speedwork beyond making it up the small hills in the neighborhood next to mine until I get my heart rate under control. This is the opposite of what I’ve done in the past. Typically I have pushed to add speedwork when trying to regain fitness, because I thought it would help more, but right now even running at all is pushing my heart rate to zone 4 (especially with the heat), so I don’t need to be adding it quite yet. If anything, adding additional speedwork right now would slow down recovery after workouts, so I don’t think it needs to be a priority.
Overall, nothing I am doing is groundbreaking, but the thing I find most important is that I am learning from my previous mistakes, and I am taking an honest look at where I am fitness wise. Because my drop off in training was so gradual, I never really noticed how much fitness I has lost until I get out to run and my pace is much slower than it used to be.