Hi there! After a luckluster year so far filled with injuries, I’ve taken the last couple of months off, and am now starting to work back into running shape. I consider myself to (yet again) be back in the saddle after injury, hoping that this time I’ll figure out how to stay healthy. Seems like since I turned 40 in 2011, it is so much easier to get injured, and each injury is harder to recover from.
The year started out decently enough, with a lot of running in January – March, including a lot of speed work, and I was rewarded with a 10k PR (52:43) at the Brrrrrrooklyn Hot Chocolate 10k in January and also a 10 mile PR (1:27:56) at the Cherry Tree 10 mile race in Feb. Things quickly went downhill from there.
In March, I had an awful Georgia Marathon, (5:12:35) in part because it was really hot that day, which I was not trained for, and also because of the super hilly course. After that, I sort of lost my mojo, and recorded a DNF at the Verrazano Half Marathon in April. Then I started having calf issues, which I ignored, which eventually resulted in a badly pulled calf, which put me on the shelf for a few weeks in May. It also caused me to downgrade the Red Bank Olympic tri to Sprint Distance, where I had to walk most of the running portion.
Once my calf started feeling better, I did a bit of running in June, but late in June my lower back started to hurt, which led to my first ever bout of sciatica nerve pain in my left leg, which was very painful, quite scary as it is so different from muscle pain, and lasted for more than a month before getting better.
Now all of that is behind me. I’ve changed some things in my diet, to hopefully help me lose a few pounds. I’m also now seeing a personal trainer, and starting up a new running program. For the moment I’m focusing on tempo intervals on the treadmill, but look forward to getting back out on the road shortly, getting back to some races, finding a winter or spring marathon to tackle state number 12, and perhaps even challenge that elusive 4:30 marathon!
