“Regardless, those emotions were short lived as the sensation of accomplishment and pride overcame me.”
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My workout was over. A flickering light suddenly flips on as the sun begins to set. The sky burns with orange, red and pink….
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Although still early in my training segment, I’m already noticing changes that come with marathon training. These changes are most significant after hard workouts or longer runs. The exhaustion is rearing its teeth; I find myself requiring more than my usual 6-7 hours of sleep.
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“We expect linear progress, but progress can take a logarithmic approach”
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I never found ribbons or trophies as ways to fulfill my excitement. And my bad races never caused too much unhappiness or grief. But when I crossed the line that day in 1:33:something with that finisher medal placed around my neck, I teared up.
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“I don’t think you should ever run again,” said my orthopedic spine surgeon. Those words cut so deep the pain was visceral. My eyes blurred with tears and I took a few deep breaths to compose myself. Why? How? Why me?
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As a female athlete and coach it is important to occasionally remind myself of the fact that we are still in a world where there is so much more room for growth and improvement.
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A new training cycle can create feelings of unchecked stress, life sacrifices in scheduling runs, and anxieties about the training load to come. And, interestingly, I feel the most susceptible to burnout here. Just as my body has to incrementally adjust to the higher mileage, my lifestyle requires a parallel shifting.
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Can the awkward introductions just be bypassed? It is comical to look back and remember the details, but my running was 95% mental and as a young 20-year old I had a lot of maturing left in me.
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Since driving down the winding road of Blackberry with all my stuff loaded into my car 4+ years ago, I’ve called ZAP and the Yadkin Valley my home. The ancient mountain ridges that loom over ZAP felt like they watched over me as I grew into my professional running career.
For weeks, I kept telling myself the pain wasn’t as bad and I continued to numb the pain by overtraining those muscles and tendons to the point of masking it with the assistance of my body’s natural endorphins.
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