Looking back to look forward: My own running.

 
I took a moment this morning to look at my training log from this week last year and compared it with this week. My new numbers are sad when compared to last year.
3/25/2012-3/31/2012 – Last YearTime:
3:25:31 h:m:s
3/25/2013-3/31/2013 – This Year
Time:
0:35:03 h:m:s
If we look back one more week my time would have been a big fat zero. What happened to my running? Well I will tell you what happened. I let myself make excuses for myself. My running peaked around May of last year when I ran the Madison Half-Marathon with my girlfriend.

Since that time I slowly let my training decline until it flat lined in October or September. There are a few of reasons of why I did this to myself.



1) I finished my undergraduate degree and became a Certified Athletic Trainer.
This change brought a lot of changes. This meant I was now directly responsible and liable  for my actions as a clinician. This meant that I was going to head off to graduate school for my master’s degree. This meant that I would be working full time as an assistant athletic trainer with multiple teams under my wing while taking classes in the morning and night. Most importantly, this meant that I started to let myself make excuses and put myself second. This also relates directly to reason numero dos.
2) Plantar Fasciosis
You say fasciitis, I say fasciosis. Not a big deal but if you want to know why then check out this video by Dr. Ray McClanahan, DPM.

Regardless, I let myself be lazy when it came to treating and fixing my own issues. My PF developed in April of 2012 and besides resting it when it became too severe to train I just ignored it mostly. I was following the adage that “the plumber’s pipes leak” or “the mechanics car needs an oil change.” I know I’m not the only clinician that will fix others but leave themselves ailing. This left me feeling pretty hypocritical at times and in hindsight just plain lazy. 
3) #1 + #2 = #3
I then combined both of the previous excuses into one gigantic excuse of “I have no time and if I did I can’t”. This was pure self-fed BS because I had plenty of time for other activities besides school and work.
The Real Return:
A month or so ago I became inspired by the fast approaching spring weather and the idea of going  trail and road running with my GF again this summer. I was also motivated to have something to talk about on this blog and something to get me moving again. So what did I do? Well I sat down and took a good look at myself. I evaluated myself and figured out my biggest limitation was with ankle dorsiflexion and great toe extension. I then went to work using a lot of the mobility concepts that I discussed in my Dorsiflexion Post.

In the past two weeks I have begun to run again. Starting out with 5 and 10 minute runs I am slowly working my way back up.  I even got to go on a fun trail run on some muddy trails on a rare 50 degree Saturday in March. So far I have only had mild stiffness in my left heel in the mornings after runs and no pain during any runs. I still have some mobility to regain and a few other things to clear up in terms of mobility restrictions elsewhere but I feel myself making progress.
I am pretty excited to get back to running 45-90 minutes 4-5x a week.
I am also excited to get back to attempting my first marathon. My first attempt I did too much too soon and injured myself as a junior in college and was forced to drop down to the half marathon. This was also back before I was a minimalist runner and I suffered from shin splints and chronic compartment syndrome.

My second attempt the full-marathon was canceled due to high temperatures on the morning of the race and once again was only allowed to run the half marathon that day.

Happy Running!