I am training for the Denver Marathon in October. When Aiden was born, I gave up the hardcore training, got a bit out of shape, came back too fast, got injured, discouraged, then decided to get back after it.
Coming back after the injury has been a journey. I went to a PT, Marty Euwema, who had me stand in front of a mirror, looked at my legs and said, "Well, I see the problem." I had hurt my soleus, overcompensated on my right leg, weakened the left quad, then my left knee drifted out of alignment. Simple. Strengthen left quad, bring knee cap back into track. The best thing was when I told her I had stopped running. Marty said "Why the hell did you do that? Get out there!" I was scared I would permanently damage my leg, but trusted her enough to get back out on the trail and things have improved.
Today was an 11 mile run around Lake Zorinksy here in west Omaha. We start from Lifetime Fitness and go around the who lake then tack on a mile or two at the end to round it out. It was hot, humid, damp, broiling, and just plain tough going. This has been quite a change from the Colorado dry heat. In some ways harder, in some ways easier.
There are always a few of us that start together, then we fall into smaller groups according to pace. Sandy and I are about the same on long distance, so we normally run together. Today went out too fast, probably around 8/mile, and we paid for it dearly on the second leg. We were chatting for the first few miles, but became dead quiet and focused on the last portion of the run because there seemed to be no oxygen left around the lake.
It was hard, but good. Always good, no matter how hard. I've found that the easy experiences in my life are not the most valuable. It is in the difficult, challenging experiences that we are refined in a way that, for me, is more rewarding.
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