March Runfessions… Enough is Enough!
Two weeks ago, in my Weekly Rundown, I wrote about an issue I was having with my quad. I first hurt it on the bike (where I was varying the intensity to simulate hills) and then made it worse two days later by doing squats at the gym. Two people left interesting comments: Deb said “the bike, just like running, needs to be eased into…” and Marcia said “You can do everything. Just not all at once. That means when I’m training for long distance I still strength train but I don’t do so to failure. There’s too much risk and the body gets fragile after stressing it in different ways.” It got me thinking- why, when I know I have a big race coming up that means so much to me, was I even at the gym pushing so hard on the bike in the first place (the day after a long run?) And why did I insist on going back two days later to do squats? Why? I “runfess” that I did a little soul searching here. And what I came up with was, deep down inside, I never feel like I’m doing enough. It’s not a completely crazy thought. For someone training for a 50K, my weekly mileage is low. And I only strength train twice a week- one day of upper body and one day of lower body, and that seems like the bare minimum. AND, I haven’t been doing any speed work. But I have to remind myself that there’s a reason for that. To minimize the risk of injury, I decided to prioritize weekly (and now, every other week) long runs while keeping the rest of my runs short. I opted to forgo speed work until after this race, again to minimize the risk of injury. And while I would love to do two lower body days at the gym per week, I can’t figure out how to do that and still have fresh legs for my long run. Those are the choices I made, and it’s going to have to be enough for this race. I’ve figured out my nutrition, my electrolytes, and how to cope with the heat. I’m pretty confident that despite my low mileage and minimalist strength training schedule, I can complete the distance. I certainly won’t win, or even finish in the upper 50%, but I believe I can complete it. Maybe for the next training cycle I can add more miles. After the race I want to do some speed work and get to the gym more. But even if I do all that, I still can’t do everything. I won’t be able to do every single strength workout that I see people doing, or every kind of speed work, plus drills, plyometrics, barefoot running… the list goes on and on. It’s hard for me to say, “No, I can’t do that… I’m already doing enough” because I don’t really feel that way. But it’s the way it has to be. Maybe when I finish this race I’ll be able to look back and say that yes, actually my training was enough. I did all the things I needed to, and left out the things that weren’t as important. Only time will tell! In the meantime, I have to put blinders on and forge ahead with the path I chose, and get myself to the starting line healthy. Thanks as alway to our fearless leader, Marcia, for hosting Runfessions…and for the great advice. Do you second-guess your training? Or are you able to pick a training plan and stick to it?