Kinda' Back Into "Training" Mode

Hello Runners!

First - man is Des tough or what?!  Taking down Boston for the US.  That's two in a row for the US women (Shalane in NY).

Now on to more boring things....how MY running is going.....

For the first time since August I've been able to put in a couple weeks of consistent running and I'm not feeling ANY pain in the pelvic floor / psoas / hip flexor area.  It's kind of weird, actually, to have no pain.  It's been so long, I got used to it.  I'm now going to officially call all the ancillary work "prehab" instead of "rehab".

This can be a dangerous time for me.  Because....I have the tendency to ramp my running volume back up too quickly and add workouts too soon.  I also have the tendency to stop doing what helped me recover from my injuries; namely specific strength exercises and lots of stretching / yoga type work EVERY day.

Keeping up with the stretching and other ancillary work will get more difficult as my mileage goes up, but I don't always allow enough time in my day to run increase the duration and do all the "prehab" work.  I need to make the conscious decision every day to prioritize the prehab and cut the runs short as needed instead of the other way around.

So far, I've kept the mileage increases to only a few miles a week.  My weekly mileage progression the last month has been 23 / 27 / 30 / 35.  This week I noticed my Friday Easy run wasn't feeling so....easy.  So, I skipped the Saturday Long Run and did an easy run on Sunday, my mileage dropped to about 30 for the week.   Building in these "cut back" weeks is also a new part of my training.  It's difficult for me to cut back when I don't "feel" like I need it....but I think it will help keep me healthy going forward.

From a workout perspective, I've been doing progression runs by feel once a week for a few weeks.  This week I did a workout of 5 x (5' @ 7:00 pace / 3' @ 8:15 pace) as part of a 7 mile run.  It felt good to get the legs moving, heart thumping, and the feeling of lactic acid building up.  My paces are way down from what they were last year at this time, but that will come around as long as I can continue to slowly build my fitness back up.

I'm also moving more and more of my runs from the TM to outside.  I'm "stable" enough now that I can handle the undulations / uneven surfaces without causing any pain.  I'm also pretty sure a small slip on mud / water here or there won't set me back.

All in all.....feeling good about this "running" thing again.  Still keeping my mindset at "cautiously optimistic" lest I fall back into my old habits.

Onward.