Healthy and Back to Training

And just like that, August is over and summer is nearing its completion. As usual, it's flown by and has been packed with various events and pursuits. I'd like to think that I've been rather productive in my pursuits this year and feel fortunate that I've been able to be so active in the activities that I know and love. But being the ambitious person that I am, I'm continually looking for more. Included in this ambition is my pursuit of a successful professional career, but also the desire to improve my individual running success ...the original reason for starting this blog.

For you track fans out there, you know we are right in the middle of a World Track and Field Championships taking place in Daegu, Korea.  As a sport, we view this as the culmination of a season and a year of racing. For that reason, it's usually around this time that I tend to think back on my own 12 month cycle and think back to past years as well. I think about where I was when I was watching those other Championships, who I was most inspired by, where I was in my life, where I was in my training, what my goals were, and so on.  When doing this, it's scary to realize how much time has passed and how quickly it's gone by.  Four years ago, I was watching the Osaka World Championships during a big transition in my life.  I had just left behind my engineering career and was making an aggressive jump into the world of running, both as a professional career and as a professional athlete. Up until this point, I was more of a participant in the sub-elite sector of the sport and did not view myself as a professional. That attitude changed in 2007 and the months following this change were the most successful of my life.  Some may say that my achievements did not qualify me as a professional. This may hold true, but I believe being a professional is more of an attitude and a commitment, as opposed to a rank. At that transition, I knew the next 10 months would be consumed by my progression as a professional athlete.  Unfortunately, 8 months later, I had the first major disappointment of my career.  I was in the best shape of my life, but had no way of proving it.  An injury that would keep me out the remainder of the season had rerouted the path that I had already planned out in my mind.

The next 3 years consisted of a roller coaster of varying struggles, injuries, and emotions. Certainly not the path I expected. Despite struggles with my career path as well, I know I've had great success in my professional pursuits and have grown my knowledge of the sport and industry to levels that I was unfamiliar with 4 years ago.  I am certainly proud of the achievements I've had in this sport, knowing that the best I have to offer is still ahead of me. So those 3 years have certainly been useful in the amount of knowledge and experience that I've acquired. But what happened to being a professional athlete? Regrettably, as much as I tried to use my love of the sport and pursuit of excellence as motivation, the professional attitude I acquired had gradually faded. In the years of 2009 and 2010, I had gone back to being just a participant in the sport that I had worked so hard to be a part of.

Now in 2011, thanks to a couple exceptional doctors and some key motivating factors from those closest to me, I am back on a plan to follow through with the professional mindset that I had acquired 4 years ago. For the first time in these past few years, I have had a 3 month span of pain free running. When looking at my running career thus far, the biggest set backs I've had have resulted from injuries in my lower right leg. The most recent being a reoccurring stress reaction along the lateral metatarsals in my right foot. After the 3rd flare up of the same injury, still not knowing what the problem really was, I was pretty close to giving up on it all. I was considering the idea of custom orthotics and possibly surgery, but was unsure if these would even help or if any of it would be worth the physical and financial stress.  Fortunately, in May of this year, much of this frustration came to an end when I saw Dr. Dan Dyrek and Dr. Jillian Rockoff. After a single visit and evaluation, Dr. Dyrek was able to tell me every single issue that was holding me back. More importantly, he knew exactly what we needed to do to address these issues. Without going into a lengthy analysis, he basically figured out that my foot was not functioning properly because of the position and mobility of some key joints. He told me I should not get custom orthotics until after we improved that functionality. He also said that I was a million miles away from being a surgery candidate. This was such a relief and I walked away from that first consultation with new hope and justification that I still had a chance to continue my original pursuits as a professional athlete.

It has certainly been a slow progression, but the work I've done with Dr. Dyrek and Dr. Rockoff (also in conjunction with my massage therapist, Carly Shea) has paid huge dividends as far as what I am now able to handle. Most of my running progression has still been in the form of building base mileage with small amounts of intensity being phased in.  Currently, I'm up to about 70 miles per week, which may not seem like much, but for someone who has struggled to maintain 40-50 mpw, this is a big accomplishment. My first test of fitness came in the Beach to Beacon 10k Road Race just a few weeks ago, a race I have run 11 times in the last 12 years. Confided by the fact that my mileage was more consistent than the past couple years and I was running without pain, I talked myself into thinking I was in better shape than I was. I ran the early miles very aggressively, but the lack of workouts combined with hot conditions resulted in me fading to a disappointing 32:53. Though I was certainly not happy with that result, I quickly put it behind me, knowing I was a bit too greedy with what I wanted from that race.

Now, a few weeks further along, my next race effort will be this weekend at the New Haven 20K, also serving as the US Road Championships for that distance. Despite being sick for the last couple weeks, the past month of training has gone well and I am looking forward to this event. Since my fitness is still just beginning to develop and I still haven't done much for intensity, I realize I will not be very competitive in this race. In addition to a lack of fitness, I am still holding on to about 6-8 pounds of useless weight, leftover from the injury months. This is certainly an elite race and in a field that usually runs under 60 minutes, I will be much further back, aiming for around 66 minutes. I am not ashamed to cross that line several minutes behind my friends as long as I run to my current fitness and use it as forward progress. This event has been on my list for a while and will be a valuable opportunity to great connections I've made within the sport. These events are always great experiences and I plan to make the most of it. This will also bring me into new territory as my longest race to date is 15k. I am not putting a lot of pressure on myself, but hope to take more positives from this than the 10k last month. From there, I hope to bring some confidence to another notable race on September 18th, the CVS Downtown 5K, another US Road Championship event.

I'm super excited to see how my training and fitness will progress in the next few months, and if I am able to maintain the health and resistance to injury that I've had in the last few months, I will hopefully have some notable achievements to look back on at this time next year.

In conclusion, I hope that with better training consistency, there will also be better blogging consistency.  So please check in for more updates and journeys to follow and I'll continue to act as a resource within this sport as much as I am able. On that note, be sure to check out what my friends are doing as well by scrolling through the side bar on the right. The most recent addition and a highly recommended read includes my house guest from the Falmouth Road Race weekend, Kim Conley. If you don't know who she is now, you will soon.

Thanks to everyone for following this blog and know that I appreciate all the support!