Even though I've been running again for a full four months since my injury, I've only done one race between now and then. Though I would have liked to have raced more (so many good March and April races!), I decided to give my body ample rest and recovery time. I think it ended up being a good decision. Not only do my legs feel great, but mentally I am raring to go! I can't wait to toe the start lines and get race season into full gear.
I have three big events in the next 25 days (aka Monster May):
5/4 - River Towns Marathon
5/12 - Delaware Marathon
5/26 - Dirty German 50k
Ideally, I'd love to PR the 50k (my current PR is 6:10). I don't care so much about PR-ing in the marathons. That is what the fall season will be for. Really, I just want to have a lot of fun this month, practice my pacing, and get some new race bling.
As big as this month seems in terms of racing, I keep thinking about last October when I ran 270 miles, PR'd a marathon, ran back-to-back 20 milers, and did a 50 mile weekend. And I did all that without getting injured. So, I feel pretty confident going into this month with regards to staying healthy. Nevertheless, injury prevention is still a top priority.
Overall, I'm pretty good about keeping an injury prevention routine, but I will be tweaking some things this month:
- Right now, 5-6 nights a week, I foam roll, do a varied set of PT exercises and stretching, and complete 250-350 reps of core work. This month I am going to make sure these things are happening every single day, no exceptions.
- Last year I was all about high mileage all the time, even between and leading up to races. As nice as it is to say I've run such-and-such number of miles every month, I've realized I rather do the races and run less in between, than not even make it to the start line because I overdid it. The next few weeks will consist of a lot of short, slow runs leading up to race days and several forced recover days afterwards.
- I will also be adding in more cross training. Now that the cold weather has finally ceased, I can bike to work without my toes freezing off. The biking should also help take the edge off my calorie burning desires since I won't be running as much during the week. Who knows, maybe I will even get back to the pool.
What makes up your weekly injury prevention routine?
I have three big events in the next 25 days (aka Monster May):
5/4 - River Towns Marathon
5/12 - Delaware Marathon
5/26 - Dirty German 50k
Ideally, I'd love to PR the 50k (my current PR is 6:10). I don't care so much about PR-ing in the marathons. That is what the fall season will be for. Really, I just want to have a lot of fun this month, practice my pacing, and get some new race bling.
As big as this month seems in terms of racing, I keep thinking about last October when I ran 270 miles, PR'd a marathon, ran back-to-back 20 milers, and did a 50 mile weekend. And I did all that without getting injured. So, I feel pretty confident going into this month with regards to staying healthy. Nevertheless, injury prevention is still a top priority.
Overall, I'm pretty good about keeping an injury prevention routine, but I will be tweaking some things this month:
- Right now, 5-6 nights a week, I foam roll, do a varied set of PT exercises and stretching, and complete 250-350 reps of core work. This month I am going to make sure these things are happening every single day, no exceptions.
- Last year I was all about high mileage all the time, even between and leading up to races. As nice as it is to say I've run such-and-such number of miles every month, I've realized I rather do the races and run less in between, than not even make it to the start line because I overdid it. The next few weeks will consist of a lot of short, slow runs leading up to race days and several forced recover days afterwards.
- I will also be adding in more cross training. Now that the cold weather has finally ceased, I can bike to work without my toes freezing off. The biking should also help take the edge off my calorie burning desires since I won't be running as much during the week. Who knows, maybe I will even get back to the pool.
What makes up your weekly injury prevention routine?
Wow this is seriously inspirational. My injury prevention is currently "stretch in the shower and cross my fingers". I can't even seem to remember to ice! I need a page out of your book for real.
ReplyDelete