Notes
This year was the tale of two seasons. I ran very well during the Indoor season and fully expected to run under 2 in the 800 and under 4:10 in the 1500. My training during indoors went really well and I was very consistent with mileage and sticking to the training plan. I feel like after outdoors started, something went askew. I took a down week after Club Relays when everyone else said do an up week. Then after that, I was told that we were doing peak mileage the next couple weeks, so I upped my mileage big time over the next two weeks instead of building up incrementally every week. I ran my peak week the week of March 14-22. Something seems wrong with that. From then on, I really lost the consistency I had during indoors. I was running 45-55 miles a week instead of 55-60. I was doing less core and mobility (especially over the last three weeks) and I was pretty much doing my workouts alone. Not having consistent track access was very detrimental I feel, but not running with Lapp also hurt. We complemented each other well in our workouts and I felt very good controlling everything.
After spring break, I started implementing supplementary strides but stopped after a couple weeks because I felt like I was tightening up in workouts more the following days. That needed to be something I started in the winter and was consistent with. The last three weeks of the season I just felt gassed. I was struggling just to keep up on easy days and everything was hurting. I've never really had to run through pain before in my legs and it was very frustrating. My foot bothered me, my achilles was rough and my knees (especially L) just ached from all the snow running during the winter. I think I stuck in my old pair of shoes too long and by the time I switched to new shoes, I did some damage to my foot.
I'm going to look back on this season as one that had so much promise and just left me feeling a little empty. I made some big steps in terms of consistency, but also made some big missteps. I started outdoor season with so much confidence and by the time Dr. Keeler rolled around I just felt like a shell of myself, even though I was running my fastest times consistently. They have been my fastest, but I really believed that I should have ran even faster and that 800 at Hillsdale really disappointed me.
I stopped eating as well the last month of the season, drank a little bit more, ran a little bit less. All of these factors pile on top of each other and really hurt me by the end. By the end of the season, I think I realized the importance of lifting and I now regret cutting it out of my training. I think that would have helped with general maintenance and well-being over the last month of the season.
I am happy that I realized I can run higher mileage than I previously thought. Although the couple week stretch I had after indoors was not the best way to handle it, I think I shook the nagging thoughts that I cannot run over 50 miles a week without breaking down which is what I thought last year with my back. I now have a better idea of seeing where everything really fits into the training and having that awareness I think will make me a better runner when I start training for the marathon. Jake wants me to take a week off. I'm going to do that and see how my knees are and if they need a couple more days I will be patient and wait.
I kept getting down on myself over the last two weeks and got the thought in my head that I reached my ceiling. Thinking that way just compounded all the issues and made me feel like I was wasting my time. I want to get over that and go into the next phase of my running with a more positive outlook and be able to be smart and consistent going forward.