I had been a recreational runner for four years prior, but never had a desire to race. Not to say I hadn't tried to race before. I did do a Mother's Day 5k in Duluth, MN in 2009, I believe. Part of the reason was my weight, it was hard running when I was at 140 pounds. And then there is the self-confidence and self-esteem issue. I had only done that one race till I lost the weight, getting to my goal weight of 116 pounds.
With hitting my goal weight I had the best paces of my running life. I could never get beyond a 12:00 minute mile and was now reaching 8:00 minute miles.
The problem is I became over-zealous with training and, thus, was left injured. The plan that I started out with was Hal Higdon's Intermediate Half Marathon schedule. That schedule was perfect, I must say. But like I said I was running great and decided to go to Hal Higdon's Advanced Half Marathon schedule. After being on that for a few weeks I started to get really sore in my hips but thought is was something I could push through. Well I pushed through it for a few more weeks and while out on a trail run, the muscle finally ceased up.
I went for a few weeks with no running, hoping it would loosen up and get better but it didn't. I had to finally go into the doctor and then the physical therapist.
She told me that I had Sciatica a.k.a. piriformis injury. She helped me treat it for a few weeks at the clinic while I also did some stretching moves at home. She did advise me I could swim laps but no biking or running.
It took two months to get to the point where I could start a walk/run, 10/1 ratio. I gradually worked up to doing less walking and more running.
During the two months off (June/July 2012) I started to gain weight back. I wasn't very good at swimming, so I didn't burn a lot of calories. To make it worse I wasn't watching what I was eating, thinking that nothing would change much. I really should have gone on MyFitnessPal!
After I was cleared to run as much as I wanted, I had this notion to run a marathon. Like, why??? Not even sure what inspired that!
I started to add mileage real slow and did one round of Insanity, hoping to lose some weight. It didn't happen and I was shocked. My paces were great when I first got back into the running groove and figured that with Insanity is a sure fire win! I realized that I still wasn't watching my food. It took a really long time before I started to use MFP again (the first time was when I hit my goal weight).
So no weight loss...
And after running for a couple weeks and feeling good, I started Hal Higdon's Novice I Marathon schedule.
I was on that for a couple weeks and noticed that I was having a flare up with my Sciatica and to make it worse the side that was unaffected started to act up as well.
Trying not to deter from my plan, I went to Runner's World and did a basic Smart Coach plan with three days of running. It is a very long plan as well (five months in length).
I am now six weeks from my marathon.
Not much weight has left me, though I am on MFP now but will keep at it... change doesn't happen instantly!
So now I am working towards finishing my first marathon, I won't be racing as my times have fallen each week of training. After the marathon I will be focused on weight loss, for a second time.
My strategy this time will be to use T25, Shakeology but will be skipping maintenance miles this time around.
So my quest is to LOSE IT .. FOR GOOD
Some half marathon action from this weekend at Minocqua, WI
No comments:
Post a Comment