Getting Your Step Back and Lesson Learned

Getting Your Step Back (by SoloRunner): For the past four weeks my training has been a hit and miss. I have been sick, and nothing is worst than trying to train for an event and have a little or no energy at all. As I have seen on twitter, a lot of runners continue to train even if they are sick. I often wonder as in any type of recovery, is it best to wait or push? I found that resting is not an option. Even if I take a few days off, and run one or two miles, I still feel as if I am missing something each day that I am not out on the road. Mentally I feel lost and that my day is not complete. Last Saturday’s long run was the first run in the last few weeks that I did not go home and crawl in to bed. It was such an incredible run! It was like running my first 12 miler. I was reminded of how much I was in love with running and how 12 miles was just like that… miles. As I reached two mile marker, and was done fooling around with my water bottle, iPod, etc., I raised my heart rate to a higher range and kept it there. I could not believe how good it felt. With each step I took and to hear my shallow breathing back again, I knew this was going to be good. I could feel that runners high quickly approaching and I knew I was back! So I guess it is all up to what you feel works best for you. Thanks for reading. Now go out and run!

Lesson Learned (by Meechellee): Well, I am the opposite of SoloRunner’s running experience last Saturday. I was miserable because I broke my running rules the night before a long run… I stayed up late, had drinks with friends and wrong choice of carbs. Anyway, my 12 mile run started sluggish and had a sour stomach. I finally got my running groove from mile 6 to 7. Then from mile 8 to 11, it felt like I was wading! This day, I think, was my worst running experience... I was miserable! When I finally saw mile marker 11, I thought of picking up my pace so I waded faster. Whew! I survived my run and finished at 2:06. You think my misery ends here? Nope! I was signed up to participate in Nike’s shoe testing at 2:30 pm that required me run another 3.25 miles. Nike was testing its Nike+ gadget that I had to wear 2 iPods on both of my arms and also 2 wristbands. The first event was a 2 mile run on a flat course and the second event was a mile run uphill. The results showed that I ran an 8:04 pace on the flat course and my uphill run gave me different results: 8:14, 8:21, 9:15. I thought I ran a pretty good pace after running 12 miles 4 hours ago. Nike gave me a $50 gift certificate. After the shoe testing, I was SO glad that my running commitment this day was over. Good run, bad run, otherwise, run on!