It is a well-known fact that I am injured seemingly all the time, especially during track season. I never ran track until my junior year of high school, and during that winter I was hurt. The next winter I was hurt again. Track my senior year I had Achilles problems. I missed most of track my freshman year of college due to injury. I struggled through a small injury during cross country my sophomore year. My junior year of track was cut off due to injury, along with most of my summer training leading up to my senior year. This year I have been hurt once already during Christmas break, and so it was no surprise to me to find my knee swollen on this previous Sunday morning.
Let me back up briefly. After having a wonderful cross country season which saw a new 8k pr of 25:07, I came off of my post-season break ready to start crushing workouts and besting 4:10 in the mile this season. The combination of adding weightlifting (I didn't weight-train during cross country) and faster speed workouts hurt my hamstring and set me back a few weeks with almost a month in between workouts. Once I did get healthy I was able to get back on that grind and do some good workouts on the outdoor track, which has been helped immensely by our warmer temperatures and lack of snowfall this 'winter'. Leading up to my first indoor meet at NDSU, I was really worried about shin pain, the same kind of which had set me back all of track season the previous year. We decided to give it a try, but after stressing out about it all week and still not being in very good shape, I didn't run a good race at all and had to kick hard for a 8:49 3k victory. After the race I realized my feet were torn up pretty good with blisters that made it almost impossible to do cooldown, and with the help of the trainers I had to spend the entire next week doing everything possible to get them to disappear (along with alleviating shin pain).
The amazing thing about being stressed about blisters and bone problems all week was that I went into our next indoor meet at SDSU calm and in better shape than the previous week both mentally and physically. As opposed to trying to hit a time, I simply tried to win, and I did. The things we worked on in the trainer's room kept my blisters at bay. My lower mileage has kept my shin healthy. My workouts have kept me in shape amongst all of this.
So to wake up the next morning with a stiff and pretty decently-swollen left knee actually brought me to laugh out loud. It was so ridiculous and so incredibly ME that it was hilarious! Yes, I was scared, and I prayed to God for safe passage through yet another trial, but luckily it turned out to ONLY be some ruptured fluid sacs in my knee, which I can work through by training smart, icing, and wearing a knee sleeve.
Why am I thankful for all of this madness? I can honestly say that there are two things that I have gained from these injuries and times when I've had to sit back and watch.
1.) I've gained an appreciation and thankfulness for the sport that few people can have.
I am usually secretly envious of those people who are never injured and hit workouts all year round without conflict, however I claim that they cannot fully appreciate their efforts until they have had to spend long periods of time watching others run. Every day that I can run, even if it is an easy run, I am thankful for every step I take. Every workout finished is a success, no matter the process involved. Every race run is simply a gift from above; something to be thoroughly enjoyed. I have come to love running simply because of this.
2.) I've learned that I am willing to go through any trial to keep running.
In the previous paragraph I do not want to suggest that getting through injuries is easy. Many times I have contemplated simply giving up and letting my body have what it wants, but the joy of running always overtakes it; the joy of racing overrides it. I've had injuries to just about every part of the legs and I'm 100% in-tune to every little nook and cranny of complaints now. I know what it takes to get healthy- namely patience- and how to thus avoid mental breakdown. This further reinforces the first point of thankfulness, because making it through an injury and competing again is a feeling of accomplishment that is indescribable.
This is why I love injuries: they make me sit back and think about what I'm trying to do and trying to accomplish, and 100% of the time I have been joyful from my choice to keep going.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Sunday, January 18, 2015
USATF Half-Marathon Championships
Today was the USATF Half-Marathon Champs in Houston, Texas, and while I could talk about many different things, I noticed that there were two people listed from Fargo on the start lists, one of whom finished.
Semehar Tesfaye was originally from Fargo where she graduated from Fargo South high school after a high school career that brought her honorable-mention in cross country (18th place finish in 2008) and state indoor championships in the mile and 3200 in 2008. She spent some time at NDSU where she was first-team All-Summit League, but then she went to Iowa State where she improved quite a bit. She finished as high as 5th at the Midwest regional in cross country (all-region honors as a result), and as high as 62nd at D1 nationals. In track she was competitive in the Big-12 and made it into the national semi-finals in the West Region in the 10k.
She either didn't start this race or didn't finish, but she isn't on the final results.
Eric Loeffler I had a really hard time finding information on, and from what I could gather he was at NDSU in the late 1990s/early 2000s and competed at DII nationals in cross country and track. He doesn't hold any school or track records at NDSU, in fact he's not in the top 10 in any individual events. However, he has improved significantly since, finishing today's race in 1:04.48 for 45th place. That's a pretty impressive time to run in the half-marathon, and it will give him a 'B' standard for the Olympic Trials marathon next year.
To see people from North Dakota represented on the national running stage is pretty neat!
Results for the race: http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/01/half-marathon-newcomers-diego-estrada-6051-kim-conley-6944-claim-titles-2015-usa-half-marathon-championships/
Semehar Tesfaye was originally from Fargo where she graduated from Fargo South high school after a high school career that brought her honorable-mention in cross country (18th place finish in 2008) and state indoor championships in the mile and 3200 in 2008. She spent some time at NDSU where she was first-team All-Summit League, but then she went to Iowa State where she improved quite a bit. She finished as high as 5th at the Midwest regional in cross country (all-region honors as a result), and as high as 62nd at D1 nationals. In track she was competitive in the Big-12 and made it into the national semi-finals in the West Region in the 10k.
She either didn't start this race or didn't finish, but she isn't on the final results.
Eric Loeffler I had a really hard time finding information on, and from what I could gather he was at NDSU in the late 1990s/early 2000s and competed at DII nationals in cross country and track. He doesn't hold any school or track records at NDSU, in fact he's not in the top 10 in any individual events. However, he has improved significantly since, finishing today's race in 1:04.48 for 45th place. That's a pretty impressive time to run in the half-marathon, and it will give him a 'B' standard for the Olympic Trials marathon next year.
To see people from North Dakota represented on the national running stage is pretty neat!
Results for the race: http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/01/half-marathon-newcomers-diego-estrada-6051-kim-conley-6944-claim-titles-2015-usa-half-marathon-championships/
Saturday, January 10, 2015
The Best Part of Any Run
I assert that the best part of every run is when you stop.
...
Wait, what?
My favorite places to run (and I think this idea is shared with a quite a few other people) are quiet places away from traffic and lots of people. Runners are a quaint bunch, because we're always searching for 'that spot' that we can go to in search of something, well, peaceful. One of the more obvious things about running is that it makes noise. There really is no way to avoid making sounds when your arms are pumping, you're breathing harder, and your feet are striking the ground with a decent amount of force. Around us we have vehicles driving past, buildings omitting noise, farm machinery that you can hear from afar in rural areas, iPods in our ears, and other people running with us making noise (sometimes). In fact, I can only recall a handful of times in my life when I have been running and there wasn't noise polluting the air.
The very first time I can recall was when I was running west of my hometown with a guy named Eric. We were running rural gravels roads in a 8-mile square-shaped loop, but we veered off about halfway through and started running on the train tracks. See, all of the roads in the Red River Valley are oriented north-south and east-west, and this railroad cut straight through, coming from the southwest and headed northeast towards the town's grain elevator. Yes, that means we were running ON the railroad tracks, not on some road next to it. As sketchy as that already seems, we entered into an area where the tracks crossed on a bridge over the Sheyenne River. The Sheyenne River is not large by any means and the space occupied by trees on each side of it was about 20 yards in length, and then it was back to wide-open farmland. As we were crossing this bridge and well aware of the dangers of stopping, we slowed to a halt and enjoyed this little hidden haven. Never would I have expected this incredibly quiet and peaceful area out of sight from the road not 1/8 of a mile away. After running on a gravel road for awhile (a loud surface with all of the shifting rocks and dirt), it was so calm and so quiet that we couldn't NOT enjoy every second of it. So there we were: two guys standing on railroad tracks, covered by trees and out of sight from the public, and unable to hear human noises, and it was amazing- in fact, it was so inspiring that a few more times before I graduated high school I made a point to run that route again just to enjoy it. When we had had our fill of peace and tranquility, we continued down the tracks and headed back into the town, not in the least exhausted from stopping our pace, but rather invigorated from the sights.
The amount of possibilities for a situation like this are endless: stopping to appreciate a sunset, realizing how quiet everything has become around you, seeing a view that needs to be appreciated for more than a few seconds. The one thing they all have in common is stopping the run and enjoying. Now this seems to fly directly in the face of what we are always told as runners: don't stop during an easy run- it'll waste some of the gains for your body. Truth be told, I have a fellow runner who has explained to me that every time you stop for more than a minute you have to count the rest of the run as a second run (this means that when we run through the traffic-lights part of town, I end up doing 10-12 runs in that day, pretty impressive huh?). We are told that for our body physically, stopping is a no-go on easy runs, barring an emergency of course.
What about mentally?
Everybody needs to be mentally fed at some point during a day, week, month, etc, and running can be a mentally-taxing activity. Taking a moment during a particularly peaceful part of a run and just simply stopping and breathing and living can be so relaxing and therapeutic that I almost wonder why someone wouldn't do it. That is, until I remember what most runners have in today: iPods and music.* Having music or distractions in your ears when you run makes it really difficult to appreciate what's going on around you- the sounds, the sights, the weather, the wind, the people, etc, and let's be honest- who would take out their headphones and stop during a run? It's SOOO much easier to stop, but ruining that song is no fun. Now I can't speak for how people 'back in the day' used to do their runs without any of that assistance, but I can imagine that being able to stop at some point of the run and get a mental reminder why running is so awesome is timeless.
That's an interesting paradox isn't it? Stopping to appreciate running more. I do it all the time and I'm going to keep doing it all the time. Any negative physical effects that results can only be counterbalanced by the amazing mental and emotional effects of that kind of peace. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, try it sometime. If you're running on some trail where it's quiet, take a couple moments to stop and listen to the sounds around you. Listen to your heart beating. Watch the heat come off of your body. Look at the scenery around. Listen to the quiet. It's truly magical, and I would recommend it to anybody.
*Full disclosure: sometimes I run with an iPod in the summer when it's hot and I'm worried about needing a little extra boost to help me complete my run. I will also do this sometimes when my legs feel really junky and I need a get-me-up when running by myself. So I'm not putting negative pressure on iPod users, I'm just hoping that we can agree that it lessens our chance of appreciating a truly beautiful situation.
...
Wait, what?
My favorite places to run (and I think this idea is shared with a quite a few other people) are quiet places away from traffic and lots of people. Runners are a quaint bunch, because we're always searching for 'that spot' that we can go to in search of something, well, peaceful. One of the more obvious things about running is that it makes noise. There really is no way to avoid making sounds when your arms are pumping, you're breathing harder, and your feet are striking the ground with a decent amount of force. Around us we have vehicles driving past, buildings omitting noise, farm machinery that you can hear from afar in rural areas, iPods in our ears, and other people running with us making noise (sometimes). In fact, I can only recall a handful of times in my life when I have been running and there wasn't noise polluting the air.
The very first time I can recall was when I was running west of my hometown with a guy named Eric. We were running rural gravels roads in a 8-mile square-shaped loop, but we veered off about halfway through and started running on the train tracks. See, all of the roads in the Red River Valley are oriented north-south and east-west, and this railroad cut straight through, coming from the southwest and headed northeast towards the town's grain elevator. Yes, that means we were running ON the railroad tracks, not on some road next to it. As sketchy as that already seems, we entered into an area where the tracks crossed on a bridge over the Sheyenne River. The Sheyenne River is not large by any means and the space occupied by trees on each side of it was about 20 yards in length, and then it was back to wide-open farmland. As we were crossing this bridge and well aware of the dangers of stopping, we slowed to a halt and enjoyed this little hidden haven. Never would I have expected this incredibly quiet and peaceful area out of sight from the road not 1/8 of a mile away. After running on a gravel road for awhile (a loud surface with all of the shifting rocks and dirt), it was so calm and so quiet that we couldn't NOT enjoy every second of it. So there we were: two guys standing on railroad tracks, covered by trees and out of sight from the public, and unable to hear human noises, and it was amazing- in fact, it was so inspiring that a few more times before I graduated high school I made a point to run that route again just to enjoy it. When we had had our fill of peace and tranquility, we continued down the tracks and headed back into the town, not in the least exhausted from stopping our pace, but rather invigorated from the sights.
The amount of possibilities for a situation like this are endless: stopping to appreciate a sunset, realizing how quiet everything has become around you, seeing a view that needs to be appreciated for more than a few seconds. The one thing they all have in common is stopping the run and enjoying. Now this seems to fly directly in the face of what we are always told as runners: don't stop during an easy run- it'll waste some of the gains for your body. Truth be told, I have a fellow runner who has explained to me that every time you stop for more than a minute you have to count the rest of the run as a second run (this means that when we run through the traffic-lights part of town, I end up doing 10-12 runs in that day, pretty impressive huh?). We are told that for our body physically, stopping is a no-go on easy runs, barring an emergency of course.
What about mentally?
Everybody needs to be mentally fed at some point during a day, week, month, etc, and running can be a mentally-taxing activity. Taking a moment during a particularly peaceful part of a run and just simply stopping and breathing and living can be so relaxing and therapeutic that I almost wonder why someone wouldn't do it. That is, until I remember what most runners have in today: iPods and music.* Having music or distractions in your ears when you run makes it really difficult to appreciate what's going on around you- the sounds, the sights, the weather, the wind, the people, etc, and let's be honest- who would take out their headphones and stop during a run? It's SOOO much easier to stop, but ruining that song is no fun. Now I can't speak for how people 'back in the day' used to do their runs without any of that assistance, but I can imagine that being able to stop at some point of the run and get a mental reminder why running is so awesome is timeless.
That's an interesting paradox isn't it? Stopping to appreciate running more. I do it all the time and I'm going to keep doing it all the time. Any negative physical effects that results can only be counterbalanced by the amazing mental and emotional effects of that kind of peace. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, try it sometime. If you're running on some trail where it's quiet, take a couple moments to stop and listen to the sounds around you. Listen to your heart beating. Watch the heat come off of your body. Look at the scenery around. Listen to the quiet. It's truly magical, and I would recommend it to anybody.
*Full disclosure: sometimes I run with an iPod in the summer when it's hot and I'm worried about needing a little extra boost to help me complete my run. I will also do this sometimes when my legs feel really junky and I need a get-me-up when running by myself. So I'm not putting negative pressure on iPod users, I'm just hoping that we can agree that it lessens our chance of appreciating a truly beautiful situation.
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