Well because I like tying up loose ends and I won't be able to post as much this summer, I would like to compile a bunch of thoughts of mine together in one post to finish off the academic year.
The UND track team is currently in Washington getting ready to compete at the Big Sky Conference Championships at Eastern Washington University. Best of luck to them! Hopefully this weekend they can compete at a level worthy of representing this university and state, especially since this is one of the few conference meets the team will have that isn't at altitude.
As my language suggests, I am not with them. I had the marks enough to get into the meet, but instead I'm sitting in my practically empty and moved-out-of apartment by myself and typing this up, waiting for the Hoka One One Distance Classic to come on tonight*
On Saturday Coach and I were at the track, trying to see if we could salvage my season. After battling back from a shin injury, I had about a week and half healthy before my achilles flared up for really no good reason other than to smite my existence. Mentally I had handled the shin injury well and I was fully prepared to race my heart out at conference, however, the achilles crushed me. My body gave me sure and true signs that it was done for the season, but unfortunately the track season schedule showed differently. I held on, running as much as my leg would allow (which ended up never being more than 35 minutes a day) and doing some speed on grass. My body was tired, rehab was an annoyance, and my mind was in the gutter. I found myself wishing for my pain to stick around so I could get rid of the illusion of being able to compete well at conference (recall the Big Sky is a ridiculously fast conference for distance running). I hit the point where I couldn't even muster up the mental strength to cross train. We decided to have me not run at conference.
That, my friends, is burning-out and overtraining. And I've learned where it came from and why I'm 'injury prone'.
Due to my tame class schedule this semester I had an abundance of time to read, and boy did I READ. I read books about North Dakota settlers, historical figures, and running. Everything I read about running told me the same thing: everything I've been doing in my training is wrong. I wasn't eating the right foods, doing the right training, and I was doing extra things that weren't necessary. My first few years at UND looked like this:
1.) Wake up, eat sugary bowl of cereal
2.) Go to class and do 35 minutes of HARD cross-training on the bike/elliptical in the morning, leaving my legs exhausted.
3.) Eat at the dining center, which normally included at least one slice of pizza, desserts, and ice cream, with little-to-no fruits or vegetables.
4.) Afternoon practice, where no matter what we did I would go all-out, even though I was already tired.
5.) Back to the dining center for another bad example of a meal.
6.) Study, go to bed.
Woof. I look back at that and cringe. I wish my eyes would have been opened earlier! I was packing almost 2 hard hours a day into every day, 6 days a week. I can make it through cross country healthy every year, but by the time the grind of indoor and outdoor track rolls around, everything catches up with me. The reason I've only made it through indoor and outdoor without an injury once in FOUR years is because I don't treat my body right. I beat the crap out of it, neglect to give it the proper fuel for recovery, and then push it harder. Well eventually it breaks. I then take a break, go into summer training, come back arrogant and believing I can handle the world, and hammer it out even harder in the fall.
Why have I yet to get injured during the summer? I struggle at the Bible Camp to find time to get in my one run a day, and the food there is not unhealthy (there's better choices, but it's definitely not bad). I come into cross country healthy and with good miles on my legs, but most importantly they are not overworked. I do that to myself in my craze to be as fast as possible once the school year starts.
That's the juxtaposition of over-training. In the desire to push your body as far as it can go, you inadvertently do the exact opposite and set yourself back. Then mentally you chalk up the season as a loss, and once that happens you're pretty much done. I don't say all of this to invoke sympathy, but instead to shine light on the one incredibly important aspect of training that I learned about this year and have always neglected: recovery. I always thought that if I got my usual 9 hours of sleep each night (which I do), I could push and push during the day. WRONG.
WRONG.
WRONG.
Instead, recovery means that you are putting all of your focus into your running workouts. Whether you have two or three workouts in a week, those are what's important. Everything else- nutrition, sleep, easy runs- it all has the singular focus of making sure you are recovered for workouts. So I was getting enough sleep, but easy runs weren't being run easy, cross-training was hard every day, and I wasn't eating healthy. So it comes to me as no surprise that I end up 'injury prone'. The hard workouts were being done on an exhausted and improperly fueled body. As you may expect, this is all going to change next year. What I'm doing isn't working, so it's time for a change to a smarter and more generally accepted method of training.
(Note: this is not a critique of Coach Clay. Most of this stuff is a fault of mine, not what he assigned. Coach Clay is an amazing coach.)
As much as it sucks to be learning all of this information this late in my college career, it's awesome that I can pass it on to my teammates. We are all learning together now and really taking charge of the team. This UND distance squad is going to be strong in the coming years- watch out!
If you're still reading- I am impressed and hope you continue reading.
On a completely different note, this summer I have a personal goal to explore as many of the state's trails as possible. My Bible Camp is pretty centrally located in the state, so I can go exploring. The State of North Dakota does a fantastic job of maintaining state parks, many of which have hiking (or as I call them: running) trails. If you go to parkrec.nd.gov, they have a fantastic list of all the state parks and recreation areas, including all the trails and maps of them. I've been to a few of them already, and I can vouch for how well taken-care-of they are. My most recent visit was to the Pembina Gorge State Recreation Area and WOW! it was amazing out there. A highly recommended visit for any runner looking for hilly trails.
So that's that. I'll be off the Bible Camp for the summer, where each day I try to squeeze my run into an already tight schedule, and my options are limited to an out-and-back run on the singular gravel road into camp. Every day I get to run on soft gravel in the country- I'm looking forward to that! And for next season- I'm looking forward to, for once, taking my training and doing it right.
As for all of you: get out and experience the beauty of North Dakota in the summer! Don't act like it's not there- go explore it! You'll be glad you did. Some of the most beautiful things in life are difficult to find, but when you do it's a thrill. I almost wonder if God created with that in mind.
Thanks for reading, have a great summer! Go UND!
*The Hoka One One Distance Classic (formerly the Oxy High Permance Meet) is a super-legit pro track meet with ONLY distance runners, and it's happening tonight and being streamed live on usatf.tv
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