Coping

After of months of epic successes(or ultimate failure depending on how you look at it) and pushing myself to go further and faster I have finally discovered I am not superman. Damn!, I really thought I had something going there. When Covid struck in March and the world shut down around us, I became addicted; Addicted to weekly and monthly running challenges, many of my own creation and expectations.

Trail Monsters Running (TMR) started weekly events to help us cope with all that was happening around us. Some of them were games like running bingo or running battleship, and some where for distance, speed, elevation or a combination of those. Somewhere along the line I decided, almost unknowingly, that I would do them all. So that is what I did. Every week I would push to complete the weekly challenges, and I had a lot of fun doing them. I ran the most miles I have ever done in a week (105), I sprint up mountain sides, I discovered new plants/flowers, animal prints and scat that I would normally overlook. I took hundreds of pictures. I achieved personal times that I wasn’t sure I still had in me.

That of course wasn’t enough for me. As my races canceled around me (no Riverland 100 in May, No Bradbury dirt series, No BFC in September), at some point I decided the TMR weekly challenges weren’t enough on their own, so I started adding more runs, more challenge in. I decided that in addition to those, I would do a 24 hour 5 mile challenge, I would run 60K of elevation in the month of May, I would do a Bradbury TMR run called the Ultra Extreme Badass Supreme (UXBAS) which equates to about 43 miles, I would do a 50 mile run at Riverlands. I would not only do that 50 mile run but I would do it in the TMR week to get the most miles and try the fastest mile time and fastest 5k times around it. I reached a thousand miles for the year, sooner then I ever have before. And sadly the list goes on.

I didn’t particularly care if I won any of TMR weeks, I just found myself pushing and I set myself up with my own expectation that I HAD to participate. I couldn’t say no. I told myself after running 300 miles in the month of April that I would rest for the month of May. 260 miles later, i told myself I would rest in the month of June. 240 miles later I would rest in July.

That brings me to today, to where I am at laid up not running because I have given myself either plantar fascists or Achilles tendinitis or likely both. I knew in early May when I ran the 50 miles, even before I started that run that I was in trouble in the foot department. After that very long, painful and slow run I blamed my minimalist footwear. It couldn’t possibly be that I was WAY over training. Nope, not me. I just had to keep going. So I did right up until last week when I ran what should have been an “easy” 26 miles at a slow pace, and my feet swelled up, my Achilles tendon shot pain up my leg, and each step around the house after was taken gingerly.

The sad part is I know better. But even as the TMR challenges stopped as we were finally able to reintroduce our weekly group runs, I had no plans of stopping. Even last week after the 26 miles I was hobbling around my house making plans to do the presidential traverse (23 miles, 9K’), the pemi loop (31 miles, 10K’) and a run around 14 peaks on Mount Desert Island.

I would like to say it was the comment made by a TMR running friends, about waiting for me to blow up, (it was already too late for that) that helped me see the light, but nope, I had to literally run myself to the point where even a few miles was bothersome.

Now I have to cope with these injuries. I need to back down, and rely on other ways to keep up my cardiovascular fitness while I recover. I 100% knew and know better. I have been running for nearly 30 years and I still let myself get trapped into over training. I am not entirely sure why. I wan’t trying to impress anyone, I wasn’t trying to win anything. I just simply wanted to see what I could do. I guess one could say I “Forest Gumped” it and just kept running because I felt like it.

Time to chalk this up to another lesson learned in running, and one I hope to never repeat. I find it very interesting that we can know something is wrong, not right, have the knowledge, but we can rationalize our way out of it in the moment. I am grateful for my experiences these last few months, I am grateful that my injuries are relatively minor in the running injuries department (I have had far worse), and those around me can be grateful that I have finally discovered I am not superman.

Still a happy runner signing off, Namaste.