Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want something badly enough. They are there to keep out the other people. - Randy Pausch ( 1960-2008 )

Back in business

Posted January 10th, 2010 by wilson

Last Wednesday, January 6, I “celebrated” the first “monthsary” for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, which was held on December 6 last year. It also marked the end of my self-imposed month-long abstinence from running, which I carried out to be able to recover from an injury received from the consecutive marathons that marked the closing weeks of 2008.

The month-long period, I must admit, hadn’t been easy for me. I missed two major races during that four-week period, the Philippine Star Celebrity Run and the Rizal Day Run. Beyond the “racing high” though, I could really say that I missed running itself. I resorted to crosstraining to maintain fitness, and man, it was a chore.

Before getting injured, I never ran for “fitness”, or at least I never thought of it that way. I was always training or preparing for an event. I ran to increase endurance or gain speed, and the calories and fitness just took care of themselves. With running taken away from my routine, maintaining fitness was something that I had to consciously do.

And so how do you celebrate the end of a no-running period? By running of course! I am glad to report that I have been running consistently since the last Wednesday, although I have yet to reach the usual numbers I was logging before the injury. I think that’s okay, since it has only been 5 days. In particular, my speed workouts has yet to exceed 2 kilometers, my tempo runs 7 kilometers, and my long runs 18 kilometers. I am still pretty much taking it easy.

I’m not really sure just how much my skills deteriorated during the past month. Due to a tempo run I am confident I would be able to log my previous usual 10K race numbers, although for races longer than that I really don’t know. Honestly though, I’d already came to accept the fact that there would be some deterioration somewhere, and I would have to work hard to get get back at the where I left off.

As for the injury being gone - I also don’t know. It usually manifested at near 20-miles or so, and I’ve yet to reach that distance. And as I said, I would be taking it easy, so it’d be a couple of week or so, before I reach that. I guess we’d just have to wait and see, as well as hope for the best now, right?

Anyway, it’s great to be back!

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Filed under:Training

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