monkeying around

it's that time of year again.

last year i thought i had my worst training season ever. haha! i laugh at me! ha!

i took up jogging when i started working full time, after college. all the cool kids at work would go run at their lunch break, and i wanted to be a cool kid, too. we'd run a few miles a few times a week, maybe like 20 miles a week or so.

then, elvis got this bright idea to run a marathon and he wanted me to run with him and i was like, sure whatever. turned out that i really enjoyed all the running so i stuck with it while elvis went back to being elvis. then speedy decided she wanted to run a marathon so we started running together and those miles with speedy were the best. the bestest. the very bestest.

but then i started having trouble breathing started to feel a million years old and for some reason it took the doctors for/ev/er to figure out what was wrong with me and when they finally figured it out i was way the hell outta shape but i was so glad to be running again that i ran once or twice a day and i was so happy.

but then i ran too much and i broke a bone so i had to stop running for weeks and weeks. when i finally started running again i tried to be so careful and i didn't run too much and i did some cross training and i finally built up my miles to 40 miles a week.

but then i ended up injured again and thought it was something simple like bursitis or IT band, so i added more stretching and cross training. it didn't get better so i thought i'd go to the doctor and get it sorted out more quickly than i was sorting it out on my own.

but after i saw the doctor and started PT, the pain became more persistent and more widespread. i have to wonder if the physical therapy did more harm than good which is incredibly frustrating considering the amount of time and money i spent on it.

so here it is next year and i am planning to walk 26.2, again.

i think maybe my body was too old when i started asking it to do distance running. maybe because i didn't have a base of years and years of running 40mpw, the increased mileage made all the little cracks in the armour of my health start to show. things that might never have bothered me, or at least not until i was much older, were pushed to the surface. and maybe i should have been a bit more methodical with the miles and a bit more consciencious with the diet and sleep. maybe i should have had more different shoes that i rotated. maybe i should have done more cross-training. maybe. maybe. maybe.

maybe i'm going to have to give up the distance running, maybe for a good while, maybe forever. i'll miss it because i don't feel like i'm done with it yet, but i can see it's not treating me right. i love running but it doesn't love me back.

it's time to show running i can make it on my own. when they have lifeguarding class at the rec center in february, i am signing up.