Running Home To Yoga

Well... it finally happened.  The trip of a life time came to a close and I have returned home to cold, snowy, and windy Cleveland.  Okay, that is not entirely true as it nearly hit 60F today!  I seem to have brought back some of Israel with me.  After spending 23.5 hours traveling yesterday, I came home and collapsed after going out to dinner.  Might as well give the full travel run down:

Wake up at 5:30 am
- 45 minute bus ride from housing to train station
- 2 hour train from station to airport
- 11 hour 40 minute flight from TLV to Newark
- 1 hour 30 minute flight from Newark to Cleveland! 

I landed at 8 pm local time and after sleeping for a night in an actual sized bed (yay no more small twin bed), I woke up early to go to my first class.  I am starting the rest of my life today!  It was an interesting class, Physics, that made me realize I will be capable of doing real well if I try hard enough, which I will.  It turns out that in the class, there is a lady who ran the Chicago Marathon recently.  However, she when I asked her about the Cleveland Marathon, she said she wasnt working towards it and tried to run two marathons since Chicago, only to not be able to finish the races.

So onto my new training!  I officially start my 15 week path to the Marathon this coming Monday, but in preparation, I am just working on some good fitness and preparing my body still for the beginning.  One thing I did last year which I mention often is all I did was run, run, run.  In my attempt to change that, I am going to be taking Yoga on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I started that this week as I went to a 75 minute yoga class this evening.

Yoga... what can I say about Yoga?!  That it is wonderful, leaves you feeling regenerated, happy, and ready for whatever challenges are thrown your way.  Last year, with all my injuries, my physical therapist suggested I go to Yoga.  He only suggested I do it maybe once a week, but would be good to learn the basics.  I am going to take his thoughts to heart and actually go often!  Nearly two years ago, I went to take a class at Cleveland Yoga and enjoyed it beyond anything!  However, I never have been back to a class and now that I am back in Cleveland and signed up to the JCC, they offer free classes and it is about time I take advantage of them.

I went to Target (my favorite store in the world) and bought a new mat today and some new Clif bars.  With the ability to use my mat for the first time, I really enjoyed class.  I really built up a sweat as Yoga makes you work, but gave my muscles a good stretch.  I hope to not get injured as I will continue to do yoga on Thursday this week and twice every week to come.  This mixed with cross training of swimming on Monday, and weight lifting Monday/Wednesday I am hoping will give me a good mixture of building to a good core.

After my yoga, I got on the treadmill to just get into running in the USA.  Okay, this is when I finally realized that I am a bit jet lagged.  I ran only 2.5 miles in 17:03.  It was a little fast, especially when my marathon goal time is 3:30 (8 minute miles), but it felt good to get a good sweat in.  Tomorrow I am going to go swimming, all in preparation for the JCC Indoor Triathlon next Sunday.  Not anything serious, but why not have a little fun to jump start my training?

I am getting excited to begin training for the Cleveland Marathon fully next week!  They even sent me a HUGE shoulder strap bag for carrying shoes and items to the gym.  I think they are just trying to temp me into buying a shirt... it may be working. 

Glad to be home and getting excited!

Injuries And The Need To Rest

Recently, I signed up to receive the Runners World quote of the day through my email.  Some of the quotes have been really interesting and some seem to just be a little ‘out there’ in my mind.  However, there was one quote I received this week that really stuck out in my head based on my past year of running and training for the 2011Clevelland Marathon.  The quote is by Ryan Hall and is as follows:

“I constantly remind myself that resting takes confidence. Anyone can train like a mad man but to embrace rest and to allow all the hard training to come out takes mental strength.”

As stated in my inaugural post to my blog, last year was a rough year full of injury after injury.  I was hoping to run the 2011 Cleveland Marathon and was training hard towards it; however I was not fortunate enough to make it all the way through my training.  In my multitude of reading I have done into running and running injuries, I found that 45-65% of runners will get injured in some way each year.  The degree of severity varies for each runner and each injury but I also came across this very telling quote from a Runners World article too.

‘“It's easy to get injured; anyone can do it. Just run too much. "I firmly believe that every runner has an injury threshold," says physical therapist and biomechanist Irene Davis, Ph.D., from the University of Delaware's Running Injury Clinic. "Your threshold could be at 10 miles a week, or 100, but once you exceed it, you get injured." Various studies have identified injury-thresholds at 11, 25, and 40 miles per week. Your threshold is waiting for you to discover it.’

If there is one thing I have been constantly told about running injuries is that if you hurt something and take care of it the proper way quick enough and not try to run through your injuries, you will heal quicker and better.  Last year, I did not do this at all and ran into a few long term injuries.  The first of which was my hip (IT Band).  I do not believe I got this injury from runner per say, but the running did not aid in its healing.  I used to work in restaurants in a kitchen and would be on my feet for 12-14 straight hours each day.  At Lola (the last place I worked), during my marathon training, I remember at the end of a day mopping the floor and feeling a tweak in my hip, standing upright and saying out loud ‘I think I just really hurt my hip’. 

Instead of taking a couple days off of running and being able to heal my hip up completely, I kept on running and had serious pain in my hip.  For a few days I would limp around work in pain and every 2-3 days when I could feasibly run again, I did and reinjured myself.  This went on for nearly six weeks until one faithful day I was running my 14 mile run outdoors for the training and felt my hip pop three times very painfully.  It was the most inspiring run I have ever had to date as my run encompassed the trails of so many shorter runs I had been on to see how far I had come in my training and weight loss.  Yet, I knew it was enough and had to stop.  The next day I called a physical therapist and began PT for the next eight weeks

Needless to say, I did not follow the theory of trying to rest and heal myself completely and ultimately turned something that I could have come back from in a week or two into something that took me out for months.

After around three months I was back to running, but yet again I injured myself on my first run slipping on some leaves and cutting my entire right leg.  It is still scarred today over a year later and wasn’t able to run for just over a couple weeks.  At this time, I had already transferred my Cleveland Marathon registration to next year (2012) and had signed up for the matching 10k in 2011 (ultimately dropped this race due to the runners knee).  Once I was back though, I ‘ran into’ into my next injury of runners’ knee while running a real fast 5k on a treadmill.  I ended up running a 5k race in Baltimore later that week but ended up going back to physical therapy and ended my running for the next two plus months until I arrived in Israel. 

It was very difficult for me to not run for so long as I tried to heal myself for Israel, but I embraced the rest and arrived in Israel ready to run!  I ran for the first six weeks very happily and well and injury free.  I remember during one run saying to Doug who I was running with that it feels so good for the first time in a while to run without any pain.  This wouldn’t last that long as I would be tested, and tested quickly. 

Around one week before the Tel Aviv 10k, I pulled my groin and was in bad pain while walking and taking stairs.  I tried to rest it and felt a week later I was good enough to run the Tel Aviv night run, however I couldn’t be more wrong and hobbled nearly in tears the entire walk home after finishing the race in 45:12 including walking a few minutes and slowing down heavily due to the pain.  I knew what I had to do though and that was REST!

I embraced fully the idea of resting to heal and took care of it the right way, icing injuries, resting, compressing, and strengthening.  Currently I am injury free again and looking forward to running back in Cleveland in preparation for the marathon!

In my training plan this year, I worked in in a more proper fashion of making sure I have a full day of rest in each week and will be sure to follow through on it.  Also, there is a cross training day to keep up the work but on different muscles.  The last injury prevention added in is that I will do weight training to help strengthen and prevent future injuries.  I plan to follow my training schedule and not overdo it trying to do more than I am capable of. 

Lastly, I plan to rest and properly heal any injury I get if one arises.  I know what it is like to be removed from running for a length of time and it is unbearable.  I don’t want that to happen again.  I am looking forward to my training this year and all the experiences and new lessons it will bring with it.  There is one week left in Israel and the excitement to start training for the marathon is soon to boil over!  I am ready!

On a small side note, all this experience with Physical Therapists has at least helped me decide what it is I want to do with my life.  I am returning to school to work towards getting into Graduate School for a Doctors of Physical Therapy.   

(This is the article I was referencing, good article on injury prevention: 10 Laws of Injury Prevention)

The beginning... again!

This year is a new year, it is now 2012.  When thinking back on the last two years, it seems that they were two completely different years.  Two years ago, I decided it was time to kick my self in the behind and start to get into shape.  With the end of college looming and only one semester to go, I started going to the gym in February 2010 to run and work out to get into better shape for Ultimate Frisbee.  Little did I know the type of effect it would have on my future.  By the end of the year I had lost 70 lbs and weighed only 215.  Not only that but I had become addicted to running and had my mind set on running the Cleveland Marathon, even to the point of signing up in January 2011.

However, 2011 was not as good to me.  I began to run farther, faster and harder but it came at a price.  By March I had dropped below 200 lbs for the first time in who knows how long and weighed only 195 (where I currently stand too).  The downside was I had hurt my hip in my running and did not heal it properly.  By the end of March I had to give in on running and drop out of the Marathon to start physical therapy.  After months of this including a second PT stint for runners knee, I was okay to begin running by the beginning of September.

From September until the end of January, I have been in Israel enjoying the trip of my life.  It has been quite the experience from meeting the most amazing people to seeing beautiful sights and hearing influential speakers.  While here, I have been able to run again and have been quite happy.  I ran three different 10k races and have been under the "Israel 45 Curse" as I have ran each race in roughly 45 minutes for various reasons.  I wanted to break 40 minutes but in my being unable to accomplish this, I have learned  how to prepare for races on many levels.  From injuries to eating habits, all will aid me in my return home.

2012 is a new year and is already on the right track!  Injury free, healed up completely, and looking forward to running!

Though I dropped out of last years Cleveland Marathon, I was able to transfer that registration over to this year.  Now that I have been fully registered again, I have been working on creating my training plan.  I return home at the beginning of February and have decided I will give myself a week back home before fully running.  I will use this time to continue regular runs and overall fitness training, just as I have been doing in Israel.

As of now this is what I have come up with for my marathon training.  I did a lot of research and want to be able to cross train at least one day and rest at least one day too.

Current Training Schedule:

Week	Week Ending	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	Feb 6 - 12	Cross	3 mi	5 mi	3 mi	Rest	5 mi p	10 mi
2	Feb 13 -19	Cross	3 mi	6 mi	3 mi	Rest	6 mi p	11 mi
3	Feb 20 - 26	Cross	3 mi	6 mi	3 mi	Rest	6 mi r	12 mi
4	Feb 27 - 4	Cross	3 mi	6 mi	3 mi	Rest	6 mi p	10 mi
5	Mar 5 - 11	Cross	4 mi	5 mi	4 mi	Rest	7 mi p	14 mi
6	Mar 12 - 18	Cross	4 mi	7 mi	4 mi	Rest	7 mi r	16 mi
7	Mar 19 - 25	Cross	4 mi	7 mi	4 mi	Rest	8 mi r	17 mi
8	Mar 26 - 1	Cross	4 mi	5 mi	4 mi	Rest	Rest	Towpath Half
9	Apr 2 - 8	Cross	5 mi	8 mi	4 mi	Rest	8 mi p	18 mi
10	Apr 9 - 15	Cross	5 mi	8 mi	5 mi	Rest	5 mi p	20 mi
11	Apr 16 - 22	Cross	5 mi	5 mi	5 mi	Rest	8 mi r	12 mi
12	Apr 23 - 29	Cross	5 mi	8 mi	5 mi	Rest	5 mi p	20 mi
13	Apr 30 - 6	Cross	5 mi	6 mi	5 mi	Rest	4 mi p	12 mi
14	May 7 - 13	Cross	4 mi	5 mi	4 mi	Rest	3 mi r	8 mi
15	May 13 - 20	Cross	3 mi	4 mi	Rest	Rest	2 mi r	Marathon

On Cross Training days I am hoping to go swimming.  Along with this, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when my runs are shorter, I am going to do weight training to make sure I dont get injured.  Also, one day a week I will be taking a yoga class.  I am going to be the new face of the JCC with how much time I will be spending there!  Last year all I seemed to do was run run run and never followed my plan correctly and ended up running into injury.  This year I will be doing it right and right from the start.

My time is going to be full as I am returning back to school to hopefully get a degree in Physical Therapy.   Currently, as my background has been in Food Service and Business Management, I need to complete over a year's worth of prerequisites before applying to grad school.  It is a new passion I found in me after the past experiences I have had and figured it out in Israel.  I am going to miss it here but am really excited and cant wait to begin my next steps in life.

Thanks for reading my inaugural post!  I will keep updating throughout my journey to my first marathon (second time around).   Feel free to comment or share any insight you might have to help me along.  I am an avid reader of Active.com and RunnersWorld.Com and really enjoy the random little tidbits I read about.