A Personal Story of Goal Setting and Challenges - part one

Tonight I am going to get a little personal – which can make me uncomfortable, but I choose to do it because it is a teaching moment and a learning experience for me. I had set a significant personal and fitness goal for myself last year. Well, it was not that much of a goal initially. I had run the Sarasota Marathon in February 2009 and it was the absolute most rewarding experience of my life – the finish and the ensuing days of euphoria. That is an accomplishment and feeling I will never forget, I hope. Enough for most I imagine, but not for me, and mostly that is due to the people in my “social running scene” who are less than or more than human and who run marathons monthly if not more frequently. It is all relevant and what you see most often becomes your new normal. I was MOST thrilled that the days after the marathon did not find me falling apart, battered – bruised-broken or unable to run. My friends all encouraged me to run the West Palm Beach Marathon that December. So, I registered (100 bucks), reserved my hotel etc and came up with a training plan to use later - a 12-16 week plan. In the summer though, because I try SO hard to be invincible, my long runs every Sunday knocked me out (I had pulled muscles in my abdominal area and other things were wrong too) and in July a series of physical misfortunes plagued me. I was despaired. I tried lots of cross training (swimming, bicycling, etc) and in September I joined a large local gym and became more sincere and focused in weight training. I also added some cardio classes to routine. During my recuperation, I sprained my ankle and had to refrain from weight bearing for almost two weeks. I tried running again in September or October but had fits and starts because I kept trying to start running where I had stopped (six miles 4x a week and ten + miles on Sunday) that just caused more musculoskeletal issues. Later in October, I did start slow – like two miles every other day! I continued my gym classes and strength training, but had to cancel and lose my registration fee to West Palm for December.

Surprisingly, it all began to come together around Christmas time. I remember running 8 miles that day and feeling so grateful for that. I was indeed stronger than ever – in January I was able to start long runs again and was logging over 30 miles a week. Ah the hope that springs eternal. There are not a lot of marathons close to my house, so when my friends again spoke of Gasparilla (Tampa), which they all ran in some form last year (5K, 15K, ½ marathon or marathon) just weeks after the Sarasota one, I wanted to be a part of it too. I registered, but did not tell anyone. I had about eight weeks to train, half of the recommended time. I was stronger and faster this time – but my longest training run was only 18 miles. I think here is where I should get into nitty gritty detail – because you don’t have to train for a marathon to apply some of these principles and to understand the points I am trying to make so that I learn and perhaps you learn the issue. The main one is this: You can do all the right things and still have an outcome different than you expected – and it is still of the utmost importance that you control the things you can and evaluate and accept the things you cannot control or change.

Plan one was to start long runs on Sundays – once I saw that ten miles did not tweak any of the previous year’s injuries I felt confident and comfortable going forward. I continued my weight training and my legs and back became stronger – indeed any trace of back pain seemed to be obliterated.

On consecutive Sundays, cold, windy, warm or humid and sometimes wet, I ran 12, 14, 15, 18, 14, 12, and then the Marathon weekend was here. But I also ran six miles four days (tues, wed , fri, sat), weight trained mon and fri - did step aerobics on most tues and dance class most thurs.

After the 18 I think, my foot began to bother me as well as some minor, expected muscular things, I found an awesome licensed sports massage therapist, but rather late in the game. My foot issue was beyond weird, I could jump all over the place without pain, but sometimes when I started a run, and other times when I was in the middle of a run, my foot (on the top) would hurt. I was very concerned that the FOOT not all the other issues I had overcome, would take me out of the race. Mostly because on my last long run, the foot was fine until mile six and THEN it began to hurt and got worse as I progressed – a new symptom.

I should add, that in the weeks before Gasparilla, my job became very taxing and I had a couple of six day weeks with many nontraditional work day hours. (Also, I have a Toyota Corolla and STILL haven’t gotten it the shop for the recall! )

The week immediately before the event I did all the smart things – I changed my wake up time so that I could successfully change my sleep time. On Monday-Thursday I awoke at 530 and Friday and Saturday at 520 and on race day 445. I began to eat more carbs and I ran only four miles on my 4 days, (on a treadmill three days, so that I would not hurt my foot, and so I could run at 630 in the morning). I saw the massage therapist Friday and she used some sports tape to take pressure off my foot as she thought my calf muscle was actually causing the strain. Saturday was a dreay day. I ran an easy four miles near my house before the rain came. And of course, all week I had run less than six miles at a time so there was no way to know if my foot had gotten better or not. Much apprehension filled my mind and body. Before I drove to the race day expo and my hotel, I did a presentation for work. A comedy of errors followed – which is a good stopping point – the rest of the story will continue tomorrow!