Last year was a rough one for running, for me. Western Canada had a particularly bad wildfire season making outdoor running unhealthy much of the time and I managed to contract pneumonia in June. Shortly after that, I stepped on a nail doing yardwork and could hardly put weight on my foot for a couple of weeks.
Long story short, I fell out of my running routine last year and it has taken me a loooooong time to get back into it. I went for the odd run through the fall and winter, but it didn't amount to much. When April rolled around and I was thinking it was about time to lace up, ooh boy was I out of shape...
Getting back to it
Getting going again after long break is always rough. All aboard the struggle bus. A beacon for me though is that having been in decent shape in the past, I knew I just needed to get through a few weeks of rough runs and it'll be back to feeling great again. Runs feel bad, but I know from past experience that'll go away. The solution to most running problems really comes down to patience. Frustated with how slow you're running? Annoyed how many walk breaks you need to take? The answer is to just keep doing your workouts. At least in the stage of getting going again (or starting Couch to 5k or such).
Not too much to say about my return to running plan. I'm roughly following the C25k pattern of walk/run segments but fairly informally. Run while I felt okay and followed by a 1 minute walk break. To ease back in, I started off with mostly 2 or 3 minute run intervals for 20 minutes. After a couple weeks of that, I switched to a schedule of 3 runs per week of: two 30 minute runs and a 'long' run on the weekend of 45 minutes. And of course the idea is to over time stretch the running parts out toward a goal of steady running.
I did that through April into May but then decided to write down a slightly more formal plan with a deliberate build-up of the running segments. I felt like I was stuck around 4 or 5 minutes per interval because I'd be like "Okay, I'm tired. Time for a walk break!" even though I could absolutely have pushed myself a little.
It's a silly thing but I knew if I told myself "Okay today's workout is 10 minutes running, 1 minute walk break X3" and it's written down in a notebook I'd be more willing to accept a tougher workout and would make faster progress.
So I wrote down a mildly aggressive build-up plan hopefully getting me to no-walking by the end of June. Not that there's anything wrong with walking and even when I was training for marathons I'd sometimes take walk breaks on my long runs, but I'm out there to be a runner so I want to run my workouts :P
Time vs distance
When I'm getting back into running, I prefer basing my workouts on time rather than distance. It feels more laidback and approachable than having to hit a certain distance. Whether I've having a good day or a crappy day, I just need to do 30 minutes. If my goal had been 3 miles instead, then on a crappy day it would feel like a slog and make it easy to bail.
30 minutes. The improvements will come after some time. Patience, remember?
What next?
So far I haven't stepped on any nails or got sick so running is going pretty okay! I'm keen to finish my build-up plan so I can get a little more ambitious. I'll likely start with gradually extending my weekend long run until it's around 90 minutes or so and also bump my weekday runs to 40 or 45 minutes. At that point I'll be tempted to add a fourth weekly run but so far this summer we've been pretty good about biking to work most days. If we keep that up I'll be a bit reluctant to add a fourth run until after several more months of regular running. The last thing I want is an overuse injury.
I have it in mind to do a race in October, likely the Winnipeg Fire-Paramedic Run. The timing is good and it's a fundraiser for the Heart & Stroke Foundation, a charity with some personal resonnance. If I feel good at the beginning of August I'll train for the half-marathon, otherwise I'll do the 10k. The half-marathon isn't a 'better' distance than 10k, just my favourite race distance. However, we'll have to see if by September I'm up for the longer runs that will be entailed with a half-marathon training plan.
I don't have any ambitions for an October race. It's just fun to have a focal point on your schedule. And honestly? I find ticking off workouts on a schedule I've written in my notebook shockingly motivating. "If I skip this run, I can't write a checkmark in my notebook!" A running plan just by itself is ‐ for me ‐ inherently motivating.
After that, I'd like to properly train for the Hypothermic Half next February ‐ my favourite local race! I'll pick a time goal to shoot for based on how the October race goes and adopt a more 'serious' training plan. But that's a ways off. For now I have to finish my comeback!
