Why I'm a conservative ...

... when recovering from an injury, on the way back to running again.

In all my decades of running, I've been quite fortunate to be able to count the number of times I've been injured with the fingers of one hand. Injured meaning I had to stop running for more than a few days. The injuries were due to both accidents and overuse. One of those was a fall on ice on a post-snow storm run, during training for the 2014 Shamrock Marathon. It took me some two weeks to get back on the road again. The most recent injury (related to the left glutes and/or hamstring) was likely due to overuse. It was incurred this past March during the last long run before taper for the B&A Trail Marathon.

It has now been nine weeks since that March injury, over which time I've not really trained. The gradual loss in fitness has been frustratingly manifest. At times, it has driven me up the wall--literally. Here, I was bouldering at one of the Earth Treks climbing gyms, with a guest pass. I'm considering signing up for a membership. Climbing is excellent cross training for running (upper body, core, feet, toes)! Despite the frustration, though, I've been largely successful in listening to my body and

remaining a conservative. In my test runs over these weeks, I could definitely still feel the injury area as not being normal. But, it has been encouraging that those runs have not aggravated the injury; and, indeed, ever so slowly, normality has been creeping back.

In addition to the test runs, I've also run two test races (previously scheduled): Pike's Peek 10K ("Pike" as in Rockville Pike, MD) three weekends ago and Frederick Half Marathon two weekends ago. In both, as has been the case with the test runs, I still felt the tenderness of the injured area and held back and did not push. I remained a conservative. There were no post-race adverse effects. The recovery continued. My pace for the two races were 80 to 90 seconds slower than my PR paces for 10K and half (achieved at these same two races). I definitely felt more fatigued at the finish than is usual. Everything considered, however, I was generally satisfied.

More recent test runs have felt much closer to normal. But, although, at the time I decided to not run the B&A, I was cautiously hopeful that I will have recovered early enough to still run the Pocono Marathon (tomorrow!), I've reluctantly decided to skip Pocono as well, my second DNS in a row! Without having really trained for some nine weeks now, tomorrow's run would be a rather slow one; it would not be a race. More importantly, I've not done a long run since that March injury. Even at a relatively slow pace, I'm not sure how my body would respond to 26 miles. Thus, I'll remain a conservative. My registration fees for both B&A and Pocono are for good charitable causes; so, that's all good. I plan to register for both again next year.

What to do about qualifying for Boston 2019? There is one more marathon for which I'd already registered, Wineglass. But, that's at the end of September, the results of which would be for Boston 2020. To give myself still a shot at Boston 2019, I recently signed up for the Abebe Bikila Day International Peace Marathon. I had run this race along the Potomac River twice before, in 2014 and 2015. It does mean training through the Washington DC summer; the 16-week cycle begins Monday!

The human body recovery process is fascinating. As week after frustrating week passes, dark thoughts arise about not being able to run again. Then, when the body finally is ready to run again, it seems to happen rather suddenly--one moment can't, the next moment can. Regardless, as this tweet from Desi Linden, 2018 Boston Marathon winner, on getting back to training, advises: easy does it is the smart way.

Another words, be a conservative!