Taking a Break from Training

After having some on-again/off-again issues with my left achilles/calf/soleus/ankle the last couple weeks, I am deciding to pull the plug on training for a bit and giving myself at least a two week hiatus to get back to normal and re-set my training.

I guess it's kind of appropriate to make this decision given how the cycle has gone.  My initial plan back in December was to train for a spring marathon.  An unpredictably awful winter made that goal nearly impossible.  When I got the treadmill as a birthday gift, I thought I might salvage the cycle by re-focusing on Broad Street and setting a big PR there.  Then, out of nowhere, I run a big 5K PR off little 5K-specific training.  From there, I got kind of greedy and pushed the envelope, thinking I hadn't been training that hard as of yet and what could I do with some bigger workouts?  It didn't take that long to find out the answer - I pushed the envelope too far, which is why I am typing this now.

I can't say I am too disappointed, though.  Sure, it would have been great to run a really fast Broad Street time, but that wasn't the big goal for this year.  The big goal was, and still is, to run a big marathon PR in the fall.  I could try to fight through this ankle issue, manage the symptoms, and see how I fare in Broad Street but at what cost?  The big picture is the marathon so that is what I am (re)making the priority.  By taking the break now, I can also get healthy enough to still compete at Broad Street and maybe help out a teammate or two in the process.  Running 61:00-65:00 and helping somebody else set a PR is much more satisfying than running 58:XX-59:XX but setting my training back and jeopardizing my fall plans.

The nice thing about this cycle is that I learned a lot about how I personally respond to training, and how I can get faster without doing overly taxing workouts.  I will take with me the lessons I learned from this cycle into the next one: about how to improve, how NOT to get injured, and how to have fun - but when I am actually healthy enough to do so. 

The goal now for this cycle is to get healthy, be able to compete and have fun at Broad Street, and then resume training safely and smartly for the bigger goal next cycle - kicking butt in Philly in November!

Happy running.