My experiment with a speed block in December failed miserably and now it is time to let the body heal and recover from that failure and take a look at what I learned from it. 

The lower back/right hip thingy – it is beyond a niggle, but not really an injury was a nice wake-up call to make me look closely at the training plan I was doing and not working for me. 

Then do something about fixing what wasn’t working.

So, I did. 

You can read about what I did here.

Is failing again a big deal?

Not really, because I learned something about MY running and even more about what training outside in late November/December means to an old injury-prone runner. Some stuff I knew, other things that I didn’t want to accept, and others that I used to be able to ignore.

What I do know is that if you are a runner, you will experience many failures over the course of your running career. Sometimes you will have some control over what happens, other times crap just happens, and you deal with the fallout, pick yourself back up, and when you are able, get back to running. 

Now, I am on to thinking about how I should be training with the limitations that I have and the how the Winter weather here in Maine plays into those personal limitations.

Could I run with how the back/right hip feel — probably. 

This isn’t a new injury or thing, it is the result of that time back in 2007, when I flipped a ladder over while finishing up shoveling the garage roof, hung upside down like a bat and then fell about 10 feet onto the stuff I had shoveled off. I missed over a week of work after that one. Now, every so often the after-effects of that day come back around to haunt me. 

Photo from 2007 before I shoveled off the garage that day

It usually comes around when I am being stupid about increasing both mileage and intensity. This time I added in cold and the training I was doing bit me in the arse — literally.

So, I have dealt with this affliction before and run through it. 

I also know that I need a little down-time after a nice stretch of running since June. So, why not let the back/hip area calm down a bit and let me run more comfortably when I get back to it next week. Instead of stepping out the door, knowing that I am going to be miserable from that first step through to the last one of a run right now. 

That isn’t something that I need to do anymore at this point in my running. 

Actually, I probably shouldn’t have done it in the past and it is part of that boom then busted Harold cycle that I never was able to get out of.

Running through discomfort and pain really isn’t the best laid plans of mice and men. 

Unless there is a specific purpose behind doing it. There are times when you need to dip into the well and test your tolerances. However, just to keep running to get a run in is no longer reason enough for me.

Who knows, maybe I am learning that resting and giving the body time to heal a bit more before heading back out the door is the correct response. 

This week I have focused on reading a bit from Joe Uhan, David Roche, Greg McMillan to figure out some stuff that I want to work on in 2022. Plus I am doing my stretching, mobilization, some strength work in addition to the brain work that needs to be done. Along with creating my spreadsheet running log for 2022 and the stuff that I believe is important to track about my training going forward. It looks a bit different than what I am doing in 2021, but more on that later.

As part of the get away from running a little more, I am re-reading Wheel of Time — Book 1 by Robert Jordan. I have been watching the made-for-Amazon version for the past few weeks and really have enjoyed it. So, on Monday while we were at Sam’s Club I saw the book and picked it up. While the Amazon video version is quite good, it does take a bit of artistic license and in places is rather different from the book. The main ideas are there, but presented differently than the way the book has them.

It hasn’t lessened my enjoyment of the Amazon series, but brought out how much richer the book is in comparison.

I have also been re-reading Song of Prophecy by P.E. Padil, something I read a while ago and enjoyed. I got the other two books in the series, so I figured that it would be nice to have it fresh in my mind when I started the next one in the series.

Yeah, I have 3-5 books going at the same time, most of the time.

Running is not the only correct answer to what I can or should be doing when something like this happens. 

However, my body’s failure in light of the Speed block experiment provided me with an opportunity to look even more closely at what I am doing for training, the direction I want to take my running over the next few years, not simply the next few months. 

Failure sucks, but often it is necessary in order to move on from something that isn’t working or needs to be changed. In this case I was lucky and while I experienced a bit of discomfort as a result of what I was doing. I also stopped and thought about what was going on, identified the problem and took steps to make changes that will resolve some of the problems I encountered.

Most of all I am doing something that I needed to do before I started the experiment.

Yeah, Harold the Destroyer (his body most of the time), is resting and letting the old bod recuperate and heal for a change. 

What is the world coming to?