The year that was...

I think its safe to say that this year was quite a let down (for me and a lot of people around the world). In Jan, I was all set to make a post-injury comeback but you know what they say about the best-laid-plans...

COVID comes along and the March to May lockdowns put a pause to all training. All the year through, my training can be best described as being on-and-off.

This December however turned out to be the saving-grace. I managed a fair bit of consistency, racking up a mileage of 80K for the month. The high point though was this morning's run. I ran my first 10K post-injury in 70 minutes and it felt so good. I didn't push the pace and ran at what felt like a moderate effort.

I'm wishing for 2021 to be the year of 10Ks... waiting to see if I can get back to my pre-injury pace and quicker...

SBI Green 5K

Even though the event is billed as a "Marathon" I feel odd calling it one when I've only run 5K. Given that the route was actually 500 meters shy of a 5K, I should probably consider revising the title to SBI Green 4K and then some. :)

After my little toe mishap, that had put me back on the sidelines for another 5 weeks, I got back to running on Jan 19th. (Yes, I keep track of these things.) This particular event was originally scheduled for 1st Dec, 2019 and got postponed due to bad weather. The new date had been set for Feb 9th which gave me just about 3 weeks to prepare for it. At the start, my little toe still hurt so my stride was off and I felt like I had to keep my pace at an easy - moderate effort. So all I could commit to was 30 minute runs at an easy, comfortable pace three days a week until race day. 

Despite the squished toe, my pace was still "decent" and by the end of 3 weeks I was running comfortably at 6'55". Come Race Day, that was more or less the pace I stuck to. I completed the "5K" in 31:31 but according to my watch that timing was for a distance of 4.53K. The event wasn't particularly well organized but as small-time races go, it was okay. I got my medal and my belated bib for 2019 and that was that!

I'm more excited about whats to come. The toe is more or less fine now. My knee is fine(ish) and I can resume a consistent schedule of running now. I’ve got my year-in-running all planned out and I can’t wait! Will keep this space updated.

Update

Two months ago, I was all set to run a 5K and earn my sole bib for 2019. After weeks of building up my base through slow run-walk progressions, I was finally able to run continously. I did a couple of 5K time trials too with a decent time of 32 odd minutes. But as Murphy's Law would have it, the race was called off last minute due to bad weather. <eye roll> 

While I was disappointed that my one event for 2019 wouldn't happen as I had hoped, I was still very excited at being back on my run journey and was very much looking forward to amping my training, doing some tempo runs and maybe even some speed drills. 

My immediate goal was to build my base and improve my 5K time before getting back to half marathon or distance training. With that goal in mind I started upon a new training schedule that included some 1K repeats, 100 & 200m speed training sessions and some easy days which would have been  incredibly fun to do after those weeks of run/walk workouts. But this was not to be. <another eye roll>

On Dec 7th, I stupidly went and stubbed my toe (not on purpose of course!) - twice! (That too, in the span of 2 hours no less). It was the little toe on my right foot. It swelled up and got all blue & black. Maybe it broke a little or maybe it was just a major impact but it was super painful and though its been nearly 6 weeks, it hasn't returned to normal yet. As is typical of me, I didn't get it checked out. <shrug>

It honestly felt like the universe was trying to keep me from running. 

But then, I had holidays coming up and generally December is a very social month for us so it was just as well. I probably wouldn't have been able to run even if this hadn't happened. Why overthink things? Why add unnecessary meaning to random mishaps? I was careless and I got hurt. Why bring the universe in to it? I will resume running when I can.

Hopefully the pain will ease off completely in a few days time. At present it only hurts when I wear very tight closed shoes and move very fast. If I put a lot of pressure on the toe from the top it hurts but tapping it lightly and applying a medium amount of pressure doesn't hurt anymore. It's also not as swollen as before. (I have hope for it! :))

Whenever I do resume running, I'll have to start slow all over again. And that sucks! But the journey is often more joyful than the destination (which, in this case, is elusive anyways and constantly moving further away) and without these little bumps along the way, to learn & grow from, I'm pretty sure I would have stagnated or given this up a long time ago.