Tuesday June 10, 2025
Ever since pacing my brother ten years ago in the 2015 Superior 100 mile race, I had long thought I'd like to give it a shot one day myself! In 2017, I finished the 50 mile, but an "almost stress fracture" in my lower shin set me back (along with adopting a puppy) and I didn't get much racing in the following two years. Then covid happened. Enough said. After I turned 50 in 2024, I decided there was no better time than now. I'm not getting any younger and this isn't ever going to get easier. I signed up in January, fortunately got in and started training pretty seriously by the end of February. Having followed some of the Relentless Forward Progress training plans (or variations thereof) for years, I wanted to look for something a bit different. The RFP plans really work on building most weeks and the cut-back weeks were still a lot. They don't really offer a lot of wiggle room for set-backs. Searching online, I found a great plan that works on building over 3 weeks (no more than 10% more each week) followed by a severe cut-back week. Each week a day is also devoted to hill work (or speed, but I chose hills). The 28-week program is found on the website Relentless Forward Commotion (I also liked that it was designed by a woman).
I'm writing today after completing week 14 (half of the program). Up until today, I would have said it was going really really well! I've logged all of my miles plus some (568 done, 565 to go). I missed a couple of days due to the flu early on, but easily made them up. After doing hills at Hyland the first time on Mother's Day, I took two days off as I really bruised my left lower calf muscle to the point of not even being able to bear weight for a few hours (I decided to attempt running UP the hills a few times and that put way too much pressure on my calf). Lots of ice and ibuprofen and I was back to normal within a few days. Like it never happened.
Marcus and I planned a trip to BANFF for our 30th anniversary June 13-18 which was at the end of a cut-back week which should work out perfectly. I had planned one more 13m trip to Afton tomorrow, but after doing hills at Hyland on Sunday, I've been feeling a twinge in my groin that's worrying me as it's reminding me of when I first started running in the spring of 2012. That spring and summer, I managed to develop two pelvic stress fractures, one on each side. At the time, we all knew it was too much too fast as I was just getting into running at the time. I took some time off and got back into running slowly at first and eventually without any pain. Fast forward 13 years and I haven't had even a thought of a recurrence. Whatever is going on now is not causing pain when I walk and when I ran 6 miles yesterday, it also didn't hurt, but I noticed it was there. When I'm walking around or changing position, I'm noticing it. So I don't know if I'm just at the very beginning of something bad? Or if it's nothing and just my body reacting to 3 really heavy mileage weeks? But my gut is telling me it's bone, not muscle, and that I need complete rest. So I'm not going to go to Afton tomorrow and I'll rest the rest of the week before we leave for Canada on Friday. We'll go to BANFF and will hike mountains for 3-4 days and I'll re-evaluate when we get back home. I am so so hoping this is nothing. I've been working so hard and have been so cautious, trying not to do too much too fast. And it's been so heartening to be able to run 45 mile, 54 mile and 60 mile weeks back to back to back without any issues! I was really, really motivated and excited to continue training and finishing off the second 14 weeks!
