Regrouping Made Easy

With the great work that Brian has done on the blog over the Christmas holiday, the countdown to Miami looks to be more official than ever. Nothing like a clock to make one feel truly unprepared. Thanks Brian - you are always there for me!!

It is a amazing though how a backwards ticking clock can help develop a renewed sense of urgency. Again another thanks to all the doomsday, world's going to explode, fiscal cliff - OK maybe not fiscal cliff - movies out there that have worked to meld a backwards ticking clock and a human sense of get off your a** and get busy. Time is running out.....AWWWWWWWWWW! OK the hysteria has passed. Time to get back to work.

The past few weeks have not been easy times on the training calendar. It seems like I have spent more time reading different blogs from true endurance racers searching for posts with one word in it - injury. I have had to come to the slow realization that things just don't feel right. So a little "tragic backstory" for everyone - of course told in my best Heinz Doofenshmirtz voice.

Flat out - I'm an idiot. I know Brian and Patrick will find this hard to believe. I am sure they have dropped their Internet blogging devices at this point in complete disbelief, but alas it is true. I set very few goals for the recent Tough Mudder(s) we completed in Society Hill. The first - be prepared for the upper body obstacles. I have never been one of those people with the innate ability to do 30 pull ups. I envy them, but am definitely not one of them. I was the kid who was lucky to squeak out the required 5 for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award. And I do reiterate the word kid, as I have aged the muscles required for pull ups have atrophied it appears.  Many weeks of P90X and I was there as displayed in my incredible Funky Monkey performance...what the hell - let's watch it one more time.

The second - not to get left behind between obstacles. One of my dear Mudda Bruddas has a bit of a sprinter complex, but alas it is true - I have never had much love of running. Maybe that's because most of my childhood was spent running from things but that is a completely different blog entry. Its not that I don't like to run, well OK maybe it is, but he bigger problem I have is that I have not been able to develop a culture for running. Dam* you culture chance. Why must you me so difficult. Why!!!!!! This of course led to my true desire this round as detailed in an earlier post to finally  achieve what others have described as the runner's high.

Which brings me back to the fact that I am a complete idiot. Given that Brian and I both live on the Peninsula - the good side of the Bay as we like to call it - we do a fairly decent job of balancing work, family, and still finding some time to hit the trails together. For our Society Hill Mudder we set the goal of 10 trail miles. That is two full laps of Noland Trail. Seemed like a logical leap for a training program given that we were doing one 5 mile loop with some relative ease. (I don't think I need to put the word relative in italics do I.)

Enter terrible training plan implementation. I mean the plan was sound. We were going to incrementally increase our mileage each week with shorter runs during the week to keep our legs moving and our muscles pumping - Hans and Franz moment enjoy!!! Like most things though it is the implementation that is the make or break part of the deal. How our plan was implemented turned into long runs on Sunday. That's right - long runs on Sunday and nothing in the middle. Where I broke was on the 8 mile trek. I'm convinced in was that blasted root I tripped over right at the end and all the effort it took for me not to end up on my face in the mud. That was the first time I thought....something doesn't feel right.

And here is the truly brilliant part. Let's take this injury, a minor injury let's hope, to date I still have not been to the doctor, and let's heap 2 back-to-back Tough Mudders on it. Brilliant!!! Great idea!!!

Now comes our prep for Miami, a renewed interest in finally implementing a decent running routine, and now a nagging knee injury. I guess nagging is not the right word. It was nagging. Then I tried Insanity - that was just a plain stupid idea. Then I focused on running - I am a glutton for punishment  if not anything. Let's just pile on the problems. General thinking - if I do more high impact training - that nagging injury will generally recede as my muscles and tendons strengthen. (Although that now seems a better preventative then it is a restorative measure.

That nag became more of a pain and that pain made me rethink what I was doing. I want to reiterate the word rethink here and not abandon. And no I don't need go to the doctor, I'm not hurt - not yet at least. (Can't wait to see what I am saying about this in 6 months.) Maybe I can add my own top ten reasons how training for the World's Toughest Mudder ruined my life (or knees at least).

So I have had to rethink some things and try my best to regroup with the knowledge that it is probably just going to take some time and rest to let this injury play itself out. I think knowing "when to say when" is an important lesson that, obviously, we all learn at our our own speeds but something that we need to keep in mind in all aspects of our lives - especially education. In many instances in modern education we get entrapped by the latest fads - iPads, 21st Century skills, Communities of Learners - and as soon as we hit a couple of hurdles we quickly retreat to what we know and what is familiar. I think some would argue that the problem was in the execution or the implementation and I would completely agree with that. But treating either of these large process words as a single thing doesn't do them any justice at all. I haven't found anything wrong with my general plan - my new plan of course not that insane plan I had last time. The problem now is that I have been thrown a curve ball, and to keep with the sporting analogy for one second, I have to become better at hitting the curves to the opposite field. Hitting them somewhere is the operative word. If you can't hit the curve, life is going to be a challenge.

That is why I am in the process of rethinking and regrouping. Two processes that I don't feel we give a lot of time to. Why - BECAUSE THEY ARE HORRIBLY BORING!!!. This is not where I want to be. I want to be on my training plan for the Week of December 30th. As you can see from Brian's calendar, there is no place for this type of detour. So what do you do?? Well if my goal is to do my best in Miami, I have to take care of knee now. If I don't then, more could be at stake including any attempt at WTM this year.

My regrouping strategy is two-fold. And I would like to thank all the other blogs that I have been reading to give me a feel for how to handle injuries. Bottom line - find a way to keep training. Swimming - maybe? Will help my cardio training which is a must but won't do anything to prep my legs to run 10 miles. Incline treadmill - from what I've read this seems to be my best bet at the moment. Good cardio, low impact, plus a motion similar to a run. Biking? Not sure I can fathom long bike rides at the moment.

What I am pulling together now is my regrouping plan. I like to refer to it as the part of my implementation plan that I left out originally. Not a new plan - just a refinement of what I didn't discuss earlier in detail. That's it - now I just have to get my brain to believe it.