Persistance.... the art of the grind

Well, July turned out to be a real tester. It started with a nagging little pain in my left shin that seemed to come and go on the run, then it just came and stayed... i tried to just suck it up and train through it but eventually I couldn't even walk without pain, going up and down stairs was torture, until finally I waved the white flag after 2 steps of an attempted "easy" run. I was afraid to tell my coach thinking he would say that the only thing I could do was rest and given I had just started training and gotten injured, my chances of catching up on training in time for the marathon were slim. But I had to tell my coach, he recommended a chiro who does "Active Release Therapy", cut my runs by 50% and added elliptical cross-training. It's been a tough 4 weeks, but I'm happy to say that this strategy worked! I'm up to 4 full runs/week with elliptical in between and feeling almost 100%. The shin is still a bit stiff, but nothing like it was and I'm confident now that I'll be able to keep progressing. I'm also starting to feel more fit. When I was injured, it was so impossible to maintain intensity so my conditioning suffered. Now I feel more in control, the easy runs are starting to feel easy, I'm not just trying to hang in there. I'm excited to be getting back into the higher intensity stuff too, tempo training and hopefully hills soon. This week I'll do my first 5km time trial, should be interesting!

I could have very easily given up on the marathon training during this setback... god knows I had a few pity parties and seriously thought about it. After all, I'm not a natural runner, I really have to work at this... I'll never be a great runner... you're kidding yourself, why bother???? These are some of the thoughts I was having as the self-doubt began rearing it's ugly head. But I thought about how i would feel if I gave up, the disappointment and regret. Then I remembered the vision I had when i started, the excitment of the challenge and the satisfaction in accomplishing a goal. I realized I could not give up, I will never give up.

You can sit on the side-lines in life or you can get out on the field and play the game. You may not be the captain or first star, but you're part of the team and you play to win. When the chips are down, you put your head down and grind it out. It's a reminder to me that in life you have to have a strategy and play it smart... but you also have to be flexible when the crap hits the fan and shift to plan "B", be patient and just work through it. Remained focused on your goal and stick with it, eventually you'll get there. As Joyce Meyer says, "you gotta go through to get through and there ain't no drive-thru break-throughs"

Michelle:)