Ready to Launch

As I have said before – “running” a road race requires the same amount of pre-race prep, as does running the race. We spend our off-season doing the unglamorous work of planning our race strategies, making tweaks to what went wrong last year, and learning to improve and grow for this year.

Sound a lot like you’re running off-season?

Sometimes during your training, you may be struck by injury incur a setback, and have to redefine your plan. This off-season, I have been struggling with my own inability to run. Dealing with two different concurrent injuries, I have been sidelined since January – the longest time I have gone without running since High School (I won’t say how long that is)

Like many of you, I define myself by being a runner. I would plan my whole week around a weather forecast, getting my run in each day was just as rote as brushing my teeth or taking a shower – it was just part of my daily routine. After experiencing some serious injuries in ramping up for Boston in previous years, I decided that I would give up distance running so that I could continue to run into my later years. I was perfectly happy with a 6-8 mi run each day with an occasional half marathon race to keep me feeling like I could still do the “endurance” stuff.

But now I can’t imagine what it will ever feel like to run pain-free. And I know I did this to myself as I didn’t listen to the experts – I sidelined yoga, I have never been much of a pre-run stretcher and it was just easier to go out and run each day – 6 days a week. When I started to feel pain in my hips, I kept running through it. And that led to the second injury in my Achilles – which was the run-stopper.

I have listened to Mike Silva from Foundation Performance enough to know I did everything wrong. Now I am trying a variety of PT, dry needling, laser, Alter G treadmill runs – all in the hopes of getting back on the road. I am not myself without being able to run outside. I am sure many of you feel the same and have experienced the same disappointment from an injury. We can all learn to be better runners, to listen to our bodies, and not think we are infallible.

So – in our efforts to provide a better overall race experience and as part of our mission to promote health and wellness – we are presenting our 2nd Annual RunStrong Clinic. Mike Silva from Foundation Performance is back, as is Pete Russo from Russo Racing. They will both cover training tips and strategies to get you to the starting line and have the best race you can plan for. Both Mike and Pete are leaders in Rhode Island for training and racing in their respective fields with years of experience and a top-end client list.

And this time – when you are ready to launch, we will have learned from our mistakes and have some amazing tools to prevent a recurrence of injuries and strategies for running that we can use into our later years!

Hope you can join us.