First Outdoor Run of Spring, Sports Psych Workshop

I cycled over 14 kilometers yesterday, and woke this morning without too much tension and cramping today. So, I gave myself permission to try running again. Today was the first run outside I had since I was injured.

Goals/Objectives:

1. To head out and return home without re-injuring myself
2. To at least break a good working sweat
3. Target: to make it to the Bessborough and back on the Meewasin Trail
4. To burn over 500 calories
5. To cover 5 km of distance, under 45 minutes (realistic given my degree of injury)
6. To keep my heart rate under 170 BPM
7. To reactivate my "muscle memory" in my legs after such a long lapse

Challenges/Discoveries:

I expected that walking was going to be more prevalent than running for today. What I discovered that was even more debilitated than my foot and leg was my breathing. I still have very under-trained lungs, that are filled with a winter's worth of stagnancy. My breathing was impaired even more due to the fact that there still is a high degree of tension in my shoulders, back, and ribs. It didn't take long to stress my heart enough to get up to 170 BPM. The reason to keep the rate below that level is to avoid the chance of serious lactic acid build up. which would consequently and adversely affect my calves and foot. This was a back-to-square-one feel out session; primarily to jar my legs and lungs back into regaining their memory for this sort of rigour.

Today's Results:

• Made it to the Bess and back; minimal aching, and most importantly, no limping
• 8'44"/km average pace
• Calories burned: 729
• Average heart rate: 154 BPM
• Time: 44:40

Future Goals/Decisions:

• To bring 5 km pace back to 30 minutes or less by May 19th
• To build up a range of 8 km or more of steady running by May 19th
• To set my operational maximum heart rate at 170 BPM by May 19th
• To regain medical clearance, or to avoid re-injury by May 19th
• If all these criteria are met by May 19th, I will retain my registration for my spot in the Saskatchewan Marathon

Thankful for:

• Finally having a beautiful sunny day to try all this out
• The inspiration I got from the duathelon I watched yesterday
• The valuable bits of info from the SRRA workshop
• Seeing the ladies on the trail wearing shorts, and Lulu Lemon athletic wear again. Who ever invented this stuff deserves to be awarded the Order of Canada medal

The SRRA Sports Psychology Workshop:

Yesterday's SRRA (Saskatoon Road Runners' Association) workshop was about sports psychology. Typically, I find the act of running more mental than physically: except for this year, now that I'm overcoming being injury stricken. It was important for me to attend it because it's impossible to reacquaint my body to the activity again without having a congruent mindset as well.

There was a review about goal-setting, cool. However, I listened a little more attentively to the process of guided imagery: using some sort of image or scene to help you focus. There was encouragement to allow ourselves to imagine becoming something fast and powerful during the process of running a race, like being an unstoppable train, or a cheetah perhaps. I tend to think of things of the natural world when I willingly bring to mind things that are the extremes of being fast, agile, and focused. My inspiration comes from the birds of prey, despite the fact that their movement doesn't even involve running.

Here's one ideal example of creative imagery. The Peregrine Falcon: nature's version of a heat-seeking missile. It's a very sleek and balanced looking bird. Air Forces of the world actually hire ornithologists to study the flight patterns of these creatures in depth with hopes to use the findings to improve aerial combat tactics. When I think about an animal that symbolizes fast, I'll opt for a falcon over fast terrestrial animals, like a horse or cheetah, every time.


However, more realistically, if there was an even more fitting bird-of-prey anima figure that actually did represent me as a runner now, it would probably be the Grey Owl, in both appearance and performance, compared to a falcon. It's the much more portly of the two species, much slower, with a huge fat fluffy grey head mounted on a stockier body. Not so intensely focused looking, like the falcon, but more inquisitive. It's more like nature's version of a stealth drone.

I'm hoping that my progress in going from owl to falcon won't take too long. May 19th is the date set to examine all this again, and to make that critical decision.