Last week, I shared a far too long post about accidentally becoming a runner. That post left off about two months ago, right after the Eugene Marathon. After the race, my primary focus was recovery and returning to running injury-free.
Fast-forward to today, and unfortunately, things haven’t gone as planned. While my IT band has been fine after I gave it the proper time to recover, a new injury emerged (in my other leg) from the race.
This time, my research on the world wide web led me to believe I was dealing with high-hamstring tendinopathy, and I spent the next month doing rehab-specific work for that. After not seeing much progress, I decided to see a PT—a decision I should have made at the outset.
After a bout of testing, I learned I was actually dealing with piriformis syndrome, causing sciatic nerve irritation down my hamstring. With this new intel, my PT put me on a proper rehab program, and I’ve started to see some solid progress over the past few weeks.
My weekly mileage has finally started creeping back up, and I'm making a concerted effort to get my body comfortable with increasing volume before I start really pushing myself. I’ve also put together solid efforts in two races I ran over the past few weeks as part of the 9+1 program to guarantee entry into the 2025 NYC Marathon.
If I hadn’t already signed up, paid for, and committed to doing the 9+1, I wouldn’t have rushed back into any races. But, with these being shorter distances (10K and 4 miles), I felt good about giving them a go, realizing I could keep them super chill or push towards race pace depending on how I felt.
I didn’t plan to actually race the 10K, but after a mile in, I felt good and decided to let it rip. I ended up finishing in 44:03, which I was pretty stoked about, considering I hadn’t run more than 5 miles since Eugene and hadn’t done any speed or tempo training.
Getting through that race was a nice confidence boost and put me in a better state of mind about where my fitness was. Cranking out a PR while rehabbing an injury on low mileage energized me about what’s possible when I'm fully healthy.
What’s Next?
The first half of 2024 was more up and down than I would have liked, but I feel like I’ve still made solid progress. Dealing with injuries and the resulting setbacks hasn’t been fun, but through this experience, I’ve grown and learned a few valuable lessons. The importance of patience was drilled into me, and I now feel better equipped to roll with the punches—both in running and in life in general.
With my rehab progressing and my mileage building back up, I’ve started to outline my plans and goals as a runner for the rest of this year. I’ve circled December 8th as my revenge date for the marathon and signed up to run CIM in Sacramento. If everything goes according to plan and I can avoid setbacks, I'll have ample time to build up my base mileage and then get in a full 16-week training block before the race.
I’m getting married on July 20th and heading straight to my honeymoon, so the timing of CIM works nicely so I can enjoy some downtime and not commit to any serious training while traveling. I’ll still run during our trip, but I can keep it casual and really start dialing things in after I get back.
I have two 9+1 races before my wedding and a few more in August after I get home, so those will be good benchmarks for my progress and where my fitness is before I kick off the CIM block in full.
It will be an uphill battle, but I’m stoked to have a race on the calendar and another training block lined up. Although I’m now 0-2 vs. the marathon, I’m ready for another crack. The next six months will be all about making sure the third time’s the charm.
