
One of my big goals this year is to finish a half marathon. Unfortunately, that’s been put on pause for the next month or so. I tore up my right glute, hamstring, and upper calf pretty good the last few weeks. What I thought was just soreness from increasing my volume, turned out to be a frustrating injury.
I had been ramping up my mileage slowly throughout the last three weeks and was finally feeling comfortable with a distance of about 5K. I finished running my first 5K ever and that’s when I noticed my leg was having issues. After about a week of my leg progressively gotten worse, I went into the doctor and was told I was going to have to do some physical therapy. If I’m being honest, it’s really been crushing my motivation. My mental state and physical state both felt really good during January and I was excited to be on this journey. I’m doing my best to stay positive and really work on the stretching and exercises for my leg, so I can get back to prepping as soon as I’m cleared.
What’s even more frustrating is I felt like I was doing everything right. I worked both static and dynamic stretching into my routine, before and after, runs and workouts. I was finally starting to get my breathing under control, which is no small feat with asthma. My heart rate was starting to level out during my easy runs, and I started fueling my body with good things.
Don’t get me wrong, I still plan to continue to prepare for this half marathon, that is scheduled for late August, but the frustration right now is aggravating. I know it’s only a temporary set back, but it’s difficult to have to take two steps back for recovery. I’m hoping writing about the process of training for this half marathon will keep me motivated, but I’m also excited to look back on these posts and pictures and follow along through the process after it’s all finished. To be able to show myself that even though set backs happen, that doesn’t mean your goals aren’t achievable, you may just have to adjust your timeline and figure out another way.
So that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to adjust my timeline and figure out another way. Right now, that means rehabbing my leg back to strength and easing back into things slowly and smoothly. It may mean I have to work even harder to be where I want to be by the end of August, but I’m determined to get through the set back and have an epic comeback.