I tried to write this out as an alliteration, but that was exhausting.

In December, we signed up for Transrockies.

January started off with excitement about the work ahead. As a way-point to Transrockies I also signed up for the BMO Vancouver marathon in early May. I picked a training plan out of a book that impressed me with it’s build up of mileage and started trucking along building up my endurance. Running over a half-marathon before work is a great feeling. Despite the gloomy January weather I was loving early mornings on foot.

Fully fucked February saw me fall apart. After coming back from a trip to Bermuda, my left calf was tight and wouldn’t calm down. Stupidly, I ran easy on it. It still didn’t get better. Paranoid, I went to the ER to rule out a DVT. Thankfully, the diagnosis was “No, you idiot, you just ran too much on it”. At first it was a struggle. I felt like I was in prison not being able to run. One evening though, I had a genuine eureka moment: with cross-training, water-running, and generous helpings of physiotherapy and massage I could actually train harder and improve my fitness without further tearing myself apart. This was an oppurtunity!

This led me into March. The start of March saw me able to actually run without wincing or even thinking about the tightness in my leg. The focus on cross training and healing has led me to only even attempt the key running workouts in the week filling in all the other training oppurtunities with swimming, cycling/spinning, water-running and yoga.

It’s too early to tell how that’s working out for me. So far it feels exhausting.