The Process of Becoming Fit again

While traveling in Latin America some bad stuff happened early on that made me a bit nervous to explore new, exciting, and potentially lethal places. Combine that with then arriving in Central America where it was quite humid, sunny, and hot, I only ran a few times within a solid 2 months. We weren't by any means inactive. We hiked, lugged around big backpacks, walked, went volcano boarding and all sorts of stuff but not much running. Upon getting home to southern CA, I quantified my lack of fitness by promptly running a 5k at race effort. 18:00.

Burning some extra calories on our 4 night hike of the "W" circuit in Torres Del Paine. Patagonia, in the Chilean Andes 

Normally, it would have taken me over 2 minutes less to cover the distance. But thats not normal anymore. In the past 3 years (maybe more), I have not taken much time off. At least not all at the same time day after day, so I was never all too far off from "race shape". I now can understand better what its like for friends of mine who have seriously slowed down their running to all of a sudden try and run like they used to-FAST. To be fit is to be able to run fast and feel good (I mean, basically). Coming back to daily training and not being able to run what for years has been my "easy, whatever, daily run, nice" pace is a bummer. It's not that I don't understand my current fitness, I do. But my body hasn't gotten the idea yet. I take off for a run and my body wants to start cruising at a decent clip but it reminds me with these weird feelings that it can't do it so well right now, I call these feelings pain. In various places and types. Leg pain, head pain, chest pain, confidence pain, pride pain, and ego pain (this ones the worst).

I've been back less than 2 weeks and I have to remind myself on a daily basis to cool off and not try to do an easy 80 minute run at 7 minute pace. I am having to hold back and hold back so that I return to fitness properly and will be able to build off of it. But it sucks. I want to jump right to 40 miles per week then 55 then 60 then cruise around thinking I'm cool and hold more than that all summer but thats freaking stupid. I am happy that I know its stupid, but my plans for the end of summer and fall don't allow enough time to reeeaally properly get fit. So I think I'll compromise. Maybe I will do it right and run 40 minutes until its really easy then 60, then some 70s and finally start to mix it all up like a real collegiate runner, but I don't now yet.

Sometime before the snow came in Ashland OR, maybe November '13. Post warm up, pre interval workout of some kind. 

I've found that my quarter life crisis (My life at age 25[its not actually a crisis]) has brought many things into the forefront of my mind even more than usual. One great example of this was my decision to skip a track season/term of college to go backpacking for 2 months with my lovely girlfriend. I hope that I will train as smart as I know how to train, but I'm not worried. I know that if I make sacrifices such as running 80 minutes at 7 minute pace far too early because I'm having too much fun running with some friends or experiencing the trail, they will be worth it. It may sound naive, but it feels more like a priority change. One for the better. Bearing confidence in changes untested is such a reviving sensation. I think it comes with age, failures and successes. Experience is paramount, but it has to be translated into terms that will affect change in future decisions and situations.
Sometimes I feel like I don't write in english. If I lost you somewhere in there, just imagine I was mixing up Spanish, English, Creole, and 2 other indigenous caribbean Nicaraguan languages. I heard people speaking like that, it was nuts! Oh, and they had what sounded like a Jamaican accent on top of it all!