First its the sickness that's keeping me from running my intended training days and miles - I have gotten this last October 2012 as I was training for the 10k Urbanathlon. First, it was the 10k distance - I was new to this distance as it was supposed to be my 2nd. Second, strength training was incorporated as the Urbanathlon as a series of obstacles such as hurdles, walls, monkey-bars, stairs, etc. In my mind I knew I could do this as in my "younger" years, these are simple obstacles that I can easily do even without training. So I incorporated upper body strength along with endurance.
I didn't get to join the race as I caught the flu, and I even didn't get to go to work for a couple of days because of this.
Then came 10k training, which was fine as I just got the colds, cough and a few body pains, nothing ibuprofen can't handle.
December I was now training to go for 21k. This means doubling my original mileage while going faster. It was November and December that the plain old flu and cough got worse.
There's also the death of a fellow runner during one of the runs that made me think twice of being too aggressive to run my first 21k.
Now its the quality time in work and at home that added to my deteriorating mileage and running time. It seems that the recovery period and sickness that comes next after my long runs are affecting quality time.
It came as a surprise to me when my wife told me her sentiments about my running. A few of her points are as follows:
- Recovery - I run 10k on weekends and I wash the dog, send the car to the cleaners and watch UFC all in the same morning. After which I fall into bed and sleep to make up for the early heavy activities. Quality time with the family is lost.
- Sickness - I can't seem to improve my cold and cough as I continue to run in the mornings. Seems like my body can't handle the extended distance and stress. This keeps me from working properly, and also makes me sleep more when I'm at home.
- Body structure and looks - Yeah, I notice that while my legs and body is getting in shape, my face seem to be ageing. While its true that I'm burning more calories, the tiredness and stress can be seen in my overall image.
- Eating habits - she noticed a change in my eating habits that I eat less and less. While its not a conscious thing that I do, its just that I eat quality, not quantity. My body features are not from the result of eating less, but from running - so its good, right?
While I acknowledge that I need more time to recover as I'm improving my distance and speed, but its only since my body needs to adjust to the increased stress. I know that after a while when my body adjusts that I won't suffer the usual pains in my calf, and my immune system will be able to adjust so the recovery would not need that much time.
And I also realized (even before we I heard the sentiments) that I needed to adjust my training plan to make it a bit easier on my body. Ok, my training plan is based on (slightly adjusted) experienced runner. I'll go back to beginner's that would take a bit more time to get to running 21k efficiently.
The development on the effects of running to me is now now bigger. Before its just within me - getting fitter, running faster, longer. But now it spread to family and work - to which the former is of greatest importance to me (afterall, the reason for me running is to be healthy so as to live a better and longer life for my kid).
I was supposed to run 8k this morning, but didn't get to as I came home late last night from a group practice, slept much later as i played with my daughter. And my wife has a meeting in the morning so we had to leave early so it was not a good idea for me to insert a run (my heartrate when I woke up was 81bpm, usually its just 71bpm).
So the question is - will this new development keep me from running? This I have to find out. What do you think?
