Honesty

Everyone knows that honesty is always a favorite policy. When we started this blog our intention was to be honest about our life with all the ups and downs. This post is about one of the downs. If you have read any of our previous posts regarding our running (here and here) We talk about gearing up for a half marathon that was supposed to take place this past Saturday.

We FAILED.

Wow, that is hard for us to say. We are an absolute perfectionist and when we commit to something we finish it. That has always been our work ethic, ever since we were little girl and started playing sports.

Let us start from the beginning. Back in August, Bret and we started to train for the Aspen Half Marathon only to find out that registration filled up faster than we thought. Not a big deal, we just signed up for the Colorado Springs Half Marathon instead which would actually give us two more weeks of training. Score!

Up until Labor Day our runs had been great. We were on target for setting a consistent pace and getting used to running in the morning. But then Bret’s job hit the fan and he started traveling like a mad man. Just think, he has basically been gone every week since Labor Day. Crazy, right? So, with great sadness he decided that training for a half marathon would not be in his cards this time.

Our heart sank. We just lost our running buddy. What was we to do? So, we did what any athlete would do and kept running. We figured that we could run the half marathon for both of us, figuratively of course. But as much enthusiasm as we had in continuing our training, it was not meant to be.

We lost all concentration when our hip started to scream loudly on one of our long runs. We knew something wasn’t right when we couldn’t even finish 9 miles. The funny thing is we went to Steadman Hawkins here in Denver, which is like the messiah for sports therapy and training. We had an x-ray taken and to our surprise there was no breaking or pulling of the muscle, and no excess cartilage around the hip. Basically, no surgery required which angered us more since there is no way we just “strained” our hip. We were in pain.

At this point it was the middle of September and we just stopped training. We knew if we kept pushing it we would hurt myself further. We have never felt so ashamed as an athlete for not completing a race. And then Bret brought something to our attention.

Maybe it is your form? What? Why would it be our form? Are you crazy? We are reliable. We have run a half marathon before, if we rest our hip for a couple of months we will be fine. We were wrong.

This is why we love our husband. Instead of getting emotional and being stubborn like us, he puts his good engineering logic to work and did his research. He found this book called, Chi Running written by Danny Dreyer who is an ultra-marathon runner, someone that can run 100 miles or more. In this book he teaches runners, of all levels, how to run more efficient in a natural way. Meaning instead of just focusing on strength and conditioning, and powering through race courses, you actually work with your body to try and keep everything aligned. Thus, using less energy and reducing your risk of injury.

For the longest time, we always thought running was simple. We never actually thought about our form because as a kid you just jetted off too play. In school you ran because your coach told you. So, for us understanding the mechanics of running never crossed our mind, until now.

We have been working on our “chi” running for about a month and it’s not simple. Re-training your body after 27 years of doing the same motion, over and over again, is a challenge. But, we are slowly getting better and our hip hurts less and less. The biggest help to us is running in our Vibrams. They give us immediate feedback on where we need to place our foot strike and forces us to keep everything aligned (especially our hip) vs. regular running shoes. Plug, much?

We know this probably sounds crazy to most people but when doctors tell you nothing is wrong with you and you’re in pain…. you look for other alternatives. Our plan is to keep working on our form because we want to do a half marathon next year and actually get back to enjoying running.

We plan on doing a post soon that will give the cliff notes version of the book in case you are interested. Thanks for listening to this long post, but we are glad we got all of that off our chest! Whewww.