Rebuild and Refocus for 2013

2012 was an interesting, eventful and very disappointing year for me in a lot of ways.  It started out as did the last 5 or 6 years with me being the walking coach for Robert's DisneyRunning community.  I had started the year with hopes of patching up the friendships that had been strained with Robert and members of other communities.  That all changed when he and his wife Linda were run down and killed, the day before they were to leave, for the Disney marathon weekend.  DisneyRunning for me was a way to give back to adult athletics by helping others get ready for their races.  It was sad for me to walk away from that but it was over.

I decided that I would get more serious about my own competition dreams, so I asked for help from some very good race walkers.  I got the help and coaching I needed and started improving by leaps and bounds.  I had some good training and a couple of my best distance races ever during April, May and June.  But I made the tragic mistake of not taking enough rest days and slowly began to get into that hell for athletics called "over training".  I was improving so much and so quickly that I didn't want to stop and looked forward to each workout.  Every effort was a hard effort.  By the end of June when I had the Indy 5K and half marathon back to back I was starting to feel the strain on my body from the hard training.  Had I listened to my body and not done that race but took a week off instead then the rest of the year would have been very different.  Instead I did those races and suffered a serious Achilles tendon injury.

The second half of the year was all about dealing with that injury.  I went to PT and would get better and then have a setback and that defined the time from July to the end of Sept for me.  By the middle of Sept I couldn't even wear a shoe without discomfort and race walking was impossible, I could barely walk at all without pain.  I went to DisneyWorld to rest for a week and hope that I could recover enough to compete in the State Senior Games and try to get a slot on the Ky. team for the National Senior Olympics in 2013.   Disney was lots of slow walking around the parks and lots of pain.  It was there though that I got the idea of doing all the strengthening exercises for the injury in the pool.  That made a difference and two weeks later I had a good enough race at State to qualify for the national race.

I have spent the time since then in slow and steady recovery to get ready for the January DisneyWorld marathon.  As I write this that race is only 13 days away.  I'm not totally ready but I plan to take it slow and easy and just get through it.  The goal is a fun event  and good fellowship, not a fast time.  When that marathon is over I will rest for a few days and then begin a slow but steady training plan that will allow me to be get to the national race well trained but not over trained.

2013 will be a year of rebuilding and refocusing but also a year of training smart.

Thanks for reading.