Tonight I put a marathon training plan into my calendar. This doesn't mean I will run a marathon in early May, but it means I might. Step one is always to make a plan. Step two is to stick to that plan.
Step one is a pretty easy step. I just take my usual marathon plan and copy/paste it into the calendar to end on the race day that I think I'm aiming for. Step two is considerably harder because with marathon training there's more to success than just committing to the plan.
I battled injury last year and battled motivation since then. I'm hoping that the training plan will help with the latter. I'm also hoping that running this training plan won't lead to any reoccurrence of the injury issues I had last summer.
Other than blogging about the training here, I'm going to start using my status.lol a bit more and specifically I'm going to use it to post my current training status. We'll see how that goes, but I think to start I'll just mirror the Garmin training status as it changes in the app.
Off we go...hopefully this is going to be a good start to a good year of running.
Strava Adds Messaging
Is Strava finally realizing its potential as a "social network for athletes"? I think it's getting there.
This week Strava added a new Messaging feature to its mobile apps. It allows athletes on Strava to message each other and provides an alternative to using apps like Signal, WhatsApp or iMessage.
You might be wondering why Strava would bother with messaging at this point. There are so many options for athletes to message each other already. Do we really need yet another option?
I've been on Strava for over ten years now and I've been looking forward to it developing into a more complete service not just for individual athletes but for groups and crews. The addition of messaging is a very smart move by Strava and it's a huge step in Strava finally becoming the full-blown social network for athletes.
Bringing It All Together
Our running group was founded during the pandemic as the lockdowns lifted and a few of us were able to get together on Sunday mornings to run. We called it the Socially Distanced Run Crew (SDRC) with a nod to the whole social distancing, six-foot apart thing that we all were practicing in early 2020.
We started out using Apple's iMessage platform, but when a couple of Android users joined as we were able to have bigger group runs under the local government restrictions, we moved to Signal as it was cross-platform and also "not Facebook".
We leveraged a few other Strava features to run our group including setting up a private Group page in Strava, posted our upcoming events (and RSVPs) and creating and sharing routes. Photos from our runs were also posted into the group to share amongst members.
While a lot of our group activity was taking place on Strava, messaging was still on Signal and that made it possible for one runner in our group to not even have a Strava account at all.
When messaging hit Strava this week, the first thing we did was to recreate our group chat from Signal on Strava. We instantly realized that we were probably mostly done with Signal since the integration of Strava features like route sharing was far better.
Not Perfect, But Close
We did find a few things lacking in Strava Messaging, but Strava is aware and I'd expect them to quickly add the remaining tent-pole features.
Photos - You can't share photos on Strava messaging yet. That's a pretty important feature for us. Until it's added, we'll either share those on Signal, or in the Strava Group where we've occasionally posted photos over the last few years.
Group chat for our Strava Club - I would have expected that Strava messaging would have allowed for a Club or Group chat to be automatically set up. Apparently that is on the roadmap, but until it arrives, we are using a group chat we made in Strava Messaging by just manually adding all the members of our crew. It lacks an avatar, but otherwise works fine.
Messaging on the web - This is something Strava has been doing a bit too much lately with new features getting added to the iOS and Android apps, but not to the web interface. I'm hoping that web messaging comes soon because sometimes it's nice to be able to read and send a few messages from the website rather than typing on the small phone screen.
A One-Stop-Shop for Running Groups
What Strava Messaging offered our run group is a way to move our entire social experience for our club into Strava. It has basically everything we need to stay in touch with the ability to post our runs, coordinate events, make routes, discuss our experiences and now, to chat with each other. You could even keep something like a run blog in Strava using their Posts feature, although it lacks RSS feeds for posts which I think is key for a blogging platform.
The one member of our crew that has resisted creating a Strava account is going to have to decide whether they want to stay plugged into the group or not. If that sounds like something from 15 years ago when Facebook opened up to the world outside of college campuses, then you get my point about Strava becoming a full-fledged social network for athletes.
Returning to Running Version 2
In May, 2023, my left leg got really sore. I stopped running to get a diagnosis and treatment. First they thought it was a stress fracture, so I got an x-ray. Negative for a stress fracture. But they suggested a bone scan. So I got one of those. They said, "It's bad shin splints" and told me to rest. So I did. And eventually things healed and I felt better.
The desire to run was not there for a good couple of months. I went from having no issues motivating myself to literally run every single day, no matter the weather, to not being able to convince myself to go out at all.
But recently that changed. I started running here and there, and got out on a couple of Sundays to run with my crew. That made a big difference! I had trouble running the longer distances and the pace that we usually run on Sundays. But I wanted to get out with the guys on Sunday and I knew that the only way to get back to comfortable, long Sunday runs was to get out during the week.
This week I ran on Wednesday (5km), Thursday (5km) and Friday (6km in the rain). That's more like a usual week for me when I was running daily. It was especially good to gear up and get out in some not-so-nice weather. The motivation is back and being able to convince myself to run even when the weather is crap is a real mental boost.
Today I ran just shy of 15km with the crew. That's my longest run in...forever. And it was great. I was still huffing and puffing more than I would like considering the pace we were running, but in a month or two, if I keep getting out for 4-5 runs during the week, that fitness will return and I'll be back to "normal". I can't wait!
Returning to Running
I run a fair bit. Not huge mileage, but until May 23, 2023, I had been running every single day of the week. I had done that since September 20, 2022 for a total of 246 days in a row. In 2022 I ran every single day (rain or shine, freezing or roasting) and ended my run streak at 481 days.
But a couple of months back I went out for my usual run on a Tuesday at lunch time and discovered that my left leg was messed up and I literally couldn't run. It was too painful. This was the worst injury I've had in over 16 years of running now and it had me down and out for a couple of months.
Some x-rays and a bone scan later, and I had not much of a diagnosis, other than "shin splints" but nothing structurally wrong with my leg. So I plotted a return to running with the knowledge that it wouldn't be causing any damage or leading to a fracture or worse.
Slow and Steady
The road back has been fairly slow and measured. I started with some short periods of running interspersed with brisk pace walking. I would run 500m or a kilometre, and then walk for the same distance. It was going reasonably well and I was up to about 6-8km on my daily walks.
This morning I returned to my usual Sunday run crew downtown and ran for a bit with the guys. I did the first kilometre with them, and then dropped back to a walk to take away the temptation to do too much, too soon.
Over the next hour and ten minutes, I covered 10.3km of which 6.3km was running and 4km was walking. The last 2.3km was all running which is the longest distance I've run without a stop to walk since late May.
Encouraging Progress
Suffice to say, this was very encouraging and I think I'm ready to start doing a bit more running now to see if I can continue to get things back to normal both in terms of how my leg feels and how much I'm running. I don't plan to run every day anymore but I will hopefully get to running five days a week again soon.
The plan is to take Mondays and Fridays off and do longer fast-paced walks on those days to keep building strength and fitness. Then on the other five days, I want to get back to 5-6km runs and see how that goes. Combined with a good bit of stretching, rolling and other rehab, I'm confident that things are finally heading in the right direction again.