Happy New Year! Well, we made it to 2021!

Well, before May 2020, my running was was rather haphazard— just going out there and running. But truly, I was not disciplined about following a plan. I was going out there and doing my zen thing. I did not even use a GPS watch to check my time and distance. Then March happened…

In March, we were told that we would work from home temporarily until further notice. I already had the option of working from home twice a week, and I knew I did not like that. I need an office setting to be productive. Still I made the best of it. Then April happened…

Mid-April we were told that due to the financial impact of COVID, my company would have to take “drastic staffing actions” to ensure the place remained open. I work in HR so I knew what this meant, and by the third week of April, I found myself on a temporary furlough from May-August. I am fortunate that we are in a financial position where this furlough did not have a terrible impact. 'Still, it was odd to not be working and so I turned my mind to something I always wanted to do— train as a runner fulltime. But not just running, I wanted to really focus more on trail running, which I started doing leisurely in 2019.

And so, with this goal in mind, I hired a coach and a nutritionist, and while I was nervous because I am not a spring chicken, I was sooooooo excited! I knew I needed a structured training plan to get to the peak performance I wanted to, so I dove in head first. The following are some lessons learned during my running journey in the last half of 2020.

• Time vs Distance. Right of the bat, the biggest adjustment was that my training runs were not set to a predetermined distances to run, but to a specific time. For example: Run 45 mins at 5/6 RPE. It took a while to get used to that, but when you think about it, it completely makes sense in trail running as the running up and down uneven terrain adds time to your normal mileage.

• Technique is Key to Not Breaking Your Neck. Trail running is not as straight forward as running on the road, and learning what techniques worked for me on the trails was interesting. Because of the variety of the terrain— from flats to rugged technical trails— your body has to become sort of like an all-terrain vehicle that can handle any situation on the trails. And that even includes how your foot lands. For example: on the road, I am a mid-foot striker but on the trail I am more flat footed, but it works for me. Believe it or not, at 6’1” I have a difference center of gravity than a short runner, and not only the flat footed technique is comfortable for me, but also stabilizes me better. There are additional techniques for running uphill and downhill, but that is for another story.

• Find A Challenge to Keep You Focused. Once I started training, I realized that I needed a challenge to keep me motivated. Training for the sake of training is just not fun (who have I become?!). Because of all the race cancellations, I could not sign up for anything and I do not have the mental capacity to do some long virtual run… or so I thought. Enter the Bigfoot Elusive 100K Virtual Challenge. First, let me start by saying that I did not do this challenge in one day. Participants had from August 1, 2020 and ends September 30, 2020 to finish the challenge. Based on my weekly mileage at the time, I knew I would have to almost double my mileage per week, which I was on my way to do. And so I signed up and finished the damn thing. It was fun and challenging, plus I got a fun belt buckle. The only hiccup for me was that, while I finished in time, it took me longer than I planned for because… see next item.

• Injuries Happen, So Pay Attention to Your Body. The Friday before Labor Day, I went hiking up Sugarloaf Trail in Winona, MN. Lengthwise, it is not a long trail, but it is a steep incline all the way up and then down. On the way down, I started having this discomfort in my right groin area but was not really pain. But I thought it was just soreness from how inclined it was. I did not pay attention to it. Do you know what happened? I made it worse.

  Fast forward to Labor Day a few days later. I went to the same trail and running downhill, I tripped on a root. I did not fall, but when I tripped, my hip/groin. quad area hyper-extended and the pain was so much that it took my breath away. I shook it off and was ok, but could not run. I rested a few days, and tried running. It was painful at first but then it would get better. I went like this for a month, until one day, the pain was not getting batter after a mile, and then I just knew in my gut there was something else. And there was. A doc diagnosed me with a rectus femoris (quad) strain. The doc think I strained my groin but when I went back and tripped a few days later, I made it worse. That took almost two months of rest. The recovery has been sucky because I’m stubborn and wanted to be back in the condition I was pre-injury fast. Then I was berating myself for not being more careful. But really, it is trail running. So yes— injuries will happen. And when they do, it is important to listen to your body and pay attention to them.

• Trail Running Is Like Life, So Enjoy the View at the Top. If there is a sport that, to me, represents life, it is trail running. You will have ups and downs. You will have times when everything seems flat and muddy, and you will slip— but you get up and keep going. When you will face obstacles and you will think that you cannot do it, but the mind says “Oh, yes you can” and you rise above those obstacles. It is hard and not pretty, but by golly— when you get to the top and see all that you went through to the get there, it is pretty damn amazing. And the view is even sweeter. It makes it all worth it.

Everything that I learned this year, has not only made me a better runner, but more importantly, it strengthened my character. It also made me more competitive with myself. :) Which is why I am so looking to the 2021 season and my first trail running races. It has been hard to find open races in 2021 because many of them are waiting to see how the situation develops. But right now, I signed up for my first 2021 race— the Bryce Canyon 30K in May, and I am super geeked out. Looking at a couple of other races before that, but for now, this is my first big race. I am hopeful that things will improve in 2021 and there will be a semblance of normalcy returning to our lives.

Any particular races you are looking forward to? Have you signed up for any races yet? Phew— I was just so over 2020 that I went to bed early. Did you do anything fun to celebrate the new year?

Some of my favorite link-ups to join: Tuesday Topics/ Weekly Run Down / Nature Notes / Pictorial Tuesday / Sky Watch Friday / Friday with Fairytales & Fitness