Tuesday, March 15, 2016

chasing two rabbits

    It's been awhile since I wrote anything.  I spent a small portion of last year rehabbing my sports hernia injury.  I stopped running to focus on rehabbing and healing the tissue.  This meant a lot of core work and rest.  I continued going to the gym where I receive personal training so I could at least be active and build up the rest of my body to make it injury resistant.  My two day a week gym habit turned into three days a week.  This meant sacrificing my long run day during the week.  I was ok with that.  I just kept aggravating my injury with running anyway.
     Several months went by and I was getting stronger.  I started looking forward to going to the gym every morning with the same enthusiasm that i would look forward to when running.  Some days I had to make a decision between the two.  When I chose running my legs were always dead from doing squats or similar movement the day before.  Then when I would try to squat the day after running and my legs would be dead.
    Eventually the sports hernia injury healed and I started running on a daily basis again.  I kept going to the gym and running was back in the mix.  I was chasing two rabbits as the saying goes.  Eventually I had to make a choice to pull back on my strength training and up my running....or continue the strength training and not run nearly as much as I was pre-injury.  My programs at the gym became more advanced during my running hiatus.  I enjoyed the challenge and my consistency meant I was improving month to month.  The only problem is that I had to dial back on my gym work in order to run. 
     Then when I ran I was....bored.  I would go through the motions but I missed the gym.  I missed the variety and challenge of doing different exercises.  Running was the same thing.....over and over.  I was getting hooked on progressive calisthenics, old fashioned weight lifting, and other forms of strength training and skill work.  I started these things because I basically was making lemonade out of lemons, but now I was hooked on the lemonade.