Recovery post race and starting a new training cycle

My Winter Season commenced on Boylston Street in Boston over 2 weeks ago and ended a pretty successful season.  After any season I think it’s really important to not only look back and figure out what worked and didn't but also take some downtime for various reasons before getting back into running.  For most of us running is just a hobby we do, some more competitively than other, but we all have real jobs and real adult responsibilities we must do in between our runs and strength sessions.  But none the less our goals are as important to us to achieve as any professional athlete because they are things we set to accomplish that have meaning to us (if your goals don’t get new goals).  For that reason I’ll stress the importance of a good break and I’ll kind of walk through what I like to do when I start up a new training cycle.

After Boston I took off 13 days with one short fun run to support my favorite store the Falls Road Running Story sandwiched in there, and this was the longest break I ever took post a marathon.  For me a break is important not just for the physical benefits but also the mental benefits.  I know a lot of people start running 3-4 days post race as soon as their body feels physically ready.  Sure for me four days after Boston all my soreness went away and I could have run but to me the mental break is just as important if not more important.  A break for me means completely shutting down everything to do with running physically and completely mentally.  I don’t force cross training, I don’t force core work, I just lounge around and relax and do things I wish I could do the rest of the year when instead I am deep in training.  This is important for me as it allows me to recharge the battery mentally.  Sure if I want to go to the gym and go on the Elliptical I would do that (Editor Note: I never felt like doing that) but instead I just wanted to go out with friends and spend extra time with my wife and daughter.  The key reason I stress focusing on mental recovery is because when I start training again I do not want to get 6 weeks in and wake up not wanting to train or feeling burned out.  Many times do I see people come back and just flame out mentally weeks before their race, wasting all their specific hard training.   There is nothing you can do to trick your body to recover from a mental breakdown.  Physically when you burn out, you can sometimes come out alive if you focus on recovery but mentally your body will shut down when you need it the most.  Next time you roll through a training cycle and get through your peak race, whether you hit your goal or not remember to focus on your mental recovery too on your break.  Just because you didn’t hit your goal and feel as though you didn’t “really race” your body still needs some downtime before you ramp up again.  Trust me it’ll do wonders for your longevity with running.

So once my break is over and I am ready to start training again here’s what I do to get myself started on the right foot and lead to success months down the road.  Well aside from setting a goal (so you have something to work towards when training gets tough) I do a couple things to make sure my body is starting off on the right foot.  First thing I love to try and do is getting blood work done when I start up a new cycle (I usually only do it once a year but I try and coincide it with when I start training).  This allows me to get a picture of where body is at across all levels heading into training.  One reason this matters to me is a couple years ago I was told I had a very huge vitamin D deficiency, which I thought was crazy I am out in the sun all the time.  Well turns out lots of people are Vitamin D deficient because some people’s bodies just can’t absorb Vitamin D from the sun like others.  Whaaaaa, Science?  This also was around a time when I felt really sluggish for all my workouts on the track, tired all the time and felt worn down.  I started supplementing Vitamin D and it definitely felt like it had a positive influence on my life.  Aside from blood work I think it’s important to assess everything that went wrong with your body leading up to your last race and during it.  Don’t ignore any of the pains you had before, keep a mental note so you can see if they still exist post break.  If two weeks of break didn’t make some of these issues go away, it’s time to focus on fixing them.  Either going to see a Physical Therapist or doing it on your own (You know my choice!) but ignoring it after a break is recipe for a disaster.  You don’t want to start off your new cycle dealing with issues from the previous cycle. It's also important to assess your last training cycle for what went right/wrong.  A training log is key for this, at a minimum it should include daily mileage, workouts specifics and how you felt, so you can go back to it later and remember.  Additionally I like to focus on lifting and general strength training at the beginning of the cycle.  When my mileage is at its lowest point and I am coming back it’s easiest for me to work this in and begin to get consistent with it as I ramp up.  Just like we know all the work you do in running is cumulative  year to year, all the work you do early on in a training cycle paves the way for success as you get to your peak race.  When you are smart about recovery and have a solid plan for when you start up again you set up a foundation that allows your body to handle the workload you need when you training starts to intensify.  Lastly slowly work back your intensity, no need to rush back.

What are your thoughts?  Anything you do to help you with your breaks post running or anything you like to focus on when you start up training again?  I hope you enjoyed my blog as much I enjoyed writing it.

For my summer it’s going to be a focus back on speed and shorter distance races and probably a 50k somewhere because why not.

My goals remain the same:

PR in the 5k 15:52 – been waiting since 2002 for this one to go down

PR in the 10k 33:13 – also 2002 PR

Run a Steeplechase race again – also haven’t done that since 2002

My 2017 and Some Pre-Boston Thoughts

My 2017 started off amazing, I now have a new member of my family my amazing beautiful daughter Chloe Anne Klastava and she is my world. I'm a Dad!  Being beat down and injured post JFK it became easy to shift my focus on her but finally in early January I decided to get some help in the form of Physical Therapy for my left hip issue.  As I’ve written about in great length it was the best decision I made to get my 2017 going in the right direction. Before I began PT in mid-January I was ready to toss in the towel for Boston, heck I was 14 weeks out, couldn’t run without significant pain, was doing almost no mileage and I had no way out of this vicious cycle.  But something clicked, PT was fun and my Physical Therapist Stacie was super helpful and engaging and gave me so many amazing ways to strengthen my glutes and get rid of the pain.   It was a slow struggle back, the rest of my January consisted of light mileage and no workouts and I didn’t really start getting in any consistent weeks until Mid-February.  But then something clicked, I started getting in some quality long runs with a good group of Falls Road teammates, I started getting in some workouts and I had a solid Club Challenge 10 Miler.  In March I got in some solid workouts leading up to Shamrock 5k and ran my 2^nd best 5k ever and then took on the toughest race I have ever run, HAT 50k.

In previous years I always targeted a half marathon 4 weeks away from a Marathon, well this year I did the opposite and targeted a 50k (31 miles) as my race 4 weeks out thinking the longer distance and time on my feet would be helpful.  HAT was tough, hilly, and full of technical trails on a hot day.  I ran 1 solid loop and was in the hurt box for the entire second 13.5 mile loop.  But alas that is Ultra running, you vs yourself going to the darkest places you thought were only made up.  I still feel like a champ for winning the battle against my mind that day and managed to finish 3^rd overall.  And then we were on the home stretch only my body was broke down.  Since HAT I’ve basically just done a bunch of easy runs and a long run or two but almost nothing hard.  I’ve basically aired on the side of utmost caution because of how I broke myself down leading up to JFK and here we are 6 days away from the race.

I get asked everyday how I am feeling, how is my training going into Boston and it’s weird I don’t know how to explain it.  I basically respond with "It’s a mixed bag" because this cycle has been unlike any I have ever had.  I spent 4-5 weeks of it getting healthy so I could manage a full workload.  I then found my fitness from last year pretty quickly and put together some good races and then I did HAT and it broke me a little.  I’ve hit none of my key workouts, I haven’t done a ton of workouts in general and I’ve done no Marathon Pace work,  but I have rocked 5 20+ mile long runs and got in some consistent weeks in the middle.   Three years ago if you would have asked me how I felt after that type of training cycle I would have told you I am going to bomb this race, but that’s not me anymore.  I have this aura of positivity around me that I keep trying to push on others, because I believe it to be the key to some of my success.  I also acknowledge that I am here 15 weeks later with 6 days to race, I have done the work that I could fit in and now there is nothing left but to leave it all out there.  I don’t want my mental mind to convince me I can’t achieve a goal I set.  I am going to achieve my goal or close to it on Marathon Monday or I am going to go down in flames and reach a new level of suffering.  But I will believe in myself, I believe that I did all I could this training cycle and for once in my life I trained smart and was careful instead of continuing to push that line we all struggle with as runners.  And hopefully come Monday that will be the difference.

I guess my last bit of advice for anyone who made it this far is to just believe in yourself and your training.  You have done the work for many weeks, don’t compare yourself to previous versions of yourself and convince yourself you are not capable of meeting the goals you set.  Past Nick Klastava was a very different person full of many faults and insecurities that I have navigated past.  I don’t care what I ran in a half in 2014 leading up to Boston, I care about all the training I have done the past 3 years and all the work I have done this year to put the best version of myself on the line on 17 April.  Marathon Monday is a special day, most of us experience crowds and an atmosphere we are never used to.  Special things happen that day, so don’t doubt yourself now.  Get to the line with confidence and see what happens and then post-race you can come back and evaluate what went wrong/right.  That’s what I will do.

Lastly, I love this quote from Jenny Simpson and it’s going to be my mantra on Marathon Monday “Sometimes being in a dark place is part of navigating those troubled waters.  When you come out on the other side, you just know more about yourself and you know more about what you’re capable of.”

You’ve got to start somewhere!

I’ve wanted to at least be blogging once a week with my training but neglected the past three weeks.  It’s a common theme for me when my training hits a setback or isn’t going as I expected my excitement about running goes down, when sometimes that is when you need that motivation the most.  I hit a setback about 3 weeks ago when I had thought I was beginning my build up post Boston when my hamstring issue plaguing me off and on since October got to be too much.  With some talking to my doctor it was advised to hit up some physical therapy to strengthen and get back to 100%.  Some initial advice is this issue is linked to my weak glutes which are forcing my hamstrings to do all the work and the glutes nothing.  Funny thing about running, everyone will say to get faster all you need to do is run, which is 100% true but to stay healthy and always be at your peak you need to make sure you do not neglect all your other strength, mobility, recovery training.  I’ve neglected it too long and now it is beginning to have a negative impact on my running.

With PT under way, a new found respect for core work and new recovery techniques aside, I still had a race to run the Bel Air Town Run 5k on June 1^st.  The 5k is an event that gets a ton of disrespect these days but it's to me one of the hardest, most painful races you run.  With everyone sucked into the half and full marathon craze the 5k loses all it's luster as only a 3.125 mile race, but believe you me when you run it all out, it really hurts...  That said having done 0 workouts since Boston and only one 40 mile week, I was not confident about this race.  But I needed a kick in the butt and to just race to get back at it, so I came out here nonetheless.  As I warmed up I was worried but also had some excitement to try and become a 5k runner again, as opposed to the half and full runner I have become of late.  I toed the line, took a deep breath and I was off.  The first 200 meters in I was in about 30^th place behind probably the entire Bel Air High School track team.  I settled in and ignored these kids sprinting down the hill and focused on me.  Having forgotten my watch was a fantastic start to this race, so I relied on effort and racing people around me.  I came through the mile in 5:10, which I am told might be 5:20 but it didn’t matter either way I felt pretty good through 1 mile.  As the second mile dragged on I really didn’t feel like I was slowing down but the gentlemen at 2 miles seemed to tell me a different story as he shouted 11:04, doh.  I was a little deflated since I had felt smooth through mile 2 and I knew mile 3 was the toughest but I had to push on, or at least I told myself to.  Mile 3 was terrible though, the lack of training and miles since Boston got me and even as I crested the last hill to the final downhill I had nothing.  I was passed by about 6-7 runners the last 600 meters, just terrible.  I finished in 17:47, 19^th overall and 1^st in Age Group(Won a sweet glass bowl, not pictured).  That said it is technically still a post collegiate PR(I think I have run faster during the Club Challenge 10 miler, and I did 17:43 on the track 4 days before Boston) but it’s not what I wanted.  As the title says I had to start somewhere and now I know the work ahead of me.  If this race did nothing else it upped my motivation to get faster and my excitement for a summer of pain and fast running, which is exactly what I was hoping this race would do.  Sometimes even when you are tired or not at your best lining up and racing can be a positive experience as long as you can take something useful from it.  For me I learned a lot from this race about where my fitness needs to be improved and got some butterflies of running 5k’s out.

The advice I can give to runners everywhere is don’t be afraid to race, don’t be afraid to fail.  I could have easily bagged this race for not being “ready” and who knows where my mind would be at today.  I could also look at this result and be super disappointed that I lost to a few teenagers, and finished 90 seconds slower than someone who I finished even with at the half marathon in March, but instead it’s about focusing on the positives and using the negatives as fuel to get out there and get stronger.   It’s about having a goal and using races, workouts and any motivation you can to reach it.  I want to run sub 16:30 by the end of this summer, and yesterday gave me my starting point.  The rest is up to me to get strong enough to do it.  I just need to enjoy the process of getting there, one step at a time.

Last 4 weeks of training since last blog:

5/5 – Off

5/6 – 7 Miles, a couple miles in the 6:20 – 6:30 range just to get the legs moving

5/7 – 7 Miles today – Plyometrics

5/8 – Off

5/9 – 7 miles

5/10 – 6 miles – Plyometrics

5/11 -11 miles – strides

Total – 38 miles

5/12 – 7 miles

5/13 – 6.5 miles

5/14 – 7 miles, attempted a workout but just couldn’t get into it, shut it down after second interval

5/15 – Off

5/16 – 7 miles

5/17 – 5/18 – Off   Trip to Cooperstown cut into training, bah to real life!

Total 27.5 miles

5/19 – 7.5 miles

5/20 – 9 miles

5/21 – Off

5/22 – 7 miles

5/23 – 8 miles

5/24 – 10 miles

5/25 – Off – Hamstring

Total – 41.5 miles

5/26 – 7.5 miles

5/27 – Off

5/28 – 8 miles

5/29 – 8 miles – 3-4 at 6:20 pace – No workout until after race so just getting legs moving – Core/Plyometrics

5/30 – 8.5 miles

5/31 – 8.5 miles

6/1 – 10 miles – Bel Air Town Run 5k – 17:47

Total – 50 miles