Back to normal? I only wish...

Another post on the pandemic or the end of systemic racism? Not quite, sticking to running on that blog but, yes, I only wish we were making more progress on these two other major societal issues.

For the past 10 weeks, since the first week of April, I've been averaging 101 kilometers per week. That has been my weekly average for 8 consecutive years, from 2011 to 2018, until I fissured this hamstring tendon at the 2018 Turkey Trot 10K, slipping on a wet crosswalk. Extending my stride by less than an inch was enough to derail my running for more than a year. Ironically, in 2017, I felt I was playing with fire with this weekly average and was aiming at pulling back but then I spent the summer training intensely toward a 100K road M50-54 American record, my main goal for the Changan Ford international invitational in... Wuhan, a city which needs no introduction a year later...

Actually, the weekly average over such a long period is a bit misleading because, if I ran 104K this week, I ran 200K the week before, with the (virtual) 100-mile trip between Squaw and Auburn, over three days (plus 39K the following weekend). That shows a few other weeks have been in the 70-80K range, which is good, I'm learning, finally...! ;-)

The fact of the matter is I have no clue what I'm doing. First, the tendon are is still painful, although not so much when I push the pace and extend my stride, which is odd. But there is also the breathing which remains limited especially at the start of every run, for the first 1 to 2 miles. As I indicated in previous posts, I wonder if I contracted COVID-19 back in February. I didn't get any fever but only a super dry cough and quite a painful irritation of the lungs which lasted several weeks. Because of the lack of fever I continued on like it wasn't too serious, running two Nationals in March (50K Road and 50-mile Trail) but I can still feel some discomfort when taking a full breath and exhaling fully. If any runner who had COVID-19 read this, and assuming the same conditions applied, I found that, if I start these first two miles, I can them push the pace. Initially, I didn't even dare to try farther and was just turning back home. But, again, whatever I got was still pretty mild and nobody complained about catching COVID-19 from me at least...

Now, I have to admit that these 100K per week have not much to compare with those of a few years ago when I was doing most of my long runs on very hilly terrain. Nowadays, except for a couple of round trips to the top of Black Mountain, I run mostly in my neighborhood, on flat concrete, which has its own painful side with all the pounding.

Anyway, here is for a quick update, short of much exiting racing these days. Wishing you to stay safe and healthy, both physically and mentally, to make it through these troubled times and see you on the other side, running!