I have taken longer than I usually do to come up with a suitable topic for my blog this semester. I've been intrigued by many of the student blogs I'm seeing, from issues of single parenthood to discussions of athletic performance. There is a great variety of blogs in our classroom this semester.
And so this leads me to explore the topic of ultraendurance training. But a bit about me first so that this makes sense. I'm an English professor who, back in her heyday, was a competitive swimmer. From the time I was eleven I was in a pool, and by the time I was in high school, I was training twice a day. I moved away from home at 16 to train with a more competitive team, and I earned a scholarship to Florida State University in the early 1990s. My best events were the 200 butterfly and the middle-distance freestyles (200, 500, 1650). But we trained hard. At RSA (Raleigh Swimming Association), we did what is now called "garbage yardage"--sometimes exceeding 6,000 yards (or almost 4 miles) per practice. Add this to our running and weightlifting schedules, and you could say with confidence that I was an endurance athlete.
My swimming career ended abruptly after two back-to-back injuries. Rotator cuff tear (right shoulder) my freshman year, then a full-on accident running stadiums at Doak Campbell basically ended it all: I fell and shattered my patella (kneecap) and tore my MCL and ACL. I had to learn how to walk all over again. And after weekly visits to the sports medicine doctors to patch me up, I was given a medical release my junior year. What a way to end a career.
Fast forward 20 years (or thereabouts). I'm now in a sedentary job (college professor) and I have a 15-month-old daughter. I enjoy running (don't even ask me to swim--too boring now), but I get injured a lot. Funnily enough, it's not my knee that's the problem. In 2008 I had hernia surgery from working out too intensely with the crunch machine at the gym. In 2009 I had hip surgery to repair cartilage tears. Then in 2010 I had my daughter and another surgery: a C-section.
None of this is stopping me, and I can't say why. My step-mother, running addict who has recently completed 2 marathons, has challenged me to the Marine Corps Marathon this October. Can I do this? Can an injury-prone nutjob endorphin addict really get into marathon shape? And what comes after marathons? I'm currently reading Born to Run and it's inspiring me to bring back that old fanaticism of two-a-day workouts and really pushing myself. Before I hit 40, can I combat potential injuries and do something my 20-year-old self would admire?
For this semester, my goal is to run 20 miles (at a pop, no stopping unless to hydrate) by April 30. Can we really get our glory back?
And so this leads me to explore the topic of ultraendurance training. But a bit about me first so that this makes sense. I'm an English professor who, back in her heyday, was a competitive swimmer. From the time I was eleven I was in a pool, and by the time I was in high school, I was training twice a day. I moved away from home at 16 to train with a more competitive team, and I earned a scholarship to Florida State University in the early 1990s. My best events were the 200 butterfly and the middle-distance freestyles (200, 500, 1650). But we trained hard. At RSA (Raleigh Swimming Association), we did what is now called "garbage yardage"--sometimes exceeding 6,000 yards (or almost 4 miles) per practice. Add this to our running and weightlifting schedules, and you could say with confidence that I was an endurance athlete.
My swimming career ended abruptly after two back-to-back injuries. Rotator cuff tear (right shoulder) my freshman year, then a full-on accident running stadiums at Doak Campbell basically ended it all: I fell and shattered my patella (kneecap) and tore my MCL and ACL. I had to learn how to walk all over again. And after weekly visits to the sports medicine doctors to patch me up, I was given a medical release my junior year. What a way to end a career.
Fast forward 20 years (or thereabouts). I'm now in a sedentary job (college professor) and I have a 15-month-old daughter. I enjoy running (don't even ask me to swim--too boring now), but I get injured a lot. Funnily enough, it's not my knee that's the problem. In 2008 I had hernia surgery from working out too intensely with the crunch machine at the gym. In 2009 I had hip surgery to repair cartilage tears. Then in 2010 I had my daughter and another surgery: a C-section.
None of this is stopping me, and I can't say why. My step-mother, running addict who has recently completed 2 marathons, has challenged me to the Marine Corps Marathon this October. Can I do this? Can an injury-prone nutjob endorphin addict really get into marathon shape? And what comes after marathons? I'm currently reading Born to Run and it's inspiring me to bring back that old fanaticism of two-a-day workouts and really pushing myself. Before I hit 40, can I combat potential injuries and do something my 20-year-old self would admire?
For this semester, my goal is to run 20 miles (at a pop, no stopping unless to hydrate) by April 30. Can we really get our glory back?
