They say time flies when you’re having fun, and if the fact that it’s already September is any indication, I’ve been having a lot of fun!

For instance, I had the opportunity to attend a talk by elite Canadian runners Matt Loiselle and Andrew Smith a few weeks back. I love attending these talks. While, for the most part, they tend to be along the same lines (training, eating, racing, etc.), there is something very motivating and inspiring about talking with guys who grew up in Windsor and Toronto now training for Olympic marathon qualifying times. Their 160-200km of training a week puts a new perspective on my (somewhat less) weekly distance, while at the same time making me want to go out and run it better. During the talk they shared some stretches that they’ve been using after their runs to help with recovery — if you’re interested, they’re all from The Wharton’s Back Book. I’ve been using them after my runs for the past week and have noticed improvements. I’m going to keep at it and we’ll see how it goes.

The second fun thing I’ve been up to was facilitating an aid station last Sunday for the running clinic I’ve been crashing for the last month or so. This all started last winter when I was taking the marathon clinic at the local Running Room, and several of the people involved started setting up aid stations along our running routes during our long runs. Like mirages, these aid stations always seemed to show up just as I was out of water and starting to get a little loopy.

So to pay it forward I set up a table along the route and filled it with bottles of water, pretzels, orange sliced, banana slices, and a few Gatorades and cans of coconut water. I even grabbed a blanket we got in Mexico — check it out:

This was a fantastic experience, and it was great to be able to be of service, even if only in a small way. Syd (my dog) also came out as the table mascot and devoured pinecones (and a few pretzels) to encourage her favourite runners (she’s in the back seat in the picture).

The third fun thing (yes, all great and horrible things come in three, even on blogs) was getting to go for another run with the Canadian Running Magazine Marathon Quest group last night. Once again we met in High Park (I swear, one of these days I’ll actually go for a long run there – it’s really beautiful!) and set out for a 5k-7k loop on trails and pathways. It was great to see some of the same people and the progress they’ve made in their training over the last couple of months. Everyone is getting excited for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, which is just over three weeks away! We were told a few details about what the “VIP” area for us was going to consist of, but I’m holding out on writing about those until race day.

After the run there was a draw for a prize pack that Brooks had sent along, including a brooks hat, bag and certificate for a free pair of shoes. Here’s a quick shot of the group post-run:

That’s it for now. Happy training, and even more important – happy tapering!

The marathon is one month from today (28 days… four weeks, whatever), and I’m finding myself getting pretty nervous. I’m not really worried about the distance or race; right now I’m more concerned with making sure that I actually get to the start line. It was at this point in the training last time that I ended up injured and I really, REALLY don’t want to go through that again.

Tied to this I’m finding that I’m reluctant to let myself get excited about the race. Part of me — that inner five-year-old who knows it’s going to be SO MUCH FUN… OMG! — wants to get really excited, start planning race weekend, nutrition, hydration, etc. The other part of me — that inner “once bitten” 27-year-old from last May — questions whether it’ll all be for naught and I’ll end injured in a week or two and have to sit out the race again.

I’ve decided to do the responsible thing here and listen to the five-year-old. What else is one to do? If I listened to that nagging, whining adult every time he made noise, I wouldn’t be running a marathon in the first place. So screw him, I’m getting excited! I even had my first cheerleader pipe up today (thanks Ali!), and can even see the taper on the horizon. So I figure all I have to do is make it through the next two weeks of training and I’ll be set.

Last night’s 9 hill repeats were pretty freakin’ fun. It down poured on-and-off throughout, which at first flushed all the sweat into my eyes (ouch!), but eventually led to me jumping into puddles at the bottom of each hill (are we sensing a 5-year-old theme?).

After mulling things over last night, tossing and turning, I did what any distance runner would do four weeks out from a race – I started obsessing about it.

Just so we’re clear, this is the route:

This is the elevation chart:

And this, this is what I want!

How is everyone else’s training going?

So now it’s August, I’m in the fifth week of my training for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and I’m just getting around to writing that, yes, I’m actually training for a marathon again.

This time around I have some new “rules of engagement” from my sports med doc (Dr. S) that I must obey or the stress fracture Gods will punish me:

1. No speed training. Period.
2. I’m aloud to run hills, but MUST walk down them.
3. No time goals: I’m to “run to complete” this marathon
4. Cross training, cross training and more cross training.
5. Actually rest.

Initially I referred to these as the “rules that suck all the fun out of my running,” but have since found an appreciation for them. Basically, I’ve realized, that these are the things that landed me on the injured list in the first place. Not only that, but I think I’ve started to get it through my thick skull that I want this to be a longer-term deal with many marathons to come, and training like an idiot is not a productive approach to that goal.

So given the rules, I sat down with a number of different training plans (running room, runner’s world, Marathon Quest, Toronto Beaches Runners Club, etc.) and compared and contrasted, and came up with the following:

• Three runs a week: one long distance, one hill repeat session, and one recovery run.
• A wide variety of cross training to make up the other 2-3 runs that would be part of a normal marathon training plan, with one full day of rest a week.
• Maintain weight training and other non-cardio strength work twice a week.
• One yoga session a week to stretch it all out.

So I’ve been hitting the pool, spin classes, weight classes, yoga studio, and pavement with cautious abandon, and loving (almost) every minutes of it. It’s definitely different, but will hopefully land me in good shape to complete this marathon and be healthy to train harder this winter for a spring marathon.

I should also mention that one of the highlights of this week was being complemented on my perfect form as I walked down our hill repeats — nice!

I had a really fun night last night.

A bit of back story: earlier this year, I signed up for Canadian Running Magazine’s Marathon Quest — a 16-week training program put on by the magazine and sponsored by Brooks. For $100, participants get their entrance into the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, a 16-week training program, a Brooks Canadian Running Marathon Quest t-shirt, race-day perks, e-mails with training advice from Canadian Running staff and group runs. Not too shabby.

Last night was the first group run of the quest — a 5k easy run through Toronto’s High Park — with some of the staff from the magazine (including Couch to Kenyan blogger Rebecca Gardiner and Editor-in-Chief Michal Kapral)  as well as elite runners Tara-Quinn and Andrew Smith. For those of you not familiar with the Smiths, they’re Canada’s fastest distance running couple. Tara holds the Canadian women’s half-marathon record (1:12:08), which she set last year in Montreal, and was the Canadian Marathon Champion in 2008 with a time of 2:33:57 in Ottawa. Andrew set his marathon PB in Houston last year with a time of 2:16:14 and a half-marathon PB of 1:05:14.

Ya, they’re fast.

They’re also part of the Brooks Canada Marathon Project, which allows selected athletes the opportunity to train and live without concern for financial support, training for the World Championships or Olympic games within two to six years. Both Tara and Andrew are hoping to represent Canada in the 2012 summer games.

All this is to say, that the night really got me excited again. Excited that I’m running again and even more excited that I’m training. I’ve been pretty nervous about training and possibly re-injuring myself, but I had an opportunity to ask both Tara and Andrew about coming back into training after injury and received some great advice. They were both very nice and incredibly gracious with all our questions.

The evening even had some sponsorship. InfinIt Nutrition provided onsite refreshments with their InfinIt Run sports drink, and provided samples of their products for each of the runners to take home and try. What’s neat about InfinIt is that you can customize your sports drink to your needs with their online slider (which adjusts flavour, electrolytes, amino acids, etc.). I’ll have to post a review after I try them out:

Last, but not least, is that hat. Yup – Canadian Running swag. Our group was a sea of bobbing blue hats through High Park last night as we were each given one of these:

I know, pretty sexy.

I went for my first training run for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon this morning! Seven glorious kilometers in torrential downpour. It was divine! It was coming down so hard, I hard to stop at a 7-Eleven on the Danforth to get a bag to put over my iphone so it didn’t go to a watery grave. The man was very kind and didn’t charge me the five cents he’s supposed to (which is good, ‘cause I didn’t have any cash on me). My DS-Trainers are sitting beside me at my desk, drenched, but they look happy to have been used – I bought them just before I got the diagnosis and they have been sitting in the front room mocking me since.

Of course, if you’re wondering what any of this has to do with the title of this post, the short answer is, nothing. I just had a great run this morning. Onto kale!

Kale often gets pushed to the side and ignored on the weekly trip down the produce isle. Left there to be consoled by the dandelion greens and swiss chard, this dark green nutritional powerhouse should be making it into every runner’s shopping cart! One serving of Kale (also known as dinosaur kale) contains 206 per cent of your daily vitamin A, 134 per cent of your daily vitamin C, nine per cent of your daily calcium, and six per cent of your daily iron*!

What’s even better than the nutrition, is that this dark leafy green can be turned into chips! Yup – a quick sojourn in the oven and out come tasty, crispy and nutritionally-packed chips. I’ve had these chips several times, but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks ago that someone told me how to make them and how freakin’ easy it is. Here’s the recipe I use:

Kale Chips
4-5 Servings (or one big popcorn bowl full)

Ingredients:

• Kale (it’s usually sold with three stems in a bunch around here, so I just grab one bunch)
• Oil (my preferred oil for cooking is grapeseed, but whatever floats your boat)
• Salt & pepper
• Nutritional yeast (completely optional, but very yummy)

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°.
2. Wash the Kale and either pat dry or use a salad spinner.
3. Using a sharp knife, remove the central stem/vein and tear up the leaf into pieces.
4. Place all the pieces into a bowl and toss with 1-2 tbsps of oil so that the leaves are lightly coated. Salt and pepper to taste (if you’re using nutritional yeast, sprinkle some of that on now too). Toss again to distribute the salt/pepper.
5. Place the pieces onto a cookie sheet. Don’t overlap or stack them – that will make your chips chewy and gross.
6. Bake the chips for 7-10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them as they can burn. My oven is pretty hot, so seven minutes is all they need.
7. Allow chips to cool and enjoy!

See, told you it was really simple. Let me know how your chips turn out!

*Data from http://nutritiondata.self.com — a fantastic (and free!) nutrition resource!

After a long sojourn I’m back! I’ve been a good runner for the last eight weeks, not running, but swimming. I needed to take a little hiatus to recover and not have the one thing I want to do taunting me — it’s selfish and a bit shitty, but there it is. I have running magazines piled up at home waiting, blogs to read and running friends to catch up with!

The legs are feeling great — no more pain, swelling has gone down and there are no more casual “reminders” of the stress fractures. Fingers crossed that my good behaviour has got me off the injury list!

This weekend I had my first run since being sidelined by bi-lateral stress fractures in May (two weeks before the Ottawa Marathon no less) — the Pride and Remembrance 5K! This race is tons of fun, full of colourful and helps great charities, raising more than $55,000 this year. One of this year’s main beneficiaries was the Fife House Foundation, who provides secure, affordable supportive housing and support services to persons living with HIV/AIDS.

One of the groups that I run with is called the Terrible Tutus, and each year we pick a theme and try and co-ordinate some costumes to wear during the Pride run. Last year was our first year doing this and it was rainbow tutus (I had a rainbow “poof” on my hat). This year’s theme was “camo”. Here are some pictures:

The Tutus in all their camo glory!

The lead pack heading out at the start. Top finisher Jay MacDonald of Vancouver finished in 15 min, 39 sec.

I'm getting close to the finish line. The face paint had sweated into my eyes at this point - it was hot!

Toronto's finest sporting pride flags, etc. Much better than all that riot gear!

Image by Powerhouse Museum via Flickr

After several weeks of inactivity from my injury I was going stir crazy. While training, I incorporated spinning as an “active rest” cross training activity, but found that it was aggravating the injury as well. This left me with one last thought on how to keep up my cardio with minimal impact on my ankle: swimming.

I have nothing against swimming, but I was never motivated to go out to a pool and do laps. As a kid, I was often referred to as a “fish,” and had to be hauled out of the water. I went from “guppy” swimming lessons through to receiving my bronze cross when I was a teenager. The thing is, I haven’t really done “laps” since I got that cross.

Breast stroke, side stroke, fancy diving too… oh don’t you wish you never had anything else to do but…

But this injury provided the impetus to take the plunge. I figure that if I was having hesitations about going to a pool, there must be other runners out there feeling the same thing. So here are some things that I thought I’d share for the lane swimming beginners out there:

Equipment:

Like running, equipment for lane swimming is pretty minimal. All you really need is a bathing suit and a pair of goggles. Other things that I’d recommend from my initial foray is a cheap pair of flip flops (for wearing in the showers and on the deck), and if your prone to, or don’t like getting water up your nose, a nose clip. I shave my head so I don’t have any hair worries, but if you have long luscious locks, you might want to get at a cap.

Lanes:

Think of the pool as a highway, but instead of the fastest lane being to the left, it’s in the middle. This may very by pool (region/country/etc.), but here’s the break down as far as I’m aware:

Slow: the right lane of the pool. This is for slower (dur) swimmers who are going at a more leisurely pace. I recommend starting here unless you know you’re a speedy Gonzalez. That way you can watch how fast the other two lanes are going and adjust accordingly. I’d rank this as equivalent to one of those school zones where you have to drive slowly and watch for children.

Medium: the left lane of the pool This is where I was for my first time out. Swimmers in this lane were going at a steady pace, but nothing too crazy. Making a driving analogy, this would be your typical 50-80k speed limit. Swimmers in these lanes are doing strokes and crawls.

Fast: the middle lane of the pool. These swimmers know what they’re doing and do it pretty fast. This would be some highway drivin’ swimming. I’m sure this depends on who shows up, but at my first time out, these swimmers were hustling. They also do that fancy dive under, kick the wall thing to turn around… I want to do that!

Don’t be a fool in the pool (etiquette):

Yup, just like other sports, there are rules of engagement that will keep the peace in the pool. Here are a few:

• Awareness: always be aware of where other swimmers are. This can help prevent uncomfortable run-ins and head knocks.
• Allow faster swimmers to pass you at an end of a rep. On the other side, if a slower swimmer has already started the rep, a faster swimmer should wait to give them some lead-time to avoid charging up on them. This also applies to the type of stroke you’re doing – faster strokes go, well… faster.
• When resting in-between sets, stay to the far side of the lane so that you’re not blocking those who are still swimming.
• Don’t just stop in the middle of a rep (to adjust goggles, swim suit, etc.), wait until you’re at the end of a length.
• Realistically choose your speed. If you know you’re a speedster, don’t give the people in the slow lane a heart attack. And if you like to savour your laps, you can avoid frustration by staying out of the fast lane.
• I’m a little unclear on the rules of passing other swimmers and have read different things you’re supposed to (or not) do, so I’d advise not passing other swimmers… just go to a faster lane.
• If you’re not sure, you can ask the life guard that is on duty.

The only other thing I’ve heard is that water running (which can be great for maintaining fitness while injured) is not allowed in a lane swimming setting. You have to go to the general swim for that.

So there you have it. You’re full of knowledge and ready to go out and do some laps! And if you’re in Toronto, here is a link to the many pools you can go and swim in (page 72).

Image by zingersb via Flickr

This is definitely a post I don’t want to write. Framing it in a slightly more positive light, my body has given me a new goal race… one that is four months away.

In my last post about this, I thought I was good to run the Ottawa Marathon. After taking a couple of weeks to recover from what I thought was a minor sprain, I began running again only to have the ankle swell back up and be twice as painful as before. I went to a chiropractor, who sent me to a sport med specialist, who sent me for x-rays and a bone scan.

At this point, I still don’t know what is wrong with my ankle. The results from the scan are not in yet, and so I wait to see: is it a really bad sprain or a stress fracture in my heel?

The last couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster of emotions to say the least. I’ve been preparing myself for the marathon since last fall, building my mileage up over the winter before formal training started. Eight months later, I get a pain in my ankle and that’s all over. The Chiro and specialist’s thoughts on the cause include a combination of being given the wrong shoes (apparently I should be in a neutral, not stability shoe) and rolling my ankle last year (which was really minor, but apparently can compromise the stability of the joint). This combined with the intensity and frequency of training made for the unhappy ankle.

They both tried to be optimistic, but after another set of yes and nos last week, I made the call: Ottawa’s out.

My decision came down to two facts:

1. This is not the race I wanted to run.

I want my first marathon to be awesome, even if I’m pleading for death by the end of it. I want to step up to that starting line knowing I put every ounce of effort I had into preparing for it and that I couldn’t have done anything more. I want to run it knowing my body is ready and to be able to strive for the goals I set for myself.

With my ankle, I’d have to do 10&1s (at most), and there is a good chance I would have to hobble off the course part way through. Add to that the fact that I’ve missed over a month of training and this just isn’t how I want to roll with the marathon.

2. I’m not willing to risk longer-term damage to my ankle.

There is that missing fact — what is wrong with my ankle? I won’t know before Sunday and I’m not willing to put my potential to run long term on the line for one race.

So I called up the hotel and cancelled my room reservation. The man on the other end said, “are you sure you want to cancel? We’re booked solid and there is no way you’d find a room again.”

Sigh. “Yes, I’m sure.”

I’m still heading up to the Ottawa Valley this weekend to visit with family and will go into Ottawa on Saturday for the expo (for the $100, I’m picking up my race kit and getting my t-shirt… should also pick up some neutral shoes).

I thought I’d be angrier about this, but I’m not. When I made the call, I felt relieved in a way – that it was decided and I could just deal with the situation and not be at the whim of whether this healed or not; worrying about whether I could finish or not. I think it’s easy for non-runners to dismiss it as “just one race.” But when you’ve been training six days a week for nearly a year, it’s not just a race.

Next week, training resumes in one way or another, and now I start preparing for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. It was my first half marathon, it might as well be my first full marathon. There are some other details about training for STWM that I’m excited about, but I’ll save those for another post.

Before I sign off, I want to wish and all those from the Beaches Marathon Clinic who will be running Ottawa on Sunday, and all my other friends who will be running it, all the best – tear it up, and I can’t wait to hear about it on brag night!

Aestus finishing the 2010 Mississauga Marathon

My name is Aestus and I am a Marathoner. No, seriously. I did it!! Mississauga, last Sunday! Look it up! Bib number 524! I know, it’s ok, I can barely believe it myself, and I was there.

Two and a half years ago I was trying to lose weight and figured running was the way to do it. Of course I had no idea how to run safely, so I put the treadmill to the test and a few weeks later was walking on crutches with bursitis in my hip. The rest of that winter was toast… I ate a lot, did little activity, and gained even more weight. Finally my hubby took me to the Running Room and signed us up for a learn to run clinic. That was two-years-ago and everything has changed because of that day. We took various clinics, and at some point we realized that we were slowly but surely working towards running a marathon. It was not our initial goal. We wanted to lose weight, and we did, but something happened in that process that changed us into runners.

In January we started a marathon clinic at the Running Room, and for the most part we were faithful with our training plan. The build up was gradual, but intense. We missed week two and three of the clinic because we were in Mexico, but still did our long weekend runs and a few weekday runs too. When we had to miss a clinic day for whatever reason, we made up the run on another day. We stuck with the training right up until the peak and we were definitely on track for our goal pace. The taper was rough. Somehow it was very emotional for me. The decreased running and the carb loading (oh boy did I ever carb load) seemed to make me a little crazy. I seemed to be all over the place mentally and had no reasonable explanation for it. Still, I was looking forward to doing my first marathon. When the clinic started we had the option to gear our training towards Mississauga or Ottawa. Since this was our first marathon, we decided to aim for the Mississauga Marathon, thinking that if it was disastrous, at least we would be close to home.

Our neighbour Sylvie had an injury, and was not going to be running ,so she kindly volunteered to be our race nanny. We got everything we needed prepared the day before, laid out our outfits, filled our fuel belts, and basically just needed to jump out of bed and into our clothes. Sylvie had the timing planned and was all set with whatever extra we needed. Surprisingly, I slept well, and the next thing I knew we were in the car and heading to Mississauga. Sylvie likes to be early so we got there before the crowds descended. We had lots of time to wander around, use the port-a-potties, do last minute checks and stretches. It was a chilly morning but our race nanny had warmth layers to keep us comfy until the start.

My husband and I often run together, but when it comes to race day we each run our own race. This usually means that we separate within the first few kilometres. We stood together in the corral and really weren’t very chatty — I think we were both focussed on the enormity of what we were about to do… And then the horn sounded, a little shuffling towards the start, and we were off.

I had trained to complete my first marathon in four hours and I felt good. I was using my Garmin and a pace band to keep track of my time, and things were going well. I was running at a good pace, not too fast, and feeling like I had lots of energy. The weather was great with clear skies and cool temperatures. Every kilometre marker I passed was giving me all the reinforcement I needed. I had enough gels to run the race and I had Gatorade in my fuel belt, just the way I had trained on my long runs. As the race progressed the temperatures warmed a little and I took my arm warmers off. Still going strong. At about the 20k mark, Sylvie was waiting with a bottle of Gatorade to refill my fuel belt. The first half of the race seemed to be mostly shaded so I took off my hat and handed it to her along with my arm warmers. Very brief pit stop and then off to finish! I passed the half way point with about a minute and a half to spare, not especially fatigued, and feeling very positive.

I guess I started in the corral somewhere behind the 4:00 pace bunny but at about six or seven kilometres I caught up with him and his group. Our walk breaks were not synchronized so for about 20k I would pass them when they were on a walk break, and then they would pass me when I was taking my walk break. It might have been smart to just run up to them and join the group… I didn’t. At about 28k they got far enough ahead of me that I knew I wasn’t going to catch them again. I was getting tired. At 29k I was tired, and adjusting my goals in my head. I had handed off my hat to Sylvie and now it seemed that the whole course was in full sun… and I am bald! The temperature was slowly getting warmer. I knew I would not make it in four hours. And once I decided that I just wanted to finish, I relaxed. I took a long walk break and at some point the 4:15 pace bunny passed me. ~sigh~

I started running again but after the long walk break my right calf just seized up. I ran through the cramp, which lasted about five minutes, and was rewarded with a right quads cramp. I kept pushing and finally got through that one as well. My running was weak, and my walk breaks long. However, I was determined not to let this distance beat me. I was going to finish this, no matter how long it took. And then I got more cramps… this time stomach cramps. I made emergency pit stops at the next two port-a-potties and spent my time in there trying to psych myself up for the rest of the race. It was tough. I wondered if the race was indeed tougher than me.

But I kept going. There were a lot of walk breaks and a lot of people running past me. I was at 39k before I felt truly confident that I would finish. I cried a little. A bit of exhaustion, a bit of euphoria, and a bit of relief combined to make me tear up a little. At about 40k a lady came up behind me as I was walking and said “let’s go sir, you can do it”. So I did. I ran the next kilometre with her, and was so grateful for the encouragement. She continued on when I stopped for my final walk break. That last long stretch before turning towards the finish line looked like the longest stretch of road in the world. I cursed a lot. Not all of it silent.

Then the crowds got more dense, and louder. I knew it was near. I was almost done, and I was going to cross that line running. I heard familiar voices calling my name. I don’t recall if I looked up or not. And then it was done. 4:39. I was 39 minutes longer than my goal time, but I was a hell of a lot further from the couch potato I had been two years ago. It was a challenging race, and I am proud to say that I finished it. My name is Aestus and I am a Marathoner.

Image by StuffEyeSee via Flickr

Today’s post is by Sylvie Desroches, who blogs at Marathoner in Training. Sylvie, like myself, is currently not running due to injury and shares some ideas she’s had about what we can do with all that spare time and frustration:

When I started my running journey, I didn’t think much about injuries. Sure we got the injury prevention talk at the running clinic, shown the proper stretches and so forth. But what to do while injured? You’re on your own with this one baby…

So one day you find yourself injured, and it’s a serious one — not just a sprain or a pulled muscle. You’ve been told NO RUNNING for a few months, maybe more. This is a no brainer because you can’t run, it hurts too much. You pause and start to feel lost. Panic slowly sets in as you think about all this free time you now have, and not being able to feed your addiction. You ask again and again… what to do??? Well, plenty, as I have discovered since being diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis a month ago.

Activities:

1. Stay active! But before heading to the gym, check with your health-care provider (physiotherapist, physician, chiropractor, etc.). He or she will be able to tell you if it’s ok to hop on the elliptical, or take a spin class, or lift weights. Doing too much too soon could slow down your recovery. But if you can, it’s a good idea to keep your fitness level up.

2. Running community: Don’t detach from the running community because you can’t run. Stay involved, be a running nanny or volunteer at local races, or even better, be the coach your friends always wanted but never got the courage to ask. You can make them accountable to you so they won’t skip training runs. In other words, live vicariously through your running friends!

3. Food intake: Running makes you hungry and runners can, sometimes, get away with eating a little more calories than the average person. Be careful, your appetite won’t decline as fast as your fitness level. While off with an injury is a great time (opportunity?) to take out your healthy cookbooks and experiment with a new recipe (or five). Again share with running friends.

4. Learn: Learn something new, be it a language or a new skill, like beading, knitting, anything that you want. It will take your mind away from the “I cannot run yet,” and you will be more patient with the enforced no running healing period.

5. Maintenance: Update or create new playlists. Download free Podrunners. Organize and sort through all of your running clothes and gear. Clean or redecorate your place. The main goal is to stay busy with activities.

6. The future: Don’t give up because you will have to take a big step back when you start again. Plan your comeback. If you’ve been given an approximate timeline that you should be healed by, start checking out 5k races that would interest you. Then go over your training plan. Visualize yourself running. Write out a plan, talk to others who have come back off injuries and see if they have any tips for reintegrating training post-injury.

7. Be kind to yourself: Allow yourself to feel sad, angry, and disappointed that you are missing out on a goal race that you’ve been training and planning for. It’s normal! Pamper yourself with massages/pedicures or shopping for the perfect running gear for your comeback race. Make it special.

8. Stay positive: This can never be emphasized enough. Yes you WILL have moments of “why me,” and torture yourself thinking if you had done this or that differently you wouldn’t be injured now. The reality is that a very high percentage of runners WILL get injured. Sometimes there is no avoiding it, and getting an injury is NOT a failure. It’s the body giving you feedback and an opportunity to re-evaluate your training. Something needs to be changed. Use this time wisely and you will come back a stronger, and hopefully wiser, runner.