R4R Level 4, Part 1
“Patience is not the ability to wait but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.” One of the things that you can control is your attitude towards whatever it is that you face. You can be tossed a hand of cards you never deserved in the first place and still make something good out of it. When everyone else has spent their cards, you’ll still have the ace in the hole with a solid attitude.

That’s exactly how it feels deep in the trenches coming up soon on 16 weeks of rehab life while my former “friends” are enjoying the sport that ripped my heart out and stomped on it. I don’t care to hear anything about races and in fact, it’s like nails on a chalkboard. Yet, no one understands that except me. It’s time to get brutally honest with anyone who brags about their races. However, the only thing I can do is stay in my lane and win my own recovery game. And that lane tonight was Lane 7.

I had the whole day off, spent some time peeling ticks off my dog, and took a nap before getting back to the middle school track. The weather was breezy out of the northwest and dusk was approaching. I jammed out my warmup, peeled my layers, and got to work on Return-4-Redemption Level 4: 5min walking WU, (4min run/1min walk) x8, 5min walking cooldown. This would be 32min of running, 18min of walking, with the goal of pain-free throughout. My mind drifted to the long work weekend ahead, to past marathon running success during the pandemic, and back to the time when I lived at the track in high school (again). It was very quiet – not a soul around. There’s just something I love about quiet workouts – whatever was going on for the day, just simmers down. It’s like finding a peaceful rhythm to the noise of life.

The run itself was good, maybe too good for only being about 16 weeks from injury. I was well-rested and well-fueled. The body had a rest day yesterday and everything was well-oiled. I just rolled with it, knowing that it was probably faster than intended. Pace didn’t matter, only my perception of pain mattered and there was none. As the wind tried to push me every lap, I pushed back. About 18 laps later, I checked the pain-free box, grabbed my soft warm clothes, and headed to my car where I was greeted by a loose dog who scurried away.

Another run/walk done, another pain-free day. It’s tough being patient, for 16 long weeks, which feels like 1600 weeks. Patience on the plateau is a tough lesson in perseverance.

R4R Level 4, Part 2
This Monday morning was an early alarm to hit a quick workout before heading off to work. On the agenda was a repeat of Level 4. I opted to head to the park because I wouldn’t have time for the track and knew my brain needed something more stimulating than the colors of the houses in my neighborhood.

The one problem with the park is that it’s pretty hilly in different sections. The planned return-to-sport progressions need a flat environment to reintroduce careful impact loading. Since I know the park like the back of my hand, I opted for a section near the baseball fields and did out-and-backs to avoid significant elevation changes, although still not pancake flat like the track.

The other problem today was my heart rate. It didn’t matter what I did or did not do – I was just beating higher than normal. I was rested, hydrated, fueled, and not sick. Pace was remarkably slower and felt awkward trying to force something completely unnatural. Every time the explosive wind gusts came, I just couldn’t get my heart rate to drop. Heart rate is just another annoying metric to take away from what feels and perceives easy. The more I learn about the sport of running, the more annoyed I get with any and all metrics. What happened to the joy of the sport? The joy of just going for a run without tracking anything?

Regardless of any inaccurate metrics, I always leave the park in a better mood than I enter it. And now I’ve leveled up to Level 5 to come later this week. Still patiently pounding the rock of progress, still patiently pacing the plateau. One day, success will come but for now I am here just checking boring pain-free boxes.