What is the difference between now and past attempts to make a comeback?
1. I am at a place mentally where I feel like I can put running first again. I don't believe I ever could make a legitimate attempt at competitive running without truly dedicating myself to do so. I am now committed to putting running ahead of other things that get in the way.
2. I finally am running smart! Over the past few years I have made three prior attempts at running but I was extremely impatient. I quickly found myself gaining the mental strength to run 8-10 miles at a time when my legs were only capable of a few miles. This of course led to injury and taking another 6 months off. With the help of long time friend and training partner Shawn Donovan and a little bit of patience on my part I started on a program 10 weeks ago that would give my legs the time they needed to gain strength before increasing my mileage.
I spent the first six weeks running no more than 8-10 miles over three days in a week. I have then gradually increased to the 30 plus miles I am at now. I have felt some aches and pains here and there which I have dealt with properly and I am continuing to build up and improve.
I hope by mid september to be running 60 miles a week and build up to 80 miles a week from there. I want to experience true distance running with higher miles than I have ever put in before. I am sick of having PR's that are almost four years old and I plan on changing that soon. I believe I have not hit my full potential in this sport and I am excited to be on this journey called running once again.
