Why not to be lost..

The sounds.
The sights. God the sights were so amazing. 
The feeling. 
The click. 
The snap.

What was it? What exactly did you do? You ask yourself over and over what you missed in the last while but you don't know exactly where you misplaced yourself. You just knew you were lost. You tripped and fell hard. Falling down the black hole as you stared up at the sun as you continued to fall deeper down the dark abyss. The deeper you fell the harder it became.

We all know the feeling. Sometimes we fall off our paths and get lost...

It takes something sharp for us to click back in to life. Sometimes we have to see the blood to realize there is pain.

Once you heal the wounds, you pick yourself up, throw on your track shoes, and get back on the track.

You've never lost your way. 

Start. 

Start with the realization. 

Just start, and you're way ahead of everyone else who is still falling down that hole looking back at you as you climb up to the surface.

How to be lost..

"I'm lost in the things that matter."
So vague, yet so simple.

Through the difficult times, you find things that matter. You immerse yourself in the process. Find what makes you happy in life, and execute it with purpose. 

As I continuously grow as a person through these experiences, I find myself with new limits and expectations.

One step at a time I'm right where I need to be.

I'm lost exactly where I want to be.

Resilience in The Face of Adversity..

Over time we endure problems a long our paths. It's how we react to these adversities that defines us.

I'm not a well liked person. I'm strong, I do what I want, I speak my mind, and if there is something I want to achieve, I go and do it. Why wait? It's so close, just push yourself to get there. I don't care if you don't like me, because I'm achieving my goals..



It's been a year now with injuries on and off. I figured out the weight needs to go. I have 18 more pounds to go and I'm getting there. It's steps, albeit small, in the right direction.



People constantly tell me things such as:

You're too old.
You won't make it.
You work too much to excel in track.
Why waste your money on it.

But they don't know who they are talking to. I don't follow the typical person. Nor do I follow the typical athlete profile. No one is predisposed to being a certain way. It's created and refined. I WILL push my envelope and get it done.



Nothing in life was invented following the same thing that was always done.. so why would I do what everyone else does?

Dream big and keep your thoughts bigger.

The story of a girl and her foot..

Starring Plantar Fasciitis as the lead role, with shin splints playing the antagonist role. The movie started in January, and it continues on. The more I work on distinguishing their roles in this movie, the more they seem to linger on. I have proficiently snuffed the previous lead role of "Left Hip Pain." He comes back to me once in awhile begging to come back but I refuse his posting.




Plantar Fasciitis is one of those characters that was self created. He's not well liked by most, and usually appears after speed related track workouts. Lately he has been fighting alongside Shin Splints. They hate each other, yet seem to work so well together in the bigger picture of things. I've had many therapists try to get them to work a long side each other, but each one makes the other worse.



Then we have the deeper part of the story. Food! My director said that for each pound of food in the movie equals 5-7 pounds of force on the body for each impacting force on the track. I like his story, but it doesn't work well for this movie. It only makes the star and the antagonist more pissed off, because they want the best catering service around, and I can't get that for them 24/7. They run around like a bunch of crazy Italians pissed off and yelling at each other and me about the food content on this movie set.



I'm becoming quite frustrated with the fact this movie has taken so long to reach its full performance and potential. I understand fully, but I realize that there are more steps that are needed in this process. I take full responsibility! I've taken a few days away from the set, and I think that some more time might be needed away from the characters and the set. A little bit of gym and bike time is required.

A bit more focus in to the catering business might be a splendid idea as well.

And onward we go.

In to the process..

The part I love about injuries is hunger. It's the hunger that you can't have it. Every day that goes by doesn't go by with more determination and drive than the last day. Albeit frustrating at times, you know it's a process. Every day being a day to better yourself from yesterday. Another day to become a better you.

(Some outside time on a work break in BC)

Are you going to sit there and stand by as your competitors continue to excel and get better? NO. You're going to do everything that you can do at that moment. You're injured? Great! You can focus on strength and power. You can make that machine better than it was before.



Injuries can be weakness, so you can make that body part stronger than ever..

I thought it was going to be a few weeks, but it turns out hips are a pretty important body part ;)
The hip is healing.
The plantar fasciitis is a process.

It's all steady and we are working small steps every day.

With that being said, I decided to do some rehab in Hawaii for 2 weeks.

Time to taste the sunshine.

M

Another coffee, another day.

I ask myself where I am today and it's hard to describe. Where do I exist on my timeline of training? I am taking a minimum of two weeks off the track right now. My left hip issue has been slightly over bearing. The constant hitting of the track wearing spikes during speed endurance has put phenomenal pressure on my right plantar fascia.

Night splint to keep calf and tendons stretched during the healing process at night.

As an elite level athlete, it's hard to describe to someone who runs that it was hard for you to come up with the decision to take time off. I've battled with these two minor injuries for the last three weeks. It's been a constant rotation of feeling better and producing amazing results, and not being able to walk the next day, and coming back at it two days later. The extreme detrimental part of this was that my mood was fluctuating constantly. A great work out would turn in to high levels of stress concerning the injuries and the pain they were creating for me. I would binge eat. The feeling of stress would be over whelming. I want to run well, but some of the days training would be cut short, and so I would turn to food that would make me feel better. Of course, this line of action was moving towards heavy carb and sugar laden food. So we all know what happened after these incidents... The crash and the weight gain.
Delectable chocolate goodies.

Being someone with blood sugar sensitivity issues, I don't just eat healthy for the reason of training. It keeps me sane, it keeps my moods elevated, that's what I need, and this binge eating wasn't keeping my mood levels stable.


People will say, why don't you just avoid it? You can run 400m hurdles, hurt yourself and keep running, yet you can't control these urges? WELL YES, they are right, how does one push their limits on a consistent basis yet they can't control an impulsive behavior of avoiding sugar laden food. I'll give it to you straight. Working five days a week, driving straight to practice, training, and coming home at 8pm every night. It's a regular routine. It can be so overwhelming, and sometimes the outlet is food to feel better. Food has been the easiest thing to turn to in these high cortisol moments. This needs to stop.Low - dye taping procedure for plantar fasciitis.

Rehab has started this week. I worked myself up to the fact that I was probably going to take time off, and Saturday's practice was the deciding factor. It was an easy CF big circuit tempo workout and I struggled to control the pain from the injuries when the workout was about 75% done. I knew it was time to do what I had been going over and over again in my head. Taking time off. I was ready for this. No negative feelings come attached with this time off. I know what I need to do. The main focus is body recomposition and rehabilitation. During this time I will also have a mental break from the stresses of track work, and come back with a bang, and super fresh mental motivation.
Bike sprints.

My advice to other athletes. No matter what people say to you, trust your own body, trust your injuries. If you aren't able to finish a workout without being in pain, you need to take time off. It's hard, but it's better now than later. If you continue on through these injuries, you will only hurt yourself more, and cause more mental pain than the physical pain by choosing to continue through.

Stick with your rehabilitation therapy and make sure you are aggressive with it daily. Don't forget to think outside of the box. Look for the less used methods, they might just work for you.

and ICE, ICE, ICE!

Love and strength,

Melissa

Measurement of Time..

As track athletes we always seem to be chasing that elusive number. How quick can we get there, and what can we do to get there? You ask yourself, what's it going to take? What do I need to do to be the best? For me it is quickly turning in to an obsession. Everything I do I ask myself, will this help me? Every week seems to be a progression, even if minor, there is still constant movement forward.

That battle that I can find difficult sometimes is:

How much is too much?

By that I am saying if I run for 30 minutes instead of 20 am I really helping myself, or am I furthering my chance of injury. On my off days I am discovering what is an appropriate workout for active recovery. I'd rather run, I want to get outside and feel the pounding of the track on my legs. I want to feel the struggle of trying to keep my form together. I treat every training session as a challenge. If that happens to be a speed day or a tempo day, I treat it the same, and there is no room for mistakes, or lack of effort. So as much as I want to be out there, I am learning that there is such a thing as too much, and I am working at setting limits for myself. This is especially important since I seem to be red-lining injuries these days. (Isn't every track athlete?!)


Since the last time I posted I ran a new training mile pb of 5:55... That would be a 26 second pb. I blitzed the other two girls and was close behind the two guys. Not bad for a 400m hurdler I'd say ;) . My fitness seems to be coming a long, and I'm happy to say that it will only improve as I am putting it up on the list of priorities right now.

Nom nom.

There is nothing quite as satisying as beating your training partners in practice, or setting new training pbs. Which I accomplished both during the mile. Many times I have mentioned that you can't be comparing your journey to other team mates, but I find this hard. I am always measuring my runs to my team mates. Perhaps this can be harnessed to providing good motivation to become better. I will tweak this.


Another fantastic workout was 6x200m off 2min rest. 31, 31, 30, 29, 29. Coming from a distance background, I have this great skill of being able to hold on, and cut down time pretty efficiently in reps.
/proud moment

While others are breaking down, you need to hold on and persevere.

Why are you here? Remember to answer this question every time you train, every time you are on the track. Every session is valuable, so work hard, and learn from it.

100mH Alternates Video