So I finally given up on relying on muscle memory to return to pre-injury pace after recovering from a femoral stress fracture in fall. The healing process required 8 weeks of slowly building up to walking and no running. Prior to the injury, I ran 9:30-10 min/mile easily. After my injury, I had to start at 12-13 min/mile. For some reason, I believed that my body would just remember our pace and I would resume my normal race time. Well, that's not what happened....
Now I find myself chasing 2:30 half marathon times, which is new for me. My normal race times are 2:07-2:15. During the Run the Reagan half marathon, I had an epiphany that I have to train. Shocking right? Well, while my muscles did remember that I am a runner, I still have to put in the work to get my pace to where I want it to be for racing season.
Currently I train two days a week to build my endurance and reduce my pace. This fall, I plan to run a 2 hour half marathon and a 4:30 marathon. I have it in me and I truly believe training works!
