Less Is More

I started this blog about a month ago. Wrote it, read it about 5 times and decided it was not ready for the public’s eyes. I was very emotional and a bit crazy to the average person. Anyone that knows me on a personal level would agree with me when I called January my month of “emo kid”(Thank you Shelby and Chloe for the lingo). Yep, I was that person moping around not knowing what to do next. I had a lot of unanswered questions during this time. I still have a lot of unanswered questions but one thing is certain. I’m running again at 100%. I went to different doctors all of whom said things were structurally fine with my hip. That’s great since I’m a steeplechaser and need the longevity of my hip for many blows off the water barrier. This still did not answer why I had a ton of pain. After a couple of weeks I saw Dr. John Ball in Phoenix, as he would say there was a lot of bad tissue that needed to be reversed. It took what he would call a “full” round of Active Release Therapy(ART) treatments to reverse the problem.

I’ve now been running on the ground for about 5 weeks. This is my first week that I’m completely off the Alter G treadmill and my first week doing track workouts. My legs feel amazing, refreshed and ready to go. Everything is going just as planned. I’m so happy I stayed diligent in my cross training while being hurt, this has made a world of a difference. I was able to get a strong base of strength training in during this time, which has helped me feel super strong in workouts. This has made the transition into running on the ground much easier. I’m very confident on where my fitness is and the direction it is headed! Coach and I decided that opening up at the Drake Relays instead of the original plan of Payton Jordan would be a better way to “throw” me to the wolves. It’s perfect for so many reasons, it’s home(: I will feel comfortable on this track since I grew up around this track whether I was dreaming of some day being good enough to run at the Drake Relays or I was actually running at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships. My baby sister Shelbo will be running there. Team Houlihan can once again commence. Mainly, I want to be competitive with myself and others again in an environment that is conducive for me to focus on racing not chasing a time. Now, does that mean I expect to just run an “okay” opening time? No, even though I was out for a bit I’m still better than I was last year at the end of the season. That’s just how it is so I expect nothing but an excellent execution. I have big goals for this year so in order for them to be realistic I’m going to run a PR off the bat. Now, if I don’t end up running what I think I can run time wise, I refocus my goals and figure out what truly is realistic for this year. I can’t help but think about my workout on Wednesday, I had 200’s over hurdles at the end of the workout. I was SO excited. Once again I’m amazed at the learning curve in the steeplechase. Each year you get that much better technically. I didn’t flinch going over the hurdles. I visualized the water barrier each time and what pattern my feet would take to power over that barrier. I attacked, I executed! I’ve never opened up a first steeple session like that. Now, that was only 2 hurdles; in the race I have 33 more. Who knows where I’m at with that but I was totally pumped after that workout.

Through all of this I’ve learned an important lesson. Less is more. It’s very simple and it’s very true. My nutrition was crap. I refocused that. I was training about 3-5 lbs. over weight. So I’m currently fixing that. I don’t deprive myself, I never will and I never have. I just simply make better choices and am completely happy with that. I stopped feeling sorry for myself because I cant eat everything in site like a lot of the other girls I’m surrounded by. That’s fine, that’s just not who I am unfortunately because my daddy cursed me with the love for food and finishing everything on my plate! Anyways, I’m also doing less mileage. The mileage I am doing, I’m making sure that it’s quality. I’m not out there just drudging along. I’m completely engaged loving every second of it, feeling how good each stride feels hitting the trail! If I feel crappy I’m taking the day or the afternoon off. It’s simple. My body is in the driver seat and my mind is the passenger seat, sometimes back seat. It’s better this way. It feels right again. I’ve found my passion and drive. I’m SO fortunate to be doing what I’m doing so on a daily basis I remind myself of that. I up and moved my life for this sport it’s time to start embracing it.