I read a post this morning that was the perfect reminder at the perfect time. This woman mentioned how she had a hamstring niggle this week so she had to switch around runs, and how training cycles can often follow the two-steps-forward, one-step-back routine… but how, and this is the significant part, PROGRESS IS STILL PROGRESS.

This week I threw my back out after Tuesday’s hard workout, and I’ve been freaking out over it a bit because my half marathon is only 2 weeks away. I keep thinking about how I need at least one more good long run, how my mileage is not where I want it to be this week due having to take some days off, blah blah blah. Negativity, negativity, negativity. But this post spoke to me, because when is any training cycle ever perfect? My Colfax half marathon training cycle was far from it: I had to fly across the country twice during peak training to be in a wedding so I had to take two forced low mileage weeks, and I got really sick after one of those trips. Yet, I still had a great race.

So here’s some advice for all my Denver area running athletes…I think that when you compete at a high level but aren’t considered “pro” so you don’t have all those amazing prehab resources, it’s almost impossible to be healthy 100% of the time. I’m sure that virtually every person I’ll be up against in 2 weeks will not have had the perfect training cycle. So what can I do? I can do the best I can with what I have, and celebrate the progress I HAVE made. Because 2 steps forward and one back is better than standing still ☺️