I was a serious runner in the 1990’s. How serious? I completed a marathon every month from November 1993 through December 1994 – 14 in a row. Then in 1995 I moved to Georgia, got married, and within two years had gained 50 pounds. Obviously, I quit running.

I came back to running in a serious way in 2004. I signed up to run a marathon in Anchorage, Alaska in June of that year and was soon running 35 miles per week. In the old days, I ran 20 miles on Saturdays as part of my training, but found it too painful to run 20 miles in 2004. I started doing two ten mile runs every Saturday. I’d get up early, run 10 miles, and then go to a Pilates mat class at my gym. Then I’d sleep until afternoon and run another 10 miles. I felt great. I was running smooth and was getting modestly faster, but after 8 weeks of double 10 milers on Saturdays, I developed intense back spasms that stopped me dead in my tracks. I was unable to train at all for three or four weeks immediately before the race. I admitted defeat and switched from the marathon to the half-marathon distance. I completed the half marathon without problems.

While in Alaska, I attended a workshop with marathon gold medalist Frank Shorter where he explained that our muscular and respiratory systems develop faster than our ligaments and tendons. That is the reason runners must not increase mileage quickly. Muscles and breath can ramp up fast, but the support structures change slowly and become over stressed if pushed too fast. I knew that as a runner, but forgot that as a kettlebeller.

After making great progress with my strength workouts for a week, I took two days off to rest. When I came back on Monday, my shoulder and elbow was hurting and I felt tired. I took Tuesday off to rest, but felt just as worn and sore on Wednesday. I saw my chiropractor on Thursday and he reset my out-of-joint left shoulder and advised me to take it easy for a while. I worked with my trainer (who had been out of town) on Friday and she put me through a routine of lower body and core exercises on my Jungle Gym XT suspension trainer. She suggested that my muscles are plenty strong and ready to lift heavy weights, but that my form, flexibility, ligaments, and tendons were not developed adequately to support my muscles. She suggested I spend this coming week on the suspension training.

Apparently, I refuse to learn from past mistakes. Or, I have to learn the same lesson in every context.