The fine line between injury and training hard

Since I started training again, I have been really pushing myself hard. This is for two reasons.

The first is that when I hauled out my scale again after a long layoff, I could have sworn it creaked and groaned as I put one foot onto it. The results were shocking and no amount of leaning backwards until the Leaning Tower of Pisa would have been proud of me, or sucking in my tummy so I could see the figures in all their largesse, would change them.

How could I have allowed myself to put on so much extra weight? I knew I was carrying a little muffin top with me, but a careful choice of outfits mostly hid this from the general population. But FOUR kilograms? That can't all be explained away by additional muscle, much as I'd prefer to.

The second reason is that I never want to be the one that everyone else waits for, when we're running. When I started Comrades training in November last year I was generally able to keep to the middle of the pack, but somehow over Christmas and New Year I lost my confidence and ended up at the back of the pack. From there on I always felt as if I was playing catch up, and never as fit or as fast as the others. It showed in my times, too - in the races that I ran, I would always be slower than I hoped, yet almost the next day I would sail up bigger hills than I had quailed over in the races, and wonder what on earth had kept me back during the race. But then, the mental situation between my brain and my feet is the subject of a whole other blog in the future!

So now I'm training five or six days a week, and sometimes pushing in an extra, short fast run in the evenings as well. I can hear the unspoken thoughts of the people who assume I'm heading straight for an injury, but I am listening to my body and so far it's holding out. The only time I don't listen is when the alarm goes off just after 4 am and it's Thursday and I've had a week of waking up early and I'm doggone tired.

However  I can't see why I should be scheduled for an injury if I am only doing about 60 km a week at this stage, and experiencing no major aches or pains that last for more than day or two. But I do feel strong, tough, and ahead of the curve in terms of training.  My only problem is that if I have to keep increasing my mileage, I don't know how much I can keep increasing it at 10% per week.

How about you? Do you worry constantly about injuries?
How do your mind games play out?