It's three weeks out from the Nike Women's Marathon. I'm "on schedule" with my modified training program, and my foot is holding up like a dream. My left shoulder, however, is acting up, and hurts at really random times doing really random things. Not necessarily a clear case of rotator cuff tear, but really the last thing I needed in training. The doctor recommended 600 MG of ibuprofen, but I'm unsure about taking that much medication before a long run.
I'm in the "training zone" Not super excited or super concerned about finishing. From my longer runs, without major implosions, I should be able to finish ahead of the NWM cutoff pace, even factoring in a 30 minute delay to start. It really is more than I could have hoped for at this point, so I'm glad.
I do miss running in my vibrams. My IT band has needed more TLC since I'm running in full on running shoes, but I'm keeping the barefoot form as best as I can even when wearing the big clunkers... though the New Balance/Vibram cross over shoes do look sexy... I might look into getting one of those for after the NWM to train for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon :3
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
On the road to NWM...
I finished the Disneyland Half Marathon in once piece. 2:20:32. Much faster than I had anticipated, but boy did I pay for it later in sore knees (both of them) and really sore quads! It was definitely not a PR by about 10 minutes, but it was my second best time.
I'm happiest that my foot and the prior knee pain (much worse than the overuse ache I suffered right after the race) did not get worse. I think at one point in the race it hurt about 2 seconds, but overall I kept my form well, did not push too hard, and both parts stood up to the punishment. On the cardiovascular front, I was quite under trained, and felt it from about mile 10. The walk breaks really helped a lot. My foot was a bit sore after I woke up from a nap later that afternoon, but it was kind of in a different spot and it cleared up in less than a day.
After the race, I took a couple days to recover, and four days later did a light 8 miles around my new neighborhood. Two days after that I woke up at 4:30AM on a Saturday for a nice 15 or 16 mile run (turned out to be a 16 mile run.) My gymboss clip broke (so I tucked it in my sports bra, which ended up killing it with humidity), the beach opened later than I thought, and it rained AND hailed on me, but my foot felt a lot better, and no pain afterwards. I'm really starting to think I can do this marathon. Granted, the training won't really be the same, and I won't have time to taper. Due to my lost weeks of training, I'm literally training up to the marathon mileage as a "training run" portion of a normal marathon training program! Next weekend will be 18-19 miles long run, the following week will be 19-21 miles long run, then 22-24 mile long run the weekend before the race... since I bombed so badly in my first marathon, I might not be that far off my marathon PR! Which is exciting since I'll need it to beat the 14 minute (minus losing a minute a mile from the delay in the start) pace at NWM!
Getting really excited about the race now :3
I'm happiest that my foot and the prior knee pain (much worse than the overuse ache I suffered right after the race) did not get worse. I think at one point in the race it hurt about 2 seconds, but overall I kept my form well, did not push too hard, and both parts stood up to the punishment. On the cardiovascular front, I was quite under trained, and felt it from about mile 10. The walk breaks really helped a lot. My foot was a bit sore after I woke up from a nap later that afternoon, but it was kind of in a different spot and it cleared up in less than a day.
After the race, I took a couple days to recover, and four days later did a light 8 miles around my new neighborhood. Two days after that I woke up at 4:30AM on a Saturday for a nice 15 or 16 mile run (turned out to be a 16 mile run.) My gymboss clip broke (so I tucked it in my sports bra, which ended up killing it with humidity), the beach opened later than I thought, and it rained AND hailed on me, but my foot felt a lot better, and no pain afterwards. I'm really starting to think I can do this marathon. Granted, the training won't really be the same, and I won't have time to taper. Due to my lost weeks of training, I'm literally training up to the marathon mileage as a "training run" portion of a normal marathon training program! Next weekend will be 18-19 miles long run, the following week will be 19-21 miles long run, then 22-24 mile long run the weekend before the race... since I bombed so badly in my first marathon, I might not be that far off my marathon PR! Which is exciting since I'll need it to beat the 14 minute (minus losing a minute a mile from the delay in the start) pace at NWM!
Getting really excited about the race now :3
Bib from the Half Marathon!
Finisher medal :3
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Testing the Waters @ Disneyland Half
So the podiatrist has released me from care, saying I'm cured. The physical therapist said I needed more sessions for the knee but did not bother sending the notes to my podiatrist so I'm not quite sure what's going on with that. My last test run was a 10 miler last week where i did okay when I discovered that running slower longer instead of spurts of faster with longer walk breaks works better.
I worried a lot about what pace group to run... the 2 and a half hour or 3 hour... then set my heart on running alone. No pressure, but also not holding back.
My friend from Canada is also running. She'll be much faster than me and I'm sad that I cannot run with her (her anticipated pace is a little bit faster than my original goal.) but I will be healthy for another race. She already invited me to the Canadian Death Race. With a title like that, who can say no?
Here goes nothing!
I worried a lot about what pace group to run... the 2 and a half hour or 3 hour... then set my heart on running alone. No pressure, but also not holding back.
My friend from Canada is also running. She'll be much faster than me and I'm sad that I cannot run with her (her anticipated pace is a little bit faster than my original goal.) but I will be healthy for another race. She already invited me to the Canadian Death Race. With a title like that, who can say no?
Here goes nothing!
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