Last week I pretty much withdrew myself from the marathon. It had been just about 3 weeks of quad pain that hurt pretty bad even when I was walking. I had 2 days off and I decided I would try to do 2 short runs each day. First day... 4-ish miles with tolerable pain. I was really trying to hold back on my pace as much as I could. I really felt after that run that maybe there was some hope after all. But the next day, when I foolishly had planned a 14 miler, I made it a quarter mile before I couldn't go any further. I had intense pain and was running with a limp, when my opposite knee and hip started to hurt, I didn't want to risk doing more damage...I was completely demoralized. Then I went to the mailbox and I got the new Runner's World...awesome.
This Wednesday I woke up and for the first time in what seems like a month with no pain in my quad while walking around. I did a little jogging in the apartment to test it out and again no pain. So obvii I had to go for a run. I had planned for another 4 miler, and goddamn it felt good. No pain whatsoever in the quad... my feet ached a little but I think it was just from inactivity. I ended up doing 6 easy, and I felt so good at the end I had to stop myself from going further or running out of my shoes.
This morning I woke up with 15-16 miles in mind. Since it had been so long since a long run (I think I did 12.5 like a month ago) I knew this was foolish. My plan was to quit if I had any intense pain. If I didn't do a distance like this now the marathon was completely off the table. It started off well. After 4.5 miles or so, I decided to stop, stretch and walk for a minute or 2. I figured walking before I needed to was the easiest way to get the distance in.
After mile 9, I stopped and tried a GU (or as Pat says GUUUUUUU) and some water. I tried the pineapple GU, that stuff is the weirdest consistency for a food, and I'm pretty sure it didn't do anything. Next time, I think I'll try it earlier at mile 5 or 6 so it has a little more time to work.
After mile 9, I felt OK. I was pretty hesitant about running 7 more miles though. Miles 10 and 11 still OK, I walked for a couple more minutes somewhere in there, this time more out of need. Once I hit mile 12 I really started to hurt, mostly just the bottom of my feet. Tang, I think I got that meta--whatever thing you got, because it felt like there was about 100 pebbles in my shoes. Between miles 12-14 I had to walk like 4 times, each for a couple minutes. After mile 14, I decided screw it, and walked the last mile.
So I did "15" kind of. All the experts claim to just get the distance in on the long runs, even if you have to walk, but I don't think they had walking an entire mile in mind. After this run I don't know if I have enough time to get prepped. I'm still pretty pleased because I really haven't ran in a month. Next week I'll try for 16-17, while finishing strong. The week after 18-19 with more of the same. If i can nail both those, I am still going to run. What the hell, if I have to walk the last 5 miles of the thing, I'm still going to do it. If those runs end up like this one, I'll just delegate myself a cheerleader for Pat. Either way I don't have to work that day, so win-win... kind of.
You can still hang your hat on the fact you've put down the longest training run for this team. This is after only a whole year of running under your belt, there will be more races and miles to come.
ReplyDeleteNot much of a hat to hang there atang, I ran 18 last week and running 20 tomorrow hahaha
ReplyDeletekeep it up knapp, you can get the miles in, and I'm telling you the adreniline on that day is like no other
btw where were you on Sunday Tang? Weak sauce.
Sorry Pat, I meant the humans on the team.
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