I started training just over a month ago for the New York City Marathon. The first several weeks went amazing. I was feeling great and full of energy. My long runs were in the 10-12 mile range which meant that I kept enjoying some nice trail runs. I was also making sure that at least one of my weekly runs was out hitting the trail to give my legs a bit of a break from the pavement. All in all, training was going great.
Then, summer happened. I know summer has been going on for a little while, but with the nicer weather and warmer days in July and August. Now, it wasn’t like I was just not doing activities. That was the problem. I was doing too many summer activities from long bike rides to long hikes. Now with only having one day to get my long run in (Saturday’s) due to all the time we spend doing things on Sunday’s, this has made it hard to even try and accomplish more than one long strenuous physically activity in the weekend. I decided that this was fine for a few weekends.
Then the Grand Teton Relay came for a weekend. It was a blast. I’ll blog a little more about this later. I got close to covering the 16 miles that was scheduled for that weekend within a 24 hour period. Ok. So that is okay too. At least I keep telling myself all of this.
Then my foot with the hurt heel started to act up. A few weeks prior to the relay, my black toe that I got from the Colfax Marathon decided that it wanted to take it’s toll a bit further. My nail started to rip off and was hitting my shoe and grabbing onto my sock. I taped it up for the relay. I didn’t have any problems. After the relay, it hurt. I kept running, but was doing a little bit of a correction. It was such a small correction that I didn’t realize I was doing it until my right leg started hurting. It wasn’t feeling too bad.
I went out for my long run this last weekend, paying attention to that right leg. It felt fine. My right heel felt fine. My toe felt fine. Then about 10 miles in to my 14 – 16 mile run (I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go based on how I was feeling), my left thigh decided to get extremely tight. I had an 11 mile run mapped out with the dog. I was going to drop him off at home and then finish my run. Well, the closer I got to home, the tighter my thigh got. It was pretty tight by the time I got home from my 11 miler that I decided it was best for me to just stop. I spent the night icing it, stretching it and rolling it out.
I have skipped my last couple nights of running because the darn thigh decided to stay pretty tight. I continued to work on it. Today it finally feels better. I hope to get out on a nice slow easy run to get back into the swing of things. I now remember why I don’t like training for a marathon over the summer. I need to pick one in late winter or really early spring. I should start my training in the fall and then go somewhere warm in the winter for my run, maybe next time. I am no longer trying to go for that 4 hour time goal. I still have about 2 1/2 months of training left. I am changing my training program around to a more normal schedule. I think it is best at this point that I focus on finishing injury free rather than get hurt and not be able to run.
I know you were all dying to know how my training has been going. Ha! Well, there you have it. Maybe the next time I update you, it will be going a little better. Here is to surviving the training!
