run a marathon

My last entry on this goal was three months ago. That post was about how I had hurt my knee.

Where am I now? It has been a loooong and torturous three months of physical therapy, walking, doubting, giving up, un-giving up, stretching, walking some more, hurting, icing, crying, blah blah blah.

If I was in a movie, this phase would be zipped through via a montage. I’d struggle and make small gains, slide backwards, make more small gains, finally leading to a triumphant success that puts me firmly back on the path to my goal. All of this would be achieved in 2 minutes of screen time.

Too bad I’m not in a movie.

My knee is improved, but due to the down time and the still-not-great condition of my knee, I have lost much of my training progress. Basically, I’m back in the beginning stage. I ran 2 miles last week. That is the most running I’ve done at one time since I hurt my knee. It didn’t kill my lungs, so at least I’m not back where I was when I first set out to run a marathon (unable to run a mile, and then finally running 1 mile but feeling terrible afterwards).

It was like ripping out my guts, throwing them on the ground and stomping on them, but I have given up on 2008’s marathon. It is 3 months away and I just can’t afford to rush things and risk injury again.

So, it’s on for 2009.

It has been a little while since I posted an entry on this goal. I was waiting until I had some good news, but I still don’t have any.

I was sick for a week; the kind of ill that makes standing up difficult, so running was definitely out. The week after the illness, my right knee (the only one that ever acts up) started hurting during my first short run. By the end of the run, the knee was hurting pretty badly. I somehow managed to lose my ice bag, but have since got a new one and also one of those strap-on knee supports. The next day, my knee felt alright, so I tried the second run . . . nope! 1/4 of a mile in and my knee was in bad shape. I had to stop.

So far, I haven’t been able to run anything close to what I was running before I got sick. My distances are less and speeds slower; that is, when I’m able to run at all.

I’m kind of depressed about it, but I’ll eventually get over it and keep on going. I expected things to go wrong sometimes. If it was easy to just decide one day “I’m going to run a marathon!,” train, and then run a marathon without any hitches, it wouldn’t be a challenge.

The longer I am not moving forward and the more I regress, the more likely it becomes that I will not be ready for the 2008 marathon. I’m still in denial about that . . . 2009 sounds so dang far away!

This past week’s mileage was 4/5/4/11 miles. I did the long run today. The short runs were the same as the week before, with the long run 1 mile longer than last week. Last week’s 10 mile long run was riddled with problems (knee, hip, toe, belly) but this time none of those physical things occurred.

Because of vacation disrupting my regular schedule, I’m on a mid-week to mid-week running schedule (for now).

So, this past “week,” I ran 4/5/4/10. The long run was the same as the week before vacation, but the two shortest runs were increased from 3 to 4 miles.

The 10-mile run was a challenge, moreso than the first 10-miler I did. Over the course of the run, I got cramps on my right side, a belly ache, my right knee hurt, my right hip hurt, and the big toe on my left foot hurt. My big toenail on my left foot is black-red now; I’ve read and seen enough to know that this is called “runner’s toe.”

The 10-mile run was yesterday; except for my toenail looking scary, I feel fine today.

Last week, I ran 3/5/3/2/10 miles. The 2 mile run wasn’t part of the schedule; I was supposed to run 10 that day but life got in the way and I had to stop at 2. I ran 10 the next day.

I’ve been on vacation this week (Las Vegas, woohoo!) so I haven’t run at all. I did do a ton of walking and stair-climbing on the trip. I’ll run later today and start back on schedule again.

I ran 3/5/3/8 miles last week. That’s the same mileage I ran the week before. The first time I ran the 8 miles, it was difficult for me, so I knew that even replicating the same distance would be hard. I had one of those mild but naggy and annoying colds last week, so I didn’t want to push too hard.

I (gasp) look forward to the 3 mile runs. I keep looking up expecting to see flying pigs.

Last week, I ran 3/5/3/8.

My new longest run is now 8 miles.

I’m not following the original schedule anymore. It moved along too fast for me. The original schedule was 16 weeks long, so of course it had to increase mileage quickly! I have about twice that time left to get ready; just under 8 months left until my marathon.

This week, I ran 3/4/3/7. I reached several new milestones. I ran my first 10-minute mile on the 4-mile day (ran 3 of the 4 at the 10-minute pace), then ran all of the second 3-mile run at the 10-minute pace. I ran the first 5 miles of the 7-miler at 10 minutes per mile but slowed down for the last 2. 7 miles is my new longest lifetime run.

According to the marathon training schedule I’m using, I was supposed to run 6 miles two weeks ago.

I found it weird that the schedule jumped from running 30 minutes to doing 5 miles in a single week. (It went from 4 30-minute runs to 3/4/3/5 miles.) I am a slow runner, so that meant I was going from running 2.75 miles one week to running 5 the next, which is almost a doubling of mileage. But, if as the book claims, a gazillion other people have successfully completed the program, who was I to question the schedule?

I did every mental trick I knew to make it through the 5 miles and still felt like I was dying during and after. Later, I got ill and ran a fever, which I rarely ever do. The next week I was supposed to do 3/4/3/6. I barely made it through the 4-miler, tried the 6 anyway . . . mistake! I made it a rough and horrible 4 miles, then ended up flat on my back for the rest of the evening.

Lesson learned: Listen to my body! (And my mind, which told me the mileage increaase didn’t seem right.)

Last week, I repeated the 3/4/3/5 week, and it was better. 5 miles wasn’t easy, but I didn’t feel like the grim reaper was hovering nearby.

This week, I’ve run 3/4/3 so far. All those runs went pretty well. I’ve done several 4-milers now, and I can feel that they’re not as hard as they used to be. I’m feeling normal health-wise and have no aches or pains, so this weekend, I’m going after that 6 mile mark.

I ran my longest lifetime run today: 5 miles. I felt half-dead for a little while afterward but am feeling alright now.

I’m done with week 1 of my training schedule.

Week 2 is (in miles): 3, 4, 3, 6.