It's been entirely too long since the last time I've posted on this blog. I've been very busy adjusting to my new job, and Scrabulous on Facebook has me thoroughly addicted. So what's been up for the last few weeks?
The leg has been healing slowly. Some days it has been feeling better than others. I've cut back to running 3 days a week to give it a little more time to heal in between runs. This has made my weekly mileage suffer, and it will be interesting to see how that effects my marathon running. At this point I just want to arrive in Orlando and on the starting line healthy. I'll let the rest take care of itself.
I've run two races. The Thanksgiving Day Race 10K was my first race back after the injury. I wasn't running for any sort of time. It was running with my cousin Michelle and a friend of hers. I let them set the pace at the beginning of the race and just hung with them the whole time. There was no reason to push it. I could have risked further injury, and running with Michelle was just fun. It was a great morning.
Following the race I started to have problems with my left foot. I thought it was a bruise at first, but I think it was more of a muscle pull in my foot. The muscle across my left instep was hurting at every step. It was another set back in my marathon training that I just didn't need. I started switching back and forth between my new shoes, and my older, more broken in shoes to try and ease the pain in my foot. It seemed to work out as the foot eventually worked itself out. The leg continues to nag and ache some as it heals. I've just come accept it as it is and will do the best I can with the pain.
That brings me to the Jingle Bell Run. I didn't have any particular expectations for this race other than to just run the race, and have a good time with Michelle. The course was an out and back course, so I decided to set a steady pace for the first half. After that I'd make a decision whether to maintain or push it up and really race this thing. The weather was cool, and it had been sprinkling and raining off and on all morning, but at race time things were looking pretty good.
We started off the race at a pretty good pace. I was shooting for about an 8 minute mile. We started in downtown Covington. near the Ohio River. We went up the road and took a right on to a bridge for our first river crossing into Cincinnati. As we came off the bridge we finished mile 1. Things felt pretty smooth, and even as I was not pushing the pace I came in at 7:18. Things were looking good. I was feeling good. I still didn't push things too hard. I just let Michelle set the pace and cruised along. She set an excellent pace as we came in at a 6:55. Going into mile 3 we headed back across the river. As we headed up the incline of the bridge I decided to pick up the pace. As we crested the bridge you can just see the finish line off to the left. This is a great motivator to keep it up. Off the bridge and around the block to finish mile 3 at 6:50.
A final sprint brought me in for a great finish. About 45 seconds later Michelle came in for her own impressively strong finish. The foot was feeling good. I hadn't thought about my calf at all after the first mile of the race. We both finished under 22:30. It was a great race.
The leg has been healing slowly. Some days it has been feeling better than others. I've cut back to running 3 days a week to give it a little more time to heal in between runs. This has made my weekly mileage suffer, and it will be interesting to see how that effects my marathon running. At this point I just want to arrive in Orlando and on the starting line healthy. I'll let the rest take care of itself.
I've run two races. The Thanksgiving Day Race 10K was my first race back after the injury. I wasn't running for any sort of time. It was running with my cousin Michelle and a friend of hers. I let them set the pace at the beginning of the race and just hung with them the whole time. There was no reason to push it. I could have risked further injury, and running with Michelle was just fun. It was a great morning.
Following the race I started to have problems with my left foot. I thought it was a bruise at first, but I think it was more of a muscle pull in my foot. The muscle across my left instep was hurting at every step. It was another set back in my marathon training that I just didn't need. I started switching back and forth between my new shoes, and my older, more broken in shoes to try and ease the pain in my foot. It seemed to work out as the foot eventually worked itself out. The leg continues to nag and ache some as it heals. I've just come accept it as it is and will do the best I can with the pain.
That brings me to the Jingle Bell Run. I didn't have any particular expectations for this race other than to just run the race, and have a good time with Michelle. The course was an out and back course, so I decided to set a steady pace for the first half. After that I'd make a decision whether to maintain or push it up and really race this thing. The weather was cool, and it had been sprinkling and raining off and on all morning, but at race time things were looking pretty good.
We started off the race at a pretty good pace. I was shooting for about an 8 minute mile. We started in downtown Covington. near the Ohio River. We went up the road and took a right on to a bridge for our first river crossing into Cincinnati. As we came off the bridge we finished mile 1. Things felt pretty smooth, and even as I was not pushing the pace I came in at 7:18. Things were looking good. I was feeling good. I still didn't push things too hard. I just let Michelle set the pace and cruised along. She set an excellent pace as we came in at a 6:55. Going into mile 3 we headed back across the river. As we headed up the incline of the bridge I decided to pick up the pace. As we crested the bridge you can just see the finish line off to the left. This is a great motivator to keep it up. Off the bridge and around the block to finish mile 3 at 6:50.
A final sprint brought me in for a great finish. About 45 seconds later Michelle came in for her own impressively strong finish. The foot was feeling good. I hadn't thought about my calf at all after the first mile of the race. We both finished under 22:30. It was a great race.
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