| See below for my journal about training for my first marathon
5/7/02 Training Update
After turning in a time I was happy with for the 10 mile race that I ran on April 21st, I have been having some knee pains. It is a flare up of knee problems dating back to my soccer days called 'patello-femoral' syndrome. I am working with an orthopedist to develop a sensible training plan that has my long term health in mind. No one said running a marathon would be easy! This is just the first bump on the road to the finish line!
5/12/02 Training Update
My run this weekend went alright. I had some knee pain in the first few minutes of a 4 mile run. The pain subsided, though. I have a new knee brace and an orthopedist appointment this Friday. Let's see if we can get me patched up for this!
5/18/02 Training Update
The orthopedist appointment yielded some good and bad news. The good news, and also the most important news is that I will be able to run the marathon without risking any long term injury to my knees. The bad news is, that unless I stop running for about 3 weeks and see a physical therapist, running the marathon is going to be a painful experience. Therefore, I will follow the doc's advice. So, for the next three or so weeks I'll be doing phyiscal therapy and training with non-knee-stressing cardio exercies like the nordic track and elipitical.
6/03/02 Training Update
Nothing too terribly new to report. I have my second and third physical therapy appointments this week and my knee has been feeling better. I have been keeping up the cardio on the cross-training equipment and hope to be back running by June 15th at the latest!
6/15/02 Training Update
My physical therapist would kill me if she knew what I did today. D'oh! I wrapped up physical therapy earlier this week and did two maintenance runs (30 minutes each at about a 10 minute per mile pace). This morning I was going to do 6 miles, but at the last minute changed my mind and went ahead and did the full 10 mile training run with my training group. Ouch! Actually, my knees felt good, which is why I went ahead with it. I am learning all about 'listening to my body' with this training, and my body said: GO! We train at a much slower pace than I normally run at which is a big help. I am icing the knees now and am officially back into the training routine full swing!
6/30/02 Training Update
Last weekend, while traveling in Kansas City for a wedding I slacked a little, only running about 3.5 miles (was supposed to do 12!). But, since I did ok on the 10 mile run earlier I am not too worried. This weekend was a short 6 mile run, a build up for this weekend when we run 14 miles!!! The knees are holding up well , and the fantastic early fundraising results have me pumped!
6/15: 10 miles
6/22: 3.5 miles (in Kansas City)
6/29: 6 miles
7/3: 14 miles
7/21/2002 Training Update
This weekend I ran 16 miles. The training in going well...16 miles was difficult this week, in part because of the nasty humid hot weather. Two weeks ago I run 14 miles and that was not so bad because the weather was decent. Thank god this marathon is in October!
For those of you that have been following the saga of my knees, they are doing just fine. Two more weeks and I'll be out for an 18 mile run!
8/04/2002 Training Update
Good lord I ran 18 miles yesterday! Physically it felt fine, the real torture was that for some reason I could not get that alt-rock band Alien Art Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal" out of my head. The previous runs I had done a good job of mixing up some James Brown and George Clinton in my head to make my running funky. This week there was no funk in earshot. Incidentally, San Diego has an annual Rock-n-Roll marathon with a band every mile. I might run that one next.
Running in the heat really sucks. I am very much looking forward to cooler days. But overall, this is still going well and I am having a great time!
8/25/2002 Training Update
Alrighty - it's been a few weeks since I have been able to provide an update. Last weekend (8/17) I ran 20 miles, in spite of the heat. It was quite the challenge. I've found that so many calories get burnt on these long runs that I spend the rest of the day eating. Yesterday (8/24) I ran 10 miles, and then went and played 3 games in a softball tournament. Seemed like a good idea at the time. However, presently every muscle in my body aches. Here's my handy tip for the summer: don't slide into second base (or really any base) on the Mall in August (probably a bad idea in July too). Injury is the only thing that can come from that (said while nursing abused left leg).
9/2/2002
Not too much new to report. I have given my body a rest since the 10 mile run on August 24th. This rest is self-imposed, my body just felt like it needed a break in anticipation of a 23 mile training run this coming Saturday, September 7th. Wish me luck!
9/14/2002 Training Update/Rant
This weekend was an easy 8 mile run, what we call a 'recovery run' to help the muscles heal up from the preceding week's long run. And how far did I run last weekend (9/7)? 23 miles. And since you asked, all modesty aside I do feel rather much like a bad-ass for running 23 miles for the first time. 2 years from now maybe I'll be an experienced marathoner and 23 miles will be nothing to me, but for right now I am pleased. Surprisingly, it was not terribly difficult, which is perhaps a credit to the training program I have been participating in. At the end of the run I felt like I could bust out the other 3.2 miles if necessary, so I guess my wall is pushed out as far as it needs to go. In two weeks I will crank out another 20 or so mile training run. After that, I won't go over the 10 mile mark most likely until marathon day.
Interesting observations about running 23 miles:
**We train slower than what we might run the race at, and thus it took 5 hours to run 23 miles. There is usually at least one night each week where I get less than 5 hours of sleep.
**Eating Starburst during a training run is a sugar rush like Popeye eating spinach or Scooby after a Scooby snack.
**Song that I could not get out of my head for this long run was "Erase You" by a perhaps appropriately named band, The Jam Pain Society. As always, though, when we hit the bridge coming back I can just hear James Brown singing about taking me on the the bridge.
**During the run, the people I run with got to talking about dancing and it came up that I had recently taken a dance class (you'll have to email me for the full saga of my Street Jams dance class). So at one of our water breaks I ended up leading a minor participatory dance demonstration. Oh the things we do to keep our mind active while running for 5 hours!
I will be traveling quite a bit the next two weeks, so look for another update around October 5th!
10/6/2002 Update
It's been a crazy two weeks of traveling and trying to train since my last post. On September 22nd I ran about 9 miles or so on my own (without my training group) and that was just fine. On September 28th I was supposed to run around 23-26 miles for training. I was in Seattle, though, attending a wedding, which made running tough. I got up Sunday morning and ran for two hours along a path the runs along Elliot Bay. It was great scenery, but due to a weekend of celebrating, and drinking, the first part of the run was as painful as a run has ever been. All told I probably ran about 10 miles that morning. This weekend (10/2) I did an easy 8 miles with my training group, and then had some friends over for beer and BBQ. This is my last weekend of much beer and eating bad until the marathon. I am now going to hit back into the gym a little harder and focus on conditioning for the race on October 27th. I am confident that I will do well, in fact, these last two weeks of traveling have helped to give my body a rest, and by marathon day that rest will go a long way. So overall, I have not been terribly healthy the last two weeks or so (at least not for someone training for a marathon!), but I am feeling good about the big picture of training. That 23 mile run a few weeks ago (see archives) went really well and I am riding the wave of the confidence that built.
A special thanks to everyone that has made a donation. My recent email/update has resulted in another surge, and I truly appreciate it!
10/14/2002 Update
Maintain and cross-train, that is what I am working on now. I am running for about 40 minutes twice a week, in the gym twice a week, Fridays off and a short 8 mile run on Saturdays. That's the plan for the next two weeks leading up to the race (minus the Saturday before race day of course). Anybody else have a problem with the phrase "short 8 mile run"? It's funny to me that 8 miles seems like a short fun run.
Another bizarre element to this marathon is that injuries also become a badge of honor. All the cool kids have IT bands, I am sort of cool with my mega open-patello brace. People with shin splints? That's the bottom of the social injury ladder. Don't ask me why. Nobody has a better injury than my friend Judy, though, who was hit by a biker during one of our long runs, then got up and finished the run.
Race day is day is just two weeks away, but I have already tentatively decided on my next adventure......April 24, 2003....The St. Louis Marathon! I'll be strapping on the running shoes for a hometown run. Hopefully the Cardinals will be in town then too.
October 21st, 2002
Here we go, seven days to the race. Next Sunday I will be tackling the beast that is my first marathon. I am feeling good, plan on eating well and resting a lot this week, hydrating and engaging in a few light runs and cross training. I bought some throw-away sweats today. On race morning it is chilly, so the idea is to wear sweats and just discard them during the race when you are warm enough. The Marines pick them up, wash them, and donate them to shelters, which is a pretty neat deal. Well, wish me luck for Sunday!
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