The defining word for the past month is ADAPTATION. I am increasingly staring down the fact that I have never run this much on a consistent basis in my life. The result is that my body hits occasional slumps and is so sore that I am making some judgment calls. I started to feel a twinge in my hamstring that went all the way to the back of my knee. The last time this happened, I strained it when charging up a hill and had to sit down for a few weeks. Right now I know one thing: finishing the marathon is more important than my time goal. Since I lack the experience of running a marathon, I have no idea if my time goal of 4 hours is realistic at this point or not. I think I'm capable of much fast than 4 hours, though I've had many days when I think I could end up a lot slower. That aside, I won't have the chance to make an attempt if I "pull a hammy." So, I have to adapt to the reality of my body screaming out sometimes and adapt my training plan. After all, the training plan a theoretical construct three months ago. So you can see how I adapted from the picture above and the weekly breakdown below.
Week 9: I nailed this week. The weather was great. I felt great. End of story.
Week 10: I felt really sore after Wednesday. Throughout Thursday, I was sore, tired, and completely out of sorts. So I bagged my run for the day. It turns out, I made up for the lack of a speed session by (ill-advisedly) running faster during my long run. During the second half of the run, another runner training for a marathon joined up with me and we ran together the rest of the way. The result was I pushed roughly 8:15 pace for nearly 7 miles. It turns out, this would make for a rough week.
Week 11: The week started out slow and steady, each day feeling slightly worse than the day before. During my Wednesday run, I felt a twinge in my left hamstring that went as far as the back of my knee--a very unusual feeling for me. I took it as a bad omen and decided to rest on Thursday and Friday. For the long run, I felt completely miserable. This was my longest run ever and I didn't prepare myself diet-wise for the event. I bonked about mile 16 and spent the next two miles jogging in a bizarre daze that felt like the early stages of falling asleep. My hamstring felt okay until about mile 14, when that weird feeling came back.
Week 12: After the long run, I felt my hamstring walking up stairs and I didn't like the feeling. So I decided to work a little more biking into my schedule this week, since it doesn't aggravate my hamstring (I don't have clip-in shoes for my bike). By Thursday, I was back on my feet and running in a new pair of shoes. On Friday, I still felt pretty sore, but slugged out the run. I felt a small twinge on the outside of my right foot, but thought nothing of it as it all but disappeared when I finished.
Injury: Then came my long run on Sunday. I drove to Brunswick, MD and ran westward along the Potomac River on the C&O canal towpath. It was a beautiful day with cool air, blue skies, and thick, billowy clouds. The view just outside Harper's Ferry, WV was stunning. Around mile 9, I started to feel that pain in my right foot. The pain grew worse over the next several miles and by mile 15.5 I had started walking. My legs felt good, my lungs were strong, but this one little spot on the outside of my right foot (just below and in front of the knob on my ankle) overrode all of it. The next 4.5 miles were painful, but the weather nice and the surroundings were quiet and relaxed. Not much I could do at this point except finish the 20 miles and think things over. I thought maybe I had a stress fracture, which would have surprised me because I'd been pretty good amount gradually working up the mileage...that and I seemed recall stress fractures happening more around the toes. Then I thought it may be a bruise, which I discovered this morning may be a possibilty as a bruise was much more visible. All I can do is keep my fingers crossed and hope that this doesn't prevent me from lining up at the starting line. I have a doctor's appointment for Wednesday and will take it from there.
