16 weeks until the marathon

I don't want to jinx myself, but things are going quite well.

After a day off and a day of bike commuting, my shins were feeling fine by Tuesday. I did my usual 3-mile loop around Millennium and Grant Parks in the am. Didn't wear my watch, as I'm not caring much about speed these days.

Wednesday we did a really fun speed workout! We did a 150-meter sprint (which is not so bad, because it's not even half a lap) followed by either 50 meters of skipping or 10 hops on each foot and a slow jog for whatever part of the 50 meters remained. Repeat 12-20 times. As I generally choose the lower end of the range, I did 12 repeats. It was actually a really hard workout, cardiovascularly speaking, but it was short and sweet. It was really perfect too, because my training schedule said I should do a 4-mile Farlek, and with the warm up and cool down runs, that pretty much what it turned out to be.

Thursday I bike commuted (and almost took out a few small children on the Museum Campus, as it is free week at the Shedd).

Friday I was all ready to go do 4 miles outside when an unnervingly loud crack of thunder sent me to the fitness room instead. I did 4 miles at a 10-minute pace on the treadmill while watching them show the opening of the Harry Potter themepark on the news. (Someone take me!)

Today I started early on my 10-mile run. I had some pain in my upper right shin immediately, but I hoped it would go away after a mile or so. After all, I had not had any shin trouble all week, not even during that hopping-skipping madness at speed training! After 1.5 miles, it had not gone away and I briefly stopped to rub the offending muscle. This made no difference. The pain stayed -- not getting worse, but not going away.

Truthfully, I'm not sure exactly what happened after that. I was approaching Navy Pier, and then I got on the part of the path that is literally right next to the water. They were holding a swim clinic of some sort for would-be triathletes, which distracted me, and then I must have gone into the elusive runner's trance. Before I knew it, I was at the 5-mile mark, my turnaround point. I stopped there briefly to assess the situation, but my shin didn't hurt any more, even when I did various jumps and knee bends designed to induce pain. So, I kept going. I did the latter 5 miles without incident, finishing in 1:47 -- under my goal pace of 11-minute miles.

I was leery of it coming back to bite me, though, so I sat still for a while, then showered and read a couple chapters of my book, then took the plunge and walked to the grocery store and back. Still no issues. I won't be entirely convinced everything is ok until tomorrow, but I remain optimistic.

So, the training marches on, and every day I feel a little more confident about my chances of making it to the start line. (The finish line is another matter entirely. I can't yet comprehend repeating what I did this morning and still having 16.2 miles to go. But, one day at a time.)

Here is next week's plan, which is remarkably similar to this week...
Monday/Tuesday: bike/3 miles
Wednesday: speed work (the training plan says 4-5 hills, which is just not going to happen unless we go to Montrose -- so I'm content to just do whatever Coach has planned)
Thursday/Friday: bike/4 miles
Saturday: 10 miles. The plan says 12 miles, with the caveat that if you are training for your first marathon, you can just do 10. If I feel really good after 10, I might keep going -- but let's face it. That's not likely. Seeing as my goal, above anything else, is to avoid injury, I will do the minimum amount of mileage the pros allow.

Looks like the weather may thwart one of my bike commutes, but I'm hoping for the best.