10 weeks until the marathon

Ok, so, there are several things I could say.

I could be completely optimistic, and say that I am in a much better place than last week and it looks like I will recover.

I could go with the pessimistic view, and say that I just had another week where I did not complete all of my workouts.

But I think I'm going to go with the most honest take on the situation. The truth is, I really don't know what to think.

I bike commuted on Monday.

Tuesday morning, I got out of bed at 5am feeling like I had lead in my stomach, so great was my dread at how my legs would feel if I tried to run. But I laced up and headed out, figuring I had to do it eventually.

I was supposed to do 6 miles according to the schedule, but I chose I route that would give me plenty of outs in case I had to cut it shorter. I didn't talk the 2-mile out... didn't take the 4-mile out... and headed toward 6 miles. It wasn't until about mile 5 that I started to have some suspicious twinges, so I took a shortcut home and ended up with a total of 5.5 miles. The rest of the day, my shins ached a little but didn't have any sharp pains.

All day Wednesday I debated with myself about whether to go to speed training. I thought maybe skipping it, and instead running Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday this week, might be a good idea. But I was feeling really good Wednesday afternoon and ultimately decided to go, if only to have Coach Leach look at my form.

Coach told me my foot strike actually looked really good. He did have to yell at me about my hips once, but I was able to fix it immediately, which is a good sign. The only other thing he told me to work on was evening out my arm swing. Apparently my left arm doesn't move as much as the right one and that might be making my gait uneven.

So, I did two 2-mile repeats, plus 3 miles of warm up and cool down, for a total of 7 miles -- exactly what the training plan asked for. And very little pain. I was feeling great when I went to bed that night.

Thursday I was sore, but not in my shins. I had normal-feeling achyiness in my hips and quads, which didn't particularly worry me, but also some pretty bad pain in my knees, which was new and rather annoyingly worrisome. It was much better by the afternoon, though, so I went ahead and did my next workout: running the 7 miles home from work. Running point to point was actually a really nice change from the constant out and back runs I do. I took one walk break around mile 5 because my knee hurt a little, but went to bed feeling pretty good.

Friday, however, was a tough day. I was able to bike to and from work ok, but overall, my whole body felt exhausted and beat up. I went to Fleet Feet to get some new shoes after work, and while I was walking, my shins also hurt a bit. It was more of a deep down ache than usual, but I really don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

So, today, I spent a lot of time debating about what to do. I was supposed to run 9 miles. In the early morning when I would normally go, it was pouring rain. So that gave me the time to think it through. Do I skip it, and be glad that I got in all but one workout this week? Do I dare miss another long run, even if it is one of the shorter recovery runs? Would the new shoes help? Do I try for 9 miles, even if it means walking a lot of it? Do I just do a shorter run?

In the end, I decided to hit the pavement with the promise to myself that if my instincts told me to stop, I'd stop.

I ended up running a total of 6 miles. I could have finished, but I was having some suspicious swollen feelings in my lower legs, and I did not dare put myself in a place where I might have to miss the 15 miler I am supposed to do next week.

So, that was my week. I finish with 25.5 of the 29 miles I was supposed to do. Right now, other than still having a bit of that all-over tiredness, I'm not in any pain. In fact, when I got home from the 6 miles today, I didn't even feel like I need to compress or ice.

So, I continue to be hopeful but cautious. I hope I am making the right choices. I do think I needed to run today. I am not sure if I should have pushed through those extra 3 miles or not. It might have been fine, and made me feel better. But it also might have been the end of my marathon hopes.

If I can get through my workouts this week, including that 15 miler on Saturday, I will be very happy.

Here's the plan for this week:
Monday: bike
Tuesday: 5 miles
Wednesday: speed training
Thursday: 8 miles
Friday: bike
Saturday: 15 miles

Miles on my new shoes: 6