marathon training week 13 recap

     

     This week has been pretty good in terms of my training and my foot issues.  I wouldn't say my foot is 100% by any stretch of the imagination, but if I had to put a number on it, I would say between 90 to 95%.  This week and last week I can say I am finally feeling the cumulative effect of the last two months of training.  I wouldn't say I am over training, but I would say that my body is ready to take a breather.  Thank God for the taper.

Sunday:

     When I woke up and let the dogs out I saw that the fog was super thick.  I could hardly see our garage and that can't be more than fifty feet away.  With needing to run on the road to get my miles in I didn't think it would be safe no matter how much reflective gear and blinking lights I had, so I decided to run after work.  When I got home Mandy asked me if I would get the lawn mowed first. Sigh!!! :(  I sure as hell didn't want to, but it needed it and I couldn't think of another day I could get it done, so Mandy won.  Sometimes owning a home really sucks!  Once I got the lawn mowed I got changed and headed out for my run.  The sun was starting to set which in turn helped the temperature to cool off a bit.  As I started to run my foot felt sorta ok, but I could tell it wasn't a 100%.  I seemed to keep a steady pace but it wasn't anywhere near the pace I wanted to be at.  When I got to mile 4 I decided it would be a good time to opened it up a little and see how my foot would respond.  Once I did this I couldn't keep my rhythm steady and my pace bounced around a little.  Occasionally my foot would let me know it wasn't liking this, but eventually it fell in line and held strong through the remainder of the run.
      I have readjusted my schedule and gave myself the next two days off.  Now that I feel better at how my foot handled the run, I am guessing that two more days off will really help.

Monday:

     Normal scheduled rest day and I continued icing my foot.

Tuesday:

    With my foot issues I made a few changes to my schedule and gave myself another rest day.  I hope it will help but we will see tomorrow with my second to last double digit run before the marathon.

Wednesday:

     I had a half marathon in distance at race pace or slightly faster on tap for today.  The weather wasn't to bad, mostly cloudy with temps in the low 60s with no wind.  I decided on a route where I would only have one overpass as a hill to mess with.  Once I was on the move I decided to change my route on the fly and do a nice long loop where I thought there wouldn't be any hills.  As it turns out running an area you're not 100% familiar with, you end up finding what you were trying to avoid in the first place.  Luckily they were just some smaller rolling hills nothing that aggravated my foot.

     I really don't get why my last few runs have felt this way, I know I was doing the pace that I wanted to do, but it felt like such a struggle to do it.  My breathing wasn't the issue, it was my legs.  They just seem to feel tight when I start and keep getting tighter as the miles progress.  It wasn't till I got to around mile six things started to loosen up a little bit and my time began to fall.  I managed to stay under 9 min miles for the remainder of the run. 

     As for my foot issue, I was a little hesitant to really push my pace, but as the run went on my foot felt good and I opened it up towards the end.  I did have a few small twinges of pain, nothing to really worry about, but overall I was happy and my foot did pretty well.  During my run I noticed I was a little tight in my outer and inner thigh muscles.  I think that may have also been a big reason why I felt so sluggish.  I need to concentrate the next couple weeks on getting some good stretching in to stay loose.  I think as I taper and reduce my mileage my legs might start to tighten up, so I'll bring out the foam roller the stick and hopefully Mandy to give me a little massage therapy. 

Thursday:
     I woke up feeling pretty tired this morning.  My muscles were a little sore and I was feeling pretty stiff (#) from yesterday's run.  I decided to do some stretches in the morning to loosen up before work and another set about an hour before I went to bed.  

Friday:

     I set my sights on a 5 mile tempo pace run this morning.  I wasn't to sure where my pace would end up, but I was hoping to be around 8:00 min avg.  I usually check the weather before I go to bed, but last night I was so tired I forgot to.  I was really surprised when I let the dogs out and it was a warm 70 degrees.  I dressed accordingly and headed out.  There was nothing but clouds in the sky and there was a really good wind blowing that just happened to be at my back when I left, but of course it was in my face on the way back.  The first mile felt ok and my pace was a little slow than I wanted, but the second mile felt great and I was cruising pretty good.  I am sure some of that was because of the wind giving me a nice little kick in the ass.  Once I made the turn to head back the wind really put a damper on my pace.  Mile four was the worst!  I had no tree coverage to shield me from the wind and boy did my pace suffer, falling to a 8:30 mile.  When I hit mile five I was finally surrounded b,y a few trees which helped a little.  I was able to recover my pace and have a strong finish.  My time on mile four really hurt my overall pace, but I still felt like I got in a solid run.  After I finished and got back to the house I did my stretches, two sets of 20 pushups and one set of 15 pushups.  I wore my new shoes for some more break in miles.

Saturday:

     Today was rather cool and when you through in the wind it sure was chilly out.  In the morning I got dressed and Mandy got up to let the dogs out.  She had made the comment that I looked exhausted and suggested I go back to sleep and I could run after work.  She didn't have to tell me twice, I was back in bed and sacked out almost instantly.  After I got home from work I got changed and headed out to do a 4 mile super easy run.  I wanted to get my miles in, but I didn't want to over do it on the pace because I am running a 5K race tomorrow and I am gonna shoot for a new PR.  Today's run was a simple out and back that I kept right around a 9:50 pace.

Week 14 begins now

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