re: Official Running Log/Marathon Training Thread

11.5 planned for this morning turned into 8 and walked the rest home. Lots of excuses, but major was an upset stomach and a bad decision to go ride my bike yesterday instead of resting. Will get back on track by next long run. Highs in the 70s by next weekend

Yeah but I'm a season behind. Gotta catch up.

@ Hog

I'll believe it when it happens.

Well...looks like I might be staring at my first real injury. I think it’s plantar fasciitis but there’s a weird nagging feeling on the inside of my heel that makes me think potential stress fracture. It’s nothing real painful yet but I’m worried about running tomorrow.

I tried submerging it in a bucket of ice water. How long should I hold it under? I could stand like 15 seconds but it felt like my bones were breaking all the way up my body. My wife said ten minutes, but I don’t know if I could stand that.

I hear y’all on that. My damn quad cramping up yesterday has me all kinds of paranoid. Only one long run left until my race and it happened around mile 12 yesterday. Can’t have that happen on race day.

Currently drinking my last beer until post race goodness.

50k was today. Well it was actually a 51.5k (32 miles). I feel like I was lied to. That was a horrible mile. Anyway, drove up Thursday and stopped in Conyers,GA to run a trail. Took a nasty spill when I got a little cocky. Apparently a sign of things to come. Got scraped up pretty good, leaving me soar for a few days.

On Saturday I went out to the race trail and did 4 miles. Took another fall but nothing too bad. After leaving I was rethinking my time goal. Months ago I thought 5 hours was doable. But after some trail running I realized that was too aggressive and was thinking more like 5:30. Well, when the temp never really dropped, similar to NOLA, I was thinking more like 5:45.

The trail system is well maintained, but with heavy mtb traffic, roots were a serious problem for me. Everyone who ran this race lived pretty close or atleast in areas with similar topography. In all seriousness, there wasn't a single piece of flat trail.

My goal was to stay even paced,which I was able to do. At 4 check pts I consistently improved my position. At mile 28 I had it in my head to go hard for the last 3 miles. About 3 minutes into this surge I took a hard fall and did a tuck and roll in to thorn bushes. shite went everywhere. Collected all my shite that went flying, dusted myself off and chugged along.

From there it was a real struggle. The ice I ate and just held for a few minutes was invigorating and gave me some extra life.i was able to push for a mile and then slowed again.

At mile 30.5 I was stoked. I just passed a struggling runner and knew the end was just around the corner, I had even dumped my last bottle of tailwind hoping to give it one last push. That last push came a mile later but I was still worried that someone was gonna pass me, luckily that never came.

6 hours 17 minutes

13th overall.

It was tough, about what I expected, maybe a little more elevation than I was ready for, plus the added bonus of NOLA weather conditions.

Better runners were cracking and I pegged a few in the last 10k.



Think i missed top 10 by 6 minutes

You've gotta leave it in there. The very beginning is the worst part. After 2 minutes or so you're numb and it's smooth sailing. We used to sit submerged in ice baths after XC practice and you feel great later.

I've been walking around DC all weekend and it's motivated me to try out a routine again once I fly back home. That might change when I remember what Louisiana humidity feels like but I want to be in race shape for the Crescent City classic, ultimately.

Excited for the next 2 weeks of training

Felt fresh after 14 yesterday, had the urge to go run again in the evening but was able to refrain

quote:

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I’ve read about how depressing injuries can be but this is hitting me hard. My arch pain isn’t severe but nagging enough that I know to not run on it. What sucks is that I’m a teacher and am on my feet most of the day. Also taught my afternoon/evening college courses tonight so I just did almost 12 hours of mostly standing and moving around. Felt the pain and strain in my arch the entire day. Gotta bad feeling about training going forward.

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Hang in there is all I can say. I'm 39 years old and starting about 2ish years ago I noticed the injury bug was hitting me a little more often than in the past.

I've learned patience via injury. On my latest training build up, I was injured 2 weeks in. It was painful and it was a new one for me. The worst was running through my head. Googling your symptoms will leave you going down a black hole.

All I needed was 2 full weeks off running, then slowly added running into the workouts. I used rowing as a good substitute to keep my aerobic base up as much as possible. I think I put every week's mileage in this thread if you want to see how I built back up to running a 50k race.

The point is, if you have patience and are willing to shift gears, injuries can be overcome.

As we age, patience becomes a runner's best friend. Take a day rest when you already planned your run was not an option 10 to 15 years ago. Cutting a run short back then left the nastiest taste in my mouth. I'm 35 now, and while I still don't enjoy doing either of these, I have a much better understanding of the long game. Putting a couple extra miles on a bad knee or foot could prevent months of training down the road.