Marathon Bound

I'm sad to report that my marathon training has been put on hold for a bit.  I had a freak accident last Sunday that involved a remote control essentially becoming a roller skate under my bare foot on the tile.  I pretty much did the splits and my other foot landed face up on the tile with a very hard smack.  The pain sent me through the roof!  I thought for sure I had broken my big toe or a bone in the top of my foot but thankfully, after having it checked out, that doesn't appear to be the case, just a bad bruise on the bone. This means no running or other jarring type of activities until the pain is gone. Well, it's been a week and there is still a fair amount of pain when pressure is applied to the top of my foot. Strangely enough, there has been little to no pain when I'm walking or put pressure on it from the bottom so it doesn't even look like I'm injured at all!  I'm not sure how this is going to impact my marathon training.  I'll have to see if I can catch back up to the schedule, otherwise, I may have to alter my plans and run the 1/2 instead. I'm hoping I can persevere though and get back on track for the full. 

Marathon Bound

Well my marathon training is beginning to escalate now! I'm running 3 - 4 times a week, following a schedule I found online that includes short runs, "fartlek" training (this is speed training where you vary your running speed within a specified timeframe), cross training (cycling, swimming, etc..) and then a long run on the weekend.

My long run yesterday was 4 miles and they are getting ready to increase rapidly from one week to the next.  The maximum distance I will be running during training is 20 miles on 12/18,  The distances drop off the last 2 - 3 weeks before the marathon so I won't be overworked going into it. So, the first and potentially last time I'll run 26.2 miles will be on race day, January 15th!

I've been stretching and using the foam roller before and after my runs to avoid the IT band problems I had in 2009/2010. So far, I have no pain but I say that with caution because I didn't have any trouble then until I got up to a 10 mile run. We'll see how I do with the longer distances.

I would never have guessed that running would be my thing. Although I sometimes literally argue with myself to get going, I feel great when my breathing levels off during the run and of course, when the run is over and I've accomplished what I set out to do.