Oh man, training for a marathon has really tested me. Over the last few days I had a horrible hill workout, fell 11 miles short on my long run, redeemed myself on my next hill workout, only to feel a twinge in my leg that kept me from running for four days, which felt like an eternity to me.
How do you handle those days? For me, I think it's karma because I just had my annual physical and was pretty happy that my resting heart rate was as low as 38 during my ECG. The first words out of my doctor's mouth when he came into the exam room was, "Are you running a lot?" I have to admit that it was a HUGE ego boost to see that a lot of my hard work has paid off. Then, a few days later, I was kicking butt on my hill workout and was cruising through my last cool-down mile when I felt something I haven't felt in a long time. A strained muscle. I quickly slowed down and started walking, then changed and went to work. It didn't really bother me the rest of the day so I didn't think much about it. But the next day I started to attempt an easy recovery run and got through about 1/2 a mile before I knew something was not right.
Rest is really a foreign concept to me. I don't mean sleep and naps. I mean days without running. This last week really put me to the test. The 1/2 mile experiment was on a Thursday, so I iced my leg, took Friday off and iced it again. Saturday I tested it again and got about a 1/3 of a mile before I realized this was not going to just go away. In hindsight, it couldn't have happened on a better week. This past week of training was a cut-back week with a long run of 13 miles on Sunday (which I missed). And my training schedule has shifted a bit, with Mondays being my new off-day, so I got an extra day of rest. Also, I really mean just rest from running. On Thursday, Friday and Sunday, I still rode the stationary bike or used the elliptical machine to keep my blood pumping. But that was almost as unpleasant to me as not being able to run. I'm not much of a cross-trainer.
The real test came this Tuesday, with five easy miles. I started out slow, about three minutes slower than my usual pace. By the last mile, I was running closer to my easy pace and felt fine. As happy as I was to finish, I was still a little nervous about how I'd feel the rest of the day. Fortunately, I felt great and the next day I got through a solid tempo run without any pain followed by a easy recovery day on Thursday.
Now, I feel like the worst is behind me but I'm still probably going to adjust my plan just a bit. I am supposed to run 20 miles this Sunday. But since I missed my 13-miler last week as well as falling 11 miles short on my 18-miler two weeks ago, 18 is the goal and anything over that is gravy. I can tell you one thing, I'm not setting an alarm. This time I'll be well-rested.
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