Just have to say it - glad there's no run today

It's COLD, COLD, COLD outside!

Today's run - done

Not much to say about today's run. My coach has me doing slightly longer distances during the week, so today was 1 mile warm-up and then a 7 mile run. Not so bad. On tomorrow's agenda - yoga!

Hill repeats - round 1

My coach definitely upped the ante this week. For any of you who have been part of any type of running team, I'm sure you understood my dread when hill repeats showed up on this week's training schedule. For those of you who haven't run, it is exactly what it sounds like - running, usually at a faster pace, up a hill, multiple times. The Boston Marathon is a hilly course, so I knew this day was coming. Above is the hill I ran today, although the picture doesn't really doesn't do it justice, if you ask me. It starts gradual and then what you can't see at the top is the place where the incline gets markedly steeper. It's also 0.2 miles long, which doesn't seem like much except when you think that it's almost once around a track. I had to run this hill four times, and by the end, boy were my legs hurting. You know what they say - no pain, no gain - that was the truth today.

12 mile run - done!

Long run was yesterday, Sunday, and it was a great day for a run - sunny, mid 30s, no wind. It was great! Glad today is an off day (as it currently is pouring rain with 50 mph wind gusts). One of the things that I think I'm enjoying most about training for the marathon is the gratification I get each time a new distance is conquered. Twelve miles is now officially the farthest I've ever run, and remarkably, I felt good. I finally broke down and got a fuel belt which I've used on my past two runs. Fueling up while running is an important part of marathon, so I'm starting to practice that part. Honestly, I feel like a dork wearing one, but I haven't experienced the complete burnout that I felt after the first 11 miler. I guess my pride is a small price to pay for not feeling like a zombie for the rest of the day.

Easy day today - I'm thrilled!

At the risk of jinxing myself, I've been very happy with how much easier running has become since starting this journey. Today's workout called for 6 miles (the route ended up being 6.2 miles to be exact) and it was a breeze. Everything felt great, knees included. This distance used to be at the upper end of what I would run, and now it feels like a piece of cake. So knock on wood everyone - let's hope this trend continues!

One soggy run!

YUCK! That's all I have to say about the run I just finished. The light snow that I was so looking forward to in my last post turned to freezing rain shortly after I started running. It's done though - 5 miles, check! Now I can look forward to hunkering down indoors for the rest of the day.

This week's training log

Monday was an off day, which was very relaxing. I love a well deserved off day! I felt remarkably well after the previous day's 10 mile run, which was uplifting since my last long run of 11 miles was so difficult.

Monday was also exciting because it is the day that I get the week's workouts from my coach through my page at the Boston Running Center. I love my training schedule! Not only does it indulge my love of check lists, it has been a great tool for keeping me on track since I have to report back what I actually did each week.

So today calls for a 5 mile run, which I plan to do a little later in the afternoon. It is snowing out, but lightly - I bet it will make for a very pretty run!

Back on the blogging bandwagon

It's been a while since my last post - sorry! There's a lot of catching up to do, so this may be a long one, but I'm back up and running now (no pun intended) and will do a better job in the future.

After the last posted 11 mile run, things went a little haywire with my training. I had my first meeting with my running coach that Monday (thanks again Mom, Dad & Sis!) which was fantastic. He helped identify some weaknesses in my stride that are likely contributing to some of my knee pain, and in addition to planning my weekly running workouts, he also plans out strength training exercises to work on these weaknesses. It's really been one of the best Christmas presents ever.

However, the day after that 11 mile run I started having pain on the inner thigh of my left leg. It felt muscular, but after three days it still did not go away. Normally I wouldn't have been that concerned, except that back in High School while running X-Country I developed a stress fracture in my left femur, and the pain felt very similar to what I recall back then. Stress fracture = no marathon for me. This would have been devastating. Needless to say I wanted to get this checked out as soon as possible. But as timing would have it this was right before New Year's Day and my doctor did not have any appointments for over a week - not very convenient when I had a 12 mile run planned that weekend.

This led to a trip to the urgent care center on New Year's Eve- they did x-rays & found no stress fracture. I was elated! However, the doctor there said she wanted me to go to the emergency room because the location of the pain was consistent with a blood clot in my leg, and she said I needed to have it checked out immediately. So onto the emergency room for me. I learned a few things at the emergency room:

1) I did not have a blood clot in my leg.

2) Even if you are able to walk perfectly fine, they still have to push you around the hospital in a wheel chair but cannot explain exactly why, even when asked.

3) X-rays do not always detect a stress fracture so the trip to the urgent care center was irrelevant. I was back to square one.

The next week I had a series of three doctors appointments, including 1 MRI, and it was finally determined that I had a strained inner adductor. Not a stress fracture. Great news!

Throughout this time my coach was a huge help for me. I couldn't run until I got a diagnosis, and he helped create workouts for me that would set me back as little as possible. It was also great getting advice on how to ease back into running. I'm happy to report that I am now officially back on track, completing a 10 mile run with relative ease just today.

So that's the last few weeks in a nutshell. Talk to you all again soon!