sub-3 or blow-up trying

Ran the 8-mile loop through Goshen.  Still can barely get mile 3 under 8min, yet still finished with a time of 53:59 (6:45 pace).  Very happy considering a 20-miler two days ago + ran 30min after eating good size burger and fries (only window to go).  Feeling fully recovered and ready for a good month of running. 

Limited on time, but able to get a quick TM run in over lunch break.  Did 2-mile warm-up followed by 5 x 800 with quarter mile jogs in between.  6 miles total.

Ran 3.25 miles up towards Goshen in 30 min...turned back and picked up the pace, running 3.25 miles in 20:30 (6:18 pace). 

My body seems to be fully recovered and my endurance is still strong, so I am going to focus mostly on "leg turnover" for the next 3 weeks and throw in longer runs here and there to maintain endurance.  For the first time since spraining my ankle in late August, I feel able effectively mix in  "speed work" without any pain.  Had a small window of time this afternoon, so hit the TM and did a warm-up followed by 3 mile repeats at 6min pace and a "cooldown"- 6 miles total. 

Ran 1.25 miles warm-up and then picked up the pace for 2 miles (6:46, 6:41).  Veered into White's Woods for 5 miles (slow)- saw 6 turkeys and 2 deer.  Finished with .75 back on the road.  9 miles total.

Legwork at gym + 5 miles on TM at 8min pace.

Tough blow today.  Have been doing a "mini-taper" for this weekend's half marathon and went out for a jog with my wife.  We were just over a mile into White's Woods went I hit a root (covered by leaves) and twisted my ankle (which was just feeling recovered from late August).  It's ballooned up about the size of a golf ball within minutes.  Had to walk over a mile back to the gym while my wife finished the 5-mile run.  Pretty painful right now, so I'm icing 20min every hour and will see how I feel by the end of the day.  Don't want to do anything stupid tomorrow, so the race may be out.  Was really hoping to get a good training run in for my marathon at the end of the month.  I'll just take it hour-by-hour, day-by-day. 

Quite a day...spent hours yesterday and last night icing my sprained ankle.  Was 20% (going to run) at dinner, 30% by evening, and 50/50 this morning.  Swelling and pain's was still there, but with ice and a couple doses of motrin, decided to give it a shot.

Warmed up with light trainers (tangent 3's) and realized that this would not last long at all.  Changed shoes to saucony ride's and before I could test them it was final call to the last shuttle.  Said a prayer and decided I'd run the first mile no matter what at desired race pace and adjust from there. 

Pretty good crowd showed up (200-300) and I worked my way to the front to take away any unneccessary work such as dodging runners (they can dodge me today :)).  The gun sounded and I was off, feeling absolutely horrible...

Miles 1-4:  26:25 (6:36 pace is a bit deceiving because it was all a gradual downhill...foot was cold, stiff and I had to favor my left leg)

Miles 4-8:  54:20 (Pain began to numb and path straightened out considerably...most of this section was on dirt and gravel which slowed us down a bit...I found a tiny bit of a groove and was less affected by any pain)

Miles 9-13.8:  1:33:22 (9-13 were all uphill and slower than 7min pace...however the last section was a sharp downhill which I was able to dip to sub-6min pace...I think a few of the markers were off in the middle section which made this last part seem faster...either miles 4-8 were shorter than marked or this was more of a 13.5 type course I would guess- they advertised it as 13.8)

I'm satisfied with the run.  It was a challenging course and I stayed strong, despite the ankle, throughout.  Hopefully this will be a good building block for my next marathon Thanksgiving weekend. 

rest...right ankle is about 2x size of left ankle.  Need to be careful this week.  No longer set on doing "speedwork" for next 2 weeks.  Just hope to maintain fitness and pr in the next marathon. 

10 miles really slow.  I'm feeling the effects from Saturday.  Needed 2 days rest + ankle is still quite swollen.  Plan to keep icing and will run cautiously until the swelling goes down.  It's been quite a string of bad luck- sprained ankle preceeding 20k in September, rain/hail/wind for Marathon in October, and now this preceeding Saturday.  I'll just need to be on the mend for the next week or two, hoping to maintain fitness.  My sub-3 dreams for late November are pretty much dashed, but I'd still like to shoot for a pr before moving into the winter season. 

5 slow recovery miles + 24 minutes on stepmaster.  Swelling's starting to go down a bit on the ankle.

Leg/weights + 7.25 on TM (2 x 400 @6min, 2 x800 @6:15, 2 x 1200 @6:30).  Recovery is going slowly from ankle.  In serious need of patience. 

Did 3 miles on TM...30min weights...3.5 more miles on TM...17 min bike...3.2 final miles on TM.  Felt better on each wave of running.  First day in which I can honestly say things seem to be getting better with the ankle.

High 40's, 10-15mph winds, and a steady rain for today's long run.  I'd have to say this was one of my more satisfying runs for a while, considering the ankle issues I've had recently and my fear that I won't be recovered enough for the upcoming marathon in 2 weeks.

Warmed up .25 miles and then ran the 12.5 course into Morris and through the hills.  It ends on a very steep hill and I pushed through in 1:29:21 (7:08.88 pace...you'll see why later).

I was absolutely soaked, so changed clothing and shoes.  Wasn't sure if my ankle was ready for light trainers, yet they were my only dry ones around.  Did the 9.5 mile loop through the hills of Goshen (beach street route) in 1:07:53 (7:08.74 pace...yeah, negative split by .14 seconds!).  It was an absolute torrential downpour by mile 20, so I did hit a mini-wall towards the end.  Overall ran 22 in 2:37:14 (7:08:82 pace).  I'll look back to see how this compares to my last run on this course...it was 2:36:16 in September- so considering the rain and this week's ankle issues, I'm ok with the extra 58 seconds.  Now time for the 2 week taper.  I've been running lower mileage (50's over the past month), so hopefully I'll be fine shortening it by a week. 

TM with a 1.5 miles broken up at 6min pace...6miles total.

8-mile run from gym to Morris at a 9min pace.

Today marks the 2-year anniversary of my running lifestyle. Had lunch with my friend Rick and he challenged me to join him in a Spring marathon. At the time I weighed 213 lbs and 1 1/2 weeks later ran a 10k Turkey Trot in 54 minutes. It's been a nice journey thus far.

rest...I'm still nursing the ankle a tad.  Just want to reach next week's marathon healthy.  Keeping my expectations low, but am hopeful to challenge my pr. 

10 miles slow.  Very sore and sluggish.

6 easy on TM + 20bike + 20min weights/legs.

Started out with 1-mile warm-up and then set out to do a 12 mile run.  My right achilles was a little sore today, but I'm almost certain it's due to compensating for a weak ankle.  Made it through first 5 miles in 34 minutes (6:48 pace) and was feeling ok.  The middle section was very hilly which started to aggravate the achilles.  Got through mile 9 in 1:02:30 (6:57 pace), but then really started to slow down.  Finally, part way through mile 11, I decided to just slow down and jog it in.  Total of 13 miles and I'll count 9.5 of them as marathon pace.  Used a new pair of tangents I plan to run the marathon in. 

This was not an encouraging run. The ankle and achilles were sore today. I shut down my attempt to do a 4mile mp run and may rule out using light trainers on Saturday. May expectations are quite low at this point, but I'll do my best to take care of myself between now and the marathon. Maybe a short 3 mile mp tomorrow and then definitely 2 days of complete rest. I will be careful to do full recovery in December- maybe even 2 weeks off.

5 miles on a hotel tm.

7 miles slowly with my wife.  Achilles pain will not go away.  Will run very lightly tomorrow and took motrin this evening.  Taking it day by day, hour by hour.

Quite a day! I knew I was in trouble 2 days ago when I couldn't keep up with my wife's 8:30 pace without noticable pain. Somehow I imagined 1 day's rest with motrin would magically heal me in time for the big race on Saturday. I also convinced myself that I could hang on to my fitness from October's marathon, which in ideal circumstances maybe I could, but I was not able to accomplish either speedwork or volume since that time. I haven't run a 70 mile week since August and I haven't been able to run fast since spraining my ankle 3 weeks ago (until last week and then hurt my achilles). So, basically I limped up to the starting line hoping to accomplish mind over matter (never mind my fitness had suffered and some was "the matter" with my achilles). So, I slept well last night, made it to the elementary school an hour early, stretched, found a secret bathroom in the back hallway, and made it to the front of the pack for the start of the race. I sized up the crowd around me and realized on a good day I could probably make top 20 or so (only 10 finished under 3hrs). Somehow, I convinced my mind that I could do this and ran mile 1 (all downhill) under 6 minutes. Did the achilles hurt? Absolutely! But I was going to give it my best until my body wouldn't allow me to. By mile 3, my body started to say, "enough's enough". That was my last sub-7 mile. One month ago my last sub-7 mile was on mile 16. I completed mile 5 with a time of 34 minutes. Mile 6 was complete in a time of 41:30...uh oh! The next several miles were grueling. All slightly uphill on a trail against a 20mph wind. My achilles was really starting to scream, so I slightly adjusted my stride to a semi-gallup. My goal was to make it to the halfway point with a chance of stil pr'ing (3:09). By mile 12 there were probably only 25-30 runner (of 450) in front of me. By mile 13 there were at least 40-50. I completed mile 13 in just over an 8 minute pace, making it to the halfway point in about 1:35 flat. Somehow, again I thought my mind could convince the body to do the impossible. I told myself that the 2nd half would now be slightly downhill with a 20 mph tailwind, which was true, but I failed to recognize that my right achilles was still hurting and that now my left calf was almost dead from over compensating. 

As I made the turnaround, I hooked onto a pack who pulled me along to mile 17 at a fairly decent pace.  Not sub-7, but close.  Then everything began to unravel.  The wind was at my back, the trail was moving slightly downward, but my legs no longer worked.  The only good part was my left calf was so dead that I was now shifting my weight back to the achilles which somehow had become more a dull pain.  I kept about an 8 minute pace until mile 21 and then stopped to eat a handful of gummi bears.  This was almost my undoing.  This is the point I decide it wasn't worth the risk of injuring myself and maybe I should just walk the rest.  Doing the math, I realized a 10 minute pace would get me back in just over 50 minutes and walking could take me 2 hours.  So I decided to just shuffle my way back.  Fortunately the trail was very forgiving, so I don't think much damage was being done. 

The last 1.5 miles were back on asphalt and I caused a few laughs by climbing 4 feet up an embankment and trotting on soft grass.  This last maybe 3/4 of a mile and then I thought I was going to kill myself trying to get back down.  Completed the final stretch, all uphill, spotted my family, and grabbed my 10-year-old who accompanied me to the finish.  My achilles and calf were sore, but the rest of me really wasn't all that tired. 

Am I glad I still ran?  Maybe not the smartest thing to do, but I actually enjoyed the experience.  It was a beautiful course, very well organized, and I can put another marathon notch on my belt.  It wasn't pretty, but I learned alot through this experience.  I plan now to take 2 full weeks of rest before training again and I'll definitely think twice before running back-to-back marathons or returning from an injury too soon.  Fortunately, the achilles doesn't seem much worse and my body feels 10x better than it did upon finishing Boston last Spring.   Hats off to you veteran marathoners who run several of them per year.  I nowhere near that in this stage of my running career.  If any of you made it this far, thanks for reading!