I've just realized that it's been awhile since I've written anything. A lot of stuff has been going on, so I figured I'd better bring everyone up-to-date.
Last time I talked about the groin injury I was suffering with. I was pretty cranky about the whole thing, especially since I had just registered for the race the day before the injury. While I was moping about the house, Andrea gave me a fresh perspective.
"Ok, so you can't run the full marathon. So what? There's nothing that says you can't walk part of that 26 miles. I'll still be very proud of you."
While I admit that the thought of not being able to run the whole race was certainly going to be a disappointment, the furthest distance I had ever covered was a mere 13 km during a forced march (with full pack!) during my basic training days. The ability to run/walk/crawl 26 miles was still going to be a significant accomplishment. I started to feel a little better.
I ended up taking the rest of the week off from running.
My normal training routine is to do the long run on Sundays, take Monday and Friday off, run a short distance on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and run a medium distance on Wednesday. Since I wasn't feeling 100% by the time the next Sunday rolled around (scheduled for 12 miles), I had to rework my regimen. It's very important that I get the long distances in before the race, so I absolutely did not want to drop any. So, instead of running the long distance at the beginning of the week, I decided to run them at the end of the week (Saturdays instead of Sundays). By running the 4 and 5 mile distances at a 5.5mph during the week, that gave me a little extra time to recover from the injury.
So, Saturday the 19th rolls around. This was going to be the day that would likely dictate my future as a marathon runner. If I managed to complete the run with no problems, I figured everything would be good to go for the rest of my training schedule. If there were any problems, I was going to have to take several weeks off, leaving me destined for either the half-marathon (which was probably the most likely) or running and walking the full (less likely, especially because of the time limit).
I actually felt pretty good during the run - good enough that I did 13 miles instead of 12. That last mile was absolutely brutal, but that was because I probably wasn't properly fueled before the run (one bowl of oatmeal in the morning was not enough). I did manage to complete the distance in 2:35, but it was far from my desired pace.
Just to be sure, I took two days off after the run, leaving me with only 4 runs during the week instead of the usual 5. I felt really good all week.
This weekend, I went for the regularly scheduled 14-mile run and I had no problems at all (if you don't count a 20 km/h headwind as a problem!). I finished in 2:40, which was only 6 minutes off of my 5.5 mph pace. I was pretty happy about that. I suspect that the carb overloading I did the day before and in the morning (2 bowls of oatmeal) went a long way to helping me through.
I'd like to think that things are back on track. I'm very careful about my stretching, and I try to stretch out my groin area frequently. So far it appears to be working. Provided that nothing else happens during the remaining 8 weeks of training (I can't believe I'm halfway through!), I feel like I'll be able to make through the full race.
Keep those fingers crossed!
- Mike
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