Woke up early to get my 7 mile run in before school starts today. I set off on a 7 mile run and could not believe how cool and perfect the weather was this morning.
I have been battling two foot pains in the last two days. They came out of nowhere. My left foot has flared up again where my stress fracture was at the beginning of the year and my right foot has decided to provide me some wonderful pain in my heel. Can this really be happening? 40 days away from my goal where I am nervous as all get out and now I have these things to worry about.
I felt really good during my run today. I took it nice and easy to start to give my feet a chance to warm up running the first mile 8:59. I felt pretty good at that point so I kicked it up another gear to test them puppies out. I felt good on mile two running 8:20 so then mile three I continue to increase my pace to 7:57.
It was at this point that I should mention the testosterone and childish competition part of the title. I saw this dude running way up ahead of me on 53rd bike path and I decided to a make it my goal to catch him. I knew that by the way I was gaining on him from the distance that I had a shot. This made the run a little more enjoyable. I slowly gained ground as I picked up my pace running mile 4 in 7:36. It was around this point that I caught him and I knew that he had also picked up his pace because we were stride for stride and previously he was not running this fast because I had gained so much ground. The testosterone and competition of men never goes away. Here we are at 5:30 in the morning on a bike path on 53rd where nobody is around and no medals to be won and we are both silently cursing each other. I picked up the pace and so did he. Finally, he could not quite manage and he slipped behind. I ran mile 5 in 7:26 because after I passed him I turned around and he was hot on my trail again. I kicked it up one more notch and that was it. I loved it! I think in the end we made each other better or at least we helped each other get our runs done faster. It must be in our DNA.
To finish up I ran mile 6 in 7:47 and mile 7 in 7:37. I was feeling great and still about a mile from home so I ran an additional .6 miles to get home faster and walked the last part. I ran the 7.6 miles in 60 minutes for a 7:56 pace.
My heel flared up about 6 times providing me with a nice jolt of pain while running. I currently have my foot in an ice water bath hoping this helps. I am pondering taking my two rest days of the week and using them together tomorrow and Friday giving my feet a rest and let me prepare for my 18 miler on Saturday. I will see how things go today, but man does that jolt of pain hurt when it flared up.
I cannot believe the marathon is about 45 days away. Still plenty of time to strive in my pursuit of GETTING IT DONE!
Now, off for some coffee and school. Yahoo!
Aaron,
Be careful! You are in such good shape right now. A week of cross training will not hurt your marathon and could save it. Your body is giving you warning signs. I know it sucks to modify the plan. 2.5 weeks ago I ran really long and afterwards I was not recovering like normal. Rather than try to push through the workouts I had planned I modified and took as much recovery as I needed knowing that I’m worked a long time to get in the shape I am in and trying to push through could ruin it all. Hopefully the pain goes away quickly. You have worked really hard for this.