Marathon Training: Mental Strength

Here's another one of those posts where I admit I am human and not just an energizer bunny-like exercise machine =P Hope this helps others realize you are not alone in your irrational behavior when training for a marathon ;)

After Saturday's 18 miler, the tendons on the front of my right leg, near the ankle joint, hurt every time I flexed my foot. After running for over 4 hours, it's not surprising to have sore feet, ankles, shins, you name it. But when it didn't go away by Monday, I started to worry. I stayed home from work so I could stay off my feet and iced it all day. Not wanting to risk making it worse and having to skip my 20 mile run on 8/27, I skipped Tuesday's run to let it rest. It finally felt better yesterday (cue huge sigh of relief) and I went for a run this morning. It was glorious! Being the super cautious runner that I am, I did not dare attempt the scheduled track workout. I went for an easy run with my group instead, and it was AMAZING! The weather was a little cooler, the run was pain free, and we ran faster than I expected, yet it felt effortless. I guess that's the benefits of 4 days of no running ;)

[A slight, but very relevant tangent before I conclude my story: becoming a group leader is one of the best decisions I've ever made. It brings a new level of joy to running, it helps me run more consistently, and I pay more attention to not doing something stupid since I want to set a good example. But best of all, my running group absolutely ROCKS! Most of them skipped the track workout to run with me this morning and we had an amazing time. /Tangent #1]


So that's the happy ending to this story, but it came at the tail end of 4 tense days. Because I'm training for a marathon, my imagination went into overdrive on Sunday. I had a tiny breakdown Monday night, and I snapped at Jason when he implied that I shouldn't even think about running on Tuesday. I may be driven and OCD enough to want to keep to a training schedule, but I am not stupid. Of course I wanted to run on Tuesday, but I knew better and had already decided I wasn't going to try. That was the reason I was so cranky because I knew I would miss the run. But it's fair of him to assume that I was considering it since marathon runners are insane and tend to ignore obvious signs to rest.

[Tangent #2: It goes without saying that Jason is the best boyfriend in the world to put up with my neurotic tendencies, which are tenfold during marathon training =P Even though I don't always want to hear it, he keeps me grounded and makes me realize how ridiculous I am being when I freak out after barely 2 days of dealing with this "injury" because I may miss my 20 mile run 2 weeks later, which of course will ruin my training schedule and my chances at racing this marathon. =P And you think Taper Madness is bad? ;)]


I must sound like a broken record explaining to my group why we run slower and with more walk breaks during long runs and in the heat, and cautioning them against risky behavior that may result in injury, but this is why. When training for a shorter race, a small setback doesn't phase me as much because I haven't put as much effort into training and given so much of myself. But training for a marathon is A LOT of hard work, specially now that I am training for a time goal. When I ask so much of my body, is easy to mistake something minor for something that could turn into a major injury. I do not want to do anything at all that will jeopardize me starting this race, let alone finishing it and meeting my goals. It would absolutely crush me to have put in all these miles and then have to skip the race.

I've said it before, but running a marathon doesn't scare me. I know I will finish this one, just like I knew I would finish the first one before I even ran 20 miles in training. But training for a marathon is very daunting and requires great mental toughness. There are a lot of early morning, lots of long runs in all kinds of conditions, and so many little things that can go run and mess with your confidence. I am not sure how often I will train for a marathon in the future, but every time I do I learn more and more about myself and just how tough I am.

Road to Recovery & Week 37 Recap

I'm almost afraid to post this, but I think my foot is on the mends. I woke up with zero pain today, even when I took my first steps out of bed, and it's felt great all day! Every now and then I think I feel a twinge, but that's probably in my head because it feels too good to be true and I don't want to get my hopes up too soon.

It is a strange sensation to finally feel a body part healed. When you have an injury, the pain decreases both in intensity and frequency as it heals, but you still have that nagging dull ache until it's fully heals. Then all of a sudden you wake up one day and it is completely gone. You almost miss the pain because you barely remember what it was like to not have it and wonder all day if it's really gone or if stepping the wrong way will suddenly bring it back. It's a wonderful feeling!

Even though I ran 9.5 miles this weekend, I took really good care of the foot. It was bothering me a bit on the ride Friday night, but I stretched it well and taped it before the run. The taping worked wonders. Not only was I not in pain during most of the run, there was no pain after. I kept it taped most of the day while we were out, and I think that helped too. What I think really put it over the edge was that I finally did yoga and lots of stretching on Sunday.

Apparently thunderbolt pose (where you sit on your heels) is great for this, and I did that a few times without knowing it. I did yoga before bed last night, wore the splint, and was sure to stretch and flex the foot before stepping out of bed and I could not believe it when I didn't feel pain even on that first step. I'm still going to be cautiously optimistic, continue to stretch every chance I get (e.g. when waiting for my food to heat up in the break room) and do yoga regularly again in hopes that the pain stays away for good!

This makes me feel much better about the upcoming Half Marathon in 6 weeks, and that I'll be able to train for a full marathon in February! I was going to run a 15k this weekend, but decided against it earlier this weekend. I am tempted to register now, but I don't want to push it too soon, so I'm going to sleep in, go for a short(er) run and enjoy running :)

Week Totals (rounded)

• run - 17 miles
• walk - 6 miles
• bike - 39 miles
• strength/core - 14 (full) push ups (oh yeah, I'm restarting 100 push up challenge, but with full push ups this time)
• yoga - 40 min
• totals - 10 hrs / 61 miles

Workout Summary

See details on Dailymile

• Monday - 1 hr massage :)
• Tuesday - ran 3 miles; biked 1.3 miles (publix)
• Wednesday - walked 2.5 miles (bus)
• Thursday - ran 4 miles; walked 1.25 miles (bus)
• Friday - walked 2.5 miles (bus); biked 17.25 miles (ice cream)
• Saturday - ran 9.5 miles; biked 20 miles (fm, lunch, gms)
• Sunday - 40 min yoga (2 sessions); 14 (real) push ups!

Bike Crash

Yesterday's TIART at the Runner's Lounge was, "Only in Running ..." I'm a day late, but here's my contribution:

Only in running do you fall off your bike and your first thought is, "I hope I can still run" :)

We rode our bikes to Orange Cycle this morning, had some lunch at College Park, then rode back. The ride was great and uneventful, until I turned onto the driveway to my apartment, slipped on some leaves, and wiped out. I landed on my side and I think my left hip took the brunt of the impact, then my head. Thank god for helmets!

Nothing is broken, but I have a big nasty scrape on my left elbow (I think 1 layer of skin is gone), a small gash and scrape on my right knee (why is it always my right knee!?) and bruises on my left thigh/hip that are slowly materializing and changing colors before my eyes. Of course, this would happen the one time I forget to wear my cycling gloves, but my right hand just has a tiny scrape.

My biked may have looked worse than me, as it layed in a contorted heap on the ground. The front wheel and handlebars were twisted to one side and Jason thinks that the breaks may be broken or at least need to be realigned or popped back in. So I may be getting a new bike sooner than planned, though I planed to start seriously looking next week anyway.

I really did think about how this would affect my running schedule as I was falling or as I layed on the ground--it all happened so fast. I amazed myself with how much I have changed. Had this happened last year, it would have ruined my day and I would have used it as an excuse not to bike or exercise for a while. But today I just popped back up and started immediately analyzing the damage and thinking about what I could do to ensure I was back running and biking as soon as possible. I was laughing and smiling almost immediately as Jason took photos of the damage.

I've somehow transformed myself into an athlete and suddenly find myself seeing a whole new world I never knew existed--or at least it seemed so far away that I never thought I'd be part of it or get to even peak through the fence. Now I can't imagine it being any other way, and I look forward to where the next turn in the road will lead me.

Wipeout

Yesterday I fell off my bike when I got to work and bruised my knee. Although the bruise hurt a lot, it did not seem to affect my mobility. However, this morning I feel like I was hit by a truck. My hips and butt feel like they are bruised too and pretty much my entire body hurts. I didn't really feel like this fall was that bad, but I can't think of what else happened yesterday that may be causing these pains. I suppose it could also be late effects from Tuesday's run.

I am taking it easy today and tomorrow, which means no biking or kickboxing, and hoping it all works itself out of my system for Saturday morning's race. I can't help but think that I overdid it and now I am going to pay for it. I know I'll still be able to run the entire race on Sat, as long as these aches go away, but I am no longer sure of the speed. I am just going to focus on running the whole thing and finishing. There will always be other races and my health is more important. I may go for a walk tonight or tomorrow to loosen up my muscles, and because I may go crazy if I just sit around and do nothing.