4 Weeks To Go!

The month of May was not how I wanted it to go but it its what it is and now I've got to focus on June. 4 Weeks gives me roughly 3 weeks to ramp up my training BIG TIME and chill out the final week. I'm kind of winging it right now with training and trying to play catch up so we'll see if my plan works. My long runs have been taking 1.5-2 weeks to fully recover so I'll have to plan my last long run of 25-30 miles in the next week or so. From there it will be short 5-10 mile runs with a ton of cycling to boost my cardio without stressing my legs too much with the pounding. I'm definitely stressing out a bit because although I think just finishing would be pretty good there is that part of me that wants to be competitive and try to place in the top half. With that mentality comes the push to get as fit as possible given the time I have left. It's like cramming for that final exam. I know I'm going to suffer dearly in this race so my thinking is that if I can improve my fitness even a tiny bit these last few weeks I can maybe delay when the really bad suffering begins in the race. My two most important goals leading up to the race. 1. One more long trail run of 25-30 miles 2. Drop 8-10 lbs tipping the scale at 166lbs. If I can complete these two goals and show up at the start line injury free I'll feel pretty good.

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Although I've cleared myself to run and I feel like I did a good job of healing up as quickly as possible I'm still very nervous to do a long run.  That said, I went for a long ride to keep the heart and legs in shape with minimal impact.  This ride was fun and safe with most of it being on Denver's great bike path system.  Slept in so didn't have a chance to really go big and get the 120 miles I wanted.  Maybe in a couple of weeks since next weekend will be devoted to my long runs in preparation for the North Fork 50 ultramarathon race.  I'm still very much motivated for this race and although my running miles hasn't been the greatest I know there is still plenty of time to get in some long runs.  It should be good with long days and warmer weather!

Post Tibial Tendonitis

Too much too soon?  My guess is that my legs were not as ready as my mind was for the 18.4 mile trail run almost two weeks ago.  I felt tired but felt no sharp pain to make me consider stopping during the run.  Looking back on it I probably should of laid off the gas and mileage that day.  I ran all 18.4 miles including the uphills (passing mtn bikers) and it was also my longest run on all trails.  I think all of this along with my 14 and 8 mile run earlier in the week made my legs give out. Not smart.  I pointed at the pain in my ankle and before I could finish my sentence my bro-n-law who is an ortho foot surgeon said, "Post Tib Tendonitis...".  Hearing the name of the injury was in some ways relieving because now I knew exactly what I needed to research and do to hopefully heal the injury.  John gave me a few pointers for recovery and I hope to be back on my feet running soon.  I've managed to stay cardio fit with some long bike rides but feeling the need to start running again.  I have 7.5 weeks to go before my "race" and all I want is to be healed and running again.  I'll attempt to run tonight on the treadmill and see how the ankle goes.  I purchased some insoles to give my arch some support, I've been stretching the crap out of my calves and massaging my tendon as much as possible.  I know I can still do this race. As far as how fast...I'm not sure.  I can do this.

Ups and Downs

After my 18.4 mile trail run everything came crashing down and looking back on everything I'm not that surprised anymore.  It turns out I had done a pretty good block of training the month of April both with cycling and running.  I managed to only take 4 days off from training in April and many of the days I did a double session workout.  As the month went I on I continued to push both mileage and effort during my runs.  I guess my body decided to call it quits and present me with some overtraining symptoms such as a slight running injury and illness I'm just now starting to get over.  As a competitive athlete you train yourself to suffer through pain so overtraining symptoms can sometimes be overlooked.  A lot of factors (heel injury, spring snowstorm, lots of work, horrible cough) just all added up to tell me to shut it down for a few days.  I have that newbie mentality right now like I'm losing so much fitness these last few days doing nothing but I know deep down inside that my body needs this rest and that this is only going to make me stronger.  That said,  I look forward to feeling better tomorrow and training hard in May.