Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Long Tempo - No Troubles

I ran a pretty long tempo run yesterday morning - 10 total miles - 1 warm-up at 8:30 min/mile, 8 at long tempo pace 7:13 min/mile and a cool-down mile at 8:30 min/mile. I wanted to test things out a little and see if my feet would handle the stress. I must say that things went relatively well. Thus far, the issue has only manifested itself at about mile 12 or 13 of long run - that said, it was good to be going at a faster pace for a fair distance and not have any issues pop up.

One thing I have to watch is weight gain in the next little while. I have ticked up about 5 pounds over the Summer and need to take these off if I am going to run a good marathon in the Fall.

Hopefully, I can get back to training with consistent intensity and distance soon. For the past few weeks, my long runs have been pretty short (13 - 15 miles) and pretty slow pace-wise as a result of the injury. If it continues, it will be tough slogging come marathon day.

Monday, August 25, 2008

The Agony of De-Feet

I haven't been blogging for a while. It has been a combination of a couple of things actually. Vacation actually proved to interrupt the normal flow of my days which meant that I didn't report to much of what was going on from a training standpoint. As well, I have been putting up with some pain in my feet that has really put a damper on my training - to the extent that I haven't been able to train as I would like... which gave me a whole lot less to report on.

So the problem. I have had pain that starts out as what feels like a cramp on the bottom of my foot during a run and then transitions to a pain on the bone on the outside of my foot. This started in my left foot only, however, recently has been starting to appear in my right foot as well. I have been to my doctor and was sent to get a bone scan on Friday. I am not sure what the issue is, but it comes right as I was getting serious about my marathon training. For example, yesterday, I ended up stopping my long run after 13 miles as opposed to the 20 I had intended. As I am feeling great from a cardiovascular point of view, this is really frustrating.

I did run a race I didn't report on earlier this month. I actually ran Natal Day 6 Miler on the morning of my return from vacation. The journey to the race is almost a marathon in itself. We left Corner Brook, Newfoundland to head for the ferry back to Nova Scotia at 7:30 am. After a 2 hour drive we got to the ferry terminal, waited for 2 hours and then boarded the ferry. Seven hours later we arrived in Nova Scotia and started our drive to Halifax. After a slow drive from the ferry terminal (eating and car troubles got in the way) we arrived home at 10:30 that night. Unpacked the car, got to sleep at around midnight and was back up at 6:30 am to get ready for the 8:15 race start. It was an exceedingly humid day and I have to admit to not running very well finishing the 6 mile race in 40:08 - it may have been the hardest 6 miles of my life. I have an issue with starting races too quickly.

So, all in all, training has been frustrating lately. I am being cautious toward running right now, running slower and decreasing my distance in an effort to protect myself. That said, my attempt at a Boston Qualifier may be in jeopardy as it is extremely difficult for me to train like I would like.

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