Sixteen Mile Mark

I finished a 16 mile run this past Saturday, and I am not sure if it gave me more confidence at all. I realized that my cardio & muscle fitness was exceptional - but at the same time the effects on my joints were a bit scary. Towards the end every push off my left foot hurt. Is it the beginning of an injury? Is it pain? Well, now that I am a couple of days removed from the run I can safely say it was not injury. I'm going to assume it was just normal pain that distance runners need to go through. I decided to start taking some more supplements like Glucosamine to help with my joints. I will need every edge I can get in order to increase my mileage even further.

This week I am looking to take it a bit easy and possibly step my long run back down to 12 miles this weekend - but if I am feeling exceptional then I might tick it up to 18 miles. At this point I am tired of reading all these conflicting opinions on how to train for a marathon and I am going to start just listening to my body. This is how I am going to finish up my training and find my own route to success. If all else fails I know I have my will and determination to fall back on. After all, I have made this far - 10 months worth of training - when most people have problems fumbling around with excuses on why they "can't do" things. There's always a rationale, a reason, an excuse why to quit - but come hell or high water I am crossing that finish line on January 11th.

[UPDATE]: A week after the 16 mile run I did a 20 mile run. I was definitely not even 80% when I began the run at 6:45am. I knew that to do proper training you have to be able to do at least one 20 mile run. Approximately 4 miles into the run I started to get some of those knee pains back into my left knee along with ACL soreness. About 5 miles in I was sure that 20 was out of the question. At that point I decided to stop forcing myself to run slow and began running naturally (8:45 to 9:10 minute mile pace - instead of 10 minute mile pace as I was advised to do). Amazingly, the knee pain kind of got buried and disappeared somewhat from miles 6 to 10. I think that by running the way I trained (a bit faster) it allowed a more natural strike of the foot and muscle usage. At Mile 15 I knew I was going to be able to pull it off. It is a good feeling blowing by a half marathon distance and realizing I still have got a lot left in the tank. I was happy at that point that I "aimed high" because it really pushed me harder. The knee pain emerged again at Mile 16 and the last 4 miles were quite painful. As soon as I reached mile 20 I went right into a convenience store in historic downtown Winter Garden, set my water bottle down, and chugged down 2 Gatorade bottles. The great thing about this run was that it gave me confidence that I can run through these unusual pains I have never felt before and still make it through! It has been hard for me to discern the difference between pain and injury throughout this sojourn - and I have made the mistake of compounding an injury - but I have also began to understand my body and listen to it.

I'm already beginning to feel that adrenaline in my stomach when I think about the race next week. It is going to be difficult to keep it under control so that it does not burn through my calories. To pre-empt this I am planning on some very good nights of sleep leading up to Sunday so that even if I do not sleep well before the 3am wake-up time Sunday I will still be in good shape and ready to go!