Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 14th, 2007 in Chicago, Marathon, Training
This week actually turned out to be a great week of running for me. As I mentioned in last week’s post, I decided to try something a bit different this week. I decided to run just 2 miles at a time. Since that isn’t much running, I ran doubles for the 3 days that I was running just 2 miles. Just focusing on 2 miles at a time helped me mentally. Also, running doubles for the first time, and for 3 days in a row was a rather interesting experience. I know it’s nothing like the mileage that elite runners do when they run doubles, but just the aspect of having to get dressed to go running and to go out the door twice in a day was actually fun.
After the three days of running 2 mile doubles, I went back to running once a day, but just ran 4 or 5 miles.
At the end of the week, I ended up doing all my runs at sub-10 pace and I ended up running eight days in a row. The last time I had a stretch of consecutive sub-10 runs was back in May. Of course, back then, the number of miles was much higher that what I ran this week :-). And I’ve never run eight days in a row either.
So, I’ve ended the week at 25 miles. It’s not the kind of mileage I expected to running at this point when I started training, but maybe this is just what I need as Chicago approaches….a little confidence.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 8th, 2007 in Chicago, Marathon, Training
My main concern this week was the pain I had on my right foot. The x-ray I had taken came back normal. I gave my foot a couple days rest and the pain seems to be gone.
I also got the result of my blood test. It does showed my platelet count is a bit low, but it doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about. Everything else fell in the normal range. It would have been nice if they did find something wrong as it would have explained while I seem to be getting fatigued after running just 2-3 miles. Maybe the problem is really just the weather.
I think I need a mental boost right now so i decided to try something new for the remaining 4 weeks. I decided to run just 2 miles without any walking and do that 4 days in a row. Every 4 days I’ll an extra 1/2 mile and gradually build up the distance I can run without having to walk. Since that isn’t much running at all, I’ll do double runs each day, at least initially.
It actually worked well for me this morning. I went out and ran 2 miles and I actually did it at a sub 9:00 pace which was a great mental boost for me I’m hoping this will help with my confidence as I approach the Chicago marathon.
I was worrying about having to taper, but after thinking about it, I’m not running much these days anyway, so I’m not going to try and taper for the marathon except for resting the 4-5 days before the marathon.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 5th, 2007 in Chicago, Injury, Marathon, Training
After my Sunday run, I noticed that the outside area of my right foot was a bit sore and it lasted throughout the rest of the day. There was no swelling and I didn’t think much of it. By the following morning, it felt fine. Monday was a rest day.
Yesterday I went out planning to run 7-8 miles, but after just 2.5 miles, the same area started to hurt. It got so bad that I had to abandon the run. Not only could I not run, but I couldn’t walk without a limp.
When I got home, I started feeling the area to see if I can tell where the pain was coming from. I’ve circled the area on the image to the right. The area wasn’t painful when I poked it, but I could feel a dull pain. It only hurts when I actually stand, walk, or put any kind of pressure on my foot.
Luckily, I had a Dr’s appt yesterday morning as I was planning to get a blood test done to ensure I wasn’t anemic. I had them also take a x-ray so I can confirm I don’t have a stress fracture. Unfortunately I wouldn’t know the results until the end of the week.
I decided to rest today and while my foot feels a bit better, I can still feel a dull pain when I stand or walk.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on September 2nd, 2007 in Chicago, Marathon, Training
The last 2 weeks have been about the same as it’s been for the last few months. I did set one important goal for last Sunday’s run though. Regardless of how bad I feel I’m running, I wanted to do a long run where I was on my feet for 4 hours. I decided not to bother about worrying about pace or how much I had to walk, but rather, just to keep moving forward for 4 hours.
That long run started off about the same as my previous runs, but I’m happy to report that I managed to keep moving for 4 hours and I managed to cover 19 miles. I had figured that I would have probably done at least 18 and I was hoping I could have made 20, but I was happy with the 19 miles. I did notice some cramping in the last mile if I tried to run so the whole of the last mile was spent walking.
I plan to do one more long run like that before my marathon, but I hope to make it a 20-miler.
Posted by Derek Lee-Wo on August 19th, 2007 in Chicago, Marathon, Training
This week ended up being an easy one with just 20 miles.
I’m still struggling with my running and I seem to be running less and less now. I decided to go see a doctor and get a blood test done just to ensure that there isn’t something wrong. That appointment isn’t for another 2 weeks though.
I’m seriously starting to think about abandoning the Chicago Marathon. I had to prepay about $800 for the hotel and if I cancel before September 11, I can get a full refund. I’ll wait and see what the results of my blood test are before making a decision, but my confidence in finishing the marathon is at all time low right now.
