Okay…Slacking, but not in my workouts

0jeff • 18th Oct 2009 • exercise • running

So I have been slacking, but not in my workouts.  The only slacking I’ve done is not updating this site!

A lot has been going on over the last few weeks, especially around my workouts.  In August, I joined the running group I was with last year and started training for my second marathon.  So far things are going exactly like they did last year, almost to the day.

We’re up to 10 mile long runs now.  The training starts with 3 miles as the long run and works up one mile a week.  I’m still slower than last year but am slowly improving.  My weight has come down about 10 pounds since August so my pace has steadily increased.  The weather has finally cooled off too which has helped out tremendously.  50-degree runs are a lot easier than 80-degree runs.

With the increased mileage comes injuries too.  The IT band problem I had last year is back again this year.  It came back at the same weekly mileage as last year too.  The guys at Therapy Central worked on me before our 9 miler and I had a good run.  On this weekend’s 10 miler it acted up again though around mile 8 so I stopped there.  It wasn’t really too bad, but I don’t want to take any chances.

I think the flare up this weekend was because of the condition of Brushy Creek Trail.  There was a lot of flooding out there which left parts of the trail in rough shape.  There were a lot more soft spots than normal which always bothers me.  But I think the biggest thing was all the ruts from water runoff.  Dancing around those, especially on the part of the trail we call the “lollipop”, combined with the soft and uneven footing really aggravated things.

Things feel okay today with a little tenderness.  I’ll be going extra easy for tomorrow’s run and will be sure to stretch well when done all week this week.  That’s really the only thing that helps out in the long term.

One thing I’m doing differently this year is I’ve signed up for an intermediary race.  Last year, I didn’t do anything except the marathon which made me start to burn out by the end of training.  So far, I’ve done the Silicon Relay.  Next up is the San Antonio Half in November.  Depending on when our house is finished, I may do the White Rock Half in December too.

Till next time…