Let’s Try This Again

It is Hard to believe but it’s been since the end of February since my last post. I certainly didn’t plan on that, but life has been quite full over the Spring and into the Summer months. About 6 weeks ago I decided that I wanted to get back to training for a race. Though I was still feeling tightness in my IT band I felt it was worth just trying to get back out and running with some consistency. So, why not train for a marathon? I ran the half in Savannah last year, and since I’m working on a huge project for work there… why not? Savannah and November here we come.

After a few weeks to let me my body rest, as I had been running casually and mountain biking quite a bit over the last few months, I started my training. Because of timing I had missed the first two weeks of my 18 week training schedule. Knowing that I had maintained a decent cardio fitness over most of the year I wasn’t too worried. I took the schedule into word, made a few modifications and off we go. Keep in mind that my goals for this race are quite different than my goals for the Publix marathon I previous started my training for. Then my cardio was solid and I was coming off a solid performance in Savannah for the Half. This go around though my schedule is not nearly as aggressive (the last one had me doing 3 20 mile runs where this one only has me doing 1) and my goal, though might be stretching it at doing a 3:30 time, is really just to finish the race and the distance.

Last week I was supposed to run 8 miles for my weekend long run. I had already committed to doing a Charity bike ride for the Scott Rigsby foundation. The ride was a 25 miler and I felt, from a cardio perspective, was a pretty good trade-off. The ride was a great time and I’m very glad I did it and was apart of the event. If you don’t know Scott’s story you should check it out.

This week I had to travel to Savannah for work meetings, so to get my runs in I did them first thing in the morning. I did my medium distance on Wednesday (5 miles), and my short run on Thursday (3 miles). I felt great and only had some general tightness in my legs. Saturday though was a big day. It would be my first double digit mileage run since the Savannah half last year. From my perspective how my legs held up during and after the run were going to be a big question.

I ran at Kennesaw Mountain and though a hilly course I felt running on trails would be better on my body than on pavement. I’ve been keeping my running in an Aerobic cardio zone so the pace was nice and easy. At the end I finished right at 110 minutes (a 10 minute a mile pace). Sure, I probably could have pushed a little harder in places, but the goal was to run the distance and feel like I could move forward with my training and be mentally positive that I “can do this”.

I went for a 90 minute massage today with a big focus on my legs. I love massages 🙂 Overall I feel really grood, though a little sore, but nothing overwhelming. A real positive sign. next week is a step back week but I’ll be building to 14 miles in just weeks, which will constitute my longest run ever 🙂