For some reason this has been one the toughest training seasons I can remember. Not because of my lungs as you might guess, but because of persistent legs problems! It’s just one injury after another. Two weeks ago I pulled a hamstring muscle in my right leg, last weekend I developed an anterior shin splint on the same leg. When will it end! It hurts from the bottom of my butt cheek , all the way down to my shins when walk or bend. I’m sure these injuries didn’t cause themselves? I must be doing something wrong, but I just cant figure out what. Please don’t tell me its old age, or that I’m not stretching properly, or that I’m biting off more than I can chew by attempting a marathon with just 10 weeks of training…. that would just make too much sense!
One things for sure, I don’t wanna make these injuries worse and possibly jeopardize my participation in the Rome marathon , so I’m gonna postpone my scheduled 18 miler for another two weeks and probably eliminate the 20 miler all together . I’ll start my taper six weeks before the race instead of four like I usually do. Hopefully this extra down time will allow my strained muscles to heal. I just hope I havent wiped out all the gains I’ve made up to this point . With the marathon only 7 weeks away, I don’t have time to start from scratch.
OK, the upside to this little break in training, is that it’s afforded me some extra time to do some much needed blog revamping. I wanna thank Sandi of LunaStone Designs for convincing me to switch over to the WordPress platform at my own domain( she made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.) Sandi has helped me with several of my blog re-designs in the past, and is an awesome person to work with…I highly recommend her.
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Hey, I love the changes and glad you’re all settled in! That updated daily breathing indicator is pretty spiffy, too. 🙂
Thanks ! It’ll take me a while complete all the changes.
Im still trying to find my way around in WordPress
I made that little peak flow meter widget myself.
Well, well, look at you! New website, wow! I bookmarked you so I don’t loose track of you. Hope you get to feeling better for your trip to Rome. That widget is cool too! Gosh you on a magazine too, where have I been? I must visit more!
moon
hi Steve, great new site (only found your old one a few weeks ago mind you!). Sorry you are having so many injuries they always seem to come in pairs at least! I’m sure you have seen sports physios etc – but finding the right one can make a big diff even if you’ve seen lots before. I finally found the right one to help me with chronic glut weakness, and a big tear in one of my gluts, and hip and back problems (partly if not entirely steroid-induced). I love reading your blog as I love all things running and walking related, and am also a brittle asthmatic who just keeps doing things that shouldnt quite be possible!
I am classed as severe and brittle, although less severe than many people I know, and my lung function between exacerbations is pretty good (won’t invade your blog with all my boring details, don’t worry!), but I do, one week in two perhaps, when I’m able, insist on running between 2 and 12 miles at a time. I realise I am lucky to be able to run at all – and my consultant thinks I shouldnt be able to – but I do experience most of the types of limitations and frustrations and satisfactions that you do, as well as the seesaw of improvement and setbacks with exacerbations, bad lung days after a long run, etc etc. I find if I run slowly (not that I have any basic speed anyway) I can keep running as long as my peak flow stays over about 260, though it gets harder and harder and I usually have to stop once it starts tightening up.
I think your blog may just have inspired me to finally bite the bullet and enter a marathon, just accepting that my training won’t be an uninterrupted 4 month schedule and there’s no point waiting for things to be perfect!
I hope you can stay on your revised schedule for Rome – you won’t lose all the gains you already made over this time scale, it will pay off.
Good luck!
EJ
I cannot believe it’s only 7 weeks to the marathon in Rome. It seemed so far ahead.
Your new site is cool, except for the fact one has to scroll down until almost the bottom of the page to see your most recent entry. Or is it only my computer playing tricks?