The Green-light Mile

After I got the green-light a few weeks ago, my marathon training program has continued as steadily and unsteadily as a prop plane gliding through a cloud. After a three-week vacation--my last hurrah before 'the other half' of my training plan--I had one final test with my PT to make sure I was race-ready. Apparently I am, so here I go! I've been gradually adding on the mileage and the muscle. It's weird how one day you just up and notice your jeans fit a little tighter in the quad area than before. My knee-jerk reaction was to be self-concious about this until it dawned on me that my running and protein shakes were actually doing their job.

I've now ran one long distance run past the halfway mark. This past Saturday, I ran 15.5-ish miles. But per the usual, each time I get into a long run, there's always something new ailing me. The same ol' knee aches come and go, but it's the other stuff that makes itself known. This past Saturday it was my quadraceps and the backs of my legs. I really felt the burn at about mile 13. I could almost hear my muscles tearing and pulling past their breaking point (eww).

The week before, when I hit the mid-way point of 13.1 miles, it was the rightside of my body that started to give out. At one point (about mile 9), I was forced to walk due to the stress on that side. But, after about 10 minutes of walking, I was jogging again, and everything was fine-feeling. Except my blistering toes. From my hip down to my baby toe on my right-side; ailments came and went that day but haven't since.

I guess that's how she goes... that's how she goes. And if you don't find a way to correct the ailment quick, then that just leads to more ailment, or injury. I get the feeling that there's a part of my body I'm really pressing my luck with. It could be the lack of muscular support to my knees or my hip joints. I usually ignore "little" aches to pay more attention to the larger aches, or at least the places where I know a big ache can occur (i.e. SI Joint City).

But, what comes with learning the hard way...is picking up tricks I hadn't known before. Here's a few I've picked up in the past few weeks:

• Body Glide isn't just for thigh friction. Use it anywhere there's friction. It hadn't dawned on me before. So now, I use it on my toes and guess what! My blister count has dropped considerably! And nooo, I don't wear cotton socks (yet another thing I learned the hard way).

• You can tell when your running shoes start to fail you by noticing all the new places where your feet start to hurt.
• Don't think about the end goal during training. Only think about the immediate goal ahead of you ('hmm, tomorrow I do cross training, what should it be, Yoga, pilates, or both?'). This works for me in that I don't psyche myself out by thinking about 26.2 friggin' miles.
• Definitely use your training as an excuse to eat that heaping plate of chicken n' waffles because gosh darn it, you EARNED it! Sure, eat healthy and stay away from the booze, but I've come to find that when you train for a race of epic proportion, you have to eat as much to counter it.