Weekend workouts/training/etc

Saturday was rest day but today (Sunday) we had our last really long run before we start taper next week... ran 20.30 miles at a really slow pace (11.23 min/mile) because of the heat. BUT we finished strong!! I rewarded myself with some fro yo for a very good run!

yesterday was "Supposed" to be my triathlon, Then it was canceled because Tropical Storm Karen was SUPPOSED to disrupt the Gulf / winds enough to cause trouble. It was a beautiful day.  Nothing but respect for the race director though -what a tough call for such a big event.

Yesterday and today are unplanned rest days.... light walking for about a mile. I am so fatigued still from how bad September sucked.   Trying to schedule some time to just relax.... the 12th is looking like my first chance.  *sigh*

Completed a 6 1/2 mile run...starting to begin training again for a 1/2 Marathon I want to do in December...

I've been at Disneyland as part of the OH event. So doing a lot of walking but no planned exercise.

Well my goal was 23 miles, last long run before 10/26 marathon.  IT band on left leg decided that was too much running and I called for the 'taxi' (wife) to pick me up at 18.4 miles in.

I have def noticed that if I run on the sides of the road I have IT band issues on that side, mostly ran on the left here (facing traffice) and sure enough the left IT band gave me problems.  I have had the same issue on the right side, when running on the right side of the road.

So with that in mind, on marathon day I will be VERY cognizant of the road surface and do my best to stay in the middle, as flat as I can.

I ended up walking the last 1.4 miles or so of the run, I would run for 60 seconds or less and the band was just too tight, I would have to stop and stretch it again and then just walk.  I could walk comfortably if I got in a rhythm so I considered finishing the route walking but did not see any real reason to walk another 5 miles or so at that point.

Bought a foam roller and worked on the left leg a good bit on Saturday night, limped on/off on Sunday and a bit this morning.  Every once in a while I put my foot down funny I feel a sharp pain.

Not going to run until Wednesday at the earliest, let it heal as much as possible.

On a positive note, I found a GREAT running trail, beside a lake, lots of runners, pretty flat, 7 mile loop (out of the 18.5) and I plan on going back quite a bit.  Water stations at each end, and about 5 miles from my house.  The view was fantastic and only about 10% pavement, 90% crushed sand rock.

So the surface is not quite a flat as I am used to (all roads/sidewalks) and that may have also contributed to the IT band getting tighter!?  Not to mention the durn 410' of climbing/elevation for the rest of my run.... 

All that said, I feel that I could have walked the rest if I really had to.  I would have felt "more prepared" for the marathon if I had finished this one, I got in 20 miles about 2.5 weeks ago.  But, at some point you have to just go for it and see what happens.

My plan is to run, walk, limp, hop, skip, or jump the 26.2 miles!  :)  Time I am hoping for now is under 6 hours.  I did the half in 2:49:xx on Saturday including a huge hill for the last 2 miles of that.

Sam

Sam, is this your first marathon too? Couple things I've learned from my training program - - a max of 20 miles long run is more than sufficient. As long as you know you can do 20, you're good for the whole 26.2. And you're gonna start tapering this week too, right? My marathon is on 10/27 and we start taper on Weds. Also, what kind of surface is your marathon? If you've been training on similar surfaces, then you're golden! Good luck!!!

Yeah, first marathon too!!  All roads, so I have been training on roads.  Nice part is they will be traffic free so I should be able to run in the middle instead of the less even/side of the road!

Thx for the encouragement, not in a local training group and since i did 20 miles a few weeks ago, pretty flat surface I feel better knowing that!!

Sam