Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Marathon Training: 20 miles...or not

So...Saturday was scheduled to be my longest run to-date: 20 miles.

I started out feeling good, though I had to deal with colder than normal temps and a slightly nagging knee pain. Oh yeah, and I was going to be running all 20 totally alone. I haven't run with music in over three years, so I didn't want to mess with my routine this far in. So off I went...

About six miles in, my left knee started screaming at me. Awesome. It's always been my right knee and/or hip giving me issues, while the left side never justified so much as a thought. I started walking for a few minutes to see if that helped, then tried to run a mile or two. Not so much. I pushed through the pain, knowing how stupid that was (side note: after the 2007 St. Jude Half Marathon, I had to take 8 months off from running due to completely screwing up my knee and IT band) and made it through 12 miles. Granted the last six were mostly a brisk walk, but I still marked it down as a solid 12.

After basically crawling up my driveway in pain, I completely broke down. About 1,000 thoughts ran through my head...how did I get here again? Why did I even sign up for the marathon? Can I really do this? I'm so not enjoying running right now...wait, what did I just say?! Ugh, I hate this!

Then it hit me. I did this to myself!! I got so wrapped up in the amazing "runner's high" that many of us runners experience, and that's all I did. No cross training mixed in, if I stretched at all it was nowhere near enough, and my mindset was totally off.

That was it...that was the day I decided to start singing a different tune. I immediately called OrthoMemphis and set up an appointment for physical therapy. The one good thing about meeting your extremely high insurance deductible? Everything else for the year is FREE!! :) I also started reading Marathoning the Hansons' Way, which follows the less-is-more plan (booya 20-miler!). We'll see how it goes!

Wish me luck...more to come on my training and PT experience!

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