I'm so excited about my upcoming marathon race. Yes, I'm currently training to run 26.2 miles as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training.
Training is going well. This past Saturday we went on a 12 mile run. The coaches had sent us an e-mail a few days ahead of the run with the following message, "We have some exciting routes planned for this Sat. run (and more to come...)." Apparently, "exciting routes" for a running coach is what a normal person would call "lots of crazy hills."
Even with that, my run went great. One of these crazy hills was so steep that I asked the coach were the ladder was. I'm not kidding! This hill was probably about 45 degrees. Anyway, I was able to run up the hill, but had to stop for a few seconds at the top because my heart rate had gone way, way up. I finished the run in 2 hours and 25 minutes. This included the time I spent chit-chatting at the water stops and time spent waiting for traffic at the intersections. I had on a pair of compression tights that really helped a lot and my knee and calves did not bother me the whole time. After the run, I stretched really well, ate a Luna bar, showered, put on some compression tights and iced my calves. My legs did not hurt like they did last week.
Today, I went to the gym and ran about 6 miles on the treadmill because of the crazy weather, and still no pain in my legs. Our long run this coming weekend is only 8 miles and then the mileage starts to go up past any distance I've ever run before. We have a 20 mile run scheduled in April.
The question still remains, will I make it to 26.2? Stay tuned.
You know you have made the transition to "endurance athlete" when you say "only 8 miles"...welcome!
ReplyDelete