12/12/07

Maybe a little movtivation (and rest) can go a long way

I just got back from a run jog shuffle glorified walk. On second thought, it was more shuffle than walk. But I did it. I did a run/walk ratio of about 8 minutes:3 minutes. The knee hurt pretty much from the get-go, but not like it did two and a half weeks ago. I put the knee strap thing on and that seemed to help a bit. It did start to slide down a few times, so I may invest in a full-on knee sleeve thingy. 27:00, and I covered a whopping 2.3 miles of ground.

I also figured out that I could run and NOT bend my left knee and it doesn't hurt at ALL. That is probably is not the best idea, although the sight of me running and swinging my left leg out to the side on each stride is probably pretty funny. Also, if you try to run like that and you have a 90 pound dog running next to you, you may very well trip yourself and the dog. Twice.

BUT maybe the most encouraging aspects of today's workout are that 1) my knee isn't hurting post-run and 2) By the end of the run, I felt good enough to go a bit longer (although I opted out of that - I don't want to push to much today).

I have been quite down in the dumps about this situation for the last two weeks. Family is slated to be there for the race and I have already put so much into it. I felt like I had come so far in my training and then WHAM, this hit me hard. After my short, painful treadmill time at the Y last week, I had almost decided that I would have to cancel the marathon.

Last week my neighbor and good friend Becky went to see her mom do a half-marathon. Also doing the full marathon that day was a friend of hers who had injured herself about a month out from the race. She went to the doctor and he told her he could fix it then, or she could try to finish the marathon and he would take care of it post-race. Well, she changed up her routine, did a little less running, more ellipticall-ing, and she was able to finish the marathon. She had to take it slow, and walk 7 miles of the course, but she did it.

I know that my injury may be different, but it was a great story for me to hear. It led to many self-pep talks on the run today about how I am doing this for myself (not the people coming to see the race, although I do appreciate their support), that I have done WAY too much to justify giving up at this point, and how much I miss being able to eat whatever I want and not worry about the calories.

I obviously am not going to be able to do my scheduled run of 20 miles on Saturday. And I won't be able to do the 22-miler scheduled for the 22nd. But I am going to make this work somehow. Besides, on race day "did not finish" has to be better than "did not start."

2 comments:

Laurel said...

I totally feel your pain...literally. I have been having knee problems too and it sucks. I am going to miss my 20 miler as well and haven't run more than 6 miles at a time in over 2 months.

It's so frustrating, but what can you do. I hope you find a way to run the race. Good luck!

Runner Leana said...

Leah, I really hope you can do the race. You've been working so hard towards it! Hopefully some rest and shifting your race goals will help you to succeed. Do what you can, and do your best on the race, but don't push yourself. Walk what you need to and remember that you have 7 hours to finish it in. Best of luck!