I am now at the end of my training program. Last time I updated this blog I was at 15miles for my long run. I have now successfully run 17, 19, and 22 mile runs! The entire training experience has been an emotional and physical battle!
The week leading up to my 17 mile run I started to experience pain in my inner right calf, near the bone. It would hurt really bad when I first started running and would take nearly 4 -5 miles to subside. The pain was also dragging down my running times by nearly a minute. As a result, I took 3 days off consecutively to rest. This helped considerably and after the 3 days rest I started to slowly work up the mileage again. I did a 6 mile run, then 8miles and on to the 19 mile run. The 19 mile run was the strongest run of my entire program! It also gave me a huge mental boost as I was really concerned about my injury and no running. After running 19 miles at my target time I realized how far I had actually come in my training and those 26 miles was truly achievable! I then went on to run 22 miles, slower than I wanted, but was still really happy knowing that come race day I would only need to do 4 more!
Now there is 4 days to the race and I am getting nervous. Not because I am worried about my running times or injury but rather I have had some serious sinus issues. I started feeling this on Sat. Night and Sunday I was extremely tired. I have since started taking sinus tablets once a day, along with some vitamin c and Echinacea, which has helped some. I am also drinking tons of water and green tea in hopes of flushing whatever this is out of my system. Overall, I am excited to be running the Marathon this Sunday and look forward to an experience I can take with me for the rest of my life!
