Or, y'know, week.
Believe me when I say that my plan for the Pittsburgh half marathon (which is now only ONE MONTH away holy crap) did not include wearing my body out to the point of injury at about the halfway mark. It seems like any time I approach around 20 miles per week (of running - I can walk pretty much as much as I want; see last week's 11 miles after running 9 with no additional issues) my body seems to hit a wall and I come out with some sort of minor injury that sidelines me for a bit.
Last time around it was at Week 10 of the Higdon Half Novice 1 plan I followed in preparation for the EQT Ten Miler when I extended the planned 9 mile run to 10 because I was feeling pretty awesome... right up until the point where I wasn't. The bottom of my left big toe, deep in the joint, was a little achy, and then suddenly it sort of exploded in a piercing pain that shot up and down my foot. I limped out the last mile back to the car and then spent Week 11 doing basically nothing and waiting for the ache to gradually subside. And then three days before the race my lower back started hurting on the right side for no apparent reason. My foot turned out to be fine during the race, but as soon as we took off I knew my back was going to give me trouble, and so it did through all ten miles, eventually impacting my hip and particularly my knee on that side as my gait altered because of the ache in my back.
This year it was the Wednesday 5-miler in Week 7 - worn out and possibly at the edge of overtraining, I did something funny to my left knee (at least it's the other one this time?). I skipped the Thursday run and RICE'd as best I could, and it looked like I was going to be okay for attempting the Hot Chocolate 15K this past Saturday. Overall, my knee felt a little tentative for the first mile or so, and then any minor pain subsided and the rest of the race I felt really strong, but afterwards I could tell things were not 100% so it was back to ice and rest.
I was hopeful that this week would be all right, but after pushing through my scheduled Tuesday 3 miles (same deal, first mile was a bit iffy, then fine through the run and back to sore after) I skipped Wednesday and Thursday this week. Still doing the ice thing and today it feels pretty good. Not completely back to normal but good enough that I'm going to attempt the SCRR run tomorrow morning. There are some giveaways and promos happening, and it's in a different location from the usual Saturday run that I was excited to check out when I signed up a few weeks back.
Because of some finagling on my schedule to do the 10 mile course preview run next weekend, I'd moved the 10K distance to this weekend which I figured would be a nice low-mileage week after racing a 15K that was really only supposed to be a long run. But if I get out there and my knee doesn't give me complete confidence, I'm already mentally prepping to either briskly walk my 6, or retreat back to the car early. I won't be happy about it, but I need to run my best 30 days from now, and I'm trying really hard to accept that for now, that might mean not running for a bit longer.
During all this, I realized that, for me, completing the training plan (in the sense that I successfully execute the planned runs and number of miles called for) was as much a part of completing "running a half marathon" as race day itself. That, in my mind, not doing the plan took away from the achievement of finishing the race. Since I already missed some miles back in Week 1 due to getting the flu, missing an additional 3 runs, plus potentially more in the next few weeks, really bugs me. And the idea that I'm not going to be "my best" on May 7 (i.e. as good as I could have been if I had been able to check off every single training run) was really getting to me.
But all we can do is be the best we can be under the circumstances. And given that, I know that I will bring everything I have when I line up 30 days from now, whether I run 50 miles between now and then, or 5. And there's always another race, and another chance to better myself.
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As a side note, tomorrow is also my photo shoot for the "This is What a Runner Looks Like" feature I mentioned before - I've already seen a couple of these shared on their facebook and I'm super excited! We're doing the shoot out at Washington's Landing, a little island on the Allegheny River where I've run a few times. It's supposed to be in the low 50s and sunny, which is a far sight better than the snow we're having today! This really better be winter's last hurrah, because I'd love to get some more practice miles in weather more like what we'll be likely to have on race day. For now, I'm about to go try on every piece of workout gear I have...
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