Training: Week 9

Week 9:  Sun: 3 mi on the treadmill; Mon: Taught a 6am spin class; Tue-Fri: REST; Sat: 15k Race

Week 9 started out still worried about my knee.  I took a quick spin on the treadmill Sunday night to see if the symptoms from last week would recreate themselves or if the rest I had already given it would be sufficient.  I didn't feel any of the same pain and I was a happy girl.  I had wanted to wait to see how my knee was going to be before we officially signed up for the Gasparilla Distance Classic on Saturday.  My husband and I usually try to run a race where ever we are vacationing, so this race in Tampa worked out perfectly.  We had looked into running the Disney Half that was also going on that weekend, but it was full at that point.  Only the 5k was open, and while it would have been neat, it was very pricey for a 5k....but I digress. 

Monday morning I headed over bright and early to Kensington Anytime Fitness to teach my very first spin class at 6am.  I really hoped they liked it!  I am of course my own worst critic so I analyzed every little thing I did and went over scenes in my head afterwards.  A few hours later, we were on the plane to Florida!  I definitely packed all my running gear and told myself that I had to fit in runs while on vacation.

Tuesday I walked around Disney World all day wishing I had a pedometer to see how far I went.  Plus, my daughter was having a "mommy day" and only wanted to be carried (by me!) so the walking had the additional almost 30lbs of carried weight.  No biggie.  That night we headed over to downtown Disney and they had a kids concert going on.  My daughter immediately rushed to the dance floor to start dancing and I decided to join her.

My daughter is the little blondie in the white shirt next to me

Right after this is where it went downhill.  The next song was Gangnam Style and I of course was trying to recreate Psy's moves.  The horse and rider bit was fine, but the problem came during the little foot shuffle to the side thing he does.   (Moves 7 and 8 for those of you unfamiliar).   Note to Self:  do not do Gangnam Style in flip flops!  My flip flop sort of bent and my ankle twisted- hard.  I scrapped some skin off my foot, but that was almost unnoticeable compared to the pain of my ankle.  And it was the same one that I had sprained on Christmas Day during my long run!  My only thought was that it had not completely healed.  It hurt, a lot.  I sat and iced it for a while as my daughter continued to dance.

Spraining my ankle (for the second time in this marathon training cycle!) and being on vacation was forced rest for every other part of my body, besides all the walking again at Disney the next day (but this time I made sure I wasn't carrying my daughter).  

Fast forward to Saturday after all those days of rest.  My ankle was feeling better but I was a little worried about how the race would go since I hadn't run since Sunday night at home on our treadmill, and had missed last weekend's long run.  The original plan to get my long run in for this weekend was to run the 15k race (15k = 9.3 miles) and then after crossing the finish line, turn around and run the course again.  So, I was stocked up with two packets of Gu and well hydrated.  (You can read the race review here).  It was pretty hot and humid which at the present juncture, my body is not accustomed to, I've been fighting off the freezing temps in DC lately!  I made sure to drink at every aid station due to the heat and knowing I was going to be running another nine and half miles after I finished the race.  I crossed the finish line in a time slower than if I was running the race all out, but I knew I was conserving energy.  Except the big bummer is that I didn't run the extra distance.  Once we finished, we called our hotel to request a late checkout (we were told we could only do morning of) and we were denied.  We realized we couldn't run the extra mileage and still make it back to where we were staying in Clearwater Beach in time for check out.  Bummer.  So add to my list a second weekend of not getting in my long run.  Ouch.  Between injury and missing two long runs, I was seriously questioning whether or not I was going to be able to pull 26.2 off in just 3 weeks!  There is a definitely a lot of self doubt floating around in my head right now.

You know the old adage, "Do Something That Terrifies You?'....well this Marathon is that for me.