September | 2010 | If I Can U Can

Woohoo!!!

I am super excited to announce that my training limbo is coming to an end, and that my Half Marathon training schedule begins this MONDAY! My foot has finally healed enough for me to feel comfortable with hitting the pavement again. I have been running an average of 5K (3.11 mi) three to four times a week, and walking the same distance a couple of times a week. Those have all been on my lunch hour at work. In the EARLY mornings I have been taking our new pup on walks at least five times a week, so that has also added to my weekly mileage.

At first I started back up with my foot wrapped and taped, to help support my arch and to also stabilize that problematic navicular bone. I have gone through about six rolls of athletic tape in the past three weeks! Ace Bandage should send me a Thank You card!

In the past 5 days, I have successfully ran two days without taping my foot at all – one was 3.21 mi and the other was an accidental 4.21 mi run. I say accidental because I got a little lost and extended my mileage more than I intended. My plan is to still tape my foot on the longer runs just to play it safe, but for the 3 to 4 mile runs I feel safe enough to skip the tape and just go.

I’m going over the 12 week training schedule, and looks like this is all going to fall into place!

The summer heat makes it REALLY difficult to get running in. Now that my mornings are filled up by walking the new pup, I have to get my running time before the hottest time of the day. Even at noon it is just AWFUL. The humidity keeps a thick film on your skin, and it feels like you can never get relief.

Today I was lucky enough to take an early lunch and get my running done before 11:30. It still was a steamy run, but at least I didn’t end up feeling like my shoes were melting to the pavement.

I did notice that my breathing was feeling a little tight at 1.5 miles. This was reminiscent of when I was bike commuting to work one day in September of ’08. I ended up having an allergy induced asthma attack that lasted over 45 minutes. Definitely a scary situation that required an emergency trip to an Urgent Care facility, along with a breathing treatment, and an inhaler prescription. Luckily this was not the same thing, it just felt as if it was going to start happening. I was able to normalize my breathing and make an attempt to not stress over it. That helped me get past the sensation and the subsequent flash-back.

I finished my run and again felt no pain in that bone in my foot, that was injured the first weekend of July.

3.61 miles in 44:14
Avg speed – 4.9 mph
Avg Pace – 12:15 min/mile

I am going to focus more on getting on a training schedule to compete in the Half Marathon portion of the White Rock Marathon. I still believe I can accomplish this! I will set my sights on doing a full marathon after this hurdle is crossed.