I'm baaa-aaack...

It's been a while since I've written anything.  In fact, since I've logged any kind of real words about my own personal training and goals, I think it has been 2-3 months!

I thought taking a break between the super-intense Rock N Roll St. Louis/Tulsa Route 66 marathon training and the runDisney Goofy's Race & a Half Challenge would give me the rejuvenation I needed.  Not so much.  The nasty cold spell we hit through January, February & most of March, including nearly a foot of snow the day before my birthday - NOT what I requested of Mother Nature - didn't exactly encourage me to get myself out the door.  Add to that the return of a nagging injury, and I'm feeling a bit undertrained at the moment.


The injury - posterior tibial tenosynovitis and plantar fascitis.  
I went to see my sports doc the middle of February with my typical mid-winter medial ankle pain, indicative of the posterior tibial tendon when it gets irritated.  He started me on physical therapy including ASTYM treatment and lots of at-home exercises.  After five weeks, it really wasn't improving so I went in for an MRI which showed the tenosynovitis (fluid around the posterior tibial tendon) and a rather inflamed plantar fascia (which has apparently caused quite the heel spur to form - looks like I have CLAW coming out of the bottom of my left foot!!).  Doc started me on a 15-day course of prednisone to try to get the inflammation down - I'm 10 days in and it seems to be working.  I'm finally back to running without significant pain.  After discussing things with my doc and physical therapist, I think part of the problem of this being a recurring injury each year is that I usually hit max mileage on my shoes around the time of the runDisney Goofy's Race & a Half Challenge.  I typically will wear a pair of shoes up to 375-400 miles.  I think in the future, I'll have to start retiring them closer to the 300-325 mark to see if that helps stave off the irritation.


Back to training...
Throughout most of the winter months, I still managed to get some long runs in despite the weather and ankle problems.  Most of these were shorter than they should have been considering my plans for the spring and early summer, but on a positive note, they were all "on pace" (or better) for my goals.

In January, I realized that I can now qualify for Boston with the 35-year-olds, since I will be turning 35 three short weeks prior to the 2014 Boston Marathon.  On May 5, in Cincinnati at the Flying Pig Marathon, I'll be making my first real attempt at qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  (I say real since I had very lofty ambitions at the 2012 Tulsa Route 66 marathon with BQ-ing being my "super-excited, can't come down off the rafters goal" - my ultimate goal at Tulsa was my first sub-4 marathon.  That story can be found here.)  My goal is to hang with the 3:40 pacers at The Pig as long as I can.  I don't have high hopes for my performance at this particular race since my long runs have been far shorter than what my training calls for, but I'm going to go as long as I can and see what happens.  I finally managed to get through a 15-mile training run this past Saturday.  The good news is that it was well under my goal pace.  I need an 8:24 average to qualify and I finished my 15 with an 8:12 average.

Four weeks after The Pig, I'll be making my second run at qualifying for Boston... this time with friends from the Belleville Running Club at the Minneapolis Marathon on June 2.  I think at this one, we'll be going for the best time we can get, rather than just trying to pace it out at the bare minimum.  Scary and exciting all at the same time!!

So this weekend I'll be running the Go! St. Louis Half Marathon on Sunday as a training run.  The following weekend, I believe I'll be meeting my training partners for our first 20 miler, which will make the perfect long run prior to The Pig (though I typically would want two 20-milers instead of one, but at this point, one is better than none at all).  After that, it's taper time!


Your input is requested...
Here's my current plan for the next two months of long runs.  What I need suggestions on is the week of 5/11.  I'm torn between a shorter recovery run and another longer run.  In a way, it depends on how Flying Pig goes.  If I manage to hang on with the 3:40 pacer and qualify, I'll have a 12+ minute PR and will probably need recovery.  If I bag it as a training run, I'm leaning towards throwing in another long run in the 16/18/20 mile range.  Your thoughts an opinions on this are appreciated!!

3/30 (complete) - 15 miles, 8:12 pace
4/7 - 13 miles (Go! St. Louis half - will try to get 3-5 miles in before as a warm up)
4/13 - 20 miles
4/20 - 12 miles
4/27 - 8 miles
5/5 - Flying Pig Marathon - goal is to stay with the 3:40 pacer as long as possible
5/11 - ?????
5/18 - 13 miles (Geist Half Marathon)
5/25 - 8 miles
6/2 - Minneapolis Marathon



I'm really hoping that I can pull this off as I'd love to be able to run the 2014 Boston Marathon with my "running husband", who qualified during the marathon portion of the runDisney Goofy's Race & a Half Challenge.