Hoping for Fall redemption

Seth Harrison wrote:

Natalie wrote:

Michele "1L" Keane wrote: He did mention; however, that he is the lead counsel fighting the repeal of the Gay marriage bill in California. People questioned how a conservative republican could do that, and he that the right was not about politics, but something he believed in.

I knew this. I think he and David Boies are co-counsel on this. Just goes to show how lawyers make strange bedfellows...

If you're alluding to the fact the Boies represented Al Gore and Olsen represented Bush in Bush v. Gore, than you're right about strange bedfellows. I was first impressed with Olsen when he and Boies joined forces in 2009 to bring a lawsuit after California voters rejected the referendum on same sex marriage. He's an interesting guy.

That's exactly what I was alluding too.

Nine miles at the preserve this morning. I went out at 7:30 when it was about 82 degrees, but it didn't feel nearly as hot as I had feared it might. I ran with Chris, my physical therapist, who is training for NY, which will be his first marathon. He had never ran at the preserve before, so I was showing him the trails and keeping the pace easy, about 9:00/mile. Everything felt good, and I felt strong enough at the end that I was tempted to tack on a few hill repeats, but I was advised by Coach Mike and a few other runners, including Maria, Chris's wife, who ran 3:01 at Boston this year, to quit while I was ahead and feeling really good, especially this early in the training cycle.

Seth Harrison wrote:Nine miles at the preserve this morning. I went out at 7:30 when it was about 82 degrees, but it didn't feel nearly as hot as I had feared it might. I ran with Chris, my physical therapist, who is training for NY, which will be his first marathon. He had never ran at the preserve before, so I was showing him the trails and keeping the pace easy, about 9:00/mile. Everything felt good, and I felt strong enough at the end that I was tempted to tack on a few hill repeats, but I was advised by Coach Mike and a few other runners, including Maria, Chris's wife, who ran 3:01 at Boston this year, to quit while I was ahead and feeling really good, especially this early in the training cycle.

This is awesome to read. Tell Maria great job on the 3:01 at Boston! And I would have to say that I agree with them on stopping while ahead, especially at this point in your training. No need to push it to much because you are feeling good, let to today be a reminder of how far you have come with your recent injuries and allow it to continue to build confidence for your Pa. Marathon in the fall! Just great to read today Seth.

Glad you had a good run this morning!

Looks like the running is finally starting to turn around. Glad it was pain free.

Nice run and prudent choice to NOT do hill work! Are you kidding with even thinking about it.

Good nine mile run, Seth, and wise decision. ALways think of the long term effect, even if you want to bust out some repeats.

Seth Harrison wrote:quit while I was ahead and feeling really good....

I remember a time a while ago when no matter how far you went, there was no feeling good. More encouraging stuff. That is great.

Thanks for the visits everyone. I'm sure not adding hill repeats on to yesterday's run was the right move, and enabled me to feel strong for tonight's run, which ended the week on a positive note.
I waited until after work tonight when the temperature had dropped to the low 80's. It was still humid as hell out though. I did 6 miles at a GA pace of about 8:35/mile, with last .25/mile up a steep hill. With the still pretty high temps and very high humidity, the effort was very solid. I was literally dripping wet when I got back to the house.
This was an encouraging first week of the fall marathon training cycle.

Nice job on your run, Seth! Wow, I look forward to the day I am able to run an 8:35 in the heat and humidity! You've definitely kicked your fall marathon training off to a good start! Keep up that great work!

Encouraged to see that you had a good week Seth! Hope there are more to come!

Nice GA run! Way to kick off first week of training!

Good to see the first week went well Seth! Let's hope for another 17 and a BQ!

Both the foot and knee have been hurting a lot since the weekend. I'm not sure why. Saturday was an easy nine miles and Sunday was tougher 6 mile GA run in very high humidity, but they were both without good runs with no issues.
I didn't run yesterday, and with the foot and knee still hurting, and with a speed workout planned for tomorrow morning, tonight's run was 5 miles at a recovery pace of 9:27/mile.
I'll make the decision on how I handle tomorrow's workout based on how things feel in the morning.

It's never ending. Amazing you can't catch a break. Hope you feel good come morning.

Just go easy on it if it hurts. Don't make the mistake of trying to eke out a little more fitness at the expense of further injury that will keep you inactive.

Thanks Kenny and Michael. The leg felt sufficiently better this morning to do some light speed work.
7 miles total with 2 x 1 mile between 10k and HM pace (between 7:20 and 7:30/mile). I finished feeling very fresh. I would have liked to have done one more mile interval, but Coach Mike put the kibosh on that idea, considering what I told him about how the leg has felt over the past couple of days. So I went home and took and ice bath. The leg feels pretty good now.
More than anything else, I think this latest episode might be showing me what I can run through and what I need to pay special attention to. I'd be living in a fantasy world if I thought this was going to be a carefree training cycle, but maybe by being smart about listening to my body, I can manage my way through it.

I think you will have your work cut out for you more mentally possibly than physically if that makes sense. To really be very flexible in your schedule and adjusting accordingly and/or on the fly.

Kenny B. wrote:I think you will have your work cut out for you more mentally possibly than physically if that makes sense. To really be very flexible in your schedule and adjusting accordingly and/or on the fly.

I think you're 100% right Kenny. It will be a challenge to know when to push it, when to hold back, and being able to just accept what's possible and what's not.
The fact that I was able to get through this episode with minimal, if any interruption in my training schedule is encouraging going forward.

Nice first week of training and glad to see the blip didn't turn out to be much of anything.

Good to hear the leg is feeling better, but it is strange that it happened in the first place, Seth.

Glad your leg is doing better but yes please be careful to listen to your body and back off when you need to rather than "toughing it out" and making things worse. Sorry this training cycle has to be so problematic!

Joel H wrote:Nice first week of training and glad to see the blip didn't turn out to be much of anything.

Thanks Joel. Me too!

Jim Lentz wrote:Good to hear the leg is feeling better, but it is strange that it happened in the first place, Seth.

Jim, With my history, it's not that strange. It did come out of the blue, but I knew at some point both the knee and the foot would act up. I'm kind of glad it happened early in the cycle, so that I can know how to handle it when it re-appears (which it will) down the road.

Julie wrote:Glad your leg is doing better but yes please be careful to listen to your body and back off when you need to rather than "toughing it out" and making things worse. Sorry this training cycle has to be so problematic!

Thanks Julie. I've never had a trouble free training cycle, and there's no way this one was going to be any different. I just have to get better at managing the niggles. Hopefully this was a good lesson for me.

Hang in there Seth. You obviously love running to put yourself through what you have and I'm not trying to give advice, but would you consider adding a day or two cycling to help with the niggles? It may or may not even help, but it might be worth a closer look...

Your blog sounds like mine, with all the ups and downs! As long as there is continued forward motion, it is good.