Julie's PR attempt at Fox Cities

Yes, it is nice to know that the hardest part of the journey is coming to an end. Hopefully the remaining time will be that of improving, healing, and refining your focus for the race itself. Hope the knee will continue to improve.

jon c wrote:Yes, it is nice to know that the hardest part of the journey is coming to an end. Hopefully the remaining time will be that of improving, healing, and refining your focus for the race itself. Hope the knee will continue to improve.

+1

Just be careful - great job on getting the 17 done. I guess your family has been through this before, but do they realize the craziness that is about to ensue over the next few weeks as you begin to taper ?

John Kilpatrick wrote:Just be careful - great job on getting the 17 done. I guess your family has been through this before, but do they realize the craziness that is about to ensue over the next few weeks as you begin to taper ?

I'm looking forward to Julie's craziness as she goes through taper!

Great job on the 17 Julie. You're just about there.

A little knee pain is nothing to worry about.
Any ambitious plans for the 20?

Seth Harrison wrote:Nice job getting in the 17 miler with mild discomfort in the knee Julie. I hope it continues to heal. Nail that last 20, and than let the magic taper do its work!

Thanks Seth! I think a rest day today helped, too.

jon c wrote:Yes, it is nice to know that the hardest part of the journey is coming to an end. Hopefully the remaining time will be that of improving, healing, and refining your focus for the race itself. Hope the knee will continue to improve.

Thanks Jon!

John Kilpatrick wrote:

jon c wrote:Yes, it is nice to know that the hardest part of the journey is coming to an end. Hopefully the remaining time will be that of improving, healing, and refining your focus for the race itself. Hope the knee will continue to improve.

+1

Just be careful - great job on getting the 17 done. I guess your family has been through this before, but do they realize the craziness that is about to ensue over the next few weeks as you begin to taper ?

Well, they have been warned. I'll be crazy and want to run more and complain about not running enough and blah blah blah need to run to burn off all this stress but I hope to put all that energy into some good fall cleaning and outside work. We'll see.

JohnP wrote:

John Kilpatrick wrote:Just be careful - great job on getting the 17 done. I guess your family has been through this before, but do they realize the craziness that is about to ensue over the next few weeks as you begin to taper ?

I'm looking forward to Julie's craziness as she goes through taper!

Thanks John! How many toenail posts can a person make?

Alex Kubacki wrote:Great job on the 17 Julie. You're just about there.

Thanks Alex, you too! Looking forward to seeing how your race goes, too.

Mike MacLellan wrote:A little knee pain is nothing to worry about.
Any ambitious plans for the 20?

Thanks Mike, well, to run it...no time goal for the 20, I'd like to be pain free and really figure out some good eating Thurs-Sat so I don't have any bathroom problems but I think it should be OK.

Today's a rest day, feels good, tomorrow I believe 5 mile recovery with 5 x 100m. 2 10 mile workouts this week before the 20...should be a good week.

Sounds like you have a good running week planned, Julie.

I am glad to hear that the knee pain is starting to go away. If you can make it through this week ok, taper will help heal it up. Be careful with your last big week. Put the milage in, but do it safely...

Looking good as always Jules!

Thanks Jim, Nick, and Peg

I will keep being careful, yesterday's day off felt good and then today I ran about 7 miles recovery pace and then 6x100m strides at the end. Tomorrow is speed work 1200m x 4? with 10 miles total so hopefully I'm up for the challenge. Still iced and ibuprofened after today's run. It didn't hurt really during the run after the first few blocks but sore after it was done.

Julie wrote:Thanks Jim, Nick, and Peg

I will keep being careful, yesterday's day off felt good and then today I ran about 7 miles recovery pace and then 6x100m strides at the end. Tomorrow is speed work 1200m x 4? with 10 miles total so hopefully I'm up for the challenge. Still iced and ibuprofened after today's run. It didn't hurt really during the run after the first few blocks but sore after it was done.

Sounds like the Is (ice and ibuprofen) are a good perscription.

It's probably late now, but I would make sure you monitor yourself closely during the speed work. If you feel anything I'd shut it down and just run easy.

Nick - yeah, the ibuprofen is helping and I need to get better about remembering to ice but it's helping.

Alex, thanks, yeah I did my speed work out this morning but was being careful and trying to listen to my body.

Today was 10 miles total with 1200m x 4 with 2 min. recovery jog between. I don't have my watch too close by right now but it was each split was between 6:00 and 6:20 so pretty close to my goal. It's humid out there, 93% , 73 dew point, 75 degrees. I was thinking, this workout is at 5K pace but I can't imagine running a 5K in this weather.

I was being careful and my knee felt pretty good. After the 2nd 1200 it was a little sore and then the last couple of miles were pretty slow, combination of the humidity and just some general soreness no real sharp pain anywhere. I did take ibuprofen this a.m. before I ran.

tomorrow I'm taking a rest day and then hope for 10 miles on Friday just med-long pace. Getting ready to taper!

Coming into taper, I would be surprised if some 5k speedwork (especially 1200s!) didn't make you a bit sore. Enjoy your 48hrs of rest!

Woo hoo!! Taper is right around the corner! You'll be one of the first on here with the MADNESS...

Nice workout this morning

Great interval workout in those conditions Julie. You should be seeing that light at the end of the tunnel.

Good job! I can't imagine doing any speedwork with my marathon training--all these miles are starting to feel like a lot! I'm impressed you can keep it up!!!

Mike MacLellan wrote:Coming into taper, I would be surprised if some 5k speedwork (especially 1200s!) didn't make you a bit sore. Enjoy your 48hrs of rest!

Thanks Mike! You make one day off sound like 2 days.

Nick Morris wrote:Woo hoo!! Taper is right around the corner! You'll be one of the first on here with the MADNESS...

Nice workout this morning

Yeah maybe I can surpass your post count while I taper!

Alex Kubacki wrote:Great interval workout in those conditions Julie. You should be seeing that light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks Alex, yes, my training program is more filled in than not. Hard to believe it's coming to a close.

Peg Coover wrote:Good job! I can't imagine doing any speedwork with my marathon training--all these miles are starting to feel like a lot! I'm impressed you can keep it up!!!

Thanks Peg! Well, like I said, we'll see how it pays off on race day but the half marathon repeats I did a few months ago have definitely gotten easier and I do feel like I've pushed myself this training cycle and as long as my knees are fine on race day I think I've done all I could. Now to keep praying for good weather on race day.

Rest day today, will run 10 GA tomorrow.

Enjoy the 10 GA miles tomorrow, Julie.

Sounds like your knee is holding up okay, which is good. Your runs are looking pretty solid as well. Best of luck on the 20 this weekend, too. Almost there! And you have all of us to share in your taper madness

Good luck with your 10 miler...and with catching my post count

Jim Lentz wrote:Enjoy the 10 GA miles tomorrow, Julie.

Thanks Jim.

Penelope wrote:Sounds like your knee is holding up okay, which is good. Your runs are looking pretty solid as well. Best of luck on the 20 this weekend, too. Almost there! And you have all of us to share in your taper madness

Thanks Kathy! Yeah it will be fun to taper, in a way.

Nick Morris wrote:Good luck with your 10 miler...and with catching my post count

Thanks Nick! I guess I could keep chipping away at my yard work instead of posting here.

10 mile GA was not good. My knee started hurting around mile 4 and I almost stopped at mile 6 (I did a 6 mile loop then a 4 mile and was at home at mile 6) but decided to just go for 10 because I didn't think it would really get worse. Mile 8 left meniscus, I believe, was quite painful and I walked up a small hill then, took more walking breaks the last 2 miles to get me home.

Now I am wondering what to do with my 20 miler on Sunday. I am not running through that much pain just to say I did a 3rd 20 miler this cycle. I know it would look good on paper but I don't want to be limping through my last 10 miles of the marathon, either. Tomorrow is supposed to be 4 miles recovery, thinking about just resting instead then playing it by ear Sunday.

I hate to cut out a key run but I hate even more to just make things worse. I feel like I am otherwise in very good shape, for me, and can still have a good marathon if I am not injured in 3 weeks. If my knee hurts this badly in 3 weeks then I am not going for a PR, I will try to get another state but that's about all I can hope for if I'm messing with an injury.

Any ideas or advice, especially re: Sunday's scheduled 20?

Sounds to me like your "listen to what your body tells you" approach is the way to go. If you feel up to it, go ahead and do it, if not or if your knee starts complaining along the way, don't be afraid to bail as you really have already put the training in. You ultimately will not lose much of anything fitness wise, but you could potentially put yourself out of a race. As always, my opinion only.



That being said, hope the knee will resolve before the race especially.

Thanks Jon,

I just asked a friend I run with and she said take 2 days off and see how it is Monday. The single days haven't done the trick yet so we'll see what 2 days do. It seems to take more discipline to not run than to run. Bring on the frozen peas and ibuprofen.

I agree that a little time away from running is in order.