Thursday, September 1, 2011

An Unscheduled Change

Running 20 miles on Sunday was a feat I wasn't sure I could accomplish a year ago, when I ran the Army 10 Miler. I finished, but I walk-ran the last mile and was in a considerable amount of pain. I even wrote “a marathon may not be in my future”, well now it is my present!

image

Knowing how much I want this, I finished our run last weekend full of excitement that I Could Do It. Yes, I was exhausted, don't get me wrong, but for the most part I felt good. But, a few days later my back was killing me and continued until today. Ibuprofen, heat and a few back massages helped, but I am still surprised how much a 20 mile run would affect me all week long.

IMG_0242

After mentioning this to a few friends and talking about training schedules, I started to wonder if our training schedule was a little too advanced for our skill level. As much as I want to finish this marathon strong, I also want to finish with as few (to no) injuries as possible. Wearing ourselves out during training suddenly became a concern and something I want to avoid.

Changing the training schedule of two overly-scheduled individuals can be a challenge. We have had a few events spring up since we made our original schedule. Like all decisions in life, we had to start making some decisions based on priorities about the next two months.

image

To start, we cut out our second 18 and 20 mile runs. 18 miles was not too rough on either of us, but it wasn't a walk in the park either. 16 miles on the other hand felt really good. Therefore, besides our remaining 22 mile run, the furthest we will go before October 30th is 16 miles (twice).

Of course our 22 mile run isn't the ideal weekend. Most training schedules would recommend it happen 4 or 5 weeks out. Ours will be 6 weeks out. As much as I would love to move it, we are already booked with 2 half-marathons and two weddings. Both of us agreed that running 22 miles before a wedding and our engagement pictures would be a no-go.

Life has thrown us a few lemons when it comes to our training schedule but it has also given us a very full and fun fall schedule. As much as this marathon means to me, I also want to live life to the fullest!