Tuesday, March 2nd 2010: 4 miles at the track. My knee still wasn't feeling the love. I could go about 100 meters (one fourth of the way around the track) before it started to ache. So I decided I would run 100 meters, then walk 100 meters and got 4 miles in.
But you know what's crazy? By walking every 100 meters, I still averaged a 11:41/mile pace. I figured out that at that pace, I could walk every 100 meters in the marathon and still finish in 5 hours! Not that I'm planning to walk every 100 meters, but it was comforting to know that I could and still finish in a respectable 5 hours.
Wednesday, March 3rd 2010: 4 miles @ 9:53 per mile pace. I headed to Confluence Park with Tom to scout out a course for the upcoming Hurricane Trails River Run on July 3rd. The scenery is amazing and the hills are a fun challenge.
At one point I was huffing and puffing and sweating gallons. I glanced over at Tom who looked like he had exerted about as much energy as it would take to make Ramen noodles. I had a pleasant exhaustion.
Thursday, March 4th 2010: Rest. And cherry chocolate cake.
Friday, March 5th 2010: 13 miles @ 11:17 per mile pace. I drove a few minutes up the road toward Apple Valley to get to an area where I would have a long dirt road. For you natives, I headed toward Diamond Ranch Academy.
The weather was PERFECT. The temperature was PERFECT. You couldn't ask for anything better. And the scenery was incredible. There were many points where I had to stop and drink in the vistas all around me.
I took lots of walk breaks. I was strict about walking every few minutes whether I felt like I needed to or not. I decided that my goal for this run was to end feeling good. I wanted to finish feeling like I could run another mile if I wanted to.
The frequent walk breaks helped tremendously. There were sections where I was sore and tired but I never felt exhausted. It felt really good to take walk breaks because I wanted to instead of walking because an injury forced me to. Another thing that helped is that I didn't look at my watch once. Not once! It prevented me from feeling stressed that I wasn't going fast enough.
I was so happy to finish the run while accomplishing my goal: my body felt good enough that it could have run another mile. I have been converted to Jeff Galloway's run/walk method. I think me and running are friends again.
"Make friends with pain and you will never be alone."
~ Ken Clouber
Walk breaks are always better when they are not forced or demanded. I have tried it a time or two. We also like Galloway's run/walk method. To survive the back half of the marathon and be in one peice is key. We may try it and be more diligent with it for our next marathon-it is San Diego, again.
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