Well, it is with a heavy heart, and after much internal debate, that I have decided to postpone my marathon training until sometime next year, possibly late into the year. My thumb, while much better (I had it lanced several days ago, and it's been steadily improving since), is still healing and is painful, and as a result, I'm being forced to take at least the rest of this week off as well. Two weeks off in a row like this is not doable, especially this late into the training process.
This thumb was a ridiculous injury, one of the worst I've ever had, and it's terrible that it's forced me to stop training for the marathon. However, I've gained a lot from this experience. I've become way more confident in my ability to train hard and follow a set schedule. I've pushed past the limits of what I could do before, and I've also gained a lot of personal confidence just from the discipline and hard work it required to get this far. This has been great.
I likely will resume training for the marathon at some point down the road. When I do, I'll start updating this blog again. I may change this blog into a general training blog, but we'll see. For those of you who read this blog, thanks for following along, and I'm sorry I didn't finish this time. Third time's the charm, right?
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sunday, 12/7/08
Well, believe it or not, my infected thumb has not gotten any better, and in fact is a tiny bit worse. The antibiotics are clearly not working for me, and as a result, I'm still not going to be able to run. So, what I'm going to do is repeat this past week's runs this coming week and treat last week as a week off. I needed to postpone for two weeks anyways, so this will be one of those weeks. I'm praying that I can get this whole thing resolved by Monday so that I can be running comfortably by Tuesday. If not, then I'm not sure what I'm going to do, since two weeks off from running, and then having to go back in and run 13 miles seems like a ludicrous idea. But we'll see. So no running for the next couple of days. We'll see how it goes.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Thursday, 12/4/08
This is the first missed run I've had so far, and I'm not missing it lightly. I've had an infected left thumb for the past couple of days, and last night, during the 6-mile run, the infection got markedly more painful. I've barely been able to get through today due to the pain, and in fact, the pain was so excruciating last night that I was unable to sleep; I'm going on literally an hour of sleep at the moment.
Running would be both detrimental to my health (I need to sleep as much as possible) and could possibly irritate my infection even more (although I'm not sure how that's possible, considering the amount of pain I'm in). I did go to my doctor today and she gave me antibiotics, so this ridiculousness should be gone by Saturday. However, just to play it safe, I think I'll do my long run on Sunday this week to give myself plenty of time to recuperate. All right, see you guys in several days, hopefully in a lot less pain than I am now!
Running would be both detrimental to my health (I need to sleep as much as possible) and could possibly irritate my infection even more (although I'm not sure how that's possible, considering the amount of pain I'm in). I did go to my doctor today and she gave me antibiotics, so this ridiculousness should be gone by Saturday. However, just to play it safe, I think I'll do my long run on Sunday this week to give myself plenty of time to recuperate. All right, see you guys in several days, hopefully in a lot less pain than I am now!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
12/3/2008
Today I ran 6 miles (probably more like 6.1) in 1:06:00.
Well, this was another very nice run with my dad. We were both in very good spirits, and this time we actually measured the course we were going to run. Everything was going great until Mile 2 when, out of nowhere, my dad tripped hard on a bump in the road and fell down on the asphalt. He recovered well, but he was bleeding pretty badly from his right knee for a bit and he skinned both his hands pretty badly. I give him huge credit for wanting to keep going; I was ready to turn back. But he gritted his teeth and ran the rest of the way.
Besides that, this was a perfectly solid run. On my end, everything felt strong and fine. Six miles is starting to feel like a medium distance rather than a long one, which s a good sign. Time to sleep!
Well, this was another very nice run with my dad. We were both in very good spirits, and this time we actually measured the course we were going to run. Everything was going great until Mile 2 when, out of nowhere, my dad tripped hard on a bump in the road and fell down on the asphalt. He recovered well, but he was bleeding pretty badly from his right knee for a bit and he skinned both his hands pretty badly. I give him huge credit for wanting to keep going; I was ready to turn back. But he gritted his teeth and ran the rest of the way.
Besides that, this was a perfectly solid run. On my end, everything felt strong and fine. Six miles is starting to feel like a medium distance rather than a long one, which s a good sign. Time to sleep!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
12/2/2008
Today I ran 3 miles in 24:26.
This was a run I could not have done when I started this whole thing. Tonight, I had a lot going on; I was exhausted (I'm starting to not be able to sleep well on nights I don't run), I had slightly injured my left knee doing a deep yoga pose earlier in the day (don't ask) and I was congested, never a good thing when running. So, for once, I played it smart.
I ran very slowly and carefully for the first mile or so; I was at an over 10-minute per mile pace. Then, once I had tested the waters and decided I felt strong and that my knee wasn't bothering me too much, I picked up the pace considerably. By the end, I was running hard but not sprinting. I finished feeling strong and with a remarkably decent time given the circumstances and how slow I started out.
Running has become so much more natural for me since I began training in earnest just under two months ago. I've become much more intelligent and mature about running, and I've actually found that I've become more confident in general as a result of this training. I'm much more thoughtful and considerate nowadays, and I've even had a couple of people comment on how secure I seem. That makes me feel great, and if that's what running provides me in life, then I'll keep doing it for as long as I can.
This was a run I could not have done when I started this whole thing. Tonight, I had a lot going on; I was exhausted (I'm starting to not be able to sleep well on nights I don't run), I had slightly injured my left knee doing a deep yoga pose earlier in the day (don't ask) and I was congested, never a good thing when running. So, for once, I played it smart.
I ran very slowly and carefully for the first mile or so; I was at an over 10-minute per mile pace. Then, once I had tested the waters and decided I felt strong and that my knee wasn't bothering me too much, I picked up the pace considerably. By the end, I was running hard but not sprinting. I finished feeling strong and with a remarkably decent time given the circumstances and how slow I started out.
Running has become so much more natural for me since I began training in earnest just under two months ago. I've become much more intelligent and mature about running, and I've actually found that I've become more confident in general as a result of this training. I'm much more thoughtful and considerate nowadays, and I've even had a couple of people comment on how secure I seem. That makes me feel great, and if that's what running provides me in life, then I'll keep doing it for as long as I can.
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