Two months

A lot of big things are happening over the next two months. Four weeks from today, the Portland Marathon! (As previously mentioned.) About a month after that, we're going to Maui! And then, about a month after that, the Tucson Marathon.

Portland Marathon training is pretty much on track and going well. There have been some minor deviations in my plan which I am filing under "flexibility" and not stressing over. The biggest change was when I substituted a planned 20+ miler with a 16.5 mile walk/hike. I think it definitely contributed to "time on my legs"! We spent about five hours actually walking and the entire trip (including the time spent peeing in the woods) was over six hours.

Around the time of that hike, I began flirting with leg issues that hinted ominously of injury. Following my great week of running a while back, I got a sore tightness in my right quad which gave me a decent amount of concern back then and has not yet fully abated. However it has improved and I've allowed myself more generous rest which has helped. And it has not prevented me from continuing to run pretty well (meaning fast when I want to be).

The night after the hike, I had some very troublesome pain discomfort in the back of my other leg (just above the knee) and I feared a tweaked hamstring. I could hardly sleep that night because I couldn't lay still enough not to bother it. But the next day it was gone and hasn't bothered me since.

Those little problems have been quite a warning sign that I need to be careful not to hurt myself. I'm not laying off the running or anything but I am definitely not jumping into anything new that could lead to problems (like a boot camp or something). I did back off on my scheduled 800s last week, deciding it was too close to the 15K on Saturday. I'm going to do them this week instead. I will also probably take hill repeats off the schedule (they're on one more time) and just keep my hill work to normal uphill running.

So here are the highlights for the next few weeks. This week: 9-10x800, 20-miler on Friday. I would say this will be my last hard week. The next week, Bellingham Bay Half Marathon on Sunday, September 26. Then two weeks of taper. (Obviously, there are other runs in there as well.)

This weekend I had two good runs, despite the heat (yes, I call 60s in the morning heat). Saturday was the Fairhaven Waterfront 15K, which was great as usual though a little slower than I would have liked. I will have a race report, I just need to steal pictures from the race photo website download pictures from my mother's and my camera. Today I ran 13.1+ miles (forgot to start my watch at a light and "lost" .1 to .2 miles) at 9:57 pace...just squeaked in under my 10-minute "easy" pace.

I am planning an easy run tomorrow morning, just to keep on track and allow Tuesday as an off running day before speed work on Wednesday. We have one more hot day this week before it cools off, so I really can't put it off to afternoon even if I am tired in the morning. If I have to, it would be better to wait till Tuesday. That's not laziness, okay? It's being kind to my legs and not risking injury. But hopefully I'll be running in the morning.


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