Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A decision to make

Well, as I sit here at my desk at working eatting lunch, I ponder a decision I feel I need to make. Do I push on and try to run the Country Music Marathon? Or do I settle for the half marathon? If you read my last few posts, you have seen I went from my running high to my running low. It has left me in a fog. I have been struggling with my calves being extremely sore after my long runs. This makes me miss a day or cut a day short during the week. I know my body has to get use to running alot, but I am afraid I have jumped into the deep end now. I am not sure I have a good running foundation yet. I started back in April of last year and ran through the month of August. I hurt my knee in mid August and missed about 8 weeks. When I picked back up running, I ran a few miles here and there, but nothing consistant. Now I wonder if I just need spend this year establishing a good running foundation and then attempt a full marathon next year. I am planning on running the Tom King 1/2 already, but then I could do the Music City 1/2 too. In between now and then, I could do some of the local 5k and 10k races.

Vandy-Montana suggested I up my weekly mileage some and decrease my long runs a bit. If I continue on with the marathon training, my weekday mileage will start going up next week. The only thing that concerns me is the fact that I am stuggling now with the soreness. What will happen when I start running more during the week? I know I am a newbie in this game, and I thank Vandy-Montana for his tips and suggestions. I would like to hear more of them from anyone else who wants to give me some advise. Maybe I'm just being a pansy (stole that from Amy) and should just suck it up and run. I don't know though. I am just confused. I hope to talk to Rich tonight about it and see what he has to say. I sure as heck don't want to push myself to hard for the marathon and end up injuried again. THAT SUCKS!!! So just let me know what you are thinking......Thanks in advance.

Now to rest the legs and hope I can get in 4-5 miles on Thursday. If I decide to put off my plan for the marathon, I might just try and hit the Race Judicata 5k/10k this weekend.

Hope I didn't bring anyone else down with my negativity today.....

2 comments:

Brian said...

My inclination would be to go for the half. After sucking really badly in my first marathon, I wished I had done a half first - if for no other reason than to have proof of time for a better corral assignment in the full.

Having said that, you did seem to feel pretty good in your 18. So, if your calf feels like it's just an over sore muscular type problem, then I encourage you to take a warm bath, self massage (this is starting to sound dirty) drink plenty of water and keep stretching it. If you do the standard push against the wall calf stretch, then also do it with a bent knee. You'll stretch the gastrocnemius with the straight leg stretch and the soleus with the bent knee stretch. The soreness should go away within a few days.

If it feels more like a tendon or connective tissue, then keep icing to keep the inflammation down and take it easy.

Old Man said...

do the half. determine the source of the soreness in your calves. I've had plenty of calve issues, result of being a toe runner. perhaps its your shoes? try some different stretching routines to loosen the calves. build your base. self massage is good, especially soaking in the hot tub. also try different variations of the traditional wall stretch, toes 90 degrees out and then in.