Icarus' Revenge

So after a glorious Sunday, my wings melted and I crashed into a vicious migraine headache Monday afternoon. Lets just say I had a large empty trash can next to the bed while I slept for something like 13 hours. Fortunately went unused, but oh the inhumanity of it all.

Only to rise again and pound out a solid 8 miles Tuesday night, only to have the headache come back a little Wednesday. Will I ever learn? I really hope that we go back to highs in the 70's.

The crazy thing is I almost convinced myself the migraine was withdrawal for not running for a day! While I am running I feel just fine, it is only when I walk a little to drink water that I realize how tight my legs are. They want to stay bent in a C shape and just rotate on the axis of my hips. But no knee or shin pain, so that is a blessing. Hoping the step-back 12 miles will be relatively easy on my body the weekend. Sort of a recovery run--see how twisted this gets?

Oh yeah, I had the legs today.

Ran from my place in the city to my parents near Great Falls, MD. It is crazy how long these runs are getting to be. I felt so good I extended what should have been a 17 mile workout to 19! This way I hope to hit 22 for my last long run, which would be great. I could honestly have done a few more today. I did it in 2:52, which comes out to 9:03 per mile pace.

With this workout, it is oh so very tempting to dream about a sub 4 hour marathon, but I know I get slower as I go, and I don't have quite enough weeks left or miles per week to make that all that likely. Still, if everything goes perfectly from now until the finish, it is a possibility. Doing a sub-4 marathon would really put this thing to rest in my mind so I could move on to doing triathlon or holding down the couch. On the other hand, speed kills, so I need to keep that in mind as well.

Almost all of the tendon and shin problems from last week are gone, especially the unevenness of the two sides and the resulting twisting motion. Only mistake, not eating enough this morning, so I was hungry most of the run. Gu's are fuel but not food. Nothing dad's barley chicken soup couldn't fix though.

You know you want something really badly when...

Shin splints: tight muscles yanking tendons to shred them off the bone, I thought I would have to give up the race throughout the week. I was really upset and unpleasant to be around. I have to admit, I want this race really badly. Classic conundrum, stick with training and injure yourself and you don't start the race, break training and you don't finish.

Solution: Sensible talking off the ledge from support staff, sleep a lot, dunk offending parts in ice water till they turn red, shave miles off mid-week run, wait an extra day for the long run, and gut it out for 15 miles with a 10 minute break in the middle for stretching.

Result: 2:27 of sometimes twisting form and uneven stride, but I felt ok the whole way. That's 9 min/mile, so I'll take it for sure. We'll see if I can walk tomorrow.

Looks like it's the C&O Canal Towpath from now on. Do the mileage first and hope the taper over the last weeks allows healing so I can handle the beating from the road.

No magical miles today.

Well, that's what I get for waxing poetic about my twinging muscles in the last entry...I got smited today for my hubris. It is a step-back week, so only 11 miles, but I was tight, hungry and out of rhythm for each and every one. Maybe the excesses of Wednesday caught up with me, maybe running on asphalt rather than the plush sand of the canal towpath is what did it, but whatever it was, it was a struggle the whole way. On the upside, it was cool to run all the way to my old apartment in Silver Springs and back, and you can't complain about getting to run through Rock Creek Park on the weekend so the roads are closed to cars. I haven't had much experience suffering for long distances, so maybe that was the point?

The marathon bod.

Your body on marathon is divided at the waist, calm above, dissonant chords below. If you sit for long, the calfs are stiff and tingly, but the strangest sensation is lying in bed and listening to the random strings plucking themselves all over the legs, up then down, front then back. The amazing thing is that, when you get them moving again, they loosen up, shake off the abuse for a few magic miles where your mind drifts away before some part of the body, the lower body, calls it back.

There's something different about your upper body too that I can't quite put my hands on; it might be that it is so silent by comparison. The heart and lungs don't even seem to do much. My body has to remind itself from time to time to take a breath if I am sitting.

I am thankful for my body, for what it has allowed me to do so far. I thought this race would test constancy, calm persistence, and mental strength, but a lot of it is up to my body, my lower body and hopefully calm above.

Flying Lessons (Social Facilitation Part III)

So it was great to have a running partner today, we’ll call him KHK. I thought I would joining him for 7 miles on his 9 mile run. KHK showed up and surprised me, “We’re actually going for flying lessons,” which is pretty cool, except this admission came at mile 5, and it sounded more like, “We did that last mile in like 7 minutes,” we were flying alright! Funny thing was, I struggled a bit, but it was nice to unwind the legs and see what they could do. Let’s be clear, my ‘lower stomach’ promptly voiced its disapproval, and I am curious to see if I can walk tomorrow, but unless this derails the whole attempt, it was worth it to feel that High School CC feeling again. So next Wednesday, I’ll do my best to earn my wings again with KHK, Icarus be damned.