Thursday, June 21, 2007

18 Mi Curse

Let it be known to the blog world that the marathon training run of 18 miles seems to have a curse on me!..
Three years ago while training for my last marathon, the 18 mi training run was the WORST run of my life. I won't go into too many details, we will just say that bodily malfunctions are not pleasant and something is wrong when mud puddles look tasty!
This would be the episode for me, of "hitting the wall". I'm certain there are countless others who have met a similar demise...but for me this stands as a reminder that "at least it isn't as bad as the 18miler". It has been a stepping stone of great strength, in that, when ever I think I'm tired and exhausted, I just remember that "at least I'm not crying and internally exploding".
I made a full recovery and the actual marathon was great!
This past Saturday was our "18 miler". I must confess that my body responded tremendously well throughout the entire run...I was even going to blog about what a success it had been!
That is until about 3 hours after the run and I have since developed an annoyingly sore ankle!
I have very little patience for injury. Keeping this in mind, I have taken the past few days off from running and have swam and laid low for a few days...Feeling incredibly lazy and BLAH...I decided to take a run this morning...not too bad my ankle is still a bit sore but I think I'll recover.
The point to this babbling, is that somehow the curse likes to make think that this is the end of training and wants to make me think I'm not strong enough to do it. I'm certain I will still run the marathon...(that is as long as I endure the 20 miler next week). However, the next time I'm training for a marathon I will either run a 17 or 19 mi run instead of 18 and see if I have better results!

4 comments:

Traci said...

Run Letty Run! You go girl! That is soo awesome what are you doing, good luck too! I need to pick up on some of your energy. Hope the ankle is well!

Anonymous said...

OK PT in the house. Recent changes in shoes? Running on familiar surfaces? Anything else different in recent past, like taking up the tango? Ice, ibuprofen and compression are now your friends--and a bit of rest for the old ankle. I'm impressed with anyone who runs, let alone 18 miles! Happy getting better.

Nedge said...

Okay. You are very amazing. I can't run for two miles straight! I have no idea how you do it.
I hope your ankle starts to feel better sooner than later.

Letty said...

Thanks OW...belive it or not, that is exactly what I've been doing this week...In fact Rick said "call my dad and ask him" and I said what will he tell me? "Ice, Ibuprofen, and some rest." He then said...do you need to call my dad so that you WILL do it? Needless to say I took your PT offsprings advice. Currently I feel a little discomfort but not too bad! I think I'm on the road to recovery!!!