I am So-o-o Sore

Yikes, am I ever sore. I have done this marathon training before, so I don’t know why I am so surpised. Actually, I’ve trained for 10 other marathons (1 which became a 1/2 marathon – but that’s another story). Why am I surprised?

My training for Grandma’s marathon has been different from the others. Usually, I experience this type of soreness, after every long run greater than 15 miles. I haven’t had that at all. I have actually been running harder with this program. In addition to Hal Higdon’s training system, I’ve been doing speed work (Yasso 800s, mile repeats, and tempo runs) for my mid-week “sort of long” run. I am really proud to have stuck with it so well.

Yesterday I broke out the arnica, started popping the Ibuprofen 800 mg tabs, and am making my way around slowing. This morning I had to sit down on the top step of our stairs and move my butt down one step at a time, and getting up and down from the toilet was quite a challenge too.

I’ve earned this taper. But first, I have a 5-mile run to do. After all, “taper” does not mean NO running.

I meant to get my 5-miler in before my hair appointment, but my body was screaming NO.

I took my time getting around to it. I broke down and bought a running skirt. Yes, after saying that skirts just weren’t for me and that they were something only tennis players wore, I bought one for myself. Then YaYa and I went out for crepes, and visited my Dad.

Finally we hit the local high school track only to find it locked up. Instead I ran laps around the field. 5-miles was about 8 1/2 laps around the field. Slow. Steady. It wasn’t that bad; it just hurt to get started. So each time I stopped for water, or to talk with YaYa, I had to tolerate a few minutes of pain to get myself going again. It wasn’t exactly the “marathon pace” run that it would have been IF I had run it on Saturday as scheduled. In fact, the pace was slower than the pace of my 20-mile run. But, I completed the run and am looking forward to cross-training tomorrow.