Good Time for a Recovery Week

I just looked over my running schedule, and realized I didn’t miss as many runs due to injury as I thought I had. In fact, the couple of runs I missed were all over three weeks ago. I guess this means a couple of things. First, I need to stop whining. Second, I need to stop whining.

Even though I am removed from the days when little elves poked fiery stakes into my foot with every step I took, I still couldn’t help but feel like I needed my scheduled recovery week last week. I just felt like I was a half step behind everything, and the ensuing consternation over where I was compared to where I wanted to be made me lose sight of my marathon goals and all of the little things I had been doing to try and make them a reality.

A week with two eight mile runs interspersed with seven miles of non-speed work helped me get my concentration back. It was brilliant. I didn’t need to worry about fatigue, overstressing body parts, or anything else really. I just ran. And I was able to keep well within the prescribed, albeit modest, speed goals without any problems. This made for a happy deetschei, and I am once again looking forward to a marathon that is, actually, not that far away.

This week I am gearing up for my final twenty mile run. The last one went so well, I am almost afraid to run it again. I feel like I couldn’t possibly repeat the generally pleasant experience of finishing twenty miles without wanting to amputate massive parts of my lower body. In actuality, I’m setting the bar higher this time because I need to run it faster. Who knows what will happen. My money is on the amputations.

I do know that there have been some lingering issues with the IT band which have kept me busy on some of my longer runs over the past couple of weeks. It isn’t something that forces me to quit, but it does require some pretty steady maintenance and that constant search for the right stride, in which every step is either a little shorter or a little longer and the foot is planted a little more on the heel or the toe, all while trying to find that sweet spot where the knee doesn’t tighten up and those outside twinges don’t grow into something more. Ideally, I won’t have to waste the mental energy worrying about how to step, nor the physical energy of continually adjusting my stride, in the marathon itself. Let’s all put our faith in the taper.

But before that, comes the twenty. Because it’s there.