22 more to go

Alright, the knee's cooperating pretty well these days. Yay. On Sunday I made it thru 6 miles using a run/walk plan (ran 5 min, walked 2 min), and did just fine. Yesterday I ran a full 4 miles without walking at all. I started getting a little knee twinge a time or two, but then I'd fix my form and it would go away.

So I'm now running 4 miles straight again. Just add 22 more miles to that, and the marathon's over-- no sweat, right?

Uh, right.

The one thing I have decided, based on my learning experience with the knee thing, is that I really need to focus on recovery as much as on the running. That way hopefully I can make it without any more over-use issues. It's influenced my plan-of-attack a good bit. Here's what I'm doing these days:

• I'm running just 3 days a week-- Sunday long runs, Wednesday mid-distance runs, and a short (3-5 mi) easy run on Fridays.


• Other days of the week I'm spinning and/or swimming, plus trying to stick with my PT exercises to balance out the strength in my legs. And making sure I have good core strength. So I'm plenty busy, but letting myself have good recovery from the runs.


• The runs are taking top priority, and the other workouts are meant to be "active recovery" sessions, and/or intended to help better prepare my body for running. For example, this morning I went to a spinning class, but instead of really pushing it hard with high resistance, I just ignored the instructor and continued to spin at a high rpm but low resistance, helping to work out my legs without asking too much of them. It felt good (and the instructor didn't mind me doing my own thing!)

This weekend's long run is 7 miles, and I'll try running the whole thing. Or perhaps I'll just hop...