Marathon Training Week Six

Last week when I was running mile nine of our nine mile run, the inside of my foot started hurting. I was so tired and ready to be done running at that point that I didn't pay it much attention, and it didn't really bother me much after I stopped running.

Until I went out to run our 3 miles on Tuesday. I was in pain after running about 10 steps on Tuesday morning and it just got worse as I went on. It wasn't debilitating pain by any means, but it hurt. And it continued to hurt when I ran on Wednesday and Thursday, despite my best efforts at resting it and icing it after the runs--it feels like the bone above my arch and below my ankle bone (which I didn't even really know existed until this happened) is bruised.

And so, taking Landon's advice, I didn't run our long run this Saturday. We went to the gym yesterday evening so I could ride the bike, which we figured would put the least amount of pressure on my foot but still allow me to get some cardio in. And while I was feeling like a wimp riding the recumbent bike for an hour and a half, Landon ran nine miles around the .1 mile track above me. He ran around that little bitty track for an hour and 20 minutes--90 times!! Wow. And he ran so well--he was going at about a 9 minute pace the whole time and said he felt strong the whole nine miles. I am so proud of him--every time he'd go by me I'd cheer for him in my head, while I sat on my reclining chair and pedaled furiously. According to the bike computer, I ran 55 miles! Haha, I'm sure there's no way I could do that in real life in an hour and a half though!

Hopefully the rest time will help my foot heal though, because I really don't want to finish my training with this pain in my foot and I really don't want to have to run 26.2 miles with it. I'm hoping that by the time Tuesday morning rolls around, it will be gone. If it's not though, my personal athletic trainer (AKA my father in law :)) gets back from Africa on Thursday so I'll probably go see him! Because I cannot miss another long run--I need to redeem myself from my last one! :)

Oh--and on a postive note, my new watch came in this week, so now I can really start working on finding and keeping my pace, instead of just guessing! Woohoo!