6 days from now I’ll have ran my second half mary.
When I signed up for this race about 2 months ago I was pumped. Following signing up for this race I ran the Lakefront 10 miler, and killed it. I ran so well and I was so excited about this half because my first half was in October and I averaged like 12:20 minute miles and in the 10 miler I did like 10:47. To see that growth I was so proud of myself.
Then the bad runs and the pain started. This past week I started getting my knee taped, saw an Internal Sports med doctor, and officially start PT tomorrow.
The upside to all of this that I won’t need surgery I just need to seriously strengthen some muscles. And I can still run, provided I don’t have pain, and I have to go to Physical Therapy to rehab my “runners knee”. Another upside is that I was able to break my dreaded 7 mile curse mark (usually when my knee starts to act up) on my run yesterday and run 10 1/2 miles.
The only downside- I’m slow again. Like painfully slow- or at least I was yesterday….. I kept hearing my average pace at each mile mark, and threw up a little each time. Yeah I know it could be much worse- but I have grown accustomed to seeing certain times- faster times- progress. Going from “improved” back to where is started is frustrating but definitely not the end of the world.
As of right now my plan is simple: finish my half on Saturday. The other part of this plan is to focus on fueling this week and eating clean leading up to the race – meaning: focusing on my healthy carbs, repleting, and I plan some shorter tempo runs Tuesday and Thursday as well as a longer-ish run on Wednesday. I also plan to roll out each night using my foam roller on my IT bands which are suuuuuuuper tight.
How do you prepare for races? If not races big events?
