As such, I'll be moving forward with my plan to participate in the A2A Marathon this coming Sunday. As I stated in a comment earlier, a wiser person might still choose to sit this marathon out and let the healing process complete, but I'm just not that wise...I really want to do this, so I'll roll the dice. Will I get hurt doing this, at least to some degree...probably so. However, I will definitely modify my post-marathon recovery plan this time to include a lot more rest days, and a much more gentle return.
My running plan between now and the marathon looks like this:
| Day | Activity / Distance |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 6 miles |
| Wednesday | 6 miles |
| Thursday | Rest |
| Friday | 4 miles (Walking) |
| Saturday | Rest |
| Sunday | Marathon |
So, unless the mid-week runs produce an issue that seems serious, the game is on.Here is what last week looked like...
| Day | Activity | Distance (in miles) |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Walking | 1.02 |
| Running | 4.02 | |
| Walking | 1.05 | |
| Monday | Rest Day | |
| Tuesday | Walking | 1.00 |
| Running | 4.00 | |
| Wednesday | Walking | 1.10 |
| Running | 4.10 | |
| Walking | 1.10 | |
| Thursday | Rest Day | |
| Friday | Walking | 1.03 |
| Running | 6.14 | |
| Saturday | Running | 6.19 |
| Walking | 0.50 |
These are my time and distance totals for the week:
| Activity | Time Total | Distance Total (in miles) |
|---|---|---|
| Running | 3:40:27 | 24.45 |
| Walking | 1:40:29 | 6.80 |
| Overall Total | 5:20:56 | 31.25 |
In cross-training, both the pushups and pullups are progressing nicely. I'll stop the upper body work by Wednesday to ensure I'm not sore for the marathon, but the numbers are improving. I'm mixing up the reps and sets each time, but I averaged 111 total pushups (9 sets on average) and 31 pullups (6 sets on average) per session last week (3 sessions each on different days).
As far as the March planks challenge is concerned, I completed that on Thursday of this week, to a total of 101. Doing 15 minutes of those in a day (with a 45 second recovery between 1 minute planks) still really works my lower back. I'm not a big fan of this, but I'll keep it in the rotation just for core strength purposes.
I also did three kettlebell workouts this week...a first for me. It seems that everything I do from the cross training perspective works me in a slightly different way, and the kettlebells were no different. You can read more about my experience with them here.
I only went to Yoga on Thursday this week due to a scheduling conflict. My wife is building up for her first half-marathon (which I plan to run with her) on April 29th, and she needed me to watch the little one so she could do a long run on Saturday morning before it got too warm. She successfully completed 13.21 miles in 2:17:49 unsupported for her first attempt at the full half-marathon distance, and I'm quite proud of her. It was also her first time running with a fuel belt with full water bottles, and her first time eating on the run (GU). She managed to run every step of the way, and although she was tired, she came through it beautifully.
Happy Running Everyone !!!
