For reference, here’s last week’s data. Curious what this post is about? I’m tracking my training progress for the New York Marathon. Click here for why.
Summary
I did one “last chance” run to see if my leg could take the mileage on Saturday. Results: 17 mile run, but I’m in a lot of pain now and back in my restraining-boot. So, I need to make a hard call by end of this week: surrender and fight another day, or go for broke in two weeks? Send me your thoughts!
Subjective Data
This was a rest week which was good since I had a slight cold. I did two spinning classes, no weight lifting, but my bike ride on Saturday didn’t pan out. So, instead I decided to try my luck running again (stupid me, I know). The good news is I got 17 miles done in 3:03:00 (although I had to walk the last mile). The bad news is, like my run 2 weeks ago, I’m in a lot of pain.
That said, I’m in slightly less pain than 2 weeks ago even though I did over 2x the mileage… hmmm…
Eating was very on target all week, and the numbers show that.
Objective Data
Click here for a PDF version of my dashboard.
Assessment
The rest was good. The diet-control was good. On that front, not a lot to change.
On the run, I learned a bunch of things:
- Going at a super slow pace actually makes things worse, not better. I did the first 4 miles at a 12-minute-mile pace and it really sucked. I need to run at my natural pace, which means a 9-10 minute mile pace with breaks.
- Tighter laces earlier in the run actually seems to help.
- I need to stop every 1-2 miles and walk for at least 60 seconds to let the pain subside (that’s what kills my overall times). If I do the marathon, that’s what I’ll need to do.
- It hurts more if I stop moving J
- But it hurts A LOT while I run. Specifically, sharp piercing pain on the top of my right foot when kicking off that is consistent with severe tendonitis.
Plan
This is the week I need to make my big decision: to go or not go for it. I have to decide by Friday, although I’m hoping to stretch it to Sunday since I’m having breakfast with my aunt from Ireland on Sunday and she’s run a bunch of marathon’s before (I’d like her advice).
The plan this week is to resume lifting on my old schedule, keep eating under control (still shooting for that Six-Pack Challenge), and do some spinning to maintain cardio (later in week once my foot heals from Saturday’s run).
As a reminder, I get to decide on October 24th whether to try to run the marathon anyway, or take my guaranteed spot next year. Let me know your thoughts.
I’ve decided my final goals for the winter will be all about swimming and lifting:
- Be able to swim 1km without stopping by 3/1/08. This is really about form and balance for me.
- Gain 5-10 pounds from my 11/5/07 weight while keeping a 32 inch max waist by 3/1/08 (I’m expecting my 11/5 weight to be around 150-155).
- For weight lifting, increase my 1RM by 5% on average across the board by 3/1/08 from my 10/30 1RMs (1RM = 1-Rep-Maximum. I did a re-measure of those 2 weeks ago).
I’ll create a new tracking dashboard for this after the marathon.
Presentation Notes
No changes to data presentation this week. As with last week, data is presented in SOAP Note format.
– Art
A. B. Clarke 
I always was told that it’s important to listen to pain from your body. Pain is your body saying “don’t do this.” It seems like a really bad idea to try to do it given how much pain you have. You’ll have many years in the future to do runs, but the less you injure yourself, the sooner those years will resume.
In general, my advice would be to go for broke. Pain is temporary, pride is forever … all that. But, from the sound of things, I’d recommend sitting this one out and fight another day. I’ve known people with tendonitis and it can be really debilitating if you let it go too far. Wouldn’t want to see that happen to you.
Hey! Don’t leave us in suspense! What did you decide?
See #20 🙂