A New Week

I can't believe it is already November and now starting week 3 of my 16-week training for the Surf City Half Marathon.  I do most of my running now really early in the morning because I find that has been the best time for me.  With the time change this past Sunday, I'll be able to run with much more daylight now which will be cool.  I'm always afraid that I'll injure myself by stepping on something that I couldn't see in the dark.  At least now I won't have to worry about that as much.

This past weekend it was great to watch the New York City Marathon.  I watched a part of it on universalsports.com early on Sunday and then watched the whole thing on NBC later in the day.  I'm always amazed and inspired watching the elite runners run and will definitely motivate me in my running this week. 

Right now my mileage is not much (only about 13-15 miles a week).  I'm tempted to do more and to go faster than what my Smart Coach training plan has laid out for me but I'm going to stick to the training plan.   One of the big problems I had in my previous training for the Disneyland Half Marathon this past September was developing ITBS which really messed up my training the last 2 months going into the race.  I didn't really follow any training plan other than doing a long run every weekend and increasing that mileage by slowly every week.  However, I was still pretty inconsistent with my training and I don't think I did enough strengthening exercises for my legs.  I almost didn't think I would be able to run the Disneyland Half Marathon and was doubting I could be able to do anymore running for a while.   I discovered KT Tape (which was a godsend) and just had to take it easy and do a lot of resting and I was fortunate to be able to complete the half marathon.  I had a lot of fun in that race and took a lot of pictures and some video which I'm glad I did.  Consequently, my time was less than spectactular (2:46:51) but I was proud of myself for just finishing it considering my ITBS issues.

So, after that race, I decided I would have to start all over from scratch and be a little more disciplined in my training.  I was able to do a few shorter runs of 2-4 miles which I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had no issue with my knee.  When the ITBS was at it's worst, I had one training run where I couldn't even make it 1 mile without being forced to turn back because the pain was too much.   I am training now using the Smart Coach training plan from the Runner's World site.  So far it has been good.  My longest run since this "restart" has been 6 miles but I've been able to do it relatively pain-free so far.  I'm hoping to keep it that way.

So, here's to a new month and new week!  Get out there and run for fun!