Training Again

Well, I am back running seriously again for the first time since before I became pregnant with my now 2 1/2 year old daughter. So far things are going well with the exception of some IT band tightness and resulting soreness in my left knee. I ramped up the miles a little too quickly as I have only been running 15-20 miles per week for the past few years. Here is how October looked:


Oct. 8-14 :: 34 miles for the week with an 8 mile long run

Oct. 15-21 :: 42 miles for the week with an 11 mile long run

Oct. 22-28 :: 30 miles for the week on 5 runs with a 12 mile long run. I was going for mid to high forties for the week but opted to take a couple days off because of the soreness in my knee. I was trying to be careful as I wanted to go for my first 2 hour run on Sunday.

Oct. 29 :: The goal was 2 hours but I only managed 9 miles (1:15:35). My knee was already bugging me at 1.5 miles in and I probably should have stopped earlier than I did but I was hoping that it would go away. It actually got to a point where it was affecting my stride so I knew I needed to pull the plug.

Oct. 30 :: 1.5 miles... I decided before I started that I would quit as soon as it hurt. Lots of stretching, ice and a steady low dose of ibuprofen to help reduce the inflammation.

Oct. 31 :: 5 miles! I was excited to make it 5 without any soreness... just a couple twinges to let me know it's still there.

Overall I am pretty happy with my start back. It has been quite a few years since I have been in racing shape so I am hoping to build a base this winter and run some races next spring and summer. We'll see what happens. Running slow is frustrating for me because in college we focused on quicker paces and low volume. I want to see what will happen if I put in some long efforts and right now my body is telling me the only way that will happen is if I run slow.