Dead legs!

It has been a while since my last post, when I was on the high of running with some really nice guys. Two weeks have past and I have had some nice runs with them, but I need to back off a bit from the group runs. While running with them has pushed me to a faster pace, I also feel that it is pushing me too far to a faster pace than I should follow at this time. They are good runners, who have been at it for a long time. I, on the other hand, am I a novice still getting his “sea legs” in running, if you will. Sunday was tough. We met at 7 and ran into a couple of triathletes who wanted to run with us and take us through some trails near our health club. Although the triathletes said they wanted to run slow, they set a quick pace and I found it hard to keep up. I was overstriding and running faster than I should have and I turned around and left them after about 2 miles. I ran the two mikes back to the car at a much slower pace. I was also suffering from a very tight right shin, the product of overstriding and a strength imbalance between my calves and my shins. This hurt me all week, which was supposed to be an easy week on my marathon training plan, of nothing more than 3 miles. My shins did not hurt, mind you, but the muscle around the right shin felt very very tight and it was hard to stride properly. I felt like I had dead legs all week. Three miles felt like 6, and I struggled all week to complete them. My pace has been the same, but my body has fought just to keep up.

That said, I am laying off running for the rest of the week (I am writing this on Wed.) and will start back on my miles on Sunday with a 5 miler. In the meantime, I’ll do some non-running cardio, such as spin or elliptical, and work the weights, which I haven’t been on in about two weeks.

I am now five weeks into my marathon training and can run 4 miles easily. 5 with a little effort, and feel encouraged by my progress and need to stop comparing myself to others. I run MY race, MY pace, MY time. That’s the new motto–or one of them at least. I run a six-miler in another week. We’ll see how that goes.