Before I got hurt I was toying with the idea of a marathon, but as is standard for me I had a bunch of possibilities and had no way of deciding which to do. Then when I was hurt there was only one that I was actually sad that I might not be able to do so I decided that would be my goal. But I'm sort of gunshy about starting to run high mileage again and risk hurting myself. So I thought I'd check and see what you all thought about the feasibility of this before I start this training program I've worked out for myself.
Its a trail marathon or 50K on April 10th which gives me 12 weeks of training including taper. The route is pretty much solid down hill (http://www.pctrailruns.com/event.aspx?dtid=5591) through the redwood forests of Northern California. Its going to be gorgeous and its scheduled for the day before I have to be up there for a conference for school anyway so its pretty much perfect. I just don't want to get too much more excited if its likely not feasible after this month off of running (although I did heavily crosstrain including some 4 hour gym sessions during half of that time). I'm planning to do it in minimal shoes if I do it because I have no way of checking out the terrain. If I decide its possible I will probably end up being forced into buying the merrell shoes considering that the zems and altra which are the two I'm most excited about won't be out by the time I need them to do some training runs in. While I do really like my huaraches they are terrible in mud and NorCal in the winter means rain is quite possible. So here is what the last two weeks running wise looked like for me.
So last week I did like 13 miles total. I was flying home from Michigan, busy, and hadn't run much in the last month so it was rough. Made up of 3 and 4 milers all bf.
This week looked like this (all bf except where stated)
M-nothing, my calves were sore from sunday's run and I was deyhydrated from the weekend. So seemed like a good day to rest.
T- 3.5 miles. I got paranoid about a weird cramp in my foot, turned around and went home. Turns out it was fine and I should of just kept running but like I said a bit gunshy nowadays. I think some of this was done in socks for the cold
W-8.5 about half in thin (now holey) socks because it was cold
R- crosstrain on the bike for an hour or so
F- 10.8mi (7.8 of it in huaraches thanks to some construction leaving little asphalt pebbles all over the asphalt road ouch!)
S-heavy cross train since feet were a bit sensitive and I didn't feel like running in huaraches (1.5 hours stairmill and stairmaster) am, and 4pm miles (2 huarache when it got dark and I didn't want to pay attention anymore)
S-14 miles (4 huarache). This probably was walking the line of stupid. Near the end I was starting to hurt in my hips which is my genetic weak point. It was only supposed to be a 12 mile run but they closed my trail that I can pretty much pick my distance on and I got forced to do a loop which was a bit longer than planned. But it appears I survived with no real injury just some soreness in my hips and calves.
Before I got hurt I was doing back to back trail runs along the lines 20mi/18mi, 18/16, a bunch of 18/17 and 18/16 ect.... but they were all in my nikes. The furthest bf/minamlist I've ever done was today's 14miler but I had alot of 10 milers pre-injury.
So with that as a starting point and 12 weeks to go what do you all think?
Its a trail marathon or 50K on April 10th which gives me 12 weeks of training including taper. The route is pretty much solid down hill (http://www.pctrailruns.com/event.aspx?dtid=5591) through the redwood forests of Northern California. Its going to be gorgeous and its scheduled for the day before I have to be up there for a conference for school anyway so its pretty much perfect. I just don't want to get too much more excited if its likely not feasible after this month off of running (although I did heavily crosstrain including some 4 hour gym sessions during half of that time). I'm planning to do it in minimal shoes if I do it because I have no way of checking out the terrain. If I decide its possible I will probably end up being forced into buying the merrell shoes considering that the zems and altra which are the two I'm most excited about won't be out by the time I need them to do some training runs in. While I do really like my huaraches they are terrible in mud and NorCal in the winter means rain is quite possible. So here is what the last two weeks running wise looked like for me.
So last week I did like 13 miles total. I was flying home from Michigan, busy, and hadn't run much in the last month so it was rough. Made up of 3 and 4 milers all bf.
This week looked like this (all bf except where stated)
M-nothing, my calves were sore from sunday's run and I was deyhydrated from the weekend. So seemed like a good day to rest.
T- 3.5 miles. I got paranoid about a weird cramp in my foot, turned around and went home. Turns out it was fine and I should of just kept running but like I said a bit gunshy nowadays. I think some of this was done in socks for the cold
W-8.5 about half in thin (now holey) socks because it was cold
R- crosstrain on the bike for an hour or so
F- 10.8mi (7.8 of it in huaraches thanks to some construction leaving little asphalt pebbles all over the asphalt road ouch!)
S-heavy cross train since feet were a bit sensitive and I didn't feel like running in huaraches (1.5 hours stairmill and stairmaster) am, and 4pm miles (2 huarache when it got dark and I didn't want to pay attention anymore)
S-14 miles (4 huarache). This probably was walking the line of stupid. Near the end I was starting to hurt in my hips which is my genetic weak point. It was only supposed to be a 12 mile run but they closed my trail that I can pretty much pick my distance on and I got forced to do a loop which was a bit longer than planned. But it appears I survived with no real injury just some soreness in my hips and calves.
Before I got hurt I was doing back to back trail runs along the lines 20mi/18mi, 18/16, a bunch of 18/17 and 18/16 ect.... but they were all in my nikes. The furthest bf/minamlist I've ever done was today's 14miler but I had alot of 10 milers pre-injury.
So with that as a starting point and 12 weeks to go what do you all think?