Day 72 - 5am - Track workout. I should do 11.5 miles but I'll see how I feel. Dennis is there and we take off. Due to the rain we run at Petaluma High School on their all weather track. I only go four miles and call it a day. No pain other than my toe but that didn't really bother me. I just felt like stopping at four miles. Knee felt good why push it.
Day 73 - 6am - A little P90X workout. Chest, Shoulders, Triceps and a little Ab Ripper. I do a modified workout that feels good. You can't really modify Ab Ripper. You just have to dig in and give it all you've got. My toe has really started to swell up. I have no idea what's wrong. I have a doctors appointment on the 12th but that's a week and a half off.
Day 74 - 5am - Track workout. Dennis and I go again to Petaluma High School. This time I run nine miles. I feel alright. At the end I feel a little something in my knee but not something that really worries me. My toe felt fine. I soaked it the day before and the pain had gone away. Maybe I'm turning the corner and my leg is going to return to normal.
Day 75 - 6am - Ab Ripper! My toe has become swollen again and it hurts like hell. I need a Nascar pit stop. Pull in, get a new right leg and get back out there.
Day 76 - 7am - Here we go! The real test for my leg will be today. I'm suppose to run for two and a half hours. Under normal circumstances that would be about 15 miles but today I'll be happy with thirteen. Still I have a fourteen mile course laid out. Dennis and I start out and head up to my favorite hill. Cows are everywhere, even the Angus or non dairy cows are in the road. Dennis says, "just don't look at them". No problem but I notice the pace picking up or maybe that was just me. I ask Dennis what kind of cows are those? He said he wasn't sure. He said he needed to ask his daughter Emme, she's the one who's the cow whisperer. I told Dennis maybe I need to have Emme on these runs. On this run there is a point where we could cut the run short by a couple of miles. Dennis takes off and I continue on the schedule course. My knee feels alright and my toe although swollen not really causing any problems. As I get to mile twelve I start to feel a little something in my knee. It's not pain but it's something that I don't normally have. Since it's not a real pain I think maybe it will go away and I continue on. I finish the run, 13.5 miles. That thing with the knee didn't go away. Not a good sign and the run was more work than normal. Thirteen mile runs had become fairly easy for me. This wasn't easy nor did it make me think my knee problem had gone away. Dennis said something to me on this run that at the time I didn't realize how spot on he was. He said, "give your body a chance to heal". Everybody knows that but I hadn't been running that way. I was pushing a little bit on most of the runs. Maybe that was coming back to haunt me. Tomorrow I'm schedule to run for three hours!
Day 77 - 7am - Today will be very interesting. I take off slowly letting my body settle in. I'm a little tight but that's not uncommon for my Sunday runs. I usually settle in around the half mile mark and the rest of the run goes pretty smooth. I head up a set of hills that I'm surprised that I don't feel the need to walk a little. On the second hill is a steep downhill my knee starts to act up and I start walking. Maybe it's just the downhill that's causing the problem. I get to the flat ground and start running again. Oh shit! It's not feeling any better. I continue on for another half a mile and then decide it isn't worth it. I'll do more damage if I continue. I ran only two and a half miles and now I get to walk back home. This is not a good sign. Although this is my down week this is not how I wanted to finish up. I had already cut back the mileage far more than I was scheduled and now I'm not going to finish this run, not even get close.
Week Eleven Totals - Not a good week! 31 ugly miles! I'm suppose to ramp up to a 70 mile week next week. I don't think so. It's funny, the workout program said the biggest problem during the training is getting the runner to the starting line healthy. Add to that Dennis' comment about giving my body a chance to heal. I was up until last week saying if I haven't started breaking down by now I'm not going to. I need to get this fixed. If it means going slow for another two weeks so be it but I need to get right. The training program said for the long runs, "don't focus on the miles, focus on the time". I was trying to do both. I need a new light bulb because the one I'm using is not so bright. I really believe this will be a short lived set back but I clearly need to make some adjustments in my approach both mentally and physically. I've got to get to that damn starting line.
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