It’s Sunday, and you know what that means – Marathon Training Update! If you didn’t realize that Sunday meant that, I suppose you do now.
Though it was only week 2 of training, I decided to mix things up a bit. This mix-up came in two forms.
Form 1 - I bought new shoes! More specifically, I bought a completely different brand of shoe than I typically wear. I’ve been a Saucony gal ever since I started running – the Ride my shoe of choice for my neutral foot. Alas, the good folks at Saucony keep making minor tweaks – and after the latest I started noticing a rather unpleasant pain to the side of my right knee. I suspected the shoes due to a few factors – the timing of the pain, the fact that it would feel better with rest but return as soon as I ran again, and the frequency with which I needed to re-tie my shoes. The last sounds odd, but I suspected that my foot was rolling more and loosening the laces. Luckily, the fellow at my local running shoe emporium confirmed my suspicion, and fitted me into my new kicks – the Brooks Defyance 2 (nope, I don’t know why they spell it that way, either). After this week of training – no more knee pain! The big triumph here was not only that the pain is gone, but that I accurately diagnosed the problem. Makes me feel like I know what I’m doing!
Form 2 – I’ve been mixing it up with my training. For the first week I really just went out and ran however many miles the coach suggested for that day. This week, I added some hill training and speed play. I had two reasons for doing these things – the first was simply to keep it interesting. We’re not yet going long enough distances that the workout alone is enough. The second is that I am painfully slow. While I have no need (or real inclination) to become amazingly fast, I’d like to get a little bit better so that I can finish the marathon in a reasonable time. Both hill work and speed training should help with that – it will be interesting to see how this develops.
On the fundraising front, I am well on my way to meeting my first target of $1000 by December 13th! So far I’ve hit $984! Thank you to everyone who has bought raffle tickets, baked goods, or made a straightforward donation to my page! Incidentally, I’ve decided that donations of $50 or more will earn the donor a mile of the marathon dedicated to that person. This is retroactive, so if you’ve made such a donation, let me know what mile you’d like! I’m reserving the last .2, though – that one’s for me.
One last marathon note for this week, and then tomorrow it’s back to food – shellfish, in fact! You may have noticed a new link section on this here blog, reserved for my teammates who’ve started training blogs. You should make sure to visit them! Next week I think I’ll give a specific run-down of each one and what it’s about, but Jess, Kelly, and Laura are all great, fun writers – so go give them some love!
