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Saturday, January 10, 2009

11.3!!

Well, it's been about a month since we did a "long" run. Our last long one was 10.6...since then I haven't done more than 7. It's only 3 weeks until the race, so I wanted to do 11 today, 12 next week, and then taper for 2 weeks until the race on Feb. 1st. I was worried about how the run would go today. It would either go really well since my knees have had a nice break, or be really tough since it's been so long since our last long run. I decided that I really wanted to take 1-minute walk breaks every 4-5 miles and see if that helped my knees.

I felt *awesome* for the first 6 miles or so...I think it's because I ate a great breakfast before I left...a banana, a handful of blueberries and a spoonful of peanut butter. I was seriously feeling *good*! After that, my knees started to hurt a bit, and that darned groin muscle started to bother me. We took 1-minute walk breaks at miles 5, 8 and 10. The last mile was killing me, but as soon as I got home, I stretched really good, took an Ibuprofen and massaged some Bengay on my knees. After a bowl of Frosted Shredded Wheat, a cup of coffee and a shower, I seriously felt incredible. I don't know if I've ever felt that good after a long run. I mean, I don't want to go out and run another 10 miles or anything, but I feel great! I feel so encouraged...I'm hoping that I can plunk out a 12-miler next week with such success. I still don't know if my positive outcome was due to the fact that I hadn't been pushing my knees too much this past month, or if it was from taking walk breaks. Probably a combination of both. Either way, I'm definitely going to try that method again next week.

I'm nervous about the race, but after today, at least I feel like I can do it!

4 comments:

J said...

When I ran and trained for my half marathon, I had knee pain while I ran as well. I stopped and stretched after about 6 miles and then again later on and it seemed to help. I made sure to walk through the water stops after 9 miles which helped too!

J said...

Oh and I forgot! Great job on the run!

Brent and AmberLee's Family said...

Hey Shanti! I LOVE the background on this thing. I am so happy that Saturday's run was so good to you. It was seriously the highlight and major accomplishment of my weekend! So thanks--I'm so glad you get me out of the house and running.

Robin said...

You are doing great, can't wait to hear how well you do in your 1/2!!