Day # ONE

Enjoying ice cream at a shop in Portland (they had vegan options!)

Okay now we are back in real time. Since my last post I went on a very nice vacation and have been slowing increasing my runs to 3-6 miles each.  I had some great runs in Portland, Crater Lake, Mendocino and around San Diego too.  But the main news is that today is a big day for me. 

It is day #1 of my official training for the Carlsbad Marathon in 26 weeks.  Yeah, I am starting early.  But this gives me extra time to start slowly, back off if needed (due to the plantar fasciitis or whatever), space for our 3 week trip to Europe and time to build back up to where I was last January after my last half marathon.

Biking in Portland

I have hired a coach.  Her name is Megan Lund Lizotte.  She has a lot of experience with coaching and running and winning races.  I found her through the Competitor magazine.  She had me fill out an extensive evaluation of my running and health history.  She reviewed it and now has given me the start of a plan.  I am going to have her guidance through this whole thing.  However, I hired her for just one month to start to see how my feet behave.  (and whether I can do what she asks).  The first week has me doing this:  Monday run 40-45 minutes, Tuesday ride bike 60 minutes, Wednesday run 35 minutes, Thursday off, Friday run 60 mins (20 mins at threshold pace), Saturday ride 70-75 minutes and Sunday run 60 minutes.  Okay and that is just the first week which is easy as there are no strides, hill work, intervals etc.  She will give me 2 weeks of workouts at a time.  She sent me a very long email describing each workout and how to perform it.  My first reaction after reading the email was Oh My God what have I gotten myself into.  What was I thinking getting a coach?  Was I thinking she was going to suggest what I have already been doing?  (3, maybe 4 runs of varying length each week).  Um, yeah I kind of was thinking that.  And this is the easy, start anew, week.  

Spending the night at the Fire Lookout in Oregon

See Aiden by the falls we hiked to in Oregon near the Fire lookout.

After my initial freak out,  I decided I want to give this my best effort.  I will just take each day and figure out how I can do what is expected that one day.  I won't worry too much about the rest of the week or month.  After all, as Kelly said to me this morning, I could just do the marathon in 2 days, crawling through the finish, cramping in my legs, diarrhea, passing out etc.  But no, I want to do this thing the right way!  

In Mendocino we biked...

We canoed...

and I ran!

4 mile run today-check.  Only 180 days, 13 hours, 3 minutes and 43 seconds until the big day.

Back to San Diego and Jr Lifeguard camp. Aiden was so excited to see his friend Mack

Looking up

Note: this post was written about one month ago but my computer went on the fritz so I couldn't post it until now.
Long time no see.  Sorry to ignore you my little blog but you are about running and I haven't done much of that lately.  Damn Plantar's Fasciitis.  It seems like such a little condition and of course in the real picture it is a little thing.  But it sure has thrown a monkey wrench in my running plans.  The last great run I had was the day I wrote my last blog post in the end of April.  I was so excited about how great it felt to run at PQ preserves, my favorite running spot.  But that night or the next day my feet started killing me again.  So off to the podiatrist I went again. He didn't really have that much to offer and I had already pretty much decided that I would take a full 8 weeks off of running to really let my PF heal and then start slowly again.

So that is where I am now.  I only took 6-7 weeks off because I was feeling better in regards to the PF and so depressed without running that I just had to start again.  I am really really trying to not up the running quickly.  I started with .5 mile runs and now have worked up to 2.5 miles.  I think I will stay around 2.5-3 mile runs for a few weeks before going up any further.  I am icing my feet in ice water after each run which is quite uncomfortable but seems to help.  I am also rolling my feet on the contraption Kelly bought me a while back.  And rolling my calves and sleeping with a boot. And I only wear supportive shoes making me miss my cute sandals and heels but you gotta do what you gotta do.   I so hope this will be enough to eventually get me back on track.

I have also found a trainer I am super excited about hiring to help me attain my marathon goal.  She is an accomplished runner but also a mother and trains people of all levels.  I hope she can help me get to the Carlsbad Marathon next January in good shape.  But I also have to be realistic that it may be a longer journey than expected if this PF won't cooperate.