I am starting to feel the effects of months of training. While I have only been "half marathon" training for 3 weeks, I have been training and building up to longer distances since the beginning of November. What I am learning is that the constant pounding on pavement really takes a toll on your body. Especially your knees. Its a trade off, some aspects of running lead you to be in better shape, while other aspects leave you feeling broken.
One positive of running is that I no longer get winded when running. I used to have to stop because I couldn't get up a hill and yes at one point in time a couple of years ago, I had difficulty walking for a prolonged period of time. So the fact that I can run 6 miles without the slightest bit of struggle is quite remarkable to me. Even if after I run my marathon, I think I will always keep running because I see the immediate health benefits. Another positive, is I can eat a little bit more or how I am accustomed to. While training I am burning more calories and I don't have to feel guilty because I had that extra piece of pizza or a slice of pie. That's always nice to not feel as guilty about what you eat. In fact, you can usually justify it as carbo loading and then tell people its all part of your training regimen ;-)
The downside to running, and yes I did expect this. The harsh reality to running is that it is physically demanding. By Sunday, my goal is to have completed 44 miles in the past 3 weeks. While it isn't a tremendous amount of miles it is essentially the distance of me commuting round trip to work twice. That's pretty significant if you think about it. I've sustained some minor injuries thus far. Monday I dealt with the left leg getting a terrible shin splint and a strain in one of my leg muscles. I did some research and it just requires me to not be as challenging in my runs. This means lay off the hills for the next two weeks and pop advil when I'm done. When I read this, it made sense because I noticed that when I ran, I was cramping and in a ton of pain when going up the hills. I thought I was doing something wrong. It turns out its just a minor injury. The other issue I am having is that I am slightly pigeon toed when I run and this puts a lot of stress on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th toes. This also causes my flat feet to have my non-existent arches to pull and be strained. I also did research on this and it turns out that a tennis ball can help. What it does is it helps to stretch out the tightened muscles on the bottom of your foot. Since I started doing this, my arches have been sore, but I have felt a huge difference as far as pain.
How to stretch the Tendons in Your Arch:
Take a tennis ball and place one foot on top of the tennis ball.
Apply a decent amount of pressure to your foot and roll the tennis ball on the bottom of your foot.
Massage the heel and the arches.
Repeat with other foot.
My other piece of advice is to get the shin split prevention compression sleeves. I thought I only needed one, it turns out I need one for my other leg too. So I bought another sleeve. I like Zensah it is sturdy and anti-microbial. Plus, they come in a variety of cool colors. They cost about $20, but can be as expensive as $40 per sleeve. I ordered mine off of amazon.com.
My goal for this weekend is to complete a 4 miler and a 7 miler. Honestly, given the injuries I am not pushing myself too hard because I have to be concerned with the long term goals. So if I have to walk, then I will. The important part is to cover the prescribed distance so I can move on to 8 miles next weekend.
See you Sunday and happy running!
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