Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Itching to Run

I ran the Tokyo Marathon on February 18th and because I set a new PR I continued to be excited about running through a few weeks of recovery and light running. But then I had a few days where I was sort of dreading the beginning of my next marathon training period which was scheduled to start this week. THEN, I caught a cold late last week and have ended up not running much at all, and all of a sudden I'm itching to get to my training just when my body's not really up for it. I've read that if your cold is in your head (congestion, etc.) that it's okay to continue running, but if it's in your chest (which is where mine is right now) that you shouldn't run. So I took today off, but I imagine I'll run tomorrow if I've shown any sign of improvement by then. I did run a 5k this past Sunday while I was sick, and was encouraged to improve my PR by 21 seconds to 21:19. I'm hoping I can knock that down even further in a few weeks. The next big race I'm training for (other than the July marathon) is the Eugene Half Marathon on April 29. I love that town so I'm looking forward to the trip down there.

8 comments:

knittinmom said...

I'm so jealous that you'll be in Eugene without me (although I can't complain about the fact that I'm going to be on a sock-knitting cruise that week). Think of me when you're eating your Yumm!

peter said...

Nice blog, nice times. I'll bet running in Japan was fun. I feel like trying overseas after 13 marathons; I have thought running in Iceland would be cool (I'm on the E. coast).

AZ said...

So if you and kittinmom (sock knitting cruise?) are gone at the same time, who has the kids?

Be content to rest while you have the chance, marathon training will be here soon enough.

Bill G said...

The kids are going with Chrissy and her mom is going along as well. It's a kid friendly cruise I guess. I'll be home alone with the cat, the fish and the chickens!

Bill G said...
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Shelley L. MacKenzie said...

Here from Chrissy's blog! A couple of summers ago my friends and I decided we wanted to try running, and eventually work up to be able to run a marathon (yes, I realize that is a lot of work). Well, it didn't work out and after a couple of months we stopped running - mostly because we are really out of shape, lol. However, since then, anytime I go for a walk I feel my body urging me to start running. I want to get back into it and try again - even if I don't do a marathon - I'm just waiting for the warmer weather to get here (there's still snow and ice around) and then start. I suppose if I were to go walking until then, that would help somewhat...

AZ said...

shelley,
If you do start running (and maybe do a marathon) it's not something you'll ever regret (and likely not as much work as you think). If you don't start running, next year at this time you'll be in the same place you are now, and the year after and the year after...

Bill G said...

Thanks for your comment, Shelley! I can relate to your experience of starting to run and then stopping after a few months. I did that for 2-3 years before this last time when it seemed to "stick". What I've found interesting is how increasing my running distance very slowly doesn't seem very hard, but after awhile you realize how much further you are running than you used to. Walking would be a great start, I think.