1 Week of Recovery Running

My son and I hiked the 7 Sisters trail today, a few miles of it, and I shot the video above. I need to run this by the end of the year. At the race in May I hobbled along a couple miles as spectator.

At some point in the past month, I wrote a lengthly report on my injury which died somwhere in cyberspace. It didn't seem worth re-writing it. I've managed to recover from another stress fracture. Last October it was my right foot, this time it was my left. If all continues to go well, I can run through the part of the season I missed out on last year. I took 4 weeks off to due to this injury. It was an undiagnosed stress fracture, or at least only diagnosed by myself. Two bad excuses, maybe I'm just a hypochondriac and maybe I can still compete in the 5k Grand Prix series, ten days into this 'time off' I ran a 5k. This may have seriously set me back in my recovery. I feel lucky, as I logged almost 20 miles last week without complaint from the foot.

The Baystate Marathon is a month away. This is tempting, to meet this commitment to run my first marathon. There's no chance of the BQ I wanted, but I could still find a worthy goal. A more worthy goal would be to skip it, take it off the table now, and offer my spot to a teammate from my running club. I'm very undecided. There are other temptations along the way to Baystate. At Monroe trail race last year I won my Age Group for the first time, and would like to take another stab at it 3 weeks from now. 5 weeks out is the Bimbler's Bluff 50k where I was a DNF due to the stress fracture I ran through at Monroe last year. More than any of this, I just want to stay healthy and running.

My only concrete plans at this point will be to offer my Baystate entry to any club member who wants it, while I keep my head down and just try to repeat the success of this past week of low-key but thoroughly enjoyable running.

Further

This is turning into a long run blog. This past week included my very first track workout. I'm actually so inexperienced that I'm not sure that's the correct term. I wasn't wearing spikes or anything, but I went to the local school track and did 4X 800 and 4X 400. Unfortunately I did not gain any speed at the weekly 5k race, two days later. I did not expect to and also did not expect to be so disappointed at slowing down. This will not affect the Grand Prix standings at all.

Incidental to the track work out was the discovery that my spreadsheet pace calculator, for my Runners World marathon training plan, was completely wrong and my paces were actually much slower. The marathon training thing is becoming hard to find confidence in due to all this bologna. Life intrudes and invites me to odd ball running opportunities. I ran to work this week after dropping my car off for service. That was good for 7.5 miles at 7:30 pace, my MGP.

In any case, it is time for another long run. The last one was just plain too hilly. I know that. I also know that I need a good four hour workout of sorts. That would involve 20+ miles on brutal terrain. What can I do but compromise? Mapped out this Trail Mix course, road - trail - road - trail - road, 22 miles and 3500 feet of climbing. There's plenty of flat in it, despite being twice as hilly as the last long run!

Massive Long Run

This is what I'm in the mood for. This morning, I calculated all my training paces for a Boston BQ, using the Runner's World advanced plan. Just looking for speedwork ideas and general weekly structure. My mile PR is called my 'cruise' pace! This is gonna be tough, but I think I can pull it off. Next question to answer for myself is, where can I find a reliable track environment? I'll do a google flyover of the terrain between here and work, first of all. Baystate is 13 weeks away!