Week in review Sept. 21-27: Ending with another aborted long run =(

Blech.

I had high hopes after my uneventful 3-miler Saturday that my long run would be just as uneventful. A perfect day would have been to complete 18 miles feeling good. Sadly, I got about 2.5 miles in before the searing pain in my right knee started, and I had to walk/jog back to my car.

I knew it could go either way and I tried to mentally prepare myself for both three hours of running and 10 minutes of running. I didn’t even really want to drive out to a nicer trail in case I had to cut it short; I felt it would have been a waste of time. On the other hand, I knew spending three hours running around my neighborhood would be mind-numbing.

In the end, I shouldn’t have bothered. After the pain started, I knew I was done for. I’d walk for a while, jog for a bit, and walk again when the pain came back. I was feeling OK going slowly by the time I got back to my car, and I briefly considered trying for another few miles the opposite way. Alas, the pain returned just as I reached my car at mile 4. I was pretty much mentally checked out by then, anyway.

So, what next?

My running schedule has been all over the place lately. This past week, I had taken five full days off before the test run Saturday and the aborted long run Sunday. Two weeks ago I had a nice, easy 6.5 miles early in the week, was busy for a few days, and had to cut that Sunday’s long run short, too. Three weeks ago I ran 16 miles with the only sign of a problem showing up in the last mile, and had even run some fast-for-me half-mile pickups two days before! Was it the pickups? Was it the 16-miler?

Five full days of rest didn’t solve the problem so this time I’m going to rest even longer. If not running one step between now and marathon day means I can finish the race, that's what I'm going to do. I'll probably wait at least two weeks and go from there.

In the mean time my plans is strengthen, rest, and hope for the best. There's not much else I can do at this point. The window for putting hay in the barn has passed and I just have to hope it was enough.

For posterity:

Run: Twice, both on the road, for 7 miles in 1:10:23.

Yoga: Twice, both self-guided, for 30:00.

Pre-hab: Twice, hip exercises, for 35:00.

Weights: One session of body/heavy weight moves, for about 1:15:00.

Total: Seven sessions in just longer than 3:30.