End-of-week check-in: Some tough decisions

Running shoes collecting dust in my home gym.

I haven’t had much to say lately, so I figured it was better to keep quiet rather than blather on about nothing.

I’m still dumbfounded by what on earth is going on with my IT bands. My right leg, which caused me weeks of pain and the inability to run more than a couple miles, has felt perfectly fine since my marathon a month ago. Now, my left leg is what leaves me in pain after too much effort running, biking or even walking the dog.

Obviously, I have some kind of fundamental imbalance going on. Obviously, I need to strengthen my glutes, hips, and probably all of my other muscles, too. Obviously, I have a job and a life that makes this difficult to do regularly.

Not to mention that I’ve barely cycled and haven’t swum a stroke since my aborted 70.3 in August. If I can’t run or bike, I should probably get into the pool again soon, huh?

Wah, wah, wah.

After a lot of thinking about whether or not there will be a “next season,” I made two hard decisions:

1. I’m not going to try for a January marathon. This makes me really, really sad as the one I wanted to do is on my sister’s birthday and a half hour away from her in Florida. But I am way behind any base building that would have to be done to get ready. Even if I bust out 6 miles this weekend, 5 more than I’ve done in the last month without having to hobble home, I’d have to nail every single long run and max out at an 18-miler. At this point, I think that’s asking a bit too much.

2. I am going to explore every other feasible alternative to waking up at 4:30 a.m. next season. This past season I tried to get up Tuesday-Friday at 4:30 a.m. and alternate going to the pool or getting on the bike trainer. I barely managed to make it work: I had to cook three meals during one frantic daily cooking session, I was always exhausted, and I rarely saw my husband during the week. I am something of an early bird, but that was pushing it even for me. The pool by my office is convenient, but not great. The pool closest to my home is great, but requires paid parking (or a ride to and from). I have another pool that may be an option, but it’s a bit of a hike out of the way. I’m not sure what to do yet.

I have put any training on the back burner recently because I have had, and will have, a slew of personal things coming up: Late nights at work, birthdays, a mini-vacation, etc. I can feel that my clothes are a bit tighter but, honestly, it's not going to be enough to make me skip dinner with a friend in from out of town, or have some of my husband's birthday cake next week. I'm out of town for a few days next weekend and I wasn't really planning on making training a priority until after I got back and probably after Thanksgiving. If I get some rides and lifting in, great! But I have more important vacation prep and holiday celebrating to do.

Hopefully, but the time my traveling, cake-eating and Thanksgiving gobbling is done, my knee will be feeling better and I can get back to it.