Running with Jack

Thank you everyone for the words of encouragement, I honestly have needed this the last couple days. My wife hung my “finisher” medal on the side of my computer monitor to remind me that I am her finisher, that I didn’t quit when the going got touch. Kind of leaves me choked up somehow…

I tried to sleep longer this morning, but the big toe on my right foot was hurting. So I got up and checked it out, it looked kind of funny, a little white, really strange. I thought maybe I had an ingrown toenail or something so started to trim the side away a bit. Hallelujah with a high-C! It seems I had a most amazingly blister under the big toenail, and when the clippers hit that a big burst of water, blood and whatever came gushing forth accompanied by such a wave of pain...oh yeah I’m awake now. I bandaged it up but its still throbbing – yee gosh. What did Dianna say about getting blisters in new and interesting places during a marathon…yep!

The sun is shining it is supposed to reach 24C/75F today. I want to go out in the garden and start pulling weeds, I’ve neglected this task the last couple weeks. I may go for a walk later on too, I am getting pretty stiff.

Other than my big toe I am feeling surprisingly good, there is a little soreness in my legs, but no pain. I stretched a little bit last night and could really feel the muscles that were giving me so much trouble on Saturday night, they were tender.

I have been looking through my running books and doing a little surfing trying to find a logical reason for my trouble on Saturday. I feel it is important to try to find the root of the problem so that I can adjust my training or marathon strategy for future events.

I like lists, so I am starting one. Here are a few things that I came up with that either I might have done wrong, or could have had an effect on my performance (no particular order):

- Maybe my cold was more established than I realized.
- I wasn’t used to running so late at night.
- The humidity was high.
- I wasn’t used to running on the hard streets.
- Maybe I ran the first half too fast for weather/body conditions.
- Maybe I didn’t stretch sufficiently before the race.
- Maybe I had a calcium/magnesium deficiency.

In any case I am researching this in the interest of improving my training program for the next marathon, which is in September. A couple things that I have already decided to change or implement:

- Add some weight training.
- Add some hill training.
- Do my long runs on mostly asphalt or roads.
- Decrease my shorter runs somewhat, increase my long runs up to almost marathon distance.
- Add some planned cross-training (weight training, swimming, biking).
- Gradually increase the speed of some of my long runs to almost marathon tempo.

I probably don’t have time to implement everything completely, as my next marathon is on September 18th, but I will concentrate on improving strength, endurance, and overall fitness.

I live in a pancake flat area, the only “hill” that I have within practical running distance is a bridge over the highway – sandbox stuff! But, when I am at our garden club, which is 11K/7M from our house there is an entire Vineyard on the hills of that town about 3K/2M from our garden. I only have to bring my running stuff when I go to the garden and head for the hills;-)