8 weeks in: Mississauga Marathon Training Update

I am officially at the halfway point of my 16 week training program.  These last 4 weeks have been challenging to say the least.  I managed one almost perfect week of training and then it all went to hell in a hand basket.  Work got stupidly busy and I ended up sidelined for almost a week with some muscle & sciatic issues.  Not where I had hoped to be at this point in my training.  I've missed weeks of speed work and had to cut last weeks 29km run short.  I managed 22km before I had to call in the sag wagon.  Turns out I buggered up my adductor muscle, my hamstring and my glute medius, all of these incredibly tight muscles were putting pressure on my sciatic nerve.  Excruciating.  And just the kick in the pants that I needed to actually take care of myself.  One A.R.T session had me almost back to normal.  I took an entire week off and did an easy 7km run on Saturday.  It went well so I decided to tackle my 29km again on Sunday.  Success!  It was slower going than normal but I didn't care.  I got out and did it relatively pain free.  And in shorts to boot!  Woohoo!

I started off this quarter of my training plan with a very successful week of training.  Work seemed to have evened out, I didn't have any shoots happening, so all was good.  I didn't have any weight workouts scheduled either so I did my long tempo on the Tuesday morning.  Work did get a little busy and I ended up missing my Thursday run with the group so I did my intervals on the Friday night.  Then I did my easy run on Saturday and a progression run on Sunday.  By Monday my legs were fried.  I discovered that I can't run 3 days in a row anymore.

Scheduled Mileage:  58km  Actual Mileage:  57.24km - AWESOME!

The following week things at work were still relatively quiet. I wasn't feeling great though so I opted to skip my Tuesday night run with the group.  The last thing I wanted was to get sick leading up to the Chilly Half.  I opted to ride my bike instead.   I managed to get out and join my run group on Thursday for a short interval session.  My hamstring was feeling a bit tight so I was a bit apprehensive about the race on Sunday.  I made sure I stretched well and foam rolled it.  Saturday was my birthday and I figured I wanted to go into the race with totally fresh legs so I skipped my Saturday run.  Sunday was race day.  I did a decent warm up, raced and neglected to do a cool down.  So my mileage this week was less than stellar.

Scheduled Mileage:  56km  Actual Mileage:  33.32 km-  Uhhh...yikes.

All hell had broken loose on the Friday before my birthday so I knew that this particular week would be very challenging workout wise.  My hamstring was also still really bothering me and my legs were still feeling the 1:31:00 half I ran on the Sunday.  I still managed to get out and do a few runs but I didn't make it out to my group runs at all.  The Sunday I was scheduled to do 29km but I had to call the G-Man to come and pick me up at 22km.  That's when I realized I was in trouble.

Scheduled Mileage:  61km  Actual Mileage:  40.07 - better than last week but still....!!

After my disastrous run on the Sunday I knew I had to get in to Pivot and get myself sorted out.  Running was out of the question until my legs felt better.  No matter, we were shooting on Monday and Tuesday, which meant long days.  Wednesday I finally got in to Pivot to have some A.R.T work done.  Oh god.  There was not going to be any running after that.  We were also doing casting that day and then I was off to see The Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys with my sister and her friends.   No time for a run.  Besides, my legs didn't want to run.  I had a hard enough time standing at the concert.  The PT told me that I would probably hurt for about 48 hours or so.  He wasn't kidding.  Thursday was beautiful and I desperately wanted to go out and run but I figured I'd give my body the time to heal.    Saturday I went out and did a very easy 7km run.  My legs felt great.  Virtually no pain.  I figured that I'd try to tackle 29km on Sunday.  I headed over to Marie Curtis Park with my friend Kiki and we ran along the Lakeshore portion of the Mississauga Marathon course.  I normally wouldn't attempt to do a 7km increase in mileage from one long run to the next but I figured I'd have to give it a go as I'm scheduled to do Around the Bay 30km next weekend.  Kiki and I toughed it out.  My legs were pretty pissed with me by about 26km.  But, we did it.  It was a bit slower going than normal but I didn't care.  I did it AND, it was virtually pain free.  That was huge.  Just the boost I needed.

Scheduled Mileage:  68km  Actual Mileage:  36.69km.  Disastrous.  But it is what it is.

This week looks fairly decent in terms of work.  One shoot on Wednesday so hopefully I'm able to get out to my run group on Tuesday and Thursday.  I had another A.R.T session with Peter this morning which hurt like hell but he was impressed with how much looser everything was feeling so I think my first torture session with him last week really helped.  I'm going in again on Saturday for a tune up before Around the Bay. 

Fingers crossed that the next 8 weeks are relatively uneventful!

The Happy Camper in her new shoes - March 18th, 2012