Back At It

After two weeks of strict rest and taking care of my knee I'm back on my feet. It's a well known fact that I don't like getting up early if I can avoid it, and I was so anxious to get back to some activity again that I've gotten up early the last two mornings in a row to go jogging! I'd like to hang on to this new-found motivation as long as possible, since these spurts tend to be very short-lived. The first morning I went out with the dog - calm, sunny, and a whole 28 degrees F with snow on the ground (which is a bit odd for Alabama!). The following morning found me comfortably indoors on the treadmill downstairs ;-)

Still some minor pain in my knee if I twist/turn it at odd angles (no pain when running though; very good thing!) - I'm hoping a new stretching/yoga routine will strengthen that up and take care of it.

I had an 'Idiot Operator' moment this morning. First time out with the new Nike+iPod sensor I got for Christmas. I strapped the sensor bean on, setup all the settings in the iPod, and then hit the treadmill. About half a mile later, it hadn't made any noises or flashy notifications to let me know it was tracking, so I stopped and played with it some more, and realized that I hadn't actually turned the Nike app ON. *face-palm*

The Bucket List

Complete a Marathon: Check!

Despite being the middle of December when we usually have nasty winter storms (where it settles right at 32 degrees and we get a combination of cold rain, sleet, and ice on the bridges), the morning of the RocketCity Marathon was the most perfect running weather possible. At race start, 8:00 am, it was in the low 40's and overcast (no sun in the eyes), and it warmed up to the upper 40's with just a tiny bit of cold drizzle threatening at around 1:00-1:30pm, just before they closed the course (by which point you couldn't tell if the runner's were wet from the rain or from sweat, so it was all good).

I finished in 5 hours, 32 minutes.
The Play-By-Play: I started out feeling great; my knee started reminding me it wasn't exactly at 100% yet around mile 6; I really hit my "stride" where I felt like I could run forever between miles 6 and 11; Mile 13.1 - Halfway - was at 2 hrs, 31min, which is right where I wanted to be; I walked most of mile 15 as a "recovery" mile where I drank more water and ate the apple slices I packed and stopped to stretch for a bit; I missed a water-stop somewhere between mile 21-22 and at Mile 22 I was up against The Wall until I got some more Gu and Gatorade and a couple pretzels in me, those few miles between 20-24 is where I tacked on most of the extra time; Santa and some elves were at mile 24; My running buddy (who was 200-300 yards behind me most of the way) finally caught up to me at mile 25.5 and we finished together; Ross and Nancy were at the finish line to steer me toward the food and a place to sit down.

Most importantly, I didn't re-injure my knee! Yes, it hurt alot, but not nearly as painful as the original/initial injury. I'll stay completely off it for a week or two before slowly going back to walking/jogging a couple miles a week (not like last time where I started back by going for a 7.5 mile run *roll eyes*), and not go back to hard training for at least 4-6 weeks to make good and sure every thing's healed properly.

What's next? A couple of half marathons and some triathlons in preparation for the Georgia Half Ironman - end of September, 2011. Having run a full marathon, I want to train hard to run a Half Marathon quickly/comfortably, so I know I'll be able to run it as the third (very tired!) leg of the triathlon. Swimming I already have the muscle memory for, just need to get my endurance back up. Biking is going to be interesting... not much experience there. But I have a bike and I have places to ride/train so as soon as I finish repairing the bike I'll start toughening up my backside!

1.5 Weeks To Go

My physical therapist still thinks I'm crazy but she says my knee is mostly healed up, and if I don't biff it, I can still run my marathon inless than two weeks; Yay!
I was teasing some running friends - who are much older than me - that one of the main reasons I'm doing this is because I'm young and crazy and my body will let me get away with stuff like this. And when I see Eighty-Something year olds out on the course (yes, sometimes PASSING me on the course), all I can think is how I'll be greatful if I can still move that well when I'm that age!