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January 11, 2005

Cake Week

Several weeks ago, Andy went to a seminar at RunTex featuring Gelindo Bordin, Olympic marathon champion in Seoul, and winner of the Boston marathon, among other things. I was blogging when he (Andy, not Bordin) walked in the front door, looked at me, and said "Good news."

Of all the training and racing gems Bordin dispensed that night, the one that stood out in Andy's mind was the recommendation that a marathoner should eat a cake every other day beginning six days out from race day. That was his "good news." He's been talking about it since before Thanksgiving. And since Andy makes great cakes (he's famous for it) and since today marks his race day minus six, I fully expected to come home to the sweet smell of a cake baking in the oven. No such luck. Hopefully he'll start tomorrow!

This afternoon I was particularly glad to be reminded of Bordin's talk, as Andy related it to me that night. He emphasized above else the role of patience in marathoning. Don't spin your wheels. Have faith in your training. Don't worry about what others are doing. It's advice that, if heeded, probably would have saved me from injuring my leg, and it's still valuable advice now. I'm taking this thing day by day and just doing what I can.

To clarify my dilemma about the Houston half this weekend, I fully intend to run the marathon, regardless of what happens with my leg. But if I do have a stress fracture (I'm going to a sports med clinic on Friday), they take 4-6 weeks to heal and that's a long time not to run. I think it would be pretty remarkable to maintain fitness that long. So if I'm going to run a mediocre marathon I don't really care if I do a kinda mediocre one or a *really* mediocre one. But I still have a chance to run my best half-marathon ever, which, while not as gratifying as a full marathon pr, would still be pretty kick-ass.

But the more I think about it the less inclined I am toward racing it - unless I've done at least one prior run without any pain. Even though this will be my last serious (read: high-mileage) marathon, halfs take far less time and commitment, so I'll probably have plenty of other opportunities to run a good half. More importantly, running it would be conceding that there's no realistic chance to still run a good marathon, and I'm not willing to say that yet!

Pain report for the day: still there. Making sudden stops when I'm walking makes me gasp and wince still. So does any lateral movement of my leg. But overall it's definitely better.

Workout report: another 2 miles of swimming. Janie gave me the workout. At first I was disappointed that we weren't doing the workout together, then she told me she was supposed to do 20x100 pull (or something close.) I really like pulling, but I don't need a total upper body workout to make me all PUMPED UP. So I was happy to do my sets on my own. And happy that she had the foresight to know that I didn't want to do her workout!

We had coffee at Jo's afterward, which was very cool, although I feel a little self-conscious with my serious goggle pock-marks. We saw my friend/coworker there dressed in a suit, reminding me that it was the first day of the 79th Texas Legislature (like I could really forget.) The reminder was such a workout/coffee buzz-kill. But I survived the day. Only 139 left!

Posted by jenandmats at January 11, 2005 8:11 PM

Comments

Hiya Poops (stop me if that bugs you, puh-lease?),

I'm SO glad to hear you're going to get looked at by a doc on Friday. Good, good, good.

I'm SO not glad to hear that the pain is still around. Lateral movement, huh? That's kinda funny.

I'm SO glad to hear that cake will be consumed in your house this week. Let them eat cake. Ok, I forgot, Andy's running Houston this weekend? The full deal, Neil? Cool! Please send my best wishes to him!

I'm SO not envious of the big decision that you have to make this week. Hopefully there will be some insight with a few more days of rest and a visit to the doc.

I'm SO glad to hear that swimming is so far tolerable (despite pock-marks, that's a funny term, by the way), and that it's a pain free workout for you.

Thanks for the update. I thought of you, like, 30 times while I was running today because, 1) I figured you'd have finished this workout hours in front of me, 2) I thought that the heat of the afternoon would have meant nothing to you and you would have kept plowing on, and 3) I wished that you could be out running as well.

Sending good leg vibes,
Meghan

Posted by: Meghan at January 11, 2005 9:51 PM

I think your vibes are working. It feels so much better now, but I just can't shake that last little bit - I can still make it hurt pretty good if I try. So I'm starting to shake the dread that I'll be exclusively swimming for the remaining 4.5 weeks. You need to bottle up some of them West Texas vibes! Or maybe they're just Meghan vibes.

The "poops" thing is so funny. I have passed the term on, calling Matty "poops" more often than I call her Matty, I think. It was so nice that my Dad commented - the only other time he did was to correct my grammar! (Although he was, ahem, kinda wrong in that particular instance.)

Keep tearing up the roads out there, Meghan. Comptroller announced yesterday we have a budget surplus so they can fix 'em once you've chewed 'em up.

Posted by: jenandmats at January 12, 2005 7:33 AM

I've been thinking about you a lot lately - this is a tough position to be in. I hope that your leg gets better so you don't _have_ to make a decision, but it sounds like you're being rational/logical about your decisions, and it may be hard to figure out what the "right" one(s) is/are without trial and error.

After getting injured training for Boston in 2003, I decided that I wouldn't train so hard for my fall '03 marathon, that my main goal would be to make it to the starting line. About six weeks (or more?) before the marathon I was supposed to do, I started having knee pain. I decided to cut back my training, make that my taper, and run an earlier marathon. (Luckily that's easy to do in New England in the fall.) It worked out well - it wasn't perfect, but I PRed by 11 minutes and won the race (which certainly wouldn't have happened if I had run the one I originally intended to do). That decision worked for me, but it all depends on what your goals are.

I have a friend who almost didn't run a marathon because she didn't feel ready and her foot was hurting. She ended up running an awesome PR. The marathon did set her back injury-wise, but I'd say it was worth it.

Good luck. And great job with the swimming!

Posted by: Alison at January 12, 2005 10:06 AM

Just stopping by for my daily "Jen Check-in"... I'm glad to hear you saying things are feeling so much better. And whether they are west Texas vibes or Meghan vibes, they should be getting there a lot quicker. There's a wild wind coming from the west and I suspect the good leg vibes are traveling, oh say, about 50 mph as we speak. At that rate, the vibes I sent around noon should be rolling into Austin right about now.

Anyways, take good care, Poops!
Meghan

Posted by: Meghan at January 12, 2005 8:35 PM

Hi Jen, I'm glad to hear that your leg is feeling better. Hopefully that's an indication of recovering and no stress fracture. :) I have no cool vibes to send, but I'm still rooting for you from afar.

BTW, wouldn't be awesome if we all could just eat cake like that and win gold medals?!

Posted by: Leilani at January 13, 2005 8:25 PM