Week 13: Rest

This past week, for the first time, I did not complete my long run.

I got through most of my mid-week runs alright, but my shin has not been doing well -- I especially felt it toward the end of my run on Thursday. I was originally going to go for a very-early-morning run with my friend Mike while in Rochester on Sunday, but he ended up having to work. Not wanting to run on my own in the wee hours of the morning, and with a shin that was still nagging me, I decided it was best to just skip it and rest. It was only a 10-mile run this week, so I'm thankfully not behind on my overall progress.

My shin is still bothering me a bit today, which is really worrying me. Aside from the wedding on Saturday, I've spent most of my time resting, icing and stretching. When I am up and about, I wear an Ace bandage, which seems to help. The pain isn't much, and it's sporadic, but I spent weeks getting myself pain-free and it appears it may take weeks to get myself back there.

I'm going to try to run tomorrow morning and start this week fresh, being very careful to take it slow with short strides. The long run this weekend will be 18 miles. It's very important that I complete it.

Part of me is also starting to worry about completing the actual marathon. I've made it through my long runs just fine so far, but the longest we ever get to run before the marathon is 20 miles. While that's somewhat normal, I've learned through research that our training plan is quite light on overall weekly mileage compared to most other plans. Combine that with the number of weekly runs I've had to skip recently to keep my body together, and I can't help but wonder if I'm going to have enough training to push through those last 6.2 miles on my own!

This week is supposed to be the last week of our "strength phase," meaning the miles start to back off from here. While I know I need to taper the last couple of weeks before the marathon, if I can get through this week with minimal shin pain, I may extend some of my mid-week runs for a week or two just to give me more confidence.

It's hard to believe that the marathon is only a little over a month away! As a reminder, if you've been meaning to donate, you have until the end of this month. Every dollar makes a difference toward saving lives!

Thanks so much to my week 13 sponsors:

• Bonnie Huzey
• Joan Pinkney

I also just got payment from Amazon.com for the Associates link I used to have on the blog (unfortunately, they canceled the program in Connecticut due to new laws).

After the checks are processed, the updated total will be $2002.39!