I haven’t gotten a chance to blog recently because, well, I haven’t gotten a chance to run. If you have followed my training for the Minneapolis Marathon, you’ll know that I’ve been dealing with some sort of mysterious injury and it literally will not go away. I don’t know what it is, but it’s on my left side and my knee sometimes hurts but lately the pain is manifested in my lower calf right around near my ankle on the inside of my leg. My IT band feels tight as well and sometimes I’ll get a twinge in my lower back. So my guess is that it’s a lot of things, and I’m running through the regimen of strength-training and balance work to get right again, but it won’t be long before I consult a physical therapist.

Here are my theories on what is causing my injury: Continue reading “Changing Course”

Last week’s training had its ups and downs. Literally. It seemed that one run was better than the other all week long. I start every single week thinking I’m going to be this hardcore, take-no prisoners runner, but then I realize that I’m just….well, I’m me. I’m surfing a lot of waves right now with a job that I don’t love, being in a place that I feel I outgrew a long time ago, and just generally wondering where my life is going and what I will do next. Running is my constant between all of those things, but I tend to wrap it up in the same tarp as everything else and that’s when I have more off days than I should. I get frustrated with the wind and take it as another setback, I get demoralized with running slow paces even though I know they are serving a physiological purpose, and I don’t give myself enough of a break to say, “I’m awesome. I got it done,” and instead let everything sink in and make me feel like I am inadequate. Continue reading “Minneapolis Marathon Training: Week Eight”

After last week’s travel schedule and making the decision to switch to Hanson’s Marathon Method, I was really eager to start this week new. Continue reading “Minneapolis Marathon Training: Week Six”