Day 44

Today is a rest day and you know what's funny? I'm feeling guilty for not doing anything! I guess I was so good last week that I feel like I should be doing at least something today but I'm going to actually rest.

My "during the week" mileage increases this week so I suspect by Thursday I'll be glad I took a day off. I do 6.5K tomorrow, 11.5 Wednesday and 6.5 Thursday...yikes! Unfortunately, with the weather as it is right now, I may have to do those runs on the treadmill. It's like a blizzard outside right now and we're supposed to get 10cm tonight so I suspect the sidewalks won't be in great condition tomorrow. Oh well, as long as they're in decent shape for the 23K I have to do on Saturday... I'd kill myself out of boredom if I had to do that on a TM!

Day 42

Today was a slightly shorter long run than the last couple of weeks - 14km. Of course, it turned out we only did about 13.4 due to my forgetting to re-start my Garmin when I stopped it at a traffic light. Oh well... I suspect .6km too few isn't going to affect my ability to run the marathon.

I didn't have any knee problems at all today, but I kind of wish we'd actually gotten to the 14km mark because that's where they started last week. Next week will be the true test when I do 23km!!

The following week is the Chilly Half Marathon, which Adam (my husband) is running with me. It will be his first half, so he's really looking forward to it.

Happy running!

Day 38

Back to the gym today but I decided to give running a try as my knee was fine this morning.

I did 8.3K (which got me a long way toward the 20 I'm supposed to do over the next 3 days) on the treadmill and had no issues at all. I also did some more leg extensions, which will hopefully help.

So, leaving aside my full marathon for the moment, I got an email today from the Team Diabetes Director regarding my half marathon in Iceland in August. Nothing especially exciting but it's exciting just to know it's coming up. I'm 2/3 of the way to my fundraising goal and have commitments from a few other people that I have to follow up on so at least I'm not stressed about that anymore. $6,100 was a bit intimidating at first but it was easier than I thought. Thank you to everyone for their generous donations!

Anyway, that's it for today!

Day 36

No running today... I went to the gym instead in the hopes of trying to deal with my knee issues. I did 20 minutes of elliptical, 20 on the bike and then lots of leg extensions and curls. I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow but I'm determined to do whatever I have to do to make sure I don't have to significantly interrupt my training.

I'm hoping to get out and do my 5K tomorrow...it's supposed to be nice outside and relatively warm. Will see if the knee cooperates.

Day 35

Today was long-run day and I managed to do the whole 19.5km. However, my knee issues were back. At almost the same distance as last week (14K), it started to hurt again, just like last week. Unlike last week, I forced myself to finish, although the last 5K was more walking than running, but at least I got the distance in. The good news is that next weekend is only 14K, so I should be ok!!

I've spoken with a few people about the pain I'm having and it seems pretty clear that I have runner's knee. I've gone online and googled it and found some exercises to do. I've e-mailed them to the people who have actually seen a physiotherapist to see if they're similar to what they had to do. From what most people tell me, this is a pretty easy condition to treat so hopefully I'll be fine in a couple of weeks. I'm glad next week is a shorter long run (relatively speaking) though.

Three weeks till the Chilly Half! Three months is a long time for me to go between races... I tend to sign up for them much more often so that I stay motivated. Looking forward to the Chilly but I hope I can get my knee issues under control by then...

Day 32

Today was my first day back running after my knee issues on Saturday and I had no problems!! I ran on the treadmill instead of outdoors just to be safe (since it snowed again overnight). It just about killed me to not run the past few days... now that I've decided I'm actually taking this seriously, I was dying to get out there. I was actually a little worried - as I was walking toward the treadmill I was feeling a bit of pain but once I got running, it was fine. I took it easy and only did 5K but am hoping to do 10 tomorrow (and outdoors, if the weather cooperates).

Hopefully this was just a very temporary thing...have to do 19.5K this weekend and am hoping to complete the whole thing!

Day 28

Today was my long run day. I was supposed to do 18 but only managed 15. We were running on trails and there were lots of areas that weren't very well cleared so the footing was a bit tricky. Unfortunately, I think I was using some different muscles than I'm used to so I started getting a nagging pain in my right knee. By the 14K mark, it was starting to feel like it was going to give out on me with every step. I tried stopping and stretching and walking for a bit but it was just hurting too much to keep going. At 15.5K, we flagged a cab and came home.

I'm going that it was just a cramp or something from using different muscles. It's still a bit sore now though and what is kind of worrying me is that it seems to hurt worse when I go downstairs. As I recall it, when my sister, Mel, started having knee problems that was where she was noticing the pain first as well so I hope I haven't done whatever she did...fingers crossed!

No running tomorrow...I'm polar bear dipping instead!

Day 25

I'm happy to report that I'm back on track this week... did 5K yesterday and 10 miserable kilometres on the treadmill today. I don't know what possessed me to run on the treadmill instead of outside - it was a fairly nice day but the sidewalks didn't look like they were cleared very well so I decided to do the TM. God, that's hard! I almost quit early but I did the full 10K so I'm proud of myself. Only 5K tomorrow!

Then, unfortunately, 18K on Saturday... YUCK!! At least Adam has started running with me... I remember doing the long runs this time last year and how miserable I was doing them by myself.

I'm hoping that with all this running, I'll finally manage to (a) get back down to the goal weight range I want to be in (where I haven't been in a few months) and (b) drop the last 5 pounds I never managed to drop when I was actually trying to lose weight. That's 13 pounds down from where I am now... if I can just stick to my running schedule and have a couple of weekends where I don't go crazy (ie. McDonalds at 2am), I should have no problem. But those bad weekends seem to happen way too often... dammit... why does fattening food have to taste so good???