Week 11: An off week

More rest (& frustration) than planned

When I drove across the country, I identified every snack stop we would make on our 40+ hour journey before we ever pulled out of our driveway. As a classroom teacher, I could tell you what topic we’d be covering in biology on a random Tuesday in February before school even started in August. When I have a goal in mind (e.g. experiencing the best local cuisine, having every student pass the AP test), I need to know how I’ll get there.

I love a plan, and this week didn’t go according to mine. One wonky week doesn’t change ambitions, but in reality I’ve strung together five less than ideal ones. This week I decided to turn my frustration from deviation into reevaluation (say that 5x fast). I landed on three goals for this marathon, a change from my PR-or-bust mentality at the start.

• Goal: Start and finish this marathon healthy.

• Stretch goal: Start and finish this marathon healthy, and Boston Qualify (3:35 for my age group).

• Super stretch goal: Start and finish this marathon healthy, and run a PR (3:16 or faster).

The big mindset difference for me is to truly be excited about the prospect of running this race healthy and strong regardless of time performance. Simply finishing — a huge feat for many — is not typically enough for me. But I am at peace knowing that it’s been so much work simply to come back to running, and therefore my new goal represents a real challenge. For what it’s worth, I ran outside this week for the first time in over a month and felt gassed and staggered around like a baby deer. Running is hard.

Below I share more about my off week, a surprisingly good PT visit, and some odds n’ ends.

📋 Total miles: 26.4*

• Monday: Rest (unplanned)

• Tuesday: 6.1 miles (treadmill with Lever)

• Wednesday: Rest (unplanned)

• Thursday: 1.7 miles (outside for the first time in a month 😎), 65 minutes (easy, elliptical)

• Friday: Rest

• Saturday: 3.1 miles (outside), 9.3 miles (treadmill with Lever), 45 minutes (steady, elliptical)

• Sunday: 6.1 miles (treadmill with Lever)

*This week’s miles were a split of 4.8 outdoor and 21.6 indoor with weight-assistance. Additionally, I elliptical’d for a mere 1:50, which converts to ~12.2 miles. Total, I did ~38.6 miles this week, which is lower than I wanted.

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🧘🏻‍♀️ Practicing acceptance

I took three days off this week, only one of which was scheduled. On Monday I woke up feeling so rundown. I made the decision not to workout thinking that the rest of the week would be on track. Tuesday I pushed through, only to feel depleted again Wednesday. I took that day off, too. Thursday I felt springy again, but I also had an appointment for both my Covid and flu vaccines that afternoon. After getting the flu the week before Boston in 2016 — perhaps the stupidest decision of my life to still run it — I’ve prioritized getting ahead of illnesses ever since, even if there’s a known cost to training. My immune system is an overachiever and I went down hard on Friday as my body raged internal war. But that night I had the best sleep in memory and I was able to wake up and complete my 2:45 workout on Saturday, a huge win. Today I feel like I am back to myself fully.

Two shots, one bandaid.

I wish I could report differently, but I beat myself up on both Monday and Wednesday for “slacking off”, even though I know I needed the rest. It took a lot of self-talk for me to accept that it was the right move. I was frustrated by not working out, and then frustrated more with my inability to be immediately kind to myself. I am a work in progress.

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💻 Remote PT

I’ve already noted the one-month wait between getting prescribed PT and being able to see a doctor. Plus, that first appointment was going to be over video, which felt less than ideal.

Plot twist: it was great!

I met with my assigned PT on Friday morning. She’s a former ballerina (incredible athletes in their own right) who was impressed by all that I’ve managed over the last month with Nancy (my chiro/PT) and zealous Googling.

The appointment started with an intake. The questions she asked were a mix of perfunctory and probing. Then we got into a series of muscle tests that were super illuminating. I also appreciated that she seemed to be evaluating me in the in-between moments (“You stand with your knees totally locked out!”). She gave me some exercises to do over the next week that are targeting my adductors and gluteus medius, delivered over an app that tracks my progress. I find the exercises hard and I’m failing out on the third set of many of them — which makes them appropriately challenging. More importantly, she answered my questions about whether or not I should be feeling pain (“Shouldn’t progress or be acute”), whether I could run outside (“You’re cleared to do up to 30 minutes per day”), and, most importantly, can I run the marathon (“I’ll train you with that intention”).

I get to visit the PT facility in mid-October and I’m very excited to do so. I’ve been warned that my PT is very picky about form — love that — and will push me hard.

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🧳 Odds n’ ends  

Annoyed by: My health insurance, who does not want to cover my MRI. I received notice that because I didn’t pursue 6-weeks of wait-and-see + Advil, my insurance does not want to cover the imaging that determined that I had a labral tear versus a stress fracture. This distinction was important because my doctor had said if I had a femoral stress fracture I’d have to cease all weight-bearing activity — even walking! Also, it bears mentioning that I didn’t ask for the MRI; I took it willingly because it seemed like the right course of action. Anyhoo, preparing for battle with the Claims team…

Translated: “We needed you to be in the dark longer.”

Feeling for: Boston Qualifiers who won’t get to race. The 2024 Boston Marathon field was announced this week and the cutoff time was 5:29 faster than the qualifying standard (i.e. I would have had to run 3:29.31 to make it). In practice, it meant that 11,039 runners who met their standard and applied to run didn’t get into the race (roughly ⅓ of total applicants). For the last two years the cutoff had been 0:00, so people were distraught to return to the pre-pandemic normal. Still, 5:29 faster than an already fast time is a lot to ask, and I feel for everyone who thought they were running Boston only to have it snatched away.

Obligatory Boston photo.

Making room for: Traveling with the Lever. I am spending a week away in San Diego and I have to pack all my clothes and toiletries into a “personal-item”-size bag so that the Lever can be my main carry-on. Not all heroes wear capes (and especially not me because that sounds bulky and I have zero room to spare 🙃).

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Thanks for being with me on this journey through the ups and downs. Fun note to end on: last week’s post was the most popular yet. If you know someone who’s running a fall marathon, has family or friends who are an endurance athlete, or is generally interested in what it takes to do one of these things, please share the blog with them. It truly is the-more-the-merrier around here.