Really? Yeah, that's what I said. Ran into a friend of ours yesterday, someone who has been giving me advice here and there since I started running almost three years ago. He at one time was a runner and had run several marathons.
This friend also was there when I had the surgery on my foot/ankle and was incredibly helpful, coming in the house to help hubby set up the bathroom and tub to be more "handicapped accessible" for me, showing me how to wrap my foot to take a shower so the cast didn't get wet, stopping by during the weeks that followed surgery to see how I was doing and if we needed anything. He was incredibly helpful.
He was there and heard my frustrations as I struggled to get back to my pre-surgery life of running and skating, being sidelined from activity several times by the doctor. So he kind of knows me and knows what I've been through and where I want to go. He's also been very helpful in showing me stretching exercises to do and ALWAYS asks me if I'm stretching after runs and on my "off days".
I told him yesterday how well I was doing, that I was training for my first half-marathon, which isn't until October. I was so excited to tell him that I was running three times a week, two short runs and one long, and that my long run was now up to 7 miles, and that what I was trying to do since I had such a long time between now and the event was to just increase my long run by one mile each month. So my long run for March is 7 miles. In April, I'll bump it to 8, in May it will be 9, and so on, again with two shorter runs during the week.
His response was I'm overtraining and risking injury, risking shin splints, that I should keep the long run shorter until I'm closer to the event.
So I'm reaching out to all our "running bloggers" out there to seek your advice. What do you think? I certainly don't want to get injured. I thought that this would be an easy way to build my distance and stamina since I have 7 months before the event.
I could probably just train now and run a half-marathon sooner, like in May, but I really really wanted Atlantic City in October to be my first.
So what are your thoughts?
Homemade Basil Pesto
11 hours ago
Hey there... this is my first visit to your blog, after you commenting on mine.
ReplyDeleteWOW!! What amazing progress you've made.
And, I just wanted to say that I love that you have a cat named Samuel too. :)
Hi, Amy. Glad you've visited my blog and thank you. It's hard work by I'm convinced that I CAN do this for the rest of my life!
ReplyDeleteYep, we have a cat named Samuel, black and white. He was named after my sister-in-law's cat, who was also black and white named Samuel.
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ReplyDeleteThis is my first post on your blog, but I have been following you for about six months. I respect your courage to keep trying to exercise despite all the road blocks you have faced with injury. I have been running for 14 months and have completed 1 half marathon and am training for my second. I think your friend is right based on what people have told me and waht I have read. The build up on endurance does not need to be more than 3-5 miles until about 3 months before your half marathon. Check out some of the scheudles online. I think anyhting over 5or 6 starts to be hard on your blody.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting, Melissa, and thank you so much for your thoughts. I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do. I have a month before I would bump up the distance on my long run. So I think I can stay "in limbo" for a few more weeks, unless, of course ,if I decide to run a different half-marathon sooner.
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