Things are going pretty well. Today was my third day running in a row, which is definitely something I’ve never done before. I hit the treadmill for another 3 miles:

Planned workout

8 minutes warmup

3 miles at 9:15 pace

5 minutes cool down

Actual workout

8 minutes warmup

3 miles at 9:17 pace

5 minutes cool down

I started off pretty tired, but after about a half mile, my legs seemed to come out of their sluggishness. I ran 2.25 miles before taking a 1 minute walking break, then I finished off at a faster speed, sprinting the last tenth of a mile. On the injury front, the foot didn’t hurt at all. The right knee grew a little sore in the middle of the run, but less sore than yesterday. I’ve got two days off before a 6 miler on Saturday.

I hit the treadmill again today. I think it may be the first time I’ve ever run on consecutive days. I felt pretty tired - possibly from the two strong margaritas I had last night.

Planned workout

.5 miles warmup

3 miles at 9:15 pace

5 minutes cool down

Actual workout

.5 miles warmup

3 miles at 9:20 pace

5 minutes cool down

I developed a stitch about 2 minutes in, but this time I was able to work it out while running. I managed to run 2 miles at 9:15 pace before taking a 1 minute walk break. Then, I ran the rest of the way, speeding up toward the end. My left foot felt pretty good the whole way. I developed a small amount of pain on the top of the foot during the cool down walk, but I’d say it was definately less than what I felt yesterday. There was a little bit of pain on my right knee cap during and after the run. I’ve felt that before and it’s usually a temporary thing, so hopefully that will be true in this case.

I’ve got three more miles tomorrow before a two day break from running. So far, so good.

Today marks the official start of my 18 week training program for the Walt Disney World marathon. My training up to this point has basically been preparation for a simulated 10K run that I should have run on Saturday to give me target paces for my marathon training. Instead, I took last week off from pretty much all exercise.

Despite some positive signs from my last few runs, I decided to further rest my foot. I also decided to not to use the Furman Institute marathon training program. In my browsing of running forums on the internet, I’ve found a lot of people saying that it’s produced a lot of great finishes, but it’s also produced a lot of runners who were unable to start their race due to injury. Given my own experience with the Furman Institute 10K program, I thought it wise to seek out a different plan.

Focused primarily on starting and finishing the race, I’ve decided to go with Hal Higdon’s novice I plan. There’s no speedwork, and no tempo runs. It’s pretty much short to moderate distance runs during the week and a long run on the weekend. The only thing that I don’t really like about it is that the runs are on consecutive days (except the long run). I’ve never really run on consecutive days, but I can’t say that taking a day off in between runs really helped with injury prevention, so I’m willing to give this a try. The fact the a whole lot of other people have used this plan successfully in the past gives me some confidence.

The plan generally calls for Mondays to be an off day, so I’ve adjusted everything roughly backwards by one day. I like to have Sundays off since I usually stay up too late on Saturday nights. I’ll still run the long run on Saturday, but I’ll do the cross training on Thursday or Friday instead of Sunday. That will make Thursday or Friday an off day, depending on which one I use for the cross training.

So, today’s run was a 3 miler:

Planned workout

.5 mile warmup

3 miles at 9:15 pace

5 minute cool down

Actual workout

.48 mile warmup

3 miles at 9:35 pace

5 minute cool down

Things went pretty well during the run. I felt great for the most part, but I did develop a stitch. I wasn’t too surprised because that’s pretty common for me when I’ve taken some time away from running. I tried some deep breathing to work through it, but it was still around by the one mile mark. So, I slowed down to a walk and over the course of a minute workout it out.

I continued running at 9:15 pace to the 2 mile mark, and then upped the pace to 8:35. This went well, but the stitch came back in earnest, so I had to walk again at the 2.5 mile mark. This time, I was having trouble taking deep breaths, so it took me a quarter mile to work it out. I ran the last quarter at 9:15 and finished in about 29 minutes.

At about 2.5 miles, I felt a little inflammation on the top of my foot. It hasn’t really been an issue the rest of the day. It’s something to keep an eye on for tomorrow’s 3 miler, though.