Training for Missoula

It's been almost a year since my knee surgery. Two days after the surgery I was walking, not far but walking. Three days afterward I was walking three miles. Slowly I built up to 6 or 7 miles every day. It took about two weeks to get there, but get there I did!

Two weeks afterward I started back swimming, after the incision healed. And three weeks afterward I started boot camp.

As you can see I was not sitting on my tush doing nothing! However, it was 9 weeks before I started running again. It really wasn't running in the beginning it was more like very light jogging and for very short distances.

I won't go backwards to relive, I just want to take a moment to remember that only 9 months ago I was whining, worried, concerned, and afraid that I would never be able to run again. Taking that first step after the surgery was scary and for months the runs were hard and I struggled. My leg was weak, my knee was sore, by breathing was labored. And yet I kept with it, kept with the push to get to my goal.

I am constantly reminded of how the human body can adapt. People who don't push themselves will never know what it's like to keep going, push through, and then one day you realize that you were able to obtain a goal you never thought possible. Our bodies and our minds are amazing machines.

My goal for after surgery was to do the Missoula Marathon and feel good, no pain, no injury, and enjoyable experience. (Well as much as is possible in a marathon).

Running strength for my knee began in October but after the Cowtown Half Marathon, where I did not feel my best, my training for the Missoula Marathon began. The training went well until June. In the years we've lived here June has always been a pleasant month. It does get warmer but generally in the mornings it's something we can handle. This year June days hit 100 plus and it hasn't changed. We are now in our 25th day of temeratures over 100. I am NOT a warm weather runner. I much prefer the 40's to the 80's. And yet here I was doing longer and longer runs in temperatures 80 and above even at 6:00 in the morning.

It is a known fact that your heart has to pump harder in hotter more humid weather, my heart consistently felt like it was going to pump right out of my chest. And yet I stuck to it, getting my long runs in. And then came my first 19 mile run. I made it but it was a struggle.

The next long run of 19 miles was again very tough, I just couldn't keep enough water or fuel in my body. I didn't want it but I had to have it.

And then two weeks before the marathon came my last long run, 21 miles. We started early but the temperature and the humidity were high that day. I was doing ok until mile 14. That is when I began to feel sick. I found that I couldn't drink and couldn't eat my gels without feeling sick. And yet in the heat I needed those two things in my body. The sun was up by now and blaring down baking my shoulders, pounding me into the ground. I felt like the wicked witch of the west melting into the dirt below my feet.

I made it to 17 miles where my husband was waiting. His comment was "you are weaving", not a good sign. I was struggling to even make my legs move. Four more miles, that's it! Surely I could go four more miles. At 17 I rested for a bit went on but found that I could only walk and so mile 18 was a walk not a run, not even a slow jog. I just could not go forward and consistently felt as if I were going to lay down and never get up. Dizzy, sick, there is just a point where you know something is wrong and I was at that point. And so I quit. My 21 mile run never happened.

It was too late to do another long run, it was time for the taper. To be forthright I was happy to be tapering but also concerned that my lack of completion on that last long run would come back to bite me later. My coach assured me I would be fine and so with confidence I let it go and was able to relax. After all my goal was to enjoy the marathon, not go out and hit a tough pace. I knew I could at least finish in good form.

And so my last two training weeks, the taper weeks, were good. And then we fly to Missoula.