Hamstrung

Yes, the other reason I've been a bit quiet on my blog is because I have also been recovering from a minor, but chronic hamstring injury.

The hamstring has been bothering me for about 6 months. I trained through it for my last marathon, but I suspect it was one reason I did not race at my potential. It never got really bad, but after every long run, and every hard speed or hill workout, it was there. Just lingering in my butt.

So I decided that I wanted to really give it a chance to heal before I take my training up another notch in my quest for a BQ. As I was doing my recovery runs after the Hyannis Marathon, I was keeping track of exactly how the hamstring was doing. As soon as my mileage got back up into the 20's (for the week), the tweak in my hamstring came back. So I cut back, and then cut back some more. For the last two weeks, I have only run twice per week (and only about 4 to 6 miles each time). This last week things were feeling much better, so I plan to start increasing the mileage again.

As you can see from my updated schedule, I'd like to do a half marathon on Memorial Day weekend. As long as I can start increasing my mileage in the next week or so, I should be able to pull that one off. The serious training starts in late June and I'd like to get back up into the 40's by then. I'll have to see how the next couple weeks go.

Meanwhile, good luck to anyone running Boston on Monday. It's going to be miserable weather, but I sure plan to be out on the course to watch Deena kick some ass. I tentatively plan to be on Heartbreak Hill (we have friends who live there). Since they moved the race time up, I'll be able to watch the competitive runners on the hill and then at least the front part of the masses. I'll have to head back into work in the afternoon.

C-Ya