New Year and What next.....again

I feel like I've said that before....what next.  In 2012 I accomplished two major goals, I ran my first half marathon......then another one two weeks later.  I then went on to train for a full marathon and completed that in November.  I've continued to run.  But once you have set a goal and then achieve it, being the goal oriented nerd that I am, I have to start looking towards that next mark.

I can honestly say I love running.  Yes, you heard me right....LOVE RUNNING!!!  I was considering running the local marathon in January, but it conflicted with my hubby's first really long (no seriously, 113 miles) cycling event.  I really don't need to stress our family or myself by having two of us doing mega endurance at the same time.  Because of that, I was keeping my weekend mileage up, several members of my running group are still running marathons or The Goofy, so I had people to run with.  Then, Christmas day I got the crud everyone else in town had been battling.  I was out for a week. 

That first week back to running (last week) was wretched (my new favorite word of the month).  My splits were horrible, my endurance was gone, and my body (aka stomach) was not cooperating. 

So.....again I ask....what's next?  I've decided for the first quarter of the year I'm going to focus on speeding up my 5k times.  I'm sticking with my Tues, Thurs, Saturday running strategy while adding in shorter runs on Wednesday and Friday to work on some speed training.  There are two 5k's that I want to do over the next couple of months, this will give me a little time to work on my speed, get some weight off (let's just say my sweet tooth was very happy in December), and have a few weeks in between the two 5k's to compare my times.

I got back on the bike this past weekend and that's another area I plan on working on, as I felt like a total slacker as I was trying to pedal, but felt like I was going nowhere, but my breathing sounded like I was making tracks (lol).  Poor hubby, I'm sure felt like he was dragging me. 

I do have a new favorite thing...toe socks!!!!!  My podiatrist recommended them to help my toenails and blister issues, and I have to say I love them! 

Now that I have a gameplan...what's your?
 

A Bump in the Road, Actually, The Edge

I started my fall training plan for my full marathon this past week, taking my Tuesday run from 4-6, adding a 6 miler on Wednesday, and my normal 4 miles on Thursday.  Tuesday was rough, as our route didn't allow much additonal space unless we felt like running in a very dark area, which we chose not to, so we did 5 miles.  Wednesday's six miles were slow, but we did them.  I was really looking forward to an easy 4 miles Thursday, followed by a day of rest before 10 miles on Saturday. 

The first mile on Thursday I wasn't certain my stomach was going to approve.  Worked thru that, the next few miles I stopped trying to do my all out pace which was resulting in a lot of walking.  I finally found a decent rythem in that last mile that I was happy with, when boom, I hit the ground.

I took a turn and I heard some folks behind me and I looked over my shoulder to see where they were, when my foot slipped off the edge of the pavement and thankfully I landed on the grass shoulder of the road on all fours.  I took a second, sat still, then got up.  Everything was working ok, my hands weren't bleeding, my capris weren't ripped at the knee.  Great, just a fall, I'll be sore Friday but I'll be good to go for Saturday's run......or so I thought.

Once I hit the light I found out I had cut my knee, but it was still dark and I couldn't tell how bad or good it was.  I put a wet napkin on it in the car and headed home.  Once I got inside, I had to wake up the hubby to decide if I should hit the doctor's office and see if it needed stitches or not.  (The reason for the great debate, I made a poor decision last year after a mountian biking accident and have the ugliest scar on my left leg.)  After some discussion and a shower we decided it would be best to have it looked at. 

After two hours at the doctor's office, they wrote me a script for an ointment, told me they could do stitches, but I didn't really need them, handed me instructions on bandaging it and to work I went.  He said I could run as soon as I felt up to it, he was concerned about the swelling, but nothing big.

My poor knee

Or so I thought....my left ankle has been swelling for two days, my knee is stiff as can be, and I'm not a happy runner.  It was raining early this morning and stiffness in my knee said stay in bed.  I missed my 10 mile run but felt it would be better to miss this distance (that I've done a lot in the past couple of months) than to mess it up more and miss my weekday runs this coming week. 

I really hope things are improved by Tuesday morning, I really can't afford to miss my 14 miler next weekend, but I can't mess my leg up.  I just finished telling some friends who helped me with my training schedule that I really hadn't been injured other than one brief time after running on a treadmill (mean machine!)  I'm confident this will all work out.  Just a bump in the training plan and a lesson learned to not look back when running, I don't stear well going in that direction. LOL