The Slow Comeback

I have at last prevailed over the infamous H1N1. For some reason my fever held on quite a bit longer than average, so I was at home at quarentined for almost longer than I could tolerate. After two weeks I think Lilo (my dog) was so tired of me being at home all day she was ready to put me out on the street.

Fortunately I returned to school and work this week, although not surprisingly my return to running seems to be taking a bit longer. Several days ago I tried to run-walk 6 miles thinking this would be a smart, easy transition back. Wrong! I don't think the distance was so much the problem, but the run-walk plan. I thought run-walking would be making it easier on myself, and this may have been true from a cardio standpoint, but not necessarily a physiological one. After jogging the first mile I tried alternating jogging and walking in quarter mile sections for the remaining five. However once I got home and looked at my time averages, I realized that what I probably did was more of a sprint-walk than a run-walk, and my knees have been paying the price.

There seems to be no shortage of marathon training plans to cover almost every scenerio.... couch potato to marathon finisher, beginning runner to marathon finisher, marathon finisher to Boston qualifer, etc. -- but there seem to be no clear plans for coming back from an illness or injury half-way through marathon training season. (Maybe that's just because the title would be too long).

So I'm still working on my own Comeback Plan. I've considered a variety of options to get myself back to form so I can complete White Rock in December. I've missed several big number runs, and I've accepted that it is very likely that I'm going to be walking more of the marathon come December than not. I've also considered the possibility of foregoing White Rock and taking a few extra months to recover by switching to another Texas Marathon early in 2010. While I'm keeping that open as an option if needed, for now my sites are set on completing White Rock as scheduled-- running, walking, or crawling. :)

My training season had been going really well-- so it is a bit disappointing knowing that I won't be at my physical best. However my primary goal in this 50 Marathon endeavor is to have the experience of completing a marathon in every state, and to raise as much money as I can for Susan's Foundation. The liklihood that I will make it through the next 48 marathon training seasons will no health, injury (or other) interruptions is unlikely. So rather than mourning the running abilities my body had two weeks ago, I've decided to be grateful and go with what it can do today, and use its' capabilities to their fullest. None of us have any guarantees of how many tomorrows we have ahead of us.... so as long as by December I think I'll be able to complete the 26.2 miles of the White Rock Marathon safely -- I'll be happy doing it any way I can, even if it might not be running at the pace I'd hoped for.

Thank you, thank you, thank you again too all of the sponsors for the Texas Marathon!! You keep me going through the good times and bad! I am continually inspired by each one of you!
Just 2 miles to go....