Healed and Ready to Go

The hard work is over. Last week I was still nervous about the knee, but knew at some point I was going to have to test it. I didn't feel too good about going into the marathon not knowing if the knee was vunerable if I ran too fast. Chances are, it wouldn't come into play during the marathon, but there are enough things to worry about during the marathon. My knee didn't need to be one of them.

So on Wednesday, I decided I would try to do a 4 mile tempo run. I wanted to ease into it and if I felt any discomfort in the knee, I would bail. After about a half mile thing felt stable and I was able to do the rest of the run pretty much worry free. I finished the 4 miles at an average pace of 5:28 and it felt pretty good. The knee held up and the pace felt tough, but manageable.

But the 5:00 pace still loomed out there. Finally on Saturday I decided I would give the final workout on my schedule a go. It was 3 X mile with a 400 meter rest interval. I did this with the same thinking as I did the tempo. Ease into the first one, and stop immediately if anything felt weird. Thankfully, things felt good and I would up running the 3 miles in 4:58, 4:58, and 4:59. Ahh….fresh legs! This workout kind of blew me away. I've never run a sub 5 minute mile in training, so to run 3 back to back to back with only a 400 rest was a nice confidence booster.

Not much else to do this week except rest up, run a little, and worry about the weather. Actually, that's plenty to do. Checking the weather alone can take up hours everyday, if done properly.