UPDATE on 1/2 Marathon Training

So, many of you know that just after my 10 mile run I slightly injured my achilles tendon. Enough so that I could not run due to the pain knowing I would do some major damage (last time I trained for a marathon, I kept running with pain and ended up in physical therapy for two months!).

I basically had decided that the 1/2 wasn't going to happen this time around. Well, after two weeks the pain subsided when walking and so I waited for about a week, went and bought an ankle wrap and... ran last Friday pain free! I had taken a total of 3 weeks off from running.

The Leavenworth 1/2 is this weekend (tomorrow, actually) and I made the tough call to say that I'm not ready to run 13.1 miles after taking three weeks off with only a week to get back in shape. But, I found another 1/2 in Vancouver for next weekend (the 21st) and so I'm going to run that. Last night was the real test of my ankle strength. 9 miles (in the rain) and it felt great and today everything feels fine too. That will be my longest runbefore the 1/2 because now I'll start my taper with 4-6 mile runs until the big day. I've had to give up my "dream time" and be realistic about it all. It will be great if I can simply run the whole thing without stopping. The weakest part of my run last night were my legs. Cardiovascularly I felt great, my ankles felt fine, but my legs felt fatigued so we'll see.

I am very excited about it and nervous at the same time. The reward for finishing this particular 1/2 marathon... chocolate! That'll get me to the finish line fast. It's an all women's 1/2 marathon called the "Girlfriends Half Marathon". Should be fun. Unfortunately, Layth won't be able to be there to watch me run, but my mom is coming down to cheer me on and watch the boys.