Log for September 26 & 27 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th. Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.
Monday
- Rest Day – Since I’m firmly in my taper for Chicago, I need to get my total mileage this week down between 32 and 35-miles. With that in mind I decided to take today off to prep for a tough tempo run tomorrow.
- Cross-Training – Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X + I did one “max out” set of push ups to track my overall progress.
Tuesday
- 10-Mile Tempo Run – My schedule called for an 11-mile tempo run at marathon pace for today, however since I’m running the Shelby Bottoms Boogie 15K this weekend as a tune-up, I didn’t really feel the need to reach marathon pace.
Unfortunately Paxton couldn’t run today due to illness, so Nathan and I met at the main gates at Percy Warner Park. We decided to two 2 loops through Belle Meade (one long and one short) to try and reach a total of 11 miles, with a hydration break in-between. Our first mile was 8:29, and was essentially a warm-up mile. After that, most of our miles were right between my goal marathon pace (7:26) and Nathan’s goal pace (7:50). We even threw in one around 7:16 for good measure.
Our first loop was 7-miles, and I was quite pleased at how good my legs were feeling, and Nathan seemed to be really strong as well. However, at the end of the 3rd mile in our second loop, I tripped over a stray piece of concrete on the side of Highway 100 and fell straight forward onto my outstretched hands (my 2nd fall while training for Chicago). I quickly got up and did an assessment of my condition (WARNING … Gory Description Coming).
My left hand was cut up pretty good, and I had a few scratches on my right hand and finger. However, other than my shoes, nothing else seemed to have hit. When I looked closer at my left hand, I noticed a small white spot on the top of one of the cuts. At first I thought it was just a fleck of something, but after trying to flick it off I realized it was the top of a rock that was embedded in the palm of my hand.
The wound was still numb from the fall, so I quickly tried to get the small rock out before the feeling started to return. I couldn’t pull it out, so I essentially squeezed it out like it was a pimple (not fun btw). Once it was out, the wound started to bleed significantly, and I began to worry about getting it stopped. Just as Nathan and I were standing on the road trying to decide what to do, our friend Janna Dedman drove up to say hello. When she saw my hand, she immediately told me to hop in her vehicle.
This was incredibly fortunate for two reasons. 1.) Janna lived less than 1/4 mile from where I fell 2.) She is a nurse. Nathan and I quickly hopped in her SUV and she took me to her house where I continuously dripped blood on the driveway while Janna and her husband Marc were getting first aid supplies. Janna cleaned up the wounds and applied compression until the continuous bleeding stopped. She then bandaged them up, gave me an ice pack, and graciously drove me back to my car at Percy Warner Park. The Dedmans are awesome people, and one of the many reasons why I LOVE my running group so much.
So, my planned 11-mile run abruptly stopped at the 10-mile mark. Even with the fall, there were plenty of positives from the effort.
1.) I’m VERY fortunate that my only injuries are to my hands. Anything more than that would have been very hard to recover from in time for Chicago.
2.) My overall pace for the run, even with the warmup mile, was 7:40 and did not feel overly fast. I definitely felt like there was another gear there. This also makes sense, since I did a 10-mile run last Tuesday at 7:10 pace. Should be able to further test out my readiness to hold a 7:26 pace at the Shelby Bottoms Boogie 15k on Saturday.
3.) My heart rate never went above 170, even on the 7:16 mile, and my overall heart rate average was 155. I’ve run half marathons before (last year), with an average heart rate of 175, so this is again a positive sign. I know that the longer I can hold my heart rate down, the longer I can hold a 7:26 pace.
I plan to get right back up on the horse tomorrow for a 5 to 6 mile shakeout run, but I’m hoping to stay vertical this time 🙂