After that blog, I believe I ran once more? Maybe? I was supposed to run Thursday, cross train Friday, and run 12 on Saturday, but I failed to do all three. They ended up being quite busy days, busier than I anticipated. I decided to run my 12 that Sunday. However, I prepared rather horribly. I didn't carb load basically at all, I didn't hydrate very well, I didn't get as much sleep as I should have, and obviously, skipping a week of training and then skipping another two workouts after getting back into the swing of things didn't help either. I believe my advisers were half-correct in telling me that I wouldn't lose progress after a week of rest, because aerobically I didn't. I didn't have issues with breathing or heart rate really. But I am pretty sure I did lose progress in muscle build or something, because my legs were not as strong and capable as they had been. I did okay the first 6 miles, didn't walk at all, and then I hit a wall. I finished it and everything, but I was pretty tired and had to take numerous walk breaks and was pretty immobile when I returned. There was no serious pain really, just tired and the regular amount of sore you'd expect after 12 miles.
Monday morning, however, I woke up, and before I made it far out of my bedroom, I realized there was a problem. There was some serious pain in the back of my knee, kind of like where that ligament-y thing that you touch your toes to stretch is. It was more than just a "oh if I stretch, this will get better," kind of sore. It was pretty bad. I barely made it down the stairs when I called my mom in a touch of a panic. I spent all day on the couch, icing my knee off and on, popping ibuprofen, and skimming through WebMD diagnoses without much luck. I was beginning to get really worried that I had done something serious to it, like torn something somewhere. But it didn't make much sense because it seemed to me that if I had torn something, I would have realized it somewhere in the run or somewhere in the 6 hours after the run before I went to bed. Needless to say, there was no "easy 3" that day, and all that I had to give were some tears that were shed in fear that I may not be able to complete the half marathon unless I was in a wheel chair. Stacey and I both had one of those scary "what if I can't run this race?" moments in the last couple weeks, and they are not fun.
Tuesday I woke up, and it seemed a little better, but still not better to a point that I could walk normally on it or do anything close to running. I was still a little worried and trying to figure out if I should go in to a Ready Care or something. However, I wasn't 100% sure that I had health care insurance, and I was also too afraid they would tell me I couldn't run, so I never ended up going. I was still determined to exercise somehow, so I thought maybe I'd give bike riding a chance. I happily learned that it didn't hurt my knee at all, so I rode 6 miles to keep up my leg muscles and heart rate. I didn't take my phone with me, and my mother was rather cross upon my return, after I left on injured knee, giving her the impression that I was only riding around the block, and instead riding 6 miles without any form of mobile communication.
Wednesday I woke up and it was feeling better again. I tried running that night, but I still had to walk/run really awkwardly on it, so I switched to biking again. I took Thursday off, but by Friday, it felt fine, so I ran for 37 minutes. I'm not sure what the mileage was. It was raining outside so I couldn't bring my phone to track it, and I was at my friend's house whose backyard mileage I am not familiar with. I'm guessing it was around 3 miles though, considering how long I ran. Let me tell you, for someone who doesn't like doing laps, running like, 27 times around someone's backyard in the dark is INVIGORATING!!!! And by invigorating, I mean horribly boring. Halfway through, I was sure that I only had like, 5 minutes left, only to find that I actually had 17 minutes left. I hate laps. They're boring. Even in unknown backyards, though I know it quite familiarly now. But hey! No knee problems! So that's good.
Tonight I ran 5 and did so at a pace of about 10.5 minutes a mile. My knee felt fine and feels fine afterwards, particularly after icing it with ground beef that my mom needs to thaw for tomorrow's dinner apparently. That was weird. But hopefully I am good to go for Saturday. Praying for no more Monday morning scares. At least not until AFTER the race.
It's been pretty crazy. I virtually had no serious problem until "senior year" of training, when I experienced all the things you hope to not run into, namely ability-stunting illness and injury. It's put it into perspective for me. Tonight I was riding in a car with my mom, and I updated my facebook status to "In 6 days, I will run 13.1 miles." Immediately after I posted it, a truck pulled out in front of the car in front of us who miraculously manged to only clip the very back of its bumper. We also miraculously were able to brake early enough that we were able to narrowly avoid rear-ending the car in front of us. At the time, I had the ankle of my right leg propped up on my left knee pretty close to the glove compartment. I realized that if we had been involved in an accident, I very likely would have broken my ankle or knee, or both. It's highly likely that I would have had an injury that had prevented me from completing this race in 6 days. And of course while this race has been my goal, I can't take too much of the credit for myself. Each day I'm alive and breathing is a gift. Each day my body works well enough to carry itself a long distance is a blessing. And sure, I have put a lot of hard work into preparing my body to take me longer distances than I thought possible, but I must remember how easily it can be taken away from me. Whether I am able to complete this race or not, this training has been a blessing, and my success and accomplishment is not solely based on my attainment of a half marathon t-shirt, a "13.1" bumper sticker, and a check off my bucket list. Regardless, I have learned that I can do things I wasn't sure I could do. I can persevere and stick with something. I can defeat laziness and pain and apathy and adversity and reluctance and resistance, a lot of which originate within my own heart; my own mind. And I'm sure if I can do that on the sidewalks of my neighborhood, I can learn to do them in other sectors of my life as well. But I am also not invincible. I can have anything taken away from me at any point. This whole experience has been encouraging but also humbling. It's kind of a weird mix. But I don't think that I'd really trade it for much of anything.
Some people think sports are just sports: some sort of game or competition involving athletic ability. Some people (myself included a little bit honestly) think that long distance running is for masochists. But there's more to it all than that. If you look hard enough, if you let it, I think it often has something for your soul too. That's true of a lot of things. It's just important to always be looking. To always to be thankful. And to always be striving.
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