As previously blogged, the damage I sustained to my hip last fall has finally been repaired, and blessedly, the fall I had last week doesn't seem to have caused anything new and unpleasant. I am not yet a true runner. I don't love running. I don't get up on a run morning in anticipation of getting out there and knocking back a few kms before work. I do it because it only costs me a pair a shoes every 12 months or so (it should probably be less than that given how much we run...but it also depends on how my joints are handling the impact of running) and I can run where ever I am. However, I really missed not being able to run, not having the physical capability of being able run without severe pain in my knee caused by the stressed muscles in my hips.
Now that Andrew and I back to running on a regular basis I'm happier, especially now that I'm getting my stamina back. We're slowly increasing our distance back up to our run length from last summer. In fact, next week we'll be back up to what we were running just before I was injured (around 17-18 km on Saturdays). Although our speed seems to be down, which I find disappointing. We ran our half marathon last spring in just under 2 hr (1:57), and I want to run our marathon (I'm getting to that) in 4 hr or less, but considering our time yesterday, we won't achieve that goal. I hope it's because we're still getting back into the swing of things, and that I've still got some residual soreness from my fall last Friday. I hope that switching to fresh runners (which we purchased yesterday) will help us pick things back up. I have goals, and time factors into these.
Goal 1) Run a marathon. Current plans should have Andrew and I running our first full length marathon this October. We had initially thought we might run the Victoria marathon--it's known as a speedy course, and we have family in the area--however, the timing won't work. There's a wedding in Ontario the weekend after the Victoria marathon and our family won't be in town. So we looked to Ontario venues and found an alternate race. The Toronto marathon is held the day after the wedding and so we're aiming to run there instead. The one bummer (other than we'll have to be careful not to drink to much at the wedding) will be that we'll have to hop a flight back to Edmonton only a couple hours after we cross the finish line. Who's going to be dead tired at work the next day? I will.
Goal 2) Run the Boston marathon. The Boston marathon is the crème de la crème of marathons. I think around 10,000 people run the race every year and you have to qualify to be on the starting line. Last I checked I would have to cover the 42.2 km distance in 3.5 hr to be allowed to enter, Andrew only has 3.15 hr. The scary thing (I think) is that the winners will complete the race in little over 2 hr. That means a running speed of around 20 km/hr. I'm tired just thinking about it. The problem, of course, is at present I'm no where near capable of running that time. At least I've got the rest of my life to try, and on the plus side, the qualifying times go up the older you get.
Ciao,
Andrea
No comments:
Post a Comment