Finishing Up a Light Recovery Week

365 days until birthday #51.

By design, I've only run twice since Sunday's half marathon. My meager mileage total is 12.5 miles, unless I count a short 1.5 mile stint on the treadmill from Wednesday that I tagged on at the end of my "tour" through the elliptical trainers. Since I'm planning on getting back into the long run mode tomorrow morning, I felt it best to cross train today and give the legs and especially the ankles as much time to freshen up as possible.

Today's workout was 45 minutes on the A.M.T., following the interval program (level 20 + level 12 for the intervals). I didn't strain too hard. I followed that up with a very brief session on the Cybex machine and on the treadmill (in court shoes) just to get my leg turnover up a little. The A.M.T. is very slow-twitch oriented. I finished with a double-lap around the Precor/Epic fixed weight circuit and some quick core-stabilized moves on the FreeMotion cable machines. I hopped in the spa afterwards to relax the muscles, and hopefully to benefit the ankle.

After this weekend, there will be 9 weeks remaining until the Carlsbad marathon. I'm right on the cusp of pushing into the 18+ long run range, and I'm anxious about getting my left ankle as healthy as possible. The Kendall Gelthotics Mike gave me to try seem to be helping so far. The real test will be tomorrow's run.

Sadly, it's supposed to rain. Even worse, gusty winds are predicted too. I don't really want to wimp out just because of inclement weather. What if the weather's bad for the marathon itself? I need to be prepared. So, unless I reconsider, I'm sticking with the schedule and will put in about 15 or so miles tomorrow. My plan is to take it very easy and strive just to put in the miles without killing myself. I may utilize the 8-minute run + 30-second walk strategy that worked so well for me before. I really hope the orthotic inserts stabilize the ankle. I'm pretty sure I understand the mechanism that is causing the pestering pain. I'll record my analysis of that some other time.

Hope to get to bed early tonight and get an early start tomorrow. Rain, rain, go away.