Today is a rest day - so much so that I didn't even wear my bodybugg so that I wouldn't be tempted to try and hit my daily target. Why? Because every Sat. is our long training days and its SOO important in training that you give your body a day of rest before hitting a long run after training all week. Its also really important to "carb up" I'm going to be running for 2 and a half hours straight and its really important to have lots of glycogen stored in your muscles. Tonight dinner will be a big bowl of whole wheat pasta and some veggies ( no cream sauces or cheese - even veggie cheese) and I've been munching on carbs all day.
While I'm usually good about gearing up for long runs, I've been paying extra special attention this Friday because this run is a BIG DEAL for me. First of all, its the first time I've run this long since my knee injury 8 months ago. But mostly its a big deal because of what happened last time i was on the trail. I don't know the actual trail name, we refer to it at Team in Training as "the Washington and lee high school trail" because we meet at the Washington and Lee high school to connect to the trail.
The trail itself is a part of the Marine Corps Marathon... not just a part of but is arguably the most difficult part - the HILL. So why is this a redemption run for me? To understand you have to go back a few weeks to when we were all gathered in the parking lot of the Washington and Lee High school stretching and getting ready for our run. I was paying extra attention to my stretching since I had had a bad run in the middle of the week that week that left me with hip pain. As we stretched, one of the mentors shares with us this little bit of knowledge that shaped that day's run for me. She said " you know we call this the Trail of Tears because every year this trail breaks someone and they cry" I thought to myself how silly! Surly not EVERY year someone cries.
So we head out onto the trail and there were issues right away, I had to stop and go to the bathroom at mile 2 and told my pace group to go head without me. So they went on their way and I stopped to pee and hit the trail again but now that pain in my hip had returned. With each step it got worse and worse but I was making up ground and had almost caught up to my group but once I hit the turn around, the pain was unbearable and I had stopped running and was now hardly even walking. Along comes coach Charlie and he asks whats up and I burst into tears... TEARS! I knew I had to stop running and get my hip checked out and he confirmed that for me but I kept saying " I've never not finished a run" and at mile 6, I only had 4 more miles to go but I knew i needed to stop. On my ride back, now unsure if my running season was going to be over for me or not, I kept thinking DAMN YOU TRAIL OF TEARS!
Well the good news is that it wasn't a stress fracture like everyone- including my Orthopedic surgeon first thought it was and after physical therapy, I was cleared to go back to running again. Flash forward to this week, my first full week of training after two weeks of modified training and I'm feeling great so why am I taking all these extra precautions this Friday? Because like every Saturday of my life, tomorrow is a long run and its on none other than the Trail of Tears! I've been telling myself ever since I got the OK to run that this run was going to be my redemption run, the run that I refuse to be the victim of the Trail of Tears. I'd be lying if I didn't say a small part of me is nervous, I mean it DID beat me once but I know that this time around, nothing stands in my way. This time around there won't be tears, only sweat!
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