Cautiously Optimistic

Well yesterday I managed to pull it together and finish my tempo run just fine despite not feeling 100 percent. I woke up today and wasn't feeling great either - my throat was scratchy and I still feel exhausted - but what I noticed that *didn't* hurt were my legs. In fact, my legs have been feeling pretty good since my race two weekends ago.

Could it be actually be? Are my legs actually doing well this training cycle so far?

You see, I'm anything but a natural-born runner. I over-pronoate like crazy, cannot keep my left leg straight no matter how hard I try, and have the world's flattest feet. So despite my best efforts and working on my form and using tried-and-tested training methods, I usually end up battling one injury after the other.

My latest was kind of my own fault -  I was running pretty well for 2 months, and set a PR at a half marathon in February. The shoes had about 300 miles on them but I tried to squeeze out a few more runs on them anyways the week after the race. BIG mistake - the shoes were actually worn out so they weren't holding me properly, which caused a calf weakness, which was manifesting itself in my right knee. Of course I didn't catch that something was up until a 8-mile run, which left me limping the rest of the day. Had a few rest days, got a fresh pair of kicks and was ok - until I attempted a 12-mile run two weeks or so later. My knee blew up before I even hit mile 5, and was forced to call it a day. This of course left me in a panic - my 12-miler was supposed to be my last long run before the National Half Marathon - but it all ended up working out. I finished the race feeling good which was my main goal, really.

So fast forward to today. I don't want to celebrate too soon, but I'm starting to think this injury is finally behind me and I can finally breath a sigh of relief. But on the other hand, I also don't want to get too comfortable. I always feel like another injury is waiting for me around the corner. In fact, my fear of injury is why I'm a bit hesitant on committing to a fall marathon this year. My marathon last year was plagued by a case of runner's knee. It wasn't enough to sideline me or keep me from finishing the race, but it was enough to have my left knee start to bug me sat mile 8 and keeping on for the rest way, and enough to slow me down so I didn't hit my goal time. I just don't want the same thing to happen again this year.

But, I'm trying to take it one step at a time - and hey, I have another 13.1 coming up in about 7 weeks that I need to focus on. Onward and upward!