Things are looking up!  First, an acceptable 5 mile run last Wednesday on hills, which did involve some ankle soreness. Then yesterday, a 10 mile run with no knee pain and just mild ankle pain. The main issue with Sunday was that it was HOT! I ran with a friend and we both suffered through 90 degrees with humidity. Our pace was way off because of the heat. But actually it was good that we did not run too fast, because of my ankle.

I feel I really needed to nail 10 miles on Sunday because of the half marathon in two weeks, so it is great that I did it. The chiropractor really thought I should only run 4 miles, but like many runners, I decided to just see how it would go and run more if I felt good. There is a lot on the line for me besides this half marathon. The Chicago marathon is about 6 weeks away. And that is the more important race! That is the race I am ultimately training for. My weekly miles have been cut way back the previous two weeks due to knee and ankle issues.

There is this careful balance needed when nursing an injury and still trying to train for a race. I believe I have posterior tibial tendonitis, a mild case. I am keeping it under control with ice, Advil, and the work that the chiropractor does on it too.

But the next few weeks will be challenging. If all goes well during the week on shorter runs, I will be trying to go 15 miles this coming Sunday. If the half marathon in two weeks was to be treated as an actual race for a PR, I would be tapering and not running 15 miles Sunday. But this half marathon is only for practice on the way to Chicago.  I get to pick up a medal while training for Chicago! So I will try to do 15,13, and 20 mile runs the next few weeks.  Ideally for a marathon, I would have had 2-3 20 mile runs. But because of injury, that is not going to happen for this one.  I’ll update what happens next Sunday.