As you can tell from my last couple of blog entries, my marathon training has been winding down to a close. I finally was able to put together a couple of strong workouts this week in order to finish my training strong. I definitely think that I was helped by the fact that I knew these were really my last two workouts that I was going to be doing.
The first workout took place on Friday after work. Once I finished up my day at (around 4:30p), I headed right over to the Y. Despite the fact that the gym was packed with people, I was able to walk right up to my elliptical without a wait. I decided that I would hit it pretty hard again, and started my workout at a good pace. My legs, mostly my quads, were actually pretty tired from my earlier workouts because I had worked in a lot of periods of high resistance on Tuesday and Wednesday. Again, with good music and the knowledge that this was going to be my second to last serious workout ... I was able to push through and complete a solid 45 minute workout.
As Sunday rolled around, I knew I was in for the last of my workouts. If I were still able to run outside, it would have been a nice 10 mile run in perfect 50 degree sunny weather. Instead, my last long workout took place on the second floor of the Wang YMCA, on my favorite elliptical, in a room that's only ventilation consisted of two wall mounted fans. Needless to say, I would have much rather have been on the L Street run instead of in a hot, humid gym on an elliptical. Its hard to imagine, but while I was in the middle of this elliptical workout, I actually cracked a few smiles. The smiles came from the fact that this was the last hard workout I would be doing. It doesn't seem like much, but honestly it was the end of a 5 month period of training. I hit a couple of bumps in the workout, like when my iPod decided to stop working about 70 minutes into the workout. On any other day, this would have been a devastating blow to the workout because being on an elliptical without music is pure torture. Today though, it really didn't matter. I was essentially counting down the minutes. I actually started at 120 ... when the ipod broke I was at 50 ... and I just kept counting down from there. When all was said and done, I finished ~2 hrs worth of elliptical.
I can't describe how good I felt when this was done. I guess at a point like this its good to look back at where you started, to help you appreciate how far you have come. When I started this journey 5 months ago, I was able to run 2.5 miles outside. When I first started on the elliptical, I could do 20 minutes ... and that was with taking a 1-2 minute break after about 12-14 minutes worth of working out. I guess, when you look at things from that perspective I have surely come a long way.
Although I use the elliptical as a surrogate for running, it really doesn't come close. If its one thing that I have come to appreciate during these months of training, its the ability to run outside. Running honestly provides things that no other exercise or exercise machine can really come close to. Roll into that the ability to do these runs on well organized group runs with an organization like L Street Running Club, and its truly unbeatable. In hindsight, my training didn't follow the path I hoped it would when I started out back in November. I guess it was slightly ignorant to think that I was going to train for my first marathon ever without suffering an injury. I guess part of the journey was learning how to adapt to these curve balls, and also learning what I need to do in my training to avoid them in the future. There's still a few unknowns left out there ... will the knee hold up, will I have to walk, what will the weather be like, etc. I do know that I did everything I could with the cards that were dealt. I didn't give up on the training when an overuse injury popped up ... I tried to adapt through PT and changing my training to the elliptical. Hopefully it will be enough! I guess in a week we will find out!!
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