Sorry for the later than usual recap – instead of getting this post up on Sunday, as I had hoped, I was off to Orlando with McDonald’s (a client) for a few days! I’ve returned to Cleveland and am playing catchup – with work, life, grocery shopping (4 days of eating McDonald’s means my fridge is pretty empty) and blogging!

Last week was week fourteen of Cleveland marathon training. The week’s training called for Tuesday: 5. Wednesday: 9. Thursday: 5. Saturday: 14, for a total of 33 miles.  For the first time since the Toe Incident, I didn’t follow the running schedule. 😦  If you read my last post, you know that I’ve been experiencing some on and off ankle and achilles pain during and after runs – and even somewhat when walking. So, I decided to take one of the days (Wednesday) off and stick to the shorter weeknight runs, ice my leg, stretch, and see how the 14 miler went.

Monday: 5 –  Not a bad pre-work run. After resting on Saturday and using the elliptical on Sunday, my legs were feeling strong. Of course afterwords, the achilles and ankle started hurting again!

Tuesday: 5 – B and I pounded through a great post-work run. We finished our 5ish miles in under 48 minutes, meaning our pace was below our typical 10 min/mile training pace. During (and after) there was still achilles and shin pain, but it felt like a great night for a short run! Yes, it’s amazing what training for a marathon will do for you – anything 6 or under is short… even a mid-week 9 miler is “short!”

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday– Rest, rest and more rest. It felt so strange not to go out with B when he was doing his 9 miles and I couldn’t help but feel jealous when he got back from his good run, but I spent most of the time just icing my ankle and prepping dinner. And of course catching up on the DVR (Glee, The Voice and Ice Loves Coco aren’t going to watch themselves!).

Saturday: 14.1– 14 miles felt great. B, his sister and I did a 14 mile loop, much of it along the actual marathon route! We ran the first 5 with one of B’s sister’s friends, and then took a water break after 7 miles and then continuing on for the rest of the run. I was feeling great emotionally, but around mile 10 or so my leg/ankle started seriously hurting again. It was not as bad as last week, but still found myself going pretty slowly for the rest of the run and not going much faster than 10:30 minute miles. Frustrating –  but glad to be finished and ONE month till race day!

Saturday night, B and I went out to dinner and then met up with my friend Ali to help her celebrate her birthday!

my beer had its own stand!

Sunday I hit the airport for a trip to Orlando for work. I was able to get in a few runs during the trip, along iwth standing ALL DAY on the convention floor – meaning my healing process may be a little sloewr.

This week: Looking forward to being back in Cleveland and participating in the Cleveland 10 miler this Saturday morning. B, his sister and I plan on using it as part of our TWENTY MILE training run.