17 weeks to Fargo

Last week I ran 41.5 miles. The highlight was on Saturday when I ran a practice simulation of the first part of the Fargo marathon on a treadmill. Two of us ran according to the same plan. He ran 15 miles and I ran 14. Each mile we would adjust our treadmill speed according to a chart I posted earlier. The run went great but what worried me is that my heart rate was higher than I would have liked during the later miles. I decided that on Saturday, when I run a half marathon race, I will attempt to run the same paces as I did on the treadmill. If that goes according to plan, I will be able to compare the two heart rate charts: indoors at 65+ degrees with proper hydration vs. outdoors at 10-15 degrees and under-hydration. I'm predicting that my heart rate will be lower in the race. My second goal would be to finish the half in just under 1:45 which will give me another wave 1 qualifier for the TC marathon in October.

Yesterday afternoon I had a sharp pain hit me in my right foot. In the top-mid-right area. There is some intermittent clicking there when I walk. It could be a side effect of running 14 miles on Saturday at a 7:59 average pace. I expect the 3x 3-minutes of 6:31's on Wed didn't help either. The pain comes and goes now (Monday morning) and I just walked for 2 miles at various inclines this morning to see if I could get things to click back into place. This same thing happens a few times a year and it always resolves itself in a few days.

Update: I did some searching on the internet during lunchtime today and I almost certain to have something called Cuboid syndrome. The is a cuboid bone in my foot that is slightly out of place and when it pops back all the pain will be gone. That's been my past experience and I think it will be better soon this time too.

I'm winging it this week for workouts. It all depends on when my foot gets back to normal. The only workout I'm doing for sure is the half on Saturday.

--Mark