Welcome to week 8 of marathon training! If you click on the one activity link after the date, it will take you to the Garmin connect website for full stats.

Day 50 | Monday, August 3: Cross-train Rest

Yeah. I brought my gym bag to work, but since I was limping everywhere, I decided NOT to cross-train. Even though I wanted to.

Day 51 | Tuesday, August 4: Run 4 miles

This was my first run with Erin in what felt like FOREVER! I was super excited to run with her again. Unfortunately, I was a pretty lame running buddy. My shin felt somewhat better, but I still felt like a slow slug. We cut it short at about 3.85 miles. I hope we get a better run in together before our 5K on the 15th! Our goal is to run 8:20s and finish in under 26:00. Think we can do it?!

I noticed on Monday that the pain in my shin is starting to affect other parts of my body, like my left calf and right quad, since I am limping a lot. So… I decided to take Wednesday and Thursday off.

Distance: 3.85 | Time: 36:56 | 1: 9:22 | 2: 9:19 | 3: 9:56 | 4: 8:18

Day 52 | Wednesday, August 5: Run 7 miles Rest

Day 53 | Thursday, August 6: Run 4 miles Rest

Erin and I volunteered for PAWS at the Elvis is Alive 5K on Thursday. PAWS had us get there pretty early, so there was a lot of standing around before we finally set up the water tables and the race started. But that was okay, because it gave me a chance to chat with Erin (Okay, I was bitching a bit. Sorry Erin!).

It was fun to be on the other side of the aide station for once! I enjoyed watching the runners come in, and trying to hand them water (my coordination isn’t that good). A few of the people were wearing funny Elvis costumes and doing impressions.

I was surprised how quickly the race went by! It seemed like once the masses came in (after the super-speedy runners) it was non stop action. I really enjoyed volunteering and hope to again.

Yeah, this report is LAME. Check out Erin’s much more thorough (and entertaining report) here.

Day 54 | Friday, August 7: Rest

I picked up my new Brook Adrenalines on Friday. I ended up with blue, instead of red, but I still think they’re pretty.

I compared the tread on my old Adrenalines to my new ones… yeah., they were well past their prime. If you look at the picture below (and click on it to enlarge) you can see there is almost no tread left on the old pair on the right (especially in the two areas circled in white). Oops.

If I start running regularly again soon, I am going to by another pair and alternate between pair each time I run.

Day 55 | Saturday, August 8: Run 7 miles Cross-Train?

I tried to do Kenpo X (from the P90X series) with Steven – sort of a mixture of martial arts arm and leg moves. I did about half of it, because I struggled with balancing on my left leg and twisting it (and you know, I can’t do a lot with my right arm, because I am still recovering from that injury).

Day 56 | Sunday, August 9: Run 15 miles

I wanted to run my 15 miles, but since I was still limping around a bit on Saturday, I passed (okay, Steven told me that if I ran on Sunday I couldn’t whine to him about my leg all week because he didn’t think I should run, so I didn’t). I woke up Sunday only limping a bit, so I am taking that as a good sign.

Week Summary: 37 Almost 4 Miles

I am extremely frustrated with my body this week. Obviously.

I am thinking of switching to one of the novice level training programs if my shin doesn’t get better. Then I would only run 4 days a week, instead of 5. Maybe I would even have to cut that back to 3, and do some more cross-training. Lame.

I’ve been reading up on what to do about my shin. Everything I read says to “quit running then build mileage back up slowly.” Does anyone know if they mean building weekly mileage up slowly, or building per-run mileage up slowly? What I am asking is if I can still do my long runs, but run less that week overall, or if I need to only do short distance runs.