March-ing on...

March has been a roller coaster of a month for my running.  I jumped into the first week with a 40 mile week and discovered once again that I am not invincible. I have been adding some core work to my routine for a few months now but I was not incorporating enough "easy" days into my running routine. The lack of easy days seemed to lead to some nasty knee pain that kept me from running for 11 days. I did go to a physical therapist and she told me that the pain was from weak glutes. So I kept myself busy by going to Power Pump classes and spin classes and did some extra stationary biking on my own to try and keep my fitness in line. I was finally able to run again on March 21st. For you non-runners, when you cannot run due to an injury you truly appreciate being able to run when you can. For awhile it seemed like everyone but me could run and was doing so. It was a little disheartening for the duration but I am past that now. 
As I write this, it is now less than 50 days until my next marathon which is in Fargo, ND. My goals for this marathon are to run it without hitting the wall, and finish faster than I did in the Twin Cities. I learned a lot from my first marathon and will go back and review my posting of that run as a refresher. I felt that my two largest mistakes were that I did not fuel enough or properly during the race and I definitely ran too fast starting out. After 17 strong miles the wheels fell off and it was a struggle for me to finish, mile 17 is also where the hills started. Most of my splits up to that point were well under 9 minute miles which is not crazy out of my league, in fact I felt great until around miles 16-17. This picture reminds me of how I felt immediately after the marathon.

I have had some beautiful runs through the winter and I am now enjoying the awesome spring weather. My next race will be in St. Cloud, MN on Saturday April 17th, which will actually just be a 20 mile training run for me with some friends. Hopefully all will go well and I will stay healthy and continue to enjoy my runs!