Now that the plunge is done, it's time to look forward to the summer and race season.
After I did the Turkey Trot 5K in November, I took almost seven weeks off from running. In the time off, I stared doing some hip and leg strength training. I think it helped. When I came back to running, I started out on short slow runs. I also did some biking before and after running to loosen up my legs. It was slow going, but adding a little bit at a time seemed to work out fine. I put on about 20 miles in January and I'll probably hit about 30 miles in February.
In October, before my knee fell apart, I signed up for a marathon in May. The Lake Wobegon Trail marathon had an early bird special, and I got in for $55. I was thinking I was going to have to scrap that race as well. But, at this point I'm thinking I can make a run at it.
Here's my plan. I'm going to run once every three days, and I'm going to do a longer run every weekend; every third week I'm going to skip my long run. My plan for long runs is 4, 6, off, 7, 9, off, 11, 13, off, 13, 18, easy week and then race day. I know it's unlikely that this is a good plan, but I'll give it a shot until my knee starts to hurt. It would be fun to run the marathon, but I won't be very disappointed if I have to cut it.
For the triathlon season, I'm going to go for the Olympic distances. In June I'm going to do the Liberty Triathlon in Rockford. In August, I'm going to do the Lake Marion Olympic race. July is still up in the air. If I can get my run miles up, I may try the July Toughman MN 70.3 in Chisago. Otherhows, I may do a sprint with my sister. My bike is a brick (30 lbs), so I'm a little hesitant to try a 70.3. I'm going to budget in a new bike for next year, but right now I can't justify buying two bikes in two years.
A lot of this is contingent on how my running goes over the next month. Hopefully there aren't any setbacks, but if there is I'll just have to reevaluate.
