We are less than one month out from marathon weekend here in Pittsburgh! It is go time and rest time all rolled into one. Many of you will soon be starting the taper after this coming weekend. Get some much needed extra sleep and time with your families. Training hard is important, but as my friend Ed says, “The gains are in recovery.”

I have had a bit of a rough time since the Just a Short Run 30k (JASR). The day after the race it seems I came down with a stomach bug of sorts. I was to find out later that at least two other people I know had similar problems after JASR. Was it the water? Was it that one of the kids handing out gels was ill? Who knows. All I am sure of is it was an unpleasant couple of days.

 On Tuesday I got up to run and didn’t feel right. Thinking it was the stomach bug lingering I opted to skip the run for more rest.  As I was playing around on the computer I felt an old familiar and awful sensation. Was I going to have a seizure?

It has been around 3 years since I had a major episode and at least 2 years since a minor one. My streak ended on this morning.  Fortunately it was an event of , what I would call, the minor variety. It involved a bit of numbness/needles and pins in the left side of my body and spasms that were confined to just the left arm. This could have been a much worse scenario.   Afterwards, I was entirely wiped out for days and had a headache. I couldn’t do much of anything physical and found myself face down on my work desk more than a few times over the next few days.  It is now a week later and my left hand still feels weak and awkward at times, but I can run!

Do you know what to do if someone is having a seizure? Here are a few important things to know!

I took my first run since JASR and the seizure on Thursday. I had planned on walking and then running a little if I felt up to it. As I walked down my street I noticed my legs felt like jelly and I was fairly uncomfortable.  So, what would any runner do? Walking isn’t working so let’s try running! It took a while to warm up, but running was way better. My legs felt great after all that extra rest days and I ended up running 5 miles with a nice negative split starting at a 10:30 and knocked off 0:30 per mile and the last mile (net elevation loss) I dropped 1:00 off the pace ending at a sub 8. I took Friday off and came back for 17 in the city on Saturday and 10 on Frick Park’s trails Sunday.

 
This coming week the goal is to get back on my schedule which should be a little over 50 miles for the week. That said, I’ll rest when I need it.  I feel confident that my training so far will get me through all the goal races even if I level miles out and stop weekly increases.

To all of you coming up on your longest run in this training cycle, We are almost there! It is time to actualize the goals we have been training for all year!  If you are coming up on your longest run ever, be confident! Your training got you this far and it will carry you to race day!

Game On Pittsburgh!