Update on my half marathon training

I had a great run last Tueaday.  After running for 30 minutes on the treadmill, I decided to run the other 30 minutes on the road.  Instead of going to the trails, I ran by the house.  There are lots of rolling hills.  I felt very strong and ran at a great pace and finished strong.  To my surprise and anguish, my Achilles hurt the next day and in fact my right Achillies were swollen.  Not good.  I am about 3 weeks away from my half marathon and I do not want to think about not running, let alone my Achillies blowing out and I won't be able to walk.  What a nightmare.  Not being able to do something I love.  I didn't think I love running but when faced with the possibility of taking time off or not being able to run again, I realize how much I do love running....

It has been hard taking 5 days off.  I have been icing my Achilles a lot and putting absorbing jr. on it. It's amazing the emotions I have been through these last 5 days.  Mostly anger, sadness, denial, etc...  My Achilles started to feel a lot better on the 3 day and there was very little pain....  Maybe I am in denial but I am still planning on running my first half marathon in September.  After that, I will see if I am able to do the 2nd half marathon I signed up for in November.

There is so many reasons why I want to run this half marathon in September.  It's my first half marathon after all.  After all these years of running 5ks, I finally got the courage to train for a half.  I have also made the hotel reservation and my MIL will be here from up north to run in the race series. I need the short vacation!   Not to mention, training hard...maybe over training!  So, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to run in the race.  Okay, run/walk/run.  I will not have the time I want to finish in but my goal has shifted to just finishing the race because of my injury.

I did return to my training today.  Of course, my training is at a much easier level.  I did a total of 30 minutes on the treadmill with short walk breaks.  Weird to run on the treadmill with no incline, I have never done that...and at a slightly slower pace.  I didn't want to push my luck so we'll see.  I hope the Achilles will be okay tomorrow (fingers crossed, no pain hopefully).  I will really be cutting down on my mileage until the half.  I ordered my exercise bike (will be here Thursday) so I'm hoping to do some major cross training on it for endurance, instead of going for the long runs.  Let's hope it's enough for me to finish the race amd cross the finish line.