The holiday yesterday totally threw me off. I always do my marathon training updates on Mondays, but all day yesterday it felt like Sunday. The weather this weekend was incredible. It was blazing hot yesterday. Well at least it felt that way outside on the blacktop at my son’s school’s Fall Festival. It was a great turnout and Carlos had a blast. He now has a tattoo (temporary of course), a paddle ball game, a big bag of greasy popcorn and a new stuffed Clifford dog!

So marathon training has been rather dull for the past couple of weeks as I allow my broken rib to heal. However, I was able to incorporate more activity this week. Here is what should have been and what actually happened.

As you can see I “ran” for the first time since injuring my rib on Friday. I slowly jogged for minutes at a time and alternated walking the rest of the time. I felt great despite an obvious awareness that I recently hurt myself. There was no pain during or after exercising. I took Ibuprofen as scheduled, rested in the afternoon, and stayed well hydrated with water and mineral tea.

I started this blog to document my marathon training. I want to be honest, but as always I do not recommend that anyone take my words for advice. I am not a doctor. I did, however, call my doctor this morning. I had a physical in the second week of marathon training so my doctor knows about my running goals. He was aware of the broken rib the day after it happened although he didn’t feel that it was necessary for me to make a visit to his office as long as I was adhering to the proper treatment. My doctor has given me the green light to continue running at a slow and comfortable pace as long as there is no pain or difficulty breathing. He recommended taking rest days in between runs over a few miles and advocated for a return to mild strength training as I am able.

Again this is not meant to serve as advice for anyone reading this. Each person heals differently and has a different baseline for their health. I intend on taking it easy while running and on my rest days. I will stop exercising immediately at any indication of pain or discomfort. I am very pleased with the progress I have made but I know that I am still vulnerable. I do not intend on doing anything to jeopardize my ability to work, take care of my son and safely train for this marathon.

I will be re-evaluating my training schedule over the next couple of days. I’m not exactly sure when the double digit runs will reappear, but it will not be this week.

In the meantime I am relaxing outside on a gorgeous Indian Summer October day with my little guy. We enjoyed a leisurely stroll at the college this morning, both with our cameras. I’ll be back tomorrow with some of those photos.