Objective:
In preparation for my first marathon on 11/10, I plan to run the Great Allegheny Passage trail from the Homestead Waterfront to Pittsburgh and back. If feeling good, I plan to take the Hot Metal Bridge over to the Eliza Furnace trail, run to the Allegheny County Jail, then back to the bridge and across to the South Side, where I'll run to Station Square before heading back to Homestead. If not taking the Hot Metal, I plan to run straight to Station Square and then back. Short route: 18 miles. Long Route: 22+ miles.
Result:
Bad news. Knee Tendonitis = DNF / 7 miles (half walking). Apparently my left leg was too stiff to be any good to me. I'd developed both patellar and quadriceps tendonitis around my left knee while going down hills on my 13-mile Penn Hills training run. It wasn't enough for me to foresee it bothering me on a flat run three days later. But boy did it ever. The pain / stiffness was noticeable right from the start, and it just got worse. I attempted to stretch, massage, pause, sit, crouch, and take walk breaks but nothing could shake it. It would re-manifest to the point of feeling like my knee was going to explode within the first 50 yards of a run. So after 3.5 miles, I simply turned around.
Remembering back to my dry land training in hockey preseason, the only real solution for tendonitis is rest. And it sucks, because all I've felt like I've done is rest. Once again, I have all kinds of energy that I can't use. I'll basically be forced to not run until marathon time and hope for the best. But all I know for the time being is that if I push now, it won't go away and/or get worse, and I really don't feel like walking 26.2 miles.
Conclusion:
To any further distance training on surfaces other than trail, I will have to run strictly on flats until my legs fully get the hang of many impacts that don't involve hills.
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