My name is Heather (Nichols) Knight, a former Hillcrest High School distance runner. Although, while I am getting ready to run my first marathon, a 5K cross country course doesn’t seem like so much distance anymore. I am three weeks away from the big day and about to begin my tapering. I will be keeping a journal of my experiences/training from now until (and slightly beyond) my race. I will be running the Nike’s Women’s Marathon in San Francisco with Team in Training on Oct. 19.
Sept. 30 interview with Knight
Oct. 6 journal entry
Oct. 7
Early morning gym workout - almost the last one before the big day! This one was much better than last week. I had to resist the urge to go faster, finally! I did five x 1,000-meters at approximately the same pace I did my 800s in last week; maybe a little faster. Today was also an accomplishment in the fact that I didn’t hit the "kill" switch on the treadmill in the middle of one of my intervals (another disadvantage to treadmill running). The gym that I workout at has these really nice, new treadmills, but the safety switch is in wrong place and sticks out two inches too far. After the successful treadmill workout, I did some core and, again, resisted doing anything else.
One thing I haven’t mentioned thus far is my goal for the marathon. Because of the injury I have been struggling with, I have been going back and forth on the issue. Right now, my goal is to qualify for Boston in April, which should be very doable. I’ve been told by many people not to have a goal time in mind for my first marathon, as it can make for a no-so-great experience. I do have a goal time in my head…but that’s where it will stay for now.
Oct. 9
I didn’t get the chance to write yesterday - I biked for about 45 minutes relatively easy and did 30 minutes of yoga/stretching. My leg was bothering from the workout on Tuesday. Therefore, I decided to rest today instead of the six mile run on the schedule. I’m not a fan of unplanned "rest." I feel like I'm missing something. Tomorrow I will be resting also, as it is a scheduled rest day. I haven’t had two back-to-back days completely off in a VERY long time. I know it is good for me, but it is still a challenge. At this point, a three mile tempo wouldn’t help my marathon, and the resulting leg pain would probably hurt it. 'Rest is good’, will be my mantra for the next two days.