hamstring injury

Yesterday was the first day I managed not to blog since I started this, so I have yesterday and today here.

Yesterday's training: 3.15 miles, 34:10 (10:50 min/mi), avg 139 bpm

The above time includes walking, stretching, and cursing after I strained the back of my left leg. It's a week from the marathon and I managed to hurt myself. Great. My legs felt stiff from the beginning even though I walked for about 2/3 of a mile before running. I credit having spent a whole day in a plane back from the west coast. I need to swear off attempting to get my running in after a day of traveling.

Another km-miles conversion datapoint. Watch said 3.17 miles. Then switching to kilometers it said 5.07 kilometers. The correct conversion is 5.07 /1.609 = 3.15. 5.07/1.6 = 3.17. It does seem the watch has the wrong conversion factor.

Today's training: 1.22 miles, 15:08 (12:24 min/mi), avg 133 bpm

By last night I was thinking, "It's not that bad." Well, I tried to run today and it's worse than I thought. I really should have taken today off, but I'm worried about losing fitness. I've only "run" four miles in three days. This is very similar to an injury I had with my right leg the fall of 2004. I tried to run through that and ultimately I couldn't run at all for about three months. So, what's my plan? Do as much of my schedule as I can without making it worse and then just head to a big Did Not Finish (DNF) in the marathon. Sounds like a great plan, doesn't it?

I have to find a way to exercise for a couple of hours tomorrow or I might as well hang it up anyway. Tomorrow I'll head to the gym and see whether I can manage the elliptical or bike.