Well, I felt the need to post here what has happened with my marathon training. For most of September I've been really battling with problems in my right ankle, with little explanation for what was going on. At first I thought it was just that I needed new shoes (which did help, but not nearly enough), then I cut back on running, then I cut back on biking, but nothing helped. Yesterday I did manage 8.5 miles, but frankly, to do the marathon in 3 weeks, that needed to be at least 20. It's sad because I was up to 19 miles by August 25 and feeling great, and then suddenly couldn't do squat. Today I finally think I may have figured out what is wrong.
Yesterday I ran quite a bit, and today I practiced for a few hours. After about an hour and a half of playing, I noticed my ankle bothering me, and by the time I was done it was really in pain. Turns out that my piano playing has demolished my shot at running a marathon. Having to constantly keep my foot flexed and repeatedly moving my foot up and down for hours was just too much for my ankle to handle. Looking back it makes sense that my last really successful run would have been on August 25, shortly after school had started and my practicing really increased.
Since there's no way I can stop practicing for several weeks, I'll just have to keep my mileage really low and see if I can't get my foot used to both running and pedaling. This year's marathon is, sadly, completely out of the question.
