What has been, what is and what will be happening

When last I posted on this here piece of blogitude, I was having health problems that led to me take a break from running.  The "tumour" my neurologist had seen on my first MRI turned out to be a disc bulging out one side of my neck, and not a tumour at all.  I did, however, have to forgo training for a new reason.  After trying multiple daily medications to prevent migraines, which all left me foggy-brained and unable to do my PhD work, I had no choice but to try a drug that would affect my ability to train.  The result is that my migraines have decreased in frequency and intensity, which is the most important thing to me right now.  It is the only reason I am now able to function like a normal person.  Like most migraine medication, my new drug is actually intended to treat a different ailment and just happens to work on migraines.  This drug is for hypertension, and so it affects my blood pressure and my heart rate.  This makes training rather difficult.  In fact, the doctor told me I would no longer be able to run half-marathons.

And so a year went by with no TNT for me, which made me sad.  I followed my friends' progress of Facebook and wished I could be with them.  And then I remembered that there was a way I could be a part of Team in Training without running.  There is also a walking team.  So I went to see Corinne at the Team in Training office downtown and told her I wanted to join the walking team.  As it turned out, she had been searching for someone to lead the walking team, as the usual walk coaches were taking a much needed break.  Soooooooo, I became a sort of assistant coach for the walkers, as well as a mentor for participants (who turned out not to need much mentoring at all).  

Training with the walkers has shown me that I can actually train for speed over long distances.  In fact, last week I walked 8.65 km at an average pace of 8:33 min/km, which is faster than the average pace of my last half-marathon, which I ran.  So what does this mean?  Does it mean that my doctor was wrong, or does this just mean walking is a better choice for me?  This is what I intend to find out.  I have just registered to do the Montreal Marathon with Team in Training, but I don't yet know if I will walk, walk/run or run.  Apparently, if I choose to walk, I will have to do the half rather than the full.  Some TNT friends were telling me today that the Montreal marathon is not walk friendly.  They put all the walkers in the last corral, sweep the race course early and don't offer an early start (like some other races do).  I'm going to start by training walk/run and see how it goes.  I would really like to do the full marathon, so I hope it will work out.  

Stay tuned...