With Labor Day weekend over and the fall fast approaching that means the Marine Corps Marathon will be here in less than two months. Less humidity will be nice, but less daylight hours usually means more runs on the treadmill for me.

The first five weeks of training went according to plan. I was getting in six runs a week even while traveling all over the place. It was fun to run some of my old routes in my hometown and to get to take in some nice views on runs up in Alex Bay.

I have a tendency to always go my hardest even on days that are supposed to be even days, and it seems that that has finally come back to bite me. My training once August hit has not been going the way I planned at all. I started noticing tightness in my hips that was really slowing me down as I tried to run, especially when I got up over five or six miles. It’s very frustrating when conditioning-wise you feel like you can keep going, but your legs don’t agree.

For the rest of August I cut down on my number of runs drastically and also haven’t done a long run of more than 10 miles. I’ve done lots of cross training in hopes of keeping up my fitness including aqua jogging, the elliptical and the stepper. This week I’m adding in spinning and body pump classes.

Unfortunately the pain seems to be increasing instead of getting better, so I might have to (gasp) have a doctor check things out. For those that know me, you know that going to a doctor is not something I readily do – but I suppose it is likely the smart thing to do so I can get back to running! In the meantime I plan to keep cross training, so as I’ll be in best shape I can when I’m able to start adding miles again.

I’m still shooting for a sub-3:35 at Marine Corps this October so I can qualify for Boston in 2014, and will do what I can to make that happen! I have 5k, 10k and 20 miler races between then and now as well that I’ve worked into my training plan. Next up is the September 11 Memorial 5k that loops by the Pentagon and is one of my favorite races – incredibly moving! Check out some pics below from last year’s race.