Dead Legs

So yes, I'm still pumped up from my great run this morning, but my legs are dead!! I can't remember the last time that my legs have felt this tired and sore and have been so useless to me! Ever since Coach scared me into actually believing that taking a pain killer before/during/after a workout could cause liver failure if you get dehydrated, I've been afraid to take Ibuprofen - yes, me, not taking pain relievers, ha! I tried everything I knew to make the recovery better, including a super cold ice bath (brrr!!), but it's just not doing much. I am so sore. I know this is a sign that I used my leg muscles today and that I should really get back into running during the week so that they're in better shape, but owwie!!

PR!

Wow, this morning is exactly what I needed to pump me up for the race ... a 13-mile run in 2 1/2 hours ... a new personal record for me. Okay, actually, this is the first time I've run the entire distance and I sent a pretty good bar for myself to work off of for the next 7 weeks until the race. I tried a run-walk pattern that Coach suggested - run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute. It's designed to give your body a chance to recover while running, allowing you to feel stronger and have more energy later in the race. I've been walking a bit during my runs anyways so this plan worked great - especially since it was a consistent time and I was able to pace myself much better. I felt SO great during my run, well I guess as good as you can feel during a 13-mile run. I didn't get tired as often as i normally do and my feet even felt good at the end of the run. Yes, I was so pumped up and feeling good that when I was on the last mile and could see my "finish line", I got excited and sprinted .. maybe not the best idea but it felt great to finish strong! I finished the miles in almost exactly 2 1/2 hours - under a 12-minute mile, which is well under my goal pace, so I'm excited. I got a whole new burst of energy and excitement and know that my body can do it - I can make it through a long run and feel good, my body CAN handle it (despite the times that I don't think it can), and I can still walk (a little bit) afterwards. Ben (one of the mentor's) suggested that I could do a full marathon but we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, I'm going to enjoy the excitement of 13 miles and work on improving my time and my feelings between now and race day!

Oh, and PS - Coach started off the day saying we were going to run to Manitou Springs on the first leg of the run. Not many of you know where that is, but it's the town to the south of Colorado Springs that's I LOVE but hardly ever go to because it's a bit of a drive from my house (30 minutes or so). Sure, we were already way down south in town and it was only a 3-mile run to Manitou but I sure did start off the day thinking that I was going to run a long ways, and I did.

Today's Miles: 14.0
Total Miles: 161.5

Boom, Boom, Flash!

Track practice tonight ended with a bang .. and a flash .. and lots of rain! We started off the night with walking our warm-up in the opposite direction as we normally do because there was a storm coming in and it looked like there were some lightning flashes to the south. We made it over to the track and after our warm-up, Coach gave us very strict instructions - when we hear his "horn", we need to immediately go to the tunnel for cover. The storm was coming in pretty fast - if I hadn't been with the group, there's no way I would have stayed outside. It was crazy how dark it was getting but I know we were trying to get as much in as possible, while still being safe, and hoping that it would just dump a bit of rain. Well, we got 2 laps into our workout and the skies opened up on us ... it rained and stormed pretty bad while we were all huddled under the tunnel. It broke just enough for us to run to the cars and get home to safety. I'm a little disappointed in the fact that I didn't get to run more but it was kind of nice to relax on my patio and watch the lightning over the mountains when I got home :)

Today's Miles: 2.0
Total Miles: 147.5

Heck Yeah!

Whooo, 12 miles today! Okay, actually, Denise and I got a bit motivated on the end and went further than we thought we had gone so it ended up being 13 miles. Coach has officially named us the "OAL" .. the "Over-Achieving Ladies" ... HAHA who would have thought that I would be called an overachiever! Anyways, I started off the morning on a bit of a rough start - after only sleeping 4 hours and getting up at 5am. I do NOT recommend that, it's tough to not have a lot of energy to start the day. Our meeting spot is the intersection of two trails (3 directions) so coach's plan for me for the morning was 50 minutes on each trail. I kept up a pretty decent pace so I did 4 miles on the first two of my trails ... totalling 8 miles. I got pretty tired at this point - my feet hurt and my body just gets really sore. I walked the last 5 miles with Denise. Truth be told, I probably could have run a bit more and I probably should have so I could teach my body to push through the sore/tiredness but I ended up walking instead. If nothing else, I did increase the time on my feet, which is almost as important as the mileage, so I felt pretty good. I was supposed to run 11 miles this week based on my training schedule so I thought I did pretty well when I finished the day with 13 miles. I was completely wiped out afterwards but it's so amazing that I was able to get that long of a day in!! It was the burst of energy and motivation that I needed to get excited about this challenge. Now that I'm this close to the total miles, I know that I can do it - it's no longer an extreme, way-out-of-line idea that I can't reach, it's something I can do. Now that I can do it, I get to work on doing it better and improving myself even more. I'm really excited - both for this morning's run and the burst of energy for the next 8 weeks until race day!! :)

Today's Miles: 13.0
Total Miles: 145.5

Starting Up Again

Well, just as I had thought was going to happen, I didn't run at all the last week while the family was in town. My week was just so crammed with things that I didn't fit it in. I wish I had run but again, it wasn't a priority of mine since I was so excited to spend as much time as possible with my family. So, with that said, tonight at track practice was the first time back to running in a week. I really need to stop doing that - I need to run a lot more often than once a week. My knee was feeling pretty good until a little more than half way through the workout. But, despite the pain, I was so determined tonight to do well. I hit my split times with 5 seconds for every single lap - I was so on tonight. All I could think about was the quote by Sir Roger Bannister - "The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win." Yes, I pushed myself as much as I could because I know I needed to, but took it as easy as I could when I had the chance. Tonight made me realize that I can push through the pain and while I'm going to continue to keep an eye on my knee and listen to it, I know that it doesn't have to stop me from running all together. This is good because starting today, I'm going to be serious about this running thing for the next 2 months until the race. I know I can do it and I want to be able to do it to the best of my ability. Bring it on!

Today's Miles: 7.0
Total Miles: 132.5

Tuesday

Wow, I forgot how great Tuesday track practices can be and how great it is to be out there and accomplishing goals that Coach gives us. I was slightly worried after not running for a week, but also excited to give the knee a try and see how the cortisone shot was going to hold up. We did an endurance run tonight, which started with faster paces in the beginning and end of the run to work on staying strong in the beginning and the end of a run. No walking, no 400 easy lap in between drills, just running. And wrapped up the day with a 2400 cool down (mile and a half) run. That's hardly a cool down for me but I ran the whole thing, ending the night strong. My knee felt pretty good - a little sore at the end but much better than it's been in the past. Hopefully this cortisone shot keeps working!

Today's Miles: 6.0
Total Miles: 125.5

Don't Quit

"When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quite.
Live is tough with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
don't give up though the pace seems slow -
You may succeed with another blow,
Success is failure turned inside out -
The silver tint of the clouds in doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."
- Unknown

The last week has been pretty challenging for me. After my Monday night knee breakdown, I lost motivation. I missed track practice on Tuesday and then couldn't drag myself to run on Wednesday or Thursday. I blamed it on being tired and busy getting ready for my family to get here - all lame excuses. I finally had my knee doctor's appointment on Friday, which wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. X-ray was okay, so no new knee cap problems :) Might have some meniscus damage going on but doc and I agreed to try a cortisone shot for a few weeks before doing an MRI to see if it provided any pain relief. He even told me that I could keep running but have to really listed to my body and pain. I walked out feeling pretty good (for now), with the exception of the pain in my knee for the shot. For any of you that have had them before, you know my pain ... those of you that haven't, don't ... they hurt. I spent the rest of the day, and unfortunately, Saturday, limping around from the issues of sticking a large needle under my knee cap and pumping stuff into it. I missed track practice Saturday morning because I was just too sore and wanted to give it time to heal. I hate the idea that I haven't run in a week but am excited for track practice tomorrow night. It will be nice to see everyone again and get back on track. Sure, this upcoming week is going to be hard to fit in running since the family is in town (yay!!) but if nothing else, I will be doing a bunch of walking aka "time on my feet". All I know, is that even when I have some bad days, which I will continue to have over the next 10 weeks, I'm not going to quit. I've come too far, and I still have a long ways to go and I'm not going to do this the best I can.

Walking

Well, the pain in the knee/calf struck again tonight when I was heading out for my run. It was a quick 3 mile run, which really doesn't even affect me anymore. Those short runs feel great to me. Unfortunately, it did not feel great tonight. I set off trying to run and the pain in the leg got so bad that I just couldn't do it. I'm all about pushing myself through being tired and being sore, but this is beyond that. I didn't want to not do anything at all so I set off to walk a bit. Sure, it was still sore and it still got pretty swollen but the pain was more manageable than running. I got 2 miles in before I decided it was enough. I figured that two miles of walking is better than no miles while sitting on the couch.

Today's Miles: 2.0
Total Miles: 119.5

Another Saturday Afternoon Run

I took another Saturday off from running with the group and went on a run alone. Once again, I went out around 1:30 in the afternoon, which may not have been the smartest time to go but it was either then or not at all. I've decided that I can't let other factors dictate my running or continue to push it off because that causes me to not run as often as I should. I was in the mood to run so I head off on the Santa Fe Trail again. I was supposed to do 8 miles this weekend and I knew that going on the trail was the only way I was going to get all those miles in. I set off south on the trail from the Air Force Academy to explore some new territory. I was feeling pretty great as I got down to the 4 1/2 mile mark. It was pretty warm and the trail doesn't have much shade but I was in a pretty good mood from the pretty views (pictures below) so I just kept running. I turned around at the 4 1/2 mile mark to head back north for the second half of my run. The second half was much more challenging. I had noticed some blisters forming on my shoulders, which definitely freaked me out because I thought it was sun poisoning. I wanted to run fast so I could get off the trail and out of the sun but my body was so exhausted. I kept running as much as I could but the last 2 miles were pretty tough and I probably walked more than I ran. It probably did not help that I ran out of water around mile 6 so I was pretty thirsty - I've learned some things about my water that I need to adjust for future runs. I made it to the end of the run 2 hours after I started and even though I was WIPED out, I was still very excited that I ran 9 miles :) I did, however, spend the rest of my night relaxing at home. Thank goodness that Sunday is a rest day!!

Today's Miles: 9.0
Total Miles: 117.5