body shutting down. left achilles just doesn't want to cooperate. had to pull up 3 miles early on saturday because my achilles felt like it was going to snap. not liking this one bit.
luckily, i already had a check-up scheduled with dr. n. for this thursday. please fix me. please. i just want to make it to the starting line this year.
first song on the shuffle: "fast car" - tracy chapman
pretty good run on the whole until the very end. i decided to run straight home from work because i have a hard time getting motivated after i spend an exhausting and irritating 30-45 minutes on the bus ride home.
i felt great for the most part. i like having to run through the streets during that first mile because it keeps my mind off of things - the first mile is usually pretty shitty for me.
my right leg is still giving me problems, but at least i never felt out of breath. i checked my pace in the middle two miles (because i knew where each mile began and ended), and i was going 10:40 pace right on the dot.
by the time i got near the end of my run, my right leg was pretty shot and cramping up again. sigh. it is my own fault. i haven't been keeping up with the exercises dr. mike gave me from pt. i'm the asshole. it's my fault.
been a bad running blogger again. let's see...what do i have to say about last week...
i was a lazy piece of shit.
only ran once during the week - wednesday - 6 miles. ran on the track at bally's because it was so hot and humid outside. right leg cramped up with only about a minute left in my run so i stopped. yes, instead of running through the pain like i normally do, i stopped. trying to learn from last year. saturday, i ran 12 miles with the training group. it hurt pretty badly. my legs just feel really fatigued - especially my quads. they still hurt today.
sunday, i biked around town with sb doing miscellaneous things, including dinner and a movie. transformers rules. go see it.
for some reason, my legs felt so fatigued during the run this week. my breathing was fine, but grief...my legs.
my left achillies was really tight too during the entire run and continued to hurt throughout the day. i think my body is just reminding me that i so was not prepared to start training for this marathon.
we had a very small group this week, which was nice because we got through the water stops even faster. diggin it.
tomorrow: probably rest instead of cross training monday: rest tuesday: 3 miles
first song on the shuffle: goin' back to cali' - notorious b.i.g.
sooo, looks like i was moving a bit faster than i was supposed to be moving. final time was 52:46 for 5 miles - about 10:33 pace. i sort of threw in a 2 mile tempo run in the middle of the 5 miles. i didn't actually mean to, but when i realized how much faster my pace was, i figured i'd try to keep it up for a full 2 miles.
felt pretty good. the sun was a little rough when there wasn't any shade, but it wasn't too bad. right leg started to get tight around 4 miles so i had to stop and stretch. left knee is still bothering me, but it's not dibilitating (knock on wood).
other than the pizza from lunch that was trying to come back up my throat, today's run was pretty good.
it was so incredibly hot and humid all day, but it started pouring while we were on the bus home. it kept raining throughout the first half of our run and continued to spit throughout the last half. thank goodness for the rain because i don't think i would've made it in the heat.
ended up doing about 11:30 pace. the good thing was that we did negative splits - 12:00 on the way out and 11:00 on the way back.
ran with the cara training group this morning, and it felt great. ran a bit too fast throughout the last half, but i guess it must have evened out because we finished in 2 hours on the dot.
so i've named our training group will's thrills. we're an interesting and ecclectic group of people who remind me of why i like running so much.
we've got our leader, will, who has managed to stop smoking, lose a ton of weight and has two marathons under his belt.
we've got ann who has a similar first-attempt-at-a-marathon story as me. ran in the 10 minute pace group, got injured and then had to slow down a bunch to avoid getting injured again. ann's got 4 marathons under her belt i believe.
then there's becca. ahhhh, becca. she has one of the greatest stories. never ran a day in her life until last october when she decided she wanted to get up off her couch. she joined a training group that got beginners to their first 5k, and she said that the first time she ran a mile, she called her sister because she was so excited. now she's training for a marathon, and looking great while doing it. way to go, becca.
there are others, but i haven't yet gotten their stories...but i'm sure i will eventually because that's the beauty of running with a training group. their reasons for running are all different but inspiring just the same.
first song on the shuffle: "through the wire" - kanye west
ok, ok so i missed the mid-week run, which means i'm 5 miles in the hole. so much for not missing anymore runs.
ran a little too fast today. around 10:15-10:20 pace for 3.1 miles. it's nice to know that i can run in the 10s again, but what wasn't so nice was the pain in my left knee. sigh. am i ever going to run injury-free?
did the foam roll and iced. should probably ice again tomorrow in anticipation of the long run on saturday.
legs felt like shit today, which is why it's only 2.6 miles instead of 3. not sure what's going on, but my left leg from hip to knee hurt. ugh. guess i should keep using that damn foam roll and doing the exercises dr. mike gave me.
i am: a sprinter by nature. an average-below average distance runner. hard on myself for being an average-below average runner.
i love: running. but more than that, i love runners. they're the best people in the world.
the truth: while i love running, i tend to get lazy in the winter. that's where this blog comes into play. it'll be the way i hold myself accountable and a way to remember the best, the average and the worst days - nonetheless, all memories i want to have.
