THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

7:49 AP.  Alone.  Dirt roads. 17mph winds.  I started out slow with a 9 minute mile, and basically jogged the first 10.  Although I didn't have pain, I had that weird unstable feeling, and a sense of burn out.  I had pretty much decided to drop Eisenhower in the first 10.  Shortly before the 10 mile mark, I did something I haven't done in a long time, and took a chocolate gu.  At mile 10, for some unknown reason, I decided to pick it up and at least try.  As I ground out the brisker miles, I began to feel better and better and the unstable feeling dissipated.  Despite the wind blowing me around and the side stitch in the final two miles, I finished feeling much better about Eisenhower.  1st 10 8:16 AP. 2nd 10 7:21 AP, which is decent considering the wind and terrain.  In fact, 7:21 pace would give me a PR in a marathon.

6 at 8:20 AP running loops around the pasture and our property while Vanessa napped.   Then I went in side and did 4 on the treadmill including 10 x 30 second strides at 6:00 pace with about 45 second recovery.  7:39 AP for these.  Knees/shins are so-so.  I promised them if they would make it 25 more days to Eisenhower and get me through I would quite running until they were healed.  Some days it doesn't seem I am injured at all and some days it is there.  So weird.  Nothing on google matches.  Nothing.

8:39 AP.  Minced gingerly along nsaid-free.  I am really dependent on those.  So, I swallowed crow and went to the doctor.  He also specialized in sports medicine at one point.  My pain doesn't match anything.  He said it basically is either inflammation in the area and I will have to rest it to make it go away, but can probably nsaid-up and make the marathon, or, it is tibial stress fractures.  I am being scheduled for a bone scan.  Preparing for the worse.

Tried 3 on the mill. It hurt and my gait was weird.  This is stupid.  I have to heal, and there is no way I can give my best at Eisenhower like this.  I e-mailed them and bowed out.  Time to pull back and crosstrain.  Bone scan is on Tuesday.  Regardless of the diagnosis, I'm toast for now.  I guess I better look into a Y membership.  My  new goal is to spend the next month getting skinny like I was last year and staying somewhat in shape. Then, hopefully, I can at least come back for half marathon May 1st.

Biked 5.5 miles easy with Nick, then 1 mile with Ian, then walked up and down the drive while Vanessa rode her tricycle.  Then I pedaled furiously in the wind for 13 miles.  Riding a bike into a headwind is way worse than running into one.  I plan on getting my Y membership Saturday and getting on an elliptical if it doesn't exacerbate the injury.  The elliptical has kept me in decent shape before and it will do it again. I'm also going to lose 10 pounds this month.  So take that stupid injury!  My bone scan is on Tuesday.  Now that I am not using motrin or anything I can feel it when I walk like crunching glass at the top of my shins.  It isn't particularly painful but it's not runnable.  I hope they're not fractures, but I'm already pounding the milk and planning to heal fast.

60 minutes on the elliptical doing one minute on/one minute off intervals with the resistance.  On the off intervals I concentrated on keeping the cadence high(180/min).  It got me panting and drove my heart rate very high at times.  Good.  I also sweated ridiculous amounts.  This will be my primary fitness maintenance machine. I think I will be waiting at the door at 5am most mornings to get an hour in, and will try to squeeze in another hour during lunch at work, and on off days Vanessa can chill in the kidzone while I do 1.5 hours of work.  I'll probably vary it up with the bicycle but the stairmaster is a no go for my legs right now.  I'm also planning on lots of corework in the evenings when I have time.  So there.  I will NOT get out of shape and I will lose some weight.