THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

9:38 average pace.  My quads are still wrecked.  Minced gingerly along for the first two miles while my quads shrieked and then they kinda warmed up and I shuffled four more miles.  That is enough for today.  Hopefully this soreness is gone by the end of the week.  Did some stretching and hopefully a warm shower helps.

9:34 average pace.  Still sorer than I have ever been in my life but much better than yesterday.  Took a few miles before I warmed up and my quads didn't wince with every step.  I will be running very slow all week--I'm an injury-prone runner and this is a vulnerable time period so I need to very careful.  Foot is recovering nicely but not 100%--it would probably be 100% by now if I had not gone and raced on it.  Next week I will really get back to normal.

8:44 average pace.  Wow, Eric was right, almost back to normal today.  Foot feels great.  I felt good on my run today, not good enough to run fast(I have no desired for that whatsoever yet), but good enough to feel....good!  Took it easy, did my first experiment regarding nausea and running.  Ate a banana and chugged gatorade immediately before starting to run, and chugged gatorade(2 different flavors) 3 times throughout the run.  No nausea.  So, at least I know it is not the gatorade or the banana in and of itself that causes nausea.  More experiments to follow in the coming weeks.

8:40 average pace.  Ran mostly easy but threw one 7:09 mile in to stretch my legs a bit.  Felt pretty good but my legs don't have much zip in them.  Foot is doing well but still not 100%.  I suspect it will be at least a few weeks before it is completely healed.  Still taping and now running in a brand new pair of asics gel equation 2--a shoe that has never did me any wrong.  I will probably stick to these shoes from now on.  

8:10 average pace pushing Vanessa in the stroller.  Was meeting the girls for breakfast in west Wichita to plan Melissa's baby shower and there is this great park out there with lots of bike paths so me and Vanessa went and ran there before breakfast.  I meant to run slower but saw other runners and just had to speed up and pass them.  Will I ever learn?  Anyways the first few miles were slow but then I dropped a few sub 8's to make sure I was good and ahead of the other runners I passed.  I am so ridiculous.  Will do more later during Vanessa's nap(slowly, for real this time).

P.M. 4 loops easy at 8:41 pace.  Tried to "Chi" run the last mile.  Leaned the entire body ever so slightly forward, tried to let my feet land underneath me, tucked my tummy and gut in. Felt kinda strange but it was the fastest mile(8:10) with no increase in effort that I was aware of.  Interesting.

8:31 average pace.  Seemed awful stiff this morning, started out with a few rickety 9:30 miles and things finally warmed up.  Towards the end foot started bugging a bit so I sped up since running faster makes the foot feel better--strange but I think I run with better form at higher speeds so it is easier on my foot.  Anyways last couple of miles at 7:30 pace.  Off day tomorrow and I am going to talk to my friend about a massage she is very good and may know some tricks to help my foot.  Have 18 miles planned for Monday, which will be my longest run to date.  This month depending on how the long runs go I may or may not shelve the October marathon.  It just depends if this foot is not going to heal by October than I don't want to run a marathon on it and risk my first marathon ever being a painful blow-up. We will see my foot is not getting any worse but I would sure like to see some more marked improvement soon.