Here I go again!

I spoke too soon. On Friday, I sprinted the last 100 meters to race my friend Irving, and I don't think that was a good idea. My left heel hurt a lot Friday evening, and yesterday. I iced it and it helped, but didn't go away completely. I think I got a bruised heel, which shouldn't be too hard to heal.

But I wanted to go for a run today, and I didn't feel well at all. My left heel hurt, so I put more weight on the right leg, which caused my right tendon and shins to hurt. So I went really really slow and in a very bad mood. The last mile I started noticing the gorgeous flowers around, the Dogwoods are flowering, the Azaleas are starting to show, very pretty, so I felt better. Icing now.

Congrats to all of you that raced this weekend, very exciting to read the race reports!

Nada, zero... well, still probably exercised more than 50% of Americans, walked 1 mile fast from the office to school and another mile to the metro after school...

Biked to the office from my house, left bike in office and did a nice 30 min loop by the very muddy Rock Creek Park - we've had so much rain lately, which is good cause it makes all that pollen go away! Will try to run a bit more this evening before biking back. Left heel still hurts a bit but not too bad, and tendon doesn't hurt at all.

How about that Boston marathon, ha? Such an exciting finish, yet the slowest time for women ever recorded? See you next year, Boston!

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PM: Found out a couple of my colleagues got laid off today, including one of my best friends, the person who recommended me for my current job, and someone I've learned a lot from. Very sad and worrysome... I guess I won't be getting a pay raise any time soon, and glad to have a job - there are advantages to making little money, it makes you less likely of a target if they need to cut costs... Anyway, I was very upset so I decided to run home. Great idea, it was rainy and beautiful out, the sun set behind the clouds right at the moment when I was going up Capitol Hill, so I was able to enjoy the bright oranges and reds... Not sure if it was because my mind was worrying so much about all these, but I had almost no pain, only a little bit on my left heel.  

Beat lazyness and ran to work in the cloudy morning. Weather.com said 20% chance of rain.... 20% my behind! I got soaked, and even some hail fell on me... But it was a great run and very little heel and tendon pain.

We just had a full staff meeting to talk about changes, people being laid off, people taking pay cuts, and the financial situation of my workplace. Depressing. Also slightly reassuring, knowing that I made it past the cuts, and that the people that were let go are either single or have a significant other that works, so at least they aren't leaving entire families without the breadmaker... An alarming situation nevertheless... I have confidence that we'll bounce back quickly, but until then things are going to suck...

Tendon hurt after the morning bike ride to the office... gahhh!

After work I went to try again to find the magical Glover Park trail... so took the C&O canal, went on the creepy tunnel under Canal Rd., and there it was, right on the left! It's a really nice trail considering that's in the middle of the city. Not good to build speed, but with several very hilly spots, lots of rocks and roots so you have to pay attention, but they make your ankles stronger. The trail keeps going North but I cut across towards the Dumbarton-Oaks park into Rock Creek, after passing through the Brazilian Consulate, the Italian Embassy and the Dutch Embassy - what beautiful buildings! Felt pretty good overall, luckily running doesn't seem to aggravate the tendon at all. I was out there for 50 minutes (not including 5 extra minutes cause I had to go back into the office to use the facilities...), and that includes several stops to find my way after going the wrong way....

I biked home after that, going rocket-fast, and put the bike in the closet so I won't feel tempted to use it for a very long time.

Ran to the office from home on a gorgeous morning, a bit coldish (45-ish) but warmed up later on. Left heel hurts a bit, tendon hurts a bit. Went pretty slow but did a couple of faster 300-400 meter intervals.

Now I have to decide my "strategy" for the next 2 weekend races... I have a 10-miler this Sunday, and an 8k the following Sunday. The 8k is for a group race that my company is sponsoring, and we have a chance of winning a prize, so I want to race that one really well. The question is, can I/should I try to go fast this weekend on the 10-miler, or would that hurt my chances of doing well on the 8k? I feel like at this point I don't really have a chance of PRing on the 10-miler, but I probably can do better than last year on the 8k... Thoughts?

TGIF!!!